I lost to a Triathlete

Well, I guess I should finally just say it.  I lost the Mt Ashland Hillclimb this year.  But more disappointingly is that I lost to a triathlete.  It was bad.

My sleep was so-so going into the race, but whatevs.  I didn't have a floor pump and was using my hand pump instead so I probably only put in 100 pounds.  At the top my front wheel was quickly going flat.  But the big thing was that when the triathlete made his move I didn't follow.  But he didn't even make a move was the thing, it was kind of like Eugene where everyone else is looking at each other waiting for someone else to do something and before you know it someone is up the road.  I guess nobody took him seriously, but damnit, he won.



That just really irks me about Oregon road racing is that it always seems like when you lose, you lose for a stupid reason and not because it was a hard bike race.  At least in cyclocross you do get your ass handed to you by the likes of Shannon Skerritt and Carl Decker, but all the roadie pros have left or just don't enter many Oregon road races.  Please Pros, come back and whoop on us so we are all taught what it's like to race a proper Pro/1/2 road race.

But hey, at least I won these in the raffle!

My Bikes: STOLEN: Giant Seek 3

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	2009 Giant Seek 3
Crankset:	Stock
Chainring:	Stock Triple. Chain Guard is broken off.
Handlebar:	Stock
Pedals:	Stock
Shifters:	Stock
Chain:	Relatively new chain
Deraileurs:	Stock
Brakes:	Stock disc brakes
Saddle:	Stock, part of the fabric is coming off
Water bottle cage:	Bell Cage
Fenders:	Permanent fenders with no flaps

Wheel Set:

Wheels:	Stock
Tires:	Schwalbe Marathon tires

Personal Stories about this bike

I used this bike to ride around town to get groceries, etc. It was a very handy bike.

It was stolen last night. I locked it up to a small parking sign outside my building at SW 5th & Clay in downtown Portland. When I got out to go to work this morning, the bike along with the sheet metal sign had been stripped off of the pole.

Eugene

Well, it's that time of year again for my most favorite stage race: the Eugene Celebration!  This year in revolving chairs lodging arrangements, I scored a ride and stay with Alex Yale and Kyle Brown of Theraputic Associates.



We totally coulda fit another person or two in the ride.

McBeth

Yeah, same hillclimb, about the same time for me as last year.  So moving onwards, let me show you this awesome queen-szie inflatable mattress that Alex let me use:



The bed was a key component of my success the following few races.  I put my legs up on the headrest as I slept.  It was quite comfortable.

Briggs Hill

Well, going in I knew that this race was going to be quite crazy since it seemed like half of the field was known for attempting and succeeding in breakaways.  Also, there weren't really any teams there, so it was basically every man for himself.

About a mile into the race Dillon Caldwell, Ben Thompson and another dude got the gap.  Well, I knew that with the small field and combo of riders up there, it would be dangerous, but not many people seemed interested in actually cooperating to bring it back despite me trying to get people to do so.  We went up Briggs hill and it seemed like we were trying to get a Strava KOM until it was apparent the field was back together after the turn onto Spencer Creek.

Oh, by the way, at this point, Sam Schartz had been off the front for like half a lap.  The pack stopped doing an organized chase everyone-for-themselves-attempt-to-breakaway and eased up.  However, I was at the back and just kept my race speed wondering if anyone would follow, but nobody did.  And so I bridged up to Sam Schartz.  He then decided to start hammering for me which was fine by me.  Before the next hill we were joined by Paul Bourcier and Kai Applequist and we worked well together.  The next lap a sizeable group including Colby WM, Kyle Medlin and maybe 2-3 others joined us.

At this point, those 3 that had basically gone from the gun had 2:30 on us.  But then our race official car stopped us at the top of Briggs Hill cause an ambulance had blocked the way.  And we learned that those 3 had passed the lead car!  And the refs said they were disqualified and no longer the race leaders.  The rest of the peleton was also stopped at maybe 1:30 behind us.

