After getting a serious ass-kicking at the Housatonic Crit, I made an impulsive decision to skip the Tour of Somerville and go instead with my teammates (and, uh, boyfriend) to a stage race in Lake Placid featuring a 73-mile, hilly road race known as "Hell of the North.
I set off with Ed earlyish (i.e., 9:30 am), deciding on the Mass Pike route. I had the pleasure of being the passenger in Ed's pimp car, a Buick Riviera known as "Porkchop," the translation of the word "pimp" in Spanish. Or so he says. Anyway, we stopped at Mickey D's for breakfast, where Ed reported that the coffee did not taste like graphite, and where I ordered something bacon-free. Quite saddening.
Toward the end of the Pike, it started raining really hard, which I took as a bad sign. It abated a bit when we stopped for gorditas (VIVA GORDITA!) at a Taco Bell somewhere in New York. The trash can there said "thank you" when we put trash in it.
Due to backtracking when we missed 87N, we were a bit late getting to the time trial and Ed only got a 10-minute warm-up. Nonetheless, he finished 10th out of 60, which was quite decent, especially considering that his aerobars were filled with water.
After I saw the time trial start sheet the day before, I decided that aerobars would be useless against Genevieve Jeanson and her team so I didn't use them. I did wear a skinsuit and shoe covers, and Ed lent me his Spinergies. I am pleased to report that they did not explode or otherwise fail catastrophically. They made me feel fast. I could only get my heart rate up to about 185 on the way out, but then just before the turnaround a Polo Sport girl passed me and gave me to motivation to get into the 195-200 range. Unfortunately we were poorly matched. I worked very hard to stay out of her draft, and we passed each other 4 or 5 times because she dropped back on all the little hills and I dropped back on all the flats and mini-descents. At the end I finished ahead of her. Ed later heard her complaining that I'd drafted off her the whole way and then sprinted around her at the finish. Now I'm convinced her whole team hates me. I only finished 21st out of 22 anyway. She was 20th.
Oh, I forgot to mention that before the race, I got a chance to try out my new warm-up tape while on the trainer. It is definitely motivating. Here's the playlist: "Ride of the Valkyries," from Apocalypse Now, complete with machine gun fire and chopper noises; "Danger Zone," from Top Gun; "Get Rid of that Girl," by the Donnas; "Hawaii 5-0," by the Ventures; "New," by No Doubt (non-bitter and makes me think of the new boy); 1%, by Jane's Addiction (featuring the notable line, "The gang and the government... no different"); "Sleep Now in the Fire," by Rage Against the Machine; and a live, 7-minute verson of "Ride My Bike," by Cracker.
After the race we checked into the Lake Placid Hotel, which had its own bar, gift shop, and a toboggan with two very large stuffed bears on it. The gift shop looked incredibly intriguing and we complained about it being closed whenever we went by it for the rest of the weekend. We had dinner at an Italian place called Mr. Mike's, where the table was huge and I had to lean over to talk to Ed.
73-mile road race today. Rona (GJ's cycling team), a bunch of super-skinny/scary French Canadians, attacked right out of the neutral zone. I managed to stay with the pack and enjoy myself for the first 17 miles, when I got dropped at the bottom of a 1-mile or so long climb, which looked to be about 20% to me, but I'm probably just exaggerating. Nonetheless I was traversing across the entire road in my 25, occasionally standing (the new IF is great for that), and feeling like crap. A girl rode by me (she'd gotten a flat) and actually stopped to wait, but I was too slow. At the top of the hill came a long unpaved section which the promoters referred to in the race bible as "pave," like that would give a cool Euro touch to the race or something. At that point, around 20 miles into the race, I decided there was no chance in hell I was going to make the time cut and went back down to the 150-170 range. Probably not the wisest decision, but I wanted to finish. Since I was with the pro field, I had to go around and do the climb/pave a second time, at which point I got passed by a master's 45+ rider who was off the back and standing in his 27. He was a new racer and twice my age. I felt like such a loser. On the "pave" the 3/4 girls passed me. My teammate and good friend Aimee Vasse was raging off the front. I let everyone pass. Dave, the old guy, kept trying to draft the girls until I had a little talk with him. I rode next to him for a while, then he dropped back. Next I rode with a 4 from Toronto named Zuska. We got caught by some more girls, including my buddy Erin Farnsworth, and I hung out and talked with them for the last 20 miles. I swear I didn't draft off them at all though. = ) Zuska got away and I finished slightly in front of the girls I was with, over an hour after the first place girl from Rona. I later heard that Genevieve was turning around and pacing her teammates up the climbs. Ed was waiting for me at the finish and rode with me back to the car. We didn't hang around long.
