| updated: 4.8.08 | Funny Video |
LUV2bike Racing Team reports
4.8.2008
RESULTS
RESULTS
The racing season is really heating up! LUV2Bike had a great weekend with
great results.
Redlands Bicycle Classic Crit
First, congrats to Nicole and Keeley for their respective 4th and 6th place
finishes in the Women's Cat 3/4. These two have been consistent all
season! Brett Ball and Brian Coyne also notched top ten finishes in the
Men's Cat 5. Joel Gilmore got caught behind a crash and went down in the
CAT 4 race but I hear he is doing fine and "nothing is broken."
Spring Mountain Fat Tire Riders Race
Jon Horenziak came through with a win in the Men's Sport Class. Jeff Olin
was leading the race when he suffered an unfortunate flat that took him out
of contention. Jeff Mabry came in 2nd in the Men's Single Speed Division
and yours truly came in 3rd in the Men's Beginner Division on a single
speed.
Tour De Phoenix
Jeff Strong did Tour De Phoenix and come in 24th out of over 1000 who
started (first Las Vegas finisher). He earned his platinum pass as did Vic
Miera, Trenna Adams and Mark Keller.
Anthill Crit
Danny Kam and Jeff Edwards went down to the Anthill Crit and dominated the
Men's Cat 3. Jeff strung out the peloton with a blistering break away.
Danny sat back while the rest of the teams did the work to bring the break
back then he counter-attacked and won a sprint finish with his breakaway
companions while Jeff blocked back in the peloton. Great Team work!
Tour De Cure
A bunch of riders including Yash and Peggy took part in the Tour De Cure.
Way to fly the team colors!
This weekend is another busy one with races in San Diego (Cyclo Vets Omnium
- TT, RR, CRIT - Friday, Saturday Sunday) and St. George Utah (Cholla
Challenge - MTB Saturday). Brett Ball, Doug Young, Brian Coyne and I are
going down for Cyclo-Vets. Jeff Olin and Jon Horenziak are going to the
Cholla Challenge. Make sure to take your camera and catch all of the
action! If anyone else is racing be sure to let me know.
OUTREACH
Velodrome Update - Reid Litchfield, Carol Vails and Olympic Silver
Medalist Nelson Vails made an outstanding presentation at the City of
Henderson last week. Nelson really dazzled them. It safe to say that
he is probably the only Olympic medalist to ever speak at one of their
meetings. The next meeting is this Wednesday at 6:30, Whitney Ranch
Recreation Center; 1575 Galleria Drive, Henderson. All are encouraged
to attend.
WEEKEND RIDES
For those of us not not racing:
Saturday 8am Eastside Starbucks (Green Valley and Pebble) 2-3 hours
Sunday 8am Westside Starbucks (Town Center and Charleston) 2-3 hours
1.23.08 by Jeff Edwards “The good life…back on track”
As some of you know last year was very
rewarding, emotional and very informative in Jeffs world of cycling.
Many great placings for a 1st year rookie ever on the bike
and a crash which left me broken hearted on the side line watching my
fitness go in the toilet. For me
cycling is new, exciting and for the most part better than…well almost that
good. You get the point.
If you have ever crashed and suffered multiple broken bones when you
were on your “A” game then you can feel my pain.
Well after 4 months of the enlisted training
advice of Chris Gagne I made a hard charge at the first race of the season
at the Martin Luther King Classic!
All week I had jitters and butterflies in my stomach as if I were taking on
Mike Tyson.
So there I was, in the registration line and
I hear “…guys registration is full at 75 people, we are considering going to
a 100”. My adrenaline hit the roof!
So much for 15-20 guys showing up out of shape!
By the time I got completely dressed and on
the bike it was 10 minutes before the race.
Panic sets in. I sometimes
talk with Rahsaan Bahatti and he texted me saying good luck and warm up
extremely hard. With no choice and
an empty course I jumped on and basically time trialed the course for two
laps at my threshold. Luckily we
were a little late starting. I get
to the line and all I can see are tons of guys on bikes nervously waiting.
I could literally see guys physically shaking!
The ref comes on the loud speaker and says his speech “…it’s the
first race of the season MLK…I have a dream…that you all will keep your
rubber on the road and your helmets up in the air…”.
The pace was extremely high with seemingly a
new guy on the front every turn pushing the pace for no apparent reason
other than he felt good. Two turns
later he was on the back. It was
like that the entire race. Every
turn somebody was shooting up the inside to gain 15 spots and almost taking
the field out. Stupid risks.
Three laps in the ref was getting lappers off the course and every
lap we lost guys! 4th lap
I hear a booom as I exit turn two and never look back, I know what happened!
I looked down at my computer and I was at about 95% of my max and
couldn’t get my heart rate down!
Blow up time! With no choice I faded
back a little to get some recovery time since I was in the top 5-10 spots
and was tired of holding the pace with a new guy every turn.
When the bell rang for 3 laps to go I was near the back and made a
gesture to my wife that I was done.
I started to crack. That feeling was
the worst feeling I have had since my crash.
I felt like I was letting my self down, my wife down and all my
friends that were behind me. How
could I travel all the way from Vegas, train so hard and get dropped with
guys that everyone said would be out of shape at the beginning of the year?
Was this happening? Then I
hear my wife yell at me “…come on hunny get up there!!!!”.
For some reason I made the next turn and with a down hill section
packed by dangerous water drainage basins running across it I made a
desperate leap past everyone. My
Soloist was bouncing around like a car with hyraulics on Venice Blvd
After racing I know have a since of what the
“good life” is to me. Back in the
saddle and back to pushing myself racing.
To me, that’s my vice, my escape and God willing, this year will be
as awesome for you as it will be for me.
Good luck everyone, thanks to everyone that support the world of
cycling…see you soon!
-Jeff Edwards, Luv2Bike
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