Missing the Cut.
by Phil Gaimon
For the first article, I have been asked to summarize my 2007 season to provide an introduction and a starting point for future columns. How does one summarize an entire season? Simple: ups and downs, just life everything else. I rode for Sakonnet, a well-known amateur development team. We began the season with a training camp in my hometown (Gainesville, Florida), which led to a couple wins in local and collegiate races.
The first major races I did were during spring break, when I flew to California to race at Central Valley and Sequoia. These can be summarized in one word: mediocrity. The same goes for the rest of my spring, culminating with a 52nd-or-so overall finish at the Tour of Virginia, and a long drive back to school for final exams the next day.
A face like that should at least put me in the top thirty, right?
When the semester ended, the pendulum of success began to swing back into my favor, and I made a studly break of fifteen at the Tripeaks NRC stage race. I, of course, knew all the big teams were represented in the break, so I worked pretty hard to keep it going. However, I hadn’t realized the names (Baldwin, Menzies, Manion, Bajadali, etc.) until I crossed the finish line at the top of a mountain, some three minutes away from any significant group. I held on for 11th place that day, and finished the stage race 12th overall: easily the best result of my career at the time.
As summer heated up, I fell back into a downswing and a huge number of big crits (not my forte). I saw dramatic improvement in my crit riding from week to week, and got closer and closer to a decent result, and then we headed up to nationals for a completely different kind of racing. The courses in Seven Springs suited me, but with only two non-injured riders on my team, tactics were simple: watch Slipstream. Of course, they missed the 10-man break in the road race and refused to chase. With any hope of results going down the drain, I went on a desperate and ill-fated flyer, which at least set my teammate Guy East up for 12th. Three days later, the illustrious 12th place would be mine in the elite road race, after riding in way too many breaks on a 22-lb Shimano neutral bike.
Next on the race menu: Toona. The team rode well despite our weakened ranks, but didn’t have much hope for the GC until I made a very elite selection of 13 the second time over Blue Knob. Starting from pretty far back in the field, my SRM says I averaged 408 watts for 20 minutes (I weigh 148 lbs). After that, though, there’s a little glitch in my file: a couple minutes into the descent, my speed goes from 40 mph to 0. That was what someone rolled a tubular in front of me, and I ate pavement and slid under guardrail. At that point, I quit the race in favor of trying to rescue the guys from all of the chase groups from crashing into the neutral support cars, brilliantly parked in the hotline around a fast, sketchy bend. To continue with the food pun that began this paragraph, I’d like to ironically note that it was my upper thigh and lower butt that got cooked from road burn, which just completely healed last month (October). The only good news about Toona was that one of the Slipstream soigneurs gave me a huge box of bottles (used once) that they were going to throw away. One bathtub and two bleach tablets later, and I didn’t have to worry about where bottles would come from for the rest of the season. Just to ensure that I ate my heart out after this frustrating crash, I proved my great form two weeks later at a Georgia Cup race, where I attacked from the gun on a mountainous road race course and put over four minutes into a chasing peleton.
Soon, school started up again, with one more big race on the horizon: Univest. Sure enough, at my final hope for a result to cap the season, I awoke the morning of the main event to a headcold. I jumped in the early break of twelve, planning to get caught, quit, and say I did my job. Turns out the cold didn’t affect my legs, and the break stuck. After some nasty selections, I held on to the lead group of four guys, and finished a very amateur fourth. Then I found out I was actually seventh. Everyone who watched the race says it’s ridiculous, but somehow the officials were convinced that three riders closed down their 9 minute disadvantage, unlapped themselves on a 3.2 mile course (twice?) when we were averaging 24 mph, and beat me. Oh well, 7th and best young rider is still good, right?
The SlipstreamChipotle guys kept trying
to drop me, and never even offered a free burrito.
The season ended about a month later, when I finally got sick of staying in shape for races that kept getting cancelled. Right when I
needed a break from all things two wheeled, contract season began.
After my great ride at Univest, I was the man: sure to get a pro contract. Then three big teams folded and thirty riders (all better than me) were on the market. It got to a point that I would have signed a bar napkin with a
bicycle drawn on it in lipstick if it came from a pro team, but I eventually chose a very nice offer from top amateur team Fiordifrutta. I’ve now just finished a short vacation and gotten back on the bike. I’ll be in touch next month to bitch about how cold it is training here in Florida.
Until next time