battenkill epilogue

Some thoughts from Battenkill, again in brief, we just finished the drive from upstate NY to Cleveland and I am once again crashing ….

--Rytlewski is a scary, scary little man when he gets going fast.
--Kenda is a really sweet team, we had a fantastic weekend.
--I learned that I can be at the front with the best in the US for a long time… but still have a little physical work to do.
--Dirt is fun!
--I’m apparently a climber.
--the mainstream cycling media is not giving us a lot of love at the moment… but they will soon. I think my buddy Geraint said it well in a comment here on my journal, “The caption should read- BVDG leading the bunch.....” when speaking about the cyclingnews.com photo… It’s all good really, it just irks the team a little bit to not get our sponsors the exposure we deserve –and they pay for—when we are at or ON the front of a very prestigious race, in all these photos… and it just says, “the field” or gives props to the guy right next to me who is ALSO on the front. But that’s the way it goes! As a cycling journalist, they need to write what people will respond to, and in this particular instance, the other guy on the front is Tim Johnson, who is really well known, respected and super fast… So as our team director put it, “use it, fuel for the fire.” And that’s just what we’ll do. It’s a year long battle for legitimacy for us, we have already earned our place in amongst our peers- the other professionals in the bunch- who no longer try to push us out of the way when we get to the front but simply let us do our jobs as they would any other pro, now we just have to get our luck sorted out a little better and get the results that will earn us the respect of the mainstream media! Hopefully soon when your reading about a race it won’t say, “random dude suffering like hell, and about to get crushed” but rather, “BVDG hurting people” or something of the sort. Below are some links of photos of us guys in the race, you can point me out by the ruby red shoes, there are a good few Jake right where he’s supposed to be, in my gigantic draft saving his energy for the finale!

http://velonews.com/photo/90966

http://velonews.com/photo/90974

http://velonews.com/photo/90961

http://velonews.com/photo/90973

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2009/apr09/battenkill09/battenkill092/23

If the weekend showed me anything its that I am on good form. My confidence is good, now I just need to start creating situations where I can use my strengths and not just wait for the race to unfold around me. Time for some rest, some more rest tommorow... a bit of speed work on then off to Athens twilight!!! I love that race and can't wait to do my first big crit of the season.