Redlands Bicycle Classic

Robert Chung wrote:
BTW: asking rbr what it thinks? Hmmm. I'd worry more about what that
says about you than the Redlands incident.


God, you're right. I'm such a loser! Yeah, I don't care much if peopl
know who I am if they want to bother digging through the results. But
I'll decline to identify myself in this thread, thanks. I'm just happ
to come home to my own team so I can race with people who care but don'
give a sh&t, if you know what I mean


-

Me-OW! nuthin like a catfight on rbr.

I don't understand why you bailed on the race. Can a team director
forcibly "un-register" one of their riders? Sounds to me like they
all, uh, SUCK, and that you were the only one who showed-up with even
a decent amount of fitness. I would have just said **** em, and worn
their crappy jersey the rest of the race, and just did an
in-duh-vidual effort from then on.
Then I would have ridden up to that chick that tried to crash you, and
pulled her shorts down over the back of her saddle as she was
approaching the next climb (heh heh). Your best revenge would have
been to win a stage without them, and showing up on the victory stand
wearing only a t-shirt (a tight, wet one, of course).

;-)


pedalchick wrote in message . ..
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 suppositions
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 to
tell a story that probably shouldn't be told, but I feel the need to get
it out into the ether and off my back since I will have no opportunity
to resolve the problem otherwise. It's really long, and I apologize. But
I want to hear the truth. Was I way out of line? I certainly paid for it
if I was...

I joined a team for Redlands as a guest. I didn't know at all what I
would be riding for - I assumed they would want my absolute best
performance. I thought I'd be going to RACE. So I trained my ass off all
winter. I worked extra super hard, knowing that I'd have a team that
might not be happy with someone struggling in with the gruppetto for
80th place every day. I figured my only chance for personal glory would
be the prologue, so I wanted to ride well that day. I had heard the
women I was staying with were notoriously late all the time, so I stated
firmly that I would like to arrive at the course at least 2 hours before
my start, and that would be the only thing I would ask for. This was met
with resistance, since their director didn't want them hanging around
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 do
what we want you to do.

Regardless, they ended up leaving extra time for traffic and there was
none, so I got what I wanted, got there early and got a good warmup and
proceeded to have the best race of my life to date. I took over 40
seconds of last year's time and while I was out of the money on the
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 even
though I was top of the team on the GC, if only by a handful of
seconds... the next day in the Crestline race, I was given the duty of
leading out the sprinter for the bonus sprint. Fine, I was nervous about
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 protecting
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 just
trying to get into a good position and not get killed, and I have to
admit I completely forgot about the rest of the team, I was that freaked
out. After a few miles, I was forcefully reminded of them when I was
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 down
into our GC hopeful. I managed to keep my bike upright, but was pretty
freaked out.

I recoverd, got out into the wind to pull our GC hopeful up to the front
to keep her safe. Attacks were flying, and the pace was high. We were
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 pushed
to the back. The QOM was coming up, and I had to haul ass to get back up
to the front over the top, risking life and limb to move up for the
sprint point on the descent. I looked around a bit for the sprinter, but
I had been told it was her reponsibility to find me at the front, so I
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 find
out where she was. I couldn't hear jack on the stupid thing. I was AT
the front. Looking around. Nobody. Then the one who tried to crash me
earlier screams at me that the sprinter has a flat, and I need to go
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.



--

kaiser wrote:
Your best revenge would have been to win a stage without them

That would be the Alexi Grewal approach. I believe one of his final appearances in a 7-11
jersey (if not THE final appearance) was a race in Colorado that he won. He pulled his
jersey up as he crossed the line so that 7-11 wouldn't appear in the pictures.

Bob Schwartz

pedalchick wrote in message . ..

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

snip the rest of the story

I had wondered why you DNS'ed after going so well earlier. Sorry the
team dynamics ruined your experience, but your poignant story was
great--thanks for writing it.

You were probably just venting and your questions were rhetorical, and
as Robert said, WTF are you asking rbr for anyway, but I'll still
throw out some opinions...

First of all, The Screamer obviously had issues with handling the
pressure of a big race, and she probably has no business being in a
leadership role. And your director failed to keep things calm, one of
his/her primary duties.

But to me the real issue is this: why was your adopted team so fixated
on protecting a gc leader and a sprinter when it seems they had
minimal chance of even coming close to being in the money, other than
perhaps you (who they had apparently decided not to support anyway)?
What was the plan, helping your leader get top 50 on gc? And helping
the sprinter get top 30 in the crit? Why? Why do lower-level teams try
to act like high-powered teams with all their various roles and
responsibilities when there is really no point? I'm not saying you
should ride selfishly and shouldn't try to help each other when you
can, particularly if someone has a mishap, but do your really want to
sacrifice yourself completely for someone so she can get 49th place
instead of 79th? IMO, in a big race like Redlands, there should be no
pecking order in a team if everyone on the team is in the, say, 40th
to 100th place range on gc.

