Tuesday, April 04, 2006

I'm Back!

It’s been awhile, first it was finals, then spring break craziness, then classes kicked up again, OSU racing, etc. In reality I should really be doing something else right now, so don't tell any one.

No sooner had winter quarter ended then it was time to kick off the Colligate cycling season and with the first being our very own OSU omnium. The format for the OSU weekend was simple. A 70 mile Road Race around and around the Decker loop, then a 12 mile TTT, and then the next day a crit down in Eugene put on by those crazy quacks.

Race summary - RR: The road race started out smooth, but no sooner had the race started then my shifting started acting up. Then on the 3rd of 5 laps, the captain of our squad had his rear tubular blow out on grange road. Two of us fell off to help pace Dan back into the field. But after a agonizingly slow wheel change it just wasn't going to happen, to compound matters my chain went from skipping to sizing, and I ended up falling off and finishing a few minutes behind everyone else. After a quick lunch it was on to the TTT.

TTT: The Team time trial was a short out 12 mile out and back over some of the same hill's we had been chilling on during the RR. The men's A OSU TTT was a total mess. We started off a tad slow on the climbs and never quite reached a cruising speed on the way out. Then on the way back we spit off a rider, and then were passed by the team whom would go on to finish first. Out of 7 teams we ended up coming in 5th.

Crit: The crit was a short loop down in Eugene. It started off fast and fierce. What crit doesn’t? Then say 10 minutes into the fun a lead group shot away. The real bummer here was the breakaway contained no representatives from OSU! So the remainder of the crit was spent by the rest of us chasing the break.

- Week 2 - With spring break drawing to a close it was time for the Portland State Omnium. Like the previous week the format for this week ends adventures was RR, TTT, and Crit. The road race course was 5 laps around Hag Lake, then the TTT was the road race course in reverse, and the crit the following day was out around a loop at Mt Hood community college.

More to come..

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