Sorry I never finished my updating from Fitchburg, it really wasn't all that eventful. The road race was hard and the crit was kinda hard and I finished in the overall, 70th or something like that. Not necessarily something to put on the top of the resume, but I think it's going to be really good for my fitness. After a 6AM flight and a 175 dollar charge to fly my bike, I made it back to my own bed for the first time in 3 weeks. I put another medium-hard week of training in this week so that I could get a nice big block including F-burg. The legs aren't so snappy, but with a little recovery I should be in good shape.
Now I'm hanging out at Mark Swartzendruber's house in Champaign, IL for the weekend for two new races on the calendar, with some pretty healthy purses too. Yesterday was the first of two crits and our team brought four guys out to try to get some results. The pre-reg wasn't very big, so we thought there field might not be too tough and we could put 4 in the top 5 (just kidding). Turns out Texas Roadhouse had the same idea. On top of 6 or 7 Roadhouse, there were a few ABD guys and that Webcor guy from Dairyland. I think his name is Ryan Parnes, butt hhe's really strong and I believe may have won a race or two up there. Aaaanyway, the racing was pretty aggressive because everyone was looking for the break to go early, but everyone wanted to be in it. Lots of promising moves went and came back until a big group of 10 or so got away, and a few others even bridged up later. The break was huge and the field pretty much shut down. We had me and Vince in the move, TRH had 3 guys including Puffer, Parnes made it, Jeff Schroetlin from ABD was there, so it had some pretty good horse power. There were a few late race attacks that were aimed at splitting the break up, but nothing worked until we got the bell. A guy from IS Corp attacked through the start/finish and it was basically full gas from there. That caused a split of 6 of us and Vince was there too. Coming through the last corner, Puffer tried to take a line that wasn't really there and pretty much t-boned Ryan Parnes and took out Vince in the process. I had my back wheel locked up and was in full Tokyo Drift to avoid the bike and bodies that were flying. Schroetlin and I had to pretty much start our sprint from a stop and I ended up second and Jeff was third. The IS Corp guy got through the corner without any real obstruction and took the win. Chris and Derek took 2nd and 3rd in the field sprint, but it sure would have been nice to keep Vince upright and have another guy in the top 5, but as they say, that's bike racing. I think everyone is feeling pretty good for today, so hopefully we can get off this damn 2nd place streak the team is on.
Check ya later.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
A Must Read for Naive Americans
Aaron Hubbell already posted THIS, but I felt like you guys should read it too. Enjoy.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Fitchburg TT and Circuit Race
Sorry for the delay in updates from Fitchburg, it's been raining everyday out here, so most of our would be down time has turned into bike cleaning and clothes cleaning and shoe drying time.
So let's back up a few days. Greg and I got out here on Tuesday night, to our host Steve Roszko's house. Wednesday we rode the TT course 3 times in the rain to try to get a feel for it. Thursday was the TT, a 9 mile out and back with some pretty good rollers. For those of you Bloomington peeps, very similar to the Forrest TT, only bigger rollers. Anyway, I rode hard, but just couldn't really ever get my effort level down. I was always going too hard or too easy trying to recover from my going too hard. My time wasn't very good, but I didn't have too high of expectations either. I'm just happy to be out here racing in the big races again.
Yesterday was a 75 mile circuit race on a 3 mile loop. The loop had a pretty steep climb that took about 1 min or so to get over. So we did the climb 25 times and it definitely took its toll on the field. The race was all about positioning, because after the climb the course continued on a false flat for another mile or so. That's where all the carnage happened. People would open gaps and if you were too far back, that was it.
170 people started the race, and I think something like 70-80 finished in the lead group. People started getting dropped pretty early and I was still hanging around in the front group late in the race. Colavita came to the front with 4 to go to help Bissel chase the break and that's when I really started to feel the burn. I got dumped off the back with a lap and a half to go and rode in with some of the other groups that were scattered all over the road. I finished a half lap down, but wasn't sure where that put me because there were people everywhere, some 2 and 3 laps down. I'm sure getting results sorted out was a nightmare. It really sucks to come unglued from the field so late in the race, but I really had nothing left in my legs. Oh, I almost forgot. I crashed again! Some fools stacked it up right in front of me at the base of the climb on the second lap. So I'm watching the field ride away from me on the climb as I'm sitting there kicking at my pedal thinking this might be the end of my race. Luckily I got back on after a few minutes of sprinting. I was definitely breathing through my eyes after that one though.
