Home  Bathroom Reading / News Adam Craig Journal New Zealand Worlds
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Written by Adam Craig
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Monday, 28 August 2006 |
 I had such a clever plan for worlds this year. It was kind of a last minute plan, brought about by percieved necessity and available resources. You see, it's winter in Rotorua, New Zealand. That means it's a bit cold. The first few mornings I woke to, and rode in, heavy frost and frozen ground. Then it would rain and/or hail/snow. I figured the best way to prepare for racing in these conditions was to try to get as fat as possible as soon as possible. Fortunately, USA Cycling had brought down three Chefs from my former home at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I immediately fell into the glorious old habit of gorging myself three times a day on solidly hearty meals. They even had carrot cake for dessert the night before the race. It was obviously meant to be...
Turns out I got too fat (even though I probably didn't change my weight at all)... Race day dawned clear and warm, if a bit wet from the overnight showers. I still had my super sweet Michelin Wildgripper 1.75's mounted up in hopes for a mudstorm but it wasn't meant to be. I ended up with tires that said "Dry (2)" on the side, courtesy of Mr Bib of course. I even had to trim my longsleeve skinsuit to 3/4 sleeve due to the unseasonably hot (55 or so) conditions...
The gun went off (loudly from my second row, hard right, right next to the starter's raised arm) and we sprinted downhill through a field, then up, maintaining solid top twenty, then back down through the field, a bit blind and a bit bumpy, but not too terrifying in the grand scheme of things. Feeling good, real good. Then, CRACK. Hmmmm. Seems I sat into that g-out I didn't see through the huge German guy in front of me a bit hard. Figured I should check things out and see why my seat was dangling. Turns out the clamp on my kind of old (but really cool) 100% carbon fiber road seatpost had broken. Shocking, a guy who tried to get fat riding hard and blind on road parts broke something. Hmmmm. I determined I wouldn't be in danger of severe bleeding or infertility if I continued, so I did. Riding without the seated option is kind of wierd. Fortunately I only had to complete one lap before I swung off in the Technical Assistance Zone (which I had been speaking negatively of just the evening before) where my man Frank Trotter set me up with a new seat and post. Took us a while, but we got it in, tape measure position setup and all...
We must have gotten the position right, because I felt ridiculously good for the rest of the race. Racing at the front is fun and all, but using the best legs you've had all season to burn through the field is way more entertaining. Shifting into a harder gear and pedalling faster at will is why I race bikes, and I got to do it for the rest of the day (even on my hour long hard tempo cooldown ride). I got back on the bike after pretty much everyone passed me, somewhere in the 70's... There are a couple fun games to play when you're totally screwed in a race but still feeling spry. One is the big ring game. Pretty simple, see which retardedly steep climbs you can keep it in the meat for the duration of. Usually yields surprising results. Another is counting how many times you get called spiderman each lap due to the new USA team kits (at least 40 one lap). You can also watch the "gap to leaders" clock each lap. I had a good time playing this game. The first two times I saw the clock it said 5:4something. That meant I was travelling fast, probably related to the big ring and the spiderman powers bestowed upon me. Upon consultation with the UCI website, which has lap time analysis courtesy of our timing chips (we still wear body numbers why?) it was determined that laps 2-5 were done on a 4th place pace. I'll take it. Much easier than focusing on the fact that I was knocking on the door of a top 5 at worlds last year when a flat with 6k to go derailed that plan... Kind of bitter to have Jeremian Bishop's (impressive) 8th place heralded as the "first US top ten at worlds in 11 years" though... Maybe next year. At least I'm finally in shape. Maybe world cup finals will be a good (fast) time next weekend.
Oh yeah, New Zealand is pretty cool. I'm still here. Ryan Trebron and I are shoehorned into a Toyota Corolla hatchback trying to remember what side of the road to drive on whilst we cruise around checking out as much scenery and random stuff as we can. Yesterday was soaking in Kerosene Creek, the temperature of which is about 95 and random little slicks of natural gas bubble up all the time (smelling of Kerosene). Today was a sweet ride down the Waikato River below Huka Falls with Ms. Elke Brutsaert, then around in the Craters of the Moon forest after we ran into none other than RV campin Mike and Mary. Good times in the sunshine. Some driving up the coast tomorrow should keep us entertained.
Thanks for reading, hope summer is winding down well for ya'll.
Adam and Carl's (missing) Fun Giant Team |
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