Weekend In the Hills
You couldn't beat the weather this holiday weekend. I was able to get 13 hours in on the bike, two rides up north in Boulder, and one in the southern hills near Conifer, and Evergreen. In summary, we gots: Cool peeps, warm weather, big climbs, loose dirt, ghost flats, dropped chains, snow capped mountains, screaming descents, junior gears, dollar restrooms, well pumps, aerotuckers, sassy gf's, bouncing water bottles, 36 slog, headwind, tailwind, cross-tail-head-where the hell's that wind coming from, forgotten helmets, noodles, buritos, southern sun, door dings, ding dong ditches, little sisters got a boyfriend and some sore ass legs to boot! I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
~REST~
–noun
1.the refreshing quiet or repose of sleep: a good night's rest.
2.refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor: to allow an hour for rest.
3.relief or freedom, esp. from anything that wearies, troubles, or disturbs.
4.a period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude, or tranquillity: to go away for a rest.
5.mental or spiritual calm; tranquillity.
6.the repose of death: eternal rest.
7.cessation or absence of motion: to bring a machine to rest.
These, with the exception of #6 all describe my past week. Much needed, and deserved?, maybe. My parents have been in town and their visit has allowed me to get away from the bike for a couple of days. At first I was a little nervous about spending time off the bike, as I was concerned I might lose some fitness I have gained in the last couple of months. But I'll tell you what, spending time away has totally rekindled the flame. (sounds like I'm in some sort of relationship there) I am totally stoked that I had the opportunity to spend time with my family, and now that they have
–noun
1.the refreshing quiet or repose of sleep: a good night's rest.
2.refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor: to allow an hour for rest.
3.relief or freedom, esp. from anything that wearies, troubles, or disturbs.
4.a period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude, or tranquillity: to go away for a rest.
5.mental or spiritual calm; tranquillity.
6.the repose of death: eternal rest.
7.cessation or absence of motion: to bring a machine to rest.
These, with the exception of #6 all describe my past week. Much needed, and deserved?, maybe. My parents have been in town and their visit has allowed me to get away from the bike for a couple of days. At first I was a little nervous about spending time off the bike, as I was concerned I might lose some fitness I have gained in the last couple of months. But I'll tell you what, spending time away has totally rekindled the flame. (sounds like I'm in some sort of relationship there) I am totally stoked that I had the opportunity to spend time with my family, and now that they have
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Wheels of Thunder.................
I kept it on the down low until it was official, and at 10 PM on Friday night I received the email from Yvonne tagged "Temporary Licence". So its for real now. I'm tagging along with the SM3's. First off I have to just say that all the grief that the ACA gets is absolute nonsense. This lady received my upgrade request on Friday and had it turned around later that night. Now that's dedication, these people have lives and sometimes we take what they do for us, and our sport for granted. I know I have been guilty of that for sure!
Well all the pressure of getting the upgrade is off now, so the plan was to go into the Wheels of Thunder Circut/Crit and just hang on. This was my 5th race in 8 days so there where no expectations, and honestly I just wanted to get through it without getting popped. There were 7 VC dudes lined up at the start, Jared, Casey, Marty, Lance, Brent, Jimmy (one of those super fast 45+Master guys) and myself. We were Scheduled for 20 laps on a 2 mile circut. The race pace I found wasn't all that fast, so I moved to the front, and tried to hold position, typically in the top 6-10, to avoid the dreaded accordion effect, and resultant sprints out of every turn. I did get caught in the swarm a couple of times, and just got out into the wind on the outside and moved back up into my position. Casey was active during the race he tried to work a couple breaks, and I tried to get some blocking going for him with Ertz, but nothing was gonna stick, it was too windy, and didn't seem like people were all that motivated. I tried to bridge a 3man break at one point and felt a match start to light, so being my first 3s race and anticipating that the pace would eventually pick up I decided not to waste any energy. In fact after all the racing in the past week there wasn't much of that to spare anyways. With 3 to go I gelled up and moved up into position, I didn't want to wait until the last lap to get on the front, as that is prime real estate, and everyone I'm sure was going to be digging for those top six spots going into the final lap.
