I raced against Dave Zabriskie tonight

I don't know if I would say that I raced against him so much, but I started with him at least. Rolling out to the tuesday night crit I knew it was going to be brutal, Dave Z., Jeff Louder (Healthnet), and Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) were all there. Don't know what drew them all out today, but it was cool to see them all there.

Dave is actually a smaller guy than I had imagined him to be, pretty scrawny. Anyway, about 1/4 of the way into the race, Burke was out in front by about 200 yards, I decided I would try to bridge and close the gap. I made it about halfway, but couldn't close, the field wasn't necessarily closing on me at that point, but I decided to hold up and sit in for a while. At that point, Dave Z. flies by me like a freaking freight train with the field following him. I was able to get up to speed enough to fit into a gap and get on the train, but it was incredibly fast.

I made a point to get on his wheel a couple times just to say I did, so....I did. Anyway, he actually didn't win, probably because he had been riding for five hours that day and drove the field for a while. It ended with him, Burke, Jeff, and Dave Harward (the top cat 1 in Utah) in a break. Dave Harward got dropped, Burke went for the sprint too early, and Jeff edged Dave Z at the line. Unfortunately I didn't see any of it because I was still racing waaaay back in the field. I ended with a decent finish, but the highlight was definitely seeing Zabriskie out with the locals.

That's pretty damn cool!

In my shaved leg days I raced a lot of vancouver and victoria xc mountainbike races. Our earlier races we'd have guys like Andreas Hestler and Roland Green come out and remind us that despite all our shop jerseys and anodized purple parts that we were really just a bunch of hacks. One of the highlights of my racing was working over a little scrawny kid named Ryder Hesjedal when he was 15 or 16 or so. He's just a wee bit faster now.

I help with a bunch of mtb races and trail work in North Van. Two of the races we ran last year we had andrew shandro and wade simmons out. This year apparently Andreas is coming out and we're trying to talk Mark Weir into riding too.

Pretty cool to see the big boys up close and in person. Puts things in perspective pretty quick. I remember my first Durango Wheel Club ride in that way. Rolling out of town we get to the first short steep climb. I'm on Ned Overend's wheel with Bob Roll and John Tomac behind me. I think I hung for 30 seconds before being spat out the back and enjoying a nice 50 mile solo. Good times, good times.

Cool. Ya shoulda thown a stick in his wheel. :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by truth

Pretty cool to see the big boys up close and in person. Puts things in perspective pretty quick. I remember my first Durango Wheel Club ride in that way. Rolling out of town we get to the first short steep climb. I'm on Ned Overend's wheel with Bob Roll and John Tomac behind me. I think I hung for 30 seconds before being spat out the back and enjoying a nice 50 mile solo. Good times, good times.

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I rode in the same field as Ned Overend in the cactus cup in whistler. That was the year they laid the course through the shopping malls. The retailers didn't like that and the race died due to lack of local support. I remember ned lapping me and just for a lark i thought I'd try to keep up. I had to click 2 gears up just to match his speed and was blown out pretty quick. Hell of a nice guy - really classy friendly person.

Nice. The wells ave training crits usually have some big guns show up, McCormack(sometimes both of them) and a few other USPro riders. Same goes for early season "open" cross races in new england.

you didn't test his bike handling skills, did ya?

jk of course, that dude has been more than unlucky in his day. right now all the ex-posties are pretty much ruling the world (boonen, landis, zz, etc)

Ahhh, the Tuesday night world cup at Rocky Mountain Raceway. Good times. I used to race out there in the B Flite every week. It was always amazing to see Jeff, Z, Burke, and all the other superstars race against the local hardmen.
I haven't raced in two years, but I have to admit I miss the Tuesday night races. Maybe I'll go out and get my ass kicked in the C-Flite next week.

Good on ya, that is a serious wheel to latch onto.

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Originally Posted by ulty_guy

you didn't test his bike handling skills, did ya?

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Actually, he was near a potential crash a few wheels in front of me. I'm not sure what happened, someone came out of a pedal or something. He swung wayyyy out to get away from all the action for a minute after that.

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Originally Posted by JoshP

Good on ya, that is a serious wheel to latch onto.

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Thanks, mind you, it wasn't for very long though and it was only during his warm up - which I'm sure was the whole race.

Dave Z and Marty Jemison will be speaking at the U 4/13, It will be free, see this thread: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=49971

riding with the big boys totally put things in perspective (as Truth said)....my buddy and I jumped on a Postal training ride in Marin 2 yrs back (before SF Grand Prix) and I was sucking Big George's wheel for a few miles (mind you, they were just out spinning, getting junk outta their legs ona 30 miler) and was blown away when they decided to up the pace a bit...see ya (me)! those dudes are just so strong....

cool story TP. Its sweet to play with the pros and see wh they are that good. I wouldn't even pretend, i would just walk up with all my gear on touch him on the shoulder and put my stuff away and go home :)

:fm: :fm: :fm: