Fitchburg Longsjo Report: Stage 1

I finally sat down to write the time trial and road race report because we are about to start racing again on Saturday.

Here are some pictures of what Thomas' car looks like when loaded. Count the bikes on the roof, pretty impressive!



7/3/08 - Stage 1 time trial
Yesterday, we went to the grocery store to load up on the typical bike racer food, pasta, bread, cereal, bananas, marshmallow fluff, Nutella, and peanut butter. Jafer almost had a panic attack as the selection for grits was even smaller than what was available back in Pennsylvania, limited to only one small box of grits! For some reason nobody seemed to get a good nights sleep the night before the start of the race, maybe it was the prerace jitters or the moon, whatever it was it left its mark. Luckily, thats nothing that good coffee can't fix as we all loaded up on it. After breakfast we packed the car up which is a spectacle in itself. For those of you that don't know us here is a brief summary.

Thomas is a master packer, he usually has everything ready the night before, so he is always the first ready. Oscar can't sit still very long, especially anytime he hears the word race. His packing skills are pretty good but he has been known to leave shoes, numbers, etc at home. Joey and Jafer are a different story, as they are always battling not to be the last one out of the door. So while Joey and Jafer are still struggling to make it out of the door, Thomas and Oscar are waiting around rushing them and even resort to herding them out of the door so they can't go back for something else.

We finally left the house and headed to the course. Once there, we had about two hours to kill before the start of the race, but the time always seems to slip by and we end up in a rush to get to the line. Everybody got about an hour warm-up, which was very important for an uphill time trial. The course seemed a bit easier today but it still burned the legs the entire way up. Oscar smoked the course setting the fastest pace on the team in 14th place only 51 seconds off the fastest time. Joey should have been next around 30th place but had a prerace mishap. As all cyclists know the prerace jitters are pretty strong especially before a time trial, so Joey went into the woods. Unfortunately, no officials said anything to him or tried to stop him as he tried to politely relieve himself in the woods. We didn't find out until after the race (about 8pm)that he had been DISQUALIFIED, a very harsh decision. Usually, they will fine the rider or give them the last place time but they would not budge! Jafer was next in 44th followed by Thomas in 80th place. Oscar was now officially our GC guy, so it was important that he have a good result in the road race.