suck it up buttercup

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the power of the mind. the importance of the attitude and all that. that is what the race on sunday has me thinking about right now. on my 4 hour drive home sunday i found myself wishing you could go to the bikeshop and buy a good race attitude. you would find it between the water bottles and training magazines/books. you could take it like a gel or chew it like energy chews. within 15 minutes you would feel like you could overtake any obstacle be it course related, weather, other riders... anything would be under the power of you attitudinal outlook.

if i would have has this attitude gel on sunday at the Maplelag race i would have put it in my back jersey pocket before starting. i started the race feeling good. i started about third row because it is a stage race and quite a few guys got called up before me because they had been there for the two stage events the day before (a time trial and a crit).

i was next to Paul C at the "go!!" and i kept him in site in hopes of working together. the course had a nice long double track before the single track and speeds were up there. as the single track approached Paul and I were behind one guy. Paul said "lets go" and moved around him to take the holeshot. i wasn't as aggresive because i thought we would all move through the single track at a good rate and maybe even get into a group of three to five. in the single track i could see that Paul was pulling away and the guy ahead of me wasn't moving through the single track like i thought he would. i asked to be let by and got no response. asked again and was told a "opening was coming up". lots of passable spots went buy as Paul got out of sight. we did eventually get to the opening but i didn't have a pass in me. this guy was fast in the openings and i couldn't get by. this is where i would have taken the mythical attitude shot. it is something to learn from but i allowed this to break my focus. i was so frustrated with the guy not allowing a faster single track rider by that i let it bother me enough to take the wind out of my mental sail. so much so that this guy also got away.

with the proper outlook i would have shaken this off and rode with this guy. he did in fact end up being the overall winner and by over 2 minutes. the takeway is humbling. i can't make another rider do unto others what i would do. suck up the slight and ride with him. he will either be good to ride with or the pass will eventually come. if i could have done that i would have had more fun and a better final time.

it is bitter sweet but it is one of the things i love about this sport. i am still learning and will be for a long time.

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