This changed the dynamic quite a bit and it sure seemed like Colby and Kai who were up in the GC were no longer interested in doing much work.  So after we had climbed Fox Hollow it was grupo compacto except for Paul Bourcier who went just before we were caught.  Bedford guttered us all and asked me who had the gap to which I replied "GASP GASP GASP, paul bourcier, GASP GASP GASP."  And he saw that the entire field was behind him so he didn't feel like going again, I guess.  After a little bit of people waiting for someone to do something I put in my final getaway attempt right before Territorial rd and saw that I was getting away.  I got into TT mode for 30 pedal strokes, set my eyes on Bourcier, then checked behind and saw some attempts to bridge to me.  And then I was in TT mode for 2 minutes, set my eyes on Bourcier who I was catching up to, then checked behind and saw the gap was growing to the field.  And this continued up Briggs hill where I caught Bourcier at the top.

We then drilled it very cooperatively all the way until Bourcier gave me the flick with 300m at which point I unleashed the stompie.  I had to give it one final push at 50m to win by half a wheel.  It was a good win, but I was most pleased that I had gotten away from the coulda-woulda-shoulda group.  In fact Paul and I had gotten away to the tune of 2:30!  And that put me in the lead by 3 seconds.

Then Alex and I went out for Thai and I stopped at Laughing Planet for another burrito.

Coburg TT

I was pretty happy about my TT.  It was crappy weather, but I was able to put in a great time and lost only 9 seconds to Paul Bourcier (Paul has beat me in every TT at the stage races this year).  Also, Colby and English didn't gain anywhere close enough time to get back on GC.  Oh, and I got to ride my awesome TT Bike.

Crit

Well, it was just flat and stuff.  Oh and it started raining at the start so it was slick.  Sam Schartz had exploded yesterday, so he was down on GC and nobody seemed interested in chasing him when he went.  But somehow Kaler Marshall also snuck away and both of them lapped us all!  The rest of the race was or really all of it was Paul and I mostly defending GC and everyone else attacking.  I also did a few attacks but when it became clear that Carl Hoefer was gonna take those remaining 4 bonus seconds for third, I settled for a pack finish and prayed that Kaler Marshall hadn't hoped up too high in GC.





Turned out Kaler jumped from 5th to 3rd with me grabbing 2nd GC and Paul Bourcier finally winning his first Eugene Celebration Stage Race in the p1/2s after 80 attempts.

My Bikes: Black Beauty

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	ICAN TT Frame and Fork
Crankset:	Rotor 3D Aero
Chainring:	Vision 55 carbon aero, Shimano Ultegra 44 aero
Handlebar:	3T Aura-pro
Brake Levers:	SRAM 500 Aero
Pedals:	Speedplay Zeros
Shifters:	Shimano Dura Ace Bar End
Chain:	Shimano Ultegra
Deraileurs:	Shimano Ultegra
Brakes:	FSA I think?
Saddle:	Fizik Ares
Water bottle cage:	Bontrager Carbon Cage

Wheel Set:

These wheels belong to the Guinness Cycling Team.

From Wheel:	American Classic Carbon Tubular 85mm
Rear Wheel:	American Classic Carbon TT Tubular Disc
Tires:	Vittoria Crono (22 on front, 24 on rear)
Cassette:	Shimano Ultegra 25/11 (my own cassette)

Personal Stories about this bike

I have to give a big thanks to a lot of people for making this bike happen. First off to Todd Gallaher for selling me the frame and another disc wheel for a very good price. Next up to David Klipper for the deal on the handlebars. To Athlete's Lounge for putting it all together and providing a good fit for me. And finally to Guinness Cycling Team for the opportunity to use the wheels for the Time Trial races.

