Saturday, March 31, 2007
Ice breaker crit
I was pretty nervous coming into the race today not knowing what to expect competition wise. We had 7 riders, one a track racer. Who if all else failed we were gonna set up for the field sprint. It started pouring during our warm up I got totally soaked. Our kits today were pretty sweet the Live Strong foundation hooked our team up with some snazzy jerseys.
The first lap I was sitting 2nd wheel, and covered a few of the early moves. Aaron our team captain made the first promising move, and opened a good 15 second gap. I countered someone's attack and flew up to Aaron so we had 2 rubicon riders off the front with a 20 second gap. We held the gap for 5 laps with a flurry of attacks behind we did our best to open up the gap. The attacks stopped when 1 rider got off, I looked back and Dan Harm one of the best track pursuiters in the nation was hot in pursuit of us. O yeah did I mention hes on Rubicon to. So we let up a little bit and he joined us to form a front break of 3 riders. Could it get any beter for us? We kept a constent 30 second gap for lap after lap. Small break kept going off the front of the pack but our teamates kept everything under control for us. Following every move. Kirk attacked a 3 rider chase group that got away from the main field, and radioed us that he was clear. Soon we had 4 rubicon riders off the front, with 10 laps to go in the race we lapped the main field. Right away we went to the front and controlled the race for our track sprinter to get a hopefull 5th place. No dice unlucky time to cramp left us down, but taking first through 4th is still pretty damn good.
Tommarow is a 78 mile road with a 1000 dollar pay out over 15 places should be sweet.
more tommarow
The first lap I was sitting 2nd wheel, and covered a few of the early moves. Aaron our team captain made the first promising move, and opened a good 15 second gap. I countered someone's attack and flew up to Aaron so we had 2 rubicon riders off the front with a 20 second gap. We held the gap for 5 laps with a flurry of attacks behind we did our best to open up the gap. The attacks stopped when 1 rider got off, I looked back and Dan Harm one of the best track pursuiters in the nation was hot in pursuit of us. O yeah did I mention hes on Rubicon to. So we let up a little bit and he joined us to form a front break of 3 riders. Could it get any beter for us? We kept a constent 30 second gap for lap after lap. Small break kept going off the front of the pack but our teamates kept everything under control for us. Following every move. Kirk attacked a 3 rider chase group that got away from the main field, and radioed us that he was clear. Soon we had 4 rubicon riders off the front, with 10 laps to go in the race we lapped the main field. Right away we went to the front and controlled the race for our track sprinter to get a hopefull 5th place. No dice unlucky time to cramp left us down, but taking first through 4th is still pretty damn good.
Tommarow is a 78 mile road with a 1000 dollar pay out over 15 places should be sweet.
more tommarow
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Parkside 1-2/Oregon
Thought I'd wipe the dust off a little on this thing.
Parkside number 1
Straight from the start my teammate Sal and my plan was to show that we were the strongest riders in the pack we launched a good 10 attacks before myself and rob white broke away from the pack I knew I was feeling good and kept saying in my head "don't fuck this up stay smooth just roll it". We put in a minute gap, before I started thinking how can I win this. Rob wasn't pulling into the wind or up the hill so I thought I saw a sign of weakness and with 15 min left in the race I decided to test him, and he couldn't respond so I rode away to a I don't want to sound cocky so I'm not gonna say it was easy but it wasn't very hard either.
Parkside number 2
Straight from the start I knew this was gonna be a hard race it was total chaos the white brothers came out firing on all cyclenders attacks were flying. I saw 6 riders get 10 seconds and I knew straight away that it was dangerous so I launched up there straight away I wasn't fully warmed up so I struggled slightly to close the gap for a minute, but someone wouldn't pull in the break so I got lucky and caught on. I caught my breath, and went straight to work. Doing what Sal and I have been training all winter to do "Destroy". Riders who opened up the gas to early struggled to stay on and within a lap or two it whittled down to myself, Erik Loberg, and Ryan White. We sped away and with speedzone and pwc represented we rode away. Ryan wouldn't pull he said he was having stomach cramps, so with 25 min left in the race. I decided to try and take a stab at ending the race early. When we were all looking at eachother for who was gonna pull I launched it was with the tailwind so I wasn't able to open up the gap I needed and they pulled me back with 15 min left in the race. We messed around for 2 laps lulled them into a false sense of security until they would pull through again. I hit them into the wind this time and carried my speed into the tail wind. Then put it into 5th gear and pedaled the last 3 laps to win again.
