Well, that was up there in the most depressing last two months of bike racing I've had. Much more awful than last year.
Quick summary of the racing:
I finally got back into racing by doing the Gresham Crit. I didn't have much of anything for the final lap and got a horrible sunburn since I forgot to put sunscreen on my arms. The Vancouver crit was particularly frustrating with one of our guys getting in a 4 person break just to end up 5th at the finish. I was very frustrated with the tactics. I couldn't do much at all and was tired.
The next weekend I decided that enough was enough with Therapeutic and rejoined Guinness. Bike racing in the way that the leadership on the team explained it never made sense to me whereas it always did when hearing it from Klipper. Furthermore, I felt like my attempts to form relationships on the team failed whereas I still had some kind of relationship with Klipper. In the crit champs and then at the stumptown crit I finished off the back after getting unglued on the final lap in each race.
I did the state time trial and sucked fairly badly. I did the bridge pedal again.
Eugene was pretty much the most awful weekend I had racing all year. I was feeling so tired and stressed, had some issues at my host housing and then wasn't the lucky crazy dunce that made the break in Briggs Hill Road Race. I attacked so stupidly from lap 3 until I couldn't attack anymore and had nothing to show except for nearly passing out next to the team van of my former teammates due to exhaustion - both mentally and physically. The time trial was also awful. I don't know my time because the results aren't posted online and because I forgot my garmin at the host house, but when 4 people pass you, you know you had a shitty time. I was so mentally out of it that I nearly curled up in a ball and sucked my thumb, but ended up driving home skipping the crit. To top the weekend off, I forgot to return my Zipcar which with the late fee will likely make that weekend cost over $500. But on the bright side, I didn't break any equipment so I guess it was still cheaper than some races. Once I got home, my awesome fiance cheered me up and validated my decision to not race when I didn't feel like it and knew I'd get my ass kicked and get beaten into even more of a pulp.
So with that, I'm done racing... at least in a serious way. I don't think I've been more sore and mentally exhausted than I have before. I could really use a break, but I'm nearly maxed out of vacation at work. Oh crap, I need to go to work.
Showing posts with label teammates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teammates. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2014
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Oh look, I have fitness now!
Eugene
So, after Walla Walla I guess that helped my fitness a bit. Because Imade the break didn't sit in and stayed with the contending field at Eugene Roubaix. Seriously, wtf? On lap 1 once we turned on to Crow Rd there was a bunch of action as one could expect and I closed a gap to a group that included Liberles, Hoefer and a few others including my favorite new addition to the OBRA peleton, Marek Litinsky. All of a sudden I look back and we have a massive gap. Then Bedford and two other contenders bridged up. And I was like, well, I guess this is the new peleton. It was so weird. Basically everyone else dnf'ed and it was an Oregon Cup race. Most people just quit and didn't get flats.
Anywho, I had a lot of fun. Marek was being all aggressive which is great to see because so many OBRAnians just sit in all the time and don't do anything. Bedford and Liberles both did some attacks, but about 5 of us all from different teams organized into a paceline that chased down Bedford. It was beautiful. In the end I got on Marek's wheel for the sprint but couldn't hold on, so I got 4th while he was 3rd.
Tour de Bloom
I think skipping the mass start hill-climb was an excellent idea in hindsight. Cause I got to watch the Grand Floral Parade instead:
And I therefore was fresh for the crit. The course seemed to be a dramatic improvement over the super sketch backside of the previous course and the final corner was super fun. We went down Orondo on the bricks and passed within a foot of a beer garden crowd at McGlinn's and then raced into the corner going downhill praying each time that my wheel wouldn't slip out and that I wouldn't run out of pavement on Wenatchee ave. A breakaway got away early and ultimately lapped the field. I hung out at the front and managed to maintain a good enough position in the final lap to get 10th in the race.
I think I might be starting to get a hang of the crits. Great Success!
The road race was definitely the most epic race I've done so far this year and may turn out to hold that place.
The race started innocently enough with no rain and it looked like it might stay that way. We rolled out onto the 102 mile three lap course and there was plenty of jockeying for position.
Once we began heading east we got slammed with a massive crosswind. Echelons began to form and one started rolling away quite convincingly. I fought hard to work my way into the next echelon and after a few rotations, the peleton was long gone. Sucking a wheel was impossible that day.
Brian and I were holding our gap both ways, but were eventually joined by two strong riders as we echeloned east. We didn't make any dent into the two ahead of us, so it became clear that we were racing for 3rd. As we turned west, the vulture in me spotted weakness in Brian and one other guy, but that the 4th guy was very strong. So what did I do?
So, after Walla Walla I guess that helped my fitness a bit. Because I
Anywho, I had a lot of fun. Marek was being all aggressive which is great to see because so many OBRAnians just sit in all the time and don't do anything. Bedford and Liberles both did some attacks, but about 5 of us all from different teams organized into a paceline that chased down Bedford. It was beautiful. In the end I got on Marek's wheel for the sprint but couldn't hold on, so I got 4th while he was 3rd.
Tour de Bloom
I think skipping the mass start hill-climb was an excellent idea in hindsight. Cause I got to watch the Grand Floral Parade instead:
And I therefore was fresh for the crit. The course seemed to be a dramatic improvement over the super sketch backside of the previous course and the final corner was super fun. We went down Orondo on the bricks and passed within a foot of a beer garden crowd at McGlinn's and then raced into the corner going downhill praying each time that my wheel wouldn't slip out and that I wouldn't run out of pavement on Wenatchee ave. A breakaway got away early and ultimately lapped the field. I hung out at the front and managed to maintain a good enough position in the final lap to get 10th in the race.
I think I might be starting to get a hang of the crits. Great Success!
The road race was definitely the most epic race I've done so far this year and may turn out to hold that place.
The race started innocently enough with no rain and it looked like it might stay that way. We rolled out onto the 102 mile three lap course and there was plenty of jockeying for position.
Once we began heading east we got slammed with a massive crosswind. Echelons began to form and one started rolling away quite convincingly. I fought hard to work my way into the next echelon and after a few rotations, the peleton was long gone. Sucking a wheel was impossible that day.
Our chase echelon was working great with neither the peleton or the first echelon in sight. It was clear that there were some stronger riders than others since we were dropping people from our own echelon as the lap went on. As we rounded the corner to go west we saw two things: the first echelon ahead of us and a nasty wall of rain headed straight towards us. The rain hit us before we caught the first echelon. When we caught the echelon, everyone was suffering from both working so damn hard and from the rain which at times felt like hail. So what was the logical thing to do?
Attack! Yes sirree I shot straight by everyone like a maniac and managed to drag Brian Hitchcock with me. I thought there would be a reaction and a new echelon would form, but instead we found ourselves with a 2 minute gap between both the echelon we caught and 2 additional wackos further up the road!! And this was with 40 miles to go just after I missed my feed since I could barely see anything let alone my mom handing me a water bottle.
