Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Wasting a Wednesday

Not much to do other than laugh...

...at the absurdity, but not too hard 'cause it hurts. But laughing is nothing compared to a sneeze or a cough, which are both absolutely excruciating. Even trying to snot while riding is a pain. So I went to the doctor and got an x-ray which revealed a broken rib sorta like this illustration. Broken 9th rib on the back left side.

The bad news is that it'll take 6-8 weeks to heal. The good news is that I can still ride at 80%-90% intensity, and the only limitations seem to be maximal efforts (really hard breathing hurts) and pulling on the bars, like standing climbing. Of course, a crash would be bad too.

High-five for the 805!

The 805 dominated the p/1/2 road races up north last weekend. At Cantua Creek, Cookie went off early with a couple other guys, but when they couldn't pull he just said "see ya" and continued on solo. For 65 more miles!! It's an out-and-back course so his pursuers could see him after each turn-around and yet they still couldn't pull him back. It helps to have teammates and friends in the group to discourage the chase, and Gary and MarkZen played those roles perfectly.
Result: Cookie 1st, Gary 2nd, MarkZen 3rd. The 805 sweeps the p/1/2 podium.

Kudos also go to Jason Hannon who rode aggressively (of course) and pulled down the Silver in the Cat 3 race.

The next day at Pine Flat saw a bit larger p/1/2 field, including some additional strong 805 riders. Earlier this year I predicted that Ken Hanson would win 5-10 races, but I would have laughed if you said one would be a hill-top-finish RR. Yet that's what he did. Ken Hanson came from behind to out-sprint climbing stud Vinny Owens to win Pine Flat p/1/2. And that's after he did a Saturday Casitas Loop slug-fest with Bam-Bam, Cody, and Daniel!


MarkZen sprinting for 4th with Uthman, Unknown, and Jonathan(?) just behind.
So the 805 takes 1st, 4th, and 5th. Nice.

Prof Smitty continued a string of hard-fought top-10 finishes in the Cat 3 races.
...and Chesta snagged a top-10 in the 4's.

All the above pics were lifted from Bo Hebenstreit, Alto Velo rider and photog extraordinaire.

While a lot of the Platinum boys were up north, a gaggle of Chicken Ranchers headed to Arizona for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race. It sounds like they had a blast and did the 805 proud. Read Matt's entertaining report for all the sordid details!

Other SB'ers out in AZ included Adrian and Anna, doing the Pro Mens and Women's races, and Jill Gass in the 35+ Women's race.

Like I said before, bike racing in 805 is hot right now.

2 comments:

blue squirrel said...

yo, how did you manage to break a rib? hope you heal sooner than later and keep us informed of your progress, i did the same many years ago after using a car windshield to stop my forward motion while out training one beautiful 1980's evening. laughing, sneezing, breathing in hard, really really sucked. get well soon my friend.

Marco Fanelli said...

> yo, how did you manage to break a rib?

Flipped over backwards on my MTB and landed on some rocks. Yep, sneezing and coughing are not fun, but not really too many other restrictions.