Whatcha been up to Joey?

A day in the life

2012-01-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'll write about two days ago, not because it was anywhere near a normal day in my life but because lots of bike-geek type stuff happened, and less laying in a hotel bed happened. This story takes place in Terracina, Italy where I'm staying in a hotel with the team for 10 days having our second training camp of the pre 2012 season.

So I wake up in the morning and take a pee. Thirty seconds later Massimo, one of our many Italian soigners knocks on the door and says I'm needed for doping control, really wish I had held that pee just a min longer to dispense into a cup instead of the toilet bowl. Turns out that wasn't really an issue tho because by the time I got down to the testing room there were already a few guys in line ahead of me. With one drug tester taking both urine and blood samples plus talking each guy through the paperwork, I had plenty of time to work up another pee. That's right, blood too! I'm now part of the Biological Passport antidoping program so I'm told I may get more blood drawn this week to sorta build a set of base data for myself. So that took so long that I barely had enough time to run to the dining room and scarf down enough food for the day before getting ready to ride.

Six hours on tap! Long rides get me so excited for some reason. I guess it makes me feel ultra productive, like I may actually be doing something worthwhile with my time other than just being a college drop out. So we head out onto beautiful roads along the cost before turning inland to hit some climbs. I think we did 3 or 4 climbs that took 15 to 20min a piece and wow it got hard to keep the wheel. I found myself trying not to breath hard when really my heart rate was soaring so high out of my "zone" that my coach, Gleb, would prolly quit if he ever saw the data. No matter what anyone says before the ride, I'm positive no one takes it easy when it's their turn on the front of the bunch.

On our way back to the coast we descended what was without a doubt the most beautiful road I've ever ridden on. We came flying down one side of this valley/crevice type landscape (basically two green, converging mountains) right to the edge of the sea, with the sparkling water covering the entire horizon. I was pissed I had left my phone at the hotel, woulda made an incredible picture.

Once down on flat roads again, we finished off the ride with an hour of "racing" each other. Turns out trying to match Lazlo's pulls in a crosswind at about the 5hr mark is really hard. Finally, we all limped back to the hotel logging a little under 6hrs and around 205km. I always feel good about a ride of that quality.

Afterwards, despite the pain and sluggishness encompassing my body I took the quickest shower of my life so I could get to lunch and start shoveling food into my belly. I'll have to do another little entry about the food sometime, it's great here.

Straight from lunch I headed upstairs to another soigner's room to get a massage. That usually lasts 30 min, and this time Cecchi had my favorite Italian TV channel turned on: DeeJay (basically like MTV, a mix of American and Italian rap and pop music videos), it's quite entertaining.

Then, after a very short stint of laying in bed (gotta do some of that every day) and trying to get the crappy internet to work, it was time for dinner again. Yes there were only a couple hours between meals, that's what happens when we ride long, really late lunches. But I'm ok with it, I really like food.

So after we'd eaten again and the shouting Italians were finally coaxed away from their cute little drained espresso cups and shimmering plates of olive oil wiped clean with bread, we gathered in the lobby for more bike-geek stuff. Our meeting was for our French director Frederic Moncassin to go over basic instructions on how to win sprints as well as specific instructions for the next day's ride where we'd do some sprint drills with lead outs, etc.

When we were excused, it was back to the room for me where I always do a little stretching before bed. Also tried to trick the internet into working again so I could get in touch with the outside world, just to make sure I still remembered how to speak English.

There ya have it. Freakin exciting stuff!

Bizarre Day

2011-09-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

I had the most bizarre day. I've been on a terrible sIeep schedule
since I've gotten here, so last night I couldn't keep myself from
falling asleep at 8pm, too early apparently because I woke up at 12:30
am wide awake. I did some intervals between laying in bed for 45 min,
getting on the computer for a while, back and forth until it was
nearly 4am and I still wasn't asleep. Ecstatic that my honey had just
gotten online on the other side of the world so I'd have someone to
talk, all of a sudden I couldn't see parts of the computer screen. My
vision was blotchy, could this really be a migraine coming on?? I
hadn't had one of those since like 8th grade and had never intended on
getting one again. I excused myself and managed to fall asleep before
much of the pain set in. Unfortunately it was waiting for me in the
morning.