Brian and I were holding our gap both ways, but were eventually joined by two strong riders as we echeloned east. We didn't make any dent into the two ahead of us, so it became clear that we were racing for 3rd. As we turned west, the vulture in me spotted weakness in Brian and one other guy, but that the 4th guy was very strong. So what did I do?
Attack! I just started riding hard off the front and after a bit of bucking around, the strong guy dropped the other two and bridged up to me. I wanted third so I did my best to seem like I could keep up on the remaining hills. With 1k to go we got into cat and mouse mode. He made me go first and teased me with a small gap that I bought into too early just before 200m. We were among the few finishers that day that came in as a group. Love it!
I ended up at 8th in omnium points and was the first non-Canadian.
Banana Belt 2
Well, after the 100 mile crosswind race, this whole 77 mile Banana Belt seemed like a walk in the park for me. Leading up to the race though, there was some tension within the team. In Banana Belt 1 my team didn't do the best despite having a 7 person team in a 24 person race. We all met for beers and general team discussion the Thursday beforehand and there was a lot of finger pointing and grandiloquence of what should be done. I kinda just sat there and ate chicken wings. Sherm asked me what I thought and I said that "bike racing leadership shouldn't be appointed, but is demonstrated in the race."
Anyways, I got a ride out there with one of our "I'm just getting back into racing after 4 years of living another life" teammates. The race was fairly typical Banana Belt stuff I guess with all the rollers providing lots of opportunity to attack and stuff. Dwayne Farr looked quite strong that day, but it was Kyle Medlin that went for a solo effort on lap 3 or 4 that lasted a good 1.5 laps. After this, Mike Kath and Erik Hofland always seemed to be getting themselves in these teaser breaks that were just a little bit up ahead. I started getting a little aggressive on lap 5 or 6 where one of my attacks involved going right before the dam hill. Our team was doing great at making sure they followed the strong wheels with Jeremy especially being an absolute nuisance to Bedford.
Just before the final lap, Bedford and Bourcier were trying attacks and I covered some of those. Then, I sensed the field was a little tired, so I put in a good attack. Nobody followed. The peleton didn't react immediately. And just like that I had a 40 second gap. It was a ways to go, but I was feeling great. I tempoed well up the dam hill and still had a good gap after that, so this was serious. My moto-official was encouraging me and leading up to the finish it seemed like the peleton was closing in, so I put in some good digs up the final hills. I looked back before the sprint hill and the gap was still big. I powered up the last hill in a big gear and poster finished. Our team led out Sherm who ended up in 4th. That was a pretty great day for the team. Oh and guess this race made Jeremy my favorite newest addition to the OBRA 1/2 peleton.
Anniversary Weekend
After BB2, I met my girlfriend and headed out to the coast for a romantic 1-year anniversary where I proposed to her on Sunday. And she was quite surprised but said yes and we're both quite excited.
Anyways, I got a ride out there with one of our "I'm just getting back into racing after 4 years of living another life" teammates. The race was fairly typical Banana Belt stuff I guess with all the rollers providing lots of opportunity to attack and stuff. Dwayne Farr looked quite strong that day, but it was Kyle Medlin that went for a solo effort on lap 3 or 4 that lasted a good 1.5 laps. After this, Mike Kath and Erik Hofland always seemed to be getting themselves in these teaser breaks that were just a little bit up ahead. I started getting a little aggressive on lap 5 or 6 where one of my attacks involved going right before the dam hill. Our team was doing great at making sure they followed the strong wheels with Jeremy especially being an absolute nuisance to Bedford.
Just before the final lap, Bedford and Bourcier were trying attacks and I covered some of those. Then, I sensed the field was a little tired, so I put in a good attack. Nobody followed. The peleton didn't react immediately. And just like that I had a 40 second gap. It was a ways to go, but I was feeling great. I tempoed well up the dam hill and still had a good gap after that, so this was serious. My moto-official was encouraging me and leading up to the finish it seemed like the peleton was closing in, so I put in some good digs up the final hills. I looked back before the sprint hill and the gap was still big. I powered up the last hill in a big gear and poster finished. Our team led out Sherm who ended up in 4th. That was a pretty great day for the team. Oh and guess this race made Jeremy my favorite newest addition to the OBRA 1/2 peleton.
Anniversary Weekend
After BB2, I met my girlfriend and headed out to the coast for a romantic 1-year anniversary where I proposed to her on Sunday. And she was quite surprised but said yes and we're both quite excited.
Monday, March 17, 2014
I have actually been racing
This whole having lots of teammates thing is a big adjustment for me let me tell ya. I have gone from receiving maybe two emails a week related to my team racing to perhaps an average of 5 per day. I've gone from having no teammates racing with me at most races to racing with 9 or more other teammates at some races.
Oddly enough, I was feeling really good for this race. Last year I was getting dropped in my first few races. When all was said and done, I was not the most happiest joyful person in the world to learn that with 33% of the field being our team, our team's best result was 8th. The next day I sent a very detailed email explaining what went wrong and what could be improved. Some didn't like it, some did, most didn't, I really don't know, but I now am encouraged to not send emails like that.
Sequim's rain shadow just couldn't hold it for those last 2 laps. HSP kicked everyone's butt. They had also had at least 10 teammates, but got 1st, 2nd, 5th and 8th. Slightly better results, but with all due respect former pro's and very motivated racers. I didn't do well in the field sprint because I still don't have the field sprinting technique down.
Oh, an important thing to note - while Brant and I were up in Washington getting our asses handed to us by HSP, the rest of our Oregon contingent pulled out the W in the 123 race at the Dirty #2. Guess they showed me who knew something about bike racing, or were they proving something after receiving that very detailed email? One thing is for sure, Dean attacked a lot.
My girlfriend Laurel came up with me which was awfully nice of her. I felt like I had a little bit of a governor on my upper end fitness, but I hung in there. My crash avoidance skills were pretty good as 2 crashes happened right in front of me. The first crash was on the 3rd lap and I was able to avoid that and catch on easily. The 2nd crash was at 400 to go and somehow I ended up standing upright without a scratch on the new bike in the middle of maybe a dozen other riders on the ground. I had to step over at least 3 people to get out of that.
Over at Mason Lake, I was prepared for the worst as the radar looked like about 3/4 of an inch of rain was about to dump on us as we started (it didn't). I wore my rain jacket as my jersey which Bedford astutely noted for it's excellent parachute-like quality with my race numbers. The amount of pros at the race had me sort of starstruck (I get giddy inside when Morgan Schmitt remembers my name).
