Phil the Thrill

New blog location

2009-03-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

http://livingthedream.bicycling.com/

In a continuing attempt to use my stupid degrees...

2009-03-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

...my blog will now be located at www.bicycling.com . I'll try to link them here as they're posted, but I'll be sending an entry each week between Monday and Wednesday.

Also, I'm pleased to announce a new sponsor: AsMaster chamois creme, http://www.asmaster.biz/
I tried it out during the Tour of California, and my private regions were glad I did. Yours will be, too.

new blog on bicycling.com

2009-02-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

check it out:

http://bicycling.com/blogs/tourofcalifornia/expert-blogs/rider-diary-preparing-for-the-tour-of-california

I'll be posting here every couple of days for now, daily during the race, and hopefully regularly throughout the year after that.

Nice

2009-02-04T09:40:00.001-08:00

Back in SoCal

2009-02-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

I raced last weekend, but it went like every other Florida race ever: the break sticks when the big teams want it to, and they don't want it to unless I'm not there.
In the crit Saturday, I couldn't get anything to stick, so I found the Gutt with 5 laps to go, and said he'd get a leadout if he gave me half the money. He agreed, and with half a lap to go, I brought him to the front, brought back the small break that had a 10-second gap, and led through the last turn. Turns out that was a little too early, and he sat up a little so as to not have to lead out the whole sprint, ending up 4th. Disappointing, but there were some legit sprinters there, so he did way better than I would have.
In the road race, I attacked from first lap with a small group, attacked it solo when it was caught, and ended up off the front for the first half of the race with one other rider. He pulled through enough to keep my fresh, and I felt awesome, so we got a 1-minute gap, made Herbalife chase half the day, and sat up when the finally got close to us.
A few laps later, the real break went, with 10 or so guys, only 2 Herbalife, 1 Guttenplan, and no zMotion, who brought like 5 ex-pros and 11 riders in their decaled-up motorhome. So that was funny.
With one lap to go, I was thinking about attacking, but we started to catch the masters race. They were supposedly neutralized, but it seemed like they started going a little faster to get away from us, and we started getting a little slower since no one wanted to work that hard on the last lap. As a result, the whole last lap was easy as hell, which means I have no chance of getting away. We finally caught the masters on the last hill. I attacked, really just to get us past them. I was able to drop most of the break, but some old dude brought me back, and our break pretty much sprinted with the masters field. Not my cup of tea, but Gutt got 3rd (we'd agreed to split money again), and I got 7th. Herbalife won, but they had to split money with 3298932084 riders, so Gutt and I got the best split for the weekend. Small victories.
The real news was that my legs felt good and I didn't crash. There's kind of a big race coming up. More on that later.
I'm supposed to have a blog up on www.bicycling.com every day during the ToC, and every couple of days in the coming weeks, so keep a look out for that. That's part of why this blog has been suffering lately.

Training Camp

2009-01-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

I was awake for 27 hours by the time I made it to San Diego, got my equipment, and had a dinner with some sponsors, but it was worth it. I've been really amazed with all the staff, the organization, and the stuff. I'll post some more later, but here's a preview.

Usually, when you get picked up at the airport, it's in a rental, and it's hard to figure out what car to look for. I figured this one was for me:

My training bike (SRAM Red, Deep sram wheels, integrated seatpost, etc.):

I think the race bike will be the same, but with Zipp tubies on it. Unfortunately, I think they want to keep the training bike for now so they can set up my race bike when it comes at the end of the week. The Cannondale has to last another week or two, and I'm going to miss this thing.

Trailer:

Neato Cateye Computer with the Jelly Belly logo on it:

I didn't get to take a picture of the obscene mound of kit, clothes, and luggage, but let's just say this is going to be a good year.

I'm trying to stay on east coast time right now, so it's bad my bedtime. Nighty night.

Transcript of my TV Interview

2009-01-20T01:55:00.001-08:00

I was stopped by a cameraman and a news reporter from Jacksonville Channel 5 at the airport check-in this morning.
Reporter: Sir, are you flying to DC?
Me: Well, San Diego, but yeah, I'm going through DC.
Reporter: Do you have a game plan?
Me: For what?
Reporter: They're expecting record crowds for the inauguration.
Me: Oh, shit.

Instruments of Torture

2009-01-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

The stretcher, also known as a rack:

Several medieval torture devices, including an iron maiden (right):

The power cranks/rollers combination:
This was my training this morning.

Lastly, David Guttenplan:

He might look innocent, but Gutt ruined my race this afternoon. My only hope in winning a dead flat crit is to get away from people I can't drop who can outsprint me. I knew he'd go from the gun (he always does in the early training races), so my plan was to wait for him to get up the road and come back, and I would counter-attack. The first part worked: he went from the gun, and got up the road. But oops, no one wanted to chase, and David got an ugly-looking gap by the end of the first lap with one other rider. It took me a lap to soften up and get away from the field, and another lap to get across to David.

Normally, I'd never work with a sprinter like David on a course like that, but this is a training race and David's my friend, so I'm not going to sit on like there's a ton of money or glory at stake.

We worked well together, taking hard pulls, and putting a lot of time on the group. With 12 out of 25 laps remaining, we had 50 seconds, so I attacked on the one sort-of uphill stretch. I caught David by surprise, but he clawed his way back pretty easily. After that, I couldn't get him to commit to a hard pull (rightly so...no one works hard after they've been attacked). Any time I saw a chance, I'd try to slip away again, but he'd always be right on my wheel, and spent a few laps riding slow and arguing,each trying to convince the other to let him win. Soon, the field started to get close, so we agreed to a truce. At the end, David jumped hard into the last turn, and I could never get up to his wheel. Oh well.

In other news, I made the mistake of looking in the crisper bin in our fridge today. There are currently three people living in the house, and we each apparently thought that the crisper space belonged so someone else. Judging by various expiration dates and smells, it probably hadn't been opened since October. You can find pictures here:

www.philthethrill.net/stuffwefoundinthefridge.htm

Brrrr

2009-01-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

Last year at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, they held a crit in crazy hard rain. I managed to avoid the huge number of crashes, despite riding a neutral bike with 120 PSI in the tires, but it took a few laps to get comfortable in the turns, and by then I had no hope of seeing the front of the race. I realized then that I hadn't really ridden in the rain for about a year. It's a perk of living in Florida, but probably not good for my skillz, so I made a resolution to train in a rain once in awhile.
Yesterday morning, the weather radar looked like this:

Ouch. So I decided that it was time for my train in the rain day. It actually wasn't that bad. Once you get moving, and everything gets wet and numb (everything), riding in cold rain is no big deal. My iPod survived under the rain jacket, and I got to try out my Christmas present:

Nope. That's not a novelty adult item. That's a ski boot dryer. I first used one after Univest last year, when my host, a muckety muck at the Univest Bank, dug those out instead of the newspapers I had asked for, which really had no hope of drying out my shoes completely. I didn't know such an object existed, and all my dumb teammates (who ski all winter), felt rightfully stupid for not thinking of it years ago. I'll be throwing this in my race bag for years to come.

Hopefully, the ski boot dryer will prevent mold and stinkiness in my SWEET NEW SHOES FROM MAVIC: (in my English classes, we called that last sentence a transition)

Check em out. And you thought my red shoes last year were bright. You need sunglasses if you enlarge that photo. More info after I get some riding in on these, but I'd like to thank Mavic for the hookup.

Cruisin in the Atl

2009-01-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

I went home for break, and had the usual love/hate relationship with being in Atlanta. It was good to see the family and friends, and a couple days of great riding in Dahlonega, but there were also a few days of staring out the window waiting for the rain to stop.

The long rides in Dahlonega were definitely up there with the my favorite rides of all time. There are tons of hilly country roads up there, so I just went exploring. One such road narrowed to the size of a golf-cart path, which went up a climb, and then turned into one of the twistiest descents I've seen. I was having fun on the descent, winding through the trees lining the road/path, and judging appropriate speeds through the turns by watching the power lines that ran parallel to the road. Around one bend, a sign snuck up on me: Pavement Ends. I was going 35.

I ended up bombing onto the dirt road, and went deeper into dueling banjo country for another hour. There were a few houses, with more dogs, all of which chased me. I could picture the kids watching from the window: "Pa! Rover killed another ballerina! What do we do with him?" Fortunately, I was able to avoid death, and spent a couple quality hours mountain biking on my road bike, through rivers, rocks, and trails. The road eventually spit me out near a church, and I wound up finding my way to Unicoi National Forest on my way home. Good stuff.

Here's the "road":

As you can see above, I finally figured out how to get pictures off my new yuppie-phone (it seemed like the phone was eating them until just now).

Below are some pictures I thought were long-lost.

Dan Ennis's trashcan (before the party):

The big chicken:
Why I'm typing this on a new computer (not that Vista doesn't do the same damn thing):
Christmas present from the sponsors:

I went by Nathan O'Neill's house in North Georgia for a bike fit. This was in the basement:
It rattled like crazy, but I couldn't get this thing to attack my bike. Pussy.

On the floor in my kitchen (we also might have fleas!):

Just when I thought I was done with online lectures...

2008-12-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

...I got a packet in the mail from USADA. Apparently I am a member of the out-of-competition testing pool, meaning I have to register my whereabouts every day with USADA (submitted quarterly and updated as necessary), with a 60-minute time slot of when I'll be available. Once they call me, I have to be ready for a stranger to watch me pee. I was glad to learn that the inspector must have credentials, to prove that he's not just some sort of freak.

No big deal. I logged in to fill out the online form, and learned that before you get to the form, you must watch a series of 4 modules of lectures, with quizzes for each. Quizzes? That's not what I'm doing this for. I was a bit frustrated at first, until I learned the penalty for a missed answer: they tell you the right one! We are athletes, after all.

Some of the questions are pretty hard:

I've only been tested once. It's a little scary. I do take a lot of supplements, and tainted pills are always possible. Then you think maybe those guys that tested positive and said they were innocent were telling the truth, and the lab screwed up. Beats me, but my test came back clean. The whole process is really secure, with all sorts of forms, redundancies, safety seals, and witnesses. It's definitely better than the alternative of not having testing, even if it does require lectures.

