bryan c mcvey

Equipment Review

2011-08-10T10:05:00.001-07:00

ABD and Prairie Path Cycles have been gracious sponsors this year, and I wanted to review 2 key pieces of equipment that I have had the opportunity to ride from the Prairie Path cycling shop.

Trek Madone 5.2

I have been racing on Treks since I started racing back in 2007. Therefore I come in with some bias. But I like the saying of "if it's not broken, don't fix it." Which is kinda of ironic, because I have good, and bad luck with Treks breaking in the past. As I stand today though, everything Trek related is fully functional and allowing me the ability to race hard and hunt for prize money. This shows that Trek really does stand by their product and their lifetime warranty on frames, which isn't just a marketing ploy.

The current bike I am on now from Prairie Path Cycles (PPC) is the Trek Madone 5.2 which comes equipped with the new shimano ultegra components and my wheels are bontrager Aeoulous 6.5 with a powertap (my wheels from the last 2 seasons). Some of the first things I first noticed about the new ride is how clean and hidden everything is. No more cables routed outside of the frame, collecting dirt and debris, and getting the inside of the housing all gunked up. This is huge for a racing bike since most problems come from shifting. So the less entry points for possible contaminants, the better. It's also very good for aerodynamics, and it just looks nice. Trek moved the integrated speed sensor from the fork to the non-drive side chain stay which makes sense, since now you can run a cadence magnet from the crank as well. Frames are always getting lighter and stiffer, and this one is no exception. The ergonomics of the new ultegra shifters is far ahead of the previous ones, but the one down side is that they limited the pull only 2 shifts per lever actuation. This is not that big of a deal, but for the first couple of weeks before I figured this out, I thought it was broken.

Overall, the 5.2 is the nicest looking, fastest, cleanest, lightest and overall coolest bike I have ridden, and it races like a dream!

Bontrager R3 racing tires

So in the tire department, I am not a biased man. I have raced and ridden many different brands, and so I have my favorites. Since the R3 is a racing tire, I will compare it to my other favorite racing tire, the Michelin Pro Race. The R3 is soft and supple like a racing tire should be, so like any good race tire, it should only be used for racing. This is because it picks up all kinds of debris on the road surface, and wears out very quickly. I had a string of flats in the TOAD series, and didn't find the tiny piece of glass in my tire until the 3rd tube puncture. It rides well though and I felt like I can stick the corners with it as well.

As compared to my other favorite, the Michelin pro race, I would say the Pro Race comes out slightly ahead for 2 reasons. It seems that it does not wear out as quickly, and it feels a bit more secure when really leaning the bike over in the tight corners. In all though, the R3 is an excellent choice, in a very subjective area of bike racing that is tire selection.

While we are on the subject of tire choice though, I do want to point out another great Bontrager product, which are the hardcase training tires. As far as training tires go, I have been riding these for more than 2 years, and have yet to flat. They literally roll over anything and are extremely puncture resistant!

This coming weekend are the Winfield criterium races (twilight and ABR championships), and are both fantastic crit courses, so come on out!

Racing Update

2011-07-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

I think I would like to keep my five sentence writing limit to emails.

And so, I'm currently in the middle of Superweek, sitting at my gracious host's house in Mequon, WI, just north of Milwaukee. The season has been going fairly well and I am happy with some of my performances. Here are some quick notes about the major races I have been doing.

Joe Martin stage race at the beginning of May was exactly what I needed to bring my form around. It started with a challenging TT the first day in which I rode the same exact time as the year before. The racing after that must have been much faster than previous years, because I was in the pain cave both road days and got time cut the 2nd to last day, so was not able to compete in the final crit on Sunday. I still don't know if the racing was just faster this year, or if I was slower, or maybe a combo of both. The previous 2 years I finished the entire series, but unlike those years, the second road day was completely blown apart, which could show the difficulty of the new course and how teams rode it. I did get some great training in at least, and the whole week the weather was awesome.

The memorial day races were again good for my form, and I was consistent each day (minus the snake, which I still cannot figure out). Unfortunately I kept finishing a few places out of the money, which always stings a bit.

Tour of Galena brought some fantastic racing to hilly Illinois (I never would have thought) and I look forward to this race growing over the years. When I first rolled into town, the first thing it reminded me of was the rolling terrain of the Ardennes of southern Belgium, when I did the tour of Liege there in 2008. We also had a decent squad there both days, which was great since we were able to ride in support of Ben. After he smoked the time trial the first day, we were able to set him up well in the road race, in which he crushed and won. The final day crit saw many attacks but Ben did a great job of hanging tough and staying safe while the rest of us tried to keep everything together, and he took the overall!

The T.O.A.D. series again brought some very organized and fast racing to the Milwaukee area. This is definitely the race series of the future in the Midwest. I rode almost all the days (10 of the 11), finished in the money some and again enjoyed some fantastic weather. If they can add one or 2 more road days, this will series will be perfect.

The next 2 weeks off consisted of a trip around lake Michigan with Kim for a 4th of July vacation, which was Pure Michigan™ fun.

Now it's back to Superweek. The dynamic of the Superweek series this year has been different than in years past, with smaller field sizes and not quite as much power it seems in the field. Regardless, the racing has still been fast and it's great to be able to race so much in July, so close to home!

The first day of Superweek at Beverly I saw the winning break roll off the front, but was able to make a 1 lap bridge to make contact. After 3 more guys joined us, it was 9 total and we eventually lapped the field. It was a good thing, because I fell apart in the last 5 laps, getting dropped from the field and almost lost my lap lead. Luckily another rider helped pace me the final few laps so I retained my 9th place position and I kindly paid him for his services from my winnings.

Day 2 at the Geneva crit was another great day for ABD, as we did the ole 1-2 punch with Freund countering my solo move and lapping the field with Chad B. from Texas roadhouse. I know Ryan has been wanting that top step bad and I felt bad that I wasn't able to help lead him out more in the sprint, but my legs were fried and Texas roadhouse has some strong guys.

Richton I was 2nd at last year, so I wanted to do well again. After I missed the first break of 3 that lapped the field, I found myself in no man's land for 1.5 hrs of hard riding in a break with 2 others. It was a very hard way to take 6th place, but I managed.

The Willow Springs road race is a great course, and one that I also did well at last year. I got into an early break of 4 that put a minute into the field, but we were missing a couple key team representatives, so we got chased down. After a slurry of attacks went and got brought back, one finally stuck, but I was absent from it. I managed a 23rd overall, after the break of 10 stayed up the road with a few more hanging in the middle. Ben was with me today as well, but neither of us could manage to pick the right move.

Thursday and Friday took me up to the greater Milwaukee area for 2 races in which i took 24th in both, barely making some $$. The races so far in Wisconsin have seen double the numbers in field size, with the typical Superweek dyanmics of many attacks, and strong breaks getting away. Last night in Brookfield was especially hard, with a course that was both technical with a very long start/finish straightaway that saw very fast speeds. After the initial break of 8 got away the pace went down some, and I missed another large group off the front. Luckily the previous nights winner missed this move as well, and he put a huge bridge in, which I followed to regain contact to this massive group of about 20 riders. We stayed clear of the field, and this group broke in 2 before the finish. I finished in between both groups as I tried to make a late bridge to the first chase, but couldn't quite make the catch.

Downer ave is tonight, which is always a great venue! Oh and Voeckler is a beast.

Also, I wanted to give a huge thanks to the support this year from ABD, Prairie Path Cycles, Mike Farrell and Mike Ebert, and of course as always, my parents and my girlfriend Kim!

fast forward

2011-04-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Almost 4 weeks into the 2011 season, and it has felt really good to be racing again. It was a long winter, and an even longer time since I have updated my progress. So here's the quick flash forward to the present day.

The summer of 2010 I raced a lot, did well in the Superweek series, broke my nose and my bike, raced some more, took 6 weeks off and gained 10 pounds then finally did all sorts of cross training in the winter.

This season I will be racing with ABD (the remnants of the folded Verizon team) and updating my blog a bit differently, trying to follow the guidelines of my new email policy, five.sentenc.es.

Policy broken.

West Branch road race and criterium

2010-05-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend our team drove up north for the 2 day West Branch omnium
(cumulative points race). The Chicago crew took 2 cars up, the
college students getting to leave earlier in the day and us working
folk leaving the city around 7. The 6 HR drive and eastern time zone
got us there around 2am, with a 6am wake up call. I was a little bit
tired the next morning but determined to try and make the most of our
7 person team. The race started with a 35 mile solo break from the gun
by Chris, followed by a lot of really easy riding in the bunch. When
Chris was caught the racing picked up a bit and I tired my hand at
getting a break going. There were a couple of times that I thought we
had the correct combo of riders, but the amateur Bissell guys wanted
no part in actually working together, so we would get pulled back. A
break of 2 finally started putting some time into us and I made a huge
bridge attempt. I pulled one Bissell guy with me, who refused to pull
through, so I put my head down and rode flat out hoping I could reel
them in myself. He sensed when I just starting to tire and jumped
hard. I tried to accelerate but he already had 3 lengths on me and I
was dead. I sat up and got reabsorbed by the group. That would end up
being the winning break. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful
and I attacked once or twice out of shear boredom, and follwed a lot
of very unsuccesful moves. I saved as much as I could for the final
push up the long gradual climb to the finish. It was one long sprint,
if you can even call it that. I had no legs to take advantage of the
good position I had going into the base of it and Seth and I creeped
across the line for 14th and 15th.

Day 2 brought a bit better fortune as our team was determined to make
good of our long trip to the north. The temperature was in the 80s,
with a mild breeze, on a course that was half technical, half long
straightaways. I bairly missed the first threatening break of the
day, and found myself on the front pulling hard to bring them back. I
signaled for help from the team and luckily got some first from Greg
Christensen ( Pabther) who was determined to bring the duo back. When
they were finally in striking distance one guy attacked hard and I
followed suit. Quickly we had a break of 3, then 4, then 5. We worked
well together from the 20 min mark until the final few laps. With 4 to
go our group of 5 could see a bridging group of 4 in our rearview
mirror so we started to increase the pace. 2 of their 4 were catching
us with 2 laps to go and right as they were I put in a half hearted
attack to try and keep our group at 5 instead of 7. They eventually
did catch us and we went into the bell lap 7 strong. Half way around a
guy made a hard jump and no one followed right away. Then another went
and everyone was all over it. I sat third wheel going into the last
corner, with one guy out front poised to win. It was a long headwind
sprint so I waited until I sensed guys coming up on my sides and then
started my sprint. I came around the first guy and needed about 1 more
meter to catch the second one. Second in the sprint for 3rd overall on
the day. The rest of the peloton was setting up for the sprint and
Nick and Henry would take 1-2 in the field sprint for 14 and 15 (there
were more people in no mans land between the break).

In all it was a decent weekend, and our team is getting stronger every
weekend. It was also very fun staying at Nicks parents log cabin on a
lake; if only I would have brought my fishing pole!

Next weekend is 4 days of memorial day racing which should be a good
timer if we continue on our track of improvement.

Barry Roubaix and C.O.U.G.A.R

2010-03-29T17:02:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the kickoff for my 2010 season. It began Saturday morning South of Grand Rapids MI at the Barry Roubaix (Killer) Gravel Road Race. The course consisted of 2 x 32 mile loops making 65 miles of gravel, some pavement roads, and a touch of some wide mountain bike trails. I raced on my cross bike, which was the right call in my opinion, but there was a good mix of mountain bikes and cross bikes. We rolled out in one large group with a 3 mile neutral start and then the race started. I hadn't done this race before so I had no idea what to expect. It was good until we made a left turn onto the mountain bike trail with lots of sand patches, and guys started falling down all around me. I got caught up behind some of them and had to dismount and run before it cleared enough to get back on. I spent the next few miles chasing back the lead group, but eventually caught up, which is good because that would have been a long day not in the lead group. There were about 20-25 of us in this group, slowly losing riders as the race went on. Two guys rolled off the front early in lap one and would stay away until the finish, putting 5 minutes into our group. The rest of the lap was mainly good gravel roads and nothing too technical. The race was pretty uneventful the rest of lap 1. Lap 2 I tried a move off the front and one guy came with me. We were building a sizable gap when we both took a wrong turn into a driveway, and then proceeded to get caught. I navigated the mountain bike trail better this time, placing myself second wheel going into it. I was going to try a move late in the second lap, but by this time I was just hanging on. My legs were so trashed and my body hurt from all the vibrations of riding off road for 3+ hours. In the sprint I tried to give my future teammate Jimmi a leadout, but quickly realized that would be hard too do with both hamstrings cramping up. I limped across the line for a 13th place overall. I really liked this race, but the finish and one intersection out on the course were not nearly policed well enough and it was downright dangerous with cars. Thanks to Jeff and his family for the pizza and the place to stay!

"Oh look, Ryan is Attacking again, better chase"

Sunday's race was part of the C.O.U.G.A.R. Series (Chicagoland Omnium Using Great Area Racetracks), awesome acronym I know. It was at the Joliet Autobahn country club, which is a formula one type car race course. I did a race like this last year in Austin with Colt when I did my training week in Texas. I like racing on these types of venues because the turns are nice and gradual and the wind usually plays a factor. The race started fairly low keyed, but then Mike Ebert (ABD/Verizon), put in a big effort and lined out the whole field. When he pulled off Ryan Freund (ABD/Verizon) put in another huge effort and took 7 guys with him, including me. That was the race, as our group of 8 started to rotate immediately and build our lead. We worked fairly well together after everyone calmed down a bit and the gap grew even more. Ryan put in a couple of attacks, the biggest one with 7 to go, but we slowly reeled him back. I tried a few times as well, but nothing really stuck. Then with about 3 to go, a guy slowly drifted off the front and built a gap on our group. Our lack of interest of chasing him down let him build a lead that eventually he would hold for the win. With 2 laps to go a XXX guy did the same thing, this time a bit more deliberately than the previous guy. Again with no one willing to chase he would hold out for second. The final lap was pretty slow and after a few attempts by Ryan to get away, I went for it with about 400m to go. My jump was decent, but the last 30 yards my left hamstring was in a knot and I got nipped at the line as I was basically coasting to the finish, not able to pedal.

It's been a long weekend for my hamstrings. I need to stretch.

The Moped Build

2010-03-17T21:07:00.001-07:00

The Motorized Pedacycle (aka Moped) has been something of great interest to me since I got my first up close look at one in college. There were always a few people riding them around campus, and I loved the rough and vintage look, and the fact that they had pedals! So keeping in theme with this blog being about bicycles, in their countless forms, I think this passes the criteria check.

The story of the moped build started in early December 2009. Learning my friend from work Matt Bengy was a moped fanatic, and after me telling him about my desire to build one, it began. There is not a whole lot of actual bicycle riding to do outside, in the dead of winter, in Chicago, on weekdays after work, so I set aside some time each week to work on the moped at Matt's garage. This consisted first of making a complete parts list of everything that I would need to build a moped, from the bottom up, then acquiring. Matt's garage was pretty much a shop combined with a moped graveyard, so there was a multitude of used parts to utilize which helped tremendously in curbing the overall cost of the build. About half the components I used were used, and half I bought new. The new stuff was all purchase from www.treatland.tv (which by the way is a hilarious website, that does not actually having anything to do with TV) I did want to put a new engine on it, so almost all the internal workings of the engine were purchased new from treatland, and then built into a used engine casing.

Below is the parts list and a slide show of some pictures I took of the build. It runs awesome, and tops out at about around 35 mph. Hopefully with some more fine tuning this summer I can break 40mph! I will include a video sometime soon.

Oh and another reason why mopeds are an integral part of bicycle racing, and why I like them; Motor pacing anyone?

Parts List
Frame
Internal Gas tank
Petcock
Wheels (Front and Rear tubes and tires)
Rear wheel tensioners
Brake shoes
Pedals and crank arms
Fork
Fork Bearings
Seat
Handlebars
Levers
Hand throttle
Start Lever

Brake Levers
Grips
Front Fender
2Stroke Engine
bearings and seals
Kit
Crankshaft

Clutch
Clutch Bell
carburetor
intake
air filter
Pedal Chain
tensioner
Drive Chain
Flywheels
Stator Plate (w/flywheel w/ignition coil)
Head Light and Tail light
Electrical Wiring
Head Lamp
Kill Switch
Tail/Running Light
Cables and housing
Brake
Throttle
Starting
Kickstand
Exhaust Pipe
Rack

The MUSE background music is because I just went to their concert. Which was awesome by the way.

Bicycle Repair

2010-01-25T11:11:00.001-08:00

It's been about 2.5 months since I resumed my training from my real off-season . October was a great time to start catching up on some neglected repair and maintenance of bicycles that I let go of over the crazy summer months of racing. One thing I finally finished was to clean up my mountain bike which had been dormant for several years. I had only riden it maybe one time with Rider at Pandapas in Blacksburg my Senior year. After cleaning the drive train and frame and making sure the shifting and brakes worked, I took it out for a spin and quickly realized that both the front fork and body shocks were toast. The body shock was not holding any air pressure and I think the springs in the fork were dead. I intially brought it to the shop in Plainfield to get a quote on repair versus replacement for both shocks. They talked with Fox(float shock) and RockShox(fork shock) and it came back that it was going to be way outside my budget for this bike.

So plan B: I looked up the service manual for the body shock and found a replacement seal kit for it online. After a friend from work and I took it apart with some tools at his place, we noticed the air sleeve was damaged along with the seals being worn out. Luckily, after I called Fox, I was able to buy a replacement air sleeve as well. I came in well under budget and now the bike is ride-able again, although the front fork could still use some new springs.

If your ever thinking about selling that old bike, or putting alot of money into it, give a good look at the service manuals and call up the manufacturer for some replacement parts first. It'll save quite a bit of money, and is a good learning experience to understand how to properly service your bike.

I am still in the process of getting the 4 bikes I own, (Mtn, Cross, Road and Commuter) in perfect working condition, with spending minimal money. This way I can have them all in great riding condition so I can take any one of them out for a spin, whenever I want, without having to worry if they will work or not.

When I started riding full time a little over 3 years ago, I really didn't have any clue about bike maintenance, and how important it was to keep up with it. Now I have that knowledge and recognize the importance of proper maintenance, not only for having a finely tuned racing bike, but to have any of your bikes work as good as they did when they first rolled of the showroom floor. Being proactive with with preventative maintenanceis key and will help keep your investment keep it's worth for years to come. I'm looking forward to having all my bikes work like new.

Finding a team

2010-01-15T07:33:00.001-08:00

I have spent a large amount of time contacting teams; making phone calls, sending emails, and everything in between to try and secure a spot on a squad for the 2010 season. I will have to say this it has been a very involved, cumbersome and time consuming process. I have had several promising leads, but most fell through due to different reasons. Since I had already set up my training schedule in October, my preparations did not change during the process, but it was hard to stay motivated to train hard when I was getting rejection after rejection from teams that I thought would have been a very good fit.

But...

I have finally found a team and will be competing with the ReCycling Pro Development Team based out of Chicago, Illinois. I am extremely excited about this opportunity as it came at a time when motivation and general optimism about where my cycling was going was at a low. It was the motivation that I needed, and I think the team is not only tremendously talented, but very deep. We will be a force to reckon with come early spring. Being on a team is something that I enjoy greatly. The one thing that I loved about my days of competing in cross country and track was how awesome it was to be a part of a team. To compete side by side with people that have the same goals as you, and who will dig that much deeper for the guy next to him and the team's ultimate goals. There are a lot of organizational details that will be worked out over the coming months before the season starts, especially since this is mainly a rider-run team, but our support will be tremendous including a team director, physiologist and mechanic. We already have some great sponsors and plan to have more before the first race gets underway.

Through this process, it got my brain spinning about what actually goes into searching for a team, which is a lot like searching for a job. Here are some things to think about during your next team search. Hopefully you don't have to go through this process that often, but the more information you have about it, hopefully the easier it will be.

Finding a Team
There are 4 things that go into getting on that team you want: your resume, connections, timing and sacrifice. For me, my resume was mediocre (will one's resume ever be as good as you want?), my connections were decent and every improving, my timing was a little off and I had to do some soul searching about the sacrifices I was willing to make.

Resume: The results will get better with improved training and racing. I am training smarter all the time and with that increased fitness and ever growing racing knowledge, I know the results I'm looking for will come. Once your results are on paper there is nothing more you can do with them. So don't focus on the past results, learn from them and look to improve them.

Connections: Since I started racing bikes a little over 3 years ago I have met and befriended many amazing people in this sport, all who have had one thing in common, they love bike racing. Whether they were racers, coaches, directors, host families, whomever, they all are passionate about the sport. Make friends with as many people as possible and don't ever burn your bridges. You will quickly find out who is good and who is bad to have by your side, so be attentive. The cycling community is really like a family and the more people you know the more fun it becomes!

Timing: The younger you start in this sport the better. That's obvious for not only cycling but any sport you do. I in no way regret any of the time I spent running cross country and track, because without the years pounding the pavement I would not have the aerobic base that I do now. You can control the time in which you make contact with teams, so start near the end of the season and follow up constantly. Timing of outside events though is something you can't control, so you need to be nimble and be able to adapt to the current times. With the economic downturn of 2009 came reduced or cut budgets from the pro-tour level down to the amateur teams, which made it easy on no one.

Sacrifice: When is the sacrifice worth the outcome? How much do you love what you do? In the favorite words the VQ community, "Is the Juice worth the Squeeze"? Above all, you need to be happy, and be very aware of how your actions are affecting others around you. Cycling, and really any sport at the top level, requires the individual to be selfish. Are you being too selfish? Do the ones that love you support you in your passion for training and competing? You will most likely fail if you don't surround yourself with people who understand and support you with your goals.

ProBikeKit.com Affiliate

2009-12-17T18:48:00.001-08:00

The reason I blog is two-fold; I enjoy writing and I enjoy bicycle racing. Therefore I like to write about bicycle racing and to be able to relay this information to anyone that is interested in either what I'm doing, bicycle racing, or both.

So in the continuing effort to provide relevant content to the main subject of my blog, as well as gain readers, I have decided to become an affiliate of one my favorite online resources for bicycle supplies, www.probikekit.com. If you have ever asked me a bicycle related question, I have probably given you the suggestion of ordering your supplies from www.probikekit.com The affiliate program is a way for me to help my readers by offering them a 5% discount on any purchase they make from www.probikekit.com. All you need to do is click through any of the www.probikekit.com links or banners within a blog post, or on the right hand sidebar of my blog, and then make an order. This program helps everyone, because in doing so, you the reader receive even cheaper prices for your cycling needs, www.probikekit.com receives more customers and I get a similar discount on my own gear I order, it's a win-win-win.

Some benefits of ordering online from www.ProBikeKit.com

Free shipping to the US

Large selection of cycling supplies

Constant sales

Email notification of when product is in stock.