My move of the race was at the end of lap 1 when I figured I might as well get this party started by doing a break and waiting for the inevitable pro bridging up to me. Sure enough Steve Fisher came along with a HSP rider in tow, but then we were caught just before the first hill after corner 1. I got dropped, but I caught back on. I got dropped numerous other times that following lap and then I got dropped for good on lap 3. I made it my goal to complete 5 laps without getting lapped by the Cat 3 breakaway group.
I'm still running through all the factors that caused this embarrassing situation. I think it had less to do with the parachute-like outfit and my top candidates are not getting my new bike fit after it being built, not having my carbon wheels, having a spoke about to fall out of the front wheel I did have, too many blueberries for dinner the previous evening, and a sleep debt of approximately 1,000 hours over these past 4 years of racing. But I'm just writing it off as a bad day like I had last year at Heiser Farms where I got lapped. At Mason Lake I didn't get lapped by about 7 minutes when Rathe came by and did a victory salute consisting of making his race number as visible as possible from under his rain jacket.
done, publish, try to sleep, bye.
It's a little different. People are a little different and I don't think I'm really known to have lots of charisma and bonding, yet I do have a lot of passion for racing and sometimes, perhaps often times find myself not having the same approach to training and racing as other people do. However, I really hope to continue and experience a year on a big team to really have a good feel for what that is like. And also to develop my social skills so that perhaps I become slightly more charismatic and able to get along with more people than not.
For whatever reason, competition brings out a whole different side of me which is quite different from my otherwise quiet demeanor in most situations. And I think that dichotomy throws off - perhaps puts off - some or perhaps a lot of people. I've been writing on this blog for 4 years now, but I've been holding my tongue or rather not publishing a few critiquing blog posts and flustered emails. I know I've been inspired by one of my favorite bike racing bloggers, PruDog who I would say is not one to hold back on his blog posts. There's something about communicating on the internet that just leads to writing things you may never say in person to someone (or maybe I don't know him well enough).
So without further ado, race reports:
The Dirty #1
Oddly enough, I was feeling really good for this race. Last year I was getting dropped in my first few races. When all was said and done, I was not the most happiest joyful person in the world to learn that with 33% of the field being our team, our team's best result was 8th. The next day I sent a very detailed email explaining what went wrong and what could be improved. Some didn't like it, some did, most didn't, I really don't know, but I now am encouraged to not send emails like that.
Sequim/Mason Lake #1
Sequim's rain shadow just couldn't hold it for those last 2 laps. HSP kicked everyone's butt. They had also had at least 10 teammates, but got 1st, 2nd, 5th and 8th. Slightly better results, but with all due respect former pro's and very motivated racers. I didn't do well in the field sprint because I still don't have the field sprinting technique down.
Mason Lake was all right and I found myself sitting in more often than usual. I'm still deciding whether that is a good or bad thing. I'm leaning towards bad, I think PruDog would agree. It came to a field sprint again and again I didn't do well.
Oh, an important thing to note - while Brant and I were up in Washington getting our asses handed to us by HSP, the rest of our Oregon contingent pulled out the W in the 123 race at the Dirty #2. Guess they showed me who knew something about bike racing, or were they proving something after receiving that very detailed email? One thing is for sure, Dean attacked a lot.
Sequim/Mason Lake #2
My girlfriend Laurel came up with me which was awfully nice of her. I felt like I had a little bit of a governor on my upper end fitness, but I hung in there. My crash avoidance skills were pretty good as 2 crashes happened right in front of me. The first crash was on the 3rd lap and I was able to avoid that and catch on easily. The 2nd crash was at 400 to go and somehow I ended up standing upright without a scratch on the new bike in the middle of maybe a dozen other riders on the ground. I had to step over at least 3 people to get out of that.
Over at Mason Lake, I was prepared for the worst as the radar looked like about 3/4 of an inch of rain was about to dump on us as we started (it didn't). I wore my rain jacket as my jersey which Bedford astutely noted for it's excellent parachute-like quality with my race numbers. The amount of pros at the race had me sort of starstruck (I get giddy inside when Morgan Schmitt remembers my name).
My move of the race was at the end of lap 1 when I figured I might as well get this party started by doing a break and waiting for the inevitable pro bridging up to me. Sure enough Steve Fisher came along with a HSP rider in tow, but then we were caught just before the first hill after corner 1. I got dropped, but I caught back on. I got dropped numerous other times that following lap and then I got dropped for good on lap 3. I made it my goal to complete 5 laps without getting lapped by the Cat 3 breakaway group.
I'm still running through all the factors that caused this embarrassing situation. I think it had less to do with the parachute-like outfit and my top candidates are not getting my new bike fit after it being built, not having my carbon wheels, having a spoke about to fall out of the front wheel I did have, too many blueberries for dinner the previous evening, and a sleep debt of approximately 1,000 hours over these past 4 years of racing. But I'm just writing it off as a bad day like I had last year at Heiser Farms where I got lapped. At Mason Lake I didn't get lapped by about 7 minutes when Rathe came by and did a victory salute consisting of making his race number as visible as possible from under his rain jacket.
done, publish, try to sleep, bye.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Not Quite, but Almost
All right back to racing! Oh wait, blah blah blah training, lots of hill climbing intervals this 3rd intense week of a build. But wait wait!
An Important Announcement from My Employer
TrafficBug® - The Commuter's CompanionSM was released to the public in both website (with Flash) and iApp format this week. TrafficBug helps commuters and travelers navigate through traffic finding the fastest route possible and alerting users about any traffic incidents along the way. TrafficBug has the ability to create personalized trips between any two locations (accessible by roads in the US, Mexico and Canada). Not only does TrafficBug have the ability to create personalized routes, but it also allows takes into account the historical and realtime traffic along the way based on the time of day of your trip. Leave the worrying about your commute to TrafficBug as it is constantly monitoring the roadways to give you the best advice on how to get to your destination quickly or even if you need to leave earlier in order to arrive by a specific time.
I've been working on parts of this app for a long time - over a year now and I am very happy that we finally have a product to sell. There are a whole lot of things I still want to improve, but at some point we have to have something to sell since nothing will ever be perfect. So, please download the app or go to the website and try it out and let us know what you think about it. We would love to hear your feedback and would be ecstatic if you purchased even a one-month subscription let alone a three-month or even yearly subscription.
Piece of Cake
Getting There
Now, it is a huge oxy-moron that I work for a company seemingly obsessed with auto-transportation yet bike nearly everywhere. But the bigger oxy-moron is that the only reason I get in a car these days is to go bicycling (at bike races of course). And now each time I travel to bike races I'm constantly checking our TrafficBug app to see what it actually is like using it in a car.