I rolled out of bed at 7am, head pounding, stomach nauseous, and
experiencing a super-sensitive sense of smell. Good morning,
migraine. I force breakfast down, hobbled back to my hotel room and
could do nothing but lay down. Today's time trial was more of an
exhibition event with good prize money and had no effect on the
overall standings for the stage race, that starts tomorrow. The only
thing that kept me from going upstairs to ask director Mike Carter if
I could skip the race was the fact that I seriously doubted my ability
to make it to his room without puking somewhere along the way. The
motion of the elevator probably would have been bad enough to do it
but coupled with that sweaty/musty fish smell, I didn't think I stood
a chance. Finally I mustered the strength to stand up and as I was
walking to leave our room, I didn't even make it to the door. I
detoured left into the bathroom and immediately started puking my guts
out. I mean everything came out. First the french toast and then the
raisin bran (tho I had not eaten them in that order, I figure the
french toast was lighter than the dense, chewed up bran which must
have settled at the bottom of my stomach... science!).

Ty heard it all and was thoroughly grossed out but my tum tum felt
better right away and I couldn't have been happier. I can race with
just a headache! Luckily it lessened some as I got closer to my start
time and the 2 shots of espresso and a donut from the Dunkin Donuts we
had discovered in town did wonders for me (even tho maybe most
cyclists wouldn't approve of me eating it just an hour and a half
before my start). That's one thing I forgot to include in my previous
post, NO COFFEE! We can't even get black tea at our meals so every
morning I'm a mess until I get to Dunkin Donuts.

Next gross part, sorry I gotta include this cause its so nasty: I had
my first experience with a public Chinese bathroom today before the
start. Yes, I had to poo otherwise I woulda just found a bush to pee
on. I disregarded the homeless man living in the bathroom closet and
ventured into a stall. Their public commodes are kinda like normal
toilet bowls but they're built in to the ground so you don't actually
sit on anything... you do the "third world squat" hovering just above
the whole. The aim was a little tricky for me at first as I've never
had to poo from the air onto a target. Here's the gross part: no
toilet paper. It's not just that they were out, I guess the people
that use these bathrooms just don't wipe. Or maybe they all know to
bring something disposable to wipe with. Either way, luckily I still
had my wallet in my jersey pocket and this had me searching
frantically through it for all the receipts I could find. The one
that worked the best was a bank deposit receipt cause it was on
courser paper than the normal slippery restaurant receipts. Yep,
pretty gross.

So I do the TT, whatever, I didn't puke, I felt ok, my head still hurt
a little, and think I may have even done an ok time. There's no
doping control today so I head back to the hotel by bike to get
showered and go to lunch. It's not until after lunch that the rest of
my teammates who had later start times informed me on all that
happened while I was gone. Apparently I managed to get 2nd place in
the TT by a mere 1 second! The funny, tho slightly embarrassing part
is that since all us riders were already gone by the time they
announced results, director Carter had to throw on a jersey, get up
there on the podium for me even attend a little press conference (as
brief as he made it) pretending to be me.

I really didn't expect such a result after the morning I'd had, but
I'll take it. Makes me look forward to what we can do in the next two
weeks.

First Impressions

2011-09-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

After nearly 24 hrs of total travel time from hotel to hotel, I’m in
Xi’an, China for the first two stages of the Tour of China (we move on
to other cities for the following stages). This may have no real
organization but I’ve never been to anywhere in Asia so here are some
random observations I’ve gathered from my first couple days here:

Everyone I’ve come in contact with is EXTREMELY helpful, or at least
intends to be. The race organization has dozens of Chinese in their
late teens/early twenties working for them to help deal with all the
foreign teams. All the helpers speak English, and thank God they do
because not many other people do. As soon as we exited baggage claim
at the airport, Ty and I were met by a small group of giggling young
women waving “Tour of China” signs. Another young gentleman with them
showed us to a bus right away and had us to the hotel in no time
(actually I have no idea how long the bus ride took because I passed
out immediately and didn’t wake once). In addition, each team has an
assigned translator to tag along to races/other events (basically
whenever we leave the hotel). Our translator was sooo pumped to meet
us and to show us around the fancy hotel upon our arrival, and I
sincerely felt bad that I couldn’t share in her excitement… all I
could think was “Look lady, I’ve seen a hotel before, I’m effing
tired, gimme dat room key so I can go to sleep.” Nice lady tho, she
meant well.

The food. It’s Chinese, but it ain’t no Peking Restaurant on the
Athens East Side, that’s for sure. I’ve had a hard time eating any of
the meat dishes since I’ve been here. I showed up all open minded and
the first couple meals loaded my plate with a little of everything
from the buffet. After the second day I realized that no matter how
many times I tried it, most meat makes me nauseous. I’ve found that
nearly every dish has one of two characteristics that makes it
unappealing (or maybe both when the chefs get creative, yeck): either
it’s seafood and tastes strongly so, or its meat that seems to have
been prepared in a blender so that bone shards outnumber the amount of
edible meat in any given bite. My usual meal consists of white rice,
steamed veges, and hopefully one meat dish I can identify as edible
(it’s hit or miss with those). A couple times they’ve graced the
buffet with a Western item or two such as mashed potatoes or french
fries, but somehow they manage to taste slightly like fish as well.