I also wanted to quickly address the Local Bike Shop (LBS) versus online shopping topic with some of my opinions. I do not think that online retailers will ever replace the brick and mortar stores of your LBS, but they do offer a very good alternative. Many times the LBS are overpriced for certain gear, and I do believe that a cost conscious buyer will always seek out the best deal, whether that is online or at the LBS. More often than not, small supplies such as tires, tubes, cassettes, bar tape, etc. can be found cheaper online, especially if the shipping is free. But on the other hand, time is a luxury, and many times it's something that cyclists don't have a lot of. Especially when it's something critical that is preventing you from riding, you can't always wait around for days for something to be shipped out. So the LBS will still always be the best for quick supplies, repairs, new bike test rides and sales, advice and a great place to hang out with other like minded bicycle enthusiasts in your community.

So in summary here's what you do...

Click on the WWW.PROBIKEKIT.COM symbol on right, or the text-ad within a blog post

Purchase your gear with a 5% discount

Help me afford my gear with a similar discount

Thanks!

Great Deals On Cycle Clothing & Gear At Probikekit.Com

Off Season.

2009-12-02T19:44:00.001-08:00

I'm a month into my training after taking all of October off. Well not completely off since I ran a couple of times and rode my cross bike once, which consisted of me practicing wheelies for an hour (I still suck at them, it's gonna take a lot more practice). I tried to remember the last time I took 4 weeks off in my career of endurance sports, and after reviewing a couple of old training logs I couldn't find any rest period that lasted more than 3 weeks. So this was a big amount of time for my body to try and recover from all the abuse and work that I have put it through over the last 11 years. The month of inactivity was good for healing some aches, but I don't think my body responded that well too it. One of the reasons I think this, is because I got a terrible sinus infection for a good 2 weeks. I hadn't been sick before that for more than a year, and it's funny that as soon as I stop working out my immune system goes down. Although this could have had a bit too do with a long weekend of tailgating and late nights will visiting my brother at Iowa.

I spent a few weeks in October getting my training schedule set up for the coming months, and this year will definitely be the most organized, thought out, realistic and specific training plan to date in all my years of running and/or cycling. I'm also bringing back an improved weight lifting routine which I got away from last year. I think the hours in the gym now, will benefit me even more than hours on the bike. Of course nothing compares to riding, but it's now in the 30s here in Chicago, so motivation is a bit harder to get outside and ride.

I have spent a great deal of time training for improvement, with running and cycling and anything else that I have set out to accomplish. There are a number of factors that go into improving as an athlete, some you can control and others not so much. Non-controllable factors like natural talent and body development are things that you are just born with. Certain people will be naturally better than others at a given sport at different times in their life's. You can't control them, so you have to just realize them, accept, and go on from there. The factors that you can control though are things like sleep or rest and training volume and specificity. It pays to be organized in endurance sports, mapping out training and being realistic with what one is capable of doing given certain restrictions is a must. You benefit much more from training when you can be consistent and methodical about it rather than spontaneous and erratic. That's not to say training needs to be dull, far from it, but it will pay you back much more come racing season if you can train with a consistent plan, then to just 'wing it'. Plus if you keep good notes you can always come back later and tweak things for the next year. It's much more fun to continue to improve in one's sport rather than plateau or even get worse. Many times improvement can even come from not just training more, or harder, but rather differently.

Photo by Kim

I have done a couple of cross races this fall for fun, and have accepted my fate in the 3s versus last year when I was trying to race the 1/2's and getting killed. I have a much more fun time when I race the 3s anyway, so until I actually focus training for cyclocross, I am not going to set myself up for disappointment. I will be racing the Illinois championships this weekend though to try and improve my 3rd place finish in the 3s from last year. I got the hole shot then, so let's see what I can do this year, with hopefully a lot less snow.

I don't plan on writing as much this winter, because I am trying to stay ontop of everything I have going on balancing a full time job, training, friends, family and even some off the bike off season fun, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy writing and have lots of stuff going on that sometimes I just want to share.

Some links and future things to come...

NPR coverage of California Road Rage Case
VT article on Sharing the Road and Reid's Reaction
Building a Moped
Mountain Bike Shocks Rebuild
My basement training/workshop pictures
Finding a team
Some how-to's

Also if anyone is interested in a cycling specific lifting program, let me know and I can email you the spreadsheet I created from an old template from my HS assistant cross country coach. It's an excellent tracking tool for recording progress in the gym and it's philosophy comes straight from Friel's Training Bible, with a few minor tweaks.

ABD Fall Fling

2009-09-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

After returning from UNIVEST in Philly on Sunday night the 13th, and starting work the following morning at 7am, I thought I was fully ready for the season to be done. I didn't touch my bike for 9 days, nor did I do anything physical at that. It was a bit rough on my system trying to get back into the swing of early mornings and 8 hour days at the office, but after a few days it was fine. The next weekend Kim's sister got married, so that was full of wedding activities. Then my van overheated on Monday and had to be towed back to Arlington Heights. Luckily my dad's old car was still at the house so we had a spare. But on Tuesday its battery died at work, so I had to be driven to the car parts store to get a replacement and install it in the parking lot. By this time I was sick of everything going on and I wanted nothing more than to get outside and ride, or run, or something. I didn't have enough daylight on Wednesday night after the dead battery situation to ride, so I went for a 4 mile jog. It felt good, but everything hurt afterward. I stretched a lot and the next day I got out and rode for an hour. It was again a really good feeling and I knew then there was a looming winter on the horizon and that I didn't want my season to be over just quite yet.

So the real last races of my season took place this past weekend. The fall fling series put on by ABD is a series of 4 races over 2 weekends consisting of a criterium, road race, time trial and circuit race. Saturday was the criterium around a very circular course in a business park. There was only one wide right turn followed by a large sweeping right that took you back to the start finish stretch and again to the right hand turn. My plan was to stay near the front and follow the threatening moves. There were about 5 guys to mark, and I'm pretty sure the entire field had them marked. It was a bit hard by myself since I seemed to be going on the defense quite a few times during the early laps. A hard counter attack from Hartley (Geargrinder) and Freund (ABD) established a gap with one other guy. They stayed out front by 15-25 seconds for the entire race. There was still a lot of action in the peloton to get a chase group formed. One or two times I thought I had gotten into a strong chase that could stay clear of the pack, but it never worked. The break of 3 stayed away for the win, and the field sprint was pathetic on my part. My legs were cramping up a bit and I really couldn't stand for the sprint. That's probably what 9 days off the bike and then racing will do to you.

Sunday was a bit more of my kind of race. A 10 x 6 mile 4 right hand turn square in rural Crete IL with lots of wind. The wind was pretty constant from the south so there was a tailwind on one stretch, head on the other, and cross winds on either side. The first few laps were pretty aggressive to get something formed and I just followed what I though might stay away. There was never the right combination of riders in the breaks and the peloton wasn't letting anything stay clear. Finally I got into a group of 3 with Will Nowak (Alderfer Bergen) and a Bicycle Heaven rider. The peloton pretty much let us go, so we organized quickly and started riding hard. We stayed away for about 3 laps, but I our gap stayed around 30 seconds instead of gradually rising. Will and I were driving the pace pretty hard and the strong wind wasn't making the 3 man break any easier. We finally got caught in the tail wind section by a chase group of 3, but within the next mile the peloton caught all of us. I was hoping that when the chase caught us we would then be able to stay clear with more numbers, but the pack was riding hard to shut us down. Within the next few minutes I was following wheels and again got myself into a break of 5 riders this time. We quickly got a large gap, and I tried working at first but soon realised that my legs were completely toast. I sat on for the next lap, pulling through every so often, which then turned into just sitting on. There were still 2.5 laps to go when I finally had to pull the plug after yo-yoing off the back of the break. I shut down everything to give myself a chance to try and recover enough to hook on to one of the chasing groups. They weren't too far back at this point, so when I got caught, I got passed pretty quickly. I soft pedaled in the last half lap and called it a day. I had worked myself into the ground, and made all the right moves, but my legs just weren't responding. I think in a mid season race it would have been a good hard, but manageable day, but after a long season with a big training gap before the weekend, it was painful.

Although this weekend was exactly what I wanted to do to myself. I wasn't ready for the season to be done, I think my mind was a bit ready, but my body wasn't. After this race weekend my mind and my body are both ready to take a break. The rest of October should be pretty relaxed for me, and I'll start my winter training again come November.

UNIVEST

2009-09-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Friday 9/11, Allentown TTT

The morning of the team time trial, I woke up to a cold, windy and rainy day. It was bringing back memories of the road race from last year. We arrived to the course with enough time to take a lap as a team before it closed down for the rest of the day. By this point I knew the all the turns very well from the laps in the car, on the bike and in my head. I did some visualization the night before which helped a ton. It's amazing how running through each turn in my mind the night before really helped me feel comfortable during the race. We were able to pull together enough trainers for the warm up that everyone had one. I got a decent warm up in, considering the trainer I was on had no resistance. With about 10 minutes to go we rolled to the start and checked in. By this time the rain was holding out, but it was still it the low 60s with wind gusts into the 40s. 3 Minutes to go, we head up to the start line in our pre determined order with some last minute equipment checks. 1 minute and we are ready to rock and roll. When the bell goes off Peter takes a slight lead and the rest of us fall into place behind him. After the first turn we try and get into position as fast as possible. The it takes a bit to get into a rotation, but we finally get organized and are flying down the long straightaway into turn 2. Our practice had gone very well the day before, so our team communication was decent. That, plus we had radios with Bernard in the follow car behind us letting us know to speed up or slow down, depending on our flow. At this point the wind was still a major factor, and the roads were wet, but the rain had died down. We made it through the first lap with only one causality in Alex, but he put in a big pull at the front before the uphill into the start/finish stretch. Our split time was decent, and put us mid-pack of the teams that had already finished. The second lap though we needed to hit it hard. We kept our formation tight, and handled the corners well. Nick fell off the pace midway into the 2nd lap, so we were down to 3 with Peter David and I to finish off the race. I was feeling surprisingly good up until this point, without having to go too much into the red. But as soon as we lost Nick it got exponentially harder, with the final few kilometers going all out to stay as a tight group of 3 to the finish line. The final uphill was a lot harder the second time, but once over it I went to the front for the final time and pulled hard. Then David took over and Peter rode the final stretch into the finish with the long pull across the finish line. I was the third rider, so the clock stopped when I crossed and I was completely drained. The race had gone from manageable almost the entire time, to very difficult the final half lap. Overall i was please with my effort, and our team ended up midpack, with a 15 of 30 team finish.

Saturday 9/12, Souderton RR

It is almost identical weather conditions at the start of this years race as it was last year. Overcast skies with a slight rain. It would end up raining pretty much the entire race, but a lot lighter than last year's monsoon. The race rolled out about 10 minutes late and half way into the "neutral" rollout there was disaster. Our whole team had great position at the front just behind the pace car, but almost all of the second half the riders were taken out from a stupid crash in the middle of the field. The stopped the whole field in the middle of the road and we waited another 10 minutes for the wounded to be taken care of mechanicals to be sorted out. I later found out that the crash even took a few people out of the race with broken bones. When they restarted us there was no neutral start, so it was parked to racing in a matter of seconds. I kept decent position near the front, and was cautious around the rain slicked corners. There was a huge sigh of relieve when I made it past the point I almost died in last year when I wiped out into an open intersection while chasing the peloton after a wheel change. There were a few attacks, but no one was really staying away until Peter got into a group of 2, then 3, that started putting time into the main field. Mike Olhesier eventually would bridge up to this group that would survive until 4 laps into the local circuit. Back in the field I was feeling good, but digging deep to keep my position on the tight and windy backroads of PA. The climbs were killer, with some extremely steep pitches on certain sections. I was glad that I had my 26 gear and it actually worked (unlike green mtn when I couldn't shift into it). While many people were out of the saddle spinning their wheels on the wet pavement, I was able to stay seated for most of the climbing and keep a good cadence. The last 200 meters of the second climb was all out of saddle though, and it seemed like myself and everyone around me was going in slow motion. The local laps finally came, but there were 33 more miles to ride during on the 3 mile 11 lap circuit. Each lap got faster and faster, and when the peloton eventually caught Peter's break the pace got really fast with counter attacks trying to form what would become the winning move. Each lap completed I could feel my legs closer to cramping and just loosing any power left I had in them. The hardest part of the circuit was the feed zone hill with people attacking over the top of it on the false flat section. After crossing the finish line for the 7th time I made my way up the hill for the last time. I dug deep, probably deeper than I ever have before to hold over the top of the hill. When I got to the top I turned around to find a huge gap with no one in sight. I was the last rider in line, and knew my time would be short lived back there. I made another effort to move up past a large group of riders to give myself some cushion. At this point it was hard enough for me to pedal, let along concentrate what I was doing, so when I made a right hand turn that I had done so with ease the previous 6 times, I overshot it big time. I didn't crash, but I forced myself up and over the curb, tried to regain my speed and get back on the street, but by this time the peloton was speeding away from me. I tried to sit in the caravan for a few turns, but my legs had nothing left. I had gone into my reserves one too many times. I soft pedaled the last of bit of lap 8 and the ref pulled me at the line. I couldn't be upset with today because I had out-lasted more than half the field, and improved upon last years DNF by a ton. It is a bit disheartening though because I took myself out of the race with a bad mental mistake. But it does go back to fitness because if I would have still felt OK at this point, I probably wouldn't have been racing in the half blacked-out state that is the "pain cave." Peter and Nick would go on to finish with the remnants of the main field, with David getting taken out by an unfortunate puncture in the local laps.

Sunday 9/13, Doyelstown Crit

Again, the weather mimicked last year's with not a cloud in the sky and high 70s; crazy. Pro crits have not been my strong suit all season long. I can't seem to move anywhere, and end up just racing as pack-fill, suffering the whole time. I have come to the conclusion that this is because I am too nice. I can get to the front of these fast paced races, but once I get there, I immediately start to lose my position, and then try again. Well this is not a good way to conserve energy, but I keep trying nonetheless. And then about 80-90% of the race finished, I finally pop and lose all motivation to continue my charge to the front. So for next season, my one and only goal for all criteriums that I race is to get to the front, stay at the front, and don't let anyone take my spot. That means no tapping the brakes on straightaways and taking corners without giving up position. This will let me keep my energy for the sprint and also keep myself out of danger. So anyway, I made the same mistakes today and raced as pack-fill, getting myself to the front several times before losing my position almost immediately and wasting a ton of matches. I lasted about 80% of the race and then was totally spent and had to drop. Right after the race I had to pack up my bike to be shipped home, and then get to the airport to catch a flight back to Chicago.

UNIVEST pre-race

2009-09-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

After the last stage of the Green Mtn stage race I had an awesome dinner in Burlington with Peter, David and his parents, David's girlfriend's family and some other friends of theirs. I stayed at David's girlfriend's parents place that Monday night north of Burlington, before the long drive down to Philly the next morning.

Tuesday morning we packed 2 sedans worth of stuff for the 8 hour drive to Philly for the start of UNIVEST on Friday. We made a quick stop in Jersey on the way to pick up Nick, and rolled into our host house outside of New Town, PA around 8.

The next morning Peter had an interview with a local news channel, so after we got a morning ride in we all met at the FUJI warehouse outside of Philly. FUJI is the JBCA sponsor for bikes, and key in helping out Bernard and Ann and the their team throughout the season, especially during UNIVEST. We got a tour of the facility which consisted of a warehouse and a front office off engineers, sales people and marketing staff. We met a lot of different employees and got to talk about everything cycling from racing, technology and the upcoming Interbike convention in Las Vegas. FUJI was in full swing getting everything prepped to ship out to the convention in time for the week long dirt demo and showroom extravaganza that is Interbike. They had at least 4 or 5 mechanics building up the newest models of racing bikes and TT rigs to be inspected, before they were then disassembled and boxed for shipment. The warehouse consisted of rows upon rows of cardboard boxes filled with inventory to be shipped to retailers across the globe. FUJI actually is under the larger company Advanced Sports that owns SE bikes, Breezer, Kestrel and Fuji, so the building housed all 4 brands with their varying type of 2 wheeled products and accessories. I especially enjoyed seeing the new shimano Di2 gruppo installed on FUJI and Kestrel's latest time trial creations. I had only seen pictures of the new electric shifting, so it was neat to finally be able to see it up close and personal. We had a great lunch with the employees and left with a few freebies.

Afterwards we drove to Allentown to preview the TTT course from the car. It was about an hour drive from the house, and supposed to rain the next day, so at least a few laps in the car was better than showing up on race day with no prior knowledge. The course was situated in a very urban city center, which would either mean good or bad news for the new stage and how it is perceived. Out of the start gate there was a right hand turn to a long downhill over a bridge. Very exposed to the wind yet very fast. At the bottom was a sweeping right hand off camber turn to a short uphill. The course then weaved through some neighborhoods before making another small bridge crossing to another right hand turn and a fast flat section. The last few kilos switch backed steep city blocks before the last right hand turn into the flat finishing straightaway. After 2 laps in the car we called it a day and drove home for dinner and some rest.

On Thursday morning our 5th teammate Alex arrived and we got some pre-race practice in a nearby neighborhood taking corners at speed in a tight formation, focusing on communication at all times. Time trialing is a very delicate balance between raw power teamwork. You could have the fastest and strongest guys on a team, but if there is no communication and formation within the group, you won't get the results. A team can move the fastest when everyone is in sync with a good rotation, taking advantage of optimal drafting at all times. This allows the group, not just any given individual, to use its power effectively to produce the most speed. That night there was a race dinner at a grocery store that was sponsoring the event. Yes the dinner was inside the grocery store, it was a bit weird at first, but there were bunch of tables set up for teams and free access to the buffet bar, so it was cool. After another great dinner we went home and got some rest for the start of the weekend.

Green Mountain Stage Race

2009-09-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

The final 2 weeks of my season consisted of traveling to Vermont for the 4 day Green Mountain stage race. I arrived on Thursday afternoon, after a hassle free flight through Philly and into Burlington. I had shipped my bike before my arrival to a local bike shop, since the cost of checking one on a flight now is outrageous. Both Kim and my parents joined me for the weekend, helping me at the feed zones, but also getting to relax a bit themselves in the Vermont countryside. After picking up the bike we drove out to Waitsfield to the house we were renting for the weekend. It was the same place that we rented last year, which is an awesome house right by the first 3 stages. The view from the back window is amazing, complete with grazing cows and the Sugar Bush ski resort in the background. After unpacking, I reconed the TT course and then we got some dinner at a nearby bed and breakfast

Friday, ITT, 7 miles

My goal today was to best my time from last year and ride the course smarter. I had a good idea of what power numbers I wanted to maintain on the 2 mile climb out before the course turned into rolling terrain for the next 4 miles before the final steep kicker to the finish. I got out strong and held a good pace up the climb. The middle section was all about staying as aero as possible and getting myself into a good hard rhythm. The final downhill I stayed tucked as long as possible into the steep hill that followed, trying to carry all my momentum into my sprint over the hill, and into the false flat finish. It was good for 40th place, and the times were all slower this year than last because of a steady headwind on the point to point course.

Saturday, RR 72 miles

It was perfect weather today and a great road race course. The loop was not the same as last year so I didn't have any experience that would help me here. There was a long uphill at the start of each lap, followed by a long downhill and a fairly challenging backside before the flat sprint into the finish. The first time up the climb was neutral, and then the racing began. My plan was to not even test the legs until lap 2, so I kept good position and stayed out of the wind. Lap 2 and 3 I tried to go for some KOM points, but both times I went way too early and got caught half way up the climb. The aggressiveness kept me in good position on the climbs though so I didn't have to chase at all on the downhill. The last lap I was feeling very good, and really focused on moving to the top 20 positions for the sprint. The last 5km was a war zone, with about 4-5 crashes in the final K's. The crazy thing was that I was near the front and all of them were happening near the front. Only 2 really affected me, but the last one closest to the finish line took me out of the game. I thought for sure I was going down as I saw a guy just in front and to the right of me go down hard after a rider in front of him severely overreacted and swerved hard left. I had to touch the brakes a bit which took me out of the top guys. I never got to unleash a sprint which is unfortunate because my legs felt absolutely amazing. I finished 12th, with the top 15 separated by probably less than a second.

Sunday, RR 74 miles. App Gap Mtn Finish

In last year's race this was my best stage finish, and the course was identical this year. Last year an early break went and got caught at the base of the last climb, same with this year. The race started in the parking lot of the Sugar Bush Ski resort, at 8am! Normally I wouldn't mind this, but it gets pretty cold at night in Vermont, so the temps were in the low 50s with a 2mile downhill section to start out the day. It wasn't as bad as I thought since the downhill section was neutral so we were riding the brakes the whole way. 10 miles in there starts to appear some pretty nasty potholes on the road, and without seeing it till the last second I nailed one hard and bottomed out my rear wheel, flatting instantly. I stayed completely calm, shifted into my 39-11, pulled to the side and removed my rear wheel just as the SRAM guy was getting there with a wheel. He made a quick swap and gave me a push. I got back up to speed as the SRAM car pulled in front of me and I drafted back to the rear of the peloton. Finally, success! I have only flatted in a road race 2 times before this, and both times never gotten back to the group. I immediately made my way back to the front, recovered and ate and drank. Although now with the new wheel, my shifting was completely dialed into the new cassette, and every cog worked except my 25! I could ride in the 25 only if I held the lever in and pedaled, which sucked. I wouldn't worry about it until the last climb. The next 50 miles were pretty uneventful. Dave had gotten into the early break, and I got into a small chase group over the first climb. We stayed away until the top and got caught on the downhill. Then Peter bridged up with another rider later in the race. It was a large group up the rode though, too large to work together, and I was pretty certain it would come back together during the last climb. It did, and I was back in contact with the leaders.

Monday, Downtown Burlington Criterium

The final crit went a little bit like last year. I started with good position, couldn't keep it, and then just kinda gave up. The start of this race is a bit crazy, with a true fight to get the best starting position possible. There are guys holding a rope to keep the racers back, and when they let everyone finally approach the line it is a mad dash. I actually got a great spot at the front and spent the first few laps there, until I slowly started moving back. I don't know what it is about this course, but I can't seem to get into a good rhythm during it. The race is extremely hard as well, with a long uphill to through the start finish straight that is an all out effort each lap. The section before that is a fast downhill to big left hand turn, and I can never seem to get the right line out of. But anyway. I finally found myself at the back, and rode till the halfway mark and pulled myself. It would have been almost impossible for me to move back to the front, and I just didn't have it in me today.

So this year went a lot like last year did overall. I had one decent result, followed by a really bad crit. By hey, I'm still having fun and know my time will come!

Downers Grove Criterium National Championships

2009-08-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

I am a bit backlogged with my race recaps, so the next several posts are races that capped off the end of my 2009 season, that I never fully finished writing until now. Enjoy!

This was my second year competing in the Downers Grove Criterium National championship weekend. Last year I just competed in the second day, but got caught behind a crash with 4 laps to go. This year I opted to do both days since I have learned my that my body generally responds better on a second day of racing. Here's what happened.