I had the pleasure of commuting to the Piece of Cake Road Race in anti-bike racing rural Amity, OR with the Guinness Cycling Team Leader extraordinaire Dave Klipper and the cool Cliff Heaberlin (another one of my teammates in Cat 2). Getting to Amity is an interesting task because there are numerous ways to get there and we had opinions from everyone on which route to take. Ultimately it was Dave driving which meant that we were using whichever navigation system he preferred at that moment in time. At first we were using his car's Navigation system which told us to go through Salem, so we headed towards Salem. TrafficBug said to go back-roads via McMinville, but later I found that the geocode result it got (from Google, yes I am blaming them) put the location about 6 miles north of where we actually needed to go.
Once we started driving over the Salem bridge we had a massive navigation breakdown. We had just exited the highway somewhat accidentally and were in a predicament. Cliff was suggesting we go north via backroads, the car navigation still thought we were on the highway and I couldn't press buttons fast enough to make TrafficBug recalculate. Eventually Dave decided to get back on the highway and asked a passing bicyclist how to get back on the highway - local knowledge trumps!
The race
All right, 3 laps with 3 miles of gravel per lap and a whole bunch of relatively flat countryside to spare. I started at the very back which was a bad idea because I had no idea that the gravel came at mile 3. So from the car horn we were rocking and rolling! And then we hit the gravel and people began shattering off with flats about every 20 seconds. Earlier in the week I bought some brand-new tires anticipating this, but it turns out that these tires were the absolute worst tires I have every bought because not only were they incredibly slick in any kind of rain but I flatted out 5/6ths of the way through the gravel on the first lap. These tires will go unnamed for now in the event that I can't return them to the store and need to sell them.
I got a wheel change but the support crew said it was sort of rubbing the brake pad - it was definitely out of true, but I was happy to have a thick 28c tire to support my heavy ass now. I suffered to just get back onto a flat tire chase group and caught them just as they caught the rest of the field which was thankfully going really slow. So now I made damn sure that I was close to the front before the gravel came again and I was 3rd wheel when it came. Just before the gravel, Kyle made his move and motored away from the field. I thought it was still a little early and waited for other moves since there was good representation from other teams. Eventually it became apparent that none of the other teams had any kind of arsenal or organization (except for Soraz's blocking abilities) to chase down Kyle and now Eric was running up the road solo.
The gravel was coming up again and I attacked and started bridging up to Eric and caught him just before the gravel. For the next 10 miles Eric totally put me in the gutter - especially when he was taking his pull! We were closing in on Kyle and riding away from the field, but I lost contact with Eric's wheel and it was all over for me at that point. Well, not all over because I rejoined the chase group and then got to watch the sprint which involved a spectacular crash which involved a guy that seemed to lose control of his bike and hit the ground and then the finish sign and then the ladder holding the finish results camera and finally the medic's car. But apparently he was ok and got 5th! Woohoo!
Meanwhile, in the P 1/2 race
The p12's had to do 5 laps and I was waiting for a long time for them to get back. It turns out that Dave had won it in the sprint by a handy 3 bike lengths! There was quite a story about the race and all the tactical battles and how Dave ultimately found that finish line before anyone else. Very well played.
Public Urination
Uh.. excuse me? Yes, this topic deserves awhole section whole blog post due to the circumstances and fine mannerisms of the bicycle racers on this day in Oregon bicycle racing. It is a wide-known fact that bicycle racers are douchebags and the epitome of the bike racing antics is our need to urinate. You see it is all a function of making sure our bodies stay hydrated during the race in order for the body to perform well. As a result, us bike races need to urinate often - sometimes even during the race - sometimes multiple times in the same race.
Due to the request from some specific people on this matter I unfortunately cannot providethe internet you with further details. I'll just say that there is a big difference between public urination and discrete public urination and also that I learned that I need to hydrate to the point where I should need to publicly urinate. Gosh, I really want to tell this story in greater detail, but I cannot.
Onwards
On Sunday I rode out to Estacada by myself since everybody else was too cool doing their own rides. I had a good time though since I had never biked out there before.
This coming week I've got a rest week, and I am going to try HARD to rest. Starting with publishing this blog post before 10:45pm any further errors be damned! So I've got a few goals that will help me rest.
#1 NO TRYING TO SCORE DATES WITH HOT BIKE RIDIGN CHICKS. I spent wayyy too much effort on this the last two rest weeks I had and probably ultimately drove them away for doing so.
#2 Do fun stuff that I like doing. I'm going to spin some records, work on a website or two and maybe even make this blog look a little prettier.
#3 clean up my messy apartment. I've been all home alone with my housemate being in India for over a month now to support his sick sister. Pray for her. But I need to clean a bunch of stuff since everything got disorganized due to lack of time this week.
An Important Announcement from My Employer
TrafficBug® - The Commuter's CompanionSM was released to the public in both website (with Flash) and iApp format this week. TrafficBug helps commuters and travelers navigate through traffic finding the fastest route possible and alerting users about any traffic incidents along the way. TrafficBug has the ability to create personalized trips between any two locations (accessible by roads in the US, Mexico and Canada). Not only does TrafficBug have the ability to create personalized routes, but it also allows takes into account the historical and realtime traffic along the way based on the time of day of your trip. Leave the worrying about your commute to TrafficBug as it is constantly monitoring the roadways to give you the best advice on how to get to your destination quickly or even if you need to leave earlier in order to arrive by a specific time.I've been working on parts of this app for a long time - over a year now and I am very happy that we finally have a product to sell. There are a whole lot of things I still want to improve, but at some point we have to have something to sell since nothing will ever be perfect. So, please download the app or go to the website and try it out and let us know what you think about it. We would love to hear your feedback and would be ecstatic if you purchased even a one-month subscription let alone a three-month or even yearly subscription.
Piece of Cake
Getting There
Now, it is a huge oxy-moron that I work for a company seemingly obsessed with auto-transportation yet bike nearly everywhere. But the bigger oxy-moron is that the only reason I get in a car these days is to go bicycling (at bike races of course). And now each time I travel to bike races I'm constantly checking our TrafficBug app to see what it actually is like using it in a car.
I had the pleasure of commuting to the Piece of Cake Road Race in anti-bike racing rural Amity, OR with the Guinness Cycling Team Leader extraordinaire Dave Klipper and the cool Cliff Heaberlin (another one of my teammates in Cat 2). Getting to Amity is an interesting task because there are numerous ways to get there and we had opinions from everyone on which route to take. Ultimately it was Dave driving which meant that we were using whichever navigation system he preferred at that moment in time. At first we were using his car's Navigation system which told us to go through Salem, so we headed towards Salem. TrafficBug said to go back-roads via McMinville, but later I found that the geocode result it got (from Google, yes I am blaming them) put the location about 6 miles north of where we actually needed to go.
