My Bikes: Cervelo S1

Purpose of this bicycle

This bike was an incredible spur of the moment purchase to ensure I had a bike to race at the 2012 Mt Hood Cycling Classic. At the time I reasoned that it was ok to get the bike because eventually I'd use it for the upcoming winter since my Felt was getting a little too beat up. I ended up racing this bike in numerous races through the 2012 season and got some great results including 3rd at the Queen stage of Mt Hood, 3rd on the first stage of Baker City and I even rode it to a win over at St. Honoré!

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	Aluminum 61cm 2010 Cervélo S1
Crankset:	Compact FSA Gossamer
Chainring:	Compact FSA 50/34
Stem & Handlebar:	FSA something or other
Seatpost:	Aero Cervelo seatpost
Pedals:	Speedplay Zeros (I'll swap these pedals between this bike and my R5)
Shifters:	Shimano Ultegra
Chain:	Shimano Ultegra
Deraileurs:	Shimano Ultegra
Brakes:	Cervelo Brakes
Saddle:	San Marco saddle
Fenders:	Strap-on fenders with Tacoma Bike flaps

Wheel Set:

Rim:	American Classic Hurricane
Hub:	American Classic
Tires:	Maxxis Detonator 23c
Cassette:	Shimano Ultegra 10 speed 25/13

Gadgets:

Power Meter:	iBike Newton+ Power Meter
GPS:	Garmin Edge 500
Sensor:	iBike Speed/Cadence Sensor.
Lights:	Cygolite Bike Lights (Mom, you will be glad to know that these are very bright). However, I need to figure out how to mount the light to the non-cylindircal seatpost, maybe my friend Eric can use his 3d printer to make something.

Personal Stories about this bike

I have decided that this blog series is bad luck!! This morning I got up and one of the first emails I got before even leaving to work was a nagging email about cleaning up the office kitchen of which one of the points was to not put in peanut butter jars caked with sesame seed and coconut oil remnants. Uggh, how am I going to clean all my jars now? Getting my bike to go to work I realized that I must have at one point forgot my floor pump outside my locker because it is nowhere to be seen inside my locker. I took forever to get prepared and finally got into the office at around 11am.

Then on the bike ride that night I really got started at around 9:30pm and got a flat on totally new tires. And it was raining. Then after I got back and had done the bike's photoshoot I opened up a brand new peanut butter jar full of applesauce I was about to devour, but I lost grip of it and it fell to the floor shattering into an inedible pile of glass and apples immediately outside the door to my bike locker. Come to think of it there are really a bunch of other crappy first world problems in my life, but I also blame all of them on this unfounded superstition of this bad luck blog post series!

My Bikes: FOR SALE: Centurion Fixie $250

Asking Price $250

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	61cm Centurion Lemans (steel frame)
Crankset:	Some cheapo road cranks from a used bin probably.
Chainring:	44t Messenger style chainring (messenger because it says so!)
Stem & Handlebar:	Probably from the recycled cycles used bins
Seatpost:	It's silver
Chain:	It's yellow :)
Brakes:	Long reach brakes for 700c wheels
Saddle:	Not entirely sure, but this is another old saddle I got from Tacoma Bike back a few years ago.
Water Bottle Cages:	Cages strapped on with automotive hose clamps.

Front Wheel:

Rim:	Mavic Open Sport
Hub:	Surly
Tires:	Conti Ultra

Rear Wheel:

Rim:	Velocity Deep V
Hub:	Shimano XT Front Mountain Bike Disc Brake Hub
Cog:	Tommy Cog custom made 16t cog
Tires:	Specialized Roubaix

Personal Stories about this bike

This is my super ultra-hip fixie bike. Actually, when I first bought it, it was this hunk of junk centurion with stem shifters and all. I did a little tour of Oregon with this bike wayyy back in 2007 and rode it all the way from Roseburg to Ashland and back (2 rides total) both in one day in a time when I didn't believe in using Chamois cream! That was painful.

Then I converted it to a fixie after buying an identical but maroon Centurion frame. All of the old parts were transferred to the maroon frame with the help of my friend Rodrick up in Seattle and the task to build it up commenced. I had won a pair of wheels for coming in 2nd at the Dead Baby Downhill Messenger Challenge that year and was gonna build it up to be a fixie because I felt like a bit of a loser competing in alleycats with a road bike, it just wasn't legit.

I first started out with this wheelset and was riding something like 84 gear inches. However, one day I was attempting to descend 15th Ave in Tacoma entirely brakeless all skidding and I was skidding so hard that the lockring popped out and I started coasting down the hill and stopped ironically right outside the Marcato!  I had heard from my evil laser-building friend Robin that some people instead have bolt-on cogs for the rear that are a much stronger setup. So I went in and had Tacoma Bike build up a custom rear wheel as described.

The very first ride I did with the bolt-on cog I was heading down Pacific Ave past the courthouse. I could sense the Tacoma Streetcar traveling beside me. The streetcar is approaching it's special phase where it gets a green and everything else except the crosswalk from the Art Museum gets a red. I am approaching said crosswalk at speed and there are 3 women entering the crosswalk. I immediately go into a skid and make a 90 degree turn leveling out flush with the crosswalk where I proceed to bike up the ramp following the streetcar past the stop on 15th back to my office. I knew that it was a truly solid setup from then on.  This bike has been on many a drunken evening ride and numerous alleycats, the last one of which was the Alleycat from last September put on by 2nd Cycle where I came in first!

I am honestly not sad to see this bike go. It is from a bygone era in my life where I was trying to be cool, but I am not such a purist because I believe in technology and thus freewheels and derailleurs. It's just hard on the knees riding this bike, but it was a fun ride.

All Your Wins Are Belong To Us by Fake HSP

For the next post on the DJStroky Racing Blog I shall interview Fake HSP (in a style inspired from some great interviews (like this one, or this one) from the PruDogBlog), the winning team of the last 5 road/crit races in a row in the Oregon Pro/1/2...

Fake HSP: Wait a second, are you saying we weren't racing in the 3s?

DJStroky: Yes you were in fact racing in the OBRA Pro/1/2 field.

HSP: Oh wow, we just assumed that all OBRA races were category 3 since you can't get a Cat 1 USAC upgrade from those races.

DJStroky: uhhhhhh, anyways, you guys have really been on a roll these last few weeks. Your team brought down a two-person squad to each of the last three weekends where a different person won each weekend in every single road and crit race. First of all, what made you all want to come down to Oregon to race?

HSP: Well, we're really a road racing team and like to compete, but all that was left on the WSBA calendar during August seemed to be a bunch of track races. It was a bit of a drive, but the OBRA races had some good money to be won.

Giro di Portland

DJStroky: Your first victory was at the Giro di Portland. Brian, tell us a little about that.

Fake Brian Hitchcock: Man talk about a crashfest! What is with the Oregon riders? Can't they keep their bikes up straight? I didn't really do much here except just hope someone in front of me didn't do something stupid and then in the end I had a great chance and was really stoked about that win.

DJStroky: As you should be, you came in front of Guinness's David Klipper (master national chamion on the track) and Scott Gray (current OBRA road race champion).

BH: Yeah, but then they made me wear this white Jersey on the podium. I dunno, I guess that's nice, but I was kinda sad because I only ever wear my HSP jersey (even around the house). Can you still see the HSP logo through that other jersey?

Longview Grand Prix

DJStroky: Moving on to the next weekend, there was the Longview Grand Prix. This race was on both the OBRA and the WSBA calendar, but only 10 people showed up for the 1/2 Men's race. There were 3 Guinness guys, 2 Team Oregon guys, 2 from HSP and then 3 other racers from Oregon. Why do you think more people didn't show up?

BH: Well, it may have been a little tricky for the WSBA'ers because on the WSBA website calendar it does say Longview, but there is no link to any event flyer. Luckily I had checked it out from the OBRA site where there was a link to the flyer. I told my teammate Aaron Shaw about it and that there was $1,000 6 deep, so we decided to give it a go. Plus there was the Squirrel Festival at the park next to the course! I love squirrels!!

DJStroky: The Squirrel Festival was pretty cool. Aaron, tell us about your win.

Fake Aaron Shaw: Well, since I let Brian win last week, he agreed to let me win this race.

DJStroky: It's that simple huh?