Crit Season is a bust for me

Man, I seriously suck in the last 5 laps of crits. Like badly. Ok, maybe not as bad as those who crash out of them, but I think after the final big crit of the year last night I'm really disappointed in myself. This whole frickin season my best result in a crit is 10th. That just sucks. I didn't win any primes and the only cash I won was at Redmond Derby Days where it payed 20 deep. Seriously, here are my crit results:

Tour of Walla Walla: 85th same time
Mutual of Enumclaw: 53rd pulled out of race
Capital Stage Race: 44th pulled out of race
Mt Hood: 60th same time
St Honore: 17th same timeish
Redmond Derby Days: 17th same time
Cascade: 31st same time
Vancouver: 10th last from break
Franz Bakery: 16th
Cirque du Cycling: 20th

So yeah, I'll go over those last 3 here.

Vancouver

After more trouble than it ought to have been for me, I bridged up to the break of the day.  Eventually it was 10 of us and eventually I could not keep up a reasonable place and got last from the break.  That sucked.

Franz Bakery

So this race I set a record for most spectators coming to watch me.  I had my Mom & Dad, my Mom's friend and her friend's husband, my cousins Eric and Laura and then Laurel, her sister, her sister's husband and their 3 kids.  And all I could show for it was 16th place and in the process I relinquished my 4th place Oregon Cup standings and ended up 7th on year which is good, but not good enough damnit!  I was so angry at myself after that race because it is a race I have come close to winning twice and I really like bread.  It was also immensely stupid because as shown in the photos below I was in a good spot with 4ish to go and just totally blew it the last 2 laps.







Cirque du Cycling

Lots of money on the line for this one. Jordan was saying he was bringing extra medics for the races and Eddie was telling me I need to line up on the line for this race. And it was almost about the thunderstorm. Well, I lined up ok, it didn't thunderstorm and I avoided crashes. But still on the last lap or maybe the second to last lap I thought I was doing good and was something like 4th out of the 180, but by the time I got to the next corner I was out of the top 10 and gave up. Gosh that sucked.





I am truly in disbelief as to how badly I suck in crits. Not cool.

Oh, I almost forgot...

I finally won at Tuesday PIR by doing a successful stompie from a break.  Going clockwise I sprinted with 1k and then held a good speed and the gap all the way to the finish.  Then after getting some dinner at Eddie's I biked home in the dark and while going on Broadway a guy in a Mercedes took me out while diving in for a parking spot.  He felt really bad and settled it out with me by giving me $200 from the nearest ATM.  That is just sad that my crit winnings are less than that crash compensation. 

All right I am done complaining hopefully.  I'm not doing the Gresham crit and am focusing on Eugene for now.

CCC 2013

And that CCC this year stood for Cretinous Crazy Crashes!

This year I decided that I'd prefer racing with teammates and was able to guest ride for Team Oregon.  I got up all bright and early on Friday and Eric Gushurst was nice enough to pick up me, my two bikes, 2.5 wheelsets and red monster suitcase.  Going over to the race with Eric and Chris Dubois put me in a good mood with the near-constant bike race talking and wisecracking from those two.  Oh and watching the tdf on Jorge's phone was an added bonus.

Cascade Lakes

The plan for the race was for someone to get in the early break and then Chris and Eric and I would help Dillon get in a good spot for the final climb.  Oh and Scott Gray and Adam Artner would just be out playing bikes with us too.  So to start things off we all flew down the Sunriver cutoff and then turned right onto FS Road 40/Upper Deschutes.  Then of course the breakaways started and eventually Andrew Boone was off the front.

Then it was time to wait.  The next somewhat exciting thing to happen was perhaps the first stupid crash of the weekend which happened at the feed zone.  A little later I then dropped my chain and pulled over to fix it.  I didn't really notice, but apparently as I was standing on the side and as I leaned down to fix my chain I swung one of my legs directly into the peleton and nearly caused a few crashes.

Anywho I caught on after the chain drop and then made sure I was towards the front to cover any breakaway attempts that may happen before we got to the hill.  We could still see a few guys from the break up there but nobody really wanted to give it a go.  So as we approached the final climb I was trying to get Dillon to get to the front and was looking back to make sure he was on my wheel, but he didn't quite make it on my wheel for some reason.  So I did make it to the front and figured I'd just sit on the lead group and wait for Dillon to get up there too.

