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Interview
with Jeremiah Bishop-
K2 / New Sun |
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Date:
March 11, 2000 |
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Did you do anything special to prepare for this race? A longer than normal warm-up is usually my preparation for a short track. In the last two months how many hours a week have you trained? Probably about 18 hours a week. Were you strong from start to finish? I had a pretty rough start. A bad start. I wasn't used to the pedals. It was my first real ride on them. I had to get adjusted to them. I had a little trouble getting into the pedals on the start. Once I got into them - I was back in the field a few places, but moved up by the end of the first lap. My team mate (Salem Mazzaway) set pace at the front and made it fast, and Eric Keim - my room mate and originally a resident of Coral Springs, Fl joined me after the third or so lap I think. We worked together and got a pretty substantial lead. We swept the podium and got the top four places! A junior rider (Stefanio Barbieri) took forth beating out a lot of Senior Experts. When did you put the hammer down? On the second lap is when I tried to gain a little more distance. We had gotten a small gap (a small amount of distance from the other riders) - there was still a pretty big group together. We had about 20 feet on them. I attacked on one of the hills and figured I'd see how fast we could go to get away from them. |
Were you happy
with the way the race was run?
The short track was pretty well run, but they could have had a bell lap - I don't think they announced very well that the last lap was about to come up. Other than that I'd say it was run pretty well - they did a good job with the short track. What was your prize for first place? Cash If you could do the race again, would you do anything differently? Absolutely. I thought I was used to the pedals - but racing on equipment is different. Another thing I would want to do is a few more hard mountain bike rides. I was riding off-road for two days a week coming up to the event, but I never really put any hard efforts in on my mountain bike. I was doing all of my training on my road bike. At this time of year you really need to be specific with your training as to your goals and what you are trying to achieve with your fitness. Earlier in your training there is less of a need to be specific - you are just building general fitness. When I did the race, my lower back hurt, my arms and hands weren't used to the shock and vibration. There were some other things too. The short, steep power climbs - you don't do that on a road bike. You don't sprint as hard as you can for 10 pedal strokes, or 5 pedal strokes and coast. So I would have done a little more mountain biking. Is there anything you would like to add? It was good racing. |
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Did you have any unusual problems with the race? The start that I mentioned earlier - and towards the end of the race Eric and I were working together - we got a pretty substantial lead after busting our butts for a few laps. We got a good thirty second lead I think. With one lap to go I clipped my pedal on one of the rocks right near the quarry ledge. I almost wrecked, laid the bike down sideways - and Eric (who was right behind me) endo-ed and almost wrecked on top of me and I kind of scootered on the ground and got back into my pedals and got going again. There were a lot of coral rocks in that section of the course. It didn't hurt the race on Sat. but I was a little tired for Sunday's race. How do you rate the course? I liked both of the courses - however I thought the short track course was a little constricted because of the tight single track. It probably could have been a little bit shorter of a lap. It was very good for spectators. |
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