I wasn't crazy when I told you Florida racing is hard

From cyclingnews:

American athlete accepts suspension

Cyclist Ricardo Hernandez of Miami, Florida, accepted a two-year suspension after testing positive for a prohibited substance according to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Hernandez, 42, tested positive for exogenous testosterone, an anabolic agent, which is prohibited under the USADA Protocol and the rules of the UCI. His suspension took effect September 15, 2008, the date of his acceptance. Hernandez was disqualified from all competitive results achieved on and subsequent to March 2, 2008, the date his urine sample was collected at the Vuelta Independencia National, including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes.

I had to race this dude every weekend down here. He was really good. He has friends that are also really good. For the record, I still crushed him in time trials.

Another New Team

When I signed to Time last month, it looked like the best move. Other directors didn't have their sponsors together yet and were not signing new riders, and Time gave me a nice offer, showing that they believed in me. The only problem was that they wanted an early decision from me so they could announce their final roster on cyclingnews. The way the market was, I understood that they didn't want to be stalled, so I pulled the trigger.

I was looking forward to doing Philly week and the Tour of PA next year, until I got the call from Jelly Belly. Since they're more established, Jelly Belly gets to do races like the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia. They were interested in me, and I couldn't pass them up.

Like the professional development team they are, Time understood my opportunity, tried to convince me to stay with them, but accepted my choice to ride for Jelly Belly instead. We had some good discussions, and I was happy to get out of my contract with them without burning any bridges, because Time is an up-and-coming team, likely to be in about the same place as Jelly Belly in a few years.

The funny thing about this is that Time already put their roster on cyclingnews, so I'll get announced on two team rosters once Jelly Belly finalizes. So here's an idea: my contract with Jelly Belly will go in the mail today, so I have time to sign to two or three other teams, get them announced on cyclingnews, and then be released as well. I'm going for a record here. Let me know if you're interested in having me on your team for a few hours.

Thing I Learned at Elite Track National Championships

1. I'm not a track racer.
2. No matter how fit you are, it’s hard to compete with the nerds that have been focusing on track racing all year.
3. No matter how close you are to lapping the field, you can’t rely on anyone to take their fucking pulls.
4. Everyone brings a road bike, because they’re too lazy to walk the 60 feet to the bathrooms.
5. Bigger gear is not equal to faster speed.
6. It’s easy to be one of the top 15 track endurance riders in the country, but really hard to be in the top 5.
7. The races are only 4-45 minutes long, but they still ruin your whole day.
8. I will always feel bad ass bumping shoulders and butting heads with a disc wheel and a trispoke on my bike, like I’m such a high roller I don’t care if I break one.
9. Track racing looks easy to a roadie, and it is at the local level, but track nationals ain’t no joke.
10. Colby Pearce knows what he’s talking about.
11. There is no draft behind Colby.

So here’s a summary of the races. My first was the scratch race qualifier. There were two heats, and only twelve out of thirty or so in each would qualify for the finals the next day. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any trouble in this race. I took some fliers to wear out the field, jumped into a few breaks, and found one that lapped the field. Once I got the lap, I knew I’d qualified, so I sat on the back and waited for it to end.

The next race was the individual pursuit. I didn’t know if I should register for this one, because a 4k race really isn’t my style. I came all the way out here, so I figured why the hell not. The problem with pursuiting is that these guys have it down to a science. There are rules for everything, from the perfect start technique, to how long to sprint to get up to speed, how much to shake your bike during that sprint, where you are on the track when you sit down and get in the aerobars, how long you want each lap to take, and 1000 other things, all of which I had to memorize because I’d never done the race before and never bothered practiced it. I felt good in the race, but I didn’t go that fast, and I don’t really know why, which confirms what I already knew: I wasn’t prepared for the pursuit at all. Unfortunately, the way I raced it wasn’t even good enough to gauge if I have any talent in the discipline. I’ll have to try it a few times on a track in training and decide.

Last was the points race. Again, I didn’t have much trouble qualifying for the finals. I won a couple sprints, and only a small group lapped the field, so I didn’t stress.

The finals were a different story. I decided to be conservative and wait for the move that looked like it would actually stick. I saw the move forming, and I went for it, but I didn’t have the snap to get up there. Five guys got away in that group, including Colby Pearce (my coach) and Kirk O’Bee (Healthnet). I continued to race my race, but couldn’t get away for long enough to win a sprint lap, and never got much more than a half-lap lead, when lapping the field was my only hope for a top-5 result. Once Colby got his lap, there were 30 guys in the race, and maybe 3 with any hope of winning. At that point, the best I could have done was 12^th or so, so I decided to just do what I could to make sure Colby won. At least that would give me something to do. So, I attacked once with Colby, which forced Healthnet to chase and wear themselves out, and eventually set Colby up to get away again, this time without Kirk O’Bee. He lapped the field solo this time, pretty much sealing the victory. After that, I kept attacking to keep the race hard (and prevent anyone from lapping again), but the race was basically over. So, Colby raped the national championship by a silly margin, which is pretty awesome for a nice guy and great bike racer who’s about to retire.

Overall, track nationals was a good trip. It’s nice to have some hard training this time of year, when most guys are done racing but it’s hard to get motivated and start working on next season. I’ll never be a track racer, but I was a factor in these races, which is close enough for a damn climber. Next time I’ll know what to expect and have a little more time to prepare and train.

Now I head home, and take time off the bike for real.