In Which It Is About A Million Degrees Warmer For The Navy Weekend Than The Year Prior

Do you guys remember last year's Navy weekend? Where it was snowing while our first guys were warming up for the TT? And everybody was miserable for the crit? It was SO COLD.

Well, this year's crit was a little bit warmer. Not much, but enough to make a difference. The TT, however, saw the sun coming out and temperatures hitting a downright balmy 60+. Seriously, it got hot.

Without further ado, a summary of our efforts:

NAVAL ACADEMY CRITERIUM MADNESS

Matt looks around pensively

-Josh and John in the Ds. The pair did some (hush falls over the room) attacking! Our D racers are growing up. John thinks he could have attacked harder, and expressed surprise that people would try to dive-bomb the hairpin turn in the Ds. Josh seemed to really enjoy himself, as well - he made it into the front group despite staying in his small ring the whole race (with the team yelling at him to shift up) and managed a 6th place finish. John finished 9th.

Andrew fights the gorilla

-Andrew in the Cs, who described his effort as "a poor showing." His "poor showing" still netted a top 20 finish, though he expressed that his fitness right now lacks a "pointy end" for following accelerations.

Nick looks over the effects of his post-crash attack

-In the Bs, we had Nick and (sort of) Nate, our Notre Dame guest rider/tagalong. Nate "caught a huge case of stupid" and found himself at the back, where he soon fell victim to the relentless accordioning of the pack on the narrow course. Despite a strong "TTT effort" with Chris from Georgetown and a few other riders, Nate got pulled about halfway through the race. Also about halfway through the race, Nick, who had been working his way up through the pack, "got involved in an incident" wherein another rider hooked his bars and he crashed spectacularly. Fortunately, he got back up mostly unscathed, and was able to muscle his way to a 7th place finish.

Trina soaks it in

-Last for the day was Trina, competing in her first race ever, in the Women's C! She had fun, and said it was really hard. However, with the team cheering her on, she was able to outsprint her race-mate and finish 4th!

The team decamped to their own homes for the evening, to return with a vengeance for the time trial the next day, though not before stopping for burritos in scenic Annapolis.

THROW YOURSELF AGAINST THE WALL TIME TRIAL INSANITY

More GW riders lacing up for the time trial. EVERYONE, without fail, cited the awesomeness of the "SHUT UP LEGS" chalked on the road about 2km from the finish line. We don't know who did it, but we thank you. It helped everybody.
-Trina apparently was not dissuaded by one day of pain, and came out for the time trial, riding to 5th place!
-Josh steps up for his first time trial and claims to hate it - but ends up finishing 8th in the Ds, the highest-placed GW D rider.
-John hammers for 3 1/2 miles and then drops his chain, and loses 90 seconds to it. Finishes 9th but feels he could've done better absent his chainsplosion.
-Ben discovers his dislike/hate for hills as he rides to 12th. He swears to be ready to do many hill repeats in Rock Creek Park.
-Andrew puts his grind-it-out fitness to good use, riding ("hammering long and hammering hard") to 11th in the Cs and his best finish so far this year. He promises "major renovations to the pain cave."
-Catherine makes an appearance in Women's A, pedaling hard but "not hard enough" as she rides to 2nd. She pulls a "Rich" and tastes her breakfast a few times along the way.
-Nate is the first B rider out of the gate, thanks to his status as a new out-of-conference dude. He uses the VT girl who started in front of him as a rabbit to ride to 12th, earning some points. Then on the way home we introduce him to Sleigh Bells, which has been rocking our faces off in car rides for months already.
-Nick listens to his legs, feels the sensations, and pedals a supple cadence in riding to 4th, completely blocking out the yelling of his teammates at the finish line and the snot, sweat, and drool running off his face.

Following the race, the team restocked the pain cave with some Mexican food on the way home, in preparation for next week's visits to it at Duke.

Ready, set, ride. Weather is predicted nice for most of the rest of the week - get out and enjoy it!