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 top tens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label top tens. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Racing racing racing...
Oh man, I'm now in my third week of traveling up to Washington for various bike races. The results are mixed. I'm writing this section of this blog just after Stage 1 of the Capital Stage race.
Mutual of Enumclaw
Well, I thought I'd do a little better than I did. I drove up Saturday morning after getting very little amounts of sleep. My time trial wasn't very good. I got 42nd. Meh. I went to a dinner with my Seattle teammate Bart and had the works (scramble, hashbrowns and toast), but then was still hungry so I had some blueberry pancakes too. Then I took a nap.
In the crit I hung on and finished with the pack at 29th place. I then went back to the house of the gracious Rian and April Barta where I proceeded to sleep for 11 hours. I didn't wear my compression tights which was a mistake cause my legs didn't feel good the next day. I got dropped on the climb on lap 1, 2, 4 and 5. Lap 3 I hung with the field. I caught back on on laps 1, 2 and 4, but was on my own after lap 5. The weather was bad but not miserable. My shoe was falling apart with the sole tearing off from the rest of the shoe. I still finished in 30th place out of 62 in that race and ended up 31st overall.
Why such low results after the previous weekends? Canadians. That's why.
Ski to Sea
Brent really twisted my arm into doing this by sending me a total of 2 emails trying to recruit me. I was a bit wishy washy about it, but decided to go for it. I took the Bolt Bus up and had a leisurely time in Kenmore/Seattle. I went on an easy ride where I got stung by a bee for the first time ever on a bike ride. I met up with GP and watched the Champions League Final which was a great game.
I was getting as prepped as possible for the race the night before and didn't socialize as much as the others. Got some decent sleep and was off the next morning. We didn't have the strongest legs prior to me, so I began as the 313th rider to start the road race course. It took me wayyy too long to fasten my timing chip to my wrist. Gotta remain stopped for that next time. It was rainy. My newly purchased TT helmet with a visor was fantastic for the conditions. I was oblivious to the rain up on top except for the occasional loud drop.
That helped me maintain a very aero position throughout. I passed so many people and only 1 person was able to hang on to my draft. My goal was to get top 10 and under 90 minutes which I accomplished with a 5th place 1:28:50 time. By the time I finished, our team was 99th so I must have passed 214 other racers. I showed all those other guys what was up, but I somehow don't think they really cared.
Capital Stage Race
I woke up at 8:15am on Saturday at my Great Aunt's house in Olympia and went upstairs. MJ asked me when my race was and I was like "10:13am... oh crap, I better get going." I had Ian Mensher ahead of me for my 30 second guy and I didn't see him when I finished, so yeah. After all this I went to a fancy cute breakfast place and ordered my now usual two plates. There's something deceiving about these large plates small portions places as I suspect that somehow they pack the same amount of calories into the food. Anyways, I really need to take a nap now.
Righto, off to the crit and I managed to win a $50 prime! Probably spent too much effort chasing down breaks and I ended up in the second finishing group and lost 9 seconds. Still tho, way better than last year. Some other things about the crit worth noting: Trevor Spahr is hardcore for finishing the race with the field after racing 53 minutes after crashing hard just 7 minutes in. David Richter gave us Oregon riders the burn of the century in his post-race winner interview as follows:
Erik (promoter): "So David, there were a lot of people rooting for Stephen Bradford and someone bet me a dollar that he'd win."
David Richter: "haha, yeah well I was going to wear my Oregon State Criterium Championship Jersey... but no yeah, this is a great race..."
In the road race I attempted to mix things up and not just wait for mile 65 and those three hills. I got myself into a breakaway at mile 60 and tried fairly hard to stay away. Unfortunately, it was just a two person breakaway and the KR army made sure we weren't out of their sight. We got caught going up the final hill and it turned out to be just like last year. Small gaps opened up. Colin Gibson closed one up by doing a super-aero tuck. Then a bunch of others closed the gap so it was about 30 of us for the finish. Colby laid down an impressive move at about 700m to go and gapped everyone except Dan Harm and Ian Baldwin. I was 15th on the day and 19th GC. Maybe one of these days I'll get a podium in a Washington state p12 race.
