Not me. I prefer the Sunday-night sensations of a light buzz, muscle-twitchy, total-body fatigue ...yet with neurons still firing full blast as your brain tries to catch up with everything it ingested the prior 48 hours.
This was one of those weekends.
Saturday: out the door at 7:00 AM to catch the 8:00 roco ride. Road-master Gary was hoping for a big team turnout, and the Platinum boys didn't disappoint. We rode with the group to the second Casitas climb, and then split off for some photos and some more serious climbing (kids, that means Gibraltar). Despite knowing we were in for 5+ hours, I decided to do some big-gear strength work on the hills which left my legs a bit wobbly. Only seven of us continued all the way up Gib, and the higher we got, the nastier the weather became. The top was wet, windy, and cold. Instead of feeling sorry for myself (and my companions) because of our frozen hands and bonking bodies, I was struck with the following thought: If you gnarled up the pavement even worse along E. Camino Cielo, dropped the temps another 10-20 degrees and cranked the wind up to a gusty 30 mph, added 2+ hours, and upped our speed 5-10 mph, well, then you'd have your basic spring classic in Europe. We better not be complaining!
Big thanks to John Goodman for snapping some pics along the way, a few of which are shown below.
Sunday: again out the door at 7:00 AM, only this time it was three of us (Gina, Brian and me) heading down toward Malibu for the...
...Lasse Viren 20K trail run. Well, to be more accurate, Gina did the 20K and Brian and I cruised in the 5K f-un run. I'm really proud the little dude can crank out the miles non-stop now. We didn't stick around for the results but Gina probably did well since her time would be an age-group winner in earlier years.Continued on down to Santa Monica on a quest (per Brian's insistence) to see as many high-performance sports cars as we could. Results: one Lamborghini, two Ferraris, one Lotus Elise, and more Porsches than we could count on the 62 digits we had between us.
After a nice lunch, we headed on over to the Encino Velodrome to check out...
...the Winter Challenge 100 km scratch race. 100 km!! That's 400 laps! For some serious cash: $5,000 for the winner, down to $500 for 5th. Nothing for 6th other than some good speed-work.We missed the earliest laps but arrived just in time to see the biggest boys (e.g., Mike Creed, Roman Killun, Curtis Gunn) rip some brutally fast attacks that shredded the pretenders and left only the contenders. Our boy Cody was, and is, a contender!
I snapped some pics...
with 350 laps to go, this guy attacked hard and quickly got a half a lap lead. He strained desperately to make it around and attach to the back of the field but the field didn't want anyone going up a lap this early in the race. They toyed with him. After he got to within 70 meters of the back of the field, they ticked up the speed just a tad and it was enough to crack him.
Hernando (#212) was going good early and had his harem of honeys yelling enthusiastically for him. Here he follows track star Roman Killun of the Healthnet team.Unfortunately, Hernando's carburetor seemed a bit clogged (LA air??) and he had to abandon after the first 10-15 km.
Rory started the race but was cooked by the high-speed attacks in the early going. He settled into the infield to support Cody. In the two pics below, Cody is followed by Mike Creed.
We left to do some shopping with about 300 to go and there were maybe 15 guys left on the track. We returned with about 50 laps remaining, and there were only five riders left. Convenient--the race only paid to five places.
Curtis Gunn was a lap ahead. Mike Creed and Chad Hartley (I think) were a lap down, and Cody and Rashaan Bahati were two laps down. What followed was pretty interesting, considering they could have mailed it in. Hartley and Creed started tag-teaming Gunn. One would attack, forcing a chase from Gunn, and then the other would go. Gunn looked solid in closing down the first couple of volleys but he seemed to be weakening. Plus, Creed was forcing him up the banking to take the long way around him. Then Cody stepped up and helped the chasing. Now for a second I thought, "why is Cody helping Gunn? Shouldn't he be trying to shed Bahati or perhaps rest for a sprint (4th vs. 5th?" Then it hit me... Gunn rides for SuccessfulLiving. Cody will be riding for SuccessfulLiving in 2008. Voila!! Teamwork on the track!
Cody and Bahati in the closing laps...
Gunn wins!
1st Curtis Gunn
2nd Chad Hartley
3rd Mike Creed
4th Rashaan Bahati
5th Cody O'Reilly
4 comments:
cool pictures from the track, interesting to see creed w/ those levers on his bars... I guess he just really likes the hoods
CODY ROCKS
how was the swap meet? I was going to go try to sell some stuff, but was afraid since it wasn't promoted at all that their wouldn't be many buyers.
> how was the swap meet?
When we first got there, we saw maybe two sellers and only one person looking. We scooted on by and went straight to the racing. Maybe there was more stuff earlier (?)
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