Redlands Bicycle Classic

Anyone picking up local coverage of Redlands? Bessette is having a good race
as Jeanson has been having a few bad days. I was curious on how much time if
any is allowed on local channels?

thanks,

B-

"Sierraman" wrote in message ...
Anyone picking up local coverage of Redlands? Bessette is having a good race
as Jeanson has been having a few bad days. I was curious on how much time if
any is allowed on local channels?

thanks,

B-

You know...I was thinking about Jeanson and her bad days coinciding with her...ahhh well forget
it...
Dave

Sierraman wrote:

Anyone picking up local coverage of Redlands? Bessette is having a good race
as Jeanson has been having a few bad days. I was curious on how much time if
any is allowed on local channels?

thanks,

B-

can't answer your question, but i see that weldon is 24th after stage 4.
hopefully she'll post about the race after she gets back.

heather
ps. i would check for your rack obsessed gf too, but anonymous posters
get no rbr glory.

Dave wrote:
"Sierraman" wrote in message ...

Anyone picking up local coverage of Redlands? Bessette is having a good race
as Jeanson has been having a few bad days. I was curious on how much time if
any is allowed on local channels?

thanks,

B-


You know...I was thinking about Jeanson and her bad days coinciding with her...ahhh well forget
it...
Dave



Have you done Fourier analysis?

Dan

"h squared" wrote in message
...


Sierraman wrote:

Anyone picking up local coverage of Redlands? Bessette is having a good
race
as Jeanson has been having a few bad days. I was curious on how much
time if
any is allowed on local channels?

thanks,

B-

can't answer your question, but i see that weldon is 24th after stage 4.
hopefully she'll post about the race after she gets back.

heather
ps. i would check for your rack obsessed gf too, but anonymous posters
get no rbr glory.

Are you doing STP again this year?

"Dave" wrote in
:

You know...I was thinking about Jeanson and her bad days coinciding
with her...

.....inablity to get a Canadian license?

"Tim Mullin" wrote in message
54.201...
"Dave" wrote in
:

You know...I was thinking about Jeanson and her bad days coinciding
with her...

....inablity to get a Canadian license?

High HCT revelation
Dave

H Squared wrote:
can't answer your question, but i see that weldon is 24th after stage 4.
hopefully she'll post about the race after she gets back.
heather
ps. i would check for your rack obsessed gf too, but anonymous posters
get no rbr glory.


If you're referring to me, I wouldn't consider myself rack-obsessed
Really, I just would rather see jugs than read senseless supposition
about the Tour de France... but you're entitled to your views

I'll take this opportunity to possibly give away my identity in order t
tell a story that probably shouldn't be told, but I feel the need to ge
it out into the ether and off my back since I will have no opportunit
to resolve the problem otherwise. It's really long, and I apologize. Bu
I want to hear the truth. Was I way out of line? I certainly paid for i
if I was..

I joined a team for Redlands as a guest. I didn't know at all what
would be riding for - I assumed they would want my absolute bes
performance. I thought I'd be going to RACE. So I trained my ass off al
winter. I worked extra super hard, knowing that I'd have a team tha
might not be happy with someone struggling in with the gruppetto fo
80th place every day. I figured my only chance for personal glory woul
be the prologue, so I wanted to ride well that day. I had heard th
women I was staying with were notoriously late all the time, so I state
firmly that I would like to arrive at the course at least 2 hours befor
my start, and that would be the only thing I would ask for. This was me
with resistance, since their director didn't want them hanging aroun
all that time, and insisted that they only needed a 30 minute warmup
they basically told me, you're a guest, you don't have a say. You d
what we want you to do

Regardless, they ended up leaving extra time for traffic and there wa
none, so I got what I wanted, got there early and got a good warmup an
proceeded to have the best race of my life to date. I took over 4
seconds of last year's time and while I was out of the money on th
stage, I was up there with some big names - I was really pleased

I told the team that as a guest, I didn't expect them to ride for me
What I didn't expect was that I would be lowest on the totem pole eve
though I was top of the team on the GC, if only by a handful o
seconds... the next day in the Crestline race, I was given the duty o
leading out the sprinter for the bonus sprint. Fine, I was nervous abou
getting to the front as I am notoriously bad at moving through the pack
but I said I'd do my best. I had also been given the role of protectin
the team GC leader

The roll-out was exceedingly nervous. I was terrified. 140 women
tailwind, roads with cracks and reflectors and medians. I was jus
trying to get into a good position and not get killed, and I have t
admit I completely forgot about the rest of the team, I was that freake
out. After a few miles, I was forcefully reminded of them when I wa
pedalling along on the left side of the pack and one girl from my "team
came crashing into my bars from the left side, nearly knocking me dow
into our GC hopeful. I managed to keep my bike upright, but was prett
freaked out