Mutual of Enumclaw
Well, I thought I'd do a little better than I did. I drove up Saturday morning after getting very little amounts of sleep. My time trial wasn't very good. I got 42nd. Meh. I went to a dinner with my Seattle teammate Bart and had the works (scramble, hashbrowns and toast), but then was still hungry so I had some blueberry pancakes too. Then I took a nap.
In the crit I hung on and finished with the pack at 29th place. I then went back to the house of the gracious Rian and April Barta where I proceeded to sleep for 11 hours. I didn't wear my compression tights which was a mistake cause my legs didn't feel good the next day. I got dropped on the climb on lap 1, 2, 4 and 5. Lap 3 I hung with the field. I caught back on on laps 1, 2 and 4, but was on my own after lap 5. The weather was bad but not miserable. My shoe was falling apart with the sole tearing off from the rest of the shoe. I still finished in 30th place out of 62 in that race and ended up 31st overall.
Why such low results after the previous weekends? Canadians. That's why.
Ski to Sea
Brent really twisted my arm into doing this by sending me a total of 2 emails trying to recruit me. I was a bit wishy washy about it, but decided to go for it. I took the Bolt Bus up and had a leisurely time in Kenmore/Seattle. I went on an easy ride where I got stung by a bee for the first time ever on a bike ride. I met up with GP and watched the Champions League Final which was a great game.
I was getting as prepped as possible for the race the night before and didn't socialize as much as the others. Got some decent sleep and was off the next morning. We didn't have the strongest legs prior to me, so I began as the 313th rider to start the road race course. It took me wayyy too long to fasten my timing chip to my wrist. Gotta remain stopped for that next time. It was rainy. My newly purchased TT helmet with a visor was fantastic for the conditions. I was oblivious to the rain up on top except for the occasional loud drop.
That helped me maintain a very aero position throughout. I passed so many people and only 1 person was able to hang on to my draft. My goal was to get top 10 and under 90 minutes which I accomplished with a 5th place 1:28:50 time. By the time I finished, our team was 99th so I must have passed 214 other racers. I showed all those other guys what was up, but I somehow don't think they really cared.
Capital Stage Race
I woke up at 8:15am on Saturday at my Great Aunt's house in Olympia and went upstairs. MJ asked me when my race was and I was like "10:13am... oh crap, I better get going." I had Ian Mensher ahead of me for my 30 second guy and I didn't see him when I finished, so yeah. After all this I went to a fancy cute breakfast place and ordered my now usual two plates. There's something deceiving about these large plates small portions places as I suspect that somehow they pack the same amount of calories into the food. Anyways, I really need to take a nap now.
Righto, off to the crit and I managed to win a $50 prime! Probably spent too much effort chasing down breaks and I ended up in the second finishing group and lost 9 seconds. Still tho, way better than last year. Some other things about the crit worth noting: Trevor Spahr is hardcore for finishing the race with the field after racing 53 minutes after crashing hard just 7 minutes in. David Richter gave us Oregon riders the burn of the century in his post-race winner interview as follows:
Erik (promoter): "So David, there were a lot of people rooting for Stephen Bradford and someone bet me a dollar that he'd win."
David Richter: "haha, yeah well I was going to wear my Oregon State Criterium Championship Jersey... but no yeah, this is a great race..."
In the road race I attempted to mix things up and not just wait for mile 65 and those three hills. I got myself into a breakaway at mile 60 and tried fairly hard to stay away. Unfortunately, it was just a two person breakaway and the KR army made sure we weren't out of their sight. We got caught going up the final hill and it turned out to be just like last year. Small gaps opened up. Colin Gibson closed one up by doing a super-aero tuck. Then a bunch of others closed the gap so it was about 30 of us for the finish. Colby laid down an impressive move at about 700m to go and gapped everyone except Dan Harm and Ian Baldwin. I was 15th on the day and 19th GC. Maybe one of these days I'll get a podium in a Washington state p12 race.
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, February 24, 2014
Stumptown Birkebeiner 2014
Who knew that racing would start so soon for me this year? Or rather, who would've thought that it would snow over a foot over 3 days in Portland in February? Well, it did and I took full advantage of it and ignoring emergency alerts and travel advisories by getting out on my xc skis and getting around a white Portland.
Thursday night, the snow came down and I rode my bike home rather inefficiently, so instead I got out the skis and headed down to waterfront park for some awesome xc skiing.
