Waterbottles full of fruit juice
Saturday is the big 2nd Annual Draper Days Criterium. I’ve got a quick little ride down the hill to get to the start line Saturday night and I heard a rumor that they are going to put up lights. I guess if we can't be in Boise, we can put on our own show. If I remember right, there was a so-pro move at the finish line last year with a premature victory celebration. It looked like the line wasn't that close. Then I remember seeing SkynnyB’s arms rise in victory. It's a big temptation to throw the victory in the face of your competition but seems a bit risky. Remember that photo of Zabel realizing he had blown it when Freire came by head down and throwing his bike for the victory.
While I wasn’t in a position to even make a failed celebration attempt, I was excited for SkynnyB, a skinny guy who doesn't really dig crits necessarily but rode a perfect race that night and saved his push for the final 25 meters. I sadly thought I would have enough speed coming out turn 3 to make it closer to the front. With the poor estimation, I was in the position to spectate the finish from the back of the winning group. Without such a so-pro move, the outcome may have been different. I do remember T-bird saying that SkynnyB was making a super-fast acceleration so it may have been the same outcome regardless. The other item of note is that SkynnyB was on his own and still pulled off the win. This year he’s got a crew with him.
The TOFU preparation is coming along great. I’ve added a daily dose of walking on a hot bed of coals to increase my pain tolerance and I’ve taken on Sly’s advice of eating only fruit for a week. As I’ve looked at the rider profile hightlights on TdF coverage, guys who are 5’10” are a lightweight 145 pounds. So in an effort to drop weight to compete on the climbs I have taken Sly’s advice one step further: I am drinking only fruit juice and riding with 1 bottle of water only in the 100+F heat. I have dropped from 165 to 155 in just one week. I estimate that by 7/27 I should weigh 145. That gives me 11 days to rebuild the glycogen stores. Look out the first time the road goes up…that’s if my scant bodyweight will allow me to not be pushed off the road at the first sign of a crosswind.
Sunday morning looks to be a long day on the climbs. I have a database containing times for the 52 rides I’ve made up the south side of Traverse. Linked to the National Weather Service database, I am able to determine the exact power needed based on a combination of wind/temperature/tire pressure/body weight to calculate my effort in order to start the climb as T-bird and J-Lao are beginning the descent into Draper. I’ve ridden that climb with those two on a “training day”. I’m not looking forward to race pace. That’s when I set the volume to “my own tempo”.
Stay tuned for more TOFU preparation updates and other related nonsense.