So that's about all that's been going on our here bike racing wise. Steve has been an awesome host and his kids have been pretty hilarious. His 2.5 year old son Broadie told me he was going to pee on me and his almost 6 year old son Oscar stuffed a giant meat ball in his mouth and insisted on showing me his progress after every chew. His kids are great, but like Steve said it would be, staying with them is definitely good birth control.
110 mile RR starts in about 1.5 hours. This update brought to you from my mobile telephone... This time I wasn't driving though.
So let's back up a few days. Greg and I got out here on Tuesday night, to our host Steve Roszko's house. Wednesday we rode the TT course 3 times in the rain to try to get a feel for it. Thursday was the TT, a 9 mile out and back with some pretty good rollers. For those of you Bloomington peeps, very similar to the Forrest TT, only bigger rollers. Anyway, I rode hard, but just couldn't really ever get my effort level down. I was always going too hard or too easy trying to recover from my going too hard. My time wasn't very good, but I didn't have too high of expectations either. I'm just happy to be out here racing in the big races again.
Yesterday was a 75 mile circuit race on a 3 mile loop. The loop had a pretty steep climb that took about 1 min or so to get over. So we did the climb 25 times and it definitely took its toll on the field. The race was all about positioning, because after the climb the course continued on a false flat for another mile or so. That's where all the carnage happened. People would open gaps and if you were too far back, that was it.
170 people started the race, and I think something like 70-80 finished in the lead group. People started getting dropped pretty early and I was still hanging around in the front group late in the race. Colavita came to the front with 4 to go to help Bissel chase the break and that's when I really started to feel the burn. I got dumped off the back with a lap and a half to go and rode in with some of the other groups that were scattered all over the road. I finished a half lap down, but wasn't sure where that put me because there were people everywhere, some 2 and 3 laps down. I'm sure getting results sorted out was a nightmare. It really sucks to come unglued from the field so late in the race, but I really had nothing left in my legs. Oh, I almost forgot. I crashed again! Some fools stacked it up right in front of me at the base of the climb on the second lap. So I'm watching the field ride away from me on the climb as I'm sitting there kicking at my pedal thinking this might be the end of my race. Luckily I got back on after a few minutes of sprinting. I was definitely breathing through my eyes after that one though.
So that's about all that's been going on our here bike racing wise. Steve has been an awesome host and his kids have been pretty hilarious. His 2.5 year old son Broadie told me he was going to pee on me and his almost 6 year old son Oscar stuffed a giant meat ball in his mouth and insisted on showing me his progress after every chew. His kids are great, but like Steve said it would be, staying with them is definitely good birth control.
110 mile RR starts in about 1.5 hours. This update brought to you from my mobile telephone... This time I wasn't driving though.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Hyde Park/ Tour de Grandview
After a couple short recovery days in St. Louis with Lauren I drove to Ohio for a couple crits with some good money and pretty decent sized fields. The usual guys were there with pretty big squads. Kenda, Roadhouse, Aerocat and our team made up the majority of the numbers. Saturday's race in Hyde Park, Ohio was a twilight crit on a pretty cool course with a 180 degree turn in it. We didn't race terribly, but weren't agressive enough either. The 90 rider fields on this tight course lead to a lot of people getting popped off the back. The whiplash effect was so severe at the back that some pretty quality guys were falling off the pace. Coming down to the finish with one lap to go I was sitting in the top ten wheels through the round-about on Chad B. of Kenda and he was on Paul's wheel and Paul was following a pretty well known rider from a pretty well known local team. This rider is also pretty well known for his yelling at other riders in races and generally being an ass to people who are riding in an manor that he deems unsatisfactory. So when said rider thought it was a good idea to try to pedal his bike through this 180 degree corner and crash out a handful of the top 10 including himself, me, Paul and Chad... I found it quite ironic. But as they say, that's bike racing. Maybe said rider will worry less about others' riding and more about himself from here on out. So the team got some guys in the top 10 and just outside of it, but that little spill definitely hurt our end of the race situation.
