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!

 

2014

All right, here it is.  I've finally put together my 2014 racing schedule.  This year I am going to be riding on the Therapeutic Associates Racing Team.  I'm looking forward to being with a bunch of teammates, especially when I go do stage races.  As usual, I'll be doing a lot of the races and hopefully I'll pick up some wins and also help my teammates get some wins as well.  I'll be focusing particularly on winning the GC at a local stage race.

February

8:  Stumptown Birkebeiner 2014

March

2:  Dirty Circles
8:  Sequim
9:  Mason Lake
15:  Sequim
16:  Mason Lake - I have actually been racing
23:  Cherry Pie
29:  IVRR

April

5:  Vance Creek  Going to Laurel's Friends' wedding in Santa Cruz instead
12:  King's Valley - Post title
18-20:  Walla Walla - Walla Walla '14
26:  OVRR or Eugene Roubaix
27:  Monster Cookie Metric Century!

May

3-4:  Wenatchee
10:  Banana Belt 1 - Oh look, I have fitness now!
11:  OBRA TTT
17-18: Mutual of Enumclaw
25: Ski to Sea - Kids on [Lactic] Acid
31-1:  Capital Stage Race - Racing racing racing...

June

7: Pioneer Century
8: Montinore  Laurel's Brother's kids' baptism
21:  Mt Tabor
22:  Rainier
27-29:  Baker City

July

4-6:  Tour de Delta??  High Desert Omnium
12:  Boise Twilight or Redmond Derby Days
18-20:  Cascade Cycling Classic
26:  Gresham Crit
27:  Vancouver Crit

August

2-4:  Courage Classic!  Karly bailed on Laurel and I!
2:  OBRA Crit
3:  Tigard Crit
9:  OBRA TT
10:  Bridge Pedal
15-17:  Eugene
23:  Therapeutic Associates Crit

September

7:  Mt Ashland Hillclimb

Getting Ready for 2014

All right folks, I'm going to start ramping up the blog posts in the next few weeks.  I got quite a bit to talk about.  Probably the biggest news is that I'll be on a new team for 2014.  Also, I'm currently writing this from Palm Springs on a racing camp.  And I'm still trying to figure out my racing schedule for the coming year as I coordinate with my new team.

However, I can tell you more details about this one bit of news.  Last year I promised my sister that if I didn't win either the OBRA Crit or OBRA TT that I would definitely do the Courage Classic with her in 2014.  Well, last year's crit season didn't go very well for me, so I have to make good on my promise.  So, I have signed up for it this year.

So now is your chance to be one of the first donaters to this worthy cause.   Your name will get to be displayed on the super fancy scroll bar on the right of this blog which receives millions tens of views per minute week.  Click here to donate!

2015 race schedule

It's January and earlier today I was out riding in pouring, near-freezing, foggy rain at 8pm on Cornell on a Tuesday evening.  That is just not my idea of fun.  I'm lazy damnit and I just don't think I want to continue forever with these bike racing training antics, but I signed up for another year, so I better say before it's too late that I won't be taking 2015 racing seriously at all. 

Listed below are the pros of bike racing:

• Normal people think I'm some sort of superhero, which is kinda cool because I like being respected.
• Back when I started 4 years ago it was my excuse for not drinking so heavily so frequently (actually I didn't drink anything for over a year)
• I get to challenge myself and fight to persevere
• Winning does feel good

But the cons of racing are many!!

• Costs lots and lots of money
• Takes up hours of time every day
• It sucks when you or your team don't win for a long period of time
• Training during the winter in the Pacific Northwest is mostly unfun
• I have competing desires such as
• Trying to keep up a good relationship with my girlfriend
• Trying to have any other friends at all
• Working on computer programming ideas I have
• My real-life job which I make vastly more money every week than I do during the entire bike racing season
• Side jobs that also make more money than bike racing
• Community service projects

The big thing is that I currently train 7 days a week and have very little time for anything else.  I'm not going to completely stop riding a bike, I'll likely still commute every once in a while and definitely get out on the weekends and even hit up some PIRs here and there and even some other races that I typically enjoy.  I just feel like the amount I gain from devoting a huge part of my life to racing isn't enough to justify that expenditure.

So, with that, I present to you my 2015 racing schedule:

February:

Worst Day of the Year Ride or maybe the FHR

March-May:

Nothing, except maybe a PIR on a sunny day if I feel like it.

June or July or whenever this thing is:

Krivoklatsko Peklo which is a bicycle race in my dad's hometime in the Czech Republic.  At some point in my life I need to do this race.

August:

Eugene Celebration because I just really like this race.

September:

Mt. Ashland Hill Climb because I like to visit my grandparents in Ashland.

I lost to a Triathlete

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

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



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

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

My Bikes: STOLEN: Giant Seek 3

Equipment

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

Wheel Set:

Wheels:	Stock
Tires:	Schwalbe Marathon tires

Personal Stories about this bike

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

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

Eugene

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



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

McBeth

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



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

Briggs Hill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coburg TT

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

Crit

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





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