Now I have to fill in where I'm going to be every minute for the next three months. Good thing I have more routines than a senior citizen with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

College

2008-12-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

I'm done with it. On Tuesday, I turned in my two final papers in the morning, rode 5 hours in the afternoon, and then went to Sonny's for dinner. After dinner, I sat down to take my online exam for my last class, and realized I had to poo, bad (Sonny's poo). I only needed a 33 out of 135 to keep my A in the class, so I brought the laptop into the bathroom and got to work. Before I knew it, I had finished college. On the toilet. I wish I could say I did it on purpose, because it's damn appropriate, but that's just how it happened.

And no, I'm not walking at graduation. I have several reasons:
-No matter what my parents say, I know they don't feel like driving 5 hours to try and pick me out among 5,000 others in a stadium full of students dressed exactly the same.
-I did at least three other things this year that I feel are a bigger accomplishments than graduating with an English degree from UF in 4.5 years, and I didn't even stay around for the whole awards ceremony at Mt. Washington (I had to drive from New Hampshire to Houston, TX by the next afternoon).
-I have to ride and go to the gym that day.
However, I do plan to zip-tie a cap to my helmet, ride past the stadium, and do the tassel thing. If anyone has a cap I can borrow for this purpose, let me know. Seriously. Graduation is on the 20th.

Cross Racing

2008-12-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. I won't apologize, though, because it's not my job to entertain you. I'll blog when I damn well please, or until someone pays me for it.

Unfortunately, I do have a tradition of race reports to uphold. Although one could argue that my actions at the Hendersonville UCI cross races fell short of "racing," I was competing in a bike race, so here goes.

I had never really raced cross before. Sure, I did the series in Florida last year, got 5th and 3rd on my mountain bike, then got a cross bike and won the last race. From this, I thought I was fairly competent in cyclocross. This year, I did about the same preparation: 3-4 rides/week on the cross bike, in the woods, with plenty of skills and technique practice. I even watched the Cycle-Smart Cross DVD, which broke down all the skills for me to practice.

Day 1 at Hendersonville, I learned that I wasn't all that competent. I was never really in the race, as I didn't get a front-row start, and I wasn't about to sprint a bunch of Freds into a grass 180-degree turn. I stayed at the back, planning to move up when I felt comfortable and got into a rhythm of sorts. Halfway through the first lap, I was ready to start racing, so I started to push hard on the pedals going into the paved section of the course. At the entrance to the paved section, there was a sharp, grass chicane. I flew into it full-speed, threw my front wheel around the posts, and made it out of the turn on two wheels. Unfortuntaly, the same cannot be said of my tires, as I had twisted my tire completely off my front wheel, and was riding on the rim. I ran the half-lap to the pit, got a new wheel, and spent most of the race alone. With 2 to go, I was finally lapped by the leader, Jeremiah Bishop, who was solo ahead of a small chase group. I let him by, and then sat on him, feeling comfortable, and having no trouble holding his wheel. I actually wondered how he lapped me at that speed. Then we got to the barriers. I rode up next to Bishop, unclipped, stepped through, lifted my bike, and ran perfectly through the barriers. Then, I carefully (but quickly), placed my bike back on the ground, jumped on, clipped in, and got moving again. It was easily my best barrier cross to date, but JEREMIAH BISHOP WAS ABOUT 10 BIKE LENGTHS AHEAD OF ME. Multiply that by every obstacle on the course, and my getting lapped makes more sense.

Day 2 was about the same, except instead of my tire coming off on the first lap, it was my chain, which got lodged between the cage and the pulley of my rear derailleur, a design flaw in the early SRAM Rival group which has since been corrected (they're sending me a new one). I rode alone again, but didn't get lapped until about half a lap to go, when the barrier incident was repeated like some sick flashback. So I have a lot to learn about technique before I'm any sort of cross racer. I also realized something else about cross. It seems like it's a one-hour solo effort with a lot of power-weight emphasis, which really suits me. In reality, though, it's a lot of 10-seconds on, 10-seconds recovery. I don't have much of a 10-second effort, and I don't recover that well in the 10-seconds off, so cross racing actually doesn't suit my strengths at all. I'll keep doing it, because it's good to train your weaknesses, but I won't be driving 8 hours and expecting to win my money back anymore. Colby says that if I do it for a month or two every year, I'll be decent in my mid-30s. Hooray!

I wasn't crazy when I told you Florida racing is hard

2008-10-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

From cyclingnews:

American athlete accepts suspension

Cyclist Ricardo Hernandez of Miami, Florida, accepted a two-year suspension after testing positive for a prohibited substance according to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Hernandez, 42, tested positive for exogenous testosterone, an anabolic agent, which is prohibited under the USADA Protocol and the rules of the UCI. His suspension took effect September 15, 2008, the date of his acceptance. Hernandez was disqualified from all competitive results achieved on and subsequent to March 2, 2008, the date his urine sample was collected at the Vuelta Independencia National, including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes.

I had to race this dude every weekend down here. He was really good. He has friends that are also really good. For the record, I still crushed him in time trials.

Another New Team

2008-10-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

When I signed to Time last month, it looked like the best move. Other directors didn't have their sponsors together yet and were not signing new riders, and Time gave me a nice offer, showing that they believed in me. The only problem was that they wanted an early decision from me so they could announce their final roster on cyclingnews. The way the market was, I understood that they didn't want to be stalled, so I pulled the trigger.

I was looking forward to doing Philly week and the Tour of PA next year, until I got the call from Jelly Belly. Since they're more established, Jelly Belly gets to do races like the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia. They were interested in me, and I couldn't pass them up.

Like the professional development team they are, Time understood my opportunity, tried to convince me to stay with them, but accepted my choice to ride for Jelly Belly instead. We had some good discussions, and I was happy to get out of my contract with them without burning any bridges, because Time is an up-and-coming team, likely to be in about the same place as Jelly Belly in a few years.

The funny thing about this is that Time already put their roster on cyclingnews, so I'll get announced on two team rosters once Jelly Belly finalizes. So here's an idea: my contract with Jelly Belly will go in the mail today, so I have time to sign to two or three other teams, get them announced on cyclingnews, and then be released as well. I'm going for a record here. Let me know if you're interested in having me on your team for a few hours.

Thing I Learned at Elite Track National Championships

2008-10-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

1. I'm not a track racer.
2. No matter how fit you are, it’s hard to compete with the nerds that have been focusing on track racing all year.
3. No matter how close you are to lapping the field, you can’t rely on anyone to take their fucking pulls.
4. Everyone brings a road bike, because they’re too lazy to walk the 60 feet to the bathrooms.
5. Bigger gear is not equal to faster speed.
6. It’s easy to be one of the top 15 track endurance riders in the country, but really hard to be in the top 5.
7. The races are only 4-45 minutes long, but they still ruin your whole day.
8. I will always feel bad ass bumping shoulders and butting heads with a disc wheel and a trispoke on my bike, like I’m such a high roller I don’t care if I break one.
9. Track racing looks easy to a roadie, and it is at the local level, but track nationals ain’t no joke.
10. Colby Pearce knows what he’s talking about.
11. There is no draft behind Colby.

So here’s a summary of the races. My first was the scratch race qualifier. There were two heats, and only twelve out of thirty or so in each would qualify for the finals the next day. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any trouble in this race. I took some fliers to wear out the field, jumped into a few breaks, and found one that lapped the field. Once I got the lap, I knew I’d qualified, so I sat on the back and waited for it to end.

The next race was the individual pursuit. I didn’t know if I should register for this one, because a 4k race really isn’t my style. I came all the way out here, so I figured why the hell not. The problem with pursuiting is that these guys have it down to a science. There are rules for everything, from the perfect start technique, to how long to sprint to get up to speed, how much to shake your bike during that sprint, where you are on the track when you sit down and get in the aerobars, how long you want each lap to take, and 1000 other things, all of which I had to memorize because I’d never done the race before and never bothered practiced it. I felt good in the race, but I didn’t go that fast, and I don’t really know why, which confirms what I already knew: I wasn’t prepared for the pursuit at all. Unfortunately, the way I raced it wasn’t even good enough to gauge if I have any talent in the discipline. I’ll have to try it a few times on a track in training and decide.

Last was the points race. Again, I didn’t have much trouble qualifying for the finals. I won a couple sprints, and only a small group lapped the field, so I didn’t stress.

The finals were a different story. I decided to be conservative and wait for the move that looked like it would actually stick. I saw the move forming, and I went for it, but I didn’t have the snap to get up there. Five guys got away in that group, including Colby Pearce (my coach) and Kirk O’Bee (Healthnet). I continued to race my race, but couldn’t get away for long enough to win a sprint lap, and never got much more than a half-lap lead, when lapping the field was my only hope for a top-5 result. Once Colby got his lap, there were 30 guys in the race, and maybe 3 with any hope of winning. At that point, the best I could have done was 12^th or so, so I decided to just do what I could to make sure Colby won. At least that would give me something to do. So, I attacked once with Colby, which forced Healthnet to chase and wear themselves out, and eventually set Colby up to get away again, this time without Kirk O’Bee. He lapped the field solo this time, pretty much sealing the victory. After that, I kept attacking to keep the race hard (and prevent anyone from lapping again), but the race was basically over. So, Colby raped the national championship by a silly margin, which is pretty awesome for a nice guy and great bike racer who’s about to retire.

Overall, track nationals was a good trip. It’s nice to have some hard training this time of year, when most guys are done racing but it’s hard to get motivated and start working on next season. I’ll never be a track racer, but I was a factor in these races, which is close enough for a damn climber. Next time I’ll know what to expect and have a little more time to prepare and train.

Now I head home, and take time off the bike for real.

Getting Pumped Again

2008-09-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

I had a good last couple of weeks. It started with breaking my own record for a local time trial. Last year, I bested Dan Larson's time over the 7.1 mile course by 10 seconds, completing it in 14:48. Last week, I knocked another 20 seconds off that time, my best improvement in years. I was quite happy with it, taking it as a sign that I'm on the right track, and still getting faster every year. I can look at power numbers all day, but there's nothing like a time trial to prove you're getting stronger.