AS: Well if you all just let me ride away from the field what am I gonna do with that? Am I supposed to wait for you slowpokes or something? I don't think so. Why didn't you chase after me that final time, DJStroky, you were on every other move?

DJStroky: I got a flat with 5 to go and didn't have any spare wheels.

AS: Sucks to be you! Haha!

Eugene Celebration Stage Race

DJStroky: The next HSP winner to come to Oregon was Max 'Missle' O'Neal. Max, was Eugene on your calendar or had you been planning on doing this race?

MMON: Well, after Carnation got cancelled I was really bummed and I also really wanted to get in one more Time Trial before I sold my bike. DJStroky was pestering me a little bit about Eugene on Facebook, but then Brian told me how easy it was to win races in Oregon and what really sealed the deal was that there was a KOM on Strava up for grabs!

McBeth Prologue

DJStroky: Well, turns out Colby beat you on the McBeth prologue according to Strava.

MMON: Lies! I won that race!

DJStroky: Yes, according to OBRA you won, but Colby got the exact same time to the hundredth of a second.

MMON: Doesn't matter, I'm the one at the top. I'm Max 'MISSLE' O'Neal! Haters gonna hate.

DJStroky: Fine, you won, but on another note I got 50 seconds faster than my time last year.

MMON: Nobody cares!

DJStroky: Shutup, my Mom and Eddie French do!

Briggs Hill

DJStroky: Seriously, HSP stop it!

MMON: Hey, it's not like I'm the moron out there attacking the entire final lap just to get dropped on the final climb up Briggs Hill. All I did was defend my GC lead and in the end everyone else was much more worn out and much older in age than Colby and I, but I've got the better sprint. ;)

DJStroky: All right, you definitely deserved that win based on how well you did. I was amazed at how you and Colby bridged up to the break after the 3rd time up the climb to Fox Hollow Rd. How did you make that happen?

MMON: Rumor has it that our secret domestique from the Kehler Rohrbots gave a good jump for Colby and I to follow up the hill and after that it was only a matter of time before we closed in.

Coburg Time Trial

DJStroky: The HSP Win Streak is broken! Halleluiah! There was no chance in Eugene to hold up to the prowess and time trialing abilities of the likes of junior national team member Colby Wait-Molyneux, the reigning National Masters 45-49 time trial champion Brendan Sullivan in town getting ready to defend his title in Bend the coming week, a former 7th place British time trialist and now Eugene local Rob English and the newest name out of Eugene, Lee Ordonez. And I myself finally got a nearly complete time trial setup - the frame, the integrated aero-bars, front carbon deep dish rim, disc, skinsuit and an awesome looking Rudy TT Helmet on loan from Team Guinness. My time was only 47 seconds off Colby, 1:30 faster than my time from last year and ahead of Max!

HSP: You can't win them all...

Celebration Criterium

And now for a running commentary of the Celebration Crit...

Fake Brian Hitchcock: Oh look a OBRA Criterium! Don't mind if we win that and nearly all the primes!

MMON: Oh hey, one of the only moves I pick to chase happens to be this Soraz guy.

DJStroky: Oh crap, that's Kyle Medlin up the road. There goes the race.

BH: Oh oh! Field prime! Got it!

MMON: Oh dang gap down to 24 seconds. C'mon Soraz!!

BH: And relax back into the pack after the field prime.

MMON: Nice, gap up to 45 seconds! We are flying!!!

BH: Oh Oh! Another field prime! Weee!

MMON: Oh crap! Oh crap! Gap down to 27 seconds. Must push harder!

Kyle Medlin: I'm riding a bicycle super hard! Aaahhh!

BH: And relax.

MMON: Yes! Gap up to 40 seconds, I'm back up to 2nd GC! 10 laps to go!

Rob English: All right chaps, let's bring this back to 30 seconds and then I'll win the field sprint. By my calculations I'll hold 2nd GC by 1 second. Brilliant!

MMON: I am a winning machine!

Rob English: Well done lads, I held onto 2nd place GC by 1 second.

DJStroky: Oh gosh that was hard I hope I held onto 6th GC.

OBRA official: Results are posted!

Colby: Oh I won, cool I guess.

Rob English: My calculations were correct! 2nd place for me.

MMON: Gahhhh!!! 1 second!!

DJStroky: Whew 6th place. I really wanted at least 5th, but I did good this weekend.

And that's a wrap for this bicycle racing season of DJStroky Racing.

My Bikes: 2012 Cervélo R5

Here is the first post in a new series called "My Bikes". I really hope this doesn't come across as bragging about my fancy toys, since I very strongly believe that fitness, intelligence, creativity and bicycle handling skills are much more important than equipment. I have a few goals for this series:

1. For the entertainment of my fans? readers who are really into equipment.
2. To showcase the awesome products that are provided by gracious sponsors such as Athlete's Lounge, ROTOR, American Classic, a whole lot more through the awesome Guinness Cycling Team and other awesome sponsors. A little disclaimer, I am not going to discuss how much I paid for each part.
3. To provide a reference in case one of my bikes get stolen.
4. To showcase my bikes that I want to sell.
5. To tell some personal stories that me and the bike have gone through.

Let's Begin With a BANG!



Purpose of this bicycle

I had no idea I was going to get this bike until Klipper called me up and told me we were about to get a absolutely screaming deal on this awesome bicycle. I could not refuse. This bike is a road racing machine which is incredibly stiff, incredibly light and most noticeably to me incredibly stable. I'll ride this bike in road races and important criteriums.

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	61cm Cervélo R5
Bottom Bracket & Headset:	I am not entirely sure, but I know that the shop had to glue them in.
Crankset:	ROTOR 3D Plus Cranks and ROTOR standard 53/39 chainrings (chainrings are ovular).
Stem & Handlebar:	Some take-off 44cm handlebar and unknown stem from Athlete's Lounge.
Seatpost:	3T Dorico LTD seatpost
Shifters:	Shimano Dura Ace 7900
Deraileurs:	Shimano Dura Ace 7900
Chain:	ROTOR Chain
Brakes:	FSA something or other
Saddle:	Not entirely sure, but this is my good old saddle I got from Tacoma Bike back two years ago. Still like it!
Water Bottle Cages:	Arundel water bottle cages.

Pictured Wheels:

Wheels:	2011 American Classic Carbon 58s
Tires:	Vittoria Corsa Evo CX 23mm Tubular Tires
Cassette:	Shimano Ultegra 10speed 11-28T.

Gadgets:

Power Meter:	iBike Newton+ Power Meter
GPS:	Garmin Edge 500
Sensor:	Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor.

Personal Stories about this bike

I think the only thing I am superstitious about is bragging about something before it actually comes to pass. Sure enough, I posted that I was going to finally write this blog post and then the next big race I did (the OBRA Crit) this bike was involved in a crash. Fortunately the only thing that happened was that the derailleur hanger got bent and the right shifter got some scratches and the rear derailleur also got some scratches.

DNF Streak

Well, I'm definitely not on a win streak at the moment. I was recovering most of last week from the OBRA crit crash, so I didn't do PIR. Saturday came around and it was time for the Giro di Portland. And I was very unprepared for it. I didn't pre-ride the course, but I knew there were some cobbles, but I didn't know that they were nasty cobbles. Then, I got in a so-so warmup. And I didn't completely check my tire pressure or even make sure the skewers were tightened. Since I hadn't pre-rode the course I did a practice lap instead of lining up immediately. I went around corner one and was like "OH CRAP!" I lined up ok, and then we were off and it was tough. I got caught behind a crash and was able to get a free lap where I moved up a lot. But then, the skewer on my front wheel was all over the place. I got off the back and tightened it and the pack was gone. I sort of tried to catch up, but could hear the motorcycle and got lapped by Bedford and then decided to pull out. And that was I believe my shortest race of the year with a time of about 25 minutes.

That's about it really, I feel like I really disappointed a bunch of people who came to watch me race: my sister down from Seattle, my church friends, my new teammates and whoever else is out there following. I also feel lazy to myself for just pulling out like that. I really admired how Rocky raced since he dropped a chain and was a lap down and still finished the race and did work for the team at the end. And then Klipper got 2nd so that was good. More and more I feel like I'm a little less committed to performing well since I have my teammates in the field and am not reliant on myself or for winning money to stay financially viable in life. Furthermore I feel like it's a bad example I'm setting for our new teammates to bail out so soon. I'm realizing more and more that people really do pay attention to what I do and I don't want to set a bad example of being a quitter or having poor racer etiquette.