In addition to tasting like fish, almost everything smells fishy and
my stomach no likey. Our hallway, musty fish. Chinese BO, sweaty
fish. The elevators, sweaty AND musty fish from the people that ride
in them. Some areas outside, dirty fish. Seriously, somehow stank
fish is the default smell here when anything is going to smell bad.
It makes me slightly nauseous just walking out into the hallway and
down the elevator to make the trip down to the restaurant every meal.
I keep checking myself and I’m afraid I’m starting to smell like it
too, possibly from the food we’re eating? Oh yeah, mix cig smoke in
there with stank fish. That’s the smell that’s everywhere.

Traffic is scary. I’ve seen 2 traffic accidents in the last 3 days
and I am outside a very limited amount each day. I’m sure there are
some traffic laws but as far as I can tell, WHO CARES!? It’s like one
huge game of chicken out there. Traffic lights are followed by about
50% or the drivers, the other half get to a red light, wait til the
edge of the intersection to slam on the breaks if they must but then
continue to creep on out no matter how many cars are coming the other
way. A lot of swerving and honking goes on, but eventually they just
get so in the way that a crossing car finally lets them through.
Though there are 6 lanes on a lot of these roads so sometimes cars get
stuck in the middle of the intersection and are forced to wait for it
to “clear” before they can proceed. Tonight as we were driven to the
team presentation we didn’t stop at a single red light and cut off a
cop from a few lanes over to swerve into a bike lane when traffic got
too bad. That brings up riding outside… There are huge bike lanes
(maybe too big because they are able to fit cars and busses as well)
divided from the road by a median. Sounds safe but with all the cars,
busses, mopeds, and rickshaws darting in and out of the lane, you
gotta cover your brakes with a hairpin trigger finger.

That’s all for now, I should probably stop complaining.

To China!

2011-09-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

Flight to China this morning to start racing the Tour of China on Sept 9-21. I think it's like an 11hr flight to Shanghai, then another hour or two flight o Xi'an where we'll be for the first few days. I'm gettin ready for a loooong day of traveling. Hopefully they have free video games on the screen in the back of the headrests.

Cracked

2011-09-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

I hated bikes yesterday. Actually I hated everything and anything.

Yesterday was the one-day Giro della Romagna and god I was tired. I knew I was gonna struggle from the start so I put everything I had into covering breaks, and it turned out to be a really aggressive day. We did over 50km in the first hour, with constant attacks going and coming back the whole time. Finally a big move went and it looked like everyone was satisfied. The bunch paused for a min to pee and as I got back moving after the brief break I noticed a rather loud creaking coming from the headset somewhere. Looking down, I spotted a huge crack that had formed in the stem right where it bolts onto the steerer tube. Not safe. I rode up to the car and showed Antonio, our mechanic, and he set me up with a bike change right away. Unfortunately some team in the group wasn't comfortable with the break and started chasing again, so it took Antonio leaning out the car with his hand on my back pushing me along at 50mph. I was just about drooling by the time I caught back on and no more than 15 min later all but 2 from the break were caught and the attacking commenced again. I dragged myself back up to the front to do my job. I thought there's no way I'm going to make it over the climbs today anyway so I might as well do as much as I can now. Needless to say, I was cooked when we reached the climbs 110km in. I made it over the first two smaller ones but pulled the plug as soon as we hit the slopes of the third and longest one. I gave Ty a sweet sling up into the group as my parachute opened.

Still 60km to go and I was in a group of 8 off the back with a couple more climbs to go. I grabbed three bottles from the car as they tried to speed by me. Those next two hours grew more and more miserable. We crawled along tediously slow. Even with 3 bottles I ran out of water. I ran out of food. On every little hill I seriously doubted my ability to make it over. My back was trashed from the first two hours of constant accelerations. Every part of my body was shot, it all hurt. And by the end my taint was bleeding from the different seat and position on that spare bike. Seriously, I have scabs down there today... I was torn up.

After 5hr 21min, I arrived at the bus (35min down on the winner). There was no food other than soda. We showered and got straight in the car to go to the airport hotel (3.5 hrs away) where we are now. We finally did stop at an AutoGrill when we were nearly here but I was far too cracked already. That meal barely put a dent in my hunger and I was mad at the world (obviously for no reason, but I was so hungry and tired that it didn't care about being rational).

I've raced around 550miles in the last 5 days. I'm better now. My outlook on life isn't nearly as dismal today as it was yesterday.