Day 1 - Pro/Am

This was the last race of the day, and the start time was nearing dusk. The race was only 50k long so it was going to be a quick race compared to the majority of crits I had been doing this summer. There were a lot of the pro teams racing, probably for the same reason as I, to get the legs ready for tomorrow which was what really counted. The race started pretty smooth, but my position at the beginning was not very good. I worked my way up and got into a fairly good spot. The race was actually pretty uneventful until the final few laps when the pace ramped up quite a bit and riders started popping off left and right. I think most people were dropping out because they wanted the warm up for tomorrow, but not to go completely into the red zone and save a bit for day #2. Well I didn't really think about this until it started to happen, so I was getting caught behind a lot of riders sitting up. I closed gaps for awhile, but thought it was also best for me not to completely blow myself up. I rolled across the line in the 50s, but gained some great practice riding the course for the real show on the next day.

Day 2 - Elite National Championships

There were T-storms threatening in the distance when the race got underway just after noon. The temperature was hot and humid with a full field ready to go after the title of elite criterium champion. I had great starting position, and rode near the front for the first few laps. There was a huge break that went away in laps 1-2, that actually made me very nervous, but I knew that it was going to be a long day with 50 miles of racing total and lots of people to chase down the break. About 10 laps in i felt the first few drops of rain, and then it was an all out monsoon for almost the rest of the entire race. There were crashes pretty much every lap, sometimes in multiple corners. The killer corners were turns 7 and 8 which were the last 2 left turns before the finishing straight. I focused on staying on the inside of the corners as much as possible to avoid someone on my inside overcooking a turn and sliding into me. The rain made it almost impossible to move up in the field, and it was strung out single file for most of it. With about 15 laps to go the rain started to ease up a bit, and as I made a left hand turn to go up the short hill on the backside of the course, I found that I couldn't down shift. I kept pressing the lever and on the 5th or 6th time I heard a crack and the lever was gone! Luckily I was able to carry most of my momentum up and over the hill. The wheel pit was at the bottom of the next turn and I told the mechanics that I needed a spare bike since my shift lever broke off. They asked my frame size, and quickly measured my seat height and switched my pedals over to the spare rig. I stayed pretty calm, and actually got in some extra water and a bit of stretching while waiting. The crazy thing is that they said it was the second broken SRAM shift lever that day (Possible design problem, or coincidence?) Resting was nice, and even though they had me ready to roll by the next lap, I felt refreshed and ready to tackle the last 14 laps. I got a push from the mechanic, got back into the field and immediately moved as far up as I could. The new bike felt a bit funny, especially since the seat post clamp was a quick release and stuck out a bit, hitting the inside of my thigh with each pedal stroke. The first few laps on the new bike I was cautious in the corners to get used to the tires and pressure, but they were actually the same brand as I run (Michelin Pro-Race), so it was a very quick adjustment to the handling. The final few laps were getting stressful, and I couldn't seem to make big enough moves to be in the hunt for the final sprint. With 2 turns to go there was a big crash, and although I lost momentum, I got through it OK and made the last turn safely into the finish. There was no way I was getting into the top group since I wasn't there early enough before the finish, but I did make it across the line without going down, and in 30th place overall. I was happy with the day given all the craziness, and was pretty exhausted, physically and mentally. It takes a lot more concentration around the corners when it is raining like that with 150+ other guys on the course as well.

I do like the course at Downers, and I'm lucky that the venue takes place there year after year, so close to my house. I'll be aiming for a top 30 placing for next year!

Grayslake and Glencoe

2009-08-11T15:45:00.001-07:00

My first race back after the long trip to Oregon was the Grayslake
cycling classic. This was the first and only race I did during the
summer of 2006 as a cat 5 and took 11th place. The following year I
raced as a cat3 and won, so this year I was all for getting a good
result. Well I sucked big time and couldn't even finish on the same
lap of the tiny field of 20 riders. There are a few things that I
think accounted for my suckiness, but I'll spare you. This has got to
be one of the worst feelings I have had after a race, and I really did
not even want to think about racing my bike after. But you gotta get
back on the horse, sooo...

the next day I raced the Glencoe criterium. It was a good sized payout
so I was expecting a lot of riders with good competiton. The field
size was not anywhere near where I thought it would be, but there were
some strong riders present. The thunderstorms let up just before the
race started making for hot humid and wet conditions. I really didn't
know what to expect from myslef today so I just focused on my position
and not making any moves unless I felt good enough to make them (
yesterday I was attacking myslef into the ground). I tried for one of
the first $100 primes solo off the front but got reeled in just before
the last corner. I decided that I probably wasn't going to get any
mula for primes since my acceleration was just not there. I noticed
that everytime I got out of the saddle to sprint my tailbone area hurt
a lot and I could not produce the neccessary snap to bridge quickly or
establish a gap. The rest of the race went without incident and I
made a good effort to position myself in the top 10 before the final
sharp corner. I gave my best sprint which was pretty slow for my
normal finish speed, but i was able to hold on for 10th. I was glad I
raced and got back on track. I'm now sitting by a very nice lake in
northern Wisconsin with Kim and her family enjoying my days with great
rides, fishing, swimming and boating. Just gotta survive all the bears
I keep running into!

Elite National Road Race

2009-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Owwwwwww

There is nothing worse than having your legs hurt like hell, and then
hitting the ground hard to round out the pain to your whole body.

Super hot day with temps starting in the mid 90s and climbing as the
race went on. My plan was to just survive the day, near the front of
the race, which in turn would equal a good overall placing. The race
started with a couple of moves from people which got broke back fairly
quickly. A small group did finally get away and held their lead for
most of the race. I was sitting well in trying to conserve as much as
possible while watching the peloton lose a bunch of people each lap on
a very hard rolling section directly after 2 hard uphills.

Halfway into the 4th lap (6 total) I was approaching the feed-zone
near the front. I grabbed my musette and immediately after avoided
hitting bottle in the road. The next thing I know my bike is taken
clear out from under me and I land straight on my ass and right side.
There was no way I was getting up since everything hurt to even move.
I miraculously did not get run over by any riders, but my day was
done. I was driven back to the med tent to have some wounds cleaned up
and wait for the race to finish.

I think the emotion of knowing that my race was over as I hit the deck
hurt just as bad as the fall itself. It was like this wave of anger
and just utter helplessness at the same time. After watching the
finish of the race I saw that the breakaway got caught and about 20
riders came to the line together. Who knows how it would have ended
for me, but it's one of those things that you can't look at and wonder
too much.

I'm thankful that I at least did not break anything since those low
speed crashes ( I was only going 17mph ) tend to do more damage to
people than a crash with some sliding afterward, even I it is on
pavement.

I made the long trip across the country later that night to DC to
Andrews wedding in DC and I did not sleep much. I would dose off for a
bit and then awaken by a really bad pain in my tailbone and have go
adjust on my seat. It was rough, but the wedding was amazing and it
was awesome seeing all my old teammates and roommates from school.

I don't have too many more big races left in the season, but the plan
is to do local crits and whatever other bigger races I can get into
before the second week in September when I go back to work. I guess I
never did explain that, but I did in fact ask my work for the summer
season off without pay to race my bike. They agreed, and now my time
us almost to an end. One month to go!

Rest days in Bend

2009-08-06T21:55:00.001-07:00

These are some the activities I enjoyed during my 3 day break before nationals...

Went to the bars the night of the last stage. There was many many fast cyclists there unwinding including Cascade Crit winners, Overall Winners, Podium finishers and a previous TdF winner. It was very humorous.

Floated the river. Bought some inner-tubes from the the Goodyear tire shop. They bought them back for 1/2 price when we were done.

Rode to the top of Awbrey butte and had an amazing sandwhich for lunch.

Got my rear wheel trued for free. Booya! (foreshadowing)

Had awesome Thai food with our host Family

Cascade Classic - Stage Six

2009-08-06T21:48:00.001-07:00

Not too much to say about the final stage. I flatted 17 minutes into the race, and after the slowest wheel change ever, I got a push from neutral support and a wave good-bye. Well they didn't really wave to me, but they should have. I got a bit of help from the chase moto-ref, but he was mainly teasing me staying about 20 feet too far in front of me. I eventually did catch back onto the last car in the caravan, but this was after a HUGE time trial effort to get there. The Rock Racing car was actually being the nicest, letting me ride the bumper for a bit, but the peloton was just flying! As soon as we hit the first steep climb of the race, followed by an extremely long false flat through the feed zone, I just had nothing left to move up. The cars rolled away from me, and the moto-ref told me, "It was a valiant effort, there are some more climbs coming up, maybe you'll catch back on," and took off. Well I didn't, so I rode back to the car and drove home to shower.

Little did I know that Colt had crashed out before me, so when he got back to the parking lot I had taken the car. Then i went back to the race to feed and he wasn't there. It was a small wild goose chase, but I eventually just went back to the house, and he had ridden home. I was pretty mad that bad luck took me out of the final placings, since I would have most likely been in the top 70 if I would have finished. But who knows since the race was shattered.

There is always next year, and I am definitely coming back to this amazing race!

Cascade Classic - Stage Five

2009-08-06T21:36:00.001-07:00

The queen stage of the 2009 cascade classic lived up to the hype. Starting with a 15 mile climb, my day was almost over just 30 minutes into the race. I started the first climb of the day in good position and stayed within myself to get over the first mountain pass with the peloton. But the pace quickened after a couple of hard attacks from riders at the front and before long I was climbing in the gutter, single file, fighting for my position. There was a small break in the middle of the group that turned into a large gap when the climb flattened half way up before the final push to the top. I got stuck in between groups in no-mans land with 3 other riders, and I was extremely nervous that we would not regain contact. I helped with the chase, rotating through when I could, but I was already on the limit and didn't want to push it into the red with 70+miles left to race. We got to the top and started the long descent with 3 riders (Ben King was with us and putting in some monster efforts) absolutely flying down the mountain. Reality started to set in that the 3 of us were not going to catch a huge group of 40. We slowed a bit when we saw the group behind us was pretty massive, consisting of many Rock Racing riders that needed to regain contact with the lead group and help their man Sevilla keep the yellow. When they caught us, the descending got even faster and when we finally got to the flat roads at the bottom of the mountain we could see the caravan in the distance. I limited my pulls at this point, knowing that we would catch back on. With one final push past the caravan we were back in contact and I focused on recovering from the huge effort I just put in the first hour of racing.

The middle section of the course was pretty uneventful, and I was even able to grab some water from the med car. With the final climb of the day approaching, we were on open and straight roads, but somehow, in almost identical fashion to stage 2, there was a nasty crash in the middle of the peloton. I saw a couple of people go down hard, and was caught behind the crash, but I stayed extremely calm. I worked my way through the carnage and got back up to speed with other chasing riders. It was almost weird how calm I stayed this time, since usually when there is a crash like this my first reaction is a raised heart-rate and an urgency to get back up to speed as soon as possible. It was no trouble regaining contact to the pack since a lot of people were caught behind the pile up. The climb started with some hard rollers, slowly trimming the peloton of riders already on the bubble. I was feeling OK at this point, but not very sharp. I knew what was coming up and focused on just staying within myself to climb at a pace I knew I could hold for the next 30-40 minutes. The final climb started with more attacks and a very fast pace, which I just could not respond too. This whole week I could tell that my accelerations on the climbs were no where near as good as they were last year. I didn't have any problems climbing at tempo, but if there was a fierce acceleration I couldn't match it. So again I started this climb just off the back of the main peloton and climbing by myself. I was slowly working my way up through a couple small groups of riders going backwards, but for the entire climb I was solo. If the gradient was steep the whole time this wouldn't have been a problem, but there was several times the road changed to a false flat, so anyone in a group could get some real fast speeds going. I finished the day pretty tired atop Mount Bachelor, just happy that it didn't end the same way stage 2 did. I feel as though my fitness was actually getting better each stage, and was excited to fight it out in stage 6 to finish out my longest stage race to date.

Cascade Classic - Stage Four

2009-07-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Criterium

Ahh the infamous criterium in the middle of a perfectly good stage race. Fortunately for me it was a simple rectangle course with 4 easy right hand turns. Turn 1-2 could be taken at full speed and pedaling the whole time, while turn 3-4 were much tighter and taken at about 2-3 mphs. I started in good position, just at the rear of the bubble of riders that usually forms at the front of criteriums. I focused on moving up a few people every other lap since there were many people taking some risks and coming into turn 3 super hot, passing a whole group of riders at a time. This was really the only place to move up though since the 2 straightaways we were going at well over 30 mph every lap, you just had to be careful doing it. The whole time I was feeling very strong and keeping my position safely in line. The pace started to quicken the final 30 minutes since there was a strong break off the front. I got caught behind a few crashes and had to close down some major gaps. Also there was several people sitting up in the now single-file line of racers and forcing me and others behind to chase even more. These efforts took it out of me big time and with 9 laps to go I was gapped for the final time. My day was done, and I was a bit upset since my legs were feeling so good when I was sitting in line. Oh well, I still get to start tomorrow and my legs keep feeling better and better. Here are some pics after the race was over. The crowds were awesome!

Cascade Classic - Stage Three

2009-07-28T22:02:00.001-07:00

Individual Time Trial

Today was thee 16 mile time trial out and back Skyliner road. Skyliner road is basically just slightly greater than a false flat uphill into the mountains. So the the TT was an 8 mile out uphill, and then superfast 8 mile downhill back to the finish. After getting a good warm up in I lined up at the start and had my bike checked for being UCI legal. I was a little nervous since I was talking with one of the shimano mechanics before the start and he commented about the disc cover I was using on my rear wheel, saying that they weren't technically legal. I had it on at Nature Valley as well so I didn't think they would say anything, which they didn't. At 10:39am I was off chasing down my 30sec man. I got into a good rhythm on the way out and was keeping my power dialed in at 335avg. I maintained that all the way to the turn around at just under 23 minutes and got back up to speed to crank out the decent. It was so hard to stay aero and push out high enough power to keep my power up without frying myself. I just felt like I was fighting the wind so much. I ended up getting passed by 2 riders on the way home (Who ended up getting placed pretty high overall so wasn't too mad.) My average power dropped to 325 average for the whole TT so I thought my time would be pretty competitive. Turns on it wasn't as fast as it felt and I was 89th on the day. I really need to work on my position with a dedicated bike that I use and train on for TT's because even comparing my average power to Colt's, it was much higher, with a much slower time. So I am somehow not being efficient in the TT's and it is costing me. But it's something to work on for next season!

Cascade Classic - Stage Two

2009-07-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

That was one, hot and hard stage. The course today was slightly downhill for much of the first half of the 80 miles with one small pitch up before the final climb of the day with the three creeks mountain. I did a much better job at staying near the front of the peloton yesterday than I did today. The only place it really was an issue was the final 10-15 mile climb, when there was a crash at the base of the climb. Luckily I was far enough to the side of the road and avoided it, but people were chasing like crazy to reconnect to the front before the gradient went up. I needed to be even further at the front when when the steep sections came because I found myself passing alot of people moving from group to group. I think this took too much energy out of me, because the last 3-4k I was absolutely spent and my body told me so. I bonked big time from getting sick, and got passed by quite a few people before the finish line. I think my expectations on the climbs were a bit too high, since last year this would have been alot more doable, but I just didn't have the legs to go uphill any faster. I wasn't a total bust, but just a bit dissapointing since I was climbing decently. My overall GC dropped a bunch but at least I get to move on too tomorrow!

Cascade Classic - Stage one

2009-07-28T22:00:00.003-07:00

Just finished the first stage of the Cascade Classic this morning, and it was a fast one. With average speeds near 29mph, it was a tough first day, but a good leg opener for the coming mountain stages. I finished safely in the peloton, and Colt was just infront of us in a 3 man chase group. There was a 22 man break that stayed away and put about 2.5 mintues on us. It will be interesting to see if anyone from the break will hold their advantage through all the mountain stages. There was one climb today that didn't pose too much trouble, and the fastest section for me was coming out the feed zone since I slowed down a lot to ensure I got 2 bottles. The heat affected me a little bit, but I drank 5 bottles in only 2.5hrs so I made sure I kept the hydration up. This whole week is forecasted at around 90 with no cloud cover. I'm sure I'm gonna be feeling the heat a bit more on the uphills in the mountains, but if I keep up the hydration I should be ok. Time to rest stretch eat and drink more water now.

Bend Oregon

2009-07-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Bend Oregon will be my home for the next 12 days. With the first day of the Cascade classic starting tomorrow. Then I have a 3 day break before the elite national road race; 190km of circuits in Bend against the best amateurs in the U.S.

I'm staying with host housing with an awesome couple who live right in Bend, and Colt has joined me here too. My mom is also here for the first 2 stages of the CC so we went for a scenic drive around town and into the mountains today. We saw a pretty sweet waterfall at the end of the road the time trial will be held at in 4 days and had an awesome lunch with sandwiches from a local cafe.

It will be fun reconnecting with some of the guys from the cycling center from last summer since there are 5 of us including Colt and I out here, ironically all on separate teams.

Tomorrow's stage starts out with a flat from Redmond to Bend, with one categorized climb for some KOM points. I will be focusing on conserving energy and staying near the front out of trouble.

Superweek - Block 3

2009-07-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

Holy Hill Road Race
After a good rest day yesterday with an easy 2 hour ride, the legs were feeling good. We made the trip up to Hartford for the noon start time with the weather looking a little dreary. Crazy to think it was July 17th with the high only at 62, overcast windy and scattered showers to make it feel quite chilly. I knew it was going to be a tough race by looking around the parking lot. Kelly Benefits had guys, Ouch had a few, and of course all of the regulars of superweek were here too battle it out on the 8 mile circuit course. Noon rolled around and everyone was lined up ready to go when we learned from the race officials that the Wisconsin state troopers were taking a lunch break for the next 45 minutes. So while we all shivered around the start line, the troopers ate subway. The race finally got away about an hour late and I focused on my position near the front. There was a couple sections of cross wind, but I managed to make almost all the echelons that formed minus 1 or 2. Since the yellow line rule was being enforced it was pretty tough to move up, but once I was there I did a better job at keeping my spot. There were some early breaks that tried to get away but kept getting caught. With a few laps to go a group of 10 got away. I just missed that break, but the last 2 laps I sat 5th wheel and tried to get away a couple of times with some others. With 1 lap to go 2 more guys went (Nick Frey and an Ouch rider) and no one seemed to want to chase them down. With 1/2 lap to go 2 more jumped and I went with them and we weren't followed initially. We had a gap we rode hard with the other 2 pulling through as well. They pulled at first but in the last K they stopped working so I buried myself to keep us away. I tried looking back a few times to see where the peloton was but could never tell if they were gaining or not. Well they both beat me in the sprint but at least we didn't get sucked up by the field. In the future I need to be aware of the approaching peloton more, becasue I was definaltye the strongest out of the 3, but at the same time I was terrified of getting caught at the line by like 40 storming riders. I was happy with the result, with it being my best place of the superweek races I did. A good confidence booster indeed going into Cascade and nationals.

Rest Day - Easy ride on tap and packed for the AM departure the next morning.

Superweek - Block 2

2009-07-24T17:44:00.001-07:00

Arlington Heights - The Hometown Criterium
I was extremely excited when I saw Arlington Heights on the docit for a Superweek stage months ago. It was a race I not only wanted to do, but do well in. It's not often that friends and neighbors get to see me compete in my sport. With the usual poor planning for spectator friendly road races, and criteriums everywhere but home, it was a good chance to let friends experience a bicycle race. I was hoping for a hometown call-up since they called an Elgin Resident up 2 days ago. It was the ultimate tease. After all the people that actually deserved call-ups got to the front the announcer said they had one more rider who was local. I was practically walking my bike to the start line when they said a name other than mine. The rider wasn't even from Arlington Heights, but from the next town over in Rolling Meadows! It's ok though, he obviously had nothing to do with it so I don't blame him, it was just ironically not funny. The course was pretty tough with 2 long straightaways and a small 6-turn square thrown in. I rode hard to get to the front but every time I got there I would lose my positioning through the tight turns in the back of the course. This didn't happen every lap, but once in awhile I would take a corner just wrong and get shot back 5 spots. I would then have to burn a match to get my 5 spots back on a straight away and start the process over. This long criteriums are more mental than anything, because there are so many turns, and as soon as you start getting too relaxed you end up last wheel and your day is over. I finished half the race and was quite upset since my legs felt amazing, but I couldn't hold position to save my life. I was glad the friends and family still enjoyed the race, as it was many of their first times watching a cycling race.

Props to Ryan Freund who was being crazy aggressive off the front which set himself up for a nice 5 man break which he took 3rd place in!

Bensenville Crit
Only in America do you line up at the start of a race and have the riders vote to shorten the length. This happens more than one may think, and every time I think it's just silly. I'm not saying I complain about the end result of a shorter race, but I never vote one way or another. They shortened the race today by about 10 miles, blaming it on something to do with not having the cooperation of the city to hold the race where it was. It was a wierd course, with almost no fans and half off it on this glorified cart path that ran through a grass park area. It was extremly windy with the long backstretch straightaway completly tailwind and the path on the into a headwind. I did much better today off staying at the front and holding position, but still missed the break of about 10 that got away. They lapped the remainder of the field, which i was a part off, with only 2 laps to go. There was one chase group plus some other small groups still up the road, and I sprinted it out with the now lapped peloton for another 29th place. Good thing is I finished my first superweek P/1/2 criterium!

Rest Day - easy 2 hour ride to keep the legs fresh for tomorrow.

Superweek - Block 1

2009-07-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Superweek started July 10th and I used it as a training block for the Cascade classic and Elite Nationals in Bend Oregon. I did 3 races on, rest , 2 races, rest, 1 race, rest, then fly to Oregon. My goal was to finish the crits and try for a result in the two road races. Here's how it all went down.

Beverly Criterium
Located in a neat little pocket neighborhood of Chicago was the start of the Superweek Pro Tour. Beverly has many neat big old homes with awesome architecture. I believe it was a an old Irish neighborhood when it was first being built up, and now many of the homes have placards out front listing the build date, and name of the house. The course consisted off a fast homestretch section, slight uphill and fast downhill right hand turn back to the start/finish. After a delay in the start, and a parade lap with the local club team, we finally got underway about 30 minutes late. I had decent starting position, but the race started extremely fast and didn't let up the entire time. There was a huge breakaway off about 10 riders that went away almost immediately and lapped the field. They then proceeded to thte front and started attacking again, setting up another break with almost all the same guys. I was done by this point, just completely fried. Again my stomach was not on my side in this race and couldn't hold my lunch down. I lasted about 90 minutes, and there was still another 30 laps too go. I left early, and headed down to Bloomington for the Champaign crit the following day.

