Kirkwood Report By Jamie

It was a fun hard day. I knew I wanted to dial it up a bit and test my base miles out but from the gun was not the plan. I could tell right away that an early break was going to go. Everyone seemed a little scared of the extended distance from last year (51 to 84). The race blew a part last year (with Bill winning) at the shorter distance. I wanted in the long bomb move if it was happening so I just punched it over a steep roller and they let me go. I got joined by 3 other dudes after a few miles and I was happy to see 3 riders from three other Teams (Cervelo, GPOA and Mengoni). All of the Teams had multiple teammates in the field so I knew the chase would be messed up. We eventually got caught by a chase group (7 riders?) with about 30 miles to go but as soon as we were, they stopped working together so I attacked and went solo for another half lap. After they caught me again, the group was down to a smaller size, maybe 8 from 11. We went for about 3 miles before they started not working smooth together again. Scott Z tried to put it in the gutter and put the hurt on us but that just pissed me off because he really wasn't really rotating through before that from what I could see so I stood up and attacked him as he was going hard in the crosswind like he was standing still. He immediately stopped and reevaluated his maneuver or as I call it, his mistake. They could have just rotated nice and all would have been fine and dandy. I would have preferred that. It was about 18 miles to go and I knew I was going to have a tough time pulling this off alone with all of the effort that I had already put in so I had a quick check to look at my 20 second gap to evaluate and to my luck John Loner was in-between me and the chase. I waited for him and that was the done deal. I thought I was going to crack but somehow I held it together and pulled out the 84 mile Team Time Trial. I am happy. I had about a B grade on my base miles (March) after taking 3 weeks completely off from Australia so this is a good sign. I am accepting my training well. Joe was surprised that when I say "COMPLETELY OFF", I mean that I don't touch a bike at all. I don't even like looking at it. When I take time off, it is off off. Joe's ride was very impressive. I am happy for him too. He looked very fresh and together after the race and believe me, no one was looking pretty after that race. For him to bridge to that group that was chasing me and Loner on his own is awesome. I am impressed.

Two weeks to the NRC Race in Florida. I'm hoping everything keeps on track. I would race tomorrow but even though I looked pretty good today, I'd be horrible tomorrow. I may have seemed very strong today but it wasn't easy. I spent almost 4 hours in Zone 4 today. There is a price to pay for that. Plus, it looks like rain and I am already on antibiotics for this sinus/ear thing that I couldn't shake on my own. Maybe I should race on antibiotics more often?