Da bus

2011-09-05T02:01:00.000-07:00

Our bus makes travel so much more bearable. No more cramped, sweaty car rides with. A 3hr transfer in the bus is just like hanging out in a hotel room which we do all day everyday anyway, other than the fact that there's no wifi. There's drinks and food, plenty of room to lay down, stand up, walk around, or stretch. There's also a back section that's not in any of these photos with more long benches like this. Seriously, we have lots of room.

Here's Ty demonstrating standard bus ride form. And yes, that's a TV at the front of the bus (top of the pic) with satellite reception. Got to watch the Vuelta a couple days on our way back from races.

Caffe maker on board!! Thank god. When you don't feel like warming up before a 200km stage eeeven tho you're expected to go full gas from the gun to cover moves, espresso is the next best thing.

Good size fridge stocked with water and soda. This is the first place I head right after the races to take a couple Sprites to the dome!

This bathroom really sucks. I guess maybe it's better than no bathroom at all but its seriously too small. When I sit down to poo the door almost hits my knees, and it's even harder to pee. I think the ceiling was made to fit someone about 5'6" max because when I go in there to pee I find myself having to bend my knees, tilt my head sideways and back a little and thrust my hips forward all in an effort to get my wiener over the toilet bowl so I don't dribble on the floor. It's like I'm doing the limbo and after a few days of racing, achieving that position sets my quads on fire!

The one thing I don't have pictures of is the shower on board. Actually there's two showers, which is so convenient because all 6 or 7 of us can be done with a race and showered within 15 min. There's a little bit of a height issue there too, but not as bad as the bathroom. I only have to duck my head about an inch or two in the shower.

Look Rachel it's yooouuuuuu

2011-09-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the one I miss the most. It's the only picture I have of Rachel on my camera. I think this face is "Uuuugh I can't believe how many f*#cking dishes I just cleaned"

Last stage but not done yet...

2011-09-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

So as far as me actually being able to contribute to the team, today was by far my best race. We set out with the same basic strategy as usual, and the stage was almost identical to yesterday's: flat until a 6.5km climb that summits about 20km from the finish. The difference was that I actually followed orders exactly as they were laid out.

That espresso I had on the bus must have done its job because from the gun I got to the front and started following moves. Along with my other teammates, except Bazzana, no group got away unmarked and eventually Lazlo dragged a break clear. This may not sound like much but it's such a huge contrast to the other stages that it makes me feel good. Previous days I've struggled for the first 20km to find my way to the front only to see the day's break already riding off into the distance.

We didn't stop there. After a very brief lull in pace to let the break's gap swell, we got together and basically rode as a unit near the front all the way until the bottom of the climb. Yesterday the run in to the climb had me absolutely pinned before the road even started to turn up, but today was different. All of us were at the front, surrounding Baz, swapping turns in the wind right next to all the "good" teams to ensure that we went into the base of the climb top 10 with him as fresh as possible. We were all a bit fried and fell of the pace shortly thereafter, but he got over the top with the leaders and we had done our job and it felt good. Yeah I would have rather finished in the lead group and been there to help him at the finish but at least I had done something. Today I was no longer pack-fill.

Bazzana ended up with a less than ideal result in the end, but we raced like we were supposed to and did all we could.

Tomorrow (yes, another race already) we race the one-day Giro della Romagna. It's 200km and tackles some decent climbs about 2/3 of the way through. Gonna be a tough one considering that probably half the guys didn't just finish this stage race and will have fresh legs. Yuck.

photozzzzzzz

2011-09-02T12:42:00.001-07:00

And I swear I will take some pictures of inside the team bus tomorrow. If I remember...

Questions from my fan base..

2011-09-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

So each day my inbox gets FLOODED with hundreds of questions from my massive fan base, so I thought I'd force myself out of my Entourage-watching stupor and take a few minutes to answer some of them. And by fan base I mean my dad.

The routine of a normal race day: At dinner the night before the race, we are each given a daily schedule for the following day that is a print out with the following fields filled in with times at which each is to take place or whatever other info: wake-up, breakfast (time and either team or individual), bags out, depart for race, transfer by (bike or car), team meeting, race start, start location, race distance, est race finish, finish location, transfer to hotel by, hotel name, hotel location, dinner (time and either team or individual), other notes. This simple piece of photocopied paper puts everyone on the same page and keeps the staff from having to repeat the answers to the same questions all night.

Race strategy: Our strategy for the day is laid out by our director, Massimo Podenzana in the team meeting. Usually this happens the morning of the race as soon as we get on sight and before anyone leaves the RV. Podenzana speaks very little English and I speak even less Italian, so a couple times throughout each meeting he pauses to let teammate Alessandro Bazzana translate for the 3 of us that still think Italian sounds like enthusiastic Spanish (besides Ty Magner, the third is Aussie Ben King). For every race we've done so far we have essentially the same plan: "Everyone except (so-and-so) cover the early breaks if there are more than 3 guys in it." Who "so-and-so" is depends on the course and who's riding well. That person is sort of saved for the finish and doesn't have to expend the energy of covering the often fruitless attacks at the beginning of the race.