Kim tried handing up water to me during the race, but we only connected once before her and another guy got scolded by a ref, saying that feeding wasn't allowed. I found this to be a theme in many of the superweek crits. It kinda sucks because 100k is a long way to race your bike with only a couple of bottles. I know I didn't finish the race, but if I did I would have certainlty run out of water.

I also enjoyed Kim's stories from talking with the South African team's souigneur about all the difference's between the U.S. and S.A. Like, "Why are there so many fast food restaurants here?", "Don't you need fences around your homes to protect from crime?", "Why are there so many obese people?", "What's with all the american flags everywhere?" - (That one was easy since it was just the 4th.)

Champaign Criterium
I diverted from superweek for a day, since Friday night to Sunday morning I was staying at our neighbors lake house in Bloomington, so I was able to head over to Champaign/Urbana for the first annual Champaign Criterium. It was put on by Mark Swartzendruber who I had come to meet about a month back at the O'Fallon road race. He seemed like an awesome guy (strong rider too), and promised high payouts, on time races and no bounced checks. After a good warm-up on the trainer race got underway right on time as promised. I stayed near the front and got into an early move which looked promising but got brought back in 1-2 laps. I was feeling good, but switched tactics to follow wheels into breaks instead of helping to set any up. It worked as I got into a 6 man group off the front, which eventually grew to 12 guys with people bridging from the peloton. We rode well as a group, everyone seemed to be pulling through except 1-2 riders, but the group was large enough that there was no way we were coming back. In fact I don't know how we didn't lap the field, but I'm glad we didn't since that would have been to my disadvantage sprinting in the field. We rode tempo like this until 2-3 laps to go and people started launching from the break one by one. I think 3 stayed away from our break to the finish line, and I set myself up for the sprint with the remnants off our break. I would have probably been 10th place, but there was a big crash in the last corner before the finish, taking out 3 riders, and moving my position up to 7th overall. I was happy with it, especially since the competition was good (Panther, Texas Road House and a few more strong riders), and this was probably my best result of the season thus far.

Happy, but not content.

Elgin Road Race
Sunday morning I drove with Kim back up to Chicago's suburbs from Bloomington for stage 3 of Superweek, the Elgin Road Race. This was more like a circuit race, and about as close to a kermesse as they come in the U.S. 140k's of racing on a 8.2k circuit, with lots of turns, ups and downs. Not perfect for me, but a hell of a look better than 65 laps around a tight neighborhood course. There was a pretty steep short climb into the feed zone each lap as well that wore people down. I followed wheels for much of the beginning, not knowing how I would feel after the previous two days of racing. A break formed consisting of both Garmin riders, 2 MTN riders (the S.African team) and 2 others. They had the horse power to stay away, and the peloton stopped riding hard since it was represented already with the strong team and the 2 Garmin riders. This lead to their eventual time gap off about 8 minutes. The craziest move of the day was Jay Thomson's (MTN) attack from the break, and his soloing for the win over the last 37 miles.

With 7 laps to go the pace was crawling and I was feeling good so i made a move. Knowing that I had no chance of catching the break, and hoping that no one would react to my move I attacked right after the start finish on the long stretch out of town. One MTN rider came with me, but the field didn't flinch. He refused to pull through since he had 2 riders in the break, but told me that he would start working if I got the time gap up high enough from the field. This took about 3-4 miles of me pulling hard before he came to the front and we rotated with steady pulls. It really made no sense to me whey he didn't start working earlier since there was absolutley no way we were going to catch his mates up the road, and by us working hard together we would have secured 7th and 8th. So we stayed away for 10 miles and then got reeled back in. I don't know exactly who chased us down, but from talking to some others I knew still in the field, it wasn't the entirely logical guess. I sat in the remainder of the race and got in position at the front for the final miles. The long straight stretch back into town was fast! I got completely swarmed from both sides and any intentions I had with sprinting it out with the big guns was down the drain. I rode hard to the finish for 29th place, and was super tired. At least I got to rest the next day.

Rest Day - I needed this rest day badly. The night after Elgin and all this day my chest all around my lungs was killing me, with the pain extending into my neck. I went to the doctor and got a EKG and X-Ray to be on the paranoid safe side, especially with leaving for Bend in a week. Everything was fine, and the pain was explained as over stressing the lungs with inflamed muscles around the lungs. I took some ibuprofen and was fine by the next day.

Race Training

2009-07-23T17:44:00.001-07:00

After ToAD I also raced the state criterium championships, but it was a terrible result. I was completely fatigued and my legs felt like hollow tubes. It was super windy and basically the field split into a few chase groups. The break of 2 stayed away while I made the long drive home trying to stay awake.

Soldier Field Criterium
This was a cool small training crit in the parking lot just south of the Chicago Bears Soldier Field stadium. I rode easy in the AM, and then Kim and I headed downtown to catch a bit of the taste of Chicago before at late start time of 8pm. It was a hour race which I spent a lot of time off the front trying to ride away from the field. I couldn't actually get away and the few people that bridged up with me didn't really have the legs to keep the pace high. I was a bit tired and out of position in the sprint so I settled with a 9th place finish. It was ok since it was a training race, so no money, but a great day of training. Oh and I won a chipotle burrito prime, so free dinner!

Fourth of July: Whitewater Road Race
Drove up to Palymra Wisconsin for a small road race the morning of the fourth. Palmyra is a tiny town just east of Whitewater with a nice countryside containing some rolling hills. The P/1/2 field only had 9 riders signed up so they combined the masters field with us to bring the total to about 30 riders. Well after the first lap it was pretty much widdled down to the P/1/2 riders with about 5-6 masters riders. I was trying to be very aggressive to get in a break and attacked up the hill out of town every other lap. The only team that had more than one rider was Geargrinder so they had a good 1-2 punch that eventually turned into a 4 man break just out of reach. I chased hard for about a lap, dragging the field behind me before 2 other riders without teammates came to the front to help the chase. We kept them insight but could never close the gap, and the next time up the hill I attacked hard to try a solo bridge. It didn't work and the other Geargrinder rider followed me and countered my move to eventually make it too the break. I ended up 7th, 3rd in the field sprint. I worked hard at least, and next time I need to be a bit smarter about forming a breakaway when I have no teammates to work with.

Tour of America's Dairyland

2009-07-23T17:40:00.001-07:00

I am a bit behind on my race recaps since I was busy with things like working on my sun tan in florida, watching the TdFrance and racing superweek. So the next few posts are a blast from the past with the racing I have been doing and whats to come with me during cycling's busiest month of the year, JULY.

ToAD
Stage 1: Blue Mounds Road Race
This was my kind of race, perfect for my strengths. Unfortunately I had bad legs, and during the second big climb on lap 2 I got gapped and my day was done. It was a very hard course, but nothing that I shouldn't have been able to handle near the front. It was pretty cool racing on the proposed course for the 2016 Olympics. It needs a bit of re-paving before then, but it will be brutally hard.

Stage 2: Waterloo Crit
Kim and I wandered Madison before heading out to Trek's hometown in Waterloo. I had never been here before, so it was cool to see the facility. We missed the tour which had gone off a few hours before we arrived, so I'll have to come back in plenty of time for that next year. I felt absolutely great today! Best I've felt in a crit all season, which made up for yesterday's crappy day. I was pretty aggressive in the beginning, but not as smart as I should have been. I get anxious when I feel this good, and I for got that I don't have any teammates and chase stuff down for the field. It started raining with about 5-6 laps to go and things got a little fiddly. People were wiping out around corners and I even saw some sparks flying from sliding bikes on pavement. A couple crashes put me out of position into the last 2 laps and I finished 23rd. I was very with my form though, and the fact that the next day I was leaving for Florida for a 5-day mid-season Vaca with Kim and the fam. My family has a condo at Amelia Island Florida and I have visited there at least once every year for pretty much my entire life except last summer when I was in Belgium, so I was excited for the return.

Mega Rest Week in Florida
I worked on eliminating my tan lines, and got my relaxation on. I came out of this week with a refreshed mind and body, ready to tackle the last 2 months attacking off the front.

Stage 10: Downers Avenue Crit
Lots of accelerations in this race, and wasn't sure how my body was gonna respond after the time off the bike. I felt ok, but every time I made a big surge it took me a looooong time to recover. I focused on staying smooth and upright, since again the rain decided to fall in the last few laps reeking havoc on some riders in the final turns. Not as good of a result, but jump-started my legs into racing mode again.

NVGP Stage 6

2009-06-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

The Real Queen Stage.

After hearing so much about this race, I was half nervous and half anxious. It was hot and sunny by the time we arrived in Stillwater, and already the town was full of spectators walking the streets and lined up on "The Hill" for the amateur and women's races. Our start time was 1:30, just as the sun was at full strength. I forwent the trainer for warm-up since it was too hot, but instead got some laps in on the course. After the previous 2 days of not getting good starting positions due to everyone lining up 30 mintues before race time, I made sure I had a good spot today. After a good warmup I lined up in some shade near the front. Well it was the front for just a little while since thay called up the top 25 in GC and plus abuot 25 more people, but oh well it was only fair for them. The start was at the base of the climb, which we would be doing 20 times, or in my case 14. I really wanted to finish this race, but ater the 10th time up the 18% grade my legs were fried. The crowd was awesome though, and I even got a much needed push from a spectator when I got cut off by another rider and almost came to a stop on the hill. I was just focusing on keeping good rhytm on the ups, and not getting passed on the downhill. Eventually though I couldn't keep it going and got dropped on the hardest part of any climb, the section immediatley after it is over. I chased for 4 laps before being pulled, and my day was over. It was hotter than I thought because I went through 2 bottles of water real fast, and I didn't even last the whole race. I got to watch a great final 5 laps though with Rory Sutherland just crushing the field with 2 laps to go, leaving Tom Zirbel behind and bridging a 20 second gap to the break in less than half a lap. He would go on to win by 10 seconds, erasing Zirbels 7sec lead and stealing the yellow on the last day by 3 seconds on the last lap and the last climb of Nature Valley. It was a a pretty amazing finale to the week. Props to Colt for finishing and also Jim Camut for bridinging up to the break with Landis!

I was a bit dissapointed that I didn't reach the finish line with the main peloton in the any of the crits, but then again I did finish the week, and safely at that. I gained a ton of fitness and am looking forward to next 3 months of racing.

Also a big thanks to my mom for coming out for a couple days to help feed in the the RR's and our host family the Gorences for the house to stay in and the great food! Hopefully we will be back next year!

NVGP Stage 5

2009-06-17T09:09:00.001-07:00

Stage 5, Mankato RR
The queen stage. This was going to be a long day at 95 miles with a 2 mile finishing circuit of 4 laps and a killer hill thrown in each time for fun. Yet after the stage got underway there was a few aggressive moves to set up a 16 man break early. And since there was no overall GC contenders in the bunch, that meant easy pedaling for the the peloton. It was a very relaxed day in the main loop, riders chatting with each other and sharing cokes and food, it was actually half decent for a bike race. So while we left the real racing to the breakaway, Ciclismo realized that their Amateur jersey in the hands of Nick Frey was probably in trouble and started to chase at the front. Things heated up in the last 20 miles or so before the local laps and I worked to maintain my position out of trouble. There was a real bad crash on a super fast downhill and I saw Frank Pipp go down hard, caused by what I am guessing where the many deep linear cracks on the descent (I don't know how he got up and finished, but he did). The first of 4 local laps was a bit hectic for me, with another crash around the corner just prior to the climb, causing me to mis-shift, drop my chain, somehow peddle my chain back on and regain contact with the peloton. This was a little bit scary but I was climbing well and passing people. The second loop was a bit less eventful, in a good way, but on the third time up is when things got hard. I tried to get over the crest of the uphill with enough power and speed to keep the wheel infront of me insight, but I just didn't have the last bit of pop required. I tucked and chased on the downhill but they were already out of sight. The last time up the climb I went for broke, but on the downhill and flat section into the finish I got caught by a group behind me, and they received the same time as me. Overall I was pleased with the race, and I know I am so close to having the fitness to keep that contact when the race gets tough.

Colt had some bad luck with a flat right before the second feed, and got no help after a wheel change from the support car. He hooked up with Pipp who had fallen before but was denied access to the local laps and given a real shitty pro-rated time (27 minutes!). Somehow Pipp got in the local laps and finished with a much better time; odd?

If anyone knows how they pro-rate times for lapped and pulled riders in both criteriums and road races I would love some insight, because to me it seems very random and arbitrary.

NVGP Stage 4

2009-06-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Stage 4, Uptown Minneapolis Crit
Stage 4 was a pancake flat 6 turn L-shape criterium in Uptown Minneapolis. Uptown is an awesome place, complete with great restaurants, bars and lots of amazing fans. It was almost 3 people deep the entire lengt h of the course. The crowds definitely helped me out, and gave me that little bit of extra motivation to keep the ridiculous speeds we were averaging, 29mph! Last Wednesday was the fastest crit I had ever done, and tonight just outdid it. Although it was not as hard, the fast corners forced me to keep my concentration the entire time. I tried moving up a couple of times throughout the race, but I was basically offsetting the people that were passing me as well. Nearing the end of the race there was a pretty bad crash in turn 4 and I barely swerved around it to keep some momentum going. Lo oking back I should have gotten off my bike and gone to the wheel pit like everyone else, but I was afraid of, A)Not getting a free lap, or B)Not being able to get back into the peloton with enough speed to make a free lap worth it. So I chased hard for that lap and got back on to the rear of the group. The final 6-8 laps I was basically tailgunning it and closing gaps that riders infront of me were creating. This took enough energy out of my legs that in the last lap I couldn't hold on anymore and got a 40 sec time gap. I was so close to actually finishing the crit with the main field, but I'm just glad I stayed upright.

Colt did a good job despite his injured k nee from Tulsa, and same with Jason, despite a rider barreling into the rear of him and braking his frame at the seat stay. Finishing a crit at those speeds and cornering on a neutral bike is pretty impressive, and something I am just barely able to do on my own bike.

Here's a sweet pic post race, the s treets must have been really dirty because we were covered in it, and our white handlebar tape was looked like we were out in the mud.

NVGP Stage 3

2009-06-17T08:33:00.001-07:00

Stage 3, Cannon Falls RR
This 65 mile road race started in a small town about an hour southeast of our host house, in the countryside of Minnesota. The main 55 mile loop wasn't too bad, and the lack of wind surely helped. This would have been a much harder race to deal with if the winds were a factor. It finished with 5 laps of a 2 mile circuit once we arrived back in town. The racing begin once we got to the circuit. The hard part was the gravel (more like sand) section just prior to starting the circuits, and then a super fast downhill scattered with potholes. I almost got gaped here, but quickly moved up to establish decent positioning in the peloton for the start of the local laps. Each lap got faster and faster and there were many people coming backwards through the bunch. I was glad I did not try any moves while in the main loop because I needed every ounce of strength to close gaps and keep my positioning. I was doing good until the last lap when there were several gaps opening up and 2 crashes to avoid. I just missed contact with the main field and finished 28 seconds off the leader.

NVGP Stage 1 & 2

2009-06-17T08:31:00.001-07:00

Colt and I arrived to Minneapolis on Tuesday afternoon after the 6 hour drive from Chicago. We first stopped by the TT course for a recon pre-race ride. The TT route was an out an back flat course, finishing with a .4 mile uphill to the finish line. The only technical sections was the 180 turn-around and a pot-hole filled S-turn. After the ride we drove to our host house for showers and some dinner. The packet pickup was at a nearby hotel, with a managers meeting afterward. And since we didn't have a manager, all of us were forced to stay the entire hour listening to some pretty bad questions. We eventually made it home and got to sleep for the early wake up call the next morning.

Stage 1, TT
We awoke to mild temperatures with overcast and rainy skies. Colt was the first to go off at 10:22 followed by myself and then Jason 10 and 20 minutes after. I got a good warm-up in on the trainer, but looking back I probably could have gotten an even better one in. I rolled to the start line 6 minutes before my time to get my bike checked for UCI compliance. I am riding a borrowed TT bike from Robbie, and it has been working out great, I hardly had to adjust the position. But of course when the official asked to see me on the bike he first said that the angle of my elbows was not legal (I was too stretched out). But after a quick adjustment (consisting of me moving forward on the saddle, thus changing my elbow angle), he said I was OK to go. I need to do some more research on this, but it seems like being tall has it's disadvantages for legal TT positions. I mean aren't we at a disadvantage already since we need to push more wind than a shorter rider? Anyway, the TT went OK, and I would say most of time was lost in the turnaround, the technical S-turn and the final uphill. I haven't put in a ton of time on the TT bike, but as I do I'll get used to going fast on it. Colt Jason and I all finished within 5 seconds of eachother, in 77th, 78th and 84th place. This was also my first ever TT on an actual TT bike!

Stage 2, Lowertown St.Paul Criterium
The course was a 4 corner circuit in Uptown St. Paul with a gradual downhill through the start finish and uphill on the opposite side. The roads were in no great shape with several strategically placed potholes and manhole covers in the line of several corners. I had terrible starting position, and so my main focus was moving up. This was much easier said than done since I was basically offseting the people passing me as I was trying to move up in the field. Finally with about 13 laps to go I was close to last wheel and hurting. I started to become complacent around the corners and soon found myself flicking people through. The problem was there was no one left to come around me and grab a wheel, and I was chasing the gap I just opened for myself. This only lasted 3 laps and i got pulled by the officials. This has got to be one of the fastest crits I have done, and I quickly learned that losing concentration just for a second can prove costly. I got a prorated time 1:41 back, and dropped out of the top 100 in the GC.

Race Recaps, MO / IL / WI

2009-06-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

I am currently in Minneapolis Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand
Prix racing with team Richardson Bike Mart based out of Dallas. The
team here just consists of myself, Colt Trant and Jason Short. I will
have more race recaps for each stage as I get time to write them, but
for now I'll just recap the previous 3 races I did in the last couple
weeks.

Ofallon RR, St. Louis
Great course, almost identical in nature to Hillsboro Roubaix. The
only downside was that there were only about 20 riders in the P/1/2
field. 4 laps of 22 miles with lots of turns, short steep uphills and
exposed cross wind sections. I was having a good race, trying to get a
break going, wich didn't really work. So I let a group of 9 get away
and then soloed across to them. We rode in this group the whole time
until the last lap when things exploded. I got super sick with 30
miles to go, for whatever reason I don't know, but I was really
dehydrated and couldn't respond to anything. I crawled in the last 10
miles and got 10th, last in the break. I was bummed I didn't feel
better, but with the small field I figured it was better to feel bad
today then in a more important race later. This could be a great race
of the future if it can attract more riders. Thanks to Kim's sister
Heather and husband Kyle for the hospitality!

Winfield twightlight crit, IL
This is the first road cycling race I have done more than once in my
cycling career thus far. The course is great with a long steady climb
each lap. Colt was in town this week so he did the race, and we also
had good VQ representation today. Uneventful until 4 laps to go when I
got In a promising break with 3 other strong riders that I thought
would stick. We got caught with 2 to go, and even with a ton of help
from Colt to keep my position at the front I faltered a bit in the
last lap to finish 14th. Oh and we had many fans today which was
awesome!

Wisconsin state RR Champs (Spring Praire,WI)
78 mile RR, 12 laps with a very steep hill just before the start
finish. This is the second road race I have ever done more than once,
so I had some insight. First lap was a bit aggresive with an early
break, but it soon got pulled back. With about 6 laps to go a break
went free with a hard charge up the hill, consisting of the right
people to make it stick. I tried latching on with one other guy but I
just didn't have the legs to close the final small gap up to them. It
was a combination of not fully commiting to the move and my legs
yelling at me to sit up. Well they indeed stayed away and the rest of
the race I conserved for the final push up the hill. The 12th and last
time up tge hill I was second wheel with one other rider on my tail
and we gapped the field. But yet again I didnt have the legs to make
the final push for the field sprint, so I ended up 3rd, for a final
placing of 7th overall.

Memorial Weekend Racing

2009-05-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Four great races this past weekend. Here's a short recap on each.

Burlington Road Race, 80 miles.
The weather was very nice, a little warm, but it got cooler as the race progressed. Since this was my first time doing any of these races, I was mainly relying on other people's advice on how to handle each one, while trying to use my best racing knowledge. This race was pretty easy, and I spent almost no energy the whole time (around 173 watts for 3hrs). I stayed near the front but completely out of the wind. There was a break of about 8 that got away early, but judging from people's advice on how it would most likely come back together, I didn't worry too much. ABD and a few other people chased hard the second half of the race and brought the break back with less than 10 miles to go. I was being a bit more aggressive at this point just to stay near the front. There were several teams that were well represented, and they put their numbers to good use going into the final sprint. They were at least 2-3 lead-out trains from the teams with enough r iders to put them together and the speeds got pretty fast into the final K's. The finish was a little dicey because of the fast speeds, downhill sprint, and many riders pulling off the front and coming backwards through the charging 90+ person field sprint. It was sort of a dodge and weave sprint that I wasn't going to contest, so I rode smart across the line in 38th position.

Snake Alley Criterium
Of all races to not clip in immediately when the gun goes off, this is the one. So of course it took me 2 tries and about 4 seconds too long to attach myself to the bike. I probably lost 10-15 positions in this little mishap, but that's not the reason I didn't make the money today. The real reason is that I cannot corner in the rain as fast as many other people, at least not right now. Since the skies decided to open up just before our race was getting underway, the roads were fully saturated. I thought the snake was hard, but completely manageable. It is much nicer to ascend it first in first out, and whenever I did that I usually came out of it with a gap behind me. I will look forward to doing this race again in dry conditions, or when I learn to have no fear in the descending in the rain, whichever comes first. 30th on the day.

Melon City Criterium
This was my favorite race of the weekend. 40 laps of a non-technical course that was fast and hard. The hill each lap took enough out of people to make it a tough race, but not enough to allow a break to stay away. I went into today knowing that I wanted to be very aggressive, and I wanted to be in a break. I accomplished my goal and got into a break a bit past the halfway point, but we were reeled back within 2 laps. I conserved after that until the finish, trying to improve my position on the downhill and sustain or lose a few spots on the uphill to save energy. Going into the final 3 laps I had an OK spot in the field, but there was a 10 man break that got caught, so my OK position turned into another 30th, which is the place I finished in. Lesson learned here is get into top 10 with 2 to go, and go all out on the final hill all the way into the finish. Oh and I got some major air over the huge speed bump at the bottom of the 45 mph hill each lap.

Quad City Criterium
I kept reading how this race was being described as a cage match, and I didn't quite get it until I arrived at the course to see much of it enclosed by chicken-wire fencing. The only thing that this does is keep people off the course, because I saw first hand that it definitely doesn't keep riders inside the course. 8 turns a lap x 50 laps = 400 corners to navigate, and I did everyone of them very well, some others weren't as fortunate. This was my turning point for the season on gaining my confidence back in getting around corners safe, efficient and without sacrificing positioning. Some things that contributed to this improvement were a change in tires (Switched from Continental GrandPrix to Michelin ProRace3), lowering my tire pressure (Higher for road races, a lot lower for crits), and executing my new found skill of counter-steering (Downward pressure on the inside bar). I know all of these things are important and pretty standard for any serious bike racer, but today I executed all of them together. And 400 turns is a lot of chances to practice, so it was a good workout. I finished in 44th today, but I would say I am the most proud of myself on this race of the 4; I was aggressive, smart and safe. My form is starting to come around, and I'm feeling good, now all that's left is to start getting some results!

