Wednesday, February 23, 2005

I think I'm just going to take the day off. It's all part of special preparation for Froze Toes.

Background: Despite ignoring this section for a while I had not forgotten about its existence.

After several years of consideration I took the plunge into racing during the Labor Day weekend of '92 at the Greentree Crit in Kirkwood Park. I rode to the race from home decked out in T-shirt, tennis shoes, pedals with straps and visions of winning my first race. I still remember being assigned number 711 for my Citizens race. Surely 711 was a lucky number since 7-11 was the premier US-based team in cycling at the time. Victory was assured.

Instead I got a bad start and crashed only a few hundred feet from the start trying to avoid another accident. I hopped back on the bike, startled but unharmed, and fought valiantly to limit my losses. Still I got lapped a couple times as I recall. The fact of the matter is I sucked. Not just in this race, but in general and I just didn't realize it.

I had visions of grandeur in my mind and an over-inflated view of my talent. Despite my crushing defeat, my stubborn refusal to face reality was still intact. "If only I hadn't crashed I could have stayed with others", I told myself. And so began my racing "career"...

News Item of the Day: As had been expected, T-Mobile Team announced today that Jan Ullrich would skip the Tour of Murcia the beginning of March, and instead would start his season an entire month later, in the Circuit de la Sarthe. Ullrich had been training in Lucca in Tuscany, but a bad cold cost him a week's training, and snow sent him home early. He is currently at home in Scherzingen, Switzerland, but will return to Tuscany on Sunday for another three weeks of training, accompanied by his personal advisor Rudy Pevenage.

TMO team doctor Lothar Heinrich said, "Right now it doesn't make much sense for Jan to ride such an intensive race as Murcia. The aim right now is the intensive build up of his ground conditioning - that is the basis of a successful season."

Viewpoint: Ol' Jan spends every winter in South Africa and then moves to southern Italy so he stays healthy. Yet every year he seems to get sick. Is it my imagination?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home