Friday I skied to and from work, on the way back I was able to ski the whole way without taking off the skis.
Saturday I joined a bunch of other people at this event I found out via pdx pipeline. The event was the Stumptown Birkebeiner a play on this huge xc ski event in Minnesota or Norway or something. It was pretty cool cause I ran into two of my new teammates. Andy snapped this picture that I am a little embarrassed to be posting on the internet. The race course consisted of skiing up two blocks alongside Wallace City Park and then back. I skiied in the not beginner-but not elite category and got 7th or so. My wax was terrible, probably due to going over a bunch of asphalt.
On Sunday I ended up skiing from Beaverton to Portland. It was a lot of fun!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
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 anorganized 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.
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
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.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
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.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Just racing around
Dirty Circles (last week):
Rode out there. Got there 2 hours before race. Sat outside and got very cold. Warmed up in Byron's car. Lining up. Shivering.
Race time! Cold! Only 20mph. Cold! Bored. Gap on the right. Attack! Caught. Attack again! Caught again. Hot spot coming up. Go way too early, but Byron is right behind me and he gets 2nd! Colby goes solo! Chase! Chase some more! Dead after final corner. Avoided nasty crash. Success?
Heiser Farms
Zipcar it down there. Dirt and poop all over course. Gravel/dirt 1k from finish. Potholes everywhere. Follow Soraz for futile attack. Slip and nearly fall on corner. Dropped. Zone 2. Low zone 2. Too low. Contemplating being 'that guy' who complains about shitty course after getting shitty result. Getting lapped! Try to hang on. Dropped again. Probably my first DFL ever. Wait no! Once at a midnight greenlake race in February I was 3rd and DFL.
Hmm, I have a Zipcar and I'm low on Dave's Killer Bread. Sidetrip to Dave's Killer Breadquarters in Milwaukie. 9 loafs and 5 Sin-Dawgs. Back at Zipcar spot and unloaded with 2 minutes to spare.
Dirty Circles:
Ride out there again. Run into Justin & Jen who are also riding out there. Blue skies! Quaint farms. Munch down half a sin-dawg during the ride. RAIN! Blue skies! Alpacas. Run into Christina and Jeff! At the race.
Figured out why it's called dirty circles: cause you get your bike super dirty riding around in the sand parking lot. Lining up for race. Right behind Beardsley and Boursaw. Fall down while standing still. Can't clip out. Embarrassing. Goal for race: pack finish.
HPC going from the gun. I'm feeling good, not attacking. Watching a veloce rider guide Rosenberg around. Rosenberg's got a train for the hot spot. Get behind Rosenberg. Fend off Bedford for Rosenberg's wheel. Sprint with Rosenberg for 3rd? in hot spot.
Back in pack. Boursaw unleashes it into a break. Almost chase down break, but Bedford and Porcella are both there. No sense in dragging pack. Pack finish is my goal. Chase break gets away. Slinky-ing peleton. Time to go. Bridge up to Liberles and a junior. Culpepper tries to stay on. Culpepper and junior done. Liberles and I catch an Evolution and veloce rider. I think to myself I ought to know these guy's names, but I don't. Pack is close. Another HPC rider bridges up. Doing best attempts at echeloning. Can't catch chase break, but ahead of peleton for finish. Cat and Mouse. Peeps looking at each other at 180. Time to go. Drag HPCer behind me, 2nd from 2nd chase break. Success!
Update Update!
My hot spot sprint points helped bump me up into the top 10 (10th place)! Super stoked! Success indeed.
Rode out there. Got there 2 hours before race. Sat outside and got very cold. Warmed up in Byron's car. Lining up. Shivering.
Race time! Cold! Only 20mph. Cold! Bored. Gap on the right. Attack! Caught. Attack again! Caught again. Hot spot coming up. Go way too early, but Byron is right behind me and he gets 2nd! Colby goes solo! Chase! Chase some more! Dead after final corner. Avoided nasty crash. Success?
