Jordan's First Opus, a Crash, and My First Points in 6 Years

The summary data from my Garmin is pretty telling. 19 miles @ average speed 26.8mph, average heart rate 163. You want speed work, come to Tuesday night worlds.

Jordan was bugging me to race at Opus last week, so I offered to take him this week. His only option is to race Cat 5. He got gapped big time right off the start, but chased back on in an impressive effort. Then on the 2nd lap, going down the hill, a couple of riders tangled and went down. Jordan was at the back with me following, and I yelled for him to hit the brakes. He scrubbed most of his speed, but managed to nail one of the guys on the ground, right in the ankle, and down he went. He quick got up, and said "I'm OK, let's go." I put his chain back on, and he was off. Wow. He rode the rest of the race mostly alone, and finished strong. Lots of people were cheering for him, and that was much appreciated. After the race, I checked his wounds. He scraped up his left knee pretty good, and cut his left hand a bit. Then we proceeded to go out and do a 20 mile ride with Treb to warm up for the 1/2/3 race. What a tough kid. Thanks to All the Way Ray for the picture and write-up. What a funny guy.


We had a great crew in the 1/2/3's with Donimator, Skibby, Treb, Patrick, Cleary, Baker, Kullman, myself, and a couple others. The start was pretty tame, so I did my typical 1st lap attack the first time up the hill. I was hoping do draw someone out, but ended up alone, and sat-up. I rolled around for a few laps to recover, and then saw Patrick and Baker in good position for the 2nd sprint, so I pulled for most of the bell lap to try and set them up. I think Patrick scored some points in that one.

After recovering for a few laps, I did the same thing for another sprint lap. This time Patrick was on my wheel, and I jumped a little too hard, gapped him, and left him on the front way too early. Somehow, he held on for 2nd. I am still baffled how he pulled that off.

A few more recovery laps, and then I moved into position to make sure nothing got away on the penultimate sprint, like last week. As we went down the hill after the sprint, I noticed Casper making a move. I jumped on his wheel, and away we went. No one chased, and Treb and Patrick moved to the front to try and block a bit. Casper and I shared the work, and our gap grew. We didn't expect Grandstay to chase, but I was a bit baffled why GP was being so patient. I guess, they felt they could close the gap quickly on the last lap. Sure enough, Treb hears someone tell Hanna to start pulling it back headed up the hill to get the bell. As Casper and I approach the traffic island, our gap still looks good, and I start to think we outfoxed them. Since I led down the hill, Casper took over at the island, and pulled to the corner. I'm thinking we are simply going to sprint it out between the 2 of us. Then Casper yells "You ready? You better go now!" I punch it from the corner. I take a peek back, and they are closing in fast. I dig as deep as I can, but Doug and Eric both catch me with room to spare. I did hang on for 3rd, giving me my first points at Opus since 2001. They may be 2 measly points, but I'll take them, thank you.


You can see in the graph how my heart rate fluctuates in sync with the elevation, with notable exceptions on my first lap attack, and my 2 lead out efforts. You can also clearly see my heart rate ramp up during the last 3 laps while I was off with Casper, culminating in my max heart rate of 186 in the sprint.

Afterwards, we hit the Scoreboard again, this time with Treb, Donimator, and Skibby. Jordan got to ride in Donimator's pimped out Hummer. Jordan loves hangin' with the guys.