So this coming week it is a rest week, but I have really had it and am pissed off looking at my last 3 results: DNF, DNS, DNF. This streak must end! I am in fact going easy all other 5 days, but tomorrow at PIR I WILL MAKE IT IN THE BREAK and then I'm going to be trying hard to get a top 10 at Longview.

Those last few weeks

I think I may be getting close to that point where I was last year. The point where a long long season of racing, frustration upon frustration and poor result after poor result ate away at my psyche to the point where I didn't want to race anymore. Last year the summer was a real downward spiral where I got pushed over the edge at Cascade and was left with broken dreams.

And now the past few races have been sort of leading toward that direction. I performed just ok at Cascade was feeling a little maxed out at the Franz Bakery Crit last week. This week I had a strong lineup of races, Portland Twilight, OBRA Crit and OBRA TT.

But first, PIR

As the season goes on, the races here have seemed to get faster and harder to make a break happen. The highlight of my race was when I tried to follow Tuckerman's wheel when he attacked hard. I knew he was going to explode with that break attempt, but I was sad I couldn't at least follow it. In the field sprint I should have just followed Eddie, but let that wheel get away.

Portland Twilight Criterium

Now I dunno, but when Klipper called me up on Thursday night and told me that my goal was to not crash, I thought that was a lame goal. I knew the race was going to be fast, but I thought I was fast and after blaring some techno before the race I was feeling pumped. I made the mistake of riding a warmup lap once the course opened and found myself much further back than I wanted to be. After the call-ups, I sprinted to get a spot in the 3rd row for the start, but really wish I had done better about lining up.

Once the race started it was strung out for the entire race. I was barely holding wheels the entire race, but I wasn't moving back too much staying pretty much 20th-30th the whole race. The whole race I was in the drops sprinting to hold wheels. With 10 laps to go I was the back of the field. The photo below sums it up:

Photo credit to SmugMug user stoneandsteel

I finished 21st after making a lousy sprint against the giver-upers at the very back. I didn't once get to the front of the race and that was that. I was disappointed that I couldn't do better.

OBRA Crit Champs

Off to Bend which I swear I'm now calling Bad Luck Bend! I thought maybe I'd warmup a little harder to feel fresh for races by doing a quick Archie Briggs climb. That got up my heart rate and I was feeling pretty good at the start of the race doing a few attacks off the front. However, it became apparent that a monster was among us. This kid broke away about halfway through and was holding an insane pace all by himself. But then he started coming back to the field and it was game on again. But then I saw him getting ready to get back in from the pit and knew he had a flat and was about to crush us again. And he did and when he and two other guys broke away I hammered on the front trying to do something to bring it back, but it seemed that none of us had the legs in us to chase him down. He broke away from the other two guys and he was gone. And then I was just struggling to get a good field position again. And then out of nowhere I got a flat on my front wheel in the middle of corner 2 and went down on my right side. And that was the race. I didn't feel like doing the TT the next day so that was my week.



I'm pretty sure I'm pretty tired after this whole season. Combine that with losing a bunch of blood and I was feeling quite tired Sunday. There is the potential for negative thoughts to enter my mind and I've got to fight that and remain positive not only for the last few races of the season, but more importantly for the upcoming dating season. However, this year the extra support from more bicycling friends I have made and above all else my teammates has made it much easier to bear. Hearing the random voices yelling "EVAN MOVE UP!!" 30 minutes into Portland Twilight and then "ALL RIGHT EVAN HANG IN THERE GOOD JOB!!" once they realized I was so tired helps me finish the race. Every race has been salvaged by Eddie or Rocky getting Top Ten or better, by hanging out after the races and all of us taking care of each other.

It looks like the Giro di Portland and Eugene are going to be the last races on my calendar. Almost there!

Team Racing

Not much happened last week due to it being a rest week. I did volunteer over at Swan Island, but then headed down to Roseburg to my cousin's birthday/graduation party that happened the next day.

PIR

Over at PIR, it was a lot of chasing and getting in breaks. I felt kind of strong, but not spectacular, or it could be that everybody else's fitness is improving since it is actually nice to ride outside in the Pacific Northwest this time of year. With a few laps to go, birthday boy Eddie came over and told me that on the final lap I should try to breakaway on the backstretch and then leave the sprinting up to him and Rocky. I put down a massive sprint and pretty much died right after the sharp left on the backstretch and could only hope something good happened to the mass of riders that filled most of the racetrack ahead. It looked like they had decent position and in the end Rocky got 2nd. Nice.

Franz Bakery

I have been anticipating this race most of the year. Last year's race made me get super depressed since I crashed on the final turn when I may have just needed to finish in 2nd to win the overall points in the race after being in a breakaway for most of the race. This time around, it was a much hotter day with seriously Texas style heat with the high of the day reaching 102 degrees. I really should have made my drinks much less sugary for the race and not used a recovery powder, but whatever.

The race started and I got up to the front and kind of waited a bit. Rocky got some early points with Bedford, Liberles and Spahr all trying to get away every once in a while. Then, Austin from Team O and a Veloce guy got a decent gap about halfway through. I knew any break on this course was a threat, so I bridged up. It was tough heat and we had an uneven effort level in the break with Austin being really fresh and the Veloce rider not so much, but he was taking lap points nonetheless. With about 10 to go, another Team O guy bridged up to us and I swear it was Bedford, but he said it wasn't him after the race. I might have been hallucinating. But whoever it was, it was definitely a Team O guy because they attacked and then countered with the other guy upon being brought back. Eventually one of them got away and the other Team O guy and the Veloce guy got absorbed by the pack. I probably didn't try my best to stay out there and really should have given more effort to catch Austin, so I got absorbed with about 4 to go. I then worked to counter Bedford, Liberles and Spahr again for the next few laps. Then with 1 to go, Eddie went up and gave Rocky a perfect leadout up the hill and then Rocky closed with a flawless sprint up the final hill and around the corner for 2nd place. I was happy to be consoled with a team podium finish, but perhaps when I'm by myself I know that if I fail in the break it is all over for me so I may be more motivated that way.



Well, the season is kind of winding down now. Next week I'm going to be racing a lot. PIR, Portland Twilight, OBRA Crit and I want to do the OBRA TT as well. Then after that it's the Giro di Portland. The weekend after that is Longview which I may or may not do, and then it's time to go out big in Eugene. I can see the light at the end of the racing season and I am getting a little antsy with my dating life and am considering actually pursuing women again. But I'm waiting to see if I'm going to secure a winter job assignment in Austin, TX for the winter before I get serious about that.

And one final thing, I promise you readers I will do a post this coming week about my awesome race bike since I probably have to because I am going to take the risk of riding it in these upcoming crits this weekend.

Meh

Well, it's been two weeks and there honestly isn't much at all to wrote home/to my loyal fans/to the internets about.

The week before

Man, I can't even remember what I did during the week. Oh, right, I just looked at my workout history, now I remember.

PIR

So Tuesday (7/10) I did PIR and it was kind of boring really. It was a really long race again and I got in the break again. Bedford, Hoefer and Austin represented Team O in the break and then there was Benno, two Rapha guys, Corey Stayton and a river city guy. I guess I don't know everyone's names yet. Anyways, it was a little boring since the break was easily staying away (at least easily for me), but it was good because I got to work a little bit on the timing of my sprint. I am not sure if I have the sprinting power of all the other guys in the break, but I at least had a chance to work on positioning. Ended up 6th which was good for me.

Tabor

The next day I got in a Mt Tabor race while I still could since it was the last of the year. I managed to get a prime, but got dropped hard on the final lap after Bedford attacked so fiercely on the final lap.

Camping

Then I finally picked up my new road bike on Friday and set out towards Timothy Lake. I took a bus out to Estacada and biked from there. The scenery was pretty good and with the help of some random people from OBRA chat I found a way that was mostly paved.

While camping I honestly didn't enjoy myself as much as some other happy campers did. I dunno, I guess my tolerance levels for adrenaline are just so high that I don't get a kick out of seeing Mt Hood. And furthermore, I spend time outside in nature for better or worse (read in freezing rain and beautiful northwest summer sun) almost every single day. Descending at 45mph on single lane paved logging roads however does get me excited. And on top of that, more than half of the original people that expressed interest in going bailed out. I slept up there Friday and Saturday nights and didn't do any exercise on Saturday (a 3 mile hike doesn't really count). Sunday I biked back almost all of the way into a headwind, but got done with the ride in good time.