Heiser Farms
Zipcar it down there. Dirt and poop all over course. Gravel/dirt 1k from finish. Potholes everywhere. Follow Soraz for futile attack. Slip and nearly fall on corner. Dropped. Zone 2. Low zone 2. Too low. Contemplating being 'that guy' who complains about shitty course after getting shitty result. Getting lapped! Try to hang on. Dropped again. Probably my first DFL ever. Wait no! Once at a midnight greenlake race in February I was 3rd and DFL.
Hmm, I have a Zipcar and I'm low on Dave's Killer Bread. Sidetrip to Dave's Killer Breadquarters in Milwaukie. 9 loafs and 5 Sin-Dawgs. Back at Zipcar spot and unloaded with 2 minutes to spare.
Dirty Circles:
Ride out there again. Run into Justin & Jen who are also riding out there. Blue skies! Quaint farms. Munch down half a sin-dawg during the ride. RAIN! Blue skies! Alpacas. Run into Christina and Jeff! At the race.
Figured out why it's called dirty circles: cause you get your bike super dirty riding around in the sand parking lot. Lining up for race. Right behind Beardsley and Boursaw. Fall down while standing still. Can't clip out. Embarrassing. Goal for race: pack finish.
HPC going from the gun. I'm feeling good, not attacking. Watching a veloce rider guide Rosenberg around. Rosenberg's got a train for the hot spot. Get behind Rosenberg. Fend off Bedford for Rosenberg's wheel. Sprint with Rosenberg for 3rd? in hot spot.
Back in pack. Boursaw unleashes it into a break. Almost chase down break, but Bedford and Porcella are both there. No sense in dragging pack. Pack finish is my goal. Chase break gets away. Slinky-ing peleton. Time to go. Bridge up to Liberles and a junior. Culpepper tries to stay on. Culpepper and junior done. Liberles and I catch an Evolution and veloce rider. I think to myself I ought to know these guy's names, but I don't. Pack is close. Another HPC rider bridges up. Doing best attempts at echeloning. Can't catch chase break, but ahead of peleton for finish. Cat and Mouse. Peeps looking at each other at 180. Time to go. Drag HPCer behind me, 2nd from 2nd chase break. Success!
Update Update!
My hot spot sprint points helped bump me up into the top 10 (10th place)! Super stoked! Success indeed.
Monday, September 3, 2012
All Your Wins Are Belong To Us by Fake HSP
For the next post on the DJStroky Racing Blog I shall interview Fake HSP (in a style inspired from some great interviews (like this one, or this one) from the PruDogBlog), the winning team of the last 5 road/crit races in a row in the Oregon Pro/1/2...
Fake HSP: Wait a second, are you saying we weren't racing in the 3s?
DJStroky: Yes you were in fact racing in the OBRA Pro/1/2 field.
HSP: Oh wow, we just assumed that all OBRA races were category 3 since you can't get a Cat 1 USAC upgrade from those races.
DJStroky: uhhhhhh, anyways, you guys have really been on a roll these last few weeks. Your team brought down a two-person squad to each of the last three weekends where a different person won each weekend in every single road and crit race. First of all, what made you all want to come down to Oregon to race?
HSP: Well, we're really a road racing team and like to compete, but all that was left on the WSBA calendar during August seemed to be a bunch of track races. It was a bit of a drive, but the OBRA races had some good money to be won.
Giro di Portland
DJStroky: Your first victory was at the Giro di Portland. Brian, tell us a little about that.
Fake Brian Hitchcock: Man talk about a crashfest! What is with the Oregon riders? Can't they keep their bikes up straight? I didn't really do much here except just hope someone in front of me didn't do something stupid and then in the end I had a great chance and was really stoked about that win.
DJStroky: As you should be, you came in front of Guinness's David Klipper (master national chamion on the track) and Scott Gray (current OBRA road race champion).
BH: Yeah, but then they made me wear this white Jersey on the podium. I dunno, I guess that's nice, but I was kinda sad because I only ever wear my HSP jersey (even around the house). Can you still see the HSP logo through that other jersey?
Longview Grand Prix
DJStroky: Moving on to the next weekend, there was the Longview Grand Prix. This race was on both the OBRA and the WSBA calendar, but only 10 people showed up for the 1/2 Men's race. There were 3 Guinness guys, 2 Team Oregon guys, 2 from HSP and then 3 other racers from Oregon. Why do you think more people didn't show up?
