So I'll give you a break from my lame race reports to bring you news of my sub par health. The week after Hillsboro (last week), I set out on a training block to try to prepare for Joe Martin at the start of May. I did some intervals with some bad power numbers, but didn't think too much of it. I took a couple more recovery days and the numbers for my workouts kept getting worse. It would be one thing if I had been training hard, but I'd just come off a nice block of rest and my body shouldn't have been acting tired. Anyway, fast forward to Saturday where I was supposed to do the Nashiville 90 with John Meyers on TT bikes. Yes, I understood this was going to be a serious suffer fest, but I wasn't quite prepared to suffer like this. Long story short, TT'd with John for a bit, sat on after I couldn't do that, died just trying to sit on, then called Lauren to pick me up in Nashville after 60 miles. I could barely ride at 200 watts to try to make it to Nashville in a timely manner.
I went home and slept, didn't ride Sunday and decided to go to the doctor on Monday. The Dr. ordered some tests (7 Vials of blood worth!) and I got the results on Wednesday that I have Mono. I had been trying to convince myself that it couldn't possibly be mono. Welp, wrong. Dr. says 2 weeks of stright up resting and no cycling.
Well, 2 weeks off puts me right around the end of April, and wicked close to Joe Martin on the 7th of May. So I've already written off Tour of Hermann this weekend, Brown County next weekend, Warsaw after that and finally my first real goal for the season, the Joe Martin Stage Race. Shit. I really would have liked to do those races so I can have some race fitness for later, but I guess I'll just be fresh to def for Fitchburg, Toona and the end of the season crits. And on this news, we just got our new, fresh, white, kits and other clothing. So I don't get to try out the new threads forever either. But I'm gonna try to look at the positive... or something like that.
See you on the road around April 29th or so. I'll be the guy riding 11 mph.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Hillsboro Report
So it's over and I don't really know what to think about it. The field was 120 strong and even let in a few more than the field limit because some big names rolled up, un-prereg'd, so they kinda had to. Anyway, my goal was to try not to pull the normal Ryan move and freak out about everything that got 5 feet off the front... at least until half way through the 90 miles. It was a nice day with a little bit of wind, that turned into a decent amount of wind after a few laps. I rode up front so I could keep my eye on the experienced guys and make sure they didn't get too far without me. I ended up spending about 4 hours within a few feet of Steve Tilford (last year's Hillsboro winner, bad ass, and winner of the 1921 Inter-Galactic MTB Championships). Since I had no idea how this race was going to shake out, I figured he was probably one of smarter bike racers out there to shadow.
After a 2 pretty easy laps, the wind started to pick up and so did the racing. Attack were going and a few small groups were coming and going from the front. Towards the end of lap 3 a small group was just up the road and we were letting them kinda dangle before the catch. We'll Chad B. towed another guy across the relatively small gap and no one at the front really batted an eye. Turns out we should have, because the group of six stuck it. It got quite a bit faster on the last lap and the field that was 125, was down to about 50 and scattered all over road. The rubber band was thoroughly stretched in the front, but we couldn't seem to get another group to break off and catch the 6 just up the road. I did accomplish something I've never done before though, I rode in a break with Tilford and didn't get yelled at. Baby steps.
I need some media to spice up this race report, so here is the cut from the last lap. Nothing impressive, but you can see from the spikes that we tried to get something goin'
With about 5 miles to go, the field gave up and we started cruising in to fight for the scraps. Just about then, Greg was finally rested from his long chase back from a flat and took a flyer. Some posers tried to get across to him, but they undoubtedly had no idea how strong Greg is on his own and soon returned to the field. So he ended up being between the break and field in 7th, which was a tiny bit of consolation for the squad. As we came into town, I got up front and mixed it up in the sprint, but the legs were too tired to pop off a good one. I followed some wheels to end up 14th on the day. I feel stronger than I've ever been, but I just need to have the confidence to race like it. Looking forward to this race again next year. Also props to the promoter/organizers for running a tight ship for the most part and being speedy with the results
After a 2 pretty easy laps, the wind started to pick up and so did the racing. Attack were going and a few small groups were coming and going from the front. Towards the end of lap 3 a small group was just up the road and we were letting them kinda dangle before the catch. We'll Chad B. towed another guy across the relatively small gap and no one at the front really batted an eye. Turns out we should have, because the group of six stuck it. It got quite a bit faster on the last lap and the field that was 125, was down to about 50 and scattered all over road. The rubber band was thoroughly stretched in the front, but we couldn't seem to get another group to break off and catch the 6 just up the road. I did accomplish something I've never done before though, I rode in a break with Tilford and didn't get yelled at. Baby steps.