In Carnago, the one day race we did, that guy was Jure Kocjan. He was 4th there last year and he sprint real nice. He ended up 6th this time.

On stage one here in Settimana Lombarda we had no real go-to guy for the finish because the finish was at the top of a 12km climb, so the jist of what Podenzana said was "don't miss the early break." Here, big boy Lazlo Bodrogi took care of that (just as he had at Carnago). They got caught right before the last climb and Bazzana ended up 26th. He's reeeally skinny.

Stage two was really flat so sprinter Andrea Grendene was designated leader. I guess the legs weren't there so Bazzana went for it and got 9th. Yes, our best climber has also fared the best in every sprint.... whadda ya gonna do. Ty managed a 22nd on the day, so that was cool to see him work his way up there.

Stage three, today, was relatively flat until a 6km climb that summited 15 or 20km from the finish. I think naturally Bazzana was the guy to work for here. About 50 or 60 guys made it over that last climb in the lead and he pulled off an 8th place finish.

Ugh, enough for now. Gotta get up early, and an episode of Bones is calling my name before I go to sleep (just realized that moments ago I watched the latest episode of Entourage so now I have seen every episode in existence). Stay tuned for more! Maybe I'll actually tell how the races are going for me personally in the next entry!! How exciting!!!

Settimana Lombarda

2011-08-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.settimanaciclisticalombarda.it/

This 4 day stage race starts tomorrow in horrific fashion... from the look of the profile tomorrow there are like 6 climbs all between 6-10km in length. I'm hoping the profile is slightly misleading and it won't be quite as hard as it looks, but either way the finish is on a mountaintop.

Test with the doc

2011-08-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

When we left Cuveglio on Tuesday we stopped by the team doc's office in Milan for lactate tests and blood work. We were in a hurry then so he didn't go over any of the results until today when he met us at the race hotel (we're near Bergamo now), and with a straight face told me that my body fat was 3.8%. YEAH RIGHT! And better yet, he said this time of year most riders would be expected to be around 3.5%... God that's inaccurate.

I really do wanna write more to let da folks of da world know what's going on here, but I really don't. I'm tired and I want to go to talk to the friends that I miss and go to sleep. When I've been involved with bikes all day, the last thing I want to do is think about them some more. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in another entry in the morning before I'm biked-out for the day.

First race

2011-08-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

So I got the first race out of the way. No matter how many times I look at CyclingNews I can't remember the name of it, other than the fact that it started in the city of Carnago, Italy. Despite the fact that getting dropped from races makes me severely depressed, it was actually a pretty cool experience.

We all piled into the bus/RV after breakfast (and actually there wasn't much "piling" to do because everyone had plenty of room to lay down) and lounged all the way to the race. Once kitted up, we rolled over to sign in together which is like a mini team presentation because as soon as we were in the vicinity I hear "Team Type 1" mentioned with excitement many times over the loudspeaker. The announcer immediately started calling each of our names, expecting us to file onto the stage (where the sing in table was) as multiple old men photographers are shouting at us and physically arranging us for their photos.

Upon escaping the sign in circus we were able to squeeze in a little more down time and have a meeting in the quiet privacy of the bus before heading to the start line. I didn't have to do ANYTHING except get dressed in preparation for this race. After training each day I just give my bike to one of the mechanics, so it showed up at the race clean and ready to go. When I got on the bus that morning there were already paper bags, labeled with each of our names, full of race food. When I asked for bottles before rolling to the start, they were on my bike in 30 seconds. A team this organized makes not getting results shameful.

So we start the race and after the first lap I surprisingly find myself at the front. Before the start I wasn't even sure I was gonna be able to make it up here at all, sweet! Then someone attacks, I follow, and I'm off the front no problem... and in a race with some seriously big names! Why do people say the racing here is so hard?? So I play around up there (getting caught and then following another move, getting caught again) for about the next 20km until the pain in my legs puts my brain back in focus. Anyone can go fast at the beginning of a race, and at every single race in the US I sit back and watch those idiots that go ape shit from the gun, just waiting for them to peter out before the real racing begins. Now, in this new environment, somehow I had become one of them.

I took a moment to assess the circumstances.. In such not conditions, with two long dragging hills every 20km lap, and with 200km total distance to race, I could already tell I was probably in too deep. I had gone sooo hard in that first hour, and especially considering how hot the conditions were and the fact that we were only being fed straight water, it was going to be hard to recover. It was only just a matter of time, and after 160km completed, my body finally fell to pieces as I tried to force it over one of the hills once more.