BH: Well, it may have been a little tricky for the WSBA'ers because on the WSBA website calendar it does say Longview, but there is no link to any event flyer. Luckily I had checked it out from the OBRA site where there was a link to the flyer. I told my teammate Aaron Shaw about it and that there was $1,000 6 deep, so we decided to give it a go. Plus there was the Squirrel Festival at the park next to the course! I love squirrels!!
DJStroky: The Squirrel Festival was pretty cool. Aaron, tell us about your win.
Fake Aaron Shaw: Well, since I let Brian win last week, he agreed to let me win this race.
DJStroky: It's that simple huh?
AS: Well if you all just let me ride away from the field what am I gonna do with that? Am I supposed to wait for you slowpokes or something? I don't think so. Why didn't you chase after me that final time, DJStroky, you were on every other move?
DJStroky: I got a flat with 5 to go and didn't have any spare wheels.
AS: Sucks to be you! Haha!
Eugene Celebration Stage Race
DJStroky: The next HSP winner to come to Oregon was Max 'Missle' O'Neal. Max, was Eugene on your calendar or had you been planning on doing this race?
MMON: Well, after Carnation got cancelled I was really bummed and I also really wanted to get in one more Time Trial before I sold my bike. DJStroky was pestering me a little bit about Eugene on Facebook, but then Brian told me how easy it was to win races in Oregon and what really sealed the deal was that there was a KOM on Strava up for grabs!
McBeth Prologue
DJStroky: Well, turns out Colby beat you on the McBeth prologue according to Strava.
MMON: Lies! I won that race!
DJStroky: Yes, according to OBRA you won, but Colby got the exact same time to the hundredth of a second.
MMON: Doesn't matter, I'm the one at the top. I'm Max 'MISSLE' O'Neal! Haters gonna hate.
DJStroky: Fine, you won, but on another note I got 50 seconds faster than my time last year.
MMON: Nobody cares!
DJStroky: Shutup, my Mom and Eddie French do!
Briggs Hill
DJStroky: Seriously, HSP stop it!
MMON: Hey, it's not like I'm the moron out there attacking the entire final lap just to get dropped on the final climb up Briggs Hill. All I did was defend my GC lead and in the end everyone else was much more worn out and much older in age than Colby and I, but I've got the better sprint. ;)
DJStroky: All right, you definitely deserved that win based on how well you did. I was amazed at how you and Colby bridged up to the break after the 3rd time up the climb to Fox Hollow Rd. How did you make that happen?
MMON: Rumor has it that our secret domestique from the Kehler Rohrbots gave a good jump for Colby and I to follow up the hill and after that it was only a matter of time before we closed in.
Coburg Time Trial
DJStroky: The HSP Win Streak is broken! Halleluiah! There was no chance in Eugene to hold up to the prowess and time trialing abilities of the likes of junior national team member Colby Wait-Molyneux, the reigning National Masters 45-49 time trial champion Brendan Sullivan in town getting ready to defend his title in Bend the coming week, a former 7th place British time trialist and now Eugene local Rob English and the newest name out of Eugene, Lee Ordonez. And I myself finally got a nearly complete time trial setup - the frame, the integrated aero-bars, front carbon deep dish rim, disc, skinsuit and an awesome looking Rudy TT Helmet on loan from Team Guinness. My time was only 47 seconds off Colby, 1:30 faster than my time from last year and ahead of Max!
HSP: You can't win them all...
Celebration Criterium
And now for a running commentary of the Celebration Crit...
Fake Brian Hitchcock: Oh look a OBRA Criterium! Don't mind if we win that and nearly all the primes!
MMON: Oh hey, one of the only moves I pick to chase happens to be this Soraz guy.
DJStroky: Oh crap, that's Kyle Medlin up the road. There goes the race.
BH: Oh oh! Field prime! Got it!
MMON: Oh dang gap down to 24 seconds. C'mon Soraz!!
BH: And relax back into the pack after the field prime.
MMON: Nice, gap up to 45 seconds! We are flying!!!
BH: Oh Oh! Another field prime! Weee!
MMON: Oh crap! Oh crap! Gap down to 27 seconds. Must push harder!
Kyle Medlin: I'm riding a bicycle super hard! Aaahhh!
BH: And relax.