The next week, I headed up to Atlanta for the Dick Lane Festival of Speed. It was mostly an excuse to visit the family, but it was also my only chance to ride a track this year (I thought), since I missed collegiate nationals. I rode the Dick Lane well (insert gay joke here). On the first night, I had a decent showing in the sprint tournament, which someone of my skinniness has no business entering in the first place.

The second night had races that were more my style. I attacked the shit out of the points race, going on fliers every time the pace slowed. It worked well, and I was leading the race going into the last sprint. I knew from the race announcers the name of the guy who was sitting second, but I was mistaken as to which rider that was. Not a good time to make that mistake...The rider I'd thought I was supposed to mark missed a split going into the last lap, so I went to the front and drilled it, hoping the points would go to someone else and the win to me. It turned out that the guy hadn't missed the split. He was on my wheel. And I led him out. I lost the race by 1 point. Whatever. That was my best showing for the night, but I got out there in the scratch race as well, with the typical solo flier that gets caught with a lap or two to go. Again, whatever.

I thought my season was over after that, so I started taking my end-of-season break. On a whim, though, I sent an email to my coach (former track Olympian Colby Pearce) to see if I should consider elite track nationals (which I figured was in December). He convinced me to do it, and informed me that it started in a week.
The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Me: Is it even worth it? I mean, I haven't ridden in...Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Oh, that's not so bad.
Colby: No, that's not so bad.
Me: But I should probably ride today.
Colby: Yeah.

So I'm all booked and registered, and I fly out Wednesday. Last race for real this time. Probably.
Now to finish writing some papers so I won't have to do it on the plane...I'm getting super pumped for track nats as well, although I suspect I'll feel my premature break. To get you pumped, here's some primo track racing action (I love the soundtrack):

Oh yeah, I'm a pro now. I signed to Time Pro Cycling like a month ago, but I figured I'd wait for them to unveil their roster. It's a new name, but mostly the same roster. The team is exactly the right level for my development, since I'll be one of the strongest riders in races that suit me, so I'll have a chance to get results in between working for the team. I'm pretty excited about next year. Here's the cyclingnews article:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/sep08/sep24news5

100k Classic and Univest GP

2008-09-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Oops. I missed an update there. School takes time.
100k classic went like it usually does. I made a ton of breaks that should/could have stuck, and they didn't. Then I missed the break that went on the last lap and barely made it. Damn. Something about that race: I always feel great, never get a result.

I just finished the Univest Road Race today. God, the weather was awful. Hard rain all day. My sunglasses broke halfway through, and it was a battle just to see and keep the junk out of my eyes. Hoping for a silly early break to stick like it did last year, I was aggressive early, but everyone had the same idea, so nothing stuck. Instead, the race was just incredibly fast for the first 90 minutes. I figured it would take a little more attrition to cause a good split, so I faded back in the field some before the first KOM. Sure enough, the break of 15 went over the top of the climb. Luckily, my teammate Josh Dillon was there.

With the rain and the twisty course, it was very hard to position. By the time I got to the front, the break was well clear, and I had already missed a dangerous chase group. I attacked on a flat section, did some crazy things on a descent, and made it to the chase group. I took pulls in the chase of about 25, and we were keeping the break close until our group shattered on the 2nd KOM. Some of the chase group made it across to the break there, and I hung on in no man's land for awhile, but eventually got through the caravan and into the front group. In case you're keeping track here, I've been going balls-out for 2 hours up to this point, and have had about 8 seconds of recovery.

Soon after I got across, 6 or so riders attacked the break, in the move that was obviously the one for the finish. Again, I was trying to recover, but I was in a position that I had to go. I attacked and almost made it across, but I finally blew up and came back to the chase group. The leaders starting putting time into us here, because everyone felt like attacking, and too many riders were sitting on. I put in one more hard attack, and got a very solid gap with Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1), but he had two riders up the road and refused to help after awhile, and I was starting to feel the effects of all my bridging and attacking.

At that point, the top 5 were already up the road, and I knew I didn't have legs for a huge result. I still question how I pulled that off last year in a harder field, but the fact is, I already top-tenned this race, and I wasn't going to improve on that. So I decided to throw down 100% for my teammate Josh Dillon, who made all the right moves and had good legs (like he always does). We still weren't too far down on the break, or too far up on the field, so I took some monster pulls, which allowed Josh some time to relax.

I put in some more attacks in the first couple laps of the circuits, hoping to launch something that would split the break in Josh's favor, or at least wear guys out some. Finally, with about 7 laps to go, my legs seized up climbing up through the feed zone, and my time in the break was over. I sat up and coasted for a minute or so, and was able to put in a hard attempt to get back on, but it was too late. They placed me (top 20 maybe) and took me out the next time through the finish line.

So I ended up with what would have been a pretty result if I hadn't had wacky expectations, and Josh rode well. He missed a small split, but was solo for 10th on the last lap, getting caught right at the line for a still-solid 15th.

Tomorrow's the crit. As usual, I rode myself into a hole in the road race, so crit expectations are low. I'll be working for Eric Schildge tomorrow, our sprinter, so hopefully he can follow in Josh's footsteps.

Mt. Washington Hillclimb

2008-08-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

I’m normally pretty prompt with race reports, but the report went on Velonews before I got down from the mountain. On top of that, I had to drive 30-something hours to Houston. Why Houston, you say? Did I find another race to snipe? Nope. Just family stuff. School starts next week, so I had to drive south anyway. It’s kind of on the way if you’re like me and you’d rather chew glass than give your money to an airline.
Since I’m leaving Amherst, I’d like to share a couple points of trivia as an homage to my temporary home.
1. Amherst is the birthplace of Emily Dickinson and the home of Smith College.
2. It’s the 2nd-lowest zip code in the U.S. (01002).
3. Neighboring Hadley is the nation’s asparagus capital, and you can purchase the real thing from a number of roadside stands.

Also, some pictures taken just near my house:

Oh yeah, the race. It was good. I kind of expected to win since all the big climbers were in Utah. Of course, last time I said that, I got some flak for it, but guess what? My competition had full time jobs, families and tandem bicycles, were aged 9-75, and were glad to finish. I, on the other hand, train full-time for events just like this one. They won’t take it personally that they didn’t win. In fact, everyone there was really nice. I got tons of cheers from friends and strangers at the top and at the awards ceremony. It sucks to win a race and not know anyone while you’re sitting around waiting for the awards, but I made a ton of friends, took pictures with kids, ate turkey and stuffing, and generally enjoyed myself.

There were a few good climbers there that made me earn it. One guy rode 10 feet behind me for the first part of the race, and when he cracked, a guy from Boulder stayed within sight for the next half hour. He finished almost two minutes back, but looked closer since it was all uphill, and he made me push that little bit harder.
All that said, there are still a few (7) things that make this a big result for me.
1. Something finally went right: I didn’t flat or crash. I rode my race, and I won.
2. Prestige: lots of big names have won this race, and it’s nice to be in their company.
3. Now there was a reason for all that threshold training: I did a ton of steady, hard efforts in training for U23 time trial nationals, but I flatted and couldn’t go fast. I’m glad I could take advantage of that fitness.
4. It’s my first win that came up on cyclingnews under “major races,” so everyone saw it.
5. My time: it was good. I did the climb in July and was over 56 minutes, losing almost a minute to Anthony Colby. This time, I went under 55, which beat Colby’s time from that day by 15 or 20 seconds. I’m not saying I would have beat him, because he probably could have gone faster if I was next to him, but it’s my only basis for comparison, and it seems pretty good.
6. I’m 22, and I think I can get 5-6 minutes faster by the time I’m 30. Watch out, Danielson.
7. Prize money is nice.

It was cool to see some familiar faces there, like the folks from Cycle Logic (sorry I didn’t get to chat with you guys). I’d like to thank Dan and Bernie, who drove me down the mountain, although I really want to ride that descent someday (wearing some sort of armor). Also Mary Power, the promoter, Steve and Darcy, who had a sweet farewell BBQ, and Matt White, who gave me that old-school skinsuit.

Lastly, if you saw the pictures from the race, you’ll be glad to know that I have since shaved. That sleaze beard was awful.

Alright I’m caught up. I leave you with some pictures of Deborah, courtesy of Steve and Darcy. Deborah has officially earned a page on my website when I get around to it. Explanation forthcoming.

U23 Road Race Redemption Kind of

2008-08-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

With my flat tire slowing me down to a disappointing 13th in the TT, the road race was my last chance to get a result at nationals, and pressure was on for the team to back up Eric's result in the crit. The course was 120 miles long, and basically went back and forth along a highway, with two medium-length, gradual climbs on each lap. We started the race at 10 AM, so heat and distance were the biggest factors.

We rode a smart race, tactically. Our two sprinters, Jamey and Eric, decided to hold back with Josh in case everything stayed together for a sprint. Toby and Alister volunteered to race early, and my job was to wait until the end, or watch the big players and make sure I didn't miss the move. Sure enough, a break went literally from the gun, and aggressive riding brought it up to 20 or so riders, some of them fairly dangerous. In perfect execution, Toby and Alister were there, leaving the responsibility for the chase to Waste Management and Rock Racing, as the only major teams to miss it.

That move came back about 30 miles in, and I found myself covering a well-represented counter of 25 riders, including almost all the major players. Amazingly for a group of that size, the "break" stayed organized, so we quickly built a lead on the peleton. It was clear that this was the race, and once the gap grew to just over three minutes, the field was pulled in a controversial decision, leaving only 30 riders or so on the course and taking the rest of the team out of contention.

With the move established, Slipstream didn't waste any time taking advantage of their numbers (they had 6 or 7 in the break), and Tom Peterson attacked with Nick Frey up one of the longer climbs. The group hesitated, so I jumped across with Peter Stetina on my wheel. The four of us worked well, and quickly gained a minute advantage after less than a lap. I liked the move because my odds were decent against just three riders, and it put Waste Management under pressure again in the case group. The move looked promising until Stetina flatted, forcing us to wait since Peterson wouldn't go without him, and allowing the chase to claw its way back.