SCHEDULE NEWS
My schedule is about 90% accurate through June, maybe 70% through Sept 14th, and I'm excited for many of the upcoming races, as I am hoping to continue to ride into form all the way through the end of my season.

Joe Martin Stage Race

2009-05-13T08:10:00.001-07:00

Last week I traveled down to Fayetteville Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage race. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon in Bentonville, home of Walmart, and my host housing for the week. Trent Talley was kind enough to let me in on the housing from a fellow BMC (Boston Mountain, not the BMC) club member's house. It was a sweet setup and we even got meals! I was very appreciative.

Thursday Time Trial, 2.5 Miles
Almost all uphill, this time trial was a bit deceiving. Based on the previous years winning time of 8:07, I set a goal for myself of under 9 minutes. I started OK, but dropped too much off pace at the base of the climb and tried to make up too much too fast. Tried to finish hard, but only good enough for a 9:27 and 107th out of 160 riders. I was was pretty spent, but I know this high intensity short effort will come as the summer progresses.

Friday Road Race, 110miles
Not very hard, and the only climb of the day wasn't too bad. Able to keep it in the big ring most of the time since the group was climbing pretty fast. I was itching to make an attack on the long downhill run in to town, but I know it would have been absolutely pointless. I positioned myself fairly well in the final miles, but got caught a little off guard by a cop car sitting in the middle of the road and some small rollers and turns before the uphill finish. Only 15 seconds down on the leader, good for 64th. Props to fellow house mate Andrew Talansky for his aggressiveness and getting into a 2 man break that had 8 minutes on the field at one point, but unfortunately he got sick and had to drop.

Saturday Road Race, 92 miles
A much better race, and a lot harder than yesterday. Reminded me a lot of the UCI's of last summer. Ouch put their entire team on the front and drilled it from the gun. A group of 10 got away in lap 2 and forced the unrepresented team Ouch to chase even harder. I focused on staying near the top third and out of trouble. The race lined out a bunch and we were cruising at an average of 28mph all day long. The hardest part was the steep climb to the first feed on each lap, and then the steady uphill for the next few miles after. The final 10 miles seemed long, and I was getting some small twitching in the muscles. I tried to mix it up in the sprint, but the rider in front of me pulled a foot out of his pedal in his sprint and almost went down. Good save by him, but slowed me down a bit. I got my best finish of this race in 32nd, S.T. as the winner Haedo who won for the second day in a row.

Sunday Criterium, 90mins.
Really hard crit today, but luckily the rain held out today, as it did all week. Tried to move up at the start, but the race lined out after the first couple laps and I was feeling it. There was a super fast downhill to a hard left turn that I was starting to get gapped on, and then started to get more tired chasing, and it was a viscous cycle from there. I lasted 35 minutes with the group, then rode the next 15 minutes by myself trying not to get lapped. They told us at the start line that making it 45 mintues was all you needed to get a placing in the crit and the GC. I made it 50 minutes in total, but they failed to include me in the results. I guess they messed up alot of results on the last day.

Overall it was a great race and I would love to go back next year. I feel my form is coming along good. I need to work on my short intensity (ie 2.5mile TT's and crits), and I feel like I will be good to go for the upcoming events.

Vernon Hills Grand Prix

2009-05-05T10:46:00.001-07:00

Great weekend for training and racing. 100 mile Lake geneva ride with the VQ guys on saturday, nothing hard, just simple volume riding. Legs felt great after.

Sunday was the Vernon Hills crit, 60min race not very technical but with some steady cross winds. The plan was to get Sachs or I into a break, or if that didn't work, set Heagney up for the sprint. After some bad pre race luck* we started the race pretty aggressive. Dave and I took turns attacking with other riders, and Dave got in a break that stuck. I just chased stuff down near the front and was feeling OK, till about 10 laps to go. I don't know why my stomach hates me so much but I managed to lose my lunch across the start/finish line. I felt fine after that at least, but getting sick during a race is not ideal. 2 laps to go Heagney goes off the front with one other guy and they stayed away. I put myself in the third wheel position for the sprint. I played it a bit safe by not trying to shift into my 12 since it didn't work at all, but it was a good drag race to the line which I barely lost. I think I was 2nd in the field sprint for 10th overall. Rode home afterwards for a solid 2 days of training.

Next up is Joe Martin, but I am currently sitting in a Starbucks in Bloomington IL watching Kim study for finals and not missing schoolwork at all. I am going to finish the drive down to Arkansas tomorrow morning.

*String of bad luck pre-race

Flat rear tire 15 min prior to race, no 80mm tube to use for my brand new race wheel
Riding on rear flat I somehow endo myself over a curb going 1mph and bend my derailleur hanger about 2cm while scuffing up my palms
Switch nice race rear wheel to crappy old Powertap wheel
Can't shift into my 12 cog due to bent hanger

iowa city RR and capital crit

2009-04-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

The rain gods were good to me this weekend. After checking the weather 100 times trying to figure out what clothes to bring in prep for high winds/rain/thunder/lightning/hail it ended up being a very calm weekend. Good too see the bro at school too.

Saturday's road race was in the corn field's of Iowa, which also happened to be home to many Mennonite's, complete with horse drawn carriages. The course was fairly straightforward, nothing too hard, not to windy and only 2 small hills. I tried to be pretty aggressive to get a break going. I was feeling good and I was antsy to get get away with a few riders and go hard. I made several moves, a couple strong ones, but nothing was materializing. The closest I got to an actual break was maybe 5-10 seconds with a group of 4, but we were soon reeled in. With a lap to go I switched tactics and did more conserving and followed wheels. A break of 5 finally got clear with about 10 miles to go, and I'm surprised it didn't get brought back by some of the teams in the pack. Nonetheless I was in the peloton for the sprint finish and managed a 16th place overall. (The sprint was a bit shady with the strict yellow line enforcement all the way to the finish line.)

The crit the next day was a wake up call to myself that I need to work on my cornering. I will admit that I was having a few flashbacks of my bad crash last summer in the Elgin crit. I went head over heels in my first race back from Belgium on a fast corner out of a downhill and it was not fun. I need to gain my confidence back because I know I can corner well, I used to do it all the time, but I was just being very cautious and it cost me dearly in this race. As hard as I tried I couldn't lay off the brakes and I'm sure I made a couple of people behind me mad (sorry bout that, promise I'll be better next time). The legs felt pretty good, but I was wasting too much energy dealing with the one hard corner in this race. A break got away and I was fighting to regain ground every lap out of the infamous corner. I think I finished in the top 25. I guess I need to keep the long season in perspective, and that avoiding crashing myself in a crit now is best for a good healthy season.

So this weekend at the Vernon Hills Gran Prix I will be practicing my cornering and gaining that confidence back to hold wheels in any crit situation. I hate being limited in racing by anything else other than just not having the strength to hang.

I will also be supplementing the VQ Lake Geneva century ride this Saturday instead of driving 7 hrs round trip for a 40 mile road race. Joe Martin is fast approaching and is a goal of mine for a peak in my training.

hillsboro roubaix and seattle

2009-04-13T16:17:00.001-07:00

I just returned from an awesome mini-vacation out to Seattle to see Rider and Spanish (who flew in from AZ). I liked the city and surrounding area of Seattle a lot, even with the typical rainy weather we had. As with most new cities I see, I always want the chance to live there for more time than a stopping in for a quick few days, but nonetheless I enjoyed the visit.

Last week was the first race of my Illinois racing campaign. Since I started racing 2 years ago I've wanted to do Hillsboro, especially after racing the cobbles of Belgium last summer. While the brick roads of Hillsboro weren't quite as bad, I would have to say this was my favorite race I've done in Illinois, as well as the hardest.

Quick side note. When I first got to Belgium last summer I had this secret desire to do a race with cobbles in it. I think mainly to just say I did one , but also because of watching races like Paris Roubaix. Immediatley after I got across my first section of pave, not only did I think my frame was absolutely broken with 2 flat tires, but I thought I had broken both of my thumbs as well. I dreaded all future cobbled sections, but I did learn to ride them well enough to not lose positioning, and respect their ability to shake muscles to exhaustion

So back to Hillsboro. Great weather and feeling good at the start line. I concentrated on conserving energy the first 3 laps, and looking for any threating breaks. I don't really know what happened with me in the last lap but I started to get really tired and found myself tailguning the remnants of the peloton. My legs were cramping and it was hard for me to eat or drink.

With about 5 miles to go I was sitting last wheel and the guy infront of me got gapped and I waited to long to go around him. I couldn't reconnect up a hill into a headwind section and I was toast, just absolutley fried. With my stomach rebelling against me I tried to at least get to the finish line without being caught by anyone else.

It was a rough day in the saddle, and certaintly not the result I was looking for in a race that suited me. I'm not big into assesing blame on my performances, but I do try to look at each race as a process of learning and improvement. So some good things I pulled from this race is that this was the first time that I actually pedalled through leg cramps. I just stayed seated and gutted it out, and eventully they went away. I also know I need I work on my race food and drink selection.

I will look forward to doing this race in the years to come, and hope to see alot more Illinois road races like this in the future.

Im on boat

home, schedule update

2009-03-30T20:38:00.001-07:00

I'm back home in Illinois after 8 great days of riding and racing in the San Marcos/Austin area. It was hot, it was windy and it was full of longhorns. I was just starting to get used to the training and recovery lifestyle that I functioned in last summer, then I got abruptly tossed back into this so called "real" world I keep hearing so much about. I liked the fake world better.

Austin, Texas
Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop
Pretty sweet bike shop, also pretty expensive. I opted to purchase a water bottle. I don't think I'll drink out of it either.

Driveway Series Crit
Fun race on a F-1esque course. Learned to corner fast again which I did minimally last year. Got the cornering courage back. Oh and Colt was a badass; breakaway, for the win.

Belterra Circuit Race
Fast, windy (double meaning) and hilly 2 mile loop, in which I made many mistakes, and too much at the back. Fought and chased hard for a 20th place. With more mistakes now, hopefully will come less later. The key here is to learn and adapt. Once more Colt was a badass; breakaway, for the win.

My schedule is now published, but a work in progress. You will notice many days with multiple races listed, as well as races I am definitely not allowed to enter as an individual. So I'm either a logistical genius, undecided, or in a few instances, very optimistic and hopeful the stars will align for me.

Also, I will be rocking the VQ jersey this summer, but my services are available.

Fayetteville Stage Race

2009-03-25T15:38:00.001-07:00

After arriving in San Antonio 9:30 on Friday night, Colt picked me up from the airport and we drove to his place south of San Marcos. I put the bike together and got to sleep for the 6:30am wake up next morning.

SATURDAY
65 Mile Road Race, Sunny and Warm
After packing up the car, we hit the road for Fayetteville to realize we had the time wrong and the race actually was starting at 10am, not 10:30. We got to the race with 30mins to sign in, suit up and we rolled to the start line with 3 min to spare. It's what I like to call an adrenaline warm up. Race went well, just sat in the group, followed some wheels, and tried to stay hydrated. Everything was well until about 3 miles to go I got some bad cramping in the legs and got dropped like a bad habit. When my leg muscles unseized I was fine and tempoed in with a few others in the grupetto, losing a few mintues.

6.6 Mile Time Trial, Rolling Course
I did this one Mercx style. I felt like I had a real good ride, keeping the power high without overexerting. Legs felt a lot better than they did this morning, and I was happy with my performance. Just another example of the power of aerodymanics is the fact that Colt and I had the exact same Avg Power/Kilogram and his time was 1:20 faster than mine. That's a lot of drag.

SUNDAY
95 Mile Road Race, Foggy
Today went a whole lot better than yesterday. Legs felt great and I just concentrated on drinking and eating a lot. Again I just followed wheels, and didn't make any hard efforts off the front. I had to keep myself in check and think that I have a whole week of training in front of me, and my legs are gonna be sore as it is. As with most races I do, there was a short period of time during the race where I just wanted to give up and roll off the course. But I soon felt better, and was even able to mix it up in the sprint a bit.

Overall great weekend, and feels good to finally kick off the season. Looking forward to a good week of training. The picture at the top is the sweet hotel we stayed at in the town of Fayetteville. The town was essentially one small square lined with old buildings, a very cool place.

2009 kickoff

2009-03-17T20:28:00.001-07:00

My 2009 racing season will begin this coming weekend in Texas. I am going down for a training week with some racing thrown in. I'll be staying at my man Colt's (aka Tex) house in San Marcos, and Wenzel will be there as well. Hopefully the rain holds out so I can get my relaxation on at the river.

I will be updating my schedule soon which will be updated as I progress through the season, but it will be a good representation of the races I will be at this summer. I am very anxious for the season to begin and am looking forward to gaining strength and racing hard.

See everyone on the starting line!

tea vs. coffee

2009-02-22T18:18:00.001-08:00

Cyclists generally prefer coffee. I prefer tea...

Advantages
Easier to make
Quicker to brew
Easier on the stomach
Doesn't turn your teeth colors
Many antioxidants

Similarities
Smells good
Thousands of flavors
Good with other things (honey, milk, sugar, etc)
Drink hot or cold
Caffeinated or Non

What do you prefer? Any other non-coffee drinkers out there?

share the road?

2009-02-09T19:38:00.001-08:00

well this is going to put quite a damper on my main area of training this summer.

and I quote...

"Riding in Barrington Hills

From the Barrington Hills Police Department

During the spring and summer months, large numbers of bicyclists ride throughout the Village of Barrington Hills. A 2008 Barrington Hills Police Department survey indicated that bicyclists were a major concern for members of the community. Large groups of bicyclists frequently occupy entire lanes on roadways and impede the normal flow of traffic. Complaints of bicyclists disobeying stop signs and other rules of the road were also raised in the survey. The Barrington Hills Police Department responds to a number of bicycle related complaints during the spring and summer. In response to these issues and in the interest of public safety for all bicyclists and motorists, the Village of Barrington Hills recently adopted two new ordinances that pertain to bicycles and their safe operation on roadways. The first is the mandate of single file bicycle riding. This ordinance states that persons riding bicycles upon a Village maintained roadway are prohibited from riding side by side and shall only ride single file. The second ordinance is negligent operation of bicycles which states that it shall be unlawful for any person to operate a bicycle upon any public roadway (Village/County/State) in a manner which is negligent or creates a risk of bodily injury or damage to or loss of property. These new ordinances aim to ensure that both bicyclists and motor vehicles can share the roadway in a safe and responsible manner. The Barrington Hills Police Department will be enforcing these ordinances especially during the spring and summer months as the weather gets warmer.
Any requests for additional information on these ordinances may be directed to Officer Sabas Parada at (847) 551-3006"

I have never been big into the rights of cyclists on the road, mainly because I have never been affected to greatly by them. Well I am affected now, and here is my argument with this...

If there are problems in an area with cyclists, runners or even walkers in a neighborhood, why are new laws created that give more power to the cars, and never to the pedestrians/cyclists? If a neighborhood is overcrowded with cars, a city would build and widen roads. But in this case, where there is obviously an abundance of cyclists trying to escape the already crowded roads of suburban Chicago, why would the city not consider building more dedicated bike lanes on these roads, or more bike paths? This is just crazy to me. When I was in Belgium there was almost never a road without a bike lane on it, or a wide bike path right next to the road. Everywhere they had these! You could go anywhere the main roads went, on a bike, and not have to worry about any "mandate of single file bicycle riding." Why can't that be the case here? When do you ever hear about a incident of a cyclist causing a car wreck, yet how many times do cyclists get killed by motorists each year? So until the proper lanes and paths can be constructed to share the road, cyclists have as much right to be on the road as cars do, in the same lane, riding 2 abreast!

Any thoughts from anyone on these rules or how to combat them?

In New York, 70-92% of drivers were at-fault in killing pedestrians and cyclists, but 74% didn't even get a ticket. (RightOfWay.org, 1999*
BUT The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities. (British Medical Association, 1992)*
U.S. cyclists are three more likely to be killed than German cyclists and six times more than Dutch cyclists, whether compared per-trip or per-distance traveled. (Reuters, Aug. 28, 2003, by Maggie Fox)*
Riding on the sidewalk is several more times more dangerous than riding in the street. (William Moritz, 1998) Another study says it's twice as dangerous. (Bicycling Life, 1985-89)*
Streets with bike lanes have a significantly lower crash rate then either major or minor streets without any bicycle facilities (38 and 56% respectively). (William Moritz, 1998)*
Streets with bike lanes are safer than those without. Article also has information about the safety of bike paths. (BicyclingInfo.org, 2004)*

*FACT SHEET - Here's the source of the interesting fact page of motor vehicles killing cyclists, each other, and how American drivers kill more cyclists than European drivers.

picture in the press

2009-02-08T11:49:00.001-08:00

Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy

So this is stolen from Aaron Pool's blog, but I wanted to display it as well. During my time in Belgium I had the honor to ride with some awesome teammates. They were especially accommodating since I was put into a very hard stage race (Liege was my first) with a team that had done many many races together as a solid unit. This takes a lot of trust and patience on their part, while I tried to hold my own and help out as much as I could. I learned a lot, from them as well as the peloton itself, and I hope to be able to apply what I learned to continue my ascension in learning and gaining strength in this sport.

xc skiing on ice

2009-02-06T22:28:00.001-08:00

This past week I went skiing twice on some borrowed skis I got from Rider. Since he is in Seattle for the year, I thought I would put his skis to good use and help change up my winter training.

Since the high on Tuesday was only 15 and the snow on the Illinois and Michigan Canal trail by my house was torn up from all the snowmobiles, I decided to do some canal skiing. This idea came to me when I almost got taken out by one of these trail killing machines. After flying by me, the snowmobiler proceeded to jump his sled from the trail down onto the frozen canal. If he could do it I could too. The snow was thicker on the canal, but it was also undisturbed in large sections which made for slow skiing conditions that got the legs burning very quickly. It was fun cutting my own path atop the frozen surface and I got to explore some runoffs of the canal as well. Though after this weekends thaw I don't think I will be doing this again soon.

Thursday I made my way to the only groomed skiing terrain in the Joliet area at the Woodruff golf course. The local Nordic club grooms a 4k loop on the course which consists of sweeping turns, hard uphills and bridge crossings. The conditions again were not ideal and I fell a couple of times due to the hard packed icy surface. I was doing more sliding than skiing for most of the loop. I know as soon as I get to ski in some better conditions I should be able to get a better uninterrupted workout in. Still it was a fun week of new training.

-Along with YouTube technique videos, thanks for any tips I got from people, they helped in my quest to become a better skier. I am definitely growing more found of this sport and will look to purchase my own gear during the spring sales for next years winter off-season training. Maybe I'll even get into some xc ski races next season?

collegiate cycling

2009-01-23T20:34:00.001-08:00

collegiate cycling

I'm sure many of you have seen/read this article already, but every time I see articles on collegiate cycling it makes me happy. I only had the privilege to compete collegiality for Virginia Tech for one year, but it was a great experience in my life. I had some amazing teammates and trips during the season that I won't forget. I hope that one day cycling can gain enough popularity to be a varsity NCAA sport and get the proper funding and support that the sport deserves.

crash

2009-01-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

No not a cycling crash, even worse, a computer crash. Second time in the last month, I think my 5 year old laptop is trying to tell me something.

So I lost a bunch of good content I was working on, but no worries it will be back soon enough, along with lots of other great stuff!

twitter

2009-01-13T16:57:00.001-08:00

now you can follow me on twitter!

I have added a new feature on the right side toolbar so you can really know what I'm doing at all times.

As long as I update that too…

cross country skiing

2009-01-13T16:55:00.001-08:00

So the holidays are over and I am back in my steady routine of working and riding the trainer after work. FUN! I had a very relaxing 2 week break from work which was awesome. I got to hang out with Kim and my family a lot and also see relatives that I hadn't seen for a year. I also have been writing a lot. Not posting, but writing, so expect to see a slew of posts to come.

At the beginning of break there was a decent snow storm that provided a few good inches of powder. It was a great opportunity to go out for a fun day of cross country skiing. I went with Kim, her friend Lyuda and her parents (who coming from Russia, Lyuda and her parents were naturally adept at this sport, thus far superior at it than me). We went to the Arrowhead golf course in Wheaton which had ski rentals and a nicely groomed golf course. I opted for the skate skiis (see classic versus skate skiing), since the only other time I've been CC skiing I had classic skis, yet I stubbornly still tried to skate on them, which didn't really work. I laced up the boots and was off down the first hill, only to fall flat on my ass in front of everyone in about the first 30 seconds of skiing. Nothing like a good confidence booster from the get go.

I eventually got the hang of it by watching various people and picked up on the proper technique to not look like a flailing idiot. The first things I noticed were…

· Keep the ankles sturdy, they want to go in crazy directions and are the first to get sore

· Spread your legs out further than you think, especially up going up hills

· Use the strap on the poles around your wrists to push forward, don't actually push on the pole with your hand

· Bend the knees slightly, it helps take some pressure off your back

· Don't try to carve your turns like on downhill skis, there is no edge can you will fall (pick up your feet and move the whole ski instead)

Of course I could be correct about some of these things, or completely wrong, these are all observations from one time out. Either way I had a great time doing it and it was one hell of a work out. I think a few more times out and I will be good enough to ski for an extended period of time without getting snow in my boots. Plus it's a great a cross training sport in the off season for cycling. I may invest in a set of skiis during the after winter sales.

the minivan

2008-12-17T07:55:00.001-08:00

For the past 5 years my car of choice (I mean lack of choice) has been a Pontiac minivan. Mostly reserved for soccer moms, this vehicle is extremely under-appreciated. It has helped me move halfway across the country 8 times, 4 years of school in VA, there and back each time. It was the vehicle of choice for college road trips up and down the east-coast, James' van was the selection these times. It has been to countless cycling races over the past 2 years, and housed many different bikes. By removing the back bench I can easily fit 4 bicycles and equipment, all inside the vehicle, thus eliminating the need to leave the bikes outside on the rack or lugging them in and out every time you reach a hotel or house. It was there when I got my first ticket, and second. It is dinged and scratched from the many saddles leaning against it.