Once we started driving over the Salem bridge we had a massive navigation breakdown. We had just exited the highway somewhat accidentally and were in a predicament. Cliff was suggesting we go north via backroads, the car navigation still thought we were on the highway and I couldn't press buttons fast enough to make TrafficBug recalculate. Eventually Dave decided to get back on the highway and asked a passing bicyclist how to get back on the highway - local knowledge trumps!
The race
All right, 3 laps with 3 miles of gravel per lap and a whole bunch of relatively flat countryside to spare. I started at the very back which was a bad idea because I had no idea that the gravel came at mile 3. So from the car horn we were rocking and rolling! And then we hit the gravel and people began shattering off with flats about every 20 seconds. Earlier in the week I bought some brand-new tires anticipating this, but it turns out that these tires were the absolute worst tires I have every bought because not only were they incredibly slick in any kind of rain but I flatted out 5/6ths of the way through the gravel on the first lap. These tires will go unnamed for now in the event that I can't return them to the store and need to sell them.
I got a wheel change but the support crew said it was sort of rubbing the brake pad - it was definitely out of true, but I was happy to have a thick 28c tire to support my heavy ass now. I suffered to just get back onto a flat tire chase group and caught them just as they caught the rest of the field which was thankfully going really slow. So now I made damn sure that I was close to the front before the gravel came again and I was 3rd wheel when it came. Just before the gravel, Kyle made his move and motored away from the field. I thought it was still a little early and waited for other moves since there was good representation from other teams. Eventually it became apparent that none of the other teams had any kind of arsenal or organization (except for Soraz's blocking abilities) to chase down Kyle and now Eric was running up the road solo.
The gravel was coming up again and I attacked and started bridging up to Eric and caught him just before the gravel. For the next 10 miles Eric totally put me in the gutter - especially when he was taking his pull! We were closing in on Kyle and riding away from the field, but I lost contact with Eric's wheel and it was all over for me at that point. Well, not all over because I rejoined the chase group and then got to watch the sprint which involved a spectacular crash which involved a guy that seemed to lose control of his bike and hit the ground and then the finish sign and then the ladder holding the finish results camera and finally the medic's car. But apparently he was ok and got 5th! Woohoo!
Meanwhile, in the P 1/2 race
The p12's had to do 5 laps and I was waiting for a long time for them to get back. It turns out that Dave had won it in the sprint by a handy 3 bike lengths! There was quite a story about the race and all the tactical battles and how Dave ultimately found that finish line before anyone else. Very well played.
Public Urination
Uh.. excuse me? Yes, this topic deserves a
Due to the request from some specific people on this matter I unfortunately cannot provide
Onwards
On Sunday I rode out to Estacada by myself since everybody else was too cool doing their own rides. I had a good time though since I had never biked out there before.
This coming week I've got a rest week, and I am going to try HARD to rest. Starting with publishing this blog post before 10:45pm any further errors be damned! So I've got a few goals that will help me rest.
#1 NO TRYING TO SCORE DATES WITH HOT BIKE RIDIGN CHICKS. I spent wayyy too much effort on this the last two rest weeks I had and probably ultimately drove them away for doing so.
#2 Do fun stuff that I like doing. I'm going to spin some records, work on a website or two and maybe even make this blog look a little prettier.
#3 clean up my messy apartment. I've been all home alone with my housemate being in India for over a month now to support his sick sister. Pray for her. But I need to clean a bunch of stuff since everything got disorganized due to lack of time this week.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Tactical Battles
For a while now, I have felt like my fitness is something of a question mark in terms of whether I have enough of it to win. However, after this week I'm thinking that I do have the fitness but am lacking in the tactical game of mine and perhaps haven't just lucked out really well in a while.
PIR
On Monday I was doing an easy ride and broke a spoke on a wheel that Cliff loaned to me. This is just crazy how frequently I break stuff. I really need to do something about it. I was able to get another loaner wheel (this time a team wheel and not Cliff's) from Cliff again. We headed down to PIR. I was kind of taking my time to get ready and ended up missing the start of the 123 field. I was chasing in TT mode for a full two laps but eventually made it which impressed myself. As has happened before at recent PIRs, a break started forming which I happened to be in again. However this time I just got so bored of being in breaks and really wanted to focus on my group sprinting skills so I soft pedaled my way back to the field and even considered chasing back the break, but the field was able to. However, I still wasn't able to get the sweet spot for the group sprint so it was a bit frustrating.
Portland Plaza bicycle policy update
On Wednesday the Portland Plaza HOA met for their monthly meeting. A lot was on the agenda and the items were pretty cool - the paneling on the outside of the building was being replaced for the first time since it was built I believe and with the new material it was going to make the building 98,000 pounds lighter! However, the reason I was there was to protest the bicycle policy of course. I brought up the issue and it was bantered about for a bit. The main resistance against the building changing the rules was simply that they didn't want to change the rules. This made me feel a lot of empathy for a rather extreme bit similar comparison to people who opposed things like civil rights and in modern times gay marriage. While being a bicyclist isn't as life-defining as those issues I'm sure that those other parties really had to go through (and still do) the same kind of bullshit of people in power (or not) who resist changing human-made rules that severely impede on the pursuit of happiness of those that it affects while in the end imposing the rule has very little benefit and/or avoids small or mitigable negative consequences to those who try to keep the rules rules. I'm sure I have some items that I'm to blame for being that bad person I'm describing, but I am hopeful that the world and myself will change for the better.
Anyways, the issue of the bike policy did make it to the rules committee without riots, protests or Malcom X style advocacy.
Swan Island
And now back to racing at Swan Island (or not really Swam Island, but close enough!) which is the crit that Guinness Cycling Team puts on each year. I had practice-rode the course before, but the finish line turned out to be in a different place than I had expected. For I believe the first time this year on a weekend race, I was racing with 3 other teammates in the field. Two of them were from OSU I believe and another I've seen at PIR. It's kind of strange seeing racers showing up at these racers wearing your kit and yet you've never met them. All I knew is that at least one of the OSU guys was strong.
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to edit this post and take out a big gripe and ensuing gossip-magazine material that I wrote about a move a teammate made that I was not happy with. However, I'm happy to say that our team is working it out and will have better communication next time.
What I do when there aren't races on a 3-day weekend
Two part answer:
1. Ride my bicycle
2. Slack off
So on Sunday I spent a decent part of the day hanging out with my team leader Dave Klipper and friends. I love people who are characters and Dave is one for sure in a way that brings joy to my heart. He helps me out a lot discussing tactical things, scores deals for our team, helps me work on my bike and will say some very absurdly inappropriate yet hillarious remarks at least once a day. And with the help of Dave and his crew, I've found a secret weapon (or two) that I'm about to unleash on everyone this coming week. Stay posted.