As we went up the hill suddenly it was just 6 of us as I glanced back.  I knew this was the move, but I also knew that it's nearly impossible for anyone to bridge to that move so I just sat in expecting to get dropped shortly.  I was pegged at my top end the whole way up the hill, but once we made it past the final steep section I knew I had made the selection.  I didn't do any work until we got to the parking lot road where I sat on Max O'Neal's wheel.  Max covered two gnarly attacks from this kid (hot tubes I think) and then made his own move at 200m.  I waited a little more, but once I heard a guy yelling out "right! right!" I knew he was going for the sprint so I took the long way around the left but it ended up that I had enough speed to get the win.

After the race we drove over to Dillon's soon to be new neighborhood and had dinner at the clubhouse.  Spaghetti and fruit and good scenery.

High Desert TT

I really don't have much to say about the TT except that I was pleased that despite my lack of practice, etc that I managed to get a good enough time to keep me in 3rd GC.  Actually I was thinking about sprinting for the line on the final straight but didn't and in the end the winner of the TT got a time good enough to get 1 second ahead of me in GC, so note to self: always sprint for the line in a TT.

Crit

Since I was 3rd GC and there were no intermediate time bonuses this was a 40 minute trial of avoiding crashes for me.  I sat in and numerous times had to brake fairly hard because of either a real crash but quite often an almost-crash which was causing almost-crashes behind me.  Sorry!  Our team plan was for Adam Artner to win, but he went too early and was a little hard on himself after the race.  He later consoled himself with some avocados and yams (inside joke).

Awbrey Butte

Going into Awbrey Butte our team had a plan to not let a break get away too far and then attack on the way up and through Awbrey Butte on the 3rd lap and then maybe Dillon could get away and place better.  The parts of making it a hard race sounded good to me.

When the race started there was yet another crash at mile 2 that I actually got tangled up in.  I narrowly avoid I think Max O'Neal who was on the pavement and then my front wheel got stuck in someone in front of me and I skidded to a stop somehow remaining upright the whole time.  I checked my wheels and noticed that the front wheel was just a little out of true so I released my brake pads a bit and decided to go chase without a wheel change.

I caught up fairly quickly and I think I noticed Andrew Boone get in the break yet again so it was time to wait.  We went through the feed zone grabbing these neutral water bottles that were only useful for pouring on your back as the caps made you choke when you tried to drink it.  Then we got neutralized twice as the Masters 1/2 passed us twice.  Then the break's 4 minute advantage suddenly went to 0 minutes as we approached the climb on lap 3 - weird, but game on!

Scott Gray starting hammering up the hill and we dropped a fair amount of people, but Kaler Marshal and Ben Thompson were still up there.  The 4th time around our team was planning on keeping the pace tough.  Eric told me he wasn't sure how much more oomph he had and so I asked him, "so how about you string it out right now!"  And he did!  And then he took a wrong turn.  And then I spoke with Adam and told him I wanted him to come one a breakaway attempt with me on the backstretch.  However, Dillon was already in a favorable position so he found himself in a break which looked pretty good.  Adam then countered a few moves and I hung out with the GC leaders.

The final time up Archie Briggs we caught that breakaway that Dillon was in and then it was gruppo clusterfracko.  I was sandwiched at one point between Dwayne Farr and Brian Hitchcock and was making contact with both of them until I decided to relinquish my not-a-spot.  We headed through the roundabout and then I was on Dillon's wheel but then I somehow ended up on the right and was on Adam's wheel.

With 50 meters before the final roundabout Adam punched it into the inside of the corner which was a dangerous move even with us riding thru the roundabout beforehand to know that the inside was clean of any obstacles.  I hesitated and couldn't follow Adam's wheel but also took the inside hard.  Adam then opened up his sprint and completely crushed it while I sprinted for a top 10 after hearing the final gnarly crash of the weekend happening to the rear left of me.

It was then a tense few minutes afterwards as I surveyed the carnage that HSP went through over the weekend but also as I awaited results to see if I kept my 3rd overall GC.  One of the GC contenders got 3rd, but it was barely not enough time bonus that I kept the podium spot.  Adam really saved it for me by winning the 10 second time bonus.