This was when Slipstream really took control. Kirk Carlsen attacked alone, and no one felt like getting organized to chase and letting the rest of the Slipstream riders sit on, so there were constant attacks and counters, as the non-Slipstream riders chased each other down. Soon, Walker Savidge went, putting a second solo Slipstream rider up the road. At this point, I went to each rider in the group that wasn't wearing Argyle, and convinced them that we all need to work together against Slipstream. They got the point, and soon there were 8 of us constantly attacking. Slipstream didn't want to to chase at first, since they had two guys up the road, but when Ben King slipped away with Scott Jackson, I sat at the front of the group with Nick Frey, and we happily announced that we had "two teammates up the road." Walker was soon caught and dropped, and my two teammates were sure to catch one rider in 50 miles, so Slipstream had to start working. I'd like to give props to all my teammates in the break yesterday (Ben, Scott, Nick, Carter, Taylor, Kiel, Alex, Tyler, and Ryan). It's hard to let other guys go up the road, but we had to race against Slipstream, and it takes classy guys and good bike racers to make it work when you're that outmanned. Any of them could have been in the move that stuck.

It took them a few minutes, but Slipstream brought Ben and Scott back while Kirk was still up the road, and I soon countered, with Stetina on my wheel. With a teammate up the road, he naturally sat on. It sucked for me, but there are no hard feelings. I know how it works. After 20 minutes of dragging him around, I was gaining time on Carlsen, but not fast enough, so it was clear that Carlsen wasn't cracking. I figured that if Stetina and I did ever catch him, Kirk would be strong enough to stay with us, and I'd get third, so I told Peter I'd let them take the top 2 spots if he'd help me out. That was a good decision. I took long pulls, but Stetina rode like he had a motor, and we started putting serious time on the chase group.

Going through the start/finish with 1 lap to go, we were 2 minutes behind Carlsen, and 1 minute ahead of the chase. This was when my legs started to give out. I'd been in the wind and heat too long. I took two bottles on every lap, but I'd finished both about 1/3 of the way through the last lap, as well as my Clif shots. Going up the first climb, Stetina pulled away from me, and I couldn't convince him to wait. He put some time on me by the first turnaround at the top of the hill, where I also saw Tom Peterson gaining on me from behind, with the chase no too far back. Bad news all around. After frying in the wind for a few minutes, Stetina came up behind me (I thought I was seeing things), apparently led off and back on the course, with Peterson close behind. They decided to get rid of me. Sensing the inevitability or staying with those guys for another 15 miles, I let them go.

No water, no food, 105 miles already completed, and stuck in no man's land, with three Slipstreams guys ahead of me, and 8 chasers behind, all gaining time. With no other options, I put my head down and settled in for a long, slow time trial. Tom and Peter caught their teammate, and the three of them cross the line together in an impressive display. The biggest team with the strongest riders rode a perfect race, and made the rest of us look silly. I ground my way up the finishing hill 2:30 minutes later, with enough gap on the chasers that I didn't have to kill myself on the climb. As the brave and defeated underdog, I got tons of cheering from the crowd, and it was also good to see Ryan Baumann come through 5th, 9 seconds down.

So, I rode the best race I could have. I still think I had podium legs in the TT, but I'll never know, and this almost makes up for it, so I'm happy with my nationals.

Finally, congrats to David Reich and Thomas Tran--two of the UF guys I've been coaching this summer--for winning their races back home. Alright, I have to get on a plane.

U23 Crit Nats

2008-08-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've always thought it would be cool to compete in a huge stadium with thousands of screaming fans, and racing in the Angels Stadium parking lot in Anaheim is kind of close, right? It was actually a pretty good course: fast, open turns, but slow enough to still favor the guys that know how to corner.

The team rode well. We knew that breakaways were hopeless, but we all rode the front and stayed represented. Once the field sprint predictions were confirmed, our focus was to keep our sprinter safe, at the front, and out of the wind. With 12 laps to go, Fiordifrutta was all over the front of the race. Four of us worked together and set a tempo that brought back all of the flyer attempts and prevent further attacks.

At 5 to go, as expected, VMG/Felt took over control of the race for their sprinter. We weren't about to fight them for it, and most of us sat back and left things up to our sprinter. It would have been nice to have one person left to help Eric position behind the leadout, though, since the team's efforts didn't translate into respect for our sprinter in the last few laps. Eric had to fight hard for wheels, and we were too burned to throw elbows for him.

With just over a lap to go, there was a nasty crash about 10 guys back, and the top 30 or so were solidified while the rest of us dodged bodies. Up front, Eric did well to stay upright and sprint into 8th place. We got one good result and showed good team strength and organization, which was nice after a disappointing TT, and takes a little of the pressure off for the RR.

Personally, my legs weren't where I'd hoped. I managed to make the bridge efforts I needed to, but attacks weren't as easy as they were a little over a month ago. I guess I'm still building back to top form. Hopefully I'll feel a little better in the road race, but I still got the job done, and the season is far from over.

U23 National TT Championship--Maybe this is karma, but I sure don't recall murder-raping any boy scout troops

2008-08-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

It's hard to see it in the picture, but there's a hole in that tube. It happened near the top of the first hill, about 10 min into the time trial. I heard a loud pop and a ssssssssss sound, and then it stopped. I screamed an expletive and kept pedaling, hoping to see a neutral wheel pit around the corner. There was no pit, but my wheels felt strangely okay. I decided that after the sudden pop, it must have plugged itself somehow (a mixed blessing), so I kept going my pace.

Upon closer inspection post-race, it seems that the tube popped, and the pressure from that explosion unseated the clincher tire from the rim, but the tube still held air from being pressed against the tire.

I'm obviously quite frustrated, since I focused a lot on this race over the last month, and I did everything right. I had put that tire and tube on a few weeks ago, and raced it several times without incident. I guess that's how things go sometimes. The good (bad?) news is that I'm not sure how much it would have mattered had nothing gone wrong. Looking at the power file, I can see where the flat occured, and it only took me 25 seconds of panicking before I started to ride hard and steady again. I think that would have put me in the top 10, and then the only things to obsess about are how much time I lost due to a gradually deflating tube (it was very noticable right after the finish, but got me back to the car with plenty of pressure), and how much slower I went due to distraction and frustration. Both are hard to put a number on, but I doubt if it would have made a huge difference. My goal here was to get a result that would score me a spot at worlds, and even without the drama, I don't think I had the legs for that today, plain and simple. The only way to get an automatic spot at worlds is to win it, and Peter Stetina is in a league of his own this year.

What have I learned? Not that shit happens (I've had that pounded into my head at Redlands, Gila, and Nature Valley this year). I've learned not to put so much pressure on one race. I missed out on Fitchburg and Cascade Classic--where I could have done well--partly because I wanted to focus on this TT. So that was dumb.

I also might have to finally face the fact that I'm not really a time trialist. TTs were where I got all my results my first couple of years, so I jumped to that conclusion, but all of my best rides in the last couple of years have been in hard road and stage races. That means I need to start working on my sprint. Luckily, there are two more national championships this week. Who knows...maybe I'll redeem myself.

Phil the Douche

2008-08-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

I raced a TT in New York last weekend. I already blogged about it, but I removed the blog, because it caused some drama on nyvelocity.com, namely me be called a douche, among other things. I deleted the blog, because it wasn't worth it, and I now see how people get sucked in to blog drama. Here goes...

I made a couple mistakes in the blog, calling it a "silly local race" and saying that "none of the big players" were at the race. This wasn't meant to say the race sucked, but instead an attempt at being humble. Whenever I win a race and blog about it, it feels like bragging, so I downplayed the quality of the field, the race, etc. I realize that this was taken the wrong way, and since I've promoted races myself, I wouldn't want to insult the promoter or the other riders.

To straighten things out: it was a great, safe, and fun course, and the volunteers were awesome (good people are hard to get). I did get my prize money. However, I'm trying to make bike racing a job here, and my comment on that was frustration that even though I won the race, I was barely able to cover my entry fees and gas, which makes it hard to justify going to the race at all. I'm not trying to get rich off this sport, just to survive. That said, I knew what the costs and the payout were, so it's my fault that winning the race was still a losing proposition financially.

It's easy to not think about the ramifications of every word in cyberspace, but it's also really easy to feel brave and talk shit about people and things you don't know. It's been both flattering and frustrating to read a thread of people on nyvelocity--who loved me last year when I made the break at Univest with CRCA written on my butt--completely judge and turn on me like they know who I am. I apologized to the promoter of the race already, and I hope I didn't accidentally offend anyone else when I accused them of not being "big players" (by which I meant pros). Hopefully the New Yorkers will understand and I can go back to my post-Univest status.

Double Update

2008-07-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

I didn’t feel like writing a race report after Mt. Holly last week, for the simple reason that it didn’t go well. I go to every race with goals and expectations, and that was the first time all year that I couldn’t accomplish them. I was straight up dropped—early—and I never really nailed down why. I made a couple early attacks, and after being unable to pull through in either of them, I realized I was in trouble, and tried to sit in the field to recover, but it was too late. I think there were a number of factors in my poor race: lots of training in the week leading up to the race, too much time in the altitude chamber (which kills your recovery), and too much focus on losing the meaningless two or three pounds I’d gained at stage races over the course of the season (especially since I’d raced well all year with the extra weight).

I jumped in a local crit the next day, hoping that my legs would come around. They did, but only a little, so I pulled out after an hour and a few good efforts. After one day off, I did the Northampton Cycling Club training TT on Tuesday, averaged 29 mph without all the geeky aero equipment, and threw down great power for 18:30. I put over a minute on the course record, and proved that I’m still on track for U23 TT nats next month.

Today, I did my first long ride since the Tour of Pennsylvania ended 4 weeks ago. The ride was a bit of the shock to the system, because it took the form of a 95 mile, hilly road race in crazy heat. A strong local field showed up, plus Ted King (ranked 2nd in the country right now) and his brother Robbie. Of course, they attacked early and often, and all I could do was go with them. I ended up bridging solo to the move of the day. I wasn’t too happy with it at first, and I was excited to see the field come to within 1 second of us up one of the hills. Unbelievably, they never caught us, but my teammate Hayden jumped across, and the odds for the team improved. I worked when they made me, and had enough to make all the splits, as the break narrowed down to 4 by the final climb with 10k to go. Unfortunately, the climb wasn’t steep enough for my attacks to have much effect, and I ended up 3rd in the sprint. Still, it was a great day for training, and a decent result given that the win was going to Teddy King no matter what anyone did. That man was just way stronger than the rest of us, and it's nice to see a clean, local boy (and a friend of Fiordifrutta) tear it up like that.

