next race: Tulsa Tough

Tomorrow Thomas and I fly to Tulsa, Oklahoma to meet up with the rest of the crew who has just spent at least 12 hours in the car/van driving our team vehicles to the race. We do 3 crits there (Fri, Sat, Sun) and then drive half way across the country to Kutztown, PA to set up camp for the rest of the summer. But of course we won't even be in PA long before we take off for more racing.

Sweet road, sour weather

What a looooooooong coooooooold ride that was. Yesterday I headed out for a 5.5 hour trek through the Rockies. Thomas is on a rest week this week so I was by myself, just me and my Zune. I had mapped out a route already, and the main attraction of the ride was this 20 mile dirt road stretch that a local rider had recommended. Sounds sweet huh? It was; every bit as awesome as I had hoped for. Turning off a highway, Colorado River Road was the longest dirt road I had ever been on. It was hard-packed and, with the exception of a few ups and downs in and out of the canyon, it paralleled the Colorado River and a set of train tracks for 35 miles, 20 of which was dirt. On the dirt section I probably passed only half a dozen houses/trailers total.....I was really in the middle of nowhere so I occupied myself by singing along to Lucero at the top of my lungs without worry of other people hearing. And luckily, I had my headphones turned up loud enough so I didn't actually have to listen to myself either; I could just pretend that my voice sounded identical to that of Ben Nichols.

That was all fine and dandy but after about 1.5 hours it started raining. And the drizzle didn't stop. The dirt road remained hard, but at one point I looked down and could hardly distinguish between where my knee warmers, shins, socks, and shoes started because they were all the same color: mud color. I had even anticipated the rain and dressed warmly: knee warmers, long sleeve jersey, and long finger gloves, but I guess I didn't really know how to anticipate 4 straight hours in the rain, I don't know if I've ever done that before. I'm pretty sure the temp was still in the 50's but by hour 4 my hands and feet were thoroughly numb and I was soaked to the bone. I'm fine riding with numb feet...don't really need them for anything... but the hands became problematic. My right hand was better off (I think from constantly moving it to shift) but my left was absolutely useless. I had to use my right had to shift on the left side a couple times, and then with about an hour to go I pretty much stopped shifting all together. With the exception of the occasional shift on the right side when I could muster up the coordination for my icy fingers to push in the right spot, I pretty much mashed way too big of a gear all the way home. Trying to get all my clothes off with no coordinated movements in my hands may have been the hardest part.

Blue Racing Balls

Thomas and I departed for Boulder around 11 am this morning with a huge pancake breakfast still digesting in our stomachs. We stopped at the grocery store down the hill for water, cash, and coffee, and then we were on our way, race ready. We were headed to just outside Boulder to do this "Koppenberg" Circuit Race that looked like a pretty cool little five mile circuit; half was dirt road, and it included this steep little climb every lap named after the famed Koppenberg. Thomas followed his directions to a tee, but when we got to the Target/Costco shopping center where we were supposed to park there was not a cyclist in sight....just a bunch or overweight, shopping-kart-toting folks, totally oblivious to my pre-race, nervous, bubble-stomach that was starting to set in like it does when you have barely an hour until race time and you still don't know where the heck you are. We were sure we were in the right spot, right on the edge of the course, but this couldn't be right, where was everyone? It was a really weird feeling because there were signs for the bike race, but we saw no one. We proceeded to drive a lap of the course, hoping crest one of the hills and say "Ah, there it is!" as registration and a cyclist-crawling parking lot came into view......uuhhhhh, yeah, that never happened. As I made a couple phone calls to Dan and Oscar to try to get someone to look on the event website, Thomas somehow negotiated the little, low-riding Jetta up the actual "Koppenberg" part of the road which was incredibly washed out and had these huge trenches running the length of the hill.

Oscar gave us the word: the race was cancelled........ Why exactly it was cancelled, I don't know, I guess it was the rain cloud looming nearby. Why we didn't know this, I don't know either; I guess it was a last minute cancellation because Thomas and I were both on the website yesterday afternoon/night and there was no mention of it. Oooooh well. So that was that, all our predictions and worries of which of the fast guys from last weekend would be back to torture us up that hill every lap were for nothing. As was the huge pancake breakfast and numerous cups of coffee that I had consumed, hoping I would have good legs for the race. It was really disappointing.

We suited up in the parking lot and took off for a ride anyway, but after expecting to race, motivation was low and we soon turned around realizing that if we got back in time to give Lilly back her car so she could drive herself to work (the night shift) one of us wouldn't have to wake up at 6:30 am to go pick her up tomorrow morning. All we did was a little over an hour ride, with a couple sprints for fun, before we packed it up and started the two hour drive back to Edwards. It had started to rain on us, but it was more of a drizzle, and since when does a race get cancelled due to rain???

I really don't even know what to think about this day, it was a pretty big waste of time. I think I'm going to bump all my training for this next week up one day so I can start doing real rides tomorrow. I've had enough of this recovery stuff (this whole past week), it makes me feel so unproductive.

