This is the start of a 4-part blog post about watching the Tour de France. These posts share the experiences I had while watching le Tour for 3 days in the Alps during 2015. This first post sums up the preparations and getting to France, and the course, etc.
Our Motive
Laurel and I decided to do a huge Europe trip for 5 weeks. This was sort of our honeymoon and time inbetween jobs and time inbetween moving to Santa Cruz as well. Laurel and I (mainly Laurel) decided that we needed to move to Santa Cruz. But before that we had decided to go to Europe for at least 2 weeks in the summer. Once we decided to move, I decided it'd be a good idea to take lots of time off in between jobs, etc. Our lease expired at the end of June, so we bought tickets to go to Europe on July 3rd and fly back August 7th. We put all our belongings in storage back in Portland until we'd make the move to Santa Cruz.
Credit Card Churning
In January I discovered the concept of Credit Card Churning. The idea is that most credit cards offer a huge signup bonus (usually after spending a few thousand dollars), but after that, the rewards suck in comparison. Therefore, the best way to maximize the accumulation of points is to get new credit cards and then downgrade or cancel them just before the second year annual fee kicks in. Then maybe a year later you apply for the same credit card again to get the bonus all over again. So, unfortunately that whole thing is a 3 year cycle, so I was unable to truly take advantage of that to the extent of getting free airline tickets to and from Europe.
Nonetheless, I did apply for and get a Barclaycard Arrival plus and the Amex Starwood Prefferred Guest cards. The Barclaycard has been very helpful for buying rail tickets and Airbnb's. I get to redeem travel expenses at a rate of 100 points per dollar. With the signup bonus of 40,000 points and earning 2 points per dollar spent, I've been reimbursed for over $800 in travel expenses. The Amex SPG card was also helpful for booking a hotel, although we decided to do more airbnb's than hotels which had it's pluses and minuses being on a honeymoon and all. We got a hotel in Barcelona with the points from the signup bonuses. After that I'm planning on transferring points to airline miles for the upcoming airline trips to/from PDX to visit family. To sum it up, if you plan on travelling, getting credit cards oriented towards travel will save you a lot of money.
Flights
I sort of wished I would've searched a little harder for cheap airlines to/from Europe. My Frat Bro wrote up a good article about Norweigan Airlines and their cheap flights to Europe. This might have saved us a little bit of money, but we would've had to fly PDX > SFO > ARN > PRG which would've been a bit of a hassle. Instead I found out about Condor airlines which had a direct flight from PDX to Frankfurt. It was only on certain days of the week, so I had to choose the tickets carefully. I thought I would try to be smart and pay for the trip with my Amex card, but at the time it didn't waive foreign transaction fees, so I paid 1% more or so. Oh well. We ended up getting tickets for PDX > FRA > PRG and then OPO > FRA > PDX.
The non-TDF part of the trip
Our trip's plan was to go fly to Prague where my parents would pick us up and drive to Křivoklát where we'd stay for a week. After that our parents would drive us back to the Prague airport where we'd fly to Zürich then take trains from the Airport > Bern > Interlaken > Lauterbrunnen > Wengen. We did an Airbnb in Wengen for 3 nights then had our biggest train day. We went Wengen > Lauterbrunnen > Interlaken > Spiez > Visp > Martigny > Vallorcine > Chamonix > Les Pèlerins. We stayed at a hostel/airbnb in Chamonix 3 nights. Then train from Les Pèlerins > Saint Gervais > Annecy where we airbnb'ed it for 2 nights. Then a train to Lyon for 1 night where the next morning we started our TDF adventure.
After the TDF we'd do Lyon > Barcelona on the train. In a hotel in Barcelona for 3 nights. Then train to Madrid staying with Laurel's friends for 4 nights. Then fly to Porto and stay for 4 nights. Then finally fly back home.
Campervan
I started planning intently for everything in March. The first thing I sought to do was try to reserve a campervan. It was kind of hard trusting a lot of places because I could find very little if any online reviews of the van renting outfits. I did find a few that had vans with showers and toilets, but they all appeared to be reserved already for the time of the Tour. Eventually I found an outfit called WeVan. We reserved a van with a bed for 2 people without bathrooms and figured we'd just wing it from there and park somewhere along the Col du Glandon. Laurel did express concerns about not having a bathroom/shower, etc. Once the Tour was diverted to do the Col de la Croix de Fer a 2nd time, I looked along the course for something, anything that might allow us to reserve a spot for campervans that had bathrooms. Fortunately we found a campground where we reserved a parking spot for our van. Good to go! The place at WeVan rented us a bike rack for the van.