Newton's Revenge-Mt. Washington Hillclimb

2008-07-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Another odd weekend...I drove up to Berlin, NH on Friday and did my ride from the hotel. Everything went fine until about 2 minutes from the end, when a dog jumped away from a group of teens on their porch and started to run directly at me. I'm used to being chased by dogs, so I faked him out, sped up, and started to get away from him while I yelled at the kids to tie up their fucking dumb dog. He was running about 5 feet behind me when I realized that the stop sign I was heading towards wasn't a 4-way, and I had to come to a sudden stop to avoid certain death. The dumb dog plowed right into my leg. He wasn't big, and the bite wasn't bad at all, but he broke skin, so I knew it had to be dealt with.

I went back to the hotel, took a quick shower, and called the police. I met an officer in my car near the scene of the crime, and he followed me while I found the right house (the kids were hiding inside). We stopped, and I was telling the officer that it was one of the two houses on that block, when a man painting his house across the street came up. He had seen the whole thing, and was tired of his neighbors "letting that damn dog run around all the time." I went to the ER down the street for a tetanus shot, and the dog was arrested (I hope he has a good lawyer). The officer said they would hold it for ten days, and he'd call me if it got sick or died.

That whole thing was a good distraction, but it was worse when I showed up to registration for the race and saw none other than Anthony Colby. There are about 10 guys in the country that can outclimb me, and he's one of them. I was instantly relegated to 2nd place.

The race started at 8:40 AM the next morning. As I predicted, it was between me and Colby from the beginning. After 2-3 minutes, we had dropped everyone else. We climbed side by side for the first 20 minutes, until we hit a steeper dirt section. Colby had the advantage of having climbed Mt. Washington several times before, so he knew how important gearing was. When the road hit 22%, his easier gears made the difference, and I couldn't hold on. He put about 15 seconds on me there, and I kept him in sight from then on, gaining time on the flatter (8-10%) stretches, and losing it when the road turned up.

The peak of Mt. Washington claims that it is home to the "worst weather in the world." The highest winds ever recorded were there in the 1930s (250-something mph!) I was skeptical, but started to rethink it when we passed the treeline and the temperature started to go down. Soon, we passed the "any life can live line," and the claim was confirmed. I could see about 10 feet in the fog, wind was gusting up to 50 mph, and it was about 40 degrees. It didn't help that the gradient went up to 25% on that section.

Anthony Colby ended up beating me by just under a minute, with 3rd place 7-8 minutes behind me. About what I expected. I'm doing the same climb in a bigger race in August, so I've learned me lesson on gears, and I'll know a little better how to pace myself. Hopefully my time will improve then.

I'd like to thank Veronica and Alex, the awesome couple who drove me back down the mountain (tragically, you're not allowed to ride it...that descent would be really fun).

Tour of PA Stage 6

2008-07-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

The crit started out with aggressive riding, but the aggressive weather became more of a factor. Rain started early, and around lap 15 out of 40-something, all the little holes in bricks of the first turn got saturated. One lap you could take the turn at 30, and 2 minutes later you couldn’t go 20. A massive pileup ensued, leaving me with road rash on my left to match that on my right.

The race was neutralized, and it was announced that there was a tornado warning in the area (no shit), but the race would resume in 10 minutes. Not particularly wanting to die, the riders protested. My suggestion that we remove our shoes, leave our bikes there, and resume as a running race was well received by the riders, but officials chose to call the stage race over, donate the prize money for the day to charity, and hold a rainy crit just for shits and giggles, since TV time was already paid for. The race was mostly contested by riders who hadn’t had the results they’d wanted out of the race so far, but a few of the bigger teams raced as well, since their sponsors would want the TV exposure. We like to think that our sponsors value our necks more than TV exposure, so my team rode one lap and bagged it. We’d had enough.

At the end of the lap, I sprinted Ryan Baumann to the line, since we wanted to do something for the fans there. He won, and I bought him a kielbasa at a nearby stand for his prize, which we ate while we watched the rain-soaked riders who still felt like racing (insert your own wet sausage joke here).

Special thanks to Avery May, the soigneur for Time Pro Cycling, for hooking me up with a free massage before the race. She rescued my back and shoulder, so I owe her a plug: Avery May, certified Soigneur and massage therapist, based on the east coast. averymay@mac.com. Best I can do, Avery...

Tour of PA Stage 5

2008-07-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Stage 5 was one of the strangest days I’ve had on a bike. The 91 mile course had no major climbs, but the steep hills, the technical course, and racers’ aggression never let up, making it one of the hardest stages of the race. I bridged up to an early break that looked dangerous. We worked well over the first and only KOM, but the group came back soon after.

A few miles later, we hit one of many hairy descents, and (I’d been waiting for it) my typical shitty stage race luck began. I was in the group, and there must have been a rock or something in the road. My front wheel ran right over it, my hands slipped off the bars from the unexpected impact, and I went over the bars. I stood up, threw my shredded gloves into a ditch on the side of the road, grabbed a rear wheel from neutral support, and chase back on to the group behind my team car. We would get a fine for drafting: 100 Swiss Francs (the UCI is in Switzerland), but the investment proved very worthwhile.

We were probably somewhere around the halfway point of the race when I rejoined, feeling major pain in my back and shoulder, and wondering if I could be able to finish. Hayden and Jamey gave me a bunch of bottles, so I was able to clean my wounds some. I settled in to the pack and focused on finishing.

Heading in to Pittsburg, there was a break of 3 guys 1:30 up the road. Attacks started to fly, and splits formed. My legs were starting to come around again (or something), and I stayed safely near the front, closing gaps when I needed to but still saving energy as much as possible. Two strong riders slipped away on a descent, and I bridged to them on an uphill. We ended up a group of 5, and worked smoothly heading towards the 10 miles of finish circuits downtown.

The run-in to the circuits was absurd. There were sharp, unmarked turns, narrow roads, gravel, and cars on the course, so it was great to be in a smaller group where I could see what was going on. Still, we all came too hot into one 45-degree turn. The group shot into a gas station parking lot, but most of them were able to slow down and stay on the correct street. I had just pulled through, so I came in fastest, and was forced to head towards what looked like an exit on the other side of the gas station, which would rejoin the race course behind the break. As I neared that exit, I realized that it was blocked by a 4-foot high steel cable. I was going way too fast to slow down, so I said a prayer and ducked. The cable scraped my helmet, caught the race radio in my back pocket, and tore my jersey, but I made it out onto the street, and chased back onto the break. I really hope Versus got that shit on tape.

Our chase group continued to work well, and caught the break with 2 more 5k laps to go on the circuits. Once we made the catch, cooperation went out the window. I found myself, Alex Boyd, Sheldon Deeny, and Caleb Fairly doing all the work, with everyone else sitting on. Gaps started to open, and with just over a lap to go, the group split into two, with no one working on the front or behind, and me in the middle. Sensing opportunity, I attacked, and they all looked at each other as I rolled away. I came through the finish line with a 10 second gap on the break, seeing a lap to go and 70,000 spectators screaming like hell. I could barely hear Curt yelling at me to in the radio to keep going, but I knew that anyway. Sheldon attacked the break just before the field swallowed them up, but I had too much of a gap for him to catch me. For the second day in a row, I thought I had it won.

With 500 meters to go, I looked back and saw bad news: two Kelly Benefits riders had shot out of the field, caught and passed Sheldon, and were gaining on me fast. I tried to get the wheel when they came by, but I was too blown, and they were too fast, coming by my with two turns to go (see yesterday’s stream of swearing). I kept it going, and stayed well clear of the field for the last podium spot. Not a win, but I played my cards right once again with all the odds against me, and everyone saw it. I think I’ve officially learned to overcome my poor sprint with sneakiness and smart tactics, and it’s starting to get me some results at big races.

Between my various pains and scrapes, I couldn’t sleep last night. Luckily there’s just a 50 mile crit left, so I should be able to hang on. My shoulder and back are seriously killing me. I don’t really want to know right now, and if I could race like that before, I can do a little more. I’ll do it after the crit.

Tour of PA Stage 4

2008-07-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Oops. Forgot to post one yesterday. I'll do two in a row here.

I looked at Stage 4 before the race, and knew that this would be my best shot at a result. It was short: only 60 miles, but had the hardest climb of the week. The last climb was pretty far from the finish, so my plan was to make the front groups, save energy, and do something sneaky at the end to win.

The plan worked perfectly, but the execution didn’t quite happen as I’d hoped. I made a selection of 13 riders over the big climb 20 miles in. This group became the break, since the yellow jersey and a number of other well-placed riders were dropped. As the well-represented teams set the pace, I pulled through enough to keep everyone working, but mostly sat on the back, playing the rainy descents carefully, and thinking about how I’d handle the last few k. Near the end, attacks started flying. I was caught in the wind a few times, but I had to do whatever it took to keep ahead of the splits. With 2k to go, a non-gc rider counter-attacked something, and the group gave him a gap. I was on the front at the time, so I swung off to make someone else do the work. I found myself in the wind, with a bunch of guys to the right looking at each other, and another one solo by 10 seconds. I jumped.

I didn’t want to catch the one rider too soon, because he was my leadout, and catching him early meant he would sit up and the group would come back. I timed it perfectly, and got onto his wheel with 250 meters to go, immediately going around him to what I thought would be the win. Unfortunately, someone in the group chose to bury himself, and brought me back just in time for David Veilloux, the new race leader, to blow by me with 75 meters to go, dragging three guys behind him. I ended up 5^th. So close! Damn! Fuck! Fucking shit ass christ piss! Smegma! I could go on, but you get the idea (FUCK!). The good news is at least I clawed back a lot of the GC time I lost on day 2, so I’m sitting 15^th now. There really aren’t a lot of chances to improve that, with only one more road stage before the final crit Sunday, but a little luck and some good legs could put me into the top 10. I don’t feel like I’ll get a better shot at a stage result than the last one, but I’ll see what I can do.

