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Written by Andrew Freye
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Sunday, 24 September 2006 |
 So after taking a couple weeks of unstructured training I decided it would be fun to go up to Burlington, VT to visit some friends from high school and do a UCI cross race while I am there. For about one month exactly I had been taking it pretty easy. My training consisted of pretty much doing what ever I wanted. I did a bunch of fun mountain bike rides, some long fun road rides on the nice days, and the occasional hammer fest ride.
With that being said I wasn’t to sure what to expect from my legs. The week before the race I finally got on some new Asthma medication! This stuff is great! Even though I have only been on the medication for a week I really like it.
After the multi hour drive I arrived in Burlington Saturday afternoon. I was very surprised with myself for remembering how to get to my friends apartment after not being there for a couple months. That night I went out for some wood oven cooked pizza and a couple local brews. After dinner it was off to see the Machine, a Pink Floyd tribute band. Now Pink Floyd isn’t my favorite music, but it’s hard to have a bad time in a room filled with tie-dyed hippies jamming out to some Pink Floyd music. After a couple hours on my feet it was time to call it a night and try to rest up for Sunday’s big race.
My old Giant cross bike was probably in as good of shape as I was. With parts on the bike ranging in the 5 to 6 year age it was barely holding up. On top of that I had road chain rings on the bike. I tried removing the rings and putting on smaller ones for cross, but the road chain rings are pretty much glued on there. With that said I tried to be Superman and hammer though the race, but that didn’t last to long. Shortly into the race my legs faded and I started to loose spots. It was nice for once to have my legs hurt more than my lungs thanks to my new medication. For the majority of the race I was floating around 18th to 21st. When I say floating around I mean fighting as hard as I could and thinking “How can one get so slow in only a month?”
With two laps to go the Superman legs came around and I started pushing the 53 tooth chain ring all over the place. I was feeling real good and thinking wow I am going to have one hell of a finish! Well turns out my legs were just joking around and they quickly turned off as fast as they turned on. After climbing my way into the mid teens it was back to a finishing spot in 20th place, a mid pack finish. Not to bad for an out of shape kid just wanting to have fun. Hopefully by the time the New England Verge Series starts my fitness will be back and I will be riding on a new Salsa cross bike! Even if the new bike isn’t here, there is something deeply satisfying about beating someone who is on a multi thousand dollar bike when you are on a piece of junk clunker that is only being held together by rusty bolts!
A
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