PIR
On Monday I was doing an easy ride and broke a spoke on a wheel that Cliff loaned to me. This is just crazy how frequently I break stuff. I really need to do something about it. I was able to get another loaner wheel (this time a team wheel and not Cliff's) from Cliff again. We headed down to PIR. I was kind of taking my time to get ready and ended up missing the start of the 123 field. I was chasing in TT mode for a full two laps but eventually made it which impressed myself. As has happened before at recent PIRs, a break started forming which I happened to be in again. However this time I just got so bored of being in breaks and really wanted to focus on my group sprinting skills so I soft pedaled my way back to the field and even considered chasing back the break, but the field was able to. However, I still wasn't able to get the sweet spot for the group sprint so it was a bit frustrating.
Portland Plaza bicycle policy update
On Wednesday the Portland Plaza HOA met for their monthly meeting. A lot was on the agenda and the items were pretty cool - the paneling on the outside of the building was being replaced for the first time since it was built I believe and with the new material it was going to make the building 98,000 pounds lighter! However, the reason I was there was to protest the bicycle policy of course. I brought up the issue and it was bantered about for a bit. The main resistance against the building changing the rules was simply that they didn't want to change the rules. This made me feel a lot of empathy for a rather extreme bit similar comparison to people who opposed things like civil rights and in modern times gay marriage. While being a bicyclist isn't as life-defining as those issues I'm sure that those other parties really had to go through (and still do) the same kind of bullshit of people in power (or not) who resist changing human-made rules that severely impede on the pursuit of happiness of those that it affects while in the end imposing the rule has very little benefit and/or avoids small or mitigable negative consequences to those who try to keep the rules rules. I'm sure I have some items that I'm to blame for being that bad person I'm describing, but I am hopeful that the world and myself will change for the better.
Anyways, the issue of the bike policy did make it to the rules committee without riots, protests or Malcom X style advocacy.
Swan Island
And now back to racing at Swan Island (or not really Swam Island, but close enough!) which is the crit that Guinness Cycling Team puts on each year. I had practice-rode the course before, but the finish line turned out to be in a different place than I had expected. For I believe the first time this year on a weekend race, I was racing with 3 other teammates in the field. Two of them were from OSU I believe and another I've seen at PIR. It's kind of strange seeing racers showing up at these racers wearing your kit and yet you've never met them. All I knew is that at least one of the OSU guys was strong.
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to edit this post and take out a big gripe and ensuing gossip-magazine material that I wrote about a move a teammate made that I was not happy with. However, I'm happy to say that our team is working it out and will have better communication next time.
What I do when there aren't races on a 3-day weekend
Two part answer:
1. Ride my bicycle
2. Slack off
So on Sunday I spent a decent part of the day hanging out with my team leader Dave Klipper and friends. I love people who are characters and Dave is one for sure in a way that brings joy to my heart. He helps me out a lot discussing tactical things, scores deals for our team, helps me work on my bike and will say some very absurdly inappropriate yet hillarious remarks at least once a day. And with the help of Dave and his crew, I've found a secret weapon (or two) that I'm about to unleash on everyone this coming week. Stay posted.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Accidental Mullet
After I wrote last week's post, I realized that I left out a funny story from the Eugene Roubaix. There was a side competition for the best euro-mullet. At least a month back I had gotten a haircut and it was admittedly quite bad and seemed really long in the back. But whatever, I just rolled with it. Fast forward to Eugene Roubaix and I'm chatting with the volunteer coordinator who asks me, "so have you entered the mullet competiton?" And I say "wow, this really looks like a mullet?" And then another lady racer chimes in "that's like asking a fat lady if she is pregnant!" Whatever tho, if there is a competition that I feel like I have a shot in, I'll enter it and thus I present my euro-mullet pose (I did not win the competition):
This week I had been feeling pretty good except for a nagging sore throat. I speculate it has something to do with my uncleanliness. I don't clean my water bottles enough or my apartment enough. In fact this week I told my landlord that I was moving out partly due to the fact that I wanted a fresh start at trying to be somewhat clean.
Friday I took the train up to Tacomaland, had a nice bike ride down Yakima to PLU and then slept in Karly's bed. No Karly was not in her bed, she was down in Ashland with Tacoma Bike's spring training camp.
Saturday I headed out to Ravensdale. I might as well had been racing for bullseye cycling team after last week's performance. Any and every break I tried was chased to good effect. So it came down to a field sprint. I was strategizing on when to sprint and decided to go just after the final crest. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't on anybody's wheel when I started going at the crest and the crest was about 400 meters from the finish line. I ended up 11th after giving a killer leadout for 1st and 2nd place. I was mad at myself for making these two mistakes, but knew I had to try to put a positive spin on it and just take the experience with me to the next race. So on the post-race call with my coach, I told him "I am the best leadout man ever!"
After this I showered and went down to Tacoma Bike where Tony fitted me with my aero bars. I got to see a lot of characters down there including Micah who I got to say "DRILL BABY! DRILL! Everyday all the time everywhere!" He was quite happy to be back up in the northwest.
Originally I had thought that I may just go back home, but then Scott wanted to hangout and Tony wanted to ride next morning. I decided to stay. I went over to Scott's and heard his Ravensdale story that went something like this (sorry Scott for stealing your thunder): "me and a new Tacoma Bike rider were in the 5s race and I was totally dicking around at the back of the pack. The new guy asked: what should we try to do? I told him: see that guy right there? He's going to win the race, just sit back here for a while. Then on the final lap, I saw a hole on the left and told him to go now! And he went and ended up getting 2nd while I got 5th". And then Scott had a good laugh after telling his story. We then hungout with Jenn's sister and talked about a bunch of Tacoma locals' lives were going.
I headed back to Karlys, slept and then woke up to ride with Tony. We did a great loop of Gig Harbor including the LWV course where I got 4th last year. It was fun to relive that race. I hopped on the train heading back to pdx and made it back in time to catch my first church service since March. The service was Mother's day themed of course and then a plea for more volunteers because apparently their membership has a problem of making too many babies. Volunteering to take care of a bunch of kids with a set time limit sounds fun to me, but I can't reliably do that. But I was able to catch up on my tithing, so at least I can help out in some way!
Next week is Wenatchee. Who wants to give me a ride there and back? I can offer lodging at my parents in exchange!
This week I had been feeling pretty good except for a nagging sore throat. I speculate it has something to do with my uncleanliness. I don't clean my water bottles enough or my apartment enough. In fact this week I told my landlord that I was moving out partly due to the fact that I wanted a fresh start at trying to be somewhat clean.
Friday I took the train up to Tacomaland, had a nice bike ride down Yakima to PLU and then slept in Karly's bed. No Karly was not in her bed, she was down in Ashland with Tacoma Bike's spring training camp.