Tour of PA Stage 3

2008-07-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Stage 3 was a 104 mile road race, finishing in the town of Bedford, PA home of the Cannondale factory. With one of our main sponsor’s entire staff on site, the pressure was on for a good performance. When an early break got too big of a gap, Hayden, Eric, and Josh chased it down. I attacked for the first KOM, and my chances looked pretty good until Peter Stetina from Slipstream came across and flew by me like I was standing still. I clawed back up to his wheel a couple times, and he toyed with me until I finally gave up and waited for the group. None of us would see that dude again for awhile.

I ended up in a selection of 7, but with the yellow jersey and a lot of the big contenders dropped, and another 40 miles with a KOM left to ride, no one felt like working. The group of 7 turned into 40, and the gap to Stetina went up to over four minutes (it’s amazing how that happens when you don’t pedal). Fiordifrutta was well represented in the group, with me, Jamey Driscoll, and Toby Marzot.

We let ZTeam and the Belgian yellow jersey team to the work to bring Stetina back, and well all hung on through the crosswinds. As we approached the finish, it was clear that Stetina was cracking, and we started to prepare for the bunch sprint. I thought Toby would be our best sprinter, so I moved up with Jamey and Toby behind me. I fought for a decent position, and actually did a good job throwing elbows and knees to hold it. Everything seemed to be under control, but the last few k were chaos. No one wanted to do the last little bit of work to bring Stetina back, and then everyone went for it at once. I’d like to take some credit, but I don’t even know if Jamey came off my wheel or somebody else’s. He busted through the front of the back as some chasing riders blew backwards, and nailed it for the win! It really couldn’t have been any better for the team winning a mile from the Cannondale factory. I was sprinting for a decent placing at the time, but when I saw Jamey come across first, I fist-pumped the air, forgetting there was still a race going on. The quote of the day from Jamey: “don’t expect me to do that again.”

That afternoon, we toured the Cannondale factory, which was really amazing. I’m now more convinced that my bike is awesome after seeing some of the equipment and the things they do there. On display were bikes made for George W. Bush and Shaq (it was easy to tell them apart). We also saw the finished bikes for Liquigas on the rack, which will soon be headed to the Tour.

Tour of PA Stage 2

2008-07-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Stage 2 was a 91 mile road race. With no real dominant teams, it was aggressive all day. I went with a lot of moves, but it was hard to tell what would stick. One of the goals for my team was for our sprinter to go for the green jersey, so I led him out for the 2^nd intermediate sprint. We timed it well, and Eric won it pretty easily, but a break of 16 went right afterward, and that was the race. Luckily, we had Toby there, but I wasn’t happy losing that much time this early in the race.

With 30k to go, the break was 4 minutes up the road, and the field was losing motivation, so I jumped to try and cover my losses. The Gutt went with me, and 4 guys came across to us. The field sat up, and we made it to within a minute of the break, but couldn’t quite close the deal at the end.

The highlight of the day, however, came after the race. I hadn’t had my sweet tea fix in several weeks, and asked Curt (our director) if I could make the 20 minute drive in the team car to a Chick-fil-a in the next town. Thinking it more important for me to rest, Curt DROVE ME THERE. I bought a chargrilled salad and a gallon of happiness, which I will carefully ration for the rest of the week. I love my team.

Tour of PA Stage 1

2008-07-01T11:40:00.001-07:00

Hi Folks,
I lacked time, energy, and internet last week. I wrote the updates each day, but never had a chance to post them, so I'll put one up here each day in the hopes that people will read them. Looking back, I can see how I started the race with low expectations coming off a week of sickness with no training, and started to figure things out and come around to some results.

I'm pretty ripped up and tired now, so I'm taking my first real break of the year. Three days off the bike after 6 months in the racing trenches.

Here's the day 1 update:

Stage 1a: This stage was not a prologue, as the race organizers made very clear. It sure felt like one, though. Just over 3k long, a few turns, and no TT bikes. The course was pretty cool, but it didn’t inspire me not to ride like shit. The course didn’t suit me at all, but my placing was pretty bad even given that.

Stage 1b was a crit pretty much on the TT course. There were a couple scary sharp turns, and some Euros that didn’t have much crit experience. One guy with an accent asked my teammate “Is this kamikaze racing what you always have in America?” Yeah, pretty much...

With 10 laps to go, I attacked with one other rider. We got a decent gap but came back for laps later. Free laps ended with three to go, which was a relief, because I got a front flat with 5. I didn’t know I had a flat until I almost ate it hard two turns in a row, but I got back in safely and finished with the group. Neutral support even gave me a free tube after the race. Oh yeah, Eric Schildge got 7^th.

Hmm...

2008-06-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

I'm living alone, I just read Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, and I'm about to start Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.
It's just a coincidence. I swear I'm okay.
No racing this week. Something got me sick at Nature Valley, and I've spend the week drinking orange juice, eating matzo ball soup, and napping. I'm 85% now. Hopefully I'll be up to 100 by the start of the Tour of PA on Tuesday. This is one of the biggest races of the year, and will actually be shown on Versus (formerly OLN) if you have cable. Their site says it should be up:
June 25th-28th @ 6PM ET & June 29th @ 5:30PM ET
Let me know if they get my good side.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

2008-06-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

I headed to Minnesota last week for the Nature Valley Grand Prix, one of the bigger NRC stage races of the year. All the major pros showed up, and their form from Philly Week hadn't worn off. With the intense, short stages, I decided to use the race as a buildup for the Tour of PA, one of my biggest goals for the year (it starts on the 24th).

Here's a quick recap of the stages:
1: Downtown St. Paul Crit: this course would have been tight and sketchy in good weather conditions, but the pouring rain, shitty pavement, slippery road paint and manhole covers, and crashing race motorcycles made it damn near impossible. Thankfully, one of the cable stops on my bike broke in the first lap, rendering my rear brake worthless, thereby earning me a free lap and a trip to the pit. I jumped on a Shimano neutral bike and they threw me in the middle of the pack, about 30 spots better than I'd started.

Two bits of bad news about the neutral bike:
1. It had shimano shifters, which I didn't even know how to use anymore after 6 months on SRAM.
2. The tires were pumped up to 130 PSI, which made each wet corner feel like I was trying to turn on ball bearings.
With those factors (mostly #2), I was completely unable to move up in the group. I had to open gaps in the turns and close them in the straightaways. Luckily, the pace was slow as hell just trying to avoid the pileups around EVERY TURN. It felt more like a Mario game than a bike race: just moving at one speed and trying to avoid doom.
They finally canceled the race when the motorcycle official crashed, laying his machine down sideways in a blind turn.

Stage 2: Cannon Falls Road Race
This race traditionally splits up the field a good bit, so I was attentive for splits and stayed near the front most of the day. There were a few moments that got hard, and I was almost always in the attack that followed, but nothing got much of a leash, and the wind wasn't blowing hard enough to shatter the group.
Prerace wheel drama had forced me to go without a speed sensor, which meant I didn't know how far we were into the race. That's where the attentiveness thing comes in, because before I knew it, we were flying along the dirt road that headed to the finishing circuits, and I was at the back of the field when position mattered most. I spent the next half hour jumping across gaps from dropped riders, hipslinging them out of the way, and trying to limit the damage. At the end, I'd lost 35 seconds to the front group. It was a lot, but it could have been worse.

Stage 3: 6 mile TT
This was a pretty short TT, but it suited me fairly well, with a flat out-and-back section, and a steep climb at the end. I set the goal of a top 20. My legs were flat at first, but felt good near the end, but it wasn't quite enough. I ended up 23rd: 5 seconds out of the top 20, and 15 seconds from a top 10. Slightly disappointing, but I was but I know I'll have that extra 15 seconds in a year, and I'm pretty sure in 3-4 years I'll have the 50 seconds I would have needed to win the motherfucker. Also, I beat all the American U23 riders, which bodes well for nationals in August.

Stage 4: Dumb crit in downtown Minneapolis
It was a tight course, with very few good spots to move up. I fought my way to the front early just by jumping up the side every chance I got, but there was really no point going for a result with the few pro teams lining it up and clogging all the turns, so I hung out, gave up some spots, and waited for the race to be over. It got a little intense in the last couple laps trying to stay ahead of the time gaps, but I pulled it off and saved my legs quite well, as my powermeter confirmed, telling me I coasted 37% of the race.

Stage 5: Mankato Road Race
90-something miles in nasty crosswinds is never fun, and the hostilities started from the gun on this stage. The big teams drove it hard for the first hour and a half, showing their guns and setting the stage for breakaways. Of course, I got a flat tire about 2 miles into the race. Once again, the neutral support car was behind the entire race caravan, and sped off instead of pacing me back up, so I was left in the wind to chase back onto a bunch of pros trying to kill each other. If I was smart, I would have taken the spare wheel, flipped a U-turn, and gone back to the car. Instead, I decided to chase. I spent the first 20 minutes in the wind by myself, and kept the field close. Of course, I was steadily losing both time and energy, so I gestured a police car in front of me. By means of more gestures, I taught him how to motorpace. He should really work with deaf people, because the man did awesome.

Generally, the cars behind a race ride close together, allowing riders to draft and easily jump from car to car as they make their way back up to the field with food, bottles, empty bladders, etc. However, non-race cars, such as ambulances, police, etc. don't know how this works, and every time I worked my way back up to the tail end of the caravan, I would find gaps the size of the grand canyon, and the ambulance driver kept braking, so I couldn't get a draft from it at all. After the first failed attempt to enter the caravan, I knew I would have to just sprint around the cop car and the 300 m of idiot drivers to get into the race caravan. I executed well, but the gap was too big to jump across.

The next plan was pretty illegal, but I'd been out there for an hour, and was more worried about being stranded in the middle of Minnesota than actually finishing the race, which would be a longshot at best after this kind of effort. In my final attempt to reintegrate with the race, I knocked on the cop car, got him to open the window, braced my elbow in the corner of the window, and told him to gun it. I soon found myself hanging on at about 60 mph. We got to the back of the caravan and I swung out, narrowly avoided his protruding mirror and light dealie, and slingshotted into the cars. The timing was perfect, as the race had slowed up a little, and I MADE IT BACK TO THE PELETON. AFTER OVER AN HOUR OF TRYING (I normally hate the caps thing, but I feel it's necessary here, because that was a fucking accomplishment, even though no one noticed. Also, it's all I have, as you'll soon find out).