After all that we headed home and made wisecracks the whole way back about bike racing, over-protective cops in the town of Mill City and whatever else passed the time.  Aside from all the crashes this was the funnest weekend of bike racing I had had the whole year, not to mention the best result too.  Having teammates along the likes of those I had over the weekend put me in a great mood which had to have contributed towards my success.

Two more important things worth noting:

1.  After 3 years of Randy's domination, I have finally won the Tacoma mini-league in Tour de France fantasy!
2.  I have yet to receive my prize money in the mail, but when I do I will be sure to split it up.

Learning to Sprint

ok ok, so I'm playing catch up on my posts here... I'll do another one for Cascade.  Anyways, the week before I was out racing as always.  Lately I've been working on trying to sprint decently.  I'm starting to get the power down, but am always working on positioning and have never quite figured that out.  Figuring out positioning is especially tricky, but at PIR I've been getting points in hot spots despite seemingly always picking the wrong side to pass traffic for the final sprint.

Well, on Saturday I went up to Redmond, Washington with Eddie for Derby Days.  Eddie always leaves with 3 hours to spare just in case oh, perhaps I-405 North and 520 are both closed like they were on that day.

Not much to report from the race except that Logan Owen is strong and Bedford is good at riding off the front for $400 primes.  I got 17th barely behind Morgan Schmitt and walked away with the biggest prize of the year of $65!  $65 for 17th place!  That is cool.  Eddie drove back and I slept through the boring part of Washington.

Next morning I promptly got up and caught a ride with Joe King to Montinore where the promoter there was gracious enough to offer up medals for the top 3 after nearly canceling the race which was an Oregon Cup race.  Man forget $1,000 for first place, the Oregon promoters know how to put up the prize money... NOT!!!  

Anyways, small rant aside it's actually cool because the Montinore course for whatever reason gets Oregon racers actually racing hard making for a fun hard race.  I was trying to save energy as best I could each time up the hill, but I was then chasing back on most of the time.  Ultimately that hill was too much for me and I couldn't hang on the final climb/sprint, so I was maybe the third floater across the line which was good enough for 8th and thus enough Oregon Cup points to put me back in 5th in the standings.

Negative Racing

I didn't have a very good weekend of racing results wise.  I should have been able to do better than high teens and 23rd in both races.  I could blame it on the 3 crashes that happened right in front of me, but on the other hand Zak crashed and still won it.  I could blame it on the big team presence from HPC and Team O, but on the other hand Tim Reinhart and Steven Davis made that break without having a 10-person squad.

And on top of that it sucks that there isn't even a fall back of at least having a teammate who did get the prize, all I'm left with is a disappointment in myself.

Enough ranting from me, not all weekends can be awesome.  Next up for me is Redmond Derby Days, Montinore and then I'm probably guest riding for Team O at Cascade.

Mt Hood 2013

Welp, the supposedly final Mt Hood Cycling Classic is over. Also, it's getting increasingly easier to find pictures of myself racing now that I'm in the Pro-1-2 field.

As mentioned before I was on the fence about whether or not to do this race, but once I learned that it will be the last ever and with the consistent urging of my coach I gave in and signed up.  I'm glad I did.

Columbia Hills

Drove out there and was not really expecting the race to start like it did which was going from the gun.  We were going at full steam the entire first lap.  I was getting cramps because I hadn't warmed up at all.  I was just trying to hang on.  A few times up the hill I'd fall back to some chase groups and then fight with the others against the wind to catch up again.  By the downhills I'd be in the pack again.

There always seemed to be some kind of break up the road with some kind of Cal Giant contingent although not necessarily initiated by Cal Giant.  And then Hagens did us all a favor by making sure all those breaks didn't stay too far up the road.  That was def the toughest road race I had done so far this year.  I placed 51st in the main group (out of 111 starters) which was all I was hoping for.  In fact I was very excited when I finally saw the break continue to the finish on our 5th lap from the chase group because I was out of food and water.

