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Thursday, June 18, 2009Giro di JerseyPeeps update from Jersey! The crit was a sweet downtown circuit that was sure to have a good atmosphere till the rain clouds rolled in and drove the crowds away. Thankfully the rain didn't come till after the finish as it would have been treacherous with all the road paint. As it was the course was only 0.46 miles long and people were being lapped within THREE laps. It seemed as though most of the officials had never officiated a crit before as they refused to pull riders who had been lapped multiple time even when they were causing crashed almost every five laps trying to get back in. After bridging to a break with Eric Schildge and ripping it for three or four laps that seemed promising (1 Colivita guy, 2 Emprie riders, James Carney, Dugan and Eric and I) I didn't have the legs to position myself for the sprint but finished with the main field. I have no idea why but the Colivita and Empire trio decided that they didn't want the break to work and slowed it so effectively that the field came up to us in relatively short order despite Eric's Dugan's and my efforts to get it away. Some time this week it will work! Within 30 minutes of the end of the crit is started to rain and has not let up since. Thursday: It raining so FREAKIN' hard here that the stage was cancelled today! We were called to the line for our 9am start and proceeded to sit on the line in the pouring rain for 40 minutes while we waited for the State Police to show up who were supposed to be there at 830am. Eric Schildge and I were the wisest of the bunch and commandeered the COMM 1 car and blasted the heat while everyone else stood out in the rain or under the one lone tree. Before we jumped in the car it was announced that the first lap (12 miles) would be neutral because the race was so dangerous we needed to see it before racing. So finally at 940 am we set off for our neutral lap. No more than 4 miles in came the "downhill that would be epic and extremely dangerous in dry conditions", it definitely would have been fun to race on but it was not to be. The road was bleeding so much oil that a touch of the brakes meant riders were going down as they did. I believe that METLIFE can claim the first casualty of the day. The race was stopped in the feed zone to have a rider meeting which was interrupted by the head official who "made and executive decision" to cancel the stage. I personally would have enjoyed the race as I had nothing to worry about with my Michelin Pro 3 tires that felt like they were glued to the road but oh well no race today. Tomorrow is the ITT, a 12 mile out and back (six out six back) in the rain again, that I will be going for cannibal and hope to better my CSR result! Later.
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