I got my wisdom teeth pulled ouch.
I came out to Oregon Tuesday the 20th, teeth screaming I just chilled, took a nap, headed to bed early, met some new teammates, checked out the team bikes, got new gear
felt like Christmas.
Currently I'm staying with Chad Hartley "Bmc pro cyclist" I am very grateful that him and Emily opened up there apartment for me to stay at for the summer. I'm just gonna say it straight out coming out here I feel like a cat 4, part of it might of been the antibiotics holding my recovery back. Going up the climb in my first group ride I led up the first mile then watched everyone speed past leaving me gasping for air. Like you see with a cat 4 in jean shorts that attacks in the first lap. I am adjusting though Chad has been keeping me on the rivet every day.
Yestarday we did a group ride "made up of very fast mostly ex pros that work at nike" they were doing 100 miles. At my 65-90 of the group ride they started hauling we never dropped below 30 mph. I couldn only pull for 45 sec and I would get shot straight to the back and have to sprint to catch the back wheel. Some stats on the ride, we left at 11 am and got back at 7:30 pm, only 4 flat tires in the group. We ended up with 130 miles and total ride time of 6 hours and 30 min.
So far since I got here " 8 days" I've put 35 hours of saddle time in. I really like it a lot here hopefully the climbs here will help me prepare for some of the big NRC racing looming on the race schedule.
Parkside number 1
Straight from the start my teammate Sal and my plan was to show that we were the strongest riders in the pack we launched a good 10 attacks before myself and rob white broke away from the pack I knew I was feeling good and kept saying in my head "don't fuck this up stay smooth just roll it". We put in a minute gap, before I started thinking how can I win this. Rob wasn't pulling into the wind or up the hill so I thought I saw a sign of weakness and with 15 min left in the race I decided to test him, and he couldn't respond so I rode away to a I don't want to sound cocky so I'm not gonna say it was easy but it wasn't very hard either.
Parkside number 2
Straight from the start I knew this was gonna be a hard race it was total chaos the white brothers came out firing on all cyclenders attacks were flying. I saw 6 riders get 10 seconds and I knew straight away that it was dangerous so I launched up there straight away I wasn't fully warmed up so I struggled slightly to close the gap for a minute, but someone wouldn't pull in the break so I got lucky and caught on. I caught my breath, and went straight to work. Doing what Sal and I have been training all winter to do "Destroy". Riders who opened up the gas to early struggled to stay on and within a lap or two it whittled down to myself, Erik Loberg, and Ryan White. We sped away and with speedzone and pwc represented we rode away. Ryan wouldn't pull he said he was having stomach cramps, so with 25 min left in the race. I decided to try and take a stab at ending the race early. When we were all looking at eachother for who was gonna pull I launched it was with the tailwind so I wasn't able to open up the gap I needed and they pulled me back with 15 min left in the race. We messed around for 2 laps lulled them into a false sense of security until they would pull through again. I hit them into the wind this time and carried my speed into the tail wind. Then put it into 5th gear and pedaled the last 3 laps to win again.
I got my wisdom teeth pulled ouch.
I came out to Oregon Tuesday the 20th, teeth screaming I just chilled, took a nap, headed to bed early, met some new teammates, checked out the team bikes, got new gear
felt like Christmas.
Currently I'm staying with Chad Hartley "Bmc pro cyclist" I am very grateful that him and Emily opened up there apartment for me to stay at for the summer. I'm just gonna say it straight out coming out here I feel like a cat 4, part of it might of been the antibiotics holding my recovery back. Going up the climb in my first group ride I led up the first mile then watched everyone speed past leaving me gasping for air. Like you see with a cat 4 in jean shorts that attacks in the first lap. I am adjusting though Chad has been keeping me on the rivet every day.
Yestarday we did a group ride "made up of very fast mostly ex pros that work at nike" they were doing 100 miles. At my 65-90 of the group ride they started hauling we never dropped below 30 mph. I couldn only pull for 45 sec and I would get shot straight to the back and have to sprint to catch the back wheel. Some stats on the ride, we left at 11 am and got back at 7:30 pm, only 4 flat tires in the group. We ended up with 130 miles and total ride time of 6 hours and 30 min.
So far since I got here " 8 days" I've put 35 hours of saddle time in. I really like it a lot here hopefully the climbs here will help me prepare for some of the big NRC racing looming on the race schedule.