After we cleaned up we went and walked around the cute touristy part of Lake Placid. We rented a pedal boat to do an "easy spin" and headed out on Mirror Lake. Surprisingly, we couldn't get it going very fast. It was startlingly inefficient. From the lake, we scouted out restaurants. Ed figured out which one was the "most romantic" (meaning, I think, with the best view of the lake), and we took the boat in so we could find it. I had to make a "head call," and while I was downstairs Ed asked the maitre'd for the "most romantic" table, which we got twenty or so minutes later. So I can report that I ate at the most romantic table at the most romantic restaurant in Lake Placid, while dressed in birks, mildly dirty jeans, and my Got Malasadas? t-shirt. The most expensive item was "Shrimp a la Jimmy's" (it was Jimmy's Restaurant). Ed said that's a double possessive, but what the hell do I know.
Oh, I should also mention that I finally named my bike. She is Kira, after Kira Argonouva of _We the Living_. I figured my bike earned this name after finishing that long hard bike race. Kira is very persistent. =) I will make sure not to cover up the third mitre with the name stickers since everyone at IF always mentions how beautiful it is. And it is. Hot damn.
I did not, in fact, make the time cut. We went early to the crit anyway so I could help Aimee out with her protest (the pace car had led her off the course on Sunday, but she still crushed the field with a 40-mile solo effort and was awarded the win with same time, not prorated). Her protest was denied, but she recovered well and finished with the pack in the crit. Ed did a lap in the pouring rain and decided he had nothing to gain, so we left. Back at the hotel we FINALLY got to go into the gift shop, which was crappy. The woman working there, eyeing me in my long-sleeved Wheelworks/IF jersey and Ed in his Yale cycling jacket, asked us: "what's your favorite sport?" We edged out. Oh, also we got this lovely photo of us with a view of the lake in the background.
Next we did a last lap around lovely downtown Lake Placid. We went to a magnet store, where I bought a Lake Placid magnet with a figure skater on it for the spinsters and Ed got them some "Manly Magnets," packaged with a ruler and featuring a Saturn V rocket, a cigar, a banana, and the Washington monument. I thought they were pretty much the funniest thing ever. I also rearranged the word magnets on the front of the counter. Then I got a lovely photo of Ed in his cycling helmet sitting in a Bud bobsled.
We stopped for a quick lunch at the local diner, where the cook waved around her glass of OJ and said she needed some vodka in it. It was a diner decorated with posters of diners--a pet peeve of mine. It was not as bad as the one I went to with Mark A. in Lancaster, PA though.
We left, stopping at a scary backwoods garage sale, and then later for a lemon zest smoothie. Clearly Ed is a fine road trip companion for me, since he is willing to participate in these sorts of activities. While we were at the convenience store with the smoothies, Ed noticed a woman in line wearing the lovely combination of a Celine Dion t-shirt and NY Yankees warm-up pants. Tasty!
At our next stop, for dinner, we made a root beer float by eating the chocolate coating off of a Heath bar and using the ice cream. Yummy. Then I got to drive Porkchop, which was really a treat-and-a-half. When I took it out of overdrive I got some fairly decent acceleration up the hills. Later we stopped for a quick snack down by the tracks in Worcester and then went home.
So that was the trip. Next weekend it's off to DC, a.k.a. the trip I should have canceled, a.k.a. that horrible instance when I threw lots of good money after bad. Stay tuned.