I may even have regretted going camping that specific weekend since there were some big money crits such as Boise and Redmond that I could've gone to.

Cascade

No PIR this week, but Thursday I finally picked up my TT Bike. It felt really fast and easy to hammer away on that thing.

Cascade Lakes

So I couldn't find a ride over so I rented a Zipcar and drove out to the Cascade Lakes Stage. I have decided that this stage doesn't really suit me since I'm not a pure hillclimber. There was an early break right after the downhill ended of course and that break eventually grew to 4 riders after the feed zone. Once we got onto the long straightaway, I had a bit of an argument with Rocky since him and Kaler Marshal were attempting to breakaway, but seemed to be arguing about breaking away more than actually riding. I bridged up and said "c'mon let's go" but Rocky thought I was chasing him down. After discussing this post race it did make sense that since it was just two of us teammates in the race that I should only bridge by sitting on a bridge if he's in a break. Fine, my mistake.

Anyways, I attacked again after having a chat with Rocky about this and was joined by two other willing compatriots. At this point, we were the 4th break up the road. We caught 2 other guys and then three more so we were 8. And then pretty much all of the people we caught suddenly didn't want to work with us. I was so pissed and eventually we got caught. So at this point, all that mattered was to try to be as close to the front as possible before the big climb. I was maybe 30th wheel going into it which was sort of ok. I was getting popped and was always just so close to the back end of the first pack, but just couldn't bridge up. I ended up 21st. Meh.

Afterwards

After the race I did not have a very good post-race diet and ate way too many blueberries and not enough grainy carbs (rice, bread) so I felt quite ill. It was also my 4th week of hard workouts so I was strained a bit. I was making quite a fool of myself over at the Serna's house being all sick and finding any flat surface to lie down at - couch, floor, bed, bench at the burrito place.

Skyliner TT

Finally, a full TT setup. TT Frame, integrated TT bars, Disc, Skinsuit, TT Helmet. Well, guess I was missing shoe covers. Anyways, I did considerably better than last year's TT where I missed my start time by over a minute. This year, the course was slightly different, but my time was 28:37 compared to last year's 31:29. It's hard to say where exactly I improved, but it's still probably a tough course for me since there is a lot of climbing and that is where the majority of the time spent on the course occurs. I ended up 40th in the TT which I wasn't happy about.

Crit

My biggest fear in the crit was wrecking my nice new road bike. Fortunately that didn't happen and Rocky got 13th. It's a tough course to read. Actually, I made a mistake again of being unaware of how many laps were left. It wasn't until 3 laps to go that I finally spotted the lap board and at that point it was probably too late to move up. Corner 3 wasn't as hectic as any of the other laps on the final lap and people didn't sprint for 50th so all was fine.

Awbrey Butte

Again a tough race for me to do well in due to Archie Briggs. Rocky went from the gun, but got dropped at the feed zone. The 4 other guys stayed away until Archie Briggs on the final lap. I counter-attacked right before the riser before the roundabout on Mt. Washington and got a good gap on the field. Unfortunately nobody had the power to bridge and work with me and the break up the road was quite powerful. I could see the pack closing in on me just before the Tumalo Reservoir descent, so I decided to maintain my break and make it a little easier going into the hill with a gap.

The rest of the race I mostly sat in except that I was in survival mode going into the feed zone climb and Archie Briggs and moved up as far to the front as possible. Ultimately I really screwed myself over in this race by not eating enough. I even had enough food with me 3 power bars and 2 gels but I only ate 1 of each. Shame on me. I got dropped the last time up Archie Briggs and pedaled in with other popped guys to finish 59th on the day and 31st GC.

"Meh" pretty much sums up my weekend of racing. Good news is I didn't get in a crash like last year. But I've got a lot to work on still. I feel like I need a better TT fit, need to force myself to eat properly, not have so many blueberries and peanut butter and be more persuasive to fellow breakmates. Oh and I need to figure out a way to thwart stupid three-time winner Randy in next year's Fantasy Tour de France.

Unexpected Win

Coming into Saturday's race, the St Honoré Criterium, I was feeling kind of OK, but was looking forward to racing with a bunch of teammates. I got in a so-so warmup.

There seemed to be a decent amount of good racers there, Beardsley and his team, Bedford and his team, Liberles, and a few other threats. I started at back with Rocky. It was a fast pace with lots of corners, so there were very few places to move up. However, I eventually found that the back stretch was a good place to move up. But, I didn't get to the front until 30 minutes in. Once I got to the front we had just caught Trevor on his move from the gun, but then I drifted back again. I was feeling like the efforts were really getting to me and it felt borderline Texas hot (ok, not really, but it was warm) and my water bottles had too much sugar.

Nonetheless, with 8 to go I focused on trying to move up again. On 5 to go I took the final corner on the inside as far inside as I could which helped me move up about 10 positions. On the back, I suddenly had an opening to the front. Klipper was sitting 2nd wheel and the pace slowed, so I attacked thinking this may distract people from watching Klipper. Apparently they were still so focused on Klipper that at least Beardsley and Liberles didn't even see me attack. The rest of the laps I just rode as hard and as safely as I could. I also made sure that I was counting the laps correctly and the final lap I looked back and saw no other racers despite the hecklers chanting "they're coming up!" I checked the lap board and it said "00", so I did the best poster finish I could.

Photo credit: Dave Roth

Klipper was waiting to see the finish and did a victory lap or two with me. After the race I got to see my friends who came to watch me race and took some pictures with my teammates. We all had dinner over at the Lucky Lab and were eventually joined by the women's winner, Jade Wilcoxson. Everything felt awesome about that night except it would have been better if another Guinness rider was also on the podium picture.

Photo Credit: Josh Liberles's Girlfriend

So there, after no pictures of me winning in Walla Walla or Texas, the third time is the charm for getting a good picture of me finishing. Ha, that makes it one win in each state this year. Cool!

Post-race Embarrassment

I actually am pretty embarrassed by a number of things that happened after the race. The first thing is listening to a heckler in the crowd who suggested I wear my piece of bread like a crown on my head. I immediately saw at least 3 faces including Rocky's in the crowd express disgust at this major hygiene violation. I would have shared the bread, but nobody else wanted to eat it after that, except me.

The next thing is that I was wearing last year's jersey. This would have been ok, except our big sponsor this year of Athlete's Lounge now has a prominent logo on the front of this year's jersey. I apologized to Scott at Athlete's Lounge for this faux pas.

And now, me winning is THIS BIG DEAL. I made up for the lack of winning finish line pictures and then some at this race. I'm even on the front page of OBRA right now. So now EVERYBODY knows who I am so it is going to be 10 times harder to sneak away. At least 2 people immediately recognized me out of the blue at PIR this week.

Screenshot of OBRA website.

But maybe that is a good thing because I have gotten some flack for this race victory from Oregon Cycling Action:

The field pulled back Sheagley and Edgergton and seemed capable of reeling in Siroky, but confusion about how many riders remained up the road stalled the chase and allowed the Guinness rider to solo in about 10 seconds ahead of the field. Steven Beardsley, who took the bunch sprint for second, momentarily thought he had won before realizing Siroky had finished first. Josh Liberles (HP Chiro/Alpine Mortgage Planning) couldn’t get past Beardsley in the field sprint and finished third.

Oh, and Lang Reynolds rates the Baker City Race where I got 3rd as one of his "top 10 stupidest races."

From Lang Reynolds's Twitter Feed.

So hopefully bike racing will be hard again and that will make my next victory that much more special. Please Oregon Peleton, pay attention to me next time so that I can win while you are giving your hardest effort. Here is a pro-tip for all of you who have trouble figuring out I am up the road: if the follow car or police motorcycle in the crit is not within sight, it means somebody is up the road!

Racing Like an Idiot

Stage 1 of the Baker City Cycling Classic seemed to start out as it did last year with a lot of action to see who would be the morons that would breakaway at mile 12 of the 72 mile race. I guess I just couldn't help myself, I was up there seeing what would happen and I saw that nobody was going after one of the original protagonists who was going hard on the front, so I bridged up. Some other guy followed me too and it was the three of us - these two Idaho guys and me.

