September 2008 - Spokes Magazine

COLUMNS
THE ROOKIE +1 by MATT COOKE youvebeencooked@yahoo.com
GOING FIRST CLASS!
Hello my favorite readers ever at Spokes! I got back
from the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah last night and
I am going to try and do the experience justice right
now. I have to say the name Larry H. Miller because
number one, he is the main sponsor and number two
Health Net-Maxxis stayed at his son’s homes this year.
These two homes were better than any hotel I have ever
seen or been in. The homes were next to each other
and absolutely gigantic. There was a home theater, a
pool with a slide, and a stocked fridge so we were pretty
comfortable. His sons were awesome too. Greg told
us stories one night of him driving ungodly speeds in
the round the world car race, the Gumball 3000, while
standing around his Ford GT supercar. Another night
they had a big barbecue for the whole team.
As for the racing it was brutal like always. Other than
the course one of the things that made the racing so
hard is that several teams are folding next year one of
them being the massive Toyota United. That means
nearly 30 riders on the market who are competing for
many less spots than are available. So you can imagine
how hard guys are racing if they want to stand out to
a potential employer. Combine guys desperate for a
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job and starting racing at over 5000 feet and it made
for one hard week.
Stage two was the first place I got to shine. There was
a 5k climb straight out of the blocks and it was my job
to get to the top with the leaders. Not only was it what
the team needed and wanted but also it was what I
wanted to do which is a great feeling. With a few guys
already off the front, I attacked at the bottom of the
climb which may have been a little premature because
it was so long but I was just excited to ride hard so
that is just what I did.
Some guys came up behind me a few minutes later
and I suffered so much hanging onto their wheels
and was making the sounds that have become a
trademark for me, which pretty much go like this
“Aghhhhh! AGHHHH!” but I did hang on and went
over in the small lead group so really who cares what
I sounded like. I was stoked to be in a small group but
unfortunately Toyota which only had one guy present
chased it down and the field came back together for
the most part.
On the final climb I made the same mistake I made
at Cascade when I tried to go with Levi Lepheimer. I
went into the red when I stood to go with an attack. So
that makes it twice I’ve done that. If I make the same
mistake just one more time I will be very mad at myself.
I got popped there but still came in with the second
group and just collapsed on the grass next to my teammates
Phil and Rory. That was such a hard day.
The next night there was a nighttime crit where I slid
out in a corner as I was trying to go off the front. I am
now missing lots of skin on my left lower leg and cursing
myself for taking the corner too hot and taking
a risk I didn’t have to. But the truth is I wanted to be
aggressive and I didn’t want to sit around waiting for
the race to come to me. I must not have been hurt too
bad because the next in the next morning’s 100 mile
road race I was the lone Health Net guy in the move.
The truth is, the cuts did hurt and I was doing was
quite a bit of silent cursing all day long. Either way I’m
happy I was in the move even if I did want to wring the
necks of some of my breakaway companions.
I leave for US Pro Nationals in one week and then the
season is pretty much over unless I try to drag it out
with the idea that I could get some last minute results
to bolster my resume. Or maybe I will have to come
back to DC for jury duty, that sounds like fun.
30 September 2008