Well, these reports are for Gurney who couldn't be here.

The prologue actually lived up to the hype.

I raced about the time I expected, and came away with a fever for improvement.


I was off fourth, and originally I wanted to break Gurneys and Dana's fake times they had in the high 10's. With a late post by Gurney and knowing Dana's previous time of 10:33, and Nathan's rip last night, I had some numbers to shoot for.

Off I went moving pretty quickly when I got to the hill, I couldn't see Ryan, Damn I thought...gone already? but on the second tier of the hill I saw him, and was making up some ground. I reached the peak in under 3:00 which was my hope. Ryan was gone. I shifted up and hit the first downhill, already blowing snots. The next hill hurt quite a bit, but I was closing on Ryan, then I heard Tim coming up by me. Wow I thought....he was smoking. I stayed with him for a bit, and lost him as he surged on a slight upgrade that I found troublesome. We saw Lauren then, but no Ryan. Lauren descended like an Eagle, and it took me a good 2 minutes to reel her in. I saw Ryan again, but it looked like he had a great second half run, and put time back into me. Saw Adam near the end, where I was very happy to stop my watch.

Thanks for the support Mike Feeney.

10:40.... good for some points.

Bravo team. Some awesome times and great efforts. This type of training will help us improve big time. Thanks for sharing in the fun.

Its good to know early, Tim is just as big of sandbagger as the rest of us.

PJ

Hopefully Jason can make it out and post a time. Would love to see him out here.

Going into tonight I was hoping for a 10:30 time. I have ridden with Mark enough to know that I should be close one side or the other to his posted time. I was scheduled to go off behind Ken, I knew he would be strong on this and he would be a good target if I could keep him in sight, while we were waiting in the line I reached down and turned on his red blinker He went off I counted to 20 seconds and rolled up to the pine cone start point stopped hit my clock and was off. I hit over 30 in that down hill run up to the first hill. I did not climb as fast as I should have but as I hit the bottom I saw a red blinker and I rode toward the light as hard as I could. On the down hills the light got a little dimmer and on the climbs it got brighter. The bike was really fast on the downhills it seemed to roll effortlessly. In the final stretch I came up on Dana and heard him shout encouragements and then finally came up on Ken at the end for a 10:01. Everyone seemed to have a great time. The 20mile warm up ride was just right. It was great to see so many yellow and green jerseys. We need to get one for Streak it's good for at least 30 seconds.

Had no preconceived ideas about my time but had a pretty good plan of attack, and was hoping that would get me into the mid 10's.

Despite wearing my cycling glasses I was trying so hard to get up to speed early that my eyes started to water and I nearly went off the road on the inside of the very first slight bend. Ratched back a notch after that.

Took the first stage of the first hill in big ring and dropped to little ring just in time for the steep section. Seemed to take forever to get up to speed after the top of the steep section but once I got rolling I started to feel a bit better and started to execute my strategy nicely for the rest of the course.

I was already starting to get glimses of Adam and Lauren and that really helped motivate me to push harder. Reelling them in was priority number one at this point. They were pretty allusive on the first two hills but I gained on them hard on the third hill.

By the time I got to the second to last hill all I could think of was PJ coming hard behind me with a big target on my back, that kept me motivated through to the finish.

The first time I looked at my watch was after stopping it.

Perfect way to start the stage race. It was great to have Mike Feeney out there at the finish line and such a good turn out of excellent cyclists to compete against.

Ryan

p.s. PJ you're going to have to get Erin to give Lauren some competition, it looks like Lauren has the women's race locked up, she needs some competition.

The plan was simple, ride at race pace and accept whatever time that gets me. Fast forward 1 minute....right lung has become dislodged and is firmly wedged in my throat and strings of drool are flapping from both sides of my mouth like streamers on a little girls handlebars. So much for setting a reasonable pace, man I hate these testosterone laced "fun" competitions. I mis-played the first hill and stayed big ring too long. Probably did not hurt the hill time, but caused an excertion way too deep into the red zone and may have hurt the rest of the effort. My goal was 9:50, I got 9:48, but it was way harder than I anticipated. That was it, all I had in me, could not have possibly gone any faster. Amazing how tight the results were, everybody was awesome. I would like to try this on Dan's bike to see if the Giant is holding me back at all, but I am pretty sure it was Dan making the bike look good, not the other way around.
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

Dan's Bike looked sweet!

P.S. I was happy to see everyone else coughing up a lung after the race, I was starting to think it was just me after a hard workout. :D

I was coughing all night and I never have that problem. It felt like a throat not a lung thing. Wonder if it was a heavy pollen night.

I coughed into the night as well, its like we were all standing around smoking cigarettes at the finish.

I was going to ask Brian if he big ringed the first hill, sounds like he did that same as me and waited too late to downshift. Also, I was told that coasting in a tuck was faster than pedalling down the hill as people we gaining on me, oh well

-- next task -- Sunapee Loop --

Is it the same course as the upcoming RR on Sat ? Hope to see a few there.

