A Domestique's story...
I first have to start by saying I am the luckiest husband around! When I first read about the Madera Stage Race and found out it was on the same weekend as Val's (my wife) birthday, I figured no way will I be able to do it. I took the chance anyway and posed the question as such..."Hey honey, how 'bout spending your birthday in Madera?". "I hear it's kind of like wine country down there!" I knew she had no idea where Madera was. She answered..."Great, where's Madera?" I quickly answered her, waited a bit then sprung her with..."By the way...there's this race down there too..." Well crap hit the fan as you can imagine! It took some serious butt kissing, but in the end she relented! Cool!...we're off.
Jason pretty much covered the events that took place Saturday morning. Pretty scary to think what would have happened if that trucker was pack'n!! I bolted out of that room quicker than Boonen sprints toward a finish line!
My goals for the weekend were simple; Gain experience, don't crash and work for Jason.
The crit was rather ho-hum. Really boring course without a whole lot of technical stuff to it.
I spent some time on the front pulling and tried to up the speed. The only time the race sped up was when a DBC rider was on the front. Other than that, I thought it was rather slow.
In the end I had a decent finish and ended up with the same time as the entire group. Only the top 5 and preem winners were ahead of me.
On to the TT...
Five weeks prior to the race I borrowed a friends clip-on aero bars and put them on a Scattante full carbon bike that I have as a back up. It's a lighter than my regular bike and thought it would make sense to use it for the TT. I asked a lot of people for advise about time trialing as I have never done it before. Stan Ling, Chris Bowlus and others had some great suggestions for me. So what did I do with them??...Nothing! For some reason, I could not get myself to train for the TT. Don't know why but just couldn't get myself to do it. I show up to the course in the afternoon and my anxiety is at an all time high! When Jason pulled up he asked me how I felt. I couldn't answer. I just rolled away into my own little world. My time finally came to go and had only one goal...Don't get caught from behind! I managed to accomplish that and I also picked off a couple of guys ahead me. That was huge for my confidence and at that point I decided I would just leave it all out there. I had sustained heart rate of about 175 BPM for most of the course and ended up in 9th place for the TT. Wow...how lucky could I get!
The road race was a little anticlimactic. One thing I learned was just how much the DBC orange commands respect. I had several riders from other teams roll up and give us props for taking charge and organizing the group. We were being watched closely and a lot riders were looking for direction from us! When Jason talked about Russ going down he failed mention that we neutralized the group verbally and physically to give Russ the respect he deserved. We were only 5 miles into the race and we taught the kids out there a little etiquette. Move ahead to the last lap. Jason and I were the only ones willing to work...again!
As I mentioned from the beginning, I wanted to work for Jason to give him a shot at a top finish. I tried to keep him fresh and safe behind me as often as possible so he can have a run at it later. When the possibility for him to do that presented itself, our group was neutralized by the ref and a friggin freight train of masters rolled by us. Our group started to salivate at the chance to ride that train home which caused a lot of confusion.
Overall I finished 8th in the GC which was way better than I expected. I had a great time this weekend and I know wife and kid did too.
...I titled this a Domestique's story for a reason. When I first talked to Jason E. about joining the DBC masters, I told him I just wanted to gain experience and work for the team. Something I felt really strong about and had discussed it at length with my wife. Sacrifice was inevitable. Saturday night I ended my evening (my wife's birthday) doing a load of masters laundry. My wife is still giving me crap about it. This weekend you will not see me on the bike. I'll be in Reno being a true Domestique...to my wife!
Ciao,
Rod
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