State RR Championship
Aggress had a strong team at the State RR. Elijet, Beto, Leo, Kurt and Mike in the Cat 3 race, Jim in Cat 4, as well as Doug in 60+ and Rick in 65+.
In the Cat 3 race, Kurt was the only one to make it over the first series of hills before getting shelled on the final hill. He would mop up 7 riders on the way to the finish outsprinting all but one to finish a disappointing 12th. The rest of the crew did a team ride and came in after a good training session.
Jim would do too much work on the way out and did not survive the hill storm at the end finishing 24th with the main group.
Rick had the strongest Aggress showing finishing 3rd and Doug came through solo in 9th.
Vuelta de Enology
Aggressors:
Doug Perry and I, on behalf of Aggress, endured two days of intense enologic cycling training this past Friday and Saturday. Spousal accompaniment was deemed prudent in the event we buried ourselves in our work with too much intensity. Our training intervals varied in intensity from 6-9 one oz tastes per cycling dismount. Remount and continuation become more problematic as the event progressed and was exacerbated by the absence of a Team support vehicle. Nevertheless, we dug deep and found within ourselves the will to carry on, in due course completing Stage 1. We refueled and carbed up at Viaggios, got a good nights rest (mostly), and arose ready and eager for Stage 2. At our low point during Stage 2 we needed some inspiration to carry on and thus availed ourselves of the opportunity to commune with Jimi (No, NOT Riccitello, Hendrix). We finished strongly and readily credit Aggress training for the iron discipline necessary to finish at all. Less prepared riders could literally have been dropped.
Rick E.
Gila Monster
With Elijet nurshing his spawn, Leo, Jeremy and Vic went to Gila. Photographers seem to have been banned from filming Aggressors, so…
Leo: This was one for learning/mis-haps.
I crashed in the feed zone on day one. I chased on, but got dropped at the climb. 80th.
On day two (The Day of the Wind), I dropped my water bottle in the first mile (wind and loose jersey), and then my rear water bottle cage broke… and I thought it was my rear derailleur. This caused me to back out of the pack at the start of the climb. This was bad enough, but having chased on somewhat, I then got dropped on the descent. I then fought for 48 miles. 66th.
The TT gave new meaning to “hump day” as in getting humped up the you-know-what by a supposedly fast bike. Downhill at 48 with side head-winds with a tri-spoke front wheel is not a good plan. 84th out of 89, stayed 66.
The crit was totally fun despite the hangover. Great hard fast course. By the way, don’t take the warm-up lap; you end up starting at the back. I moved up to 65th!
I was ready for Sunday, but got there late and had to chase on. I then tore off my thumbnail somehow, and then got relegated for a white line/yellow line violation, right at the base of the big early climb. Got dropped, but chased on. I then rode through for about 30 miles, surviving some hard stuff. A break developed, and I jumped. 20 miles of beautiful hell ensued, and I finally cracked near the base of the climb, and got dropped at the first switch-back. I climbed steady/slow and rode to, you guessed it, 66th! I finished at 61st place, having moved up each day.
Jeremy would succumb to sickness and withdraw.
Vic made Velonews for real:
I did well on Wednesday to throw down a series of early attacks and get myself into the break, but still finished in 110th place and lost 10 minutes. On Thursday I attacked no less than 3 times in the first 5 minutes of the race, but got nowhere and was dropped immediately on the first climb. I rode the remaining 70 miles to the finish solo. I would get caught by a chase group every 20 minutes or so, but I was so blown that I couldn’t hang on to any of them for longer than a minute. I lost 38 minutes and finished in 156th place. On Friday I had the worst TT I’ve ever ridden, missing my start because I was caught in the UCI Bike Check waiting line, then having nothing but lactic acid in my legs for the entire first half of the TT, then hitting my knee on my handlebars sprinting up the hill to the turnaround. I lost 14 minutes there and finished in 162nd place. On Saturday was the crit, I got dropped with 2 laps to go, lost 4 minutes, and finished in 132nd place. Sunday was the final, leg breaking mountain stage: 105 miles with 3 major climbs. It was snowing. I got dropped in the first 10 minutes of the race, then spent an hour in the caravan trying to catch back up with the peloton. I did catch back on but got dropped again around an hour later, 2 miles from the top of the first major climb. I rode the remaining 40 miles through the mountains to the finish with a small chase group, who dropped me in the Pinos Altos with 10 miles to go. I lost 43 minutes, and finished in 93rd place.
I ended up in 96th place in the final GC, 1:46:13 off Levi’s time. 194 guys started the race, 101 finished.
On to Arkansas! -Vic
State Crit Championship
Congrats to both Rick and Doug for a strong Aggress showing!
Report by Rick
Doug Perry and I traveled to Scottsdale to represent Aggress. It was a combined group with 12-14 total riders. On lap 2 (I think) Reg Dowdall (SW Hand, 60+) implemented a furious attack and no one pursued. I had no idea he was even gone off the front until people watching us started yelling “you’re 20 sec down, you’re 30 sec down, etc.” as the laps continued. The peloton did start reeling him back toward the end but he still had around 20 sec the last lap. With 3-4 laps to go Ralph Duckett and another rider broke hard to the outside on the 2 block staightaway and I started to follow them and decided “naw’ it’s too early and remained where I was behind Norm Kibble, Robert Tompkins, and our own Doug Perry. With about 1 lap to go the gap maxed out at about 80 ft and then the rest of us started picking up the pace and by the finish sprint it was 30-40 ft. Norm Kibble, surprisingly, broke late in the final lap and faded to the rear. Doug Perry, on the other hand, sprinted hard and nosed out Robert Tompkins at the line to be #4 across the line. I cruised in behind them to be #6 across the line.
From Doug: I went into the State Crit Championships today with two objectives — don’t get hurt and finish. Since I’d only done two crits in my life (both last year), I felt those objectives were all I could hope for. Things actually went really well and I ended up getting 2nd in my 60-64 group which had about ten in it. Reg Dowdall took off the front after the 2nd lap and we never saw him again … I think he won it by 20 seconds, or so. Second place came down to a sprint and I was able to pull around Norm Kibble and win the sprint at the end. Today was very satisfying.
New Aggress Members
Drilling for new recruits: iBrian and Christine, Daddy E and the Berbinator all give it up to swell the team membership. Keep ‘em coming!