Spring Series 3-4 race 4/25/2004

by Dan Schmalz

Art-nerd note

It's always nice to see some new unis when I venture out of Central Park, but this week I won't comment. We at Sanchez Metro have our new clothes in, and not to be a homer, but I think they are pretty spiffy.

CRCA TT

It was a conspiracy against me. I took fellow racers Mihael Ginghina and Peter Barlin to the Yankees Red Sox game on Friday night. They must have been tipped to my current level of conditioning, because they were able to use my love of lager against me, needless to say the TT bike had been drinking, and was not able to make the 6 am start on Saturday morning. The rest of the club members all breathed a sigh of relief I'm sure.

Officiating Observation

I will start this section with a disclaimer. Everyone who takes the time and effort to become an official deserves our gratitude and thanks. They do a great job for very little in return. That said, folks, you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. I think I've said too much already, so I'm going to shut up now.

Um, yeah

This season so far has been pretty dismal. I've been following a periodization plan for my training, and the beginning of the season can be very difficult to take when you don't have any effect on races. Watching people fly past while you're just hanging on can be very disheartening. I've kept the faith so far and have been slowly moving my fitness level up.

I'm happy to report that I was able to snatch a second place finish today. To quote Catfish Hunter, "The sun shines on every dog's ass eventually." It was a sprint out of a group of 8 or 9 that went with two laps to go; I have to thank my teammate Marco Sanchez for pulling in the group and the rest of the Sanchez Metro team for giving me my opportunity. I did a classic dumbass move and forgot where the line was exactly (I went for the traffic lights), but still held on. The Visit Britain rider who pulled all damn day (Ken something, didn't catch the last name) had enough left to take the sprint. I thought he had burned himself out, but he still had enough to play the sprint perfectly, bastard.

Stockholm Syndrome?

Whenever I place in a race from a break, I usually get a weird feeling of connection with the other racers afterwards. I will see them in later races and get a feeling of fondness. I mean, it's not like I want to cross stitch them a pillow or anything, but I see them and I look back on good times. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

Schmalz Race report

Like I've said before, I don't like the classic race report format. So I'll give you my own assessment. Well, a second is good news for me, and I don't care if it was a 3-4 race. It may not be the Tour, but I ain't proud.

I would put my level of suck at 2, a 10 being the highest level of suck.