This turned out to be for the best, as there was a big pileup on the last lap going through the chicane (s-turns). Casey and Brent moved up also, and it was shaping up to be a lead out for B at the sprint. Casey was hauling, Brent was following, and I was riding just outside his wheel on the right to make sure he didnt get boxed in from the wide side. In hind sight it may have been a better plan to get up and help Casey with the lead out. Next time, I'm sure our teamwork will improve as we race together more. So there we were sitting 3rd 4th and 5th wheel going into the downhill sprint to the finish. As we rolled through the sweeping left to the straight away, the pace picked up, and the full out sprint was on. I had absolutely no legs to sprint, and thats no good on a drag strip like that, Brent rolled a 5th, Casey 10th, I cruised in in 16th, Marty 18th, Lance 21st, and unfortunately Jared got caught behind the crash, and rolled in without a scratch, but had some white knuckles going on. All in all a very nice day for VC in my books. I placed way above my expectations, and had an absolute blast out there with the rest of the guys. Looking forward to some good teamwork in the up coming races, and learning how to ride with these guys.
Now there has been some talk after the race regarding the pace, the crash, and who or what was responsible. I cant spend any of my energy on that, so I am just going to leave that to the others who can. I'm just grateful to be able to race my bike, and that those IC3 guys put on such a good race, with some good eats afterwards. And above all, no one was seriously injured. Scrapes and bones will heal, broken carbon can be replaced. This is all a part of the sport we choose to participate in. See you at the RACES!!!!
I kept it on the down low until it was official, and at 10 PM on Friday night I received the email from Yvonne tagged "Temporary Licence". So its for real now. I'm tagging along with the SM3's. First off I have to just say that all the grief that the ACA gets is absolute nonsense. This lady received my upgrade request on Friday and had it turned around later that night. Now that's dedication, these people have lives and sometimes we take what they do for us, and our sport for granted. I know I have been guilty of that for sure!
Well all the pressure of getting the upgrade is off now, so the plan was to go into the Wheels of Thunder Circut/Crit and just hang on. This was my 5th race in 8 days so there where no expectations, and honestly I just wanted to get through it without getting popped. There were 7 VC dudes lined up at the start, Jared, Casey, Marty, Lance, Brent, Jimmy (one of those super fast 45+Master guys) and myself. We were Scheduled for 20 laps on a 2 mile circut. The race pace I found wasn't all that fast, so I moved to the front, and tried to hold position, typically in the top 6-10, to avoid the dreaded accordion effect, and resultant sprints out of every turn. I did get caught in the swarm a couple of times, and just got out into the wind on the outside and moved back up into my position. Casey was active during the race he tried to work a couple breaks, and I tried to get some blocking going for him with Ertz, but nothing was gonna stick, it was too windy, and didn't seem like people were all that motivated. I tried to bridge a 3man break at one point and felt a match start to light, so being my first 3s race and anticipating that the pace would eventually pick up I decided not to waste any energy. In fact after all the racing in the past week there wasn't much of that to spare anyways. With 3 to go I gelled up and moved up into position, I didn't want to wait until the last lap to get on the front, as that is prime real estate, and everyone I'm sure was going to be digging for those top six spots going into the final lap.
This turned out to be for the best, as there was a big pileup on the last lap going through the chicane (s-turns). Casey and Brent moved up also, and it was shaping up to be a lead out for B at the sprint. Casey was hauling, Brent was following, and I was riding just outside his wheel on the right to make sure he didnt get boxed in from the wide side. In hind sight it may have been a better plan to get up and help Casey with the lead out. Next time, I'm sure our teamwork will improve as we race together more. So there we were sitting 3rd 4th and 5th wheel going into the downhill sprint to the finish. As we rolled through the sweeping left to the straight away, the pace picked up, and the full out sprint was on. I had absolutely no legs to sprint, and thats no good on a drag strip like that, Brent rolled a 5th, Casey 10th, I cruised in in 16th, Marty 18th, Lance 21st, and unfortunately Jared got caught behind the crash, and rolled in without a scratch, but had some white knuckles going on. All in all a very nice day for VC in my books. I placed way above my expectations, and had an absolute blast out there with the rest of the guys. Looking forward to some good teamwork in the up coming races, and learning how to ride with these guys.