MMON: Yes! Gap up to 40 seconds, I'm back up to 2nd GC! 10 laps to go!
Rob English: All right chaps, let's bring this back to 30 seconds and then I'll win the field sprint. By my calculations I'll hold 2nd GC by 1 second. Brilliant!
MMON: I am a winning machine!
Rob English: Well done lads, I held onto 2nd place GC by 1 second.
DJStroky: Oh gosh that was hard I hope I held onto 6th GC.
OBRA official: Results are posted!
Colby: Oh I won, cool I guess.
Rob English: My calculations were correct! 2nd place for me.
MMON: Gahhhh!!! 1 second!!
DJStroky: Whew 6th place. I really wanted at least 5th, but I did good this weekend.
And that's a wrap for this bicycle racing season of DJStroky Racing.
Fake HSP: Wait a second, are you saying we weren't racing in the 3s?
DJStroky: Yes you were in fact racing in the OBRA Pro/1/2 field.
HSP: Oh wow, we just assumed that all OBRA races were category 3 since you can't get a Cat 1 USAC upgrade from those races.
DJStroky: uhhhhhh, anyways, you guys have really been on a roll these last few weeks. Your team brought down a two-person squad to each of the last three weekends where a different person won each weekend in every single road and crit race. First of all, what made you all want to come down to Oregon to race?
HSP: Well, we're really a road racing team and like to compete, but all that was left on the WSBA calendar during August seemed to be a bunch of track races. It was a bit of a drive, but the OBRA races had some good money to be won.
Giro di Portland
DJStroky: Your first victory was at the Giro di Portland. Brian, tell us a little about that.
Fake Brian Hitchcock: Man talk about a crashfest! What is with the Oregon riders? Can't they keep their bikes up straight? I didn't really do much here except just hope someone in front of me didn't do something stupid and then in the end I had a great chance and was really stoked about that win.
DJStroky: As you should be, you came in front of Guinness's David Klipper (master national chamion on the track) and Scott Gray (current OBRA road race champion).
BH: Yeah, but then they made me wear this white Jersey on the podium. I dunno, I guess that's nice, but I was kinda sad because I only ever wear my HSP jersey (even around the house). Can you still see the HSP logo through that other jersey?
Longview Grand Prix
DJStroky: Moving on to the next weekend, there was the Longview Grand Prix. This race was on both the OBRA and the WSBA calendar, but only 10 people showed up for the 1/2 Men's race. There were 3 Guinness guys, 2 Team Oregon guys, 2 from HSP and then 3 other racers from Oregon. Why do you think more people didn't show up?
BH: Well, it may have been a little tricky for the WSBA'ers because on the WSBA website calendar it does say Longview, but there is no link to any event flyer. Luckily I had checked it out from the OBRA site where there was a link to the flyer. I told my teammate Aaron Shaw about it and that there was $1,000 6 deep, so we decided to give it a go. Plus there was the Squirrel Festival at the park next to the course! I love squirrels!!
DJStroky: The Squirrel Festival was pretty cool. Aaron, tell us about your win.
Fake Aaron Shaw: Well, since I let Brian win last week, he agreed to let me win this race.
DJStroky: It's that simple huh?
AS: Well if you all just let me ride away from the field what am I gonna do with that? Am I supposed to wait for you slowpokes or something? I don't think so. Why didn't you chase after me that final time, DJStroky, you were on every other move?
DJStroky: I got a flat with 5 to go and didn't have any spare wheels.
AS: Sucks to be you! Haha!
Eugene Celebration Stage Race
DJStroky: The next HSP winner to come to Oregon was Max 'Missle' O'Neal. Max, was Eugene on your calendar or had you been planning on doing this race?
MMON: Well, after Carnation got cancelled I was really bummed and I also really wanted to get in one more Time Trial before I sold my bike. DJStroky was pestering me a little bit about Eugene on Facebook, but then Brian told me how easy it was to win races in Oregon and what really sealed the deal was that there was a KOM on Strava up for grabs!
McBeth Prologue
DJStroky: Well, turns out Colby beat you on the McBeth prologue according to Strava.
MMON: Lies! I won that race!
DJStroky: Yes, according to OBRA you won, but Colby got the exact same time to the hundredth of a second.