I need some media to spice up this race report, so here is the cut from the last lap. Nothing impressive, but you can see from the spikes that we tried to get something goin'
With about 5 miles to go, the field gave up and we started cruising in to fight for the scraps. Just about then, Greg was finally rested from his long chase back from a flat and took a flyer. Some posers tried to get across to him, but they undoubtedly had no idea how strong Greg is on his own and soon returned to the field. So he ended up being between the break and field in 7th, which was a tiny bit of consolation for the squad. As we came into town, I got up front and mixed it up in the sprint, but the legs were too tired to pop off a good one. I followed some wheels to end up 14th on the day. I feel stronger than I've ever been, but I just need to have the confidence to race like it. Looking forward to this race again next year. Also props to the promoter/organizers for running a tight ship for the most part and being speedy with the results
Friday, April 3, 2009
On the Eve of (Hillsboro-) Roubaix
Yes, tomorrow is the midwest's own version of a spring classic. A little town in Illinois will be hosting the annual throwdown featuring (hopefully) some crosswinds, bad roads and a few "hellingen." No, it isn't really that similar to the real thing, but we'll play the hand we were dealt here in our region. The combination of this race as well as The Ronde this weekend, I'm all jacked up (off Mountin Dew). Tonight I'll be meeting up with Gregg Van Christiaan and Danny De Caampbell to head to Hillsboro, we'll be getting a bit of a late start, but it will be nice to get an hour back once we cross the IN/IL border. The legs are good and my mind is clear. Hopefully I can play the race properly and come back with a nice result in hand.
Also, I feel like I should update you on my DG's. My Delta Gamma women did their coach proud this week in ITT's. We put three girls in the top 15, with one of them being a rookie in 10th place. They've all been sticking to the plan and working hard, so it's nice to see them starting to come around a get their speed up. The race is April 24th, so it's almost time to be sharpening them up for an attempt to repeat our success from last year.
This is just gonna be a short update, but I want to leave you with a couple links to some good Flanders previews:
Pez Does Flanders: Day Zero
Pez Previews: De Ronde Van Vlaanderen
Obviously if you're a Pez reader, you've probably already seen those, but if not I think you'll enjoy 'em.
Also, I feel like I should update you on my DG's. My Delta Gamma women did their coach proud this week in ITT's. We put three girls in the top 15, with one of them being a rookie in 10th place. They've all been sticking to the plan and working hard, so it's nice to see them starting to come around a get their speed up. The race is April 24th, so it's almost time to be sharpening them up for an attempt to repeat our success from last year.
This is just gonna be a short update, but I want to leave you with a couple links to some good Flanders previews:
Pez Does Flanders: Day Zero
Pez Previews: De Ronde Van Vlaanderen
Obviously if you're a Pez reader, you've probably already seen those, but if not I think you'll enjoy 'em.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Little 500 Quals and a Recovery Week
This morning I got up way earlier than a normal non-racing Saturday. In Bloomington, today is Little 500 quals day. My girls team drew the time of 8:45am for their crack at quals. We got up early and to the track in time to get them a good warm us and an ear full of my sorry excuse for a pep talk. They performed well, but not great. Quals are still going on and we're sliding down the list a little bit, but it's really not too much of a concern. The real test comes on the 24th of April.