Ok here is my official timed report:

Woke up this morning thinking another day or two and maybe I could reach my potential, but today is the day so I'll give it another shot. Met Al, Joan, & Sandy in Sunapee, showed Sandy the finish line and then we rode over Jobs Creek in reverse to the start line. Joan held Sandy's bike for the start and Sandy was off. I'm thinking, "well I've rode with Sandy and Mike a couple of times and they should be about the same" so I thought as I casually gave Sandy a minute + head start. Al rode out with Sandy to give her some encouragement and to see what this was all about.

I'm off, hit 35 mph by the bottom of that first little hill, by the time I hit the top of the first hill I was already thinking, THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG PAINFULL AND SLOW RIDE! I could really crank on the flats and downhills but I was doing a lot of standing and still barely making it over the hills. By the time I approached the last hill coming into Grandleaden road I was thinking this middle is really putting a hurting on me... then it occurred to me I had not seen Sandy yet, "boy I am really terrible today" I thought. Shortly afterward, I got a glimpse of Sandy and Al and the race was back on.

It took me to the second to last hill to catch them. As I passed I wanted to say some words of encouragement to Sandy but there just wasn't enough air for that, sorry Sandy. Cresting the last hill before the finish I looked down and saw I was at 10:00 and thought, holly cow I better step on it if I want to break my previous time. Crossed the line with 10:26. I think I made up all 6 seconds in the last sprint to the finish.

Technically I rode WAY better last Wed but by shear will power I was able to go 6 seconds faster. Sandy was a big help. I burned way more energy on the hills this week and yet I'm pretty sure most of them where slower, but I was really able to put the hammer down on the flats and easy rollers, but it seemed like I was barely getting over the hills. I crested the second hill 3 mph faster this week but that was the exception.

Sandy totally blew my expectations away with a 12:02 and almost got away from me to boot, but that doesn't sound good enough for her, she mentioned giving it another shot, could be gunning for Loren's time. Happy I wasn't actually slower, it was Sandy who was MUCH faster then I expected.

Loren definately has some competition. Now where's that Erin Lovely, I'd really like to know what she could do it in, or... maybe not if she beats my time.

Ryan

I went up the first big hill and stood up at the top and then remembered Ryan's previous posting. Don't be too aggressive on the first part of the two tier hill and I sat down. The rest of the ride was smooth sailing compared to the beginning. When I reached Gran Lieden I knew it was almost over so I stepped it up a notch. My new bike was fast and furious with tires pumped to the max and fresh lube on the chain.

That was really fun! I was huffing and puffing the whole way! I'm still coughing! I was shocked that Ryan didn't pass me before he did. I think I need to do it at least one more time before posting my time. I had a nice ride but a little wobble at the end probably made the difference. I was trying to pass Al on the left and he kept inching closer to the middle of the road.

I was very happy with 12:02, but will try again this weekend. I'm sure I'll die on the long race, but will attempt that as well. Thanks for including me.

Sandy :lol:

Well done Sandy........That's a great time.

Remember the Lake Loop will have beer at the end....that can get you over any hill.

PJ

Thanks PJ. I will try it one more time to get a little faster.

The beer and food at the end of the ride is definitely incentive. Would love to see Erin there too at least for the festivities after the race.

See you Wednesday.

Sandy

Sandy, FYI Ken called me after I posted my time last night and said he is definately doing it again considering I beat his time by 2 seconds.

He plans on doing it Sat, not sure if you will be able to nail him down with a time but if you are looking for someone else to help push you Ken might be the guy.

Ryan

Well, there isn't much to say. I drove out to Jobs Creek and warmed up for about 10 minutes and I realized two horrible things before I even started. My legs feel horrible and there is a head wind. Great, what a day to retry. I started and was suffering before I even made it to the top of the first big hill. I wasn't able to do much tucking on the downhill because of the headwind, but I recovered as much as I could. I was able to sprint most hills but I could feel there wasn't much left in my legs. I came over the last hill and realized that I might be Rockboys time, but there was no chance of getting better than 10:10, so I pushed and was able to get 10:24.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Feeling under the weather on stage day, I coasted to an 11:07. After returning from Southern Cal, I attempted to complete the prologue on Sunday, but flatted, had everything but a valve adapter for the co2 cartridge. Decided to try today (Monday), but realized my rear tire was punctured with no spare parts. So I had to bite the bullet on this one. Several more stages to move up.

I added Nathan's time to the Prologue.

Ryan

I recieved a video of Nathans start via email. I must confess it was hardly a rolling start, more like almost stopped, tires barely rolling start, if you are so inclined I believe a 10:27 time will be official, it changes no standings, but penalizes him less due to a hasty comish without full evidence.


PJ

I was thinking more along the lines of 10:28 but have changed his time to 10:27 as per the judges decision.