Saturday, May 26, 2007

The Killer, Rabbits, and the World Champion

The Killer

Danilo DiLuca showed why they call him the Killer on Sunday. He got tag teamed by Saunier Duval-Prodir and found himself without teammates for much of the last half of Sunday's stage of the Giro d'Italia. However, he did not get anxious, rode a solid race and when the time came to put the hammer to the small group that was with him consisting of Cunego, Simoni, Schleck and Salvoldelli, he put the hammer to them and rode away from them to finish sixth on the stage. Now, his Liquigas team will need to provide more support for him than they have as Saunier Duval has two men in the top ten in Simoni and Ricco.

During the final week teams will start looking to defend their leaders which will provide Liquigas some assistance. Milram's Alessandro Petacchi is leading the points jersey and there are at least two more stages which should result in a sprint finish. CSC's Andy Schleck is leading the young rider competition by less than a minute over Saunier Duval's Ricardo Ricco. As such, Ricco and his teammates should expect CSC to watch them like hawks to protect Schleck, which will benefit Liquigas and DiLuca. Finally. Saunier Duval's Leonardo Piepoli is leading the king of the mountain competition. Although Saunier Duval has hopes of winning the Giro with Simoni or Ricco, if Ricco does not make up time on Schleck and DiLuca then the team will likely aggressively defend the climber's jersey before next Sunday's finish.

However, I do not think that Liquigas will let anyone get too aggressive over the final week and DiLuca has shown himself to be much stronger in the mountains this year than ever before. Stage 16 has climbs in the first portion of the race with a downhill run to the finish with a flat 15km before the end of the stage. DiLuca should lose no time on this stage to the top contenders. Stage 17 on Wednesday will likely be the decisive stage for this year's Giro. With the short, 10km, but very steep, 11.9% average with areas nearly 20%, final climb of the stage is up Monte Zoncolan, DiLuca should be in good shape if he gets to the base of the climb with one or two teammates. He is certainly stronger than any of the other favorites at the moment. With more than a three minute lead on both Simoni and Cunego, DiLuca should win his first Giro.

Look out Bunny !

Saturday was my first multisport race in almost 11 years. I raced the Bucyrus, Ohio YMCA triathlon Memorial day weekend in 1996 and then raced the Edinboro, Pennsylvania Triathlon the following weekend. I have done a few 5k's since but my multisport days ended with the birth of our first child.

Last summer I finally decided that I needed to get control of my diet, exercise and career. Since then, I have lost 70 pounds and last month I started running again regularly. I figured a good test for my new fitness would be Boise's Camelback Duathlon put on by the YMCA. The short course had a short 2k run followed by a 15k ride and a 2k run. I can run 4k and the bike is not a problem so I submitted my registration on Monday.

Tuesday morning I bent down to pick up a set of plans off my floor and decided just to kneel down and look at what I needed. Right then my right knee crumpled and I felt a knifing pain through my righ quadricep. I went over writhing in pain on my office floor. I did my best to stretch my right leg out but i was rather concerned about whether I had just kissed $39 away. Tuesday night I went to the gym just to see if I could get the right leg to relax a bit. The pain continued but as the week went on I felt pretty good by Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning I rode the three miled from my house to Camelsback Park. Eventhough Saturday was supposed to be fairly warm and the race did not start until 9AM, I decided to wear my Nike bib knickers due to the additional support and warmth they give my legs. It was a good decision because they did not end up being too hot and did not constrict my run.

So, how did it go, and where is the bunny? I started the opening 2k like I typically do in a duathlon. I run from the very back of the pack because I am really slow. I don't really run. It is more of a waddle. I passed a few grandmothers and found my pace with the heavy guys. I ran a slightly slower than 10 minuite pace for the first 2k. Then, I had a very solid ride. This last week I converted my old Trek 1220 road bike into a dedicated time trial machine. It is much heavier than my new Trek 5200 and it only has a 7 speed rear cassette. I put cowhorns on it and my aero bars. I had about 45 minutes total of training on it prior to the race. So I was very happy with my performance.

The first two miles were up Bogus Basin Road which is a very constant climb. Then you got to turn around and come back down. I was going 8 miles an hour going up hill but 38 miles an hour coming down. About 400M after the turn around, I just tucked into my aero position and was really pushing my biggest gear, when a small grey rabbit ran across the road in front of me. We made eye contact and I think he knew we were both gonners if he did not move faster so he did. I would hate to think what would have happened to both of us if I had hit him at 30+ miles an hour. Anyway my hear rate spiked and I just flew down the hill rode a solid time trial and got back to the transition area to be greeted by my wife and two youngest children. We high fived and I went out and ran an 11 minute mile pace for the final 2k.

Now, I have lost 70 pounds this last year and now weigh about 198. Had I sandbagged, I could have still raced in the Clydesdale category. I was tempted to register for the Clydesdale category but my fear was that race officials would catch me as a sandbagger who raced with weights in his pocket just to race in the big guy category. I am glad I did not, although I would have won the shortcourse Clydesdal category. As it was I finished 3rd in the 30-39 men. There were actually 6 men in the category so I did not finish 3rd by default. Had I realized how well I had done, I would have stayed for my ribbon. As it was, we came home, I took a shower and we went to Lowe's.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Becker Ridge Road.

The long and short courses (30k and 15k) used the same first 12k which included a climb up past the intersection of Bogus Basin Road and Becker Ridge Road before descending back down to Hill Road and then riding along Hill Road to the ultimate turnourounds for both courses. As I pushed my way up the Bogus Basin climb, I heard the distinctive sound of a disk wheel coming up behind me. Boise's own world champion Kristin Armstrong came flying by me in her world champion kit. It was really cool. She rode the 30k course almost 9 miles an hour faster than I rode the 15k course. She was part of a relay that of course had the fastest time of the day. My eyes glazed over as my hear rate spiked as I rode up Bogus Basin Road because I don't recall seeing her come down the hill.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home