DaVinci Crit – Saturday
This weekend was the opening of “The DaVinci Code” movie. On Saturday night my son Stephen and I went to it and had a grand time. Earlier in the day I had another “DaVinci” experience down in New Albany, IN. A not so grand time…
Tortuga fielded 5 for the Cat 1/2/3 race at the DaVinci Criterium on the downtown streets of this riverside community across from Louisville. Had the bridge crossing the Ohio had a draw to it, we should have hoisted it up, as the Huns from Louisville came across to Indiana and smacked us around silly. Texas Roadhouse reminded everyone that they are the force to be reckoned with in our racing world, as they swept 3 of the top 5 spots in the main event. POD led the way towing 2 of his own along with 2 Dogfish, 1 Nuvo, and others I cannot remember in an attack just several laps into the race. Steve Spanbauer bridged to make it that much more formidable. The break that formed from POD’s charge lapped the field with plenty left on the clock. In typical O’Donnell fashion, Patrick attacked the break as they integrated into the pack. A hard effort by Spanbauer and his Papa Johns mates brought back the attack and things stayed put to the end. The end, of course, was POD winning with Harry Clark in 4th and CT in 5th. Geez, I feel like I’m doing a race report for TRH…
Tortuga? The top turtle was yours truly in 17th place… Ugly, plain ugly…For those number crunchers out there, my HRM data showed an average speed of 25.5 mph on this 8 turn, 0.7 mile course – and that’s me hanging on in the 2nd group that had been lapped…BTW – 40 started, 20 finished. Tough race, folks.
I know my mates are disappointed in their own and the team’s performance. Perhaps the silver lining in the cloud would be that it’s used as a motivator. Most will tell you that a course such as DaVinci can give even the best rider a bad day…Easy said by someone who finished 17th…
Monrovia TT – Sunday
Clearly feeling the need to punish myself for Saturday’s misdeeds (no excuse for us not being in the break), I ventured to Monrovia to do my first 40K TT this season. Like a surfer searching for the perfect wave, a quick check of the weather Saturday night showed that conditions for Sunday morning’s event were quite promising. Getting up early was easier knowing the drive was a mere 40 mins vs. 2 hrs to my alternative event, the DaVinci RR. Arriving at Monrovia HS there were far less riders than I expected. I believe 15 in total took part, including Tortuga Cat 3 Adam Fryska. Friskie’s virgin ride in the Monrovia series earned him a nice sub hour time of 59:56(?), just sneaking in for an IRS t-shirt. Nice job, Adam! Low time of the day went to Kurt Spoerle, who put in a PR and the fastest time in a good couple of years at 52:54. Man, that’s fast. I ended up with a 56:15 – I’ll take it considering the efforts from Saturday’s race and the sneaking wind that showed up right at the start. I’ll continue to search for the perfect wave…
– CJK