I did expect us to build up a bit of a gap and it was 50 seconds, then 2 minutes then we got to the hill. We made up the hill with the pack nowhere to be seen, so this break had a really good chance of making it. Going down the hill we heard a report of 2:50 and we knew we had a great opportunity, but I knew those remaining hills that never seem to end were still ahead. When those hills came, I sat on the back almost the entire time barely holding on. Climbing up what seemed to be one of the final hills, the follow car came up and told us 1:15 and we got a bit worried but he said this was the very last hill. So I sort of foolishly attempted to pull, but my breakmates still set the pace. That last hill did not end around the next wind at all! It kept going and I got dropped at the next wind around the hill, but at this point we were still way ahead of the pack.

Luckily, the hills finally ended and I began descending and watching the other two guys ride away. I time trialed the best I could and got 1:14 behind the leaders and nearly 3 minutes ahead of the pack. All in all, I was rather stoked about getting 3rd place in my first p12 race.

Photo Credit: Vitek Siroky

Time Trial

Not much really to say with the time trial. I still haven't been able to get the TT bike setup and it just seems like I can't get to my upper z5 heart rate in a TT. At least my disc wheel didn't flat.

Photo Credit: Vitek Siroky

The Crit

In the Crit I missed the break. I saw Erik Slack go and then Liberles chasing after Slack and then I didn't see those guys again until they came up from behind after lapping the field. Nothing got organized and I was slightly confused and stupid going into the final sprint because the lap board definitely said one to go, but that was for the leaders, so I ended up sprinting all out on the 2nd lap and then had nothing on the actual final lap.

Photo Credit: Vitek Siroky

Mt. Dooley Tour d'Horn

I certainly regret the move I made on this final race. Initially I had thought I'd try to get in the very first idiotic break and hope to win the overall. However, I didn't think I was warmed up enough when that break went, so I didn't make it in that break. I tried to get away a few times and eventually did at mile 20 and nobody followed me. I worked alone until I caught a dropped Bob's rider. Then on the climb to the feed zone I dropped Bob's and the field caught me right at the feed zone.

I thought I could hang on, but after the attacks that Lang Reynolds and Erik Slack threw down, I just couldn't make it up the hill to the long downhill with anyone. I was dropped for good and was all alone. I pretty much didn't see another racer or a hint of a bike race except for the 2nd feed zone until the climb where I believe I saw Trevor Spahr waving at me from atop another switchback. I had ran completely out of food too once I hit the climb. By the time I got to the finish I was 26 minutes back.

After the race, I had some good conversation with Sam Krieg, one of my breakmates from day 1, who did think my move was crazy, but that it was good that I raced my bike. I dunno, I've heard this sentiment from a few others and do think that tactics are a part of racing your bike and that sometimes the best way to race your bike is to sit in. And that is something I do think I need to practice doing more often.

Photo Credit: Vitek Siroky

For the Record, Erik Slack is a Badass

Erik Slack winning Stage 1
Photo Credit: Vitek Siroky

Stage 1: Erik Slack starts out the day long break. At mile 50 in the race, his rear wheel is definitely wobbling out of true. He then proceeds to win the race. After the race, it becomes apparent that the reason his wheel is out of true is because a spoke is broken on his rear wheel.
Stage 2: OK, so the TT isn't Erik's thing, but he only loses a minute to the winner Sam Krieg.
Stage 3: Laps the field and then wins the sprint.
Stage 4: Pulls the field for almost the entire race. Counters all attacks and winds up 4th place at only 41 seconds back. He wins the overall a full 50 seconds ahead of Krieg and nearly 4 minutes ahead of 3rd place. Erik earned the overall jersey and if there were a sprinter's jersey or hillclimber's jersey he would have won those too.

More Idiocy at PIR

Yes, it all continues again at this Tuesday's PIR. I got in an early break with Klipper which was really good because he was yelling instructing me to sit in when the break got a little slow. That break got caught probably because Rapha didn't have anyone in it. Then Eddie got in a break and I started to get really ancy. When the pace sort of slowed for a bit, Klipper and Liberles launched off and I followed. Klipper couldn't handle it and wished me good luck. Eventually Liberles, a Theraputic guy and myself all made it up to the break.

Once I made it to the break, I think I was actually being smart through the next hot spot which I contested in a reasonable fashion against Bedford, Liberles and Eddie French. I got 4th in that hot spot, but then I started to act like an idiot. I attempted to breakaway right after that hot spot and Bedford was the only person to take me up on that while the rest of the break chased us down. Then I tried all these other attacks for reasons I can't quite explain now, except for the all out sprint with 3 laps to go where I seriously thought we were on the final lap. All the while, some other Team O and a Theraputic guy were riding away for the win from the break. On the final lap, wherever I was, it was a bad position and in the final 400 I tried to lead the last splinter of the break up which included Eddie, but that entire splinter passed me at the finish so I got dead last in that break.


I guess I'm at a point where I'm really strong, but really dumb not smart enough. Getting myself into breaks though is pretty much my only strategy thus far, but once it comes to actually sprinting I am way outclassed. In the last 3 successful breaks I've got myself into, I've gotten dead last in each of them. I need to wise up really quick and I am very happy to be surrounded by much smarter teammates who will hopefully guide me towards the path of enlightenment in all these upcoming crits.

Summer Update

All right, here's a little update. I just got done with Austin trip #2. It was warming up still to the point where it was typically over 100 degrees every day. On the first Thursday, I headed down to the Driveway on a Thursday and found it quite hard. I didn't get any primes and didn't even break the top 20 in the sprint despite staying somewhat towards the front. Guess it wasn't forward enough.

The Garmin is showing 101 degrees in the bottom right on my ride out to the Driveway.

That weekend I had to go and be at this Formula 1 Expo at the Austin Convention Center, so I did a group ride on Saturday and then rode out in the neighborhood of the F1 track that's being built in Austin.

Setting up for the F1 Expo

The site of the Formula 1 Race still under construction (in the distance on the left).

And then I became sick. At my worst I was coughing up huge wads of flem. On Thursday I had had enough and went to an urgent car place and they prescribed me 3 different kinds of pills. I stayed at the hotel that day and the next and the pills seemed to be eliminating the flem, but also making me really dehydrated upon waking up each day. This whole week was a rest week anyways, so I didn't really miss any workouts. On Sunday though, I decided I was feeling good enough to race San Antonio again.

San Antonio

I now knew kind of what to expect this time around. It was even hotter than before, but I was feeling decent enough and wasn't coughing. The race began and I was trying to not go all out for breaks for at least the first 24 minutes. At the halfway point, the field became noticeably tired and I knew that it was time for the true sufferers to start their walk away from the field. At about 36 minutes a 3 person break with at least one guy from the winning break last time we were here was up the road. Some suffering now would probably pay off for getting a top spot at the finish.

Bridging up to the break

Photo Credit: Walston Photo

I attacked the field and was luckily joined by a really strong rider. Together we were able to bridge up to the break. There was a late prime that me and another guy went for. He outsprinted me, but we dropped a guy from our break, so it was 4 now. The field was a safe distance away and we were all working well together until some real slight cat and mouse began. On the final lap, I was the first to burn my matches and attacked on the backstretch. Jack & Adams and the guy I bridged up with countered and rode away. Same thing happened around the final corner, except the sprint was a little longer, but I got beat by about half a wheel.

The sprint for 3rd.

Photo Credit: Walston Photo

I was still quite happy to get 4th even though I was last place in the break. And then things started going downhill. My cough suddenly came back and was quite bad. I almost completely lost my voice and felt like I was drowning in my cough. It was sooo hot and I was sweating so hard. I was evaporating you could say. Luckily I had carpooled down with some University of Texas friends I had made and they were laughing at me for how badly I was dealing with the heat, but they were there for me. It actually wasn't so much the heat as it was the illness. I had stopped early on taking my medications because all I didn't get antibiotics, so it wasn't entirely necessary to take all those meds anyways.

Back in the Northwest

This time I have actually been having good communication with Athlete's Lounge and at the very least, I'll probably have my Cervelo R5 ready to go if not also the TT bike. Having these bikes will help for sure since I'll be doing the P12 race.

Ready for Cat 2

Ready. Set. Mt. Hood.