Bike Rentals
I definitely wanted to have a bike for the Tour, but we decided that it would be best to not fly over a huge bike box because of all our other travels. I found a place called RentMyBike which offered a variety of bike rentals in the place where we planned to stay. I got a carbon bike, but we decided to get Laurel a not so awesome bike which ended up being a big mistake. We had good communication with the rental agency and met them on the side of the road in a small town just before Bourg d'Oisans.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Monday, August 18, 2014
ugh
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.
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.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Injured
I haven't been out racing for 3 weeks now. The first of those weeks I was taking a week-long mid-season break like I've done each year. It was great. I spent more time with Laurel including going out to Lincoln City with her whole family for the weekend.
The Monday after all that, I was about to get back into my training regime until I fell off my bike on a training ride getting out of a driveway and hit my hip in a weird way. Like my bad bike maintenance skills, I guess my body also suffered a bit of a breakdown due to not getting massages and not stretching enough or something. I was in pain and couldn't ride normally and eventually went to see a physical therapist at guess where... shameless plug for a team's sponsor coming up... Therapeutic Associates!
The pain has been going away much slower than I would like, but it is what it is. Jordan Brandon has beenabusing me and performing witchcraft practicing the art of physical therapy on me for the past 2 weeks. It's become quite clear that my body could use a break from all this racing since nearly all of my leg muscles and glute muscles are really really sore and tense. Jordan made me use a foam roller for the first time and it was terrible in a good way.
I appear to be finally getting better. I just rode for the first time yesterday in 10 days on my commute to work and then to Laurel's via the MAX and it was exhilarating! I went as fast as 35mph down a hill! Weeee. Today I'm going to try to ride a full 90 minutes.
How have I been handling myself with all this not riding? Looking at computer screens mostly. I've been working on a website for my wedding and staying slightly later at work just to get stuff done faster. I think I'm not going to have any problem filling up the void in my life that'll happen when I don't race next year.
The Monday after all that, I was about to get back into my training regime until I fell off my bike on a training ride getting out of a driveway and hit my hip in a weird way. Like my bad bike maintenance skills, I guess my body also suffered a bit of a breakdown due to not getting massages and not stretching enough or something. I was in pain and couldn't ride normally and eventually went to see a physical therapist at guess where... shameless plug for a team's sponsor coming up... Therapeutic Associates!
The pain has been going away much slower than I would like, but it is what it is. Jordan Brandon has been
I appear to be finally getting better. I just rode for the first time yesterday in 10 days on my commute to work and then to Laurel's via the MAX and it was exhilarating! I went as fast as 35mph down a hill! Weeee. Today I'm going to try to ride a full 90 minutes.
How have I been handling myself with all this not riding? Looking at computer screens mostly. I've been working on a website for my wedding and staying slightly later at work just to get stuff done faster. I think I'm not going to have any problem filling up the void in my life that'll happen when I don't race next year.
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.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Walla Walla '14
Short and sweet recap.
Friday we drove out with Jeremy, Cristian and we brought along Zak Kovalcik too. Bart from Seattle joined me in the P/1/2s. Unfortunately the organizers and flaggers miscommunicated such that they had to cancel the stage. I was very much looking forward to hanging on for dear life, but we only did a lap instead. Oh well.
I had a very nice rest at the vacation rental we booked. And I had a good warmup and TT. I broke 20 minutes for the first time.
In the crit I did not do the best. I spent most of the race tailgunning which I realized is especially hard to do at Walla Walla since you're playing catch-up way more than if you just stayed towards the front. I guess any crit really. I got pulled with about 5 laps to go.
For dinner we all went out and I actually drank a beer. I would've abstained, but after seeing how Zak spent the previous evening going to a frat party and still getting top 10 in the crit, I decided maybe 1 beer was ok.
Sunday was the road race and my goal was to survive since I got dropped last year. I only really ever had trouble on the Kellogg Hollow Rd climb where eventually the last lap the contenders all got away. I made it in with the peleton and was satisfied with that result. Still got some fitness to build up, but I'm getting there.
Here is the selection at the finish:
And the rest:
Jeremy from our Cat 3 squad managed to get in a 4 person break that put enough time to earn him 2nd GC. Had he gotten 3rd in the sprint he would've won it. So close! 'til next time.
Friday we drove out with Jeremy, Cristian and we brought along Zak Kovalcik too. Bart from Seattle joined me in the P/1/2s. Unfortunately the organizers and flaggers miscommunicated such that they had to cancel the stage. I was very much looking forward to hanging on for dear life, but we only did a lap instead. Oh well.