Sunday was the traditional Sunday of Grandview crit with the nice little big-ring climb in it. We did 40 laps, for a total of 45 miles. It was pretty hot and most of the major players from the previous night were still around. Traditionally this race has broken up quite a bit and ended up with a big group of 10 or so off the front. I tried to be in all the promising moves and make sure I didn't miss the inevitable move that was going to go. The team did a much better job of being aggressive and instigating some of the moves and riding a much more offensive race. It took a while, but the break did go. It had lots of the big guys in it and I missed it initially but got across in a group of 3 shortly after. Andy and Dan from our team also came across after, the group ended up being 13 strong. We had 4 guys including Paul, so once I was recovered Dan and I went to the front and pulled the break around for the last 5 laps so that Paul and Andy could rest for the sprint. What we didn't know was Paul was cramping and it may have been a better option for us to work for someone else, but how often are you not going to work for Paul Martin? Anyway, Dan and I were toast and couldn't really sprint at the end. We ended up taking 7,9,10,11, and 17 on the day. It was nice to get 4 guys in the move, but we would have played it a little bit differently if we could do it again.
Now Greg and I are staying at Chartier's place until we leave for Fitchburg tomorrow morning. We're about to head out for a little tune up on our TT bikes and then do a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the day.
The next update should be from Massachusets, or somewhere on the highway along the way there. Wish me luck.
Photo's courtesy of Jeffrey Jakucyk
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tour of America's Dairyland Wrap-up
I'm typing this from my phone as I speed through Illinois, away from Dairyland and towards St. Louis for a few days.
So you probably guessed that by my lack of an update yesterday, the road race didn't go so hot. Well, you were right. Well it was really hot, just not from a performance standpoint. It was literally 100 degrees and we were supposed to race 80 miles on a 10 mile course.
A break went pretty much from the gun and we hand Greg in it and so we were pretty much chillin in the field as a team. It was actually cooler to get out in the wind a bit, so I would occaisonally go to the front toride in the wind, rather than sit in the stagnant air in the middle of the group. The racing gradually got more intense as the laps wore on. I was getting at least one if not two bottles every time through the feed zone, and I'm not even much of a drinker in races.
Eventually I saw a group going up the road with Andy Crater, Frank Travesio, Ben Raby, and Pat Lemiux. It looked promising, so I dragged my weak legs across to it. I don't know what I expected, but it was really hard. Travesio and Crater were literally pulling at 35mph all the time. I was sitting on chewing on my stem, praying for mercy. I felt a bit better when I saw Raby was hurting as bad as me though. Eventually all the groups on the road had exploaded. The break was shelling guys and we soon cam upon Greg's corpse rolling along. He was totally shot. I got popped out of my group. The field caught me and it was tiny, but I went right out the back of it too. When my lights went out, they went out real hard. I pedaled squares back to the feed zone and called it a day. Dan and Vince were the only Panther guys to survive the day. Dissapointment was abundant as we went and sat by lake Winnebago until we felt like getting back in the cars.
Today we were all a little salty from the road race, so were we determined to get some.The course seemed like it was gonna be an easy one, but I don't know about the other guys, but it was harder than I thought it would be. Lots of attacks went and came back for about 45 minutes of racing, but one actually got a nice gap and we had Dan in it. A 2 man move with Frank "the tank" Travesio. They worked well together and got a nice gap. I ended up in a 7 man chase group with a bunch of former PRO's aiming to beat me down. Ben Raby (Kodak Sierra Nevada), Chad Hartley (BMC, Jittery Joe's) and Adam Bergman (Colavita). Since I had a guy up the road, I wasn't pulling through. They didn't like that. They were trying to ride me out of it every time one of them pulled off. So these gaps would open up and we would all be forced to close them or get dropped from the chase. This wore on me pretty good. With 4 to go, a group of 4 more guys came up and so now our group of 11 was sprinting for 3rd. Andy Moskal of our team was in the group of 4 to join late. The attacks atarted immediately. It was all I could do to cover them and when the sprint came I was totally smashed. I ended up in freaking 13th. Andy was 6th and Dan got beat by Travesio, but still it was a good day for the team.
As I was driving, I was getting pissed at myself for botching that situation so hard, but I also realized I'm at the emd of a 9 race in 18 day period. I'm seriously due for some rest before Fitchburg. But I guess if you told me I'd be able to race this much this month and not be feeling sick, I would have been pleased just to participate as much as I have.
My GPS is telling me that I'll be in St. Louis in 153 more miles, so it looks like I'll have time for a bit more reflection before I hit the hay.
I hope this mega long post from my phone actually works. Thanks for reading!
So you probably guessed that by my lack of an update yesterday, the road race didn't go so hot. Well, you were right. Well it was really hot, just not from a performance standpoint. It was literally 100 degrees and we were supposed to race 80 miles on a 10 mile course.