Unfortunately, it has also given me some problems, stranding me on the sides of highways watching steam pour from under the hood (sorry guys). Stalling and refusing to start when it was time to drive home from Virginia. But as with any piece of equipment, it will only treat you as well as you treat it, and in the past I haven't been very nice to it. I now realize the unlimited possibilities to this moving machine and am back on course with taking proper care of it. Hopefully it can continue to treat me well for years to come, who knows how many more?

winter training rides

2008-12-16T16:46:00.001-08:00

This past week was some good training, especially since I have been adjusting to dealing with crazy weather and staying sane training inside. Training for running was easier (logistically at least) since there was minimal equipment to train properly no matter where I was. Lately I have been in the car a lot on the weekends, spending time with my family, Kim, or going to cyclocross races (now that is over with). I haven't been spending too much time at my new home in Joliet on the weekends, but it's great during the week. Which, by the way, the house is working out wonderful with a nice space to train in the basement, I'll have to include some pictures later of my set up, it's sweet. Cycling is different, since obviously you need the bike, trainer (if riding inside), tools (if i can't fix it, I can't ride), a lot more clothes, helmet shoes etc... So on the weekends my van is usually packed with stuff, I don't know what I would do without it (more on the many benefits of my minivan later).

So here is some exciting news. It was finally a bit warmer this past weekend to ride outside, but even better, I had training partners, and even better, one of them was fellow Illinoisan Christian Vandevelde. Last week at the VQ holiday party he was a guest speaker and I introduced myself before the night was up. Myself and a couple more of his friends/acquaintances met at his house in Lemont on Saturday morning for a chilly 3.5hr ride around the Lemont/Joliet Area. It felt good to get outside again and to finally get in a longer ride. I think the last time I rode outside on my road bike was the Crit at Univest. I'm not gonna lie, I was so used to the cyclocross bike that the road bike felt weird the first few minutes. After we got out onto the open rodes the wind picked up and it got colder, but overall it was a great ride. (We even threw in a bit of a leg opener, led out by CV, which felt great).

Hopefully the weather on coming weekends will be good enough to do the ride a few more times. Hours go by so much faster with people to talk to, it was nice.

what a weekend

2008-12-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

Quick recap…

Nov 23^rd. Woodstock Cross race. I got cocky again and raced with the 1-2s. I failed miserably, again. This was my pain face the whole race.

Nov 26^th. I partied like I was turning 23

Thanksgiving I ate a lot of good food.

Nov 29 weekend. No racing just training outside in the frigidness.

This past weekend December 6-7…

Saturday I went down to ISU to watch Kim run the 800 in her first indoor meet of the season. She ran away from the competition (pun), winning her race and looking good doing it. I also played in the snow on 2 wheels before Kim’s race to get ready for tomorrow, it was fun. That night we drove north to go to the annual VQ holiday dinner at the brand new Highland park facility. It was a very impressive training center/bike shop. It was also a mini-museum with many signed jerseys from Lance (one of the few places that actually was 7 signed yellow jerseys from each year). There was also numerous bikes on display that had been ridden in the tour by various Postal Service/Discovery riders. The food was great and the entertainment was a lot of fun. My dad won a raffle prize of a personalized voicemail message and bike ride with the one and only BOB ROLL! Ha I can’t wait for that, I am definitely going to tag along. Christian Vandevelde was there, as well as other Olympians, some from the para-olympics. Hearing their stories was very neat.

Sunday was the Illinois state Cyclocross Championships at Montrose Harbor in lovely downtown Chicago (practically on the beach of lake Michigan.) It was 15 degrees and the ground was covered with snow. If any race does not suit me, this is it. But I went into it knowing I was going to lay it all on the line, or hurt myself trying (hell, if I fall it’s just in snow). I got off to a great start, taking the hole shot and carrying the lead through most of lap one. I let a few people pass me and hung tough in 3^rd place for most of the race. The hard part came when we started lapping a lot of the field and I kept having to pass people at really bad times. I fell once early on and lost a place or two but quickly gained it back. I got a break when the 2^nd place rider got a mechanical and I moved into 2nd with about 4 to go. With about 3 to go I fell bad on a steep downhill and hit the pavement pretty hard. I regained my composure, but my gap from 3^rd place was almost gone. The last lap I was too timid and the 3^rd place rider caught me taking a corner to slow. I stayed on his wheel in hopes of outsprinting him but there was no traction for my back wheel in the ice/snow combination. I would have to settle for 3^rd place, but overall I am still very happy with my result. It always stings a bit when you know you were so close to a better result, but I got over it.

It was a long and exhausting weekend that wrapped up my 2^nd season as a Cyclocross racer, but I enjoyed my immensely and cannot wait for next year!

Ps. Some exciting news to come about plans for summer 2009.

mud and sand

2008-11-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

The cliché title to any Cyclocross recap.

11.9.08 Northbrook

Cold and muddy with the entire course off-camber. An exaggeration of course, but I did really bad. I got a decent start like I wanted too, but proceeded to lose it all mid way through the first lap. This was an extremely hard course with mud, 2 killer stair run ups and 180 turns down a sled hill. I spent the proceeding hour trying to get a decent workout in, but found that I couldn’t even make my legs burn before I felt my tires slipping from under me. 20 of 21 people, ouch.

11.16.08, Lansing

Downgrade time. Not literally since I am still actually a category 3 in Cyclocross. I have just been choosing to do the 1/2/3 races with the strategy that if I was thrown in the deep end I would be forced to learn to swim. Well I need some confidence back, and I need to realize my limitations. I did just fine in the 3s race this past weekend coming in 4^th place on a substantially less technical course. I was in 2^nd place through lap 1 but had a bit of a mishap through the sand pit on lap two which pushed me back to 8^th. The rest of the race I just clawed my way back into the top 5. One year ago I did this race while home for thanksgiving break and I took 4^th place as well. A least I’m not getting worse!

Things I miss so far this winter…

Virginia weather.

Training in Virginia weather.

Training in daylight.

Riding up and down mountains.

bartlett and recyclocross

2008-11-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

The past 2 weekends I have raced in 2 very different Cyclocross venues. Two Sundays ago I competed in the 1/2/3 Bartlett cross race, which is part of the Chicago series. The course was very flat and fast, with one run up and a triple barrier section. Two things made this race an especially challenging one. The flatness really played a factor in the speed, so I felt like I was constantly at full throttle. Also the weather was crazy, with winds blowing steadily at 20+mph with gusts over 30. There were times I felt like I was going to get blown over. Again my start and first few laps were lacking, which caused me to get too comfortable early on. When those big gaps open up between groups early, it is almost impossible to gain time back. My goal this weekend will be to dig hard in the first 2 laps to set myself up for an hour of suffering on someone’s wheel that is faster than me. The result was ok, with an 11^th place finish, one better than the first Chicago race, maybe top 10 next time?? I am getting stronger each race though as I am learning how to be a better cross racer, as well as just getting more fit. When I set my goals for the winter I emphasized to myself that I wanted to have a strong showing in cross racing, but I did not want to put an emphasis on it. Meaning it is considered added fitness for me, not my in-season sport. But I do find it more fun with each race and wanting to someday become very competitive in it!

This past Halloween weekend I went down to Illinois State to visit Kim and celebrate the holiday. It just so happened that a friend of a friend was putting on a small cross race at a wood recycling facility. It was a different but fun experience. Definitely not your traditional cross course, being there was no pavement and much of the course was more comparable to mountain bike single track riding. It was super technical, and super hard, with several run ups over mulch mounds that were like a stair steppers from hell. I took a few small wrong turns since the course was just marked by small flags, but after I got the hang of the laps I got into a good rhythm. There was on other guy there that was lighting it up. He is actually a fellow VQer, specializing in triathlons. For a tri guy I would have to say he had great handling skills, and he deserved the win. Post race we were treated to some homemade chili and beer, which really rounded out the unusually warm fall day. Great weekend.

bicycle tech

2008-10-28T09:48:00.001-07:00

I thought the following articles on bicycle tech were interesting. I hope you do too.

I really could have used a pair of these nike sunglasses in Belgium while negotiating the elbow to elbow racing, they need to put these to market. Which reminds me, Colt told me a story about someone that actually put little mirrors inside the lower corner of his glasses to see people on his sides without having to turn is head and potentially crashing into the guy infront that has suddenly deceided to slam on the brakes. And these would certainly be alot cooler looking for those people that wear the rear view mirror attached to their sunglasses, those are just funny.

Hindsight Cyclist Glasses Are Eyes in The Back of Your Head, Kinda [Road Safety]

from Gizmodo by Kit Eaton

The Nike Hindsight cyclist's glasses from designer Billy May (we loved his Torn lights before) are designed to do one simple thing: stop cyclists from getting hurt on the roads. At the extended side of each lens is a carefully arranged high-power Fresnel lens that captures the view to the sides of the wearer's head, and sends it into the peripheral vision.

That's the bit of your eyesight that doesn't capture too much detail but does excellently at detecting motion...so the extra data hopefully wouldn't be too distracting. Essentially its a clever way of augmenting your normal checking of the road, and avoiding being side-swiped by a fast-moving vehicle that was sitting outside your normal vision zones.

Simple and blindingly obvious, when you think about it... and could have potential uses in all sorts of places. I know it'd help with my skiing... or at least would've helped me avoid that dumb snowboarder who knocked me flat last year when he wasn't watching where he was going. Hopefully it's a concept that'll be a reality soon.

and this is just sweet, maybe a winter project on an old bike...

DIY SpokePOV System Lights Up Your Bike in Support for Obama [LEDs]

from Gizmodo by Sean Fallon

Past generations decked out their bike spokes with playing cards, this generation is doing it with LEDs. One of the best examples so far comes from a Flickr user that utilized six SpokePOV kits to turn his bicycle wheel into a stunning, illuminated Obama logo. If you would like to do a little campaigning of your own, all of the .dat files necessary to reproduce the effect are available on Aneel's Flickr site. Naturally, you can customize it to endorse whichever candidate you choose. Either way, it definitely makes a statement. [Aneel's Flickr Page via Make via Likecool]

cross, work

2008-10-21T19:12:00.001-07:00

The past few weeks have been very busy for me. Here is what I have been up too.

First weekend in October I had a cross race in Dekalb, as a part of the Chicago Cyclocross Series. It was bad conditions for me to kick off my season as it was raining and very slippery. I fell about a half dozen times and I was quickly very far out the back. It was fun though and I look forward to improving with each race I do as a good supplement to my normal training.

I started work last week for Caterpillar with a 3 day orientation in Peoria, which is the world Headquarters. I am starting as a new hire engineer in the Engineering Rotational Development Program (ERDP). It is basically a crash course in real world engineering which will take 15 months. I will do 4 rotations in different locations across the US in different fields of engineering as well as one elective outside of engineering. It is a good way to learn a lot about the company and gain contacts. Hopefully by the end of the program I will have a good idea as to what I want to do with my engineering degree with Caterpillar and it will be a good fit somewhere. I have been busy filling out a lot of paperwork and learning the ropes, but so far so good.

This past weekend I went to St. Louis with Kim to visit her sister and new husband. They live just outside the city so it was a perfect chance to take a road trip, and see a new city. St Louis was a neat ‘small’ big city. The arch was pretty cool, though we didn’t have time to take the elevator ride to the top. The day we went site-seeing in the city, Obama was in town for a rally. Even though I remember watching the news the night before, I totally forgot about it the next day when we were driving into the city and I noticed about 100,000 people (literally, it was a record breaking audience) standing under the arch. Miraculously we still had no problem finding a cheap 4 dollar parking space about a 5min walk from the rally. That would never happen in Chicago! We could tell from the masses of people walking in the opposite direction as us that we missed the speech, but we still wanted to check it out. We waited awhile outside a tent that Obama apparently went into after he spoke, but after 30 minutes of twiddling our thumbs he slipped out the back and was whisked away. Sneaky bastard!

Sunday I found a cross race in St. Louis so I thought it would be fun to do before heading out of town. Kim and her sister came to watch the 45 minutes of fun, which was actually kinda fun, minus the puking at the end. It was a good course for me, fast and rolling hills with minimal hard technical sections. I need to start better in these races, since I can get into a groove fairly quickly, but I need to be with the right people from the start. I think I was about 11^th of 20-25 people at the finish. I was lapped by 2 guys right at end, and they were flying! I even think this race was a bit more competitive than the first Chicago Series race that I did. Either way it was a good time and a good workout.

(the picture above is from the first race in Dekalb)

2008 season

2008-10-06T15:48:00.001-07:00

First, I wanted to explain the reasoning for the new blog space is because I changed my email address and was tired of signing in as a different user every time I wanted to update. So now I am all under one account on Google and it’s all seamlessly interconnected, and I love it. Now all I need is one of these and I’ll be set.

2008 Season Recap.

In all I competed in 45 races this season, which is about double from my short, first, 2007 season. I started in late February with a successful inaugural collegiate campaign with several wins and top 3s, placing 2^nd for the overall individual ACC title. Of course conceding to my former teammate Steven Gordon bike racer (just kidding he earned it). Early May I left for Belgium to learn how to really race my bike, and that I did. I competed in 17 races, ending with the 5-day, 6-stage Tour of Liege which was definitely the pinnacle of my trip and also my cycling career thus far. Racing in Belgium taught me how to ride fast and smart. The lessons learned there will help me as I progress as a cyclist. I traveled back home in late July to compete in a handful of races in the States ranging from local crits, to national championships to stage racing. I was all over the lower 48 from California to Vermont, which is one reason racing in the states is a lot more difficult than in Belgium (where you can ride to most races). My season ended at Univest, which was my first experience to professional racing in the United States. The road race was almost identical to a Belgium UCI race and I was drawing upon lessons learned from my 9 weeks overseas. Unfortunately I punctured 7 miles in and my race was over. I did get to finish the crit the next day, which was my last race of the season.

Over the past 6 months of racing I gained knowledge, strength, friends and a new found respect for the sport of bicycle racing and those who do it. I am looking towards the future to see how far I can progress in this sport, and at what costs. Not only to me, but to my friends, family and girlfriend. I love racing my bicycle, just like I loved running, but above all I love competing. The thrill of winning, the feeling of being in good shape and the indirect ability to make others around you hurt without ever laying a finger on them is what often times drives me. The life lesson I have learned about sports and training, after more than 11 years of competing, is self-betterment. I finished reading Again to Carthage, the sequel to Once a Runner, while on the plane over to Belgium, and one particular paragraph struck me as it explained this feeling.

“When you are a competitive runner (cyclist, or any athlete at that) in training you are constantly in a process of ascending.

That’s it.

It’s a simple idea, but the more I thought about it, the more profound it became to me.

It’s not something most human beings would give a moment of consideration to, that’s it is actually possible to be living for years in a state of constant betterment. To consider that you are better today than you were yesterday or a year ago, and that you will be better still tomorrow or next week or at tournament time your senior year. That if you are doing it right you are an organism constantly evolving toward some agreed-upon approximation of excellence. Wouldn’t that be at least one definition of a spiritual state.”

And it is one definition of a spiritual state in my life. Which is why as long as I can continue my ascension to self-betterment, in cycling, and in every aspect of my life, I will strive for more and continue to work hard.

Now time for some of this…

GMSR and UNIVEST

2008-09-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sep 8, 2008

UNIVEST

My First Pro race in the United States did not go as I would have hoped, but nonetheless I learned a lot and had a bit of fun. I am happy to be on a much deserved break from bike racing now, which my body needs big-time!

The weekend did not start very well when the plane on Thursday to Philly was delayed, then cancelled and rebooked, resulting in a 5 hour late arrival time of 2am. At least I got here.

Friday: More bad luck when I went out on a pre-race ride and got a flat tire 3 miles into the ride. I did not have the correct tube with me either because I was using some loaner race wheels which needed a tube with an 80mm stem. So I had to cut the ride short and head for the bike shop to pick up some spares (at $15 apiece for 80mm stem tubes!!)

Saturday, Road Race: I was feeling good despite the cloudy and muggy weather. The rain was holding out at the starting line, but not for long as Hurricane Hannah was quickly approaching. It was pretty exciting to see both Owen Nielsen and Ben King on the starting line (2 fellow Hokie Teammates), with the dual Jumbotrons and Helicopters buzzing ahead providing live TV coverage. The race started out very aggressive and fast and I felt like I was once again racing in Belgium in a single day UCI. I was handling everything with ease though and the legs were responding well. The rain was starting to fall and 7 miles in my rear tire goes flat. I radio to Bernard and I get a spare right away. Unfortunately due to my anxiousness and Bernard’s lack of a mechanic (he was the mechanic) the wheel was not put correctly and was rubbing big time. I had to stop and get push it into place and proceed. At this point we were way behind the peloton and the caravan. I motor paced for a couple of miles, but my aggressiveness to make up time coupled with the rain soaked roads caused me to slide out around a corner. I got up and jumped back on but now my saddle was pointing about 20 degrees in the wrong direction. I got back on the bumper of the car and gave it my all but it was not to be. I had a close call at an intersection as well since we were outside of the police escort and I came to an intersection at full speed to see cars zipping by in both directions. I slammed on the brakes and slide out before the intersection but slide into the 4 way crossing. Luckily there were no more approaching cars, but my race was over. Peter and David made it to the circuit despite the arduous course with hurricane like weather, and Steven got 12^th place overall, with a 3^rd place sprint in the second chase group.

Sunday, Criterium: Completely opposite weather conditions today. Not a cloud in the sky and in the 80s. The course wasn’t too terribly technical, but a crit with 120+ riders is difficult in its own right. I started middle of the pack and worked my way towards the front, but couldn’t manage to maintain my position. My lack of criteriums this season has caused me to be slow around corners and not efficient in advancing my position. I also lost one of my bottles in the first couple laps, so I was with only one for the 2 hours of hot riding. The last 5 laps were fast and my legs were twitching big-time. With 2 to go I couldn’t hold the pace up the long uphill finishing straightaway. I cruised in the last 2 laps to finish my last race of the season.

I will have a season recap to come…

Posted by xcmcvey at 23:34 0 comments

Sep 3, 2008

green mtn stage race

I returned from the 4 day Green Mountain Stage race yesterday and had a great time doing it. I flew out last Wednesday because of a cheaper flight and spent the night in Burlington with my Dad. The next morning I went for an easy ride we picked up my mom from the airport and made our way to Waitsfield, VT. It was about an hour drive from Burlington and the countryside reminded me a lot of rural area surrounding Blacksburg. Big rolling mountains full of green trees in all directions. We arrived at the house we had rented for the next 4 nights and it was perfect. Huge kitchen and plenty of sleeping room complete with garage and a repair stand for bike maintenance. Peter, Steven and David arrived later that day and scoped out the TT course for the next day.

Prologue (5.7 mile ITT): Went OK, but I wish I had a bit more energy in the last 1k. It was a fairly hard course with a decent climb starting the course, to a rolling middle section and a steep pitch into a mild grade for the last 500meters. I went out hard to as planned to gain as much time as I could on the uphill. It was a bit too hard since I was really feeling it at the end. I ended up with a 14:37,good for 37^th place and 50 seconds behind the leader. Steven took 3^rd with Peter and David about 10 and 20 seconds ahead of me.

Stage 1 (64 mile circuit race): Felt great all day and got into a big break of 25 in the second lap. We were working fairly well together and I thought for sure we would stay away. We got caught with about 10 miles to go and so I just sat in and conserved in preparation for tomorrow’s mush harder stage. Still about 37^th in GC.

Stage 2 (74 mile Road Race):

It was the climbers day and I was feeling pretty good. I was a

bit aggressive at the very beginning, as was almost everybody. Eventually a break of 16 stayed up the road, and we would not catch them until just before the last climb. I was getting a bit nervous that they were not going to come back to the group, but Friodifrutta was chasing hard and made sure the field started the last climb as one. I started the final 6k a bit too far back and had to make up some positions quickly. I was still feeling good but as the gradient increased I was really regretting that I did not have anything less than a 23, and my legs were hurting big time due to the slow turnover. The final 500m was an extremely tough pitch (advertised at 20%, probably less), and I couldn’t get my speed up to finish a few places higher. 21^st on the stage was a decent effort and it moved me into the top 20 in GC.

Stage 3 (31 mile Crit): Probably my worst race ever. I don’t know what was wrong but my legs had absolutely no acceleration in them. Right from the gun I was getting passed by a never ending line of riders and I couldn’t manage to hold anyone’s wheel. I felt slow through the corners and slow up the hill on the finishing stretch. I’m not really sure what happened but all I know is that this race was over for me as soon as it started. I got pulled with a small group 15 laps in and was given a prorated time of 4 minutes back. This dropped me down to 40^th in GC. I was pretty bummed since I felt really good all 3 days prior and one bad day at the end ruined it.

Overall I got good training from this and I feel a lot stronger after this race than I did going in. It’s the last boost I needed going into UNIVEST this weekend. I hope to ride hard and smart on Saturday in the road race and see what happens. I have nothing to lose in a race like this and everything to gain.

Posted by xcmcvey at 20:18 1 comments

reid beloni said...

Hey nice bike. I guess you're riding with JBCA in the states too. Those guys did really well here at Tour of PA.

back in the USA

2008-08-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Aug 26, 2008

illinois state rr

This past weekend was the Tour of Oak Brook, which was also dubbed as the official state road race championships. With decent prize money and a shot at the Illinois state title, I thought that the numbers would have been a lot higher than the 30 people that showed up for the race. The course was great; a short but challenging 3 mile loop in Oak Brook with 2 small hills on the backside that certainly wore people out after 20+ laps. I started the race with one teammate, Dave Sachs, which is one more than I usually have so that was a plus. We decided to take turns being aggressive, which we were right from the gun. Trading turns attacking the field and trying to get in breaks that would stick for about the first 5-6 laps. Finally there was one that did stay away, but it wasn’t on my go, but rather Dave’s. Seeing that those 8 guys were the race I made a solo move off the front of the field where I was finally not chased down. Eventually 4 guys bridged up including Chad Hartley of Jittery Joe’s. The 5 of us worked together to slowly bring the gap down to the break of 8. Chad and I were taking most of the pulls, with Chad taking the longest and hardest pulls to bring the break back. We dropped 1 guy, then another, to go into the last 4 laps with just 3 of us. We had the break within 10 seconds but they saw us and gunned it. Coming into the final lap I was dead tired with no pop in the legs. I knew Chad was going to make a move sometime, and when he did on the backside up the first hill I, I gave it my all to stay on his wheel but couldn’t. I had nothing and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sprint much either. I tried to shake the last guy 2 times in the final stretch but he came around me in the end for 10^th and I got 11^th. It was a great workout for me, super tough racing even though I would have liked to have been in the break of 8. Lessoned learned today was that I was too aggressive too early when everyone was still fresh. I wanted to be super aggressive today, which I was, but I need to wait a bit longer and not make too many moves when everyone in the field is still able to pull everything back early on.

I am leavening for Vermont tomorrow to compete in the 4 day Green Mountain Stage Race with the guys I raced with in Belgium in the Tour of Liege. I will then be home for 2 days and then fly to Philadelphia for the 2 day UNIVEST race in Souderton. I will then take a much needed break since I have been racing since February and will have competed in 50 races since my season started.

I have bottle grabbing skillz

Posted by xcmcvey at 21:34 1 comments

E said...