After quals I met up with John Meyers and Mike, just in time to ride in the rain that was rolling into town. I'm wrapping up a rest week, a real one this time. I tried to have a rest week last week but I failed. I don't know how, but I got sucked into doing wednesday worlds and 2 races and before I knew it, my "rest week" wasn't so restful. So I'm about to start kicking it back up again for a few up coming races and then ultimately for Joe Martin at the start of May. In the mean time, I'd like to have a good showing for Hillsboro-Roubaix this year. I've never done it, but it seems to be a race that might not be too bad for a guy like me.
Speaking of guys not like me, Phil the Pro got himself a nice little P-R-O result last week in San Dimas. Congrats to him on that man-sized W.
This week I've been keeping tabs on Redlands as well. Pictures from that damn prologue don't do it justice, that thing is vicious. It's tough to watch this year and wonder how I would have done if I could have gotten back out there this year. I've played sports my entire life and that is by far the greatest sporting dissapointment of my life. Similar to "Into the Wild" when Chris McCandless kills the moose and the maggots get to the meat before he can skin it. Yep, thats about how it was.
On that note, off to watch some E3 Prijs on cycling.tv. See you at Hillsboro.
After quals I met up with John Meyers and Mike, just in time to ride in the rain that was rolling into town. I'm wrapping up a rest week, a real one this time. I tried to have a rest week last week but I failed. I don't know how, but I got sucked into doing wednesday worlds and 2 races and before I knew it, my "rest week" wasn't so restful. So I'm about to start kicking it back up again for a few up coming races and then ultimately for Joe Martin at the start of May. In the mean time, I'd like to have a good showing for Hillsboro-Roubaix this year. I've never done it, but it seems to be a race that might not be too bad for a guy like me.
Speaking of guys not like me, Phil the Pro got himself a nice little P-R-O result last week in San Dimas. Congrats to him on that man-sized W.
This week I've been keeping tabs on Redlands as well. Pictures from that damn prologue don't do it justice, that thing is vicious. It's tough to watch this year and wonder how I would have done if I could have gotten back out there this year. I've played sports my entire life and that is by far the greatest sporting dissapointment of my life. Similar to "Into the Wild" when Chris McCandless kills the moose and the maggots get to the meat before he can skin it. Yep, thats about how it was.
On that note, off to watch some E3 Prijs on cycling.tv. See you at Hillsboro.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Racing for Training
So this weekend I traveled to my first two races of the season. I races in Louisville KY on Saturday and Cincinnati, OH on Sunday. I've been putting in some good hours on the bike this spring, but haven't done much to get myself in race shape yet. It jump is slow and the numbers for my short intervals are pretty low. So this weekend I just wanted to go out and get in some hard efforts and test out the legs a bit. I have trouble racing for training and not caring about the result, but I know I can push myself harder when there's something riding on it, so I gotta wrap my head around it.
Saturday I got near Louisville and was greeted with a pretty steady rain shower and temps in the mid 40's. The course was a nice rolling circuit of just under 2 miles with nice smooth pavement. I was the only Panther/RGF guy in attendance (they were off winning in Ohio), and there happened to be 10 Texas Roadhouse guys that showed up. I knew how the race was going to go once I saw the turnout, but I couldn't get myself into that damn break. I raced as hard as I could trying to follow everything and cover the barrage of attacks from Roadhouse, but it wasn't to be. A group of 3 got away about midway through the race and the field pretty much shut down until the last 3 laps or so. The Roadhouse was getting greedy and rying to get more guys up the road. So I burnt my last few matches trying to keep them from getting the whole squad off the front and when the sprint came, I rolled in mid-pack. No result what so ever, but I got a good hour of self abuse and also set a new PR for 10 minute power at the start of the race, trying to make that inevitable break. I did feel better about the "pack finish" once I saw I had done some decent numbers and my fitness was ok considering the time of year.
