« CSC Training Camp Day II | Main | CSC Training Camp Day IV »
February 25, 2007
CSC Training Camp Day III
Day three found me looking for some bigger hills. The past two days had some rollers and a few short and steep efforts, but I wanted something that would take 20+ minutes to climb if not longer. I also wanted something that would let me descend at over 40 mph. The usual crowd gathered just after breakfast and we headed to the hills. The night before I had hopped onto Google Maps with the satellite image turned on to scout some hills. What I had scouted turned out to be decent roads and good hills. After about 8 miles of riding, the road turned up. The climb probably was around 6% and had two great u-turn bends in the road before topping out. It was about a 20 minute effort and Kevin pushed a strong temp pace for me. After coming over the top we descended and climbed through a canyon road for a few more miles. We then had to turn around to amke it back to the hotel to head out with the team.
When we got back to the hotel, we had about an hour of down time before we ended up heading back out. That was the bummer, but the course was good. We ended going back to the same hills we rode in the morning, just doing the reverse direction. We ended up climbing a better hill to the top, that was a bit longer and steeper. What was ironic was to see the likes of Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck pushing up guests faster than I could ride up the hill. What would happen is that Carlos/Frank would put their hand on the lower back of the guest rider and start pedaling a bit harder. The guest rider would start to get up the hill a bit easier and Frank/Carlos got a better workout. About half way up the hill, I struck up a conversation with Carlos. He is a very friendly guy and though quiet will always answer your question. What amazed me was I was working pretty hard up this hill and Carlos did not seem to be exerting himself at all. I don't even think he was sweating. After we topped the climb it was a pretty long descent with some rolling hills mixed in. We ended up decending the steep climb we did in the morning, coming around the u-turns was fun. It makes you appreciate the long descents these riders due during the tour.
As I came off the hill, I was out in front with just two other guys including Frank Schleck. All of the sudden another rider came up to say there was a crash. As we all turned around, a guest rider ran into Schleck almost making him fall, Frank held his line and then we all turned around to give assistance. When we got to the crash scene, the downed rider was a guy from Zipp Wheels, the engineer to be exact. He was pretty scraped up, but ended up getting back on the bike to finish the ride.
We all got back on our bikes and met up with the other group a couple of us decided to turn around and ride the same rode in reverse again (I was getting to know these roads well!). One of the guys in our group was Brian Walton, an ex-pro who rode on the notorious 7-11 Team with the likes of Sean Yates, Bob Roll, Norm Alvis, Eric Heiden, Alex Stieda, and Frankie Andreu. From 7-11, Brian became a teammate to Lance Armstrong with Team Motorola, and subsequently went on to be the team leader for Team Saturn. Brian was a great guy and led us on the way back to the hotel. As we hit the first climb on the way back (the same one the other rider crashed on) my legs just gave up. I ended up just riding up on my own pace, about 90 seconds behind the leaders. We all got back on at the top and stayed together. We had one more big climb to go and we pace lined it up to the top. We pushed a hard pace, taking 15 - 20 sec. pulls. It was amazing to really see the benefit of team work. On the descent down I was following Brian and a few other 'bombers' trying to keep myself up right. I ended up crossing over the yellow line and my back wheel hit one of those famous California in road reflectors. My back wheel skipped across the road, but I kept upright and continued down the hill. At the bottom, the road stretchout pancake flat for about a mile. The three guys off the front turned it up a notch and I tried to hang on. We were pushing over 40 mph and the group kept accelerating. I just couldn't hold it. We hit a stop sign and then made a relaxed pace back to the hotel. This was probable the most fun ride of the week so far. My legs ached and I was tired, but I had a huge smile on my face.
Back at lunch Kevin and I and a guy from Zipp were talking about heading out for a 100 + miler the next day. We wanted to hit some good hills and head to the ocean at the same time. A local rider by the name of Ian (I think that is right) gave us some great pointers and I went up to my room and pulled up google maps. I ended up jumping in my rental car and driving most of the route that afternoon/evening. The roads were classic, narrow and through the trees with some great climbing and fast descents. One climb, through Eureka Canyon was going to surpass an hour, but once you got to the top it was a 12 mile drop to the ocean. I was excited and nervous as I had not ridden a 100 miles for a year and I already had some crazy miles in my legs. I went to bed early that night dreaming of a great day in the saddle.
Posted by kermisch at February 25, 2007 4:13 PM