Yeah work is going well. I just got back from a 10 day orientation crash course in. Oak brook,IL. Oddly enough I left the day before you raced there. I'm back in the DC area now and just got put on a shadowing assignment that will last for a few months. I believe Mr Owen Nielsen will be moving in next week. I'm getting pretty bored haha. Ill be going to some football games at Tech this fall as well. Are you going to make any trips? Heck ill even go to the home mountain bike race

September 2, 2008 8:12 PM

Aug 17, 2008

crit national championships

Today went well. Until 3 laps to go when some dude wiped out in front of me causing a giant traffic jam and ruining my race. I did not go down but I got stuck in a pile up and was boxed in so I couldn’t try and chase down the peloton. It was too late once I got rolling again and my race was over only 3 laps from the finish. I had decent position all day, staying in the top 40 of the 160man field (which is almost too many people for a crit in my opinion). I even took a flyer off the front to test out the ole legs in the middle of the race. And they felt ok for a little, but then I got tired and decided that was dumb and regrouped in the pack. I even had a whole support crew out today consisting of girlfriend and mom, family, and some friends and neighbors. I wanted to show my face a bit which kind of explains the lap off the front. I have gotten my crit skills back after a summer of almost no hard cornering. I feel completely comfortable again taking turns at high speeds and holding my own in the fast paced action of criterium racing. Luckily for me I only have at max, 2 more crits this season and the rest are road races, so I’m happy about that. Next weekend is the Illinois state road race and I’m actually very excited about it. I would like to do well and have 2 good weeks of training before heading out to Vermont for Green Mountain.

I also got to see Reid and Owen and John Delong today which was cool. Owen had a good race in the pro crit, tail-gunning as usual until the last few laps. (* 14th place! congrats!)

Posted by xcmcvey at 23:30 0 comments

Aug 12, 2008

elite nationals

After much relaxing and recuperating in northern Wisconsin with my girlfriend Kim her family at a Lake resort, I was ready to make my way West for the national Championships.

Sunday was a long and grueling day. Most of this was due to the fact that I was not in top form and it was very hot conditions. I was correct in my pre-race prediction that I would be at about 80% going into the race today, which is exactly what I felt like. That being said, I loved the course which I thought was both challenging and very fast. There were 2 climbs per 33km loop that while shallow, were enough to tear the peloton apart lap by lap. The whole race was in the big ring and I could have used an 11 on many of the flat and downhill sections.

They changed the race from the original 3x55km loops to a 6x33km loop thus increasing the distance by 33km. This would be the longest race I had ever done by almost 20km, and with the heat I knew I was going to have eat a lot and stay very hydrated. On the starting line the officials also surprised us with a rule that if at any time a break got 3mins up the road, they would pull everyone that wasn't within the 3mins when they came through the start/finish. Their excuse was because they wouldn't be able to keep cars out of the race if the time gap got this big, which is complete crap and completely unfair to the race, especially to just tell this to us sitting on the starting line. Luckily when a break of about 20 did get away in lap 2, the peloton recognized the fact they needed to keep them within reach or everyone's day would be over. They stayed within the 3 minutes the entire race, and at the end there were 14 guys still off the front and I was sitting in the peloton with the remaining 47 riders. I had been battling minor muscle cramps and stomach problems all race with many ups and downs with how I felt. At my weakest I almost was popped on the 3^rd to last hill but was able to grit it out and hold on to the last wheel in the field. Coming into the last lap the peloton recognized we were not going to catch anyone else and the pace eased. The final 5km I was feeling great, and concentrated on staying in the saddle and drinking for fear of a full on cramp. My pack riding skills have gotten so much better after racing in Belgium that it was almost fun at how easy it was to position myself perfectly for the sprint finish. The finish suited me well with a small uphill grade over the last 500meters to the finish. I knew it was going to be a tough sprint with the way my legs were feeling so I just wanted to stay in the saddle as long as possible and hold on in the middle of the field. Unfortunately when I really started to stomp on the pedals both of my hamstrings completely locked up and I was the last finisher in the field. It is the worst feeling to make it that far and be so close to have no control over your legs in the last sprint. It was unfortunate, but I was still really happy I held on as long as I did and I am stronger coming out of this race.

California was a great time, I got to see my old roommate Zach (aka Spanish) and his brother who showed my Mom and I around Hollywood. Also got to see Disneyland and Manhattan Beach which was the host to the national Lifeguard competition which was neat to watch. It was a fun trip for sure.

Pictures to come…

Posted by xcmcvey at 20:08 1 comments

E said...

haha sweet lifeguard competitions eh? do you know if any virginia beach kids were there? those are really fun to watch and they attract some pretty decent girls. my broski and i did the two man rescue and i think we placed in the top 10 in 2003. hope all is well dude.

August 31, 2008 9:15 AM

Aug 7, 2008

back home and busy

I have been home for a little more than 2 weeks now and I have been very busy. I took a week off, after a very hard finale in the Tour of Liege, with no training (minus a 5mile run which turned into a 10 miler after getting lost in the woods).

After a few days home i went out to Philly for Dave Atkiss' Wedding, and it was a really good time. I got see a lot of my friends from school, many of whom I hadn't seen in quite a long time. The wedding was great, lots of dancing and drinking, and the next day was just as good. The after party was at Dave's parents house, eating and drinking and hanging out in the pool and hot tub.

When I returned it was back to training. I had a great week, which included one day of motorpacing with Jason. My legs felt great and I was really anxious to race again. The first race back in the states would be the Elgin Criterium. 60 minutes of good ole' American bike racing.

The race started out fine, and my legs were feeling 100%. My plan going into the race was to lay low for the first half and then try to be more aggressive the second. This strategy changed once I got to the race and realized there was only about 30 racers, and the payout went 20 deep. There was also a team with 5 guys there, so I knew they were going to try something early. I changed my plan to try and get in an early break with one of these guys, and hopefully take some primes on my way to a top 5 finish for major bank. Well i was just a bit too aggressive and about 12 minutes in, I came around the only hard corner of the race which was a downhill, off-camber chicane. Very sketchy. I came into the corner second wheel, and my front tire lost traction and turned sideways on me, hurling me into a front flip over my handlebars, landing on my side and back. I rolled quickly to look back uphill to see how many people I was going to have to dodge, but luckily no behind me hit me. I got up and the medics were standing right there. I was pretty messed up, cutting up my elbow, hip and ankle pretty bad. My whole right side hurt a lot. My race was over but I was more pissed that I have many more important races coming up like Nationals in CA, and Downers.

This week I took it really easy, trying to heal and get my range of motion back, which thankfully I did. I leave for CA tomorrow for the Road Race National Championships and I should be about 80% come race time on Sunday.

Posted by xcmcvey at 23:45 1 comments

Kimmy said...

What did you do to rest this past week?

end of belgium trip

2008-07-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Jul 23, 2008

liege stage six

the last 5 posts were written on the road during the tour of liege

I write to you from a hotel room near the Brussels airport, waiting for my AM flight home. Today was a grueling pain-fest which took down more than half the field, I think only 60-70 people finished today. The peloton shattered into a hundred pieces very early in the race, and the freezing rain did not help the situation. The climbing was hard and the descents were very technical and wet. The course was very similar to the Romsee-Stavelot race I did, so I knew what to expect on a lot of the climbs. Peter and I did all we could to help Steven back to the field, but eventually I got dropped after some motorpacing and had to ride the rest of the way in the broom wagon, but thankfully Steven made it back to retain his Polka Dots, claiming the king of the mountains for the 2008 Tour of the Province of Liege. Jim was the star today getting into the early break, being the hardman that he is, finished top 25 I believe. I am off to bed now, I am dead tired and need some sleep.

Overall I am pleased with my performances this week. I think the team did a great job and worked very well together. I learned a lot from everyone as to how to properly survive a stage race and I not only survived, but I feel I did my part in helping the team. As the days went on, each stage got harder and harder, yet I seemed to do better and better. It hurt more each day, but I learned how to deal with the stress and hard racing to continue to fulfill my responsibilities.

I will write more about my whole experience after I return to the states, but one thing I can say for sure is that I gained a lot of strength and knowledge. I look forward to racing the European peloton again soon.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:01 0 comments

liege stage four and five

We started off the day very early, waking up at about 6:30am. I was extremely tired from yesterday’s effort and the one less hour of sleep did not do well for me. I was really tired all the way to the start of the race and my legs just felt really heavy. I was lucky that today was only 90km because I was feeling bad. After only about 10km the road started going up, and didn’t stop for about 17km. As hard it as it was for me at this point I knew that my best bet was to do whatever work I could early in the race, since I didn’t think I would have much left for the end to help out. There was already a break of about 15 guys up the road so I made my way to the front and set tempo. This was actually easier for me because I didn’t have to deal with all of the hard accelerations I was feeling in the back. I set a hard tempo for the last bit of the climb to help bring back the break. We got close but they stayed off the front over the top into the decent and didn’t get close to the peloton again until the last local lap. I chilled in the middle of the pack for awhile recovering from my effort when Dave came up and asked how I felt, which was still pretty bad. He pulled me to the front and both of us helped set a fast pace with a group of other riders, including the team of the yellow jersey. We were pulling super hard and when we hit the next big climb where I moved from the front all the way to the rear of the peloton trying to recover and climb at the same time. Luckily I got over the top still in the group and focused on staying in the there with hopes of being able to help later on. The second to last local lap was extremely fast and it took every last bit of energy I had in my legs to stay on the wheel in front of me. I felt like I could give it one more go at the front since the break was back in sight. I tried to move Dave to the front as well as anyone else I saw on the way up, but the pace was so fast, there was no way to get up without taking crazy risks. I sat in until the finish, where unfortunately Steven took a minor spill about 50 meters to the line. He was OK, and everyone

The 9km TT was my first ever on a real TT rig and as much as I rode it the weeks prior, I still felt uneasy and wobbly on it. I lost most of my time in the corners and tried to make up whatever I could on the straights and hills, but the course was too short for any mistakes. I finished with a respectable time, and even though I was dead afterwards, I had the feeling of wanting to tackle it again because I know I can do better.

The time trial is one discipline where I have not had a lot of experience in, mainly because the lack of races and my lack of a TT bike. With that being said I also think this discipline can be one of my greatest strengths and I look forward to greatly improving my TT skills, along with my TT bike (which right now is nonexistent).

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:00 0 comments

liege stage three

Another very hard day with a lot of hard climbing. There were about 6 in total with many more non-categorized, including the last 500 meters into the finish that we had to do twice. Peter got into an early break of about 14 where he took points in the mountain classification to help secure Steven’s standings. They stayed away all day, eventually gaining about 35-40 people after the Mur, (THE hardest climb I have done ever, with up to 20% for stretches of a couple hundred meters.) I got into a chase group of about 30 people right before the Mur, and I was very glad I did not have to tackle this beast with a mass of people around me. After this climb Jim and Steven’s group caught up to ours and Jim and I did whatever we could to help set tempo at the front for Steven to limit his loses in GC. The local laps were killer, with Jim and I rotating to keep the pace high. Unfortunately going into the last lap I got dropped on the climb to the start/finish. I managed to claw my way back onto the tail end of the peloton, but the accelerations were too much for me and I got dropped again. I soft pedaled the last 5km into the line to conserve as much energy as I could for tomorrow. The day went as planned, and hopefully Steven’s big point lead in the Polka Dot Jersey will stick until Monday. With three stages left, including the TT, we will help Steven close the time gap to first.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:00 0 comments

liege stage two

Today was one of the hardest races I have ever done. After 4 climbs all within the first 50km it was rolling roads to the local laps. The first feed zone of the day was the crucial section because almost immediately after it there was a nasty crosswind section were 44 guys got off the front. Going into this feed I missed the first 2 bottles and had to slow up to make sure I received the 3^rd. I then had to dig far into my reserves to hold the wheel in front of me as it got strung out single file for a few kilometers in a heavy cross wind. There was an echelon at the front keeping the speed high, so being in the line behind it was that much harder. I could see the break group ahead echeloning it out and gaining time on the peloton almost immediately, and unfortunately Steven was the only one to make it. He ended up taking the yellow today along with the blue points jersey and the polka dot jersey he already had. Tomorrow will be a very hard climbing day and we will do whatever we can to give Steven as much help as possible leading into the time trial and the final stage on Monday.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:00 0 comments

liege stage one

So far so good. After an aggressive first 25 km, Aaron Pool and Steven got into a break that stayed away all day with Steven taking the climbers jersey. I finished in the peloton with a few groups getting away in the last lap to gain a few seconds. I had good legs going into the final laps and tried to go with one of the small groups, but it ended up being way to much work for no gain. I finished in the main peloton about 5 minutes back of the stage winner, in 92^nd place.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:00 0 comments

Jul 20, 2008

liege stage 4 and 5

another day down, one to go. legs were really heavy today, but i was
still able to do work for the team which i think helped open them up a
bit. the TT was rough, i think i finished in the middle somewhere.

i will have full updates of the tour stages tomorrow when i dont have
to type on my phone..

Posted by xcmcvey at 15:21 0 comments

Jul 19, 2008

tour of liege stage 3

really tough day, with lots of hard climbing. peter got in the early
break which stayed away and the rest of helped steven as much as we
could. he still has the polka dots but no longr is in yellow.
tomorrow will be key going into the last stage on monday.

Posted by xcmcvey at 12:32 0 comments

Jul 18, 2008

tour of liege

so far everything is going well. steven is in 3 different jerseys
despite the rest of us missing a crucial break in a nasty crosswind
section. there is no internet here so updates will be limited. we
will try to help steven out as mush as possible in the coming stages
before the tt on sunday afternoon.

Posted by xcmcvey at 14:14 0 comments

Jul 16, 2008

tour of liege

Tomorrow I leave for a 6 stage 5 day race in the Liege, which is Wallonia, a southern province of Belgium. This will also be the end of my stay in Belgium, as I am getting dropped off at the Brussels airport on the way home from the race on Monday the 21^st. I will try to update the blog as much as possible with pictures, video, results and recaps of the stages, but I’m not sure how much internet access we will have. Here is the race website with stage info.

wish me luck

Posted by xcmcvey at 14:55 0 comments

Jul 14, 2008

rendevous

I had a rest day that I spent in Bruges and was able to meet Jess Fanning who stopped by to see the city before making her way to Amsterdam. I also met up with Steven and Owen, when after missing our first meeting time, happened upon each other at the main square. We got to catch up on the racing that we have been doing, and I will have to say that they really hit the ground running when they got here and are doing extremely well. After having a couple of beverages at the local bar, we sat at a café and watched a great stage of the tour. It was really good to see some familiar faces today and crazy to think how far from home we are at the same time.

In other news, I got my Cat 1 upgrade! I was surprised and very happy to see the request go through, since I wasn’t sure if my lack of domestic races this season was going to be a problem. I spent a lot of time on a good resume, which I think helped, along with some coach’s letters of recommendation. I have almost finalized plans to head out to California for the Elite Men’s Road Race National Championship. I will also be able to compete in the Elite Crit national championships in Downers Grove as well. I hope to finish off the season strong at home to give my resume some more substance for the start of the season next year.

It was a great rest day indeed.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:15 2 comments

Kimmy said...

Can you please add RSS feed to your blog...I want to add you to google reader.

July 14, 2008 10:16 PM

Tim Ciarkowski said...

Congrats man!

July 14, 2008 11:27 PM

Jul 12, 2008

visitors and schedule

So apparently this week a good portion of the normal Blacksburg cycling crew will be in Gent, racing, training and site-seeing. I hope to see as many people as possible before I leave for my last racing on the 17th.

On another note I have almost finalized the rest of my racing schedule for when I return to the States. Although a few race plans are on hold until I find out if my convincing of some people at USA cycling worked, that yes, Belgium racing is harder than a Cat 2 race back home, can I be upgraded now to compete at nationals!?

Posted by xcmcvey at 02:56 0 comments

Jul 10, 2008

back to back, 2

Monday July 7^th: UCI 1.12 SCHAAL SCHOETERS - BEVEREN, 171km (148 km - 1 x 84 km + 8 x 8 km), flat and fast

Today was another UCI with the guys that did not race the previous day. The course was a bit shorter, which helps a lot both mentally and physically. Every kilometer over 100 gets a little bit harder, so 30km less in a race is a big deal. I was also happy that the local laps came a lot earlier in this race at 84km, versus not until the 150km mark (the total length of the race today). My main focus was positioning and conserving energy. I did well at the second part, but unfortunately there was a big cross wind section that a group of 50 guys got away in during the main lap. The crazy thing about races over here is that there are so many people in the race, and if you are not in the top 30 at all times, you don’t even notice 50 guys rolling off the front, it’s mind blowing. So that was a big mistake, but there was a lot of racing left to make the best of.

We hit the local laps with our whole team still intact and the work began here. I stayed in the top 20 almost the entire time, trying some moves with riders that looked like would get away from the peloton. After a bit of this I realized it wasn’t working, so I took it easy and recovered. With a little more than 4 laps of the 8km loop left, Scott Wenzel got away with a group of 5 that stuck. I saw this and went to the front where Christophe was there already covering moves. There was some exchange of words between some Belgian riders and Christophe, which later he told me they were complaining about Americans not pulling through. (It’s pretty awesome to race with Christophe since he is from Belgium, riding in an American kit, so any shit talk in Flemish about Americans, he hears it.) Christophe then made a move and made sure I was on his wheel. We attacked hard for awhile and noticed that no one was following us (so they talked shit, and then didn’t come with us). We traded pulls and I could tell he was hurting a bit. I was feeling great at this point so I just took the lead and kept a steady hard tempo, making sure Christophe kept on my wheel. I focused on closing the gap to the chase as fast as I could without going to much into the red zone. I managed to catch the 5 right after a turn, which gave Scott a lot of relief to have 2 more teammates in the chase with him. We had 3 laps to go of hard rotating to stay away from the peloton. The first 2 went ok, but by the 3^rd, and final lap of the race, I was cooked big time. I made every effort to stay with the chase but I had nothing left. I gave Scott one last push in a cross wind section because we were both drifting off the back. I was seeing stars at this point and I just focused on keeping my speed up to not get caught. It was pouring down rain and I was by myself to fight for the last 3 km. The combination of my exhaustion, the rain and a new rear wheel and tire I was running caused me to slide out around a corner and cut up my knuckles pretty bad. I felt like such an idiot. I slowly got back up and tried to get back to up speed but I saw another small group coming fast. The overtook me very quickly and there was no way I could catch on to the rear. I made it to the line with no more incidents and without getting passed by anymore people , but that little mistake cost me 10 positions at least. Cold, wet and hungry I made my way to the showers to clean yet another set of fresh wounds and get some dry clothes.

Overall I am happy with my last 2 days, but I know I can do better still. This was also in preparation for a 5 day stage race I am doing in the Ardennes July 17^th-21^st as my last racing here. I will be leaving for home the day after the race ends.

Posted by xcmcvey at 04:27 1 comments

Kimmy said...

Hey that was my b-day!

July 13, 2008 6:45 PM

Jul 9, 2008

back to back, 1

The last 2 days I have raced my bike over 200 miles and 7 hours in 2 UCI races with some reasonable results. Here is what went down.

Sunday July 6^th: UCI 1.2 DE DRIE ZUSTERSTEDEN - WILLEBROEK (A), 186,9 km - 154.9 km + 4 x 8 km, flat and fast

Today was a 1.2 in Willebroek with the guys that did the Tour of Pennsylvania race. It was their first race back in Belgium, and my first race in the past week. It started off relatively smooth with high speeds. I was doing my best to follow around the guys on the team that are seasoned at negotiating the peloton here. It is amazing how smoothly and easy they seem to float through the crowd of riders as they make their way to the front. I am getting better at it myself, but I know I still have much to improve upon in this avenue of the sport. I had a scary run-in with the pavement about 30-40km into the race that immediately brought back some bad déjà-vu from the previous weekend. A rider directly in front of me hit the infamous Belgian crack, which was coated in tar in the center of the road, taking his bike out from under him. I slammed on the brakes but I knew I was going to hit him. I did a semi roll-crash onto my right side (last wreck was the left), but quickly got up and hopped back on the bike. Fortunately I had good position it the peloton at this point so by the time I got up, got on the bike and got back up to speed, there were still riders coming past me for me to rejoin the race. This is another very important reason why being at the front makes all the difference in the world. Further into the race there was a break of 26 off the front with a smaller chase and we had several guys in that. I was in the peloton using too much energy at the front and decided I needed to cool it a bit before the local laps began. There was also one more small incident when some riders in front of me braked hard, and I grabbed too much rear brake. I slide into the guy in front of me as people were running into me from the rear, but I stayed upright and put a foot down only for a second.

The local laps did not come until 154km into the race and by this time I think the peloton was together again. I was feeling the effects of the last 3 hours and my legs were cramping big time. I got popped from the peloton just before the local laps, but with the help of Bernard with the 6^th team car position, I used the caravan to regain contact. The first local lap I wasn’t so luckily. Single file with strong tailwind, I got popped off the back and that was the end for me. I tried to stay in the caravan for awhile but I had nothing. I was a bit disappointed that I was a mere 20km from finishing, but also optimistic that I had just raced for 4 hours, the longest I had done before, and was close to finishing.

Posted by xcmcvey at 04:14 0 comments

Jul 8, 2008

fourth of July

This is a bit late, but I thought I would recap what went down here on the 4^th.

The day started with a house competition to see who could make the best pancake. There were multiple entries, including last year’s champ Aaron Pool. Trent and I had decided to team up for better odds, but towards the end we had both invested a lot of time in our own concoctions so we separated and made 2 entries. I pretty much just looked up a recipe for banana pancakes on the internet and tried that. I topped it off with some klop klop (basically whip cream), and a strawberry. Although they were delicious, and did look pretty spectacular, I did not win the competition. Instead I created one big mess in the kitchen.

I went for an easy 2 hour ride in the afternoon with Colt and Scott which consisted of glorious soft pedaling.

In the afternoon I stopped by the butcher, baker and corner store to make a grand meal for dinner. Trent bought some charcoal a few days back so we got the grill up and running and I made 2 cheeseburgers and a fantastic chicken kabob. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, while listening to a marching band (completely unrelated to it being the 4^th) march around town for awhile. The day ended by sitting in a nearby park with some of the guys enjoying the great weather.

Much racing to come…

Posted by xcmcvey at 04:50 0 comments

Jul 2, 2008

media update

I have updated a few albums, most notably belgium cycling version2, and a couple more stolen pictures in the paris album. Here are some sneak peaks.

Posted by xcmcvey at 03:46 0 comments

Jul 1, 2008

belgium nationals

For my rest day after Het Volk, I got to go to the coastal city Knokke to watch the Belgium National Championships and hang out. Christophe and his girlfriend picked 6 of us up at the house at 10am and we were off for a day of fun.