Saturday I headed out to Ravensdale. I might as well had been racing for bullseye cycling team after last week's performance. Any and every break I tried was chased to good effect. So it came down to a field sprint. I was strategizing on when to sprint and decided to go just after the final crest. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't on anybody's wheel when I started going at the crest and the crest was about 400 meters from the finish line. I ended up 11th after giving a killer leadout for 1st and 2nd place. I was mad at myself for making these two mistakes, but knew I had to try to put a positive spin on it and just take the experience with me to the next race. So on the post-race call with my coach, I told him "I am the best leadout man ever!"
After this I showered and went down to Tacoma Bike where Tony fitted me with my aero bars. I got to see a lot of characters down there including Micah who I got to say "DRILL BABY! DRILL! Everyday all the time everywhere!" He was quite happy to be back up in the northwest.
Originally I had thought that I may just go back home, but then Scott wanted to hangout and Tony wanted to ride next morning. I decided to stay. I went over to Scott's and heard his Ravensdale story that went something like this (sorry Scott for stealing your thunder): "me and a new Tacoma Bike rider were in the 5s race and I was totally dicking around at the back of the pack. The new guy asked: what should we try to do? I told him: see that guy right there? He's going to win the race, just sit back here for a while. Then on the final lap, I saw a hole on the left and told him to go now! And he went and ended up getting 2nd while I got 5th". And then Scott had a good laugh after telling his story. We then hungout with Jenn's sister and talked about a bunch of Tacoma locals' lives were going.
I headed back to Karlys, slept and then woke up to ride with Tony. We did a great loop of Gig Harbor including the LWV course where I got 4th last year. It was fun to relive that race. I hopped on the train heading back to pdx and made it back in time to catch my first church service since March. The service was Mother's day themed of course and then a plea for more volunteers because apparently their membership has a problem of making too many babies. Volunteering to take care of a bunch of kids with a set time limit sounds fun to me, but I can't reliably do that. But I was able to catch up on my tithing, so at least I can help out in some way!
Next week is Wenatchee. Who wants to give me a ride there and back? I can offer lodging at my parents in exchange!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The next level
It's time for me to step up to the next level of bicycle racing. This week I joined an Oregon bike racing team: Guinness Cycling Team. And also with the results this weekend, it's pretty convincing that I'm ready for the next level.
The Guinness Cycling Team should work out well for me. There are a few Cat 3s and a few Cat 1/2s that race, but not dozens so it will be possible to perform well without competing with a ton of teammates. Through brief encounters I've had with riders on the team I'm looking forward to the season. Last summer when I came down for some Crits, I saw Alex, a Cat 3 rider, do a solo breakaway at the Franz Bakery Crit for the win. And then down in Eugene I had a humorous encounter with a Guinness rider whose pre-hill-climb strategy was to chug a can of red bull - and it worked, he was 40+ seconds faster than me and I was 2nd in the 4/5s. This year, I met Cliff who was the guy who gave me a ride to the Capitol Crit last week. Cliff is a very chill and nice dude who races a lot. On Tuesday I met up with a group from the team for some drinks and it seemed like I would mesh well with the team. And another pro about this team is that it's cool if I still wear the Tacoma Bike jersey in my Washington races. However in Oregon I'll be wearing some white and green.
As for training, this week was a rest week. And it was a rest week where I was resting after coming off of a win streak that I was resenting resting and really wanted to get out and do some sprints. At work I was having trouble focusing because I wanted to race so badly. The weekend could not come soon enough for me.
The weekend finally came and I was excited. I had reserved a Zipcar for the first time and made my way up to the gloomy area by Centralia for the Independence Valley Road Race. On the way I was listening to the Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy so I was amped. I got to the race area and it was packed. It was so packed that the only parking spot left was in a huge puddle. I parked there and did a little dance of getting out on the passenger side and tiptoeing on some dry land. After putting together the bike, I barely made it to the start on time.
The race had a big field of 76 riders, however, I only saw a few sprinter threats and was really wondering if some climbers would make or break the day. The race began and I was playing the move up through the field game for a while. The first hill came and it was quite big. The field was going hard up it, but mostly stayed together. On the other side of the range I kept moving up when I could. Finally about 15 miles in I found a hole going up to the front so I attacked and didn't have enough to really go, so the field caught up.
Coming up on the 2nd climb of the big hill I was planning on attacking on the upper part of it, however when that point came, I was already at 188bpm, so I was not in a position to mount an attack. The field seemed to break up a bit and a few of us were trying to paceline away. However, this paceline of ours kept growing in number, so I stopped doing pulls and waited for the next small hill. The next hill came and it was again a big effort for us, but this breakaway field of us stuck together. At this point, I knew it would come down to a field sprint, so I focused on positioning. When the 1k came up I put myself at about 5th and made my sprint at the 200k mark. I flew past the 4 guys in front, but apparently gave a great leadout to the guy who won the race. I placed 2nd and that was fine by me since I have found it hard sometimes on the field sprints. I drove on back to PDX and got some good sleep.
Randy and I after IVRR
Sunday morning I headed out to Hagg Lake with Cliff again. The weather was quite dreary with rain nearly the whole race. The field was much smaller - maybe 25 guys. And the race had a bunch of small hills, but nothing major. There also weren't really any attacks either. I made a few but still felt like I couldn't keep them going. On the 4th lap my front derailleur started having issues and couldn't shift to the big ring. I decided that I would hold onto the pack for the field sprint since I could power up the 200m uphill finish in a big rear gear. However, with about 2k to go the chain randomly shifted up to the big ring. I thought "wow cool. ATTACK!!!" And I did, but again I didn't have enough juice to get away for good. At this point I was debating about downshifting again, but kept it in the big ring for the finish. I was in the 2nd row approaching the 200k and then went. The Banana Belt series leader made a good jump too and powered out for the win and some other guy managed to claim 2nd. Still though, a podium from the field was satisfactory for me.
After this I volunteered as a corner marshal to pay my race fee and hitchhiked with a masters guy back home. Whenever I can on Sundays I go to church and have lately been contemplating whether trying to be better than all these other bicyclists is really showing mercy and being nice and basically doing God's will as opposed to helping dig a well for some poor Malaysian tribe. One of my friends suggested that my rationalization process of saying: "ok I've been working since September on this bicycle racing thing and now I want to stop? I don't think so." might actually be the righteous thing to say. And in this week's message I randomly flipped in a pew Bible to Psalm 107 telling stories of how people desert God but then decide to come back. And the Sermon was about Hosea who I guess invited Israel to come back to God by naming his kids weird names. I'm still unsure about whether this means that this bicycling is the wrong thing, or this message was a warning from straying from my bicycle racing. I'm gambling that it's a warning to not stray away from bicycling so I'm going to keep pressing on.