The KILLER

No not Di Luca, this person is MUCH more dangerous: THOMAS BROWN. You should have seen the raw display of killer instinct that terrorized my eyes today while out for a little spin on the bike path. The path that weaves through low-hanging trees along the edge of the sparkling Eagle River would have been quite a pleasant sight on any other sunny day: kids frolicking on their skateboards nearby, kayakers taking advantage of the warm day and high waters, and the cutest little prairie dog type ground squirrels popping in and out of their holes to check out the shiny bikes and blur of orange as we rolled by. Well this beautiful scene was soon turned upside, into one of sheer horror (especially for one particularly unlucky ground squirrel). Thomas "The Killer" Brown, who was not getting enough satisfaction from making me suffer on our (supposedly "easy") recovery ride, was on the hunt for another innocent life. As soon as he spotted the cutest, most preciously innocent looking ground squirrel we had seen all day just minding its own business a little too close to the edge of the path for its own good, Thomas struck with incredible ferocity. Based on the impeccable timing with which the attack was executed (he scored double-wheel impact), I could tell The Killer was no newbie to the field of assassination. Within that split second that it took for each wheel to inflict its spine-crushing blow to the poor little fury guy, I stood (or rode, rather) absolutely helpless to intervene and save a life. By the time I actually started to comprehend what Thomas had done, all that was left of the attack was the critter, sprawled on its back in full seizure mode, flopping up and down on the pavement like a fish.....

Like I said, it was a horrific sight. I wanted to go back to see if I could help it, but couldn't stand the sight, and figured that with absolutely no coordinated movement, the squirrel would be dead momentarily. So, after watching it flop for about thirty seconds from a distance, we rolled on our way. Poor little guy.

PS: im just playin, it ran out fast and thomas hit it on accident.

Also, thomas wasnt actually dropping me on our recovery ride.

A sample of our riding adventures

These first two are on a ride up to the top of Vail pass. The first is the bike path that parallels the interstate all the way over the mountain. Near the top we were riding with these 5 ft snow banks on either side of us, it made for an awesome sight. The only not-so-awesome thing was that being right next to the interstate, a layer of sand and dirt had been washed over the path due to all the melting snow on the road, so the sandy parts were sorta sketchy to descend.

The last three pics are dirt road climbs we've taken over the past week or so, those are hard! Especially the last one which was definitly not a road at all but a hiking trail; that's what one of our dirt roads turned into and we continued to follow it, dodging and walking through many rock gardens along the way. It did eventually end up back on a road, and was a shortcut (distance-wise.....not so much time or speed-wise).

Pictures from Denver

Had a good stay with Jordan and (Aunt) Molly

With a packed work schedule all summer, my girlfriend Jordan snagged a plan ticket to Denver as soon as she found out she had 4 straight days off from work. She has an aunt, Molly, living there with whom she stayed. I was lucky enough to have that crit in Boulder the day after she arrived, so after the race, Thomas, his bro Nico, and bro's wife Lily (Thomas and I have been staying with them in Edwards, CO for a couple weeks) returned home, leaving me with Jordan and Molly. I stayed at Molly's house in Denver from Sunday til Wednesday. With my fork broken from the crash and a scheduled recovery week anyway, I had Monday and Tuesday off from riding which gave Jordan and I plenty of time to "bop" (as she would say) around some little, cool parts of town with stores and coffee shops. Molly also got the Universal Sports channel which was a huge plus cause I got to wake up every morning and watch the Giro with breakfast :)

It was a good relaxing time, and fun to check out a new city. The only thing that could have been better was the fact that since I had just crashed, every time Jordan tried to snuggle up to me....or touch me at all, for that matter, I was flinching because of my newly acquired road rash....probably pretty funny to watch tho.

I also felt pretty bad for Molly's dog, his name is also "Joey." I guess you can see how that would get confusing. Everytime Jordan would raise her voice at me and say my name for doing something silly, the dog's ears would perk up and I was afraid he was getting the wrong impression that he was being scolded for something. Poor, confused doggy. I didn't have such a hard time getting mixed up with the name calling because, thankfully, the girls usually addressed the dog with a bit of a different tone in thier voice than they did me. The only time that became a problem was when Jordan would address me with a baby-ish tone in her voice from across the room; then I would just assume that she was talking to the dog so I would ignore her. On accident of course :)

That's sorta frustrating...

Thomas and I raced in the North Boulder Park crit on Sunday. It was actually pretty cool to see the incredible group of riders the race announcer called up prior to the start. It's not like this was a big money crit or anything, just a little local race, but the amount of pros that live locally blows away the depth of talent in any other local race, and many bigger ones too. Needless to say, the field was strung out most of the time and I didn't really feel too up to making many big moves. I felt okay, not great, but about what I expected for just training through the weekend.

Right towards the end I followed a good wheel and got off the front with 2 other guys with 5 or 6 laps remaining. We made it to the bell lap still with a good enough gap, the TT1 guy attacked, I jumped with him but trailed a bit through the first corner. Into the second corner, I had closed it down to just a couple bike lengths, but apparently took the turn too hot. The corner was over a driveway sorta thing over a sidewalk onto a path/driveway on the edge of a park, so it was pretty bumpy. It was really surprising cause I had flown through the corner many times without problems but this time I just hit the bumps leaned over a little too far and totally slid out onto my side along the ground, with the barriers stopping me. I got scraped up real nice on my one leg and a bit on my elbows, but nothing that'll be too hard to deal with. The thing that really sucks is that it was the last lap and there was no way we were getting caught, so thats a decent result and some gas money that went down the drain quick. That and the fact that I broke my fork and scraped up both shifters real good......siiiiiiiiiiick.

I think I'll start this thang back up

So the summer has come back around and I've rediscovered one of the reasons I started this blog last summer. I have nothing to do! It's great, I should rephrase that: I have nothing that I HAVE to do (except ride I guess). In the grand scheme of a day, riding really doesn't take up that much time, so the rest is spent however I please (I ride the couch and eat food for hours). I figure that in between Giro stages and stupid videos online, I can squeeze in a bit of time to keep my blog updated. I will do my best from here on out..... but its bedtime now, and I actually have something time consuming to do tomorrow: a crit in Boulder!