Readington War
BY KENNETH LUNDGREN
Well, here it is… Last week went very well. Had a sweet session on the TT bike, then a hard day on the PowerCranks… On SAT, I lead a successful Elite Endurance group ride, 55+ miles, lotsa Tempo, nothing severe…
As planned, the ride was excellent prep for the following day’s Kingwood 36k TT, which I won. Legs were feeling very good there, just let ‘er rip.
Then… I got sick. Blick. When the form gets up there, my immune system just goes to sleep, as do most. I went to Princeton post-Kingwood to see my new girlfriend, and she was sick, and of course by Monday afternoon I felt unusually sluggish, then TUE morning WRECKED with a sore throat. Was all drugged up for two days, then the sore throat went away today but I’m still feeling so very empty…
Learn from me, people: next time they ask, say NO 🙂
This week, though, I haven’t been overly stressing. Recovery Week on tap, and although I haven’t been able to ride much, there are worse things in life. I rode the TT bike LIGHTLY today, first ride of the week, and the legs feel empty. Plan to do a very light PowerCrank workout tomorrow, too… Feel crappy now. But I know the legs can bounce back immediately if I rest correctly… Being dead now does not necessarily mean feeling dead on SAT morning… Just gotta stay smart and positive…
Readington looks to be a war. It’s so short, riders are rarely caught, and there are some very fast guys here… It’s arguably the most violent effort of the year…
The names I recognize: Andreas Runggatscher, who works with Roger, was blitzing TTs last year. Will be nice to race against him for the first time.
Mike Rosenhaus, a teammate of mine, was National Junior Pursuit Champ back in the day. He has that Cervelo DIALED IN and is really at home in these efforts. Did I mention Pursuit Champ? He can motor, smashed the State TT in 52 and change after only being on that bike for 2 weeks…
Lisban Quintero of Foundation, probably the best road racer in our region. The dude, a Cat-1, just wins everything. I SMOKED the Giro di Jersey TT a few years ago, and Lisban, NOT a TT specialist, came in a few seconds ahead of me. So this kid can go, and I’m very interested in seeing how violent he can get on Saturday morning… He might be #1 dog for the overall victory…
David Freifelder. The guy is big and strong and fast. Just scary-looking on a bike. He won Sandy Hook. Just like Sandy Hook, he goes 30s in front of me. I was gaining on him to that turnaround, and then he put time into me in impressive fashion and won the overall hands down (while 2nd-6th were all very close). And he already said he looks to race again at Readington, so you know he’s amped to race. (*censored*)(*censored*)(*censored*)(*censored*)! 🙂
Right behind me is Jason Walters, another super all-around talent. We run similar times on this course, so it’ll be interesting seeing where we all are at that turnaround. I get the feeling that we’re gonna see some BIG things from Jason later in the year… Perhaps he’s biding his time…
I really think Fritz is going to rip this course, too, certainly put sizeable time into me (I’m guessing 11s!!!). I actually think Fritz might come close to winning the overall race!!!
As for myself, I really don’t know what to expect. Readington is just too damn short. All of my TT training has been virtually the opposite of this… Kingwood on SUN was the first time to really show what I’ve been doing in training thus far… Cape May, too — blah, too short. But with Somerset (an event I want to win again — let’s go, Freifelder! 🙂 ) and Jersey Shore, I’ll feel more at home and more confident that I’ll actually be able to perform to my potential…
My crystal ball hasn’t been too far off yet this year… If I can eke out a 5th, I’ll be a happy bike rider. 🙂 It’ll be scary in that I really won’t know how I’ll feel until I jump off the line… Eh, makes things more exciting!
Thanks for reading and I’m sure I’ll see many of you on SAT.
NOTE: I’m having a small party at my apartment SAT night, watching the two HBO fights (Kelly Pavlik is fighting — I’m writing a book on him, and if you’ve never seen him fight, here’s your chance!!!), having steaks and a few beers (and waters, lol), then am racing the BTCNJ Long Meadow TT on Sunday… If any of y’all want to head over on SAT night, just shoot me an e-mail or PM…
