What happened to Eli?
Well...Eli "It's all good" Robinson missed the "bus" to the TT staging
area. Multiple phone calls, then gentle tapping on the door, then real
pounding, all failed to rouse him. He started ah...a few minutes late.
However, despite losing serious time in the TT, he still finished the
circuit and road races and is still in the running. Just think what would
have happened if he had made his TT start, he'd be doing quite
respectably. Marcie, if you have any suggestions for how you get him out
of bed, we could use them...cattle prod? remote control shock collar?


Charlsie Donnelly and myself are currently still in the Women's 3/4 field.
Charlsie was in 39th place out of 52 after TT, and after having the rough
luck to start first off for our field. I had a solid ride to end up in
9th for the TT. BIG THANK YOU to Mark Rishniw for loaning me his TT bike,
it made a huge difference I'm sure. Bob Nunnink was still solidly ahead
of 20 other guys in his field after the TT and circuit race but retired
from the road race today after an alarming pop and pain above his knee,
opting not to risk more serious injury.
After a strong ride in the circuit race, Charlsie moved up to 27th place
in GC. The women's 3/4 circuit race suffered an early crash at very high
speed amidst jumpiness and jockeying for position on the back of the
course. Our race was neutralized for almost a whole lap while an
ambulance came in to pick up one rider. This allowed the field to
regroup. Before and after the neutralization I attempted to get away with
a few other riders just after the climb but we were reeled in both times
before we could get a real gap. Another small crash occurred later in the
race, which finally ended in a pack sprint uphill after another
neutralization to allow the men's masters field to pass. I opted to move
up to get to the last corner just before the finish climb in a safe
position then started up the hill as fast as I could. I came in 22nd in
the pack but had the same time and stayed in 9th in GC. At least I would
be in the call-up for the top ten for another day.
The road race saw most of the pack staying together most of the race.
Early accelerations by some of the leading GC riders ended up going
nowhere.
Beginning the fourth lap I failed to anticipate a big acceleration on one
of the climbs and was caught flat-footed in bad position heading toward
the start-finish. I was dropped going through the start-finish and feed
zone climbs. Charlsie, in better position, was also gapped slightly but
rejoined the pack. I worked with a group of 7 riders to rejoin the group
over the course of the last lap, trying to limit time losses. With 2k to
go we rejoined the pack, and there was some cattiness from one rider, on
hearing another thank me for the work I put in to get back on, she said
"we were neutralized!" Well, when we caught back the race was not
neutralized and things were moving pretty slowly, I thought. Especially
with 2K to go. When the last accelerations started I was well up in the
pack but despite giving it everything I had, my efforts in the chase group
came back to haunt me and I rolled in 24th, this time 48 seconds behind
the lead pack and Charlsie came in right behind me at 24th. I slipped
down 5 spots in the GC to 14th place, 1:55 back and Charlsie had moved up
to 26th, 4:35 back.
That's what's been happening from the women's field.
Vanessa


> Brian Lawney wrote:
>> It also looks like I missed Eli in the junior field, whoops. However,
it looks like we'll need a report from him- I'm guessing a missed start
time?
>
> Full results here
>
> http://www.longsjo.com/Results_files/Stage_One_Results.pdf
>
> Eli is also on the list in 67.
>
> Juan S.
>






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Research Assistant
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