Of course, my legs were completely destroyed. Some attacks came and went, the racing got more intense, and I was spit out the back with 20 other guys as the race split into 2 big groups and a bunch of small ones chasing t hem. At least I made it to the feed zone, where a car would take me back to the start finish. Shitty business, but I have a story to tell, and I at least kind of got a result in the TT, so the stage race wasn't all for naught. Three teammates made it as well, and I'm excited to see if they pull something off at the Stillwater crit today.

Tomorrow I fly back to Hartford, and the U25 Tour of PA starts 8 days later. I'm feeling a little under the weather, so there's a good chance that this week will be devoted to vitamins, orange juice, and sleeping. In fact, I'm going to start right now.

Finally...

2008-06-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

...did the job yesterday and won a crit. It turns out all I needed to win a race was a big, strong team to help me. Two ironies from the day:

1. Winning the race with the team was far easier than my 4 second places in crits this year

2. I got the win for the same reason I was robbed of it a couple weeks ago in Atlanta: I had the right not to work.

I guess that's bike racing.Here's the race report I wrote for my team website:

Matt, Steve, Hayden, Toby, and I headed to Rhode Island for the Mystic Velo Crit today. It was an open, pancake-flat course with no sharp turns. A decent local field attended, including Mahk McCormack and Anthony Colby (Colavita). The course didn’t favor a breakaway, but we knew that that was the only way to use our advantage in numbers, so we decided to be attentive for early moves, and make sure we had numbers in all of them.

About ten minutes in, Anthony Colby made the first big attack, and Toby went with him. Matt soon joined to make it two out of six. The field was disorganized so the gap went quickly. When the gap was around 30 seconds, I covered a bridge attempt, and he got us well clear of the field and then cracked, so I took the opportunity to bridge before the break got too far away. The next five minutes felt like an eternity, but Toby and Matt stopped working when they saw me coming, and I finally made it across.

I sat on a good bit as the break rolled, with Toby and Matt picking up my slack, and for awhile it started to look like we might lap the field. On one part of the course, the field was visible across a stretch of grass, and our teamwork really showed, as Hayden and Steve were always near the front or controlling a doomed bridge attempt.

With 20 laps to go, the hostilities began. It was clear that the winner would be whichever Fiordifrutta rider ended up off the front with Anthony Colby, who clearly had good legs and motivation. Whitey covered the first attack, and Toby went with the second. When Colby went, I hung on, and one rider bridged up to us. Soon, the break was split into two groups of three, with me in the front and Toby and Matt in the first chase group. As long as they stayed clear of the field, I had an excuse not to work in the front group, and they could say the same with me up the road. It worked out well, as I had enough plenty of gas to sprint for the win, and Toby stuck it for 4^th after Whitey finally cracked from his monster pulls. To further cement our team domination (and to bolster the prize split), Steve and Hayden went 1-2 in the field sprint, giving the team 1^st, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th at the finish.

Moving to Massachusetts, and the Bethel Crit

2008-06-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

I'm starting my 2nd week living in Massachusetts, where I'll be until school starts in August (when I'm not out racing). There was some good drama when I first came up here. It was too good for a regular blog post, so check out the writings page on my website for details. There are also some updates on the picture pages.

Once the drama was over with, I got a chance to race. The crit in Bethel, CT was a 1 mile or so course right near the Cannondale factory, with some wide turns and one steep hill up to the finish. The field was mostly local riders, with a large Target Training team (10-11 guys), and just one me.

A few laps in, I got bored and initiated a break. It started with 5, and grew to about 11, including 4 Target Training riders. Several of the riders in the move seemed inexperienced, and sat on the back, refusing to pull. When I took them off the back or forced them into the rotation, they would open gaps, attack, etc., not realizing that it was shrinking our gap on the field.

Target Training had all the responsibility to keep us off the front, but had trouble keeping it organized with all the morons in the group. When they attacked, everyone would look at me to bring it back. I would wait for a hard section and bridge up to all the attacks, which wore me out, but definitely hurt some of the weaker riders.

On the last lap, Target Training sent one guy off the front solo. I let him get a comfortable gap, and then jumped. My plan worked. Target thought that their guy had a safe lead, and didn't respond to my attack. The only rider to grab my wheel was some dude in a skinsuit who'd barely worked all day.

I quickly gained on the solo rider, and when I realized that we were going to catch him, I flicked my elbow and swung off, signaling for my passenger to do his share in the bridge effort. "I can't!" He wheezed.
"Well then you'd better not fucking sprint me," I replied.
"I can't!" He repeated.
Satisfied, I closed the gap by the bottom of the finishing hill and sprinted past the solo leader for what I thought would be the win.
Apparently the guy in the skinsuit had Alzheimer's, and had forgotten about our little conversation 5 seconds before that, and started to come around me. I had enough breath to swear at him, but not enough legs to hold him off after pulling for 2k, and he got me at the line.

Congratulations, douchebag.

Obviously, I was pretty pissed, but 2nd place is better than nothing, and I beat the Goliath Target Training team, which is satisfying. I also won some cash and primes, including a bag of cookies, making it well worth the trip. I can only hope that karma will do it's job and that guy will burn alive in a car accident. I'll be right there, roasting marshmallows.

GA Cup Atlanta Stage Race

2008-05-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

I got in the car on Monday, and drove from Oregon to Atlanta by Wednesday afternoon. I sped a lot, and my car averaged 34 mpg with everything I own in the back. I slept some that night, trying to adjust to east coast time, and began the stage race with a 7 mile TT on Thursday afternoon.

I placed 4th, only a few seconds out of 2nd place (John Murphy from HealthNet crushed us all by 30 seconds. The stage race continued without me for the next couple of days. I wasn't in town to race, and hanging out with family took priority over trying to keep my 4th overall in a local race. I trained both days, riding almost 100 miles on Saturday.

Sunday was a crit in Gainesville, GA. I was active in breaks, but nothing got too far. With 10 laps to go, a large move I was in came back, and I countered it alone. I built up a decent gap, but I went a little too early, and was caught with 4-5 laps to go.

Monday was the finale for a stage race: a 1 hr crit in Buford. Toshiba was trying desperately to get Frank Travieso off the front, hoping to pick up the 16 seconds he needed to beat John Murphy for the stage race overall. Their tactic was to get another one of their high-placed riders into a break, force Murphy to bring it back, and then have Frank counter. I bridged the early move, which contained Bobby Sweeting (Toshiba), Tim Henry (Jittery Joes), and 5 other strong riders. Tim was working for John Murphy, so he didn't help much. The plan backfired on Toshiba, as Bobby got the intermediate time bonuses that his teammate needed, but the break failed to gain the time needed to win the stage race.

With 10 laps to go, I attacked the break with Tim Henry. It was a great tactic, since Bobby was forced to do the chasing alone, and Tim and I stuck it to the line. I botched the last couple of laps: assuming that Tim was too fresh for an attack to work, I took monster pulls to keep us clear of the chase, and lost the two-up sprint. In retrospect, a few attacks would have been a good idea, since I should know I'll never win a two-up sprint. Next time...

Mt. Hood Stage Race

2008-05-18T12:07:00.001-07:00

There are only 75 minutes left in the stage race, so this is as good a time as any to post the blog. The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic was my first race this year with a full team, as the teammates were finally thawed out from the New England winter. Long term, this was not one of my major targets for the year, so I planned to use it as an endurance block to train for some important upcoming races, doing a couple extra hours before the shorter stages.

Stage 1: 1.7 mile prologue TT. I rode fast, put out decent power, and finished in the front third or so of the field. My teammate, Matt White, took 12th. Not bad for his first NRC of the year. He claims it's meaningless, and his years of cross racing have made it so that he could do the same effort right off the couch after not riding for a month.

Stage 2: 90 minute crit. It was a cool course in a park in Portland, with a steep uphill and a sweeping descent. I rode well at the front and followed one attack, hoping to fry off the front and get my name out there a little. Of course, the big guys decided to race their bikes right then. Ben Jacques-Maynes, the race leader at the time, attacked. As I attacked up the hill, I found myself joined by him, Rory Southerland, Chris Baldwin, Ivan Stevic, and a couple other major contenders. Of course, none of them wanted to be in a break, so we came right back to field and that was it for my day.

Stage 3: 86 mile road race. This was my best day of the season so far. The course was 4.5 laps on a half uphill, half downhill course. The first time up the climb, a break of 6 had formed, and some of the major climbers in the race decided to join it. I was waiting for that sort of move, so I bridged up, and found myself with Neil Shirley (Jittery Joes), Chris Wherry and Jonny Clarke (Toyota-United), Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefits), Matt Crane and Matt Cooke (Healthnet), Burke Swindlehurst (Bissel), Bradley White (Successful Living), Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), Ryan Trebon, and a few amateurs.

Healthnet didn't like the composition and instructed their riders to sit on. That forced most of the other pros to do the same or take short pulls, since they weren't going to just give the stage away. Our gap was up to two minutes by the time this was all established, and I only have one move like that in my legs per day, so I needed the break to stick. With the help of some of the pros on the smaller teams and the amateurs that had any legs left, we held the gap for a few laps. I set the pace up most of the climb with 2 laps to go, and we had three minutes by the finish line.

With 1.5 laps to go, the gap had gone down some. Bajadali, Ollerenshaw, Shirley, and Swindlehurst started attacking each other up the climb, and I held on and put in a few digs of my own. We traded punches while the rest of the break lost contact, and I think they were impressed to see me there.

At the top of the climb, the break was down to 8 or so, as Wherry and Ollerenshaw went back to the field with the amateurs. With nothing better to do, I stuck with it to the bitter end. Going up the final climb to the finish, we could see the field coming up behind us, but the attacks continued. I got ten seconds or so with about 10k to go, but Swindlehurst bridged and the rest followed, and then we were caught. The field accelerated, and I ended up losing some time on the steep parts of the climb.

