Cherry Picking The Competition
via Kottke.org…A Wall Street Journal article about athletes who work hard at winning trophies. They don’t train hard running or biking, but searching online and gauging the competition. ASome athletes are going to smaller lesser known races to win a trophy. They carpetbag the smaller events in order to win. Watching where your competitors go like Lance used to monitor Jan Ullrich’s moves is a key component to training for the weekend warrior.
I have not gotten that desperate yet, but viewing my results on the USA Cycling site shows that maybe I should scout out smaller races with easier competitors to pad my palmares. Maybe I could tackle the Syracuse Kids Race next year. Those tots won’t know what’s coming when I swoop in an take the win. Don’t go crying to your mommy when I hoist the ribbon…oh, sorry I forgot everyone gets a ribbon at the kids race. Damn.
what’s going on man.
After reading this article I thought I could utilize the strategy to win the Giro of Otisco Lake, but it didn’t work! I knew I was in trouble when I saw owaco vello club, and chris cookie jerseys everywhere. There was a ton of serious riders. From OCC it was me, Bill Stitler and Mark Roemer. I think Mark got 6th and Bill was in the teens somewhere. Churchhill is so steep. Today was my first time riding up it and I was amazed at how hard it was. I ended up with 11th, which was a surprise. It was a strong pack of around 40 riders going all the way around the lake. Everyone said the turn into the climb would be hairy. So I sat in the back going into the turn before the climb. Since winning was impossible, I decided to just try to find a rhythm and get to the top. With my “wimpy” triple I was able to pass a bunch or riders who were working hard just to turn the pedals over. What a crazy race. I realized as we turned full speed from rt174 onto otisco valley road that there were no course marshall. It really was poorly run, but a good workout.
See you at the club rides,
Rich