I sulked back to the bus with a teammate who'd popped off at the same time, showered, and tried to enjoy a prosciutto and cheese sandwich all while the rest of the team continued to suffer out on the road. Only 3 of our guys ended up finishing the race, Jure got 6th, and Visconti won.

I'm still trying to shake the feeling that I may just not be good enough to finish big races in Europe, and it's hard to look forward to our next one considering it's a mountaintop finish but I'm trying. I already went to the grocery and got myself some light salt which has been my secret to surviving the heat all summer (thanks to some knowledge from Uncle Daniel Holt) so maybe I'll be a little better prepared. We'll see.

Da race

2011-08-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

We race tomorrow (Thursday). Here's a link to the race start list I found on Cyclingnews.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/gp-industria-e-commercio-artigianato-carnaghese-start-list

L'hotel e un lago

2011-08-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

I really had no idea where we were til I just looked it up, but figures that we're close to the Alps and Switzerland. Here's the google map of where our hotel is: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hotel+La+Bussola+2,+Cuveglio,Via+Provinciale+3&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

That's our hotel. It's bigger than it looks. All meals are served here and we's eatin gooood. You can see a stupid mountain in the background.

I guess they knew Ty and I were rooming together, so they went ahead and pushed our beds together before we arrived. We always do that anyway so saved us some work. The little guy is napping right next to me this very moment as I type this.

If you zoom out on that gmap, this is the giant lake that's west of the hotel. We rode along a road that followed the rocky shore for a little while today.

In Italia

2011-08-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

It's waaay easier for me to write when I have pictures to refer to so that's probably what I'll do.

This picture of Ty taken in the Amsterdam airport, where we caught our connection to Milan, pretty accurately describes how I was feeling at 10am local time. Blurry eyed, greasy, and in need of a big cup of coffee. I couldn't sleep at all on our flight across the Atlantic (even after downing a couple free glasses of wine) but by the time we found our way through the foreign airport I was starting to feel it.

Made our way to Milan via another, much shorter, flight and were greeted by team mechanic Antonio driving this mondo RV. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for the two of us (Ty and I) to stretch out, so I passed out immediately. Much to my dismay, when I woke up and peered out the window as we were pulling into the hotel parking lot, we were in the mountains... I didn't sign up to race in the mountains! Should be some really hard racing.

As much as I hate racing over long climbs, training on them is incredible (mostly because I can creep up them as slow as I like). On our first ride out, we basically rode up as long as we could to try and catch some sweet views, and it didn't disappoint. We wound our way about 3000 ft up on mostly single lane roads past communities and through the woods.

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. Well thankfully I only ALMOST got hurt (but in spectacular fashion). These mountain roads are made up of switchbacks and blind turns, the kind most people in cars honk before rounding. As I built up some confidence leading the way down part of the descent I flew around one left hand bend to find myself face to face with some tiny euro car the all look the same to me. I had about 10ft to react, and it involved a big skid and swerve, but luckily I escaped clipping the front of the car by a couple inches.

Wilmington Grand Prix RR

2011-05-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

After nearly missing the start because of a much needed poopoo, we rolled out under rather chilly and windy conditions. This 110 mile route was out and back along the DE coast and was pan flat except for one tall bridge which had a KOM sprint at the top.

The first moment of excitement came when I suffered a rear flat at rather inopportune time. Only about 10 miles in, just as the first few attacks were getting underway, I flatted. Jack did a quick wheel change by any standard but with only a few cars in the caravan, I missed the back of it and had to count on his car to pace me all the way back. Pacing back on after a flat tire is pretty routine and usually no real problem, but because the field was currently going over 30mph responding to all the attacks, I was behind Jack's little rental car for at least 10 min barely gaining ground on the group. After a warning from the official that had dropped back with us, we resorted to the world's longest power-bottle (the ref had sped ahead at this point) to close the gap quicker and sling me up to the group. It was a little sketchy being dragged over the rough road surface, spun out in my biggest gear, holding onto the bars with just one hand...but I made it.

I arrived at the back of the group just in time to see Ty out sprinting all others to claim the $250 KOM prize. Sweet, thanks for more money Ty.

Soon after, a large break finally got away with Dan and Michael both present. Michael Dalterio is making huge leaps from his preseason form, I think this is the first break he's factored into all year. I think there's more to come from him.

Unfortunately a certain UHC team refused to actually race.... rather than ever do anything risky or exciting like attack or even cover moves, they opted instead to just set pace at the front aaalllllllll day. I guess Dan and Michael's move was deemed too large because the boys in blue never let the gap out and brought it back within 15 miles. This little bit of hard chase in a crosswind made for some fun racing lined out in the gutter but that was probably the most exciting part all day. After that a small, less threatening break went and the rest of us just rode the couch on the flat roads of DE as UHC did their job of bringing it back right before the finish.