Got into PDX at midnight. Got into Athlete's Lounge the next day and my bikes are not available at all, all parts are still in the boxes. I call my teammate and travel buddy for the weekend, Todd Gallaher who then calls Klipper who then both proceed to lecture me on how much of an idiot I am for expecting two bikes to be ready within 3 days notice and no extra details provided. On top of that, Athlete's Lounge was completely slammed for the biggest triathlon weekend of the year busy assembling bikes even more expensive than my upcoming Cervelo R5. For a moment, it seemed that I would not be racing this weekend. However, the shop owner whipped out an amazing deal on a bike on the sales floor a 61cm Cervelo S1:



Sold! And for such a good deal I will not say on this blog. Combined with the pedals I had brought from my Felt which I left in Texas for my 2nd Austin business trip, it was ready to go with only adjustments to the seatpost height and saddle position. The rationale behind this rather sudden and unexpected new bike was that I really wanted to race and that the Felt is probably nearing the end of its usefulness - at times I have heard something rubbing hard during sprints that I don't think is the wheel.

So off me and Todd went to The Dalles and we managed to get in a nice ride that evening. The bike actually came with a compact crankset which at first I was concerned about, but later very very thankful for.

Friday

We raced out in the hills southeast of The Dalles. With all the clouds and gadgetry I still could not figure out if we were going to get rained on or be 2km away from the rain and was concerned for having forgetten my bibshorts at the hotel. Turns out it rained a little bit.

Anyways, the race seemed like a hold-back-fest. Nobody wanted to play. On the only decent hill, the hillclimbers would always get a gap on the rest of the field and then proceed to let up allowing most people to catch back on. I was off the front probably too much. The final lap up the long false flat I couldn't stand it and attacked out with a Bob's rider. I pushed it hard up the hill hill and dropped Bob's, but probably should've waited for him. And then I was attempting a 10 mile solo break into the finish. It was windy and I thought that if I could make it to the downhills I could still have a chance against all the climbers who can't descend. Turns out I myself couldn't really descend as fast as I wanted which I speculate was due to a slight lack of eating. The peleton of about 40 caught me with about 2km to go. And then I had nothing for the final hillclimb finish and got gapped off the back at 17 seconds back.

I was pretty pissed that nobody else wanted to try to do a break in the 3s. Tactically at the time, that was the place to make a move for all people unsure of their climbing abilities. Yet out of who knows how many teams, I guess nobody else wanted to or perhaps they already had made up their mind that they were going to get beaten. But don't take my word for it, on the 3rd lap we were just mosying up the hill and someone from beside the road yelled at us "GROOOUUPPP RIIIDDEEE!!" He was so right, nobody except Garmin Kid, Bob's and me were trying to attack. People were having conversations in the field. The race was not hard at all.

Scenic Gorge TT

This race was just injury upon insult for me. I was doing somewhat ok in my race up to the Rowena Hills. I had passed one or two maybe even three guys and only had gotten passed by the ultimate winner. But then I got a flat about 2/3 of the way up the hill. Game over. I got a ride to the finish and got the worst actual finisher's time of 25 minutes back. GC fail.

As I got the flat, I set down my bike and started cheering on my other competitors as I waited for a ride. Then I saw a nice shady area to wait at and picked up my bike which then caught the 30mph wind with the disc and aero frame causing the downtube to slam into my leg giving it a nice looking bulge. Cherry on top!

Hood River Crit

Redemption time. A crit with hills is usually a crit I can rock and roll in. In this crit, Garmin kid really wanted to play from lap 3 and soloed away. I knew he would get it because the only team that may have been organized enough in the peleton to bring it back was Team Guinness - yes me alone bringing back that break slowly but surely over many laps but also dragging the rest of the field with me in the process. I seriously think that in the Cat 3 peleton I have tried to breakaway so many times (and been successful in half as many attempts) that the rest of the riders have an instinctual reaction to immediately chase down that break I get into. So I had to watch out and let Garmin kid ride away and hope for the best because I'm not going to chase down 1st just to get 30th.

Anywho, I don't remember much until the few final laps where I maintained a decent position and moved up on the final lap. This year the same thing happened where on the backstretch some people in the middle were on the front with the left sort of encroaching and the right side wide open. This time I punched in hard up the right and took as much of the final 3 turns as I could. Coming out of the final turn I sprinted with what I had left and managed to get 4th in the crit.

Photo credit: Dave Roth

Now there are a few things to mention about "bad style" in the above photo. First off is Jeff Gaeckle's bad style for getting a little too excited about getting 2nd place - a one handed wave or fist pump is probably more suitable than whatever Jeff had going on there. And yes he got 2nd, Garmin kid was 23 seconds ahead of him. And then after that is that weirdo Guinness rider wearing a little too much clothing. If you look closely, he is the only rider in the whole peleton with bib pants or even leg warmers on. Word from other riders was that he also has a knack for always wearing wool socks and always putting on his race numbers such that they inevitably tear off. But in my lame defense, I just came from Austin, Texas where the low temperature is 75 degrees!

Three Summits



Time for some real climbing! This year, I tried a different race strategy: not attacking from the gun. According to the senior Guinness Cycling Team race strategist on hand, Todd Gallaher, this race is always won on the final hill. Ok, so the course has 3 hillclimbs. The first isn't too bad at 2300 feet spread out over 13 miles, but there is a quite steep section for about 3 miles that a lot of people get dropped on. The next climb is 2000 feet over 7 miles. Definitely steeper and this will whittle out to close to the final selection of riders. The final climb is 2400 feet of climbing over 10 miles with a gradually increasing grade most of the way to the finish. Explosion avoidance is critical on the final hill.

For me the race didn't get very dramatic until after I had to hammer very hard by myself after taking at least a minute long nature break. I time trialed quite hard and was glad to have caught the slow field just before the steep section of hill 1. I made it over the top with the lead group and then descended carefully. Usually I descend very aggressively, but my brake pads were squeaking hard and the valve was making an unpleasant rim-whacking noise. Despite going somewhat easy on the downhill I still was first to the bottom.

Then going up hill 2 Garmin kid goes again. I guess I convinced myself that I would just hold on and not attack with him since by the laws of physics and me being the tallest if not heaviest Cat 3 in the peleton I was disadvantaged on the hills. Nonetheless I stayed with the lead pack and then mosied along with the now 7 man pack and again descended with squeaky braking.

Immediately at the bottom the pack slowed down a ton. It was a very slow pace for me so I just started setting a pace off the front. It looked for a moment that Bob's was following me, but then I was solo. Going up the final hill is interesting because the first section is this long and straight section where you can see a long way up or back down the road. And whenever I looked back it always looked like the chase group was within striking distance. I wasn't even attacking all that hard, my heart rate said I was in low z4 at the time, but I was going steady.

But then Tim Smith bridged up to me and we started working. And then a Mellow Johnny's rider from St. Louis bridged up too. I really wanted a podium and resolved in my mind that I would fight for it. Just before the cut-off to the ski area, Mellow Johnny's attacked us and we let him ride away. I sort of worked with Tim, but with 500 to go I attacked and then rode on up to a 3rd place finish in the stage! Podium!



Well with that I am pretty confident in my decision to upgrade to Cat 2. Ever since Walla Walla where I finally had the fitness to perform, it seems that it has been easy enough for me to get a podium if not win as long as I don't do constant futile attacks most of the race. Or I can still do lots of attacks and stay away in places where people don't know I can stay away... like in FRESH Road Race in Texas. And honestly, it really seems silly to see that podium shot of the final stage with me, this monster of a biker securing a podium performance against the likes of true climber-type bodied racers. It's time for me to seek tougher bike racing.

And now I'm back in Texas for another 2 weeks. I'm planning on doing the San Antonio crit again and then will be flying back just in time for Baker City.

Don't Mess With Texas!

And now for some completely different weather.

For these past two weeks I've been down in Austin, TX on a business trip. And since it was a full two weeks, I needed to bring my bike to train and race. The first week, I was on a week-long break from riding and just drove around in my Jeep Patriot. The weather was hot! Well, to this northwesterner it was. But while driving around, I thought it was bearable and a non-issue inside the air-conditioned buildings.



It wasn't until I went for my first half hour ride on Sunday that I realized...

IT IS HOT!!!

