« Swimming Dizzy! | Main | More Cycling, More Swimming »
August 1, 2006
Bringin' It!
So Coach J loves to say "bringin' it". As in..."you better be bringin' it up at the track tomorrow" or "Eric was really bringin' it today", etc... You'd really have to know him to appreciate it but it's really become my favorite saying. Although I'm not into cocky athletes and putting on a big show - I pretty much keep my mouth shut at the track and don't say a word - there is something about the attitude cyclists have that I really love. They are arrogant no doubt. It's such a big difference from just about every runner I've ever known. Not that runners aren't confident, but it's more a quiet confidence. Anyway, I'm really not sure what I'm babbling on about or what my point is other than the fact that tonight when I was riding in the crit I was thinking "bring it!" :)
The short story is - I won my first crit! It was a hard fought battle and I'll have to admit, as quiet as I like to be I was pretty pumped to win.
The long story is - 3 laps into the race I took off and my teammate K and another girl S came with me. We broke away immediately and the rest of the field let us do it. We took turns pulling the entire race and eventually lapped the field. It was a hot day (95 degrees and HUMID!) and I don't think the rest of the pack wanted to work because of it. I felt like hammering. I always feel like hammering on the bike though. So hammer we did. Trouble is we got a little messed up when we lapped the field with about 6 laps to go because they all came with us. And then our nice little system of taking turns leading got screwed up. At this point Coach J was just yelling for us to settle in the pack and get on someone's wheel and that was exactly what I did. No more working until the sprint! The interesting thing about these crits is that when someone gets lapped they just jump in with the rest of the field...and will eventually go a lap short, very unlike running. Regardless this meant that when it was time to sprint the whole field would be sprinting, not just the 3 of us that were ahead. So one lap to go and people are getting antsy and I'm real anxious but stay put. On the backstretch people start to go a little, again I wait. Coming around the final turn though I just went as hard as I could - big gear and turn those pedals over fast! Bringin' it! And somehow I ended up winning and K was 2nd. I was just so thrilled that after 5 or 6 races of getting outsprinted or out-ridden we finally did well.
So now the mark will be on our back. I'm guessing the field won't let us get away now. Plus the field was smaller today and I'm sure that played a role in them not bridging the gap up to us. Regardless, if I can keep riding hard like that I won't worry too much about winning, just about getting in that hard effort that makes 20 MPH in a tri feel much easier!
Good night all!
Posted by beth at August 1, 2006 10:47 PM
Comments
Wow, congrats Beth, you are an animal! Sounds like a blast, and also that cycling allows you to indulge your competitive spirit.
Posted by: dawn at August 2, 2006 1:08 AM
Congratulations! Tour de France here we go!
Posted by: Nadine at August 2, 2006 9:14 AM
wooo whooo.... great job.... way to use teamwork....
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at August 2, 2006 9:23 AM
So as I read I am imagining a tough mom looking out on the door step, and the kids are out playing and rolling in the grass, and she says... "Y'all better be bringin it for dinner pronto!" So they look quizically at each other and say: "Bringin what Mom?" And then the story starts... Nice tactics, nice win! :-)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at August 3, 2006 4:33 AM