A combination of not really knowing the last few turns and a kind of slow pace saw us all lose position right before the sprint so me, Dan, and Ty all ended up somewhere around 11th-13th place.

Despite the lack of results at the finish line, one huge improvement we made as a team was actually riding as a unit and using it to keep position in the crosswinds in the last 20 miles.

Wilmington Grand Prix Crit

2011-05-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

For the record, I haaaate writing race reports... They're all similar, boring to write and read, and probably not even that accurate when told from my point of view.

Saturday's race found us in downtown Wilmington, Delaware to race an NRC crit. After an aggressive start, we reached the half way point with the bunch still all together, but it would only be that way for a few more laps until our resident babysitter/team captain Dan Holt made a really good attack to open up a gap immediately. He was all alone out there but motored on solo for at least 5 maybe 10 laps until the gap started to come down rapidly, and hoping to make good use of his effort, I set up for the counter in the front of the group. Just as he was within 30 meters of the bunch, I wasted no time in launching my own bid for glory and I too quickly got a gap. Unfortunately not one rider followed me either, but we only had 12 laps to go at this point so I thought it was worth a shot. For the next 8 laps I floundered around off the front by myself, struggling to find a comfortable gear I could spin. My leg speed was no where to be found so I was absolutely mashing too big a gear the entire time. Alas, I got caught with about 4 laps to go.

Thankfully, as he always does, Ty Magner came through in the sprint to place 5th, winning me yet more money and making the race not a total loss.

I suppose having a TT1 rider off the front for the last half of the race was good publicity if nothing else, and I got a lot of "good job!"s and "I thought you had it, man!"s after the race, but ti me it felt like a lot of pain for little gain.

RR write up to come, after I get back from my morning ride...

Aww, how nice...

2010-05-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

We drove our team van to the grocery yesterday. Check out this sweet note we found on the windshield when we came back out.

I travel by bike

2010-05-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

After Saturday's disappointing and painful crit (in which I found myself sliding by way of butt cheek down a steep hill on the rain-slicked streets of Wilmington, DE) I hauled my achin' butt out of bed and back on the bike again at 10am the next morning setting out to ride to our next host house in Somerset, New Jersey. I needed about 6.5 hours of ride time so the 100 miles to get there would actually be a little short, but I'd worry about that if and when we actually made it to the house that was two states over.

A mere 2 hours in I found myself on the outskirts of Philadelphia and damn near cracked. Contributing factors to my mental breakdown:

- The route consisted of something like 127 turns.... I swear it never felt like we were on any road for longer than 0.3 miles.

- We were navigating with David's Garmin and, as is expected with his slightly spastic nature, we'd get into a conversation (i.e. he'd start freely spilling random info into my ear, and I would nod) and would forget to look down at the GPS. I'm gonna estimate that we missed 15 turns. And the GPS takes around 10 minutes to recalculate after each of those mistakes. It felt like we were riding blind most of the time.

- I was 2 flats deep and out of tubes.

- There were at least 3 or 4 holes in the tire with shimmering bits of glass or metal sticking out. And they were laughing at me.

- I don't know if you've ever been in the area, but there's no such thing as a nice, quiet country road between Wilmington and Philly. There are entirely too many people, too much developed land, and too many stop lights. And they're all red. All the time.

- David's response for all of the slow traffic lights and neighborhoods we encountered was to sprint from a stand still after every light. And up every hill. I don't do that.

- For the first two hours it seems like I rode next to David for a total of about 15 minutes. Other than that he was either pedaling 75 watts, messing with the Garmin or doing 500 up some hill. If I had had the slightest clue where I was, I would have ditched him in a heartbeat during that first 2 hours.

Philly took care of all my problems. Directed by 4 swole frat dudes to the nearest bike shop and then escorted there by a friendly Philly bike commuter, I restocked on tubes and replaced my shit rear tire with a new one for a whopping $15. Leaving the shop I still felt a little bummed that we'd only ridden about 2 out of the last 3 hours since we'd left Wilmington. Soon enough we were amongst the action of traffic, sky scrapers, restaurants, and people of downtown Philadelphia, and for some reason I got really excited. Being in an urban setting while I was trying to train would have pissed me off any other day, but I had pretty much already thrown the idea of "training" out the window for the day. Now I was in tourist mode. "I've never been to Philly, I neeeeeed a cheese steak!!!!" After luring David into the idea by offering to pay for his cheese steak, we did it. Got a loaded hoagie from a street vendor, hijacked patio chairs from some fancy shmancy restaurant and started enjoying the day.