Scenic Gorge Time Trial

It was a bit harder to figure out how fast I ought to go this year because unlike last year there was much less wind so the times would be faster.  I was going to shoot for sub-50, but hoping for around 45.  I think I coulda gone up Rowena just a little harder and also rode the final trail section with a little more intensity.  I only got passed by one person who ended up getting somewhere in the top 10 (Adrien from Garmin-Chipotle) so that was fine with me.  I ended up with 46:04 which again was good enough for 51st place (out of 105 starters).

Hood River Crit

In this race I knew that my goal was to hang out with the lead group for the long 75 minute crit.  I tried with very poor skill to get a good starting point by being ready to get on the course immediately after the women were done, but so was every single other rider and at the start line instead of corner 1 where I was.  So I went around and did a lap and lined up at the back.  Crap.

Well, the crit went well for me and I managed to move up to about halfway up the field after 10 minutes or so.  Then I managed to cut between two riders who had crashed on the corkscrew and quickly catch back up to the lead group.  Shortly thereafter I was at the back of the field and knew my fate was sealed for a pack finish.  The pace was fairly hot the duration of the race and I really couldn't tell you much about what was going on at the front except that I heard Steve Fisher's name being called out a bunch and I may have caught a glimpse of Cal Giant at the front a few times.

The last few laps the pace kicked up a notch, but I was able to hang on all the way to the same time finish, so I was very happy.  That's only the second time I've not been pulled from a crit this year and it was also in the toughest field I've rode with yet so that's great for me.  I ended up 60th (out of 101 starters).

Three Four Summits

I don't have many pictures for this one since I knew I was definitely going to get dropped on one of these climbs.  Sure enough, on the first climb I was just so slightly off the back and was going to count on my descending skills to catch up, but was getting passed on the descents.  I was able to catch back on shortly after the descent was over, but figured this was probably it.  Next time we hit the steeps all I remember is seeing a blur of Cal Giant red charging up the hill and that was that.  I descended down with two other people and we all climbed the next one together.  At the top I was feeling good and rode off on my own.  Eventually one of the other riders (another Evan) caught up to me and dropped me on the descent.  Then it was up the final hill and I was hoping I wasn't too far behind that I'd get the time cut.

I got passed by the masters field shortly after I got a beer from the Illegal Feed Zone (might be the last time I can get a beer from them at this race, so I figured I'd celebrate).  When I got to the turn-off to the ski area I saw all the contenders Cal Giant riders coming back down so I figured I wasn't massively far behind.  At the end I wasn't far back at all and actually was only 29:45 back (lol, not many races where you can be happy with that result).  My final result was 53rd on the day out of 93 starters and 66 total racers that crossed the finish line for a GC finish of 49th place.  Not bad.








And after that race I was super tired for numerous days.  Hopefully this family vacation will give me time to rest a bit without losing fitness.

And back to racing

Or should I say, back to HSP dominating to Oregon racing scene?

Well, I don't really have much to say except that I think I should try sprinting more often since it is kind of important. Over at PIR I got in a break and then went all out for a hot spot and only Beardsley and Trevor Spahr were able in the mood to hold onto my wheel so I got a point at PIR which is always an accomplishment for me. When the sprint came I wasn't going to get top 10 so I didn't really sprint, but then Christian Tresser, Eddie and Byron all flew by me and ending up getting like 3 or 5 points. I think I could've sprinted for maybe 3 points based on my position, so next time I ought to do that.

Over at Rainier there was a lot of waiting around once all of us figured out where the corners were since the organizers thought it would be a more challenging race if the flaggers didn't point in the direction we should go or even be at their corner to stop traffic the first lap. Also, poor Sam Schartz managed to get in a breakaway that nobody else noticed that then took a 2 minute long wrong turn. So anyways after that, breaks weren't sticking left and right so it was a field sprint where HSP could very well have gotten the entire podium if it weren't for them having just a two person squad. I was trying to get onto Klipper's wheel, but when that wasn't going to pan out I tried my luck elsewhere and ended up 10th which is satisfactory enough for me.