Stage 4: 18 mile TT. The previous day's effort put me at a major disadvantage for the TT, as everyone else had enjoyed a fairly relaxing day behind the BMC train. As a result, my legs were worthless, and for the 3rd time in my life I was caught in a TT, finishing dead in the middle of the field.

Stage 5: 100 mile road race. This course started on the desert side of the mountain range here, in 90 degree eat, and gradually climbed from about sea level to a ski resort at 5500 feet. A break went early, and I focused on staying out of the wind and keeping hydrated. I think I drank 10 bottles in under 4.5 hours. With Healthnet's lead in jeopardy, they drove it hard up the final steep climb, shattering the group. I ended up in a selection of 40 climbers. I couldn't follow the attacks, and with the steep slopes making drafting pointless, I dropped myself and rode my own pace up the climb, catching and dragging a train of stragglers who came off the lead group after me. I stayed in the sight of the leaders, but could never quite bring them back. I saw one U23 rider with 1 k to go, and burned myself to catch him on the offchance that the other young riders ahead of my in the GC were all dropped. I caught him at the line, as the riders enjoying my tempo all jumped me, and I finished a solid 15th on the stage.

As it turns out, the other young riders were all dropped, and they awarded me the U24 jersey after the stage. Of course, the officials screwed up. It's true that I was the first U24 to finish the stage, but I didn't put nearly enough time on the others to take the jersey. Someone on Bissel is probably pissed off right now, so I'll wear my team stuff and return the jersey at the crit today. It was fun while it lasted.

The crit starts in two hours. It's 75 minutes, and looks like it shouldn't affect the GC much. If I have legs, I'll try to get off the front, but I expect to be in survival mode and try to finish with the front group.

Gila Week

2008-05-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Tour of the Gila was the shortest stage race of my career. Early in the race, a rider crashed in front of me, forcing me into a ditch with a broken spoke. I got a neutral wheel that was spaced exactly one half-step from my previous wheel, leading it to skip in every gear but the 13. Using that speed exclusively, I chased back on. 30 miles later, I got caught behind another crash, and had no legs to put in another chase effort.

Ninety miles into stage 1, I arrived at a literal crossroads. To the right was the finishing climb, and to the left, my car. Had I gone right, I might have made the time cut, allowing me to continue the stage race about 40+ minutes back. However, that path was 6 miles uphill and windy, and I had already been in the wind for 60 miles by this point. The road to left, on the other hand, was about 30 feet, and led to recovery drinks, energy bars, and AC. I went left.

That very same car took me all the way to San Diego by 3 PM the next day. I’m back staying with my friend JC, who isn’t in town at the moment, so I have his sweet pad all to myself for a few days.

Further good news was that there were two $2000 local races in and near San Diego over the weekend, which would provide good opportunities for training and redemption after the poor showing in New Mexico.

Saturday was the Barrio Logan Crit. It was indeed in the Barrio, complete with taquerias and tamale stands. A number of pros (as usual for Cali) showed up to fight with the locals on the tight, figure eight course, including David Clinger (Rock Racing), Ben Brooks (Team Type 1), Tony Cruz (BMC), and Neil Shirley (Jittery Joes). I attacked alone a little past halfway through the 75-minute race, bombing the turns to quickly get out of sight. My legs and power were good, so I kept it up, hoping to stay out of sight and maybe take a lap. I got up to halfway across, but the field was too motivated to let me ride away. I came back with 15 laps to go, with only a few primes to show for it. I stayed near the front, and fought for wheels for the sprint, just to prove to myself that I do in fact know how to bump elbows and ride a bike without falling, a point that I had begun to doubt lately.

That night, I sat on JC’s porch, read a novel (The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño), and drank one of my primes, a six-pack of Tecate (there are two left).

Sunday was an 81-mile road race an hour north of San Diego, with the same field as the previous day. The course had one steep, long finishing hill, with false flat and a sketchy descent rounding us back to the base of the climb. At the end of the first lap, Ben Brooks jumped hard up the hill, and David Clinger went with him. On a course that favors a breakaway, anyone who had legs and a brain knew that this was the move. I clawed my way up, and drove it up the rest of the climb to help establish the break before the long descent. There were about 10 of us, and we all worked smoothly, gaining time on each lap.

I pulled through, being careful to eat and drink with 70-something miles remaining. The climb was really the only place to attack on the course, so I made sure to be on a good wheel when we got there. Sure enough, with two to go, Brooks jumped near the top. I held on, and countered when he sat up. Clinger brought me back and had a dig of his own over the top, but we all stuck together.

With one to go, the usual suspects jumped again. Clinger and Brooks got a gap with one local rider, and I didn’t have the legs to follow their accelerations. I rotated through with the second group until the end of the race. With 1k to go, the Kahala-LaGrange rider jumped. We all stuck to him, and I jumped when he pulled off. There was too much ground to cover, and I blew up with 200 meters to go, ending up 6^th.

Last Day in Boulder

2008-04-27T17:31:00.001-07:00

I leave for New Mexico and Gila tomorrow. Rode 5 hours today with a crit near the end. I felt good and got off the front some, but the course was so boring I think I forgot I was racing for most of it. I just rode in circles until everyone stopped. Good day of training, though.

Funny story from yesterday, though. The theme of the story is that nothing ever goes perfectly.

I've been needing to replace the bike rack on my car for awhile now. The old one was the public bus style, so it held the bike by the wheels and protected them well, but it was really too big and heavy for my little Toyota, and it scraped the ground and scared my passengers.

I bought a new rack that should do the job better and went to install it yesterday. Of course, the hitch pin was bent and wouldn't budge. I bought a hammer to get it out, but that didn't work, so I went to plan B: I intentionally backed my car (rack first) into a pole on the opposite side of the bent. It was fun as hell, and it worked.

Like I said, though, nothing ever goes perfectly. When I went to slide the new hitch tongue in, there was a metal tab in my receiver that was directly in the way. No clue why that was there, but I guess this hitch tongue was longer than the ones on my previous racks.

Enter the industrial file. I actually had one of these in my toolbox for lawyer tab removal and it finally got some major use. Once I filed most of the tab off, and then decided to do the rest of the job by jamming the new hitch into the hole as hard as I could. That worked as well, but it took a few hard thrusts, and my knuckle got jammed in one of them. I don't give a fuck about pain, so I finished the job without treating it. Passersby were amazed at the unusually large quantities of blood.

In the picture below, you can see blood spots on the rack instruction manual.

Air Force Cycling Classic Day 2

2008-04-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Today's race was one of the shortest in my career. I lined up with 15 pros, including a pretty full Toyota-United team, all the solid locals, and a bunch of cat 3s. Naturally, it started with a descent. Since I didn't start at the front, I found myself in the midpack danger zone, with tons of morons moving into holes that weren't there, bumping handlebars, and being generally stupid.
I drifted back, thinking that if I couldn't be in front of the crashes, I at least wanted fair warning. Sure enough, the road narrowed around mile 1.5, and a pileup ensued. The 20-foot gap I had opened saved me from a high-speed crash, as I cruised into the wall of bodies at 5 mph, hearing the tragic (and melodramatic) groans of the fallen.
By the time I navigated through the mass, the field had split some. I kept them close on the flat and the downhill, hoping to make up time on the first climb, but the climb didn't come soon enough, and I never saw the field again.
I thought about riding around some, but opted instead to go back to the Springs and go shooting with my friend/former teammate Jared. I'd never shot a gun before, so it took awhile to get the hang of it, but I kicked ass when I started pretending that the clay pigeons were cat 3s. Pictures can be found here.

Colorado Springs

2008-04-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

I made the trip to CO Springs on Friday night, since the races started early on Saturday. I'm staying with my teammate, Todd Nordblom (who I finally met for the first time), and his roommate, Jared Faciszewski, who happens to have been my teammate two years ago on VMG.

The CO Springs Classic is put on by the U.S. Air Force Academy and Colorado College, so it was fun to get back to the collegiate racing atmosphere for a weekend, complete with disorganization, small fields, and silliness. The first race was an ITT Saturday morning. It was a 20k course with some wind and decent climbs. I was still feeling the effects of my rest week followed by my illness-induced second rest week, but the legs were okay, and I'm definitely getting used to the altitude. I ended up 2nd place in a pretty good field.

Between races, I got to read the paper, and I found a headline that I had to share with the world:

The evening race was a crit, which had a smaller but stronger field than the TT. The course was pretty fun, with a 180, a chicane, and a nice, steep hill leading up to the last turn. I'd say 25 guys lined up for the start, 6 of them slipstream devo and another 4 assorted pros. I had a real teammate for the first time this season: Alister Ratclff, who goes to Fort Lewis College. Alister and I rode well together, covering all the major moves. We finally got him up the road in a group of 5 or so. The break worked well, so it rolled and wasn't going to come back. Slipstream had two guys in it, so Taylor Phinney and I worked together to shut down all the bridge attempts. Once hte break's gap was established, the race started to get boring, and a few of us were on the hunt for a decent workout. With about 25 laps to go (out of 60), the Slipstream kids restarted the hostilites and started launching guys off the front. The field was attentive and brought them back, but when I countered one of the attacks, they rightly left it up to argyles to chase me. I was solo with about 20 seconds for the last third of the race, finally feeling good.

On the last lap, my lead was solid. I'd been gaining on the break, but without hope of catching them in time. I held the same pace I'd had for the whole chase attempt, but apparently someone in the field wanted me back, and they lit the afterburners. Going up the hill, I looked back to see them all RIGHT THERE.

My bike had been mis-shifting and jumping gears all day, since I just built it up and I'd never worked with SRAM before (and I'm a very mediocre mechanic). So, of course with 200 meters to go and the field breathing down my neck, it wouldn't find my big ring. I came out of the last turn and sprinted anyway, popping and grinding madly on my skipping chain, and held off all but one guy from the field. Whatever. I got my workout.

After the race, I figured out what must have caused my unfortunate luck: my new team socks differentiate between left and right, and I was wearing two lefts. That's probably also why I can't dance. Damn.

New blog format

2008-04-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,
I'll be posting blog entries here from now on. I'm a shitty web designer, so my personal webpage is a bitch to update. I'm hoping that moving the blog here will translate to more content and short-term updates. But fear not: the rest of www.philthethrill.net will be intact.