So, I have made a trek north, first starting with a visit to the Herriott Sports Performance center in Seattle and then on to BC, Canada for BC Superweek.  My wife accompanied me to Seattle to check out Todd Herriott’s place 2.0.  Todd is my coach and his facility is pretty cool.  Seattle was about as beautiful as possible which was in sharp contrast to home where is was 110 degrees and so smokey that the state declared the city unhealthy to all groups.  While in Seattle, Todd was kind enough to include me in a fun filled evening at the Foo Fighters concert.  To sum it up, they kicked ass and they did it for a good 3 hrs.  Yea, 3 hours of rocking out.  Their drummer is sick and ridiculous.  We also went to dinner at about the best Italian place I have ever been to in West Seattle.  I had a seafood and black pasta dish that was the best I have ever tasted.  After two days sans Brody, which was a first where both me and the wife were not with him, I headed out to BC; the town of Delta to be exact.

So here I am staying with a friend that Gord introduced me to my first time up here.  His name is Jamie and he has a wonderful family and always makes me feel right at home.  I am using this trip as a racing/training trip.  After my week off I need to log some good mileage to prep for the end of the season, so I have been riding about 4 hrs in the am and racing in the pm.  The first race was the Tour of Delta and this year they changed things up a bit with a 3 km prologue.  I did not bring any aerodynamic equipment so I went Merckx style.  I needed aerodynamic equipment.  Next was the crit which was dominated by the only fully equipped team here: Symetrics.  I tried to save it for the sprint, but I kept having to crush across to breaks to keep myself in the hunt.  In the end 3 guys got away, 2 Symetrics and 1 of the Jittery guys, and I ended up 3rd in the bunch kick.  Not great, but I am alone and that is how it goes sometimes.  Finally was the road race which is on a pretty tough course with a finishing circuit that has a nice 5oo meter wall in it.  I again planned on saving it all for the finish and I did a pretty good job too…until mr. cat 2 blue guy came full tilt into the last corner.  I was perfectly placed on the Symetrics train, and I am not sure I would have won, but top 3 was well in hand.  Then mr. blue cat 3 guy came into the downhill, tight final corner way, way, way, way, way to fast for his or my good.  He was late getting there too, so as he was even with me he was already hitting eject.  I mean this guy did not have a prayer of making that turn.  No hope, but he decided to go for it anyway and I had to yank my front wheel back under me and hit the breaks just to ole him right on by.  Unfortunately, whoever was behind me ran into the back of my wheel and cleared out about 5 spokes so I was officially done.  No result.  No money.  Nothing.  Thanks mr. blue cat 4 guy.  You are a loser.  The funny part was hearing him say “Oh F***” as he went by me and then just getting my front wheel off his rear and surfing my top tube with both feet out.  I was lucky to get out of there with no broken collar bone mr. blue cat 5 guy.  You are a loser.  I am not sure the local Canadian guys understand respect, but whatever I guess.  One guy went to the front and just started drilling it to bring a break back with no Symetrics in it.  When I asked him why he did that he said that he was bored and that he was just having fun.  Go have fun in the cat 3’s and bored in not a reason in a bike race.  You are also a loser. 

So day off tomorrow.  I plan on taking my rented PT Cruiser and cruising Vancouver tomorrow.  Please, if anyone can send me some luck, do.  I really need it.  I will pay you for it when I see you.

Havoc

 

This week’s post brought to by pro teams that run out of money and stop paying their riders, pro teams that run out of money and stop going to races and mr. blue cat 5 woman guy.