Next up is Mt. Hood which I am now happy that I signed up for since the other two competing Oregon races were cancelled. Klipper says my goal is to hang on and I would concur. Then I'm not doing Baker City, but instead visiting family. Then I'm doing the High Desert Omnium Road Race and maybe also the St Honore Crit, sucks that they're scheduled the same weekend. And then the whole damn Northwest has a scheduling problem of doing the following 4 awesome races during the same July 12-13 weekend: Montinore (actually not that important, but it is Oregon Cup), Redmond Derby Days, Boise Twilight and BC Superweek (well they at least put Gastown on the 10th, so I guess that's ok). I may need to rent a Zipjet for that weekend.

Finally some rest

Finally some rest!  Sheesh, that was 4 weekends of racing in a row.  Time for a recap.

Mutual of Enumclaw

Logistics

Rented a zipcar and headed up Friday night.  Was hosted by the Barta's!  I knew Rian back from my Tacoma Bike days and he graciously let me crash in his guest bedroom in Puyallup.  His wife cooked up some delicious rice and chicken for dinner and the kids behaved very well.  Thanks again Barta family!

I also got to see the other lone Guinness Cycling Team rider that ever does stage races in the Northwest: Todd Gallaher.  We had lunch at the best Thai restaurant in Enumclaw.  He gave some inspiring words of wisdom as always.  Here is a gem of his regarding the Canadians:

Time Trial

Well, I still haven't mastered the time trial, but keep improving.  My coach wanted me to break 13, but I ended up at 13:30 which was good enough for 25th/82.  It was also a bit faster than last year's time of 14:32.  Next year I guess I'll hit 12:30.

Crit

That had to have been the fastest crit I have ever done.  Right away I was nearly slipping down and sprinting out of every single corner just to keep up.  Especially after all the crashes.

Ultimately, I got pulled with about 18 minutes left.  That kinda sucked, but man it was a fast frickin race.  And I've got numbers to back up my claim!  That there is an average speed of 29.5 mph for an 8 corner crit.  Ridiculous.

After the race, I found out why I was nearly slipping out of each turn.  Time for some new tires - first time I've had to replace tubies due to wear.

Road Race

Strategy: hold on for as long as possible.  And I did so by making sure I was very close to the front before each climb.  The last three times up the climb I got dropped, but since I was sinking through the field it wasn't so bad and I managed to catch up each time.  On the 2nd to last lap I actually attempted a breakaway/bridge attempt on the road right before the climb.  As I was off the front I was kind of telling myself: "you're going to regret this".  And I sure did as they caught me right at the base of the climb.  That was about it really for me in this race.  The Canadians really showed us who was boss.

A big thanks to Amara at Wheels in Focus for all of the pictures!

PIR

As you may have noticed in all the Enumclaw pics, it didn't rain at any of the stages.  Therefore, when it was the first legitimate downpour of the year at PIR I thought I had better put in my crappy weather racing time.  There might have been 20 total 1/2/3 riders there.  My strategy was attack until there were so few people left that I'd have a good chance of getting top 5 if not a solo win.  Unfortunately it came down to 7 or so of us on the final lap.  Beardsley won as always, followed by Bedford and I shoulda gotten 3rd, but wasn't smart enough of a sprinter so I tied my all-time best result at PIR of 4th.  Yay?

Ski to Sea

Friday I took the Bolt Bus up to Seattle.  First time in a while taking a bus and it sure has its plusses of being able to take my TT bike (no disassembly required), 2 more wheels and my big red suitcase nonstop to Seattle all for about $25.  It doesn't beat the nice legroom and ability to walk around on Amtrak Cascades, but that isn't really worth $59 to me.

I have done Ski to Sea perhaps 3 times before, but I always used to do the XC Ski leg on a team organized by my frat bro's high school friend David Couvrette.  I stayed up at David Couvrette's place on Friday night and did an awesome TT ride from Kenmore to Golden Gardens to my sister's place and then outrunning a rain cloud down Lake City Way in the bus lane back to Kenmore.  Was great to be back in Seattle.