I recoverd, got out into the wind to pull our GC hopeful up to the fron
to keep her safe. Attacks were flying, and the pace was high. We wer
getting squeezed constantly with medians and oncoming traffic. Finally
we took a left turn and I had to brake to avoid a median and got pushe
to the back. The QOM was coming up, and I had to haul ass to get back u
to the front over the top, risking life and limb to move up for th
sprint point on the descent. I looked around a bit for the sprinter, bu
I had been told it was her reponsibility to find me at the front, so
was simply concerning myself with getting back up to the front

With two miles to go to the sprint, I radioed for the sprinter to fin
out where she was. I couldn't hear jack on the stupid thing. I was A
the front. Looking around. Nobody. Then the one who tried to crash m
earlier screams at me that the sprinter has a flat, and I need to g
back and get her.

Now, I am a climber. I thought I'd be protecting our GC rider, and with
the stage ending on a big mountain, I thought it very odd and rather
strategically wrong to send me (someone who is small and not great in
the cross headwind we were experiencing) to go back for a sprinter when
the only sprint bonus of the day had passed. But, with all the screaming
this woman was doing at me, I soft pedaled to filter back. She screamed
at me to go back faster. Not wanting to jam on the brakes to do it, I
kept soft pedaling.

I spent the next 25 miles on the back of the pack and in the caravan
radioing to the sprinter who apparently had a broken microphone and
couldn't respond. I saw at least a half dozen women in that time who had
either crashed or flatted chase back on and move up past me. No sign of
my sprinter. For all I knew, she had climbed into the car and gone home.
I wasn't about to get behind the caravan and spend all day chasing for
nothing. I guess that's the sacrifice you are supposed to make for a
team, but they weren't really my team. They didn't pay my way out. They
weren't going to give me any support if I flatted, and ****, I had just
had the best TT of my life, my form was hot and I wanted to be in the
pack for the final climb, dammit.

So I gave up on the sprinter after the feed zone, where I was about a
minute behind the peloton in a small group. I hauled our group up to
another larger group for a mile or two. I caught my breath, and drove
that group up (we're entering the caravan now) to yet another group,
containing the screamer. I ignore her, and drive the crap out of the
group to the base of the final climb and then drop them.

I'm climbing steady, feeling awesome. I start catching people, and about
halfway up I find my GC leader and another from the team. The GC leader
is cramping. I try to pace her up, give her encouragement. It's clear
she's hurting. I stay with her for the middle third of the climb (I am
setting what feels like a ridiculously easy pace for me but I keep
dropping her). Finally, I'm setting a moderate tempo and I look back and
she's way down the climb and the other woman has left her, too. I then
figure she's told us to go on and ride, and so I do. I finish a couple
minutes up, ****ed that I had to spend all day at the back of the pack
in the caravan because I was freakin' flying and could probably have
placed top 20 or 30 on the stage and moved up in the GC if I had started
with the leaders. Now we're all below 50th place.

I get screamed at for many minutes after the stage, and everyone is
really angry with me. I ask another friend for a ride off the mountain,
because I'm being treated like I just ruined everyone's life.

That evening back at the host-house, nobody is any happier. It's clear
that if I stay and do the rest of this race, it's going to be one huge
conflict the entire time. I don't get paid for this crap. I paid my way,
took a week's vacation time from my job and I absolutely refuse to be
treated like trash just for a freakin' bike race. So after a heated
"team meeting" where I'm the target for all their frustrations and they
just lay it all on me, I blow up and it is decided that I'm going home
and not finishing the race if I can't just unquestioningly follow their
orders. I figure even if I do, I will manage to do it wrong somehow
because nothing I do will ever please these women. So I pay the extra
$250 to get a cab to the airport while they go to race and soon enough I
am home and much happier with cat, husband and house.

It was just a doomed relationship from the get-go. I'm sure these women
will do fine this year as a team, they seem like they have some talent
and they get tons of support. Perhaps it was just bad chemistry, but I
certainly don't regret anything I did. Maybe I wasn't a good team player
in that situation, but I know in my heart that I am a good teammate. I
just am not used to being ordered around like I'm some third-class
citizen and being treated with zero respect. It just ****es me off.



--

PS, Suz did freakin' awesome! she was totally rockin' it with the bi
girls. Kicked ass she did. Congrats on a fine performance woman


-

You know...I was thinking about Jeanson and her bad days coinciding with
her...ahhh well forget
it...
Dave

exactly!