Pre-race with Chartier, Renkema, and the Nuvo crew
Awesome picture of Chartier's late race whack
Sunday was a similar sized field of 30-35 guys, but the course was a flat, 10 mile loop with 4 corners and long straights. It wasn't really windy, but you could definitely feel it on some of those exposed roads. We did 6 laps of the circuit and I determined to make this a bike race and not a group ride. With no selective sections to be found, the stronger guys had to just keep attacking until the wheat and chaff were separated. It took a couple laps, but we finally got a nice split with pretty much all the guys that I would have hand picked for the break even before the start of the race, plus a few others I didn't know. They were all pulling through, so they're welcome to come along too. After we got the break established, like really, established. Like we-took-a-pee-break, established. It was time to figure out who was going to win this thing. I didn't like my odds in the 9 man group, with Aaron Hubbel of Nuvo(plus 2 teammates) and Ben Renkema of Kenda Pro Cycling. I knew both of those guys can pop off some pretty good sprints, so I would have rather gotten a split without them, but they did a good job keeping it together. I threw the kitchen sink at them for a while, hoping something would materialize, but no dice. Former teammate and host for the weekend Chris Chartier took off on a nice solo move with 1 to go, that he almost stuck thanks to some disorganized riding from all of us in the group. He came back with about a a mile and a half left to go and the cat and mouse started. I though we might completely stop and start the sprint with one foot down. Luckily someone jumped and it was on. I was trying to watch the guys I knew could sprint and was able to stay out of the wind and take the sprint for my first (although small) win of 2009. I'm not going to post a picture of the victory salute because it was so windy that I almost got blown over when I put my hands up. I look more like I'm about do the Y-M-C-A than I just won a bike race.
Me about to unleash my goofy looking victory salute
So this weekend was fun and a nice test, but I've still got a long way to go until I'm ready for the real stuff to start. I've got a pretty solid week of training in front of me, and my first ever bachelor "party" this weekend. Also, congrats to my teammate Jeremy Grimm for taking home his second win of this season this weekend. Thanks for reading.
Photos courtesy of Jeffery Jakucyk
Saturday I got near Louisville and was greeted with a pretty steady rain shower and temps in the mid 40's. The course was a nice rolling circuit of just under 2 miles with nice smooth pavement. I was the only Panther/RGF guy in attendance (they were off winning in Ohio), and there happened to be 10 Texas Roadhouse guys that showed up. I knew how the race was going to go once I saw the turnout, but I couldn't get myself into that damn break. I raced as hard as I could trying to follow everything and cover the barrage of attacks from Roadhouse, but it wasn't to be. A group of 3 got away about midway through the race and the field pretty much shut down until the last 3 laps or so. The Roadhouse was getting greedy and rying to get more guys up the road. So I burnt my last few matches trying to keep them from getting the whole squad off the front and when the sprint came, I rolled in mid-pack. No result what so ever, but I got a good hour of self abuse and also set a new PR for 10 minute power at the start of the race, trying to make that inevitable break. I did feel better about the "pack finish" once I saw I had done some decent numbers and my fitness was ok considering the time of year.
Pre-race with Chartier, Renkema, and the Nuvo crew
Awesome picture of Chartier's late race whack
Sunday was a similar sized field of 30-35 guys, but the course was a flat, 10 mile loop with 4 corners and long straights. It wasn't really windy, but you could definitely feel it on some of those exposed roads. We did 6 laps of the circuit and I determined to make this a bike race and not a group ride. With no selective sections to be found, the stronger guys had to just keep attacking until the wheat and chaff were separated. It took a couple laps, but we finally got a nice split with pretty much all the guys that I would have hand picked for the break even before the start of the race, plus a few others I didn't know. They were all pulling through, so they're welcome to come along too. After we got the break established, like really, established. Like we-took-a-pee-break, established. It was time to figure out who was going to win this thing. I didn't like my odds in the 9 man group, with Aaron Hubbel of Nuvo(plus 2 teammates) and Ben Renkema of Kenda Pro Cycling. I knew both of those guys can pop off some pretty good sprints, so I would have rather gotten a split without them, but they did a good job keeping it together. I threw the kitchen sink at them for a while, hoping something would materialize, but no dice. Former teammate and host for the weekend Chris Chartier took off on a nice solo move with 1 to go, that he almost stuck thanks to some disorganized riding from all of us in the group. He came back with about a a mile and a half left to go and the cat and mouse started. I though we might completely stop and start the sprint with one foot down. Luckily someone jumped and it was on. I was trying to watch the guys I knew could sprint and was able to stay out of the wind and take the sprint for my first (although small) win of 2009. I'm not going to post a picture of the victory salute because it was so windy that I almost got blown over when I put my hands up. I look more like I'm about do the Y-M-C-A than I just won a bike race.