And with that, it's time to upgrade and go to the next level: Cat 3. At this point, the only way to move up another category is to be good. It's possible in Cat 4 and 5 to simply do a lot of races and then you can upgrade, but in Cat 3, you must earn 30 points to get to the 2s. And then with the 2s you're racing with the 1s and Pros so it is quite hard. But I've proved myself out of the 4s and it's time to see how well I can do at this next level.
The Guinness Cycling Team should work out well for me. There are a few Cat 3s and a few Cat 1/2s that race, but not dozens so it will be possible to perform well without competing with a ton of teammates. Through brief encounters I've had with riders on the team I'm looking forward to the season. Last summer when I came down for some Crits, I saw Alex, a Cat 3 rider, do a solo breakaway at the Franz Bakery Crit for the win. And then down in Eugene I had a humorous encounter with a Guinness rider whose pre-hill-climb strategy was to chug a can of red bull - and it worked, he was 40+ seconds faster than me and I was 2nd in the 4/5s. This year, I met Cliff who was the guy who gave me a ride to the Capitol Crit last week. Cliff is a very chill and nice dude who races a lot. On Tuesday I met up with a group from the team for some drinks and it seemed like I would mesh well with the team. And another pro about this team is that it's cool if I still wear the Tacoma Bike jersey in my Washington races. However in Oregon I'll be wearing some white and green.
As for training, this week was a rest week. And it was a rest week where I was resting after coming off of a win streak that I was resenting resting and really wanted to get out and do some sprints. At work I was having trouble focusing because I wanted to race so badly. The weekend could not come soon enough for me.
The weekend finally came and I was excited. I had reserved a Zipcar for the first time and made my way up to the gloomy area by Centralia for the Independence Valley Road Race. On the way I was listening to the Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy so I was amped. I got to the race area and it was packed. It was so packed that the only parking spot left was in a huge puddle. I parked there and did a little dance of getting out on the passenger side and tiptoeing on some dry land. After putting together the bike, I barely made it to the start on time.
The race had a big field of 76 riders, however, I only saw a few sprinter threats and was really wondering if some climbers would make or break the day. The race began and I was playing the move up through the field game for a while. The first hill came and it was quite big. The field was going hard up it, but mostly stayed together. On the other side of the range I kept moving up when I could. Finally about 15 miles in I found a hole going up to the front so I attacked and didn't have enough to really go, so the field caught up.
Coming up on the 2nd climb of the big hill I was planning on attacking on the upper part of it, however when that point came, I was already at 188bpm, so I was not in a position to mount an attack. The field seemed to break up a bit and a few of us were trying to paceline away. However, this paceline of ours kept growing in number, so I stopped doing pulls and waited for the next small hill. The next hill came and it was again a big effort for us, but this breakaway field of us stuck together. At this point, I knew it would come down to a field sprint, so I focused on positioning. When the 1k came up I put myself at about 5th and made my sprint at the 200k mark. I flew past the 4 guys in front, but apparently gave a great leadout to the guy who won the race. I placed 2nd and that was fine by me since I have found it hard sometimes on the field sprints. I drove on back to PDX and got some good sleep.
Randy and I after IVRR
Sunday morning I headed out to Hagg Lake with Cliff again. The weather was quite dreary with rain nearly the whole race. The field was much smaller - maybe 25 guys. And the race had a bunch of small hills, but nothing major. There also weren't really any attacks either. I made a few but still felt like I couldn't keep them going. On the 4th lap my front derailleur started having issues and couldn't shift to the big ring. I decided that I would hold onto the pack for the field sprint since I could power up the 200m uphill finish in a big rear gear. However, with about 2k to go the chain randomly shifted up to the big ring. I thought "wow cool. ATTACK!!!" And I did, but again I didn't have enough juice to get away for good. At this point I was debating about downshifting again, but kept it in the big ring for the finish. I was in the 2nd row approaching the 200k and then went. The Banana Belt series leader made a good jump too and powered out for the win and some other guy managed to claim 2nd. Still though, a podium from the field was satisfactory for me.
After this I volunteered as a corner marshal to pay my race fee and hitchhiked with a masters guy back home. Whenever I can on Sundays I go to church and have lately been contemplating whether trying to be better than all these other bicyclists is really showing mercy and being nice and basically doing God's will as opposed to helping dig a well for some poor Malaysian tribe. One of my friends suggested that my rationalization process of saying: "ok I've been working since September on this bicycle racing thing and now I want to stop? I don't think so." might actually be the righteous thing to say. And in this week's message I randomly flipped in a pew Bible to Psalm 107 telling stories of how people desert God but then decide to come back. And the Sermon was about Hosea who I guess invited Israel to come back to God by naming his kids weird names. I'm still unsure about whether this means that this bicycling is the wrong thing, or this message was a warning from straying from my bicycle racing. I'm gambling that it's a warning to not stray away from bicycling so I'm going to keep pressing on.
And with that, it's time to upgrade and go to the next level: Cat 3. At this point, the only way to move up another category is to be good. It's possible in Cat 4 and 5 to simply do a lot of races and then you can upgrade, but in Cat 3, you must earn 30 points to get to the 2s. And then with the 2s you're racing with the 1s and Pros so it is quite hard. But I've proved myself out of the 4s and it's time to see how well I can do at this next level.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
A week of cancellations
Well, back in my post about all the races I wanted to do this year, I mentioned that there were 2 this weekend. And then midweek I said I was sick. Well, turns out that I was still pretty much sick through Friday. However, both bike races were canceled due to freezing cold ice patches and the other due to snow. So turns out that I didn't miss any races and I didn't have to ride in the snow or freezing cold.
I got back on the bike Saturday and Sunday. My coach told me to take it easy, but I felt demotivated while riding for the first time in 3 days! And I still have a little bit of a cough. I'm really hoping I'll be good enough to train this week since I've got some long and intense intervals scheduled.
Also, I want to give a shoutout and congrats to my teammate Randy Resch who upgraded himself to Cat 4 before the season even started in Washington by going to a Cycle U class. It's going to be a great showing of Tacoma Bike with him, Landon and I at Sequim and Mason Lake the 2nd weekend of March.
I got back on the bike Saturday and Sunday. My coach told me to take it easy, but I felt demotivated while riding for the first time in 3 days! And I still have a little bit of a cough. I'm really hoping I'll be good enough to train this week since I've got some long and intense intervals scheduled.
Also, I want to give a shoutout and congrats to my teammate Randy Resch who upgraded himself to Cat 4 before the season even started in Washington by going to a Cycle U class. It's going to be a great showing of Tacoma Bike with him, Landon and I at Sequim and Mason Lake the 2nd weekend of March.
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