Now there has been some talk after the race regarding the pace, the crash, and who or what was responsible. I cant spend any of my energy on that, so I am just going to leave that to the others who can. I'm just grateful to be able to race my bike, and that those IC3 guys put on such a good race, with some good eats afterwards. And above all, no one was seriously injured. Scrapes and bones will heal, broken carbon can be replaced. This is all a part of the sport we choose to participate in. See you at the RACES!!!!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Ok guys, its been a while since I posted, and quite a bit has gone on since. So where to start? Ok, cool stuff, I have been in touch with a couple of long lost friends via myspace. Now I know that MS gets a bad rap, but I have to tell you its a great way to find friends from High School, and College. My parents are going to be out to visit next week, and its been about a year since I've seen them so that's going to be very nice. Now on to bikes.
April was a tough month, after a quick start to the season in March and some good results, the results went down the tube with some not so smart racing and some heavy duty training time. The intent was to come out of the gate hot, and get some quick results, but when they start to go bye bye, you can start to question things.
The training in April consisted of a lot of days in the mountains doing climbing repeats, along with some long days in the saddle. Throw in a couple of races on the weekends, and I was pretty spent. All of this was in prep for the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. www.tourofthegila.com For the Cat IV's its a 3-day stage race with a 62 Mile road race, with 4600 Ft of climbing on day 1, a downtown criterium on day 2, and the Gila Monster, a 72 mile road race, with 6000 ft of climbing on day 3. I ended up finishing 13th overall for the 3-days, about 3 minutes off of the winner. Now this is a huge improvement over last year. In most climbing races I finished about 20 minutes back from the leaders.
The stay in Silver City was something special. Last minute, I found myself with no one to share hotel costs with, so I contacted the housing coordinator with the race with the hope of finding a host family to stay with. Now this was extremely last minute, so I had no expectations. Within 2-days I had housing, WOW! The family I stayed with was absolutely amazing. These people let me into there house to stay for a couple of days with no worries what so ever. I actually had the house to myself for one night. That says a lot about people. And the Towns people of Silver City were another surprise. Every time we went out riding, or around town with the bikes on the top of the car, we would get the thumbs up, or a "good luck". You want to talk about some positive energy!!!! I was asked to sign an autograph for one fellow, and Im just a Cat IV starting out in racing. Needless to say the entire trip was incredible. If I could, I would register for next years race yesterday!
So, Im back in Denver now, and after this weekends race I will be taking it easy while my parents are in town. This works out great since I've have had 5 races in 8 days, and I'm about due for a little rest.
~Later!
April was a tough month, after a quick start to the season in March and some good results, the results went down the tube with some not so smart racing and some heavy duty training time. The intent was to come out of the gate hot, and get some quick results, but when they start to go bye bye, you can start to question things.
The training in April consisted of a lot of days in the mountains doing climbing repeats, along with some long days in the saddle. Throw in a couple of races on the weekends, and I was pretty spent. All of this was in prep for the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. www.tourofthegila.com For the Cat IV's its a 3-day stage race with a 62 Mile road race, with 4600 Ft of climbing on day 1, a downtown criterium on day 2, and the Gila Monster, a 72 mile road race, with 6000 ft of climbing on day 3. I ended up finishing 13th overall for the 3-days, about 3 minutes off of the winner. Now this is a huge improvement over last year. In most climbing races I finished about 20 minutes back from the leaders.
The stay in Silver City was something special. Last minute, I found myself with no one to share hotel costs with, so I contacted the housing coordinator with the race with the hope of finding a host family to stay with. Now this was extremely last minute, so I had no expectations. Within 2-days I had housing, WOW! The family I stayed with was absolutely amazing. These people let me into there house to stay for a couple of days with no worries what so ever. I actually had the house to myself for one night. That says a lot about people. And the Towns people of Silver City were another surprise. Every time we went out riding, or around town with the bikes on the top of the car, we would get the thumbs up, or a "good luck". You want to talk about some positive energy!!!! I was asked to sign an autograph for one fellow, and Im just a Cat IV starting out in racing. Needless to say the entire trip was incredible. If I could, I would register for next years race yesterday!
So, Im back in Denver now, and after this weekends race I will be taking it easy while my parents are in town. This works out great since I've have had 5 races in 8 days, and I'm about due for a little rest.
~Later!
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