A break went pretty much from the gun and we hand Greg in it and so we were pretty much chillin in the field as a team. It was actually cooler to get out in the wind a bit, so I would occaisonally go to the front toride in the wind, rather than sit in the stagnant air in the middle of the group. The racing gradually got more intense as the laps wore on. I was getting at least one if not two bottles every time through the feed zone, and I'm not even much of a drinker in races.
Eventually I saw a group going up the road with Andy Crater, Frank Travesio, Ben Raby, and Pat Lemiux. It looked promising, so I dragged my weak legs across to it. I don't know what I expected, but it was really hard. Travesio and Crater were literally pulling at 35mph all the time. I was sitting on chewing on my stem, praying for mercy. I felt a bit better when I saw Raby was hurting as bad as me though. Eventually all the groups on the road had exploaded. The break was shelling guys and we soon cam upon Greg's corpse rolling along. He was totally shot. I got popped out of my group. The field caught me and it was tiny, but I went right out the back of it too. When my lights went out, they went out real hard. I pedaled squares back to the feed zone and called it a day. Dan and Vince were the only Panther guys to survive the day. Dissapointment was abundant as we went and sat by lake Winnebago until we felt like getting back in the cars.
Today we were all a little salty from the road race, so were we determined to get some.The course seemed like it was gonna be an easy one, but I don't know about the other guys, but it was harder than I thought it would be. Lots of attacks went and came back for about 45 minutes of racing, but one actually got a nice gap and we had Dan in it. A 2 man move with Frank "the tank" Travesio. They worked well together and got a nice gap. I ended up in a 7 man chase group with a bunch of former PRO's aiming to beat me down. Ben Raby (Kodak Sierra Nevada), Chad Hartley (BMC, Jittery Joe's) and Adam Bergman (Colavita). Since I had a guy up the road, I wasn't pulling through. They didn't like that. They were trying to ride me out of it every time one of them pulled off. So these gaps would open up and we would all be forced to close them or get dropped from the chase. This wore on me pretty good. With 4 to go, a group of 4 more guys came up and so now our group of 11 was sprinting for 3rd. Andy Moskal of our team was in the group of 4 to join late. The attacks atarted immediately. It was all I could do to cover them and when the sprint came I was totally smashed. I ended up in freaking 13th. Andy was 6th and Dan got beat by Travesio, but still it was a good day for the team.
As I was driving, I was getting pissed at myself for botching that situation so hard, but I also realized I'm at the emd of a 9 race in 18 day period. I'm seriously due for some rest before Fitchburg. But I guess if you told me I'd be able to race this much this month and not be feeling sick, I would have been pleased just to participate as much as I have.
My GPS is telling me that I'll be in St. Louis in 153 more miles, so it looks like I'll have time for a bit more reflection before I hit the hay.
I hope this mega long post from my phone actually works. Thanks for reading!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tour of America's Dairyland- Manitowoc Crit
Last nights crit was another 90 minute race on a four corner circuit. It was pretty wide open through the corners so the speeds were pretty high and it was tough to get much of a gap. After our poor showing in Grafton, we decide to get to the front and ride like we actually belonged in the race. The team was able to get someone in every move that went off the front, even though they we're all pretty short lived, we just wanted to play it safe and be represented anyway. We mixed it up in a few of the prime sprint and took home a little extra cash that way.
The crit was going along in pretty standard fashion, without much of a lull in the racing. Greg flatted and was coming back into the field after getting a neutral wheel when he got about 3 pedal strokes into his attempt to get back up to speed and he literally ripped his handlebar in half at the stem. the whole left side of his ALUMINUM bar came off in his hand and he went over the bars and his bike came flying into the field. Luckily everyone dodged it successfully and Greg was ok. After that he got a complete neutral bike and was back in the game a lap later.
The team did a much better job of communicating in the closing laps of this race than we did the night before. we helped take each other to the front and made sure that we weren't moving around in the pack without the purpose of helping one of us get to a good spot for the sprint. When we got the sign for 7 laps to go, the field collectively flared their elbows and starting duking it out in the battle for optimum position. With wide open straights, it was hard for any one person or team to keep the pace high enough to prevent swarming at the front. I ended up on Tilly's wheel with 2 corners to go and was pretty pleased with my spot. I got bumped off when I had to hit the breaks to avoid swinging into the curb coming out of the 2nd to last corner. It wasn't terrible, but at that stage in the race it hurt my chances to really get up there. I ended up coming across the line in 8th and Derek was 9th. Tilford took 3rd, but he's always been a pretty slippery wheel to follow in the closing laps of a bike race. All and all it was a much better day for the team, but we're gonna keep at it with hopes a getting a stage win. Tomorrow's Road Race is a pretty good chance given the two oxen we have in Greg and Dan.