MMON: Doesn't matter, I'm the one at the top. I'm Max 'MISSLE' O'Neal! Haters gonna hate.
DJStroky: Fine, you won, but on another note I got 50 seconds faster than my time last year.
MMON: Nobody cares!
DJStroky: Shutup, my Mom and Eddie French do!
Briggs Hill
DJStroky: Seriously, HSP stop it!
MMON: Hey, it's not like I'm the moron out there attacking the entire final lap just to get dropped on the final climb up Briggs Hill. All I did was defend my GC lead and in the end everyone else was much more worn out and much older in age than Colby and I, but I've got the better sprint. ;)
DJStroky: All right, you definitely deserved that win based on how well you did. I was amazed at how you and Colby bridged up to the break after the 3rd time up the climb to Fox Hollow Rd. How did you make that happen?
MMON: Rumor has it that our secret domestique from the Kehler Rohrbots gave a good jump for Colby and I to follow up the hill and after that it was only a matter of time before we closed in.
Coburg Time Trial
DJStroky: The HSP Win Streak is broken! Halleluiah! There was no chance in Eugene to hold up to the prowess and time trialing abilities of the likes of junior national team member Colby Wait-Molyneux, the reigning National Masters 45-49 time trial champion Brendan Sullivan in town getting ready to defend his title in Bend the coming week, a former 7th place British time trialist and now Eugene local Rob English and the newest name out of Eugene, Lee Ordonez. And I myself finally got a nearly complete time trial setup - the frame, the integrated aero-bars, front carbon deep dish rim, disc, skinsuit and an awesome looking Rudy TT Helmet on loan from Team Guinness. My time was only 47 seconds off Colby, 1:30 faster than my time from last year and ahead of Max!
HSP: You can't win them all...
Celebration Criterium
And now for a running commentary of the Celebration Crit...
Fake Brian Hitchcock: Oh look a OBRA Criterium! Don't mind if we win that and nearly all the primes!
MMON: Oh hey, one of the only moves I pick to chase happens to be this Soraz guy.
DJStroky: Oh crap, that's Kyle Medlin up the road. There goes the race.
BH: Oh oh! Field prime! Got it!
MMON: Oh dang gap down to 24 seconds. C'mon Soraz!!
BH: And relax back into the pack after the field prime.
MMON: Nice, gap up to 45 seconds! We are flying!!!
BH: Oh Oh! Another field prime! Weee!
MMON: Oh crap! Oh crap! Gap down to 27 seconds. Must push harder!
Kyle Medlin: I'm riding a bicycle super hard! Aaahhh!
BH: And relax.
MMON: Yes! Gap up to 40 seconds, I'm back up to 2nd GC! 10 laps to go!
Rob English: All right chaps, let's bring this back to 30 seconds and then I'll win the field sprint. By my calculations I'll hold 2nd GC by 1 second. Brilliant!
MMON: I am a winning machine!
Rob English: Well done lads, I held onto 2nd place GC by 1 second.
DJStroky: Oh gosh that was hard I hope I held onto 6th GC.
OBRA official: Results are posted!
Colby: Oh I won, cool I guess.
Rob English: My calculations were correct! 2nd place for me.
MMON: Gahhhh!!! 1 second!!
DJStroky: Whew 6th place. I really wanted at least 5th, but I did good this weekend.
And that's a wrap for this bicycle racing season of DJStroky Racing.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Summer Update
All right, here's a little update. I just got done with Austin trip #2. It was warming up still to the point where it was typically over 100 degrees every day. On the first Thursday, I headed down to the Driveway on a Thursday and found it quite hard. I didn't get any primes and didn't even break the top 20 in the sprint despite staying somewhat towards the front. Guess it wasn't forward enough.
That weekend I had to go and be at this Formula 1 Expo at the Austin Convention Center, so I did a group ride on Saturday and then rode out in the neighborhood of the F1 track that's being built in Austin.
And then I became sick. At my worst I was coughing up huge wads of flem. On Thursday I had had enough and went to an urgent car place and they prescribed me 3 different kinds of pills. I stayed at the hotel that day and the next and the pills seemed to be eliminating the flem, but also making me really dehydrated upon waking up each day. This whole week was a rest week anyways, so I didn't really miss any workouts. On Sunday though, I decided I was feeling good enough to race San Antonio again.