I had a very nice rest at the vacation rental we booked. And I had a good warmup and TT. I broke 20 minutes for the first time.
In the crit I did not do the best. I spent most of the race tailgunning which I realized is especially hard to do at Walla Walla since you're playing catch-up way more than if you just stayed towards the front. I guess any crit really. I got pulled with about 5 laps to go.
For dinner we all went out and I actually drank a beer. I would've abstained, but after seeing how Zak spent the previous evening going to a frat party and still getting top 10 in the crit, I decided maybe 1 beer was ok.
Sunday was the road race and my goal was to survive since I got dropped last year. I only really ever had trouble on the Kellogg Hollow Rd climb where eventually the last lap the contenders all got away. I made it in with the peleton and was satisfied with that result. Still got some fitness to build up, but I'm getting there.
Here is the selection at the finish:
And the rest:
Jeremy from our Cat 3 squad managed to get in a 4 person break that put enough time to earn him 2nd GC. Had he gotten 3rd in the sprint he would've won it. So close! 'til next time.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Post title
Well, I haven't been keeping up my blog much. I ought to be tho, since I'm starting to be able to mix things up. I'll give it a shot at catching up a bit from when I last wrote. I'm definitely not writing as much because I'm trying to be wayyyy more political about what I write since it apparently offends people. I also have been adding to these unpublished venting posts which will likely never see the light (darkness?) of the internet. The big thing is that I'm trying to get along with a lot of people who have different, opinionated and seemingly habitual learned approaches to bike racing. And I find myself disagreeing with that a lot, and it can sometimes come off quite sharply. I want to be a good member of the community, however I am most definitely not sacrificing my philosophy on racing.
Anyways, I'll talk racing now and hope I don't offend too much.
Cherry Pie
That was a long breakaway I got into at mile 12 of a 75 mile race. Probably good too because I was skipping numerous pulls and then got dropped badly from the break and then the peleton itself. I can chalk up one DFL for the season, heh. My fitness was not there yet. That's for sure. The team got a pretty good result with our 40+ year olds taking 2nd and 5th.
IVRR
Nasty weather/sun kinda day. Break got away really early and nobody from our team got in it. On the backstretch our team decided to paceline like we were going to catch it or something, but none of us really had the desire or fitness to accomplish such a thing.
I was moving backwards while climbing Michigan Hill. On the 2nd to last lap I bridged up to a chase group and worked with them until I got dropped and rode in no-mans-land just to get caught by 2 guys at 200m. Still got 13th and every other Portland rider from my team except Sherm who had a cold DNF'ed.
Santa Cruz
I had two wonderful rides thru Redwood forests and got to see the California Giant Strawberry Factory.
King's Valley
Got the beer prime for the 2nd year in a row this time in a solo attack. I got chewed out for having a $7,000 bike with the squeakiest chain in the peleton. The break got away and Casey got in it. The pack was satisfied with going in borderline zone 1 levels so the break stuck. I and a few others were bored out of our minds.
Walla Walla
ok, no, I'll write a full post about Walla Walla. Look for that later.
Anyways, I'll talk racing now and hope I don't offend too much.
Cherry Pie
That was a long breakaway I got into at mile 12 of a 75 mile race. Probably good too because I was skipping numerous pulls and then got dropped badly from the break and then the peleton itself. I can chalk up one DFL for the season, heh. My fitness was not there yet. That's for sure. The team got a pretty good result with our 40+ year olds taking 2nd and 5th.
IVRR
Nasty weather/sun kinda day. Break got away really early and nobody from our team got in it. On the backstretch our team decided to paceline like we were going to catch it or something, but none of us really had the desire or fitness to accomplish such a thing.
I was moving backwards while climbing Michigan Hill. On the 2nd to last lap I bridged up to a chase group and worked with them until I got dropped and rode in no-mans-land just to get caught by 2 guys at 200m. Still got 13th and every other Portland rider from my team except Sherm who had a cold DNF'ed.
Santa Cruz
I had two wonderful rides thru Redwood forests and got to see the California Giant Strawberry Factory.
King's Valley
Got the beer prime for the 2nd year in a row this time in a solo attack. I got chewed out for having a $7,000 bike with the squeakiest chain in the peleton. The break got away and Casey got in it. The pack was satisfied with going in borderline zone 1 levels so the break stuck. I and a few others were bored out of our minds.
Walla Walla
ok, no, I'll write a full post about Walla Walla. Look for that later.
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