Race Across America? - Spokes Magazine

COLUMNS
THE ROOKIE +1 by MATT COOKE youvebeencooked@yahoo.com
THE SEASON IS OFFICIALLY UNDER WAY and I’ve
already had my first crash. I like to get them out of
the way early.
Here is what happened and why.
After a good prologue for me, 18th, and a great one
by my teammate Rory Sutherland, first, we had the
yellow jersey to defend in stage one of the Redlands
California Classic.
The short of it is we messed up that first day, big time.
There were time bonus sprints located just at the top
of a tough climb on several of the laps of the circuit.
The best plan of action in this scenario is to allow a
breakaway to get up the road that contains riders who
are not considered threats to Rory’s lead. This breakaway
will take the time bonus sprints and neutralize
any more attacks on the field behind the break.
Because the field is settled down a bit it is easier for
the leaders team to control the race and in theory
bring back the break before the finish which would
allow them to keep the yellow jersey. This is great is
theory but if the leader’s team can’t bring back the
break before the finish, well, they just may lose the
lead. And that is exactly what happened to us.
Several strong riders got up the road. One of them
being Santiago Botero, a two time world time trial
champ. He showed that day that he deserves those
titles because he soloed away from the break, won
the stage and took the yellow jersey from Rory. The
reason we didn’t pull them back like you’ve seen so
many times in the Tour de France comes down to
miscommunication. We were not sure of the time gap
and not sure of who was in the break. Those are critical
pieces of information.
It was a quite ride back to the team house that day.
The next day was a crit that was fast and technical but
thankfully uneventful. As my old competitors in DC
and Maryland know, I can ride crits but I really don’t
like them.
The last day was the famous and dreaded Sunset
Circuit Race. We did two laps of the crit course then
headed up to a very hilly and technical 10k loop that
we did 12 times before coming back to town for five
more crit laps. The great part is that exactly half of
the 10k loop is a brutal uphill that just drags up and
up. Everyone on the team has a job in a race as tough
as this and for me it was to make the other teams hurt
as much as possible.
We did the two crit laps and then headed out of town
toward Sunset. The field was extremely tightly packed,
like I could have stuck out my tongue and touched
the rider next to me. There is always some bumping
and screeching of breaks that I have grown to expect
by now but a full on crash just sucks.
I could see a few guys in front of me go down and I
thought I might stop in time but there was just too
much speed. I went over the handlebars and landed
on my teammate Matt Crane, who’s wheel I was following.
The next thing I remember was him telling
me to get up fast because I was laying on his bike. I
got up sort of slowly and started looking for my bike.
I had to untangle the bars from some other guys
wheels but soon Crane and I were riding our asses off
to get back to the pack.
We did make it back and like good racers we went
right to the front, there is no reason to mess around
in the back. I could tell right away my wrist was broken.
It hurt like hell but I kept riding and did pretty
much exactly what I was told to do for the day.
After some huge efforts for one of my teammates I
blew big time and my director signaled for me to pull
the plug and drop out of the race. I hate not finishing
but when you blow up that hard there is little else
you can do.
A small bone called the pisiform in my wrist is broken
but I am still training and I will be at the Tour
of Georgia in less than a week. It’s the same bone
I broke two years ago en route to winning Green
Mountain. It’s more uncomfortable than painful but I
think I can still race well on it.
I finally got a stack of “trading cards” or whatever
those things are called and I am super stoked about
it. I finally have something to give to people when
they don’t believe that I race a bike for a living.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Matt Cooke, 28, of Washington, D.C., upset the nation’s elite
road racing hierarchy, July 8, 2006, by winning the 176-mile
national championship road race in Seven Springs, Pa.
He rode as an amateur member of the LSV/Kelly Benefit
Strategies team in Baltimore, but last year he became
a pro racer. After his team Navigators Pro Cycling Team
folded, Matt signed on to race for Health Net-Maxxis in
2008. Matt will continue to educate and entertain SPOKES
readers each month with his description of life on the
road. Matt would love to hear from you, email him at
youvebeencooked@yahoo.com
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26 May 2008