On the next Monday I went on a wake-up-the-legs ride for 3 hours. I originally had thought I'd go to the office and do some work and then do some riding in the night, but I just went for a ride once my key card failed to grant me access. I had 3 waterbottles on me and had already drank an entire bottle during the 30 minute commute to the office. I started riding out some more and filled up my bottles at a gas station. And then I did the rest of my ride consuming all of the water before I got back to the hotel. Usually 2 big bottles is fine for a 3 hour ride up in Portland, but that would have been a disaster down here. Tuesday I got out to a late start and didn't do all of my intervals, but still managed to get a 9th place on a strava segment.

The Driveway

Thursday was time to race at The Driveway! This race was fun and rather serious for a weekly series. $300 five-deep finish, TEN primes and a new helmet for the most aggressive rider (the rider first across the line the most laps). 60 minutes total. I had been sort of hydrating while warming up, but not throughout the day, so when the race started in about 90 degree heat, I began to feel fatigued much more quickly. The race was hard. A big break of like 12 people got away on the first lap and then I tried to bridge with another guy, but just a little later the field came absolutely roaring past and caught the break in no time. During this whole race I was either in a small break riding super hard or in a motivated and organized chase group.

The highlight of my night was not the finish, not even a prime lap, but a plain old lap. I was on the front for some kind of reason and wasn't going too hard. The finish line was coming up in about 200m so I figured I might as well make a pull to get some aggressive rider points. Usually in Washington or Oregon, the pack would have just let this happen, but not down here! Someone laid down an attack and took that lap away from me! This was actually an awesome feeling because it meant that any time getting across the line first was something you better damn well have earned.

With 4 to go I had an opportunity to take a prime and laid down a sprint probably a little too hard for that late in the race and got the prime. I was exhausted after this effort and tried hard to get a decent sprint position, but the reigning Elite National Criterium Champion David Wenger and 20 other racers easily outsprinted me to the finish.

FRESH

Friday I carpooled 250 miles with a guy I met through the txbra forums to Jacksonville, Texas where we stayed in a hotel. And then it was time for the FRESH Road Race and fresh was a feeling I had not been having lately it seemed. The course was your typical race around a lake. 18 mile laps and the 3s got to do 4 laps. The organizer was pretty sweet and had managed to secure enough prizes to make it a prime lap each lap. It started out with some attacks and early breaks. I tried to bridge up to the break to get a prime the first lap, but was 3rd. But I had gapped the field, so our break worked for a while and eventually got caught. It was a field sprint for the next prime and I think I got 2nd or 3rd again. After this, a break got away and was hanging out there. Just after the biggest hill of the course which was flat by northwest standards I bridged up to the break.

I was drinking quite a bit of fluids on the ride and packed four water bottles of which 3 had powder. There was also neutral water which I took advantage of on laps 3 and 4. I drank half of the neutral water and poured the rest on my back since it was starting to warm up into the 80s already at 11am. By the end of the race I had drank all of the water in my 4 bottles and also the equivalent of about 1 neutral water bottle.

The three of us were holding on and again I got 2nd in the prime sprint. At this point we had dropped the other breakmate, so the two of us starting working. It seemed like I was taking longer pulls than my breakmate, but I had to make the break work. By the time we had about 6 miles to go the pack was nowhere in sight and we were still cooperating. I had made the decision in my mind to try to solo and waited until a slight incline about 3 miles to go and put in an attack. My breakmate couldn't keep up and was soon far out of sight. Not knowing how far back the peleton was, I kept pushing hard until about 500m when I eased up and poster finished! 2nd place was 46 seconds back and the field was 2 minutes back! For this feat I won some cash and the strange, but quite useful prize of a foam-fitting pillow.

Again, it would be nice to have a pic of the finish.

San Antone

And then we drove all 250 or so miles back to Austin. The next day I drove myself down to San Antonio for the crit. This was an all right course. Kind of wide, but not very wide. Corner 1 was more than 90 degress and then it went into a slight uphill. The road bended to the right and then was slightly downhill into another bend which was almost a corner and a final corner onto the straightaway which was about 350m to the finish.

Since the course seemed lacking of dangerous corners and had decent pavement, I decided to ride on my American Classic 58s which was the first time I used carbon wheels in a crit. It actually felt incredible as those wheels always do. But in the corners it was just so smooth such that at one point I was riding a bit too close to another wheel in front of me with about 2 inches maximum to spare, yet at the same time I felt completely in control of my bike and the line I was taking. We didn't rub wheels at all, but this did scare off another rider who observed this happen. At least it wasn't as close as the encounter David Wenger had in Athens.

Photo Credit: Walston Photo

It had to have been in the high 80s when the race started and was warming up still. I had 3 bottles on me and probably should have drank more often. The pace seemed slightly less intense than the driveway, but was still hard. Breaks were happening and then getting reeled back in and then one stuck which I didn't get into which was a mistake because I knew the guy getting into that was strong. Eventually I got myself into a chase break which was working hard to bridge. We could see that we were closing in on a break ahead of us, but we had 5 to go. With 3 to go, we were nearly within striking distance. With 2 to go I put in a hard effort and was able to bridge with one guy from the chase break. Final lap I started winding up already on the backstretch and then kept going hard on the straightaway and took 3rd from this break. However, there were 6 other riders in another break up the road, so I ended up 9th. It also became clear that my front wheel got a flat, so perhaps that hindered my sprint a bit.

The week of Mt. Hood

And then I went back to my car and proceeded to sweat off unprecedented amounts of water. Then it was out to get some fajitas and drive back. Monday was an easy ride and then Tuesday I tried to beat Kristian House's (a former British National Champ who was doing some winter training in Austin) KOM of Lost Creek on Strava. The best I could manage was a minute behind... on a 1.1 mile climb. It's just unreal what the pros can do. Another highlight was that I glued on my first tubular all by myself. It was hard and I ripped the skin off my right thumb three times in the process.



And I'm finishing off this blog post while on the plane to PDX. The plane was delayed so I'm probably going to get home at about 1am tonight which isn't good for my sleep, but hopefully that foam fitting pillow will make things better. Tomorrow I go to Athlete's Lounge to hopefully pick up both of my new bikes. All the parts have been sourced and it's just a matter of whether the mechanics can work some magic since the parts didn't all get there until this Sunday. But things are in motion and the bikes will be ready soon. I'll be sure to have a whole post just about these bikes. As for Hood, I'm going for GC in what will probably be my last race as a 3. And then I fly back to Austin on Monday to work another 2 weeks and will fly back to Portland just in time for Baker city. I'm dreaming and trying to secure a winter-time job through my company in Austin and a summertime job up in Portland - I hope I'll be that lucky.

There's work to be done

What a whirlwind of a past few days. I did ok facing a logistical nightmare for this weekend. Unfortunately, I did not setup my two new bikes in time for Enumclaw, but things are in the works for them. Even still I had a whole lot of work to get done and used a lot of cool tools to make sure I had everything planned out in an accomplish-able manner. Most of the weekend it seemed like I was either completely busy or had wayy too much time to kill.

Friday:

6:30: Woke up, prepared today's and tomorrow's breakfast. Prepared my race bike for transport by strapping my American Classic Wheels to the bike so I could have Amtrak take a bike with four wheels. Walked and caught the MAX with my big red suitcase, wheelbags with my carbon American Classic 58s, my backpack and my race bike with four wheels.
8:00 Train to Tacoma. Ate breakfast on train and did some work which included booking airline tickets for an upcoming 2 week trip to Austin, TX.
11:00 Arrived in Tacoma and picked up Karly's car at Tacoma Dome Station. Went back to the train station to pick up the rest of my luggage. Drove to Seattle to pick up a TT frame and Disc that my teammate Todd Gallaher sold to me.
13:00 Picked up my frat bro Gianpaolo and chose a restaurant to eat at in Little Saigon that had a direct view of Karly's car. Food wasn't so great, but the conversation about women was.
14:30 Drove to Tacoma Bike and picked up a trainer that Mike Brown graciously loaned to me for the weekend. It was rather strange this time in Tacoma Bike since I knew nobody that worked there. And furthermore, compared to my new bike shop of choice of Athlete's Lounge in Portland it didn't seem all that race-worthy as it used to. Also picked up a bike box and had to put the TT Frame and disc inside of it and remove the headrests of both front seats in order to fit everything into the car.