Today was a pretty successful rest day, with maybe not as much rest as we should of had, but pretty fun none the less. If you're ever in Milwaukee, I highly recommend a tour of the Lakefront Brewery. For $6 you get 4 glasses of beer and a nice pint glass along with the tour of the micro-brewery.
Alright, enough for tonight. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report from tomorrow.
The crit was going along in pretty standard fashion, without much of a lull in the racing. Greg flatted and was coming back into the field after getting a neutral wheel when he got about 3 pedal strokes into his attempt to get back up to speed and he literally ripped his handlebar in half at the stem. the whole left side of his ALUMINUM bar came off in his hand and he went over the bars and his bike came flying into the field. Luckily everyone dodged it successfully and Greg was ok. After that he got a complete neutral bike and was back in the game a lap later.
The team did a much better job of communicating in the closing laps of this race than we did the night before. we helped take each other to the front and made sure that we weren't moving around in the pack without the purpose of helping one of us get to a good spot for the sprint. When we got the sign for 7 laps to go, the field collectively flared their elbows and starting duking it out in the battle for optimum position. With wide open straights, it was hard for any one person or team to keep the pace high enough to prevent swarming at the front. I ended up on Tilly's wheel with 2 corners to go and was pretty pleased with my spot. I got bumped off when I had to hit the breaks to avoid swinging into the curb coming out of the 2nd to last corner. It wasn't terrible, but at that stage in the race it hurt my chances to really get up there. I ended up coming across the line in 8th and Derek was 9th. Tilford took 3rd, but he's always been a pretty slippery wheel to follow in the closing laps of a bike race. All and all it was a much better day for the team, but we're gonna keep at it with hopes a getting a stage win. Tomorrow's Road Race is a pretty good chance given the two oxen we have in Greg and Dan.
Today was a pretty successful rest day, with maybe not as much rest as we should of had, but pretty fun none the less. If you're ever in Milwaukee, I highly recommend a tour of the Lakefront Brewery. For $6 you get 4 glasses of beer and a nice pint glass along with the tour of the micro-brewery.
Alright, enough for tonight. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report from tomorrow.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Giro D' Grafton
Well the team is up in Wisconsin for some of the Tour of America's Dairyland. Last night was a 90min crit in Grafton with some solid riders and some good fan support. There were lots of parties around the course and the fans got pretty into it as the laps wound down.
The team had a pretty sub par performance across the board, with no one really riding very well. We were definitely all kicking ourselves on the ride home, but we just didn't get our asses into the right spots at the right times. We all got near the front with a few laps to go and then just didn't stay positioned well for the finale. This is the first race of the year where we've raced poorly from top to bottom. Personally I was as guilty as anyone of a trash performance and am hoping for some better legs and a little more bike racing sense tonight.
We just went for a spin with the 3 guys from the other host house. We've got a pretty nice situation here in Wawautosa, especially when you consider the price... free. Sorry for the short update, maybe I'll have some more after tonight's race. Time for a shower and some foam rollering. Happy Fathers Day.
Annnnddd, this just in: Lauren got 7th in Womens Open (1,2,3,4's) race at Winghaven today. She probably got a nice chunk of that $2K for the ladies. Tiiiight!
The team had a pretty sub par performance across the board, with no one really riding very well. We were definitely all kicking ourselves on the ride home, but we just didn't get our asses into the right spots at the right times. We all got near the front with a few laps to go and then just didn't stay positioned well for the finale. This is the first race of the year where we've raced poorly from top to bottom. Personally I was as guilty as anyone of a trash performance and am hoping for some better legs and a little more bike racing sense tonight.
We just went for a spin with the 3 guys from the other host house. We've got a pretty nice situation here in Wawautosa, especially when you consider the price... free. Sorry for the short update, maybe I'll have some more after tonight's race. Time for a shower and some foam rollering. Happy Fathers Day.
Annnnddd, this just in: Lauren got 7th in Womens Open (1,2,3,4's) race at Winghaven today. She probably got a nice chunk of that $2K for the ladies. Tiiiight!
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