San Antonio
I now knew kind of what to expect this time around. It was even hotter than before, but I was feeling decent enough and wasn't coughing. The race began and I was trying to not go all out for breaks for at least the first 24 minutes. At the halfway point, the field became noticeably tired and I knew that it was time for the true sufferers to start their walk away from the field. At about 36 minutes a 3 person break with at least one guy from the winning break last time we were here was up the road. Some suffering now would probably pay off for getting a top spot at the finish.
I attacked the field and was luckily joined by a really strong rider. Together we were able to bridge up to the break. There was a late prime that me and another guy went for. He outsprinted me, but we dropped a guy from our break, so it was 4 now. The field was a safe distance away and we were all working well together until some real slight cat and mouse began. On the final lap, I was the first to burn my matches and attacked on the backstretch. Jack & Adams and the guy I bridged up with countered and rode away. Same thing happened around the final corner, except the sprint was a little longer, but I got beat by about half a wheel.
I was still quite happy to get 4th even though I was last place in the break. And then things started going downhill. My cough suddenly came back and was quite bad. I almost completely lost my voice and felt like I was drowning in my cough. It was sooo hot and I was sweating so hard. I was evaporating you could say. Luckily I had carpooled down with some University of Texas friends I had made and they were laughing at me for how badly I was dealing with the heat, but they were there for me. It actually wasn't so much the heat as it was the illness. I had stopped early on taking my medications because all I didn't get antibiotics, so it wasn't entirely necessary to take all those meds anyways.
Back in the Northwest
This time I have actually been having good communication with Athlete's Lounge and at the very least, I'll probably have my Cervelo R5 ready to go if not also the TT bike. Having these bikes will help for sure since I'll be doing the P12 race.
The Garmin is showing 101 degrees in the bottom right on my ride out to the Driveway.
That weekend I had to go and be at this Formula 1 Expo at the Austin Convention Center, so I did a group ride on Saturday and then rode out in the neighborhood of the F1 track that's being built in Austin.
Setting up for the F1 Expo
The site of the Formula 1 Race still under construction (in the distance on the left).
And then I became sick. At my worst I was coughing up huge wads of flem. On Thursday I had had enough and went to an urgent car place and they prescribed me 3 different kinds of pills. I stayed at the hotel that day and the next and the pills seemed to be eliminating the flem, but also making me really dehydrated upon waking up each day. This whole week was a rest week anyways, so I didn't really miss any workouts. On Sunday though, I decided I was feeling good enough to race San Antonio again.
San Antonio
I now knew kind of what to expect this time around. It was even hotter than before, but I was feeling decent enough and wasn't coughing. The race began and I was trying to not go all out for breaks for at least the first 24 minutes. At the halfway point, the field became noticeably tired and I knew that it was time for the true sufferers to start their walk away from the field. At about 36 minutes a 3 person break with at least one guy from the winning break last time we were here was up the road. Some suffering now would probably pay off for getting a top spot at the finish.
I attacked the field and was luckily joined by a really strong rider. Together we were able to bridge up to the break. There was a late prime that me and another guy went for. He outsprinted me, but we dropped a guy from our break, so it was 4 now. The field was a safe distance away and we were all working well together until some real slight cat and mouse began. On the final lap, I was the first to burn my matches and attacked on the backstretch. Jack & Adams and the guy I bridged up with countered and rode away. Same thing happened around the final corner, except the sprint was a little longer, but I got beat by about half a wheel.
I was still quite happy to get 4th even though I was last place in the break. And then things started going downhill. My cough suddenly came back and was quite bad. I almost completely lost my voice and felt like I was drowning in my cough. It was sooo hot and I was sweating so hard. I was evaporating you could say. Luckily I had carpooled down with some University of Texas friends I had made and they were laughing at me for how badly I was dealing with the heat, but they were there for me. It actually wasn't so much the heat as it was the illness. I had stopped early on taking my medications because all I didn't get antibiotics, so it wasn't entirely necessary to take all those meds anyways.
Back in the Northwest
This time I have actually been having good communication with Athlete's Lounge and at the very least, I'll probably have my Cervelo R5 ready to go if not also the TT bike. Having these bikes will help for sure since I'll be doing the P12 race.
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