We arrived in time to see inscription, the media frenzy and the riders rollout for their 260km jaunt around a 13km loop, 20 times. The first 2 hours were spent store hopping, eating and renting crazy bicycles built for 6. We returned to the finish stretch to watch the remaining 100km on the jumbo TV, watching the riders come by each lap. The end of the race was packed with fans who were all very disappointed because their idol Tom Boonen, despite the coke, did not take the win. I thought it was a good finish, minus the crash in the last 300 meters.

For dinner Christophe made reservations for us at a super authentic Italian restaurant. The food was amazing, and although I have had many great pizzas in my day, this one would rank in the top 3 for sure. We finished with some after dinner drinks and dessert before dividing up the hefty bill (the 40euros for water did not help), and heading home to catch the end of Spain winning the Eurocup. Now that was a good rest day.

Posted by xcmcvey at 04:24 1 comments

Tim Ciarkowski said...

40 euros for water! You should have just stuck with beer.

July 1, 2008 6:15 PM

belgium in june

2008-06-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Jun 30, 2008

omloop het volk

2 days ago I raced in the amateur version of Het Volk, which is a professional semi-classic race in Spring. I loved the course, I was feeling fantastic and 70km into the race I was in the main peloton sitting near the front.

Thank God for helmets.

We approached a traffic divider, one of many in the race, with the police officer standing in front of it waving a flag and blowing a whistle. The rider directly in front of me could not make up his mind which way to go around, and the next thing I knew he was running into the flag waver at full speed, simultaneously taking me out with him. I can remember seeing him hit the officer and then feeling the back of my head slamming the pavement. I was stunned for a second and sat there hoping no one else was going to hit me. I slowly got up to examine the damage. My leg really hurt and I had a few scraps but overall I was OK. I waited for the team car to arrive (number 29, the last one in the caravan), while I tried to get my drive train untangled. When the car arrived I got a new bike and started my hopeless chase. I got some help from the team car’s slipstream as long as they could and I managed to regain contact with the end of the caravan. I navigated the caravan better this time, but any straightaway section they would zoom ahead and leave me in the dust. My day was over 80km into the race.

I was frustrated that I had such good legs, good position and then to be taken out by someone else's stupid move. But hey, that’s bike racing.

Posted by xcmcvey at 05:22 0 comments

Jun 27, 2008

bad luck?

I have raced 2 times since my return from Amsterdam, but unfortunately have run into some bad luck. Now I say it’s bad luck, but it was not entirely lucks fault that my last 2 races have ended only 20km into the race. I enjoy the saying ,“You create your own luck”, but I have also found that, “You create your own bad luck,” as well.

The first was a kermesse last Sunday in a town called Oostrozebeke about 30km south of the house. After a good warm up ride to the race, signing in, and a bit of mayhem at the start line I was off and racing. Legs felt good, position was getting better every lap and the course was great. About 2 laps in I heard a noise from my back wheel, like metal hitting on metal. I looked back and realized that my back skewer, although in a locked position, was extremely lose and the wheel was jumping around in the dropouts over every bump and crack in the road. After swearing several times in my head and wondering what the hell I was going to do, I finally decided that just trying to keep both wheels in contact with the pavement so my wheel wouldn’t come out was not a viable solution. I took a big pull as far up to the front as I could in prep for a speedy fix. I veered onto the shoulder and hit the brakes, jumped off the bike, tightened the skewer and jumped back on ready to chase. I had waited till the head wind section to give myself at least a fighting chance and chased hard for about a minute, but to no avail. The group was within a stone’s throw, but I couldn’t make up the gap before the tail wind section and they were gone. I did a few more laps and helped feed the remaining rider in the pack. I’m just glad I noticed the problem and didn’t kill myself by losing a wheel over a bump or something. The thing I can’t fathom is how my skewer got so lose, but still in a locked position. I did an hour warm up ride to the race with no problems but as soon as I started it was loose. As much as I would like to come up with some great conspiracy stories, I just need to be attentive and check my brakes and skewers at the start line (which I usually do, go figure). While watching the race from the sideline I got to chat with a new American team in town called the Collegiate All-stars. They are over here for a month in a rented house racing kermesses. It was cool to talk with them a bit, and hopefully I will we will cross paths again before their stay is up.

Wednesday I did a UCI 1.2 called IWT. I was pumped to redeem myself from the previous mishap but today was not my day as well. I had a great starting spot on the line and tried to maintain my position near the front. I could tell I was ever so slowly creeping towards the back, but didn’t realize how far back I really was until 20km into the race. Unfortunately my timing is impeccable because right at the 20km mark there was a big pile up at the base of a false flat and I had to lock up the wheels. I didn’t go down but I had to cyclocross my way over bodies and tangled frames before jumping back on my bike in completely the wrong gear. This of course caused my chain to fall off but I managed to pedal it onto the big ring and begin my chase. I was stuck in no man’s land, and if mistake number one was being too far back when the crash happened, mistake number 2 was trying to chase back on solo. I tried this for a few minutes until I gave up to let the group behind me catch up. I barely caught on the back end of them and they pulled me to the rear of the now single file peloton. I was the last guy in line and struggling to hold on. I did hold on, but 5 guys in front of me was a different story; gap opens and you all know where the story goes from here. I spent the next 20km riding in between cars in the caravan, but was so spent from the previous effort I could not manage to leapfrog my way back to the peloton. Mistake number 3 was in the caravan, which I now know how to navigate correctly. What you don’t do is move through the caravan quickly overtaking multiple cars at once. The correct way is to overtake one car at time, fully recover, then repeat. Until finally you have moved to the front of the caravan and have enough energy to bridge the gap to the back of the peloton. I still got in 3 hours of training, and my eagerness for redemption has increase even further.

On another note, the team in Tour of Pennsylvania is doing amazing with Belgian rider Steven Van Vooren still in the leader’s jersey. Good luck also to VT riders Eric Chrabot and Ben King who are competing for their respective teams.

Posted by xcmcvey at 04:15 0 comments

Jun 21, 2008

amsterdam

I spent my rest day after the UCI race in Amsterdam with my Dad and his English colleague Richard, who were in for business. Amsterdam is a 4 hour trip by train from Bruges with one connection in Antwerp, so getting there is not too bad. I got to catch up on some reading and also some napping.

I arrived at Schipol airport to meet them, and then we were off to rent bikes and explore the city. I am almost certainly convinced now that the best way to see any city in Europe is by bicycle, hands down, especially Amsterdam. With over 1 million bicycles for a population of 750,000 we certainly fit right in with the locals riding around on 2 wheels. Amsterdam is a very simple city to navigate once you understand that it is basically semi-circular canals that branch outward from central station. There are many bike lanes and the cars are very forgiving of the bike traffic. Although you do have to keep your head on a swivel to ensure you don’t crash into random curbs or fellow bike commuters. We saw the royal palace, some old churches, new churches (not actually new, just called new) and churches in attics (very neat). The royal palace square was filled with walkers and street performers, a lively place indeed.

After riding for a few hours we found a nice café at the side of a canal for a beer and some snacks. It was relaxing to just sit and watch the canal boats cruise by the overlooking Dutch style houses. After some more riding on the cruisers my dad suggested we eat at an Indonesian restaurant we saw earlier in the day. It was a great idea because the food was amazing. I will definitely be trying out more Indonesian restaurants in the future. We were all stuffed, and the timing was great because we had canal tour tickets for 9pm. We rode back to central station, locked the bikes, and boarded our canal bout. It lasted for 2 hours and included wine and cheese, which of course I capitalized on both. Seeing the city from the water was a great experience and a total different vantage point which I thoroughly enjoyed. After the boat ride we took a night stroll into the red light district. It was very interesting and a bit surreal. The ominous glow of the red lights coupled with eerie silence of the night made the experience seem very strange. Some of the smaller streets were no wider than 2 people, packed with tourists walking in opposite directions to see what was on display. The crazy thing is that you can be walking down packed streets with women in windows and then turn the corner to a magnificent looking church right in the middle of the district; ironic. After our stroll around town we grabbed a quick beer at an English style pub before hailing a cab back to the hotel for some sleep.

I arose the next morning feeling rejuvenated from a great night’s sleep, and ready to see a few more sights before I headed home. I said my goodbyes to my Dad and Richard and took the metro from the airport to central station. Unfortunately it was raining, but it didn’t seem to faze anyone riding about the streets. I wanted to find a nice bike lock from the flea market, but it was 50 Euros too expensive for me. I did learn some things about bike locks and flea market shopping from the dealers, who were very interesting to talk too. It was also pretty crazy to see many of them casually puffing on joints at 9:30 in the morning. I wanted to get back to the house at a reasonable hour so I made my back to the to return my bike and catch the 10:56 train home. It was a great trip and an amazing city, I look forward to visiting the city again.

(The picture below was my favorite, and explained the feeling of the red light district at night. The glow of the red window light can be seen at the left)

Posted by xcmcvey at 15:26 0 comments

Jun 20, 2008

romsee-stavelot-romsee

I found the results for Romsee, 48 finishers of the 186 starters, Steven took 8th. It also had an awesome movie of the race taken from the back of a moto. At 2:53 I can been seen on one of the many climbs of the day. Kinda hard to miss the american flag kit.

enjoy!

Posted by xcmcvey at 03:24 1 comments

John Zaccone said...

What is that bike your riding?

June 21, 2008 7:00 PM

Jun 19, 2008

the ardennes

Tuesday was a UCI 1.12 in the Ardennes in a town called Romsee. The Ardennes is a mountain range in the French Speaking Wallonia region of Southern Belgium which also goes into Luxembourg and Germany and France. It reminds me a lot of the Appalchians that I trained on for the last 4 years at school, almost a feeling of déjà vu. It was an extremely challenging race but also one that has suited me the best since my Belgium racing experience has begun. It was a 176km race, with 3 local laps of around 12km each at the end. The race started fairly well but due to a last minute bathroom stop before the start, I had to spend the first 30 minutes working my way to the front of the bunch. As easy as this sounds, ‘just move to the front’, it is an extremely daunting task that requires experience and knowledge of the European peloton. I am slowly learning the ways to advance and put myself in the safer region of the top 40 without risk of crashing myself or others. I felt extremely well today and the first climbs came and went without much strain to myself, or anyone around me. The first decent was a bit scary, but all the descending skills I have learned while riding in and around Blacksburg came right back. The hardest part was actually on the flat section directly after the first descent when it got strung out single file for a few kilometers before hitting the next climb. Unfortunately about 50km into the race there was a pretty bad crash at the front, on an uphill nonetheless, that took out our whole team except for me and Steven (Belgian rider). I wasn’t at the front when this happened, so I guess my bad positioning at this point paid off, though usually this is not the case. I got around and chased the tail end of the remaining riders back to the peloton. There was a pretty major climb not long after that absolutely exploded the peloton, and even though I was climbing very well, I was not far enough up at the start of the climb to make the break. I was almost at my limit on this 10 minute climb, and it could be one of the higher power averages I have had on a climb (340 watts for over 10minutes, 1.5hrs into the race). Over the top a small chase group formed and we chased for awhile, getting passed by some of the caravan, and working our way out again to another group. At this point our race was pretty much over since the lead riders were already up the road, and we did not have the manpower to reel them back in. It was pretty much a 30 man group ride the last 40-50km back to the local laps. I still got in a hard 4hrs, and Steven ended up 9^th overall (maybe 50-60 finishers of the total start of around 180). The other guys in the crash were not able to rejoin due to bad communication by the commissar to our team car, and them having to wait forever to get new bikes/wheels. I am pleased with today, but I know I am capable of a better finish in a race such as this. I look forward to the next time racing in the hilly Ardennes.

(picture above is stolen, but it fully explains the terrain)

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:04 0 comments

Jun 14, 2008

third times a charm

So this has been a great week indeed.

Wednesday my mom got into town and it was really awesome to see her. She got a hotel in Bruges which was right off the main market, very nice. Also that same day Rider and Liz got into town and met us at the hotel. They are in the middle of their expedition throughout Europe, so being able to meet up with them was pretty exciting. I showed everybody around Bruges, complete with a canal tour and Belgium beer.

The next day we drove into Gent to do some more sightseeing. Despite the terrible weather, cold and rainy all day, we still had a great time in and I would love to go back again when the weather is nicer. You could feel the different atmosphere of a college town in Gent versus Bruges, but both are very similar.

Friday I went for a pre-race ride in the morning and hung out with Rider and Liz one last time in Bruges before my Mom and I dropped them off at the train station. Their next stop is Berlin, followed by a couple of Eastern European cities before working their way west again. I am a bit jealous of all the cities they are getting to experience, but hopefully one day I will be able to do a backpacking trip like that.

So today was my third UCI, a 1.12 in Moorsele, and I finally finished! It was a 12laps x 12km each. The day started off very wet and overcast, but the rain held off on the start line. During the race we had clouds, then bad rain and then the sun came out for the finale. I felt very good, and I made sure to be in constant state of bettering my position in the pack. As hard as it is to stay near the front, it does make a world of difference, especially not having to deal with all of the greater accelerations at the back. I am very pleased that so far I have improved in every race I have competed in so far, and I hope to continue with my progression. My Mom took some great pictures today and I will have some posted in the near future.

Until then.

Here is a cool picture, Bruges by night. Also included, my mom and I with the skyline of Gent in the background.

Posted by xcmcvey at 16:05 2 comments

The General said...

congrats mcvey, kick some ass in the next one. Looks like your learning quuickly.

June 19, 2008 12:59 AM

Steven Gordon said...

thats awsome man. can't wait to be over there!

June 19, 2008 1:32 PM

Jun 10, 2008

le paris

I had a rest day on Monday from the UCI race last Sunday, so Luca, Colt and I took a day and half to see the City of Love. It was a fabulous time, and we got to see a lot of the major attractions. The Louvre (Mona Lisa was sweet), Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower were all very amazing. The city overall was completely fascinating and It made me want to learn some French and live there for a couple of months to really experience Paris from the inside, versus as tourists just skimming the surface. The highlight of the night was the fat tire bike tour we took from 7pm to 11:30, which we got to ride around on beach cruisers and see the city the right way. Towards the end of the tour we locked up the bikes and boarded a 1 hour boat ride on the River Seine. The buildings and the Tower were all brilliantly lit and of course my camera ran out of batteries at this opportune time. On the boat our tour guide served wine which I gladly consumed a few glasses. The night ended with a stop at the crepe stand for a midnight snack and off to the hotel for some sleep. It was a great trip which is hard to explain in more than these few words. I will leave the rest up to the visual aids.

Paris in 1000 words.

Posted by xcmcvey at 15:47 1 comments

Juan Miguel said...

Ha! I did the fat tire bike tour when I was studying in Spain last summer and took a weekend trip to Paris. There were only about 4 of us on the tour that drank the free wine they gave us on the boat so I got pretty toasted. Good luck with the rest of your racing in Europe.

Michael Wilson

Jun 8, 2008

uci 1.2

Sunday June 8^th: UCI 1.2 VANCONINGSLOO – TOPCOMPETITIE in Wavre, 177,7 km - 104,2 km + 5 x 14,7 km, some steep climbs and rough cobble sections

Today was round 2 for UCI racing, and this time I went down swinging. I lasted 130km of the 177km course, getting pulled with 3 local laps to go. The main reason for this was because there was about a 4km of really rough cobbles in the local laps and it would get strung out here a lot since the gutter was paved and everyone was riding there. I went into this section to deep in the pack, and when I emerged I saw a big group way out in front. I tried to make a last ditch effort to bridge up to them (they ended up only being the chase group anyway), and I worked Christophe (Belgian CC rider) to regain contact, but it was too big of a gap. Before we knew it we were surrounded by team cars going bumper surfing. The energy was good today even though I ran into some bad luck in the first 1.5 hr. I lost a bottle in the first 20 minutes in a downhill cobble section, and the first feed wasn’t until 55k in. I don’t know what happened but I ended up missing both bottle feeds from our soigneurs, so now I don’t have any bottles. And without water it is almost impossible to east because your mouth dries up so fast trying to chew on a powerbar. Luckily Christophe made it back to the team car and stocked up on bottles and brought them back to the group. I got 2 from him and was back in business. I was making a very good effort to stay as far up in the peloton as I could manage and it did make it significantly easier, and more stress free. It paid off too because there was a crash at about 50km and it happened just in front and to the right of me. I was able to zigzag my way through the ever-growing pileup before more riders started the snowball process into the mass of tangled bikes and bodies. This really saved me since a lot of the guys on the team had to chase back to the peloton.

Overall I was pleased with my performance, and especially happy that by really focusing on my diet and hydration this week, I did not cramp up during the race. I was also able to eat and drink much easier today as well. I think I have a good system down about how to consume gels, bars and water in the most efficient and safe way possible.

I am off to Paris tomorrow for my rest day, and I will be back on Tuesday afternoon. Luca and I are staying with his uncle who fly’s with American airlines. We will be doing a pretty neat bike tour in the city, should be a good time.

I hear the ice cream under the Eiffel Tower is good, we’ll see.

Posted by xcmcvey at 15:26 2 comments

Arrietta Clauss said...

Great ride. You seem to be getting the hang of it. What are your speeds? Are you monitoring your power? Would love to know.

June 10, 2008 11:49 AM

xcmcvey said...

average speed is 26mph, avg power is 214. This is over 83 miles, 3hrs of racing. The avg power is actually lower than some of my collegiate racing, becasue sitting in the peloton is very low power, but the accelerations are very high and very frequent.

June 14, 2008 2:59 AM

Jun 3, 2008

lactate testing

After the race on Sunday I did a lactate test at the doctor’s office. It consisted of a lactate threshold test, followed by a 3min all out test.

The lactate test was on a SRM machine, which dials in at a certain power and you just pedal. So the slower you pedal the more tension, and the faster you pedal the less tension, but it stays at the same power. You start at 100watts, and then work up 50watts every 3 minutes. Each segment I got my ear pricked with a small needle and drop of blood is analyzed in a lactate tester to read how much lactic acid is in my blood in millimoles. You go for as long as you can pedal, and it hurts like hell at the end. I lasted 21:34 which was 34 seconds into the 450watt segment. After looking at the graph print out which relates heart rate, lactate, and power you can get an accurate indication of when your body starts to produce lactic acid. From this info I can get my proper training zones to train at to increase my endurance and lactate threshold.

I then had to do a 3 min all out test right after which analyzed my peak-power and 3min power. This is pretty hard after such a big effort from the lactate test, and it hurt even more.

I did treat myself with some nice pastries afterwards, so it was worth it.

I also updated some pictures in my Bruges album, since today was another rest day and I took another trip into town.

**For those who wanted numbers, here they are...
Lactate Threshold is at 331 watts, essentially the power when the lactate reaches 4 millimoles. The graph is below. Top line is HR (left scale in BPM), Bottom line is Lactic acid (right scale in mMol), bottom scale is time and power. (need to click on it to enlarge the image)

Posted by xcmcvey at 13:20 3 comments

Steven Gordon said...

dude. what was your LT?

June 4, 2008 9:36 AM

Tim Ciarkowski said...

yeah man. numbers. let's see some numbers.

June 4, 2008 12:11 PM

Tim Ciarkowski said...

Big Watts!

June 4, 2008 3:29 PM

Jun 2, 2008

(un)lucky number 13

Sunday June 1st: UCI 1.12 in Laarne, 171km (1x116km, 5x11km laps), steep climbs and 8km of cobbles

Yesterday was the first time I was exposed to real road racing, European style. It was a UCI 1.12 in Laarne and it was legit. Our team consisted of 8 guys, 7 American riders and one Belgian rider. The night before our mechanic (Fellow CC rider Alex) took our saddle heights and pedal types to set up the spare bikes for the team car. The bikes were packed up the night before and I got my new team kit for the race. It was about a 45 minute drive to the course, which we arrived at 3 hrs before the race was scheduled to start, at 1:05pm. When we arrived we sat around while the staff unpacked the bikes and got the bottles ready. About 2 hours beforehand we went to the kleedkamers (essentially a gymnasium with a bunch of chairs for sitting and changing) to change and relax some more. After a quick leg rubdown from the soigneurs we saddled up for a 30min warm up. Unfortunately on the way to the inscription (sign-in), Luca took an endo over the bars and roughed up his shoulder and ankle a bit. Luckily it was minimal damage and he was OK for the start.

There were about 180 riders at the start when the neutral 1 km roll-out, which I have been told was the most civilized neutral start any of the other guys have experienced. After the neutral start the racing began and it was fast speeds on open roads. The hard part did not come until the 4km cobbled section, to a steep uphill, then the feed-zone. I got my bottles fine and then it got real hard when people were still trying to feed on a wide open section with high speeds and gaps were starting to open. The peloton was still together at this point and I was just focusing on staying hydrated and eating.

The second time through the cobbles and the uphill’s was a bit tougher. It wasn’t these sections that were the hard part though, it was the stretch of road directly after where it would get strung out single file and it was super hard to hold the guys wheel in front of you. At this point there were lots of gaps opening in the field and the peloton exploded. I was too far back and ended up in one of many chase groups to get back into the mix. There were some pretty hard pulls in small groups and I was starting to feel the work in my legs. My muscles were twitching and I tried to drink as much as I could, but it was too little too late and I had a full on cramp and my left hamstring locked up big time. I was dropped and I got picked up in the broom wagon (a bus that rolls behind the peloton and picks up dropped riders) for a lift back to the local laps.

I lasted 90km of the 170km race. Overall my energy level was good, but my placement in the pack sucked and I still need to be eating a drinking a bit more. I researched some things about preventing cramps and I need to focus on increasing my salt, potassium and water intake, on a daily basis. Placement is key in races such as this because when you get stuck at the back you almost work twice as much closing gaps and feeling the effects of the elastic snap. (Picture the peloton as an elastic band, and when you stretch the front it amplifies as it works its way to the riders in the back, and when there is 180 riders, that’s a lot of unnecessary energy spent. If it snaps, that’s a break in the group, if it doesn’t break then you work really hard strung out single file in the gutter).

I race again next weekend in another UCI, so I have a lot to work on. I am excited to give it another go and hope to improve.

Some other notes…

 The motorbike referees are crazy and honk like hell to get through the peloton up to the next obstacle in the rode to mark it by standing and waving a flag in front of it.

 Once back in the caravan of cars it’s a free for all drafting behind them and trying to make it back to the pack.

 The Belgian Rider on our team, Christophe, was the only finisher for us, out of the 100 who made it, he took 39^th.

 I saw a team car flat because he was trying to drive half in the road half on the sidewalk around the group.

 Eating is really hard at high speeds and breathing hard, and it’s quite dangerous with hands off the brakes for any extended amount of time.

 Belgium racers will literally ride over anything to get around people. This includes on sidewalks, over embankments and through gas stations and car dealerships during corners.

 The upside-down 13 was to help ward off bad luck, unfortunately it didn’t really work.

Posted by xcmcvey at 14:16 1 comments

E said...

welkom to euro trash

June 6, 2008 9:51 PM