Mark

pedalchick wrote in message
. ..

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

[etc......]

That really sounded like a miserable situation. It also seemed that you had
a very good understanding and perspective of what the race dynamics were.
Your actions were reasonable as opposed to the Screamer and company. Maybe
if you had fed them some Ess A Bagels they would have mellowed out. If not
they would have tested positive for opiates from the poppy seeds and then
they would have had something to really scream about. :-)

Robert Chung wrote:
h squared wrote:

pedalchick wrote:

I'll take this opportunity to possibly give away my identity

sorry, one more thing- will you post under your real name now, or do you
want to keep it secret?


Whether she posts under her real name or not, it's no longer secret.



Time difference: 2004 - 2003, in prologue:

rider seconds
Laura_Downey........ -43.8
Laura_Weislo........ -35.6
Shawn_Heidgen....... -35.5
Kristin_Armstrong... -25.2
Hiroko_Shimada...... -25
Elizabeth_Morse..... -17.3
Sandy_Espeseth...... -16.5
Gabriela_Gonzales De -15.3
Rhonda_Quick........ -13.3
Helen_Kelly......... -9.3
Rachel_Massey....... -8.9
Kirsten_Kotval...... -7.4
Renee_Eastman....... -6.9
Lisa_Matlock........ -4.3
Mari_Holden......... -2.5
Becky_Broeder....... -2.2
Karen_Dodge......... 5.2
Kim_Anderson........ 11.3
Karen_Bockel........ 12.9
Anne_Samplonius..... 14.5
Genevieve_Jeanson... 14.7
Julia_Whiteside..... 16.5
Lyne_Bessette....... 19.6
Erin_Carter......... 21.7
Nicole_Brandt....... 26.8
Susan_Haywood....... 27.5
Julie_Emmerman...... 27.5
Gina_Grain.......... 31.6

Humm... narrows to three.



Three? One.

Dan

"Dan Connelly" wrote in message
. com...
Robert Chung wrote:
h squared wrote:

pedalchick wrote:

I'll take this opportunity to possibly give away my identity

sorry, one more thing- will you post under your real name now, or do you
want to keep it secret?


Whether she posts under her real name or not, it's no longer secret.



Time difference: 2004 - 2003, in prologue:

rider seconds
Laura_Downey........ -43.8
Laura_Weislo........ -35.6
Shawn_Heidgen....... -35.5
Kristin_Armstrong... -25.2
Hiroko_Shimada...... -25
Elizabeth_Morse..... -17.3
Sandy_Espeseth...... -16.5
Gabriela_Gonzales De -15.3
Rhonda_Quick........ -13.3
Helen_Kelly......... -9.3
Rachel_Massey....... -8.9
Kirsten_Kotval...... -7.4
Renee_Eastman....... -6.9
Lisa_Matlock........ -4.3
Mari_Holden......... -2.5
Becky_Broeder....... -2.2
Karen_Dodge......... 5.2
Kim_Anderson........ 11.3
Karen_Bockel........ 12.9
Anne_Samplonius..... 14.5
Genevieve_Jeanson... 14.7
Julia_Whiteside..... 16.5
Lyne_Bessette....... 19.6
Erin_Carter......... 21.7
Nicole_Brandt....... 26.8
Susan_Haywood....... 27.5
Julie_Emmerman...... 27.5
Gina_Grain.......... 31.6

Humm... narrows to three.

B. Lafferty wrote:
pedalchick wrote in message
. ..
I'll take this opportunity to possibly give away my identity in
order to tell a story that probably shouldn't be told, but I feel
the need to get it out into the ether and off my back since I will
have no opportunity to resolve the problem otherwise. It's really
long, and I apologize. But I want to hear the truth. Was I way out
of line? I certainly paid for it if I was...
[etc......]
That really sounded like a miserable situation. It also seemed that you
had a very good understanding and perspective of what the race dynamics
were. Your actions were reasonable as opposed to the Screamer and
company. Maybe if you had fed them some Ess A Bagels they would have
mellowed out. If not they would have tested positive for opiates from
the poppy seeds and then they would have had something to really scream
about. :-)


Decent bagels might have helped. Actually, I got pulled for random afte
the prologue. I have to say, I had a full on UCI experience: my bik
almost failed before the TT (were it not for the Mavic dude for advisin
me to push my butt back all the way on the saddle when they checked m
knee over pedal, I wouldn't have started). I got called for random an
had to spend a full hour after my TT in the camper trying to pee in
cup, pouring my own urine into bottles and trying not to spill it al
over. Gross

I was quite relieved to see that Claritin I took the day before on th
list of allowed drugs. Now we'll find out if all those vitamins I'v
been taking are contaminated or not, I guess. If the results come Fe
Ex, I'm in deep ****


-

"Dan Connelly" wrote in message
. com...

Humm... narrows to three.



Three? One.

Dan

Ok, got it, but didn't want to say one. Pedalchick didn't want her cover
completely blown.