But we all headed north the next day.  Typically the Couvrettes put together a mix of very competitive athletes and some people of the kind who just came back from a 10 month trip to Asia and Africa with very little exercise and haven't skied in like years, but are going to do the XC Ski leg.  This year I was one of the big time hitters on the team and I was going to pre-ride the whole 42 mile course while our XC skier taught himself how to skate ski that day (chuckle chuckle chuckle).

The pre-ride was rainy, but I felt good about the course if not slightly sketched out by taking all those downhill corners at 40 mph without pedaling in the rain.  The weather forecast was somewhat optimistic for less rain the next day...  not!!

I had a brain malfunction and decided that I should not try to find some place dry to hangout since I had to leave my stuff for our runner to pickup at a certain spot.  I warmed up in my wool dress coat and fleece jacket and skinsuit.  By the time I was done warming up I was completely wet before the race even started.  Our runner came in and then I began passing every single rider on the road ahead of me.  It was so frickin cold at elevation, but it became somewhat tolerable as I descended.  I was really hoping to find someone to pace off of, but I was passing everyone very fast, I even passed a few pacelines.  I got right around the time I wanted of 1:30, but compared to all the other racer names I have heard of I was kind of at the bottom of that list.  Oh well, I'll take it.

PIR

A break got away from the big group and I was in it, but I didn't body check some Wooly Mammoth rider when he took Kyle Medlin's wheel from me, so I totally botched the sprint and ended up 10th overall.

Capitol Stage Race

Logistics

I was not feeling in the best mood going into this weekend.  I was mentally tired - both from a frustrating work project and racing again.  And then the night before I was going to glue the tire, but I didn't have the right valve extender.  Then the previous Zipcar user didn't return the Zipcar so I had to go get another one somewhere else.  And I had to do my bike workouts too which I didn't do very well I think.  I finally headed out at 9pm.

Luckily I had arranged to stay at my great aunt's place in Olympia which had an excellent guest bedroom.

TT 5k Sprint

I got in a pretty good warmup and felt good about my ride.  Comparing to 2011 when I last did the race I improved from 8:00 to 7:15.  Yeah, pretty good.  My Mom and Dad came over to watch me race, so of course, my Dad took tons of pictures:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Crit

The crit was pretty close to a disaster for me.  Something was very wrong with my rear wheel.  It felt like it was rubbing on the brakes, but it totally wasn't.  I think something is wrong with the bearings.  I got pulled only 25 minutes in.

Road Race

In the morning, I knew I wasn't feeling very mentally well, so I tried to do something about it.  Fortunately for me, one of my most favorite TV shows SpongeBob SquarePants was playing on a channel that was doing "SpongeBob's best wins" showing all winning-themed SpongeBob shows.  That helped me put this whole bike racing thing in perspective and sent me off in a good mood to the race.

I had to be very careful to discipline myself to not do any stupid stuff since the 90 mile race doesn't really start until mile 65 when there are 3 decent sized hills that the peleton goes crazy on.  The rest is flat - basically.  A big break that I guess didn't have any HB guys in it got away at mile 9.  Then HB sat on the front keeping the pace good all the way until mile 65 just as expected. 

I hung on on the first two hillclimbs then attempted a few breakaways, but then I'm not quite sure what his tactics were, but Steve Fisher was always going on solo rampages so no solid break formed.  On the last hillclimb Max 'Missle' O'Neal went KOM hunting and got a good gap.  Colin Gibson made a good effort to bridge up and then I did as well with about 3 miles to go but then the field was led back up by HPC. 

For whatever reason I was doing ok with maneuvering thru the cluster of the field sprint and managed to get 13th out of 27ish in the field sprint which I think is fairly decent for me.

Rest Week!

Yep, a whole week off the bike!  I'm currently mulling over whether to do Mt Hood especially now that it has been announced that it's the last one ever... but $175 entry fee, I dunno.