Me about to unleash my goofy looking victory salute
So this weekend was fun and a nice test, but I've still got a long way to go until I'm ready for the real stuff to start. I've got a pretty solid week of training in front of me, and my first ever bachelor "party" this weekend. Also, congrats to my teammate Jeremy Grimm for taking home his second win of this season this weekend. Thanks for reading.
Photos courtesy of Jeffery Jakucyk
Monday, March 9, 2009
Windy Weekend
What would you do with your windy weekend? Try saying that 5 times fast. Well, what we did with our windy weekend was: suffer, or at least I did, anyway. Late last week I got word that Bennet Van Der Genugten was gonna be in Bloomington for some riding. We tried to gather the troops, but because of the collegiate races at Depauw, some of the local horsepower was out of town. Saturday it was: BVDG (PRO), Fred Rose (undroppable workin-man), Tom Cox (Man-Beast), Wes Luzadder (17-18 National Crit Champ), and myself (dainty wanna-be). With the wind pounding us pretty hard, we decided to do an out and back at a good tempo, nothing too crazy, just keepin' the pace up. So about that suffering thing... This weekend marked the last few days of the seemingly never-ending block of training I've been working on for about the last 3 weeks. I've been going at it pretty hard in an attempt to have some fitness before the end of May for once, so I had one foot firmly planted inside the hurt locker before the rides of this weekend. Anyway, that ride didn't kill me really, but it sure didn't help me get my legs ready for when the testosterone doubled on Sunday with the addition of two of the strongest dudes around: Ryan Shannahan and John Meyers.
Sunday it was the same wind, maybe a bit tougher, but we decided on a rolling route that would give us a tail wind coming home. It was on before we even got out of town. It started with two lines, with the two on the front pulling with (against) each other. Once that collapsed because off all the "measuring" going on, we rode in single file taking our turns putting in good pulls, making sure the others sitting on weren't getting too much rest. We continued throttling each other for a few hours until we too a quick break for some fuel. We finally hit the tailwind section and rolled it breakaway style all the way to town. The last few turns before we got to town, everyone was emptying the tank on every pull. A few times I thought I might be getting popped off the back, but I was able to survive and take all my turns at the front. It was nice to get in a good solid, fast effort since I haven't been able to race yet. It was also nice to get some hurting in, knowing that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I'm taking it easy for a few days before I get crackin' on the next round of punishment.
It was nice to catch up with Bennet and hear about the big things he's got going on in his racing life right now. Also, he was lookin P-R-O skinny, with the 15 pounds he said he had shed. Also, with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time, Wednesday Worlds are back on in Bloomington, so hopefully the threat of embarrassment by my peers will be enough to get me rolling pretty well for the racing coming up.
Sunday it was the same wind, maybe a bit tougher, but we decided on a rolling route that would give us a tail wind coming home. It was on before we even got out of town. It started with two lines, with the two on the front pulling with (against) each other. Once that collapsed because off all the "measuring" going on, we rode in single file taking our turns putting in good pulls, making sure the others sitting on weren't getting too much rest. We continued throttling each other for a few hours until we too a quick break for some fuel. We finally hit the tailwind section and rolled it breakaway style all the way to town. The last few turns before we got to town, everyone was emptying the tank on every pull. A few times I thought I might be getting popped off the back, but I was able to survive and take all my turns at the front. It was nice to get in a good solid, fast effort since I haven't been able to race yet. It was also nice to get some hurting in, knowing that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I'm taking it easy for a few days before I get crackin' on the next round of punishment.
It was nice to catch up with Bennet and hear about the big things he's got going on in his racing life right now. Also, he was lookin P-R-O skinny, with the 15 pounds he said he had shed. Also, with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time, Wednesday Worlds are back on in Bloomington, so hopefully the threat of embarrassment by my peers will be enough to get me rolling pretty well for the racing coming up.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
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