Stage 3--Criterium

A Criterium is a race with a very short lap, usually less than a mile, often less than a half mile. It is my favorite kind of race because you make four 90-degree corners (or more) per lap and you can go fast. The road is closed. It's great fun. But accelerating out of those four corners every 1 minute 10 second lap means it is a lot of work to stay with the pack. It is easy to be lapped if you screw up in one corner, so my comeback goal of finishing on the lead lap was going to be hardest here.
And eight laps into the race I was sure I would not make it the 20-lap full distance. I wasn't sure I would make it to half way. Two or three times in the opening laps the pack surged and I barely caught back on going up one of the two short hills. But I made it. I remembered to do what I used to do when I was wanted to rest--I hang about ten meters of the back of the pack going into the turn then when they are braking, I coast into the pack and come out of the corner at pack speed with less effort. this works great until there is an attack between turns, then I am 10 meters back of a pack that just upped its cornering speed by 5 mph. that happened on lap 17--I rode the last three laps alone. but the pace car never caught me and I finished on the lead lap. Since at least one other guy dropped out, I was not last.

Stage 2--Mt. Pain Time Trail

This second stage is an individual time trail--a race against the clock. In Europe they call it the race of truth--and the truth is I have a long way to go to come back as a racer. The course is five miles rolling then three miles up. The riders go off every 30 seconds so the best people are catching the riders in front, and I was being caught. By the half-way point five riders caught up to me. On the way up the hill four more caught me. Then with less than one km. to go, a rider caught me, rode beside me, then dropped back. Then another rider with way to difficult a gear caught and passed me then dropped back. I stayed ahead of them to the finish. They both had better times than me because they started after me, but it was still fun to hold them off at the end.

Stage Race

Today was the first of three events in a two-day stage race around and in Ephrata PA:
Road Race today
Time Trail tomorrow morning
Downtown Race Sunday afternoon.
Today's race like last week, I was the last guy riding at the finish. Again, I stayed on the lead lap--mostly because the laps are 5 miles long. I was with the leaders until half-way round the 2nd lap, then riding with stragglers and people who had flats until the end. I was 34th which is enough to be able to start tomrrow morning's time trial.

Science Cheerleader

I have not added a blog roll to my blog yet. I should. High on the list will be Darlene Cavalier's Science Cheerleader site. She is a former Philadelphia 76ers cheerleader who studied the role of citizens in science and science policy in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and created her site to get involved. She organizes science events for Discover magazine and has a big family.

Summer Camp Starts on my Birthday!

Next Friday, May 2, I will be 55 and celebrating with a morning formation to begin a three-week summer camp. I don't have the schedule yet, but it is supposed to be three weeks of individual skills to get ready for deployment--things like throwing grenades, convoy training, and combat lifesaving. As with the two-week school I will try to post every day, mostly so I don't forget all the things that happen.

Comeback Athlete of the Year

Masters Athlete magazine put me in their nominations for Comeback Athlete of the Year. As you could see from my post two weeks ago, the nomination mostly depended on me getting back on the bike and into racing--my results didn't matter. I will be in a stage race this weekend: a road race, time trial and criterium--three events in two days. As with the last one, my big goal is to finish.

Gen. Petraeus and Poetry in my In Box

A couple of days ago I got two books in my In Box at work--a counterinsurgency manual by Gen. David Petraeus and a new book of poetry by guy who writes about the business of chemistry in his day job. I ordered only one--the poetry book. The counterinsurgency manual is a gift from a friend in Belgium (a mother of three and recently a grandmother) who is rather mystified by the whole Army thing and thought this book might be helpful for me. I haven't read the Petraeus book yet, but I read on the poetry book on my commute this morning--AMTRAK and SEPTA.
The other book, Aquinas Flinched by Rick Mullin, is bright, sharp, angular, and more than a little weird. Rick is also a painter and his the same description would work for his painting. To tell you the truth, it describes him pretty well also. I am guessing the manual won't be as much fun to read.