16:30 Met the newest housemate of Tracy's no... Karly's no... umm that house on South 7th. And she was a cute Christian chic who was about to go on a bike ride! Zing! I kitted up really quick and rode with her out as far as 19th and Jackson and then did some intervals around the 5 mile drive.
19:00 Took a shower and then biked out to a Taco Truck. Saw Gary (a guy who I used to be cool and ride fixed around Tacoma with) walk by and chatted a bit.
20:00 Bike conversion to TT setup and then in bed just after 9pm!

Saturday:

6:00 Woke up, packed all stuff for the day into the car and drove out to Enumclaw.
7:30 Setup and warmup for the TT.
9:54:00 TT Start
10:08:30 Finished TT. Was not happy with that time. A number of things were not right for this. Firstly, I didn't have a TT bike. I now have the frame so I am solving this issue. Also, my heart rate monitor wasn't working. And I was riding the course for the first time, but man I was hoping to have rode that faster.
12:00 Terriyaki lunch with Todd G.
13:00 Killing a lot of time.
15:00 Decided to go do some work in the Enumclaw library. Did that and then watched the last stage of the Tour of California that another racer was watching via internet feed in the library.
18:30 Sort of warming up for Crit.
19:40 All of the Cat 3s had lined up for the crit that the tech guide said was actually starting at 7:50. I still managed to get a good starting position on the line. In this crit I really realized that I have a lot to work on in my cornering abilities. The only places to move up were on the long straightaways or the corners, but using the corners right meant everything. I just could not find a good line through the final corner and despite being 6th wheel going into the finish I didn't make the top 10.
20:40 Talking to my coach and Klipper about my suckiness averageness in the TT and Crit.
21:00 Drove home. Showered, ate some food.

Sunday The Day that Cycling BC utterly dominated the Mutual of Enumclaw:

7:00 Woke up. Biked to the Hilltop Safeway, cooked breakfast, setup the bikes and headed out.
11:00 Let a borderline hypothermic Andrew Austin warm up in the idling car. He was waiting for his dad to finish the masters race so didn't have any spare clothes. But even then I had to pretty much yell at him to take off his damn soaking-wet kit and change into some dry clothes I borrowed to him.

I also checked out the Cat 3 GC standing at the moment. It read as follows:
1. Apex
2. Apex
3. HSP
4. Cycling BC
5. Olympia Ortho
6. Apex
7. HSP
8. Apex
9. HSP
10. Team Stanley

And I was sitting 29th. At 1:42 back.

13:00ish The Cat 3 Men begins. Weather is wet, but there are still perhaps 50ish riders at the start. On the corner to 456th a Cycling BC kid takes it too hard and crashes himself, but that is the last thing that goes wrong for that team today. Next an obligatory early break starts off with what appears to be an Apex guy and someone else. I try to position myself towards to front to see what this hill is like. The hill is pretty good, nice and long with a few steep sections. Then a long downhill where I was either braking to go the speed of the pack or nearly hoverplaning over the rumble strips.

OK, I'm now just as bored with writing this race summary as I was with actually racing going on a fun ride up until the final 2 laps. Basically mostly HSP and Apex set a pathetic pace that had my heart rate dipping into z1 territory. I made some attacks, but then they just sat on my damn wheel so hard that I literally had to stop pedaling entirely for them to pull through. On lap 3 there was some action going on with the climbs and I was up there with the attackers, but the field kept in contact.

Lap 4 is where things got interesting. Right before the hill, a Cycling BC guy kindly asks me "do you want to go on the hill?" I reply "If I have it". Cycling BC attacks hard with 2 of their guys on the 2nd steep section on the beginning of the climb. Nobody responds. I myself at that point thought "eh, that part is too steep." But then I didn't even go on the false flat. And nobody went! When we got to the downhill we could see Cycling BC catching the day-long break up the road that was 1:40 away at the last random-voice-from-the-road.

At this point the field was reduced to perhaps 20 riders, but it was seriously only 2 guys working and again lots of braking on the downhill. My breakaway tactics had no success on the flats and after seeing Cemanski and Tim pull - if you can call it that - a good distance to the bottom of the climb I knew I was going to attack on that climb. Shortly after the two steep sections there is this little bump and I went there and nobody except another Cycling BC guy followed so we started breaking away from the field. And we worked together until we reached the break up the road which was not the other two Cycling BC guys from the previous lap, but one Cycling BC guy and an HSP guy which really surprised me. Me and my breakmate were pulling hard still, but then his teammate yelled at him "No! We have a man up the road!", to which at first he replied "No, c'mon we can do this!", but his teammate insisted on not going. Also me hammering my ass off on the downhill probably convinced him to let up as well.

I was just trying to breakaway and get any seconds or at least 5th in the race so I kept going hard downhill. HSP dude didn't pull through until we got to a flat section of the downhill and it was quite clear - clear due more to his speed of pulling through than his constant ranting of "I dunno if I can keep this up, I think I'm going to die any moment!" - that he wasn't going to keep a strong pace. Cycling BC didn't pull once in our break. And then when we turned right onto 284th, both guys from Cycling BC laid down an unmatchable attack up the little riser. It was then a left onto 440th and the field was closing in. HSP was now even more ferverent in his predictions of imminent explosion. I kept pedaling past the 1k and it was gonna be close. Left onto Railroad and I started getting out of the saddle and got passed only by 1 person from the field for 5th place.

Race post mortem

In this race, Cycling BC took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. 1st place solo'ed away to put 1:40 ONE MINUTE AND FORTY SECONDS!!! on the field plus a 10 second time bonus to take 1st in GC. And this wasn't the Cycling BC's guy who was 4th GC going into the race - he was right around the exact time back I was! Cycling BC's 4th place GC going into the race got 2nd place, had 10 seconds gap and added 6 seconds bonus which put him in 2nd in GC. The GC leader going into the race came in nearly 7 minutes behind, but only one Apex guy held onto the pack to salvage 3rd GC and the only final top 10 GC from Apex after beginning the day with 4 members in top 10 GC. HSP pretty much held their spots, but then the 3rd place Cycling BC guy launched himself up 2 spots in GC into the top 10 at 9th.

I personally am asking myself some serious questions like "why didn't I follow the race-winning attack on the hill?" or "should I have tried harder to mess with the minds of my breakmates when I did breakaway?" or even "should I have been yelling at the field for being a bunch of sandbaggers?" Whatever the case, it is still clear that my road racing tactics are not perfect and need more work. And for the other teams out there, I'm not going to go into any more detail, but I hope you all realized how badly you got your asses whooped. If you don't realize this then I would be happy to explain it to you.

And onwards

16:30 Changed in my car, packed everything, called in an order to go at El Camino, checked race results, picked up fajitas to go, drove to Tacoma Amtrak and had about a half an hour to spare.
18:00 It now was really dawning on me how bad Cycling BC beat us and I was explaining in detail the situation to a long-lost friend-of-my-sister, Becky that was taking the train too. I ate a bunch of food on the train.
21:00 Transported my race bike, bike box and suitcase with the help of Becky back home.

23:00 Losing sleep thinking about Cycling BC's domination.

Monday

8:00 Packing for trip to Austin.
12:00 Lunch with family.
13:00 Struggling to fit 3 wheels and race bike into a bike box. Had to call Brent from veloshop Portland Bicycle Studio to figure out that I was a total moron and was twisting my pedals the wrong way as hard as possible in trying to get them off.
15:00 At PDX.
00:30 (Central) In AUS.
01:00 Rolling in a rental Jeep through massive Texas interchanges.

And with that publish post button I'm off the bike for this week. I'm planning on doing Austin's version of PIR next Thursday and then driving for 5 hours to get to a road race that Saturday just to drive back to San Antonio for a crit the next day. And then I'm flying back just in time for Mt. Hood where if any of you poser Cat 3 racers from Washington come down you're probably in for an even worse ass-beating unless you all learn real quickly how to climb hills and protect your GC leaders. Actually, I look forward to seeing you in all honesty. :)

Thanks to the following people/entities for their support:

My sister Karly for going out of her way to loan me her car and to let me use her dwelling place.

My employer Mygistics for being very flexible with my racing schedule

TrafficBug^® - The Commuter's Companion^SM (ok, I helped myself with this) for being such an awesome traffic app that provided realistic travel times for driving and thus scheduling my weekend.

Tacoma Bike for letting me borrow a trainer for the weekend.

The residents of the house on S 7th for good company and some garlic I took

All of the volunteers and coordinators who made the MOE happen

Becky for helping me haul all of my bike equipment back home on the MAX

My family for delivering me to the Airport