Something clicked and my motivation was unbreakable after that. We got into a rhythm and started training for real. We ran every red light for the next 80 miles. It started raining.... who cares. Almost just got hit by that car.... eh, whatever.

We squeezed out 90 minutes of harder than necessary tempo at the end and even rode extra after we got to Somerset because we weren't done with the workout. I didn't ride a second less than 6.5 hours which was a huge success mentally. All year I've lacked the sometimes overly-motivated mentality that brought me success last year. It's almost back, and I desperately need it.

Blog Drought

2010-05-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

I've done a ton since my last blog and have probably experienced and already forgotten lots note-worthy stories since then. I'm not gonna write about any of them now. The burden of feeling like I needed to play catch up and narrate every single event since my last blog is what has kept me from writing any more since then... that task is too big. So I'm not gonna do it. But I can start from now on. I'm simply writing now to break my blog drought so that I will hopefully be much more inclined to write about events from now on, immediately after they happen. When I wait a few days to write about something totally rad that happened in my life, the memory of it loses most of the vivid details and then I feel like trying to write about it after forgetting half of what happened would not do it justice. So then I end up not writing at all. Hopefully I can stop doing that and start writing.

Hittin' the wall

2010-03-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

No, not "the wall" metaphorically. During Sunday's race I literally hit "a wall."

After the first three stages in Redlands I was sitting 35th overall, totally excited about attempting Sunday's Sunset loop circuit race. This day of racing had been built up in my mind as what would most likely be the hardest race all spring, and there I was, 10 laps into the 12 lap sucker, still hanging in the front group. Then "whoa!" bam, my race was over. The field in front of me drifted right around a bend while ascending the climb, and in an instant of fatigue driven indecision, I was in the gutter, scraping my shoulder on a stone wall, and then hitting the ground. I wasn't hurt at all, but by the time I checked my bike, put the chain back on, and remounted, the group was out of sight. I road out the last lap and a half with another unlucky soul, who's work was done for the day, to finish around 6 or 7 min down, eliminating any chance I had to move up in the overall.

The worst part of it all is that if I had made a better choice and just feathered my breaks for half a second, the whole thing would have been avoided and I would have still had a legitimate opportunity to test my legs against the big guns once things really got fast.

Overall, I come out of Redlands actually quite pleased with my fitness. I was there in the mix in the other two finishes prior to Sunday's stage but my mind still feels a bit rusty when I'm trying to think through the haze of pain and decide exactly what to do at the end of a race. While I was towards the front, I was still never able to make a significant contribution to Mark or anyone else on the team to help one of us seal the deal. I was just there....a little too far back to be a player in the races and definitely too far back to get a real result. Moral of the California trip: "Get yo head screwed on right, it's racin' season!"

On Deck...

2010-03-25T10:26:00.001-07:00

The Redlands Bicycle Classic starts today and goes through Sunday.

Short but tough uphill time trial today..... hmmm, I start in less than 2 hours. Ima get going.

Owie (San Dimas Circuit)

2010-03-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

The ninth time up that hill was balls out hard, and just as I finished sprinting over the “cobbles” (aka fake brick textured road) that lap, I could feel them sneaking up on me. Cramps. Nothing debilitating yet, but the tinge was there, right in the end of my quads, slightly above my knees.

Three laps to go…. I finished off my last gel and even bummed a couple gummies from Mark, in an effort to postpone full-on cramps to make it through the remaining hour of racing, but I think by then I had already started to feel the damage of dehydration.

Holding on by the skin of my teeth, I maintained contact with the front group up the steep section for 2 more laps. My cramps progressively worsened until standing up to pedal was basically no longer an option. On the last lap I stood up for a few seconds just to pop over the top of the feed zone hill, and after about 3 pedal strokes just as I was pressing down with my right foot, my quad completely locked up. I’m talking, as contracted as my muscle could possibly be, hyper extending my knee even. That’s never happened to me in a race before, but it reminded me of playing around with an e-stim machine in the athletic training lab….only times a thousand. I actually didn’t even know that could happen to my body. So after some serious concentration, I managed to force my peg leg back into a more natural bent position, but right as I did so, I shifted weight to my left leg only to have the same painful contraction happen to that quad as well.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it over the final climb intact with the lead group, but with a downhill and then only a mile or so of flat, I finished up just about 15 seconds in arrears.

Apart from crashing, those cramps were by far the worst physical pain cycling has ever caused me.

Back at it....

2010-03-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

The bike racing season is cranking up once again. Fresh off team camp last week, I'm now out in San Dimas, CA for my first real race of the season. This race started with a hill climb time trial today and ends on Sunday. After a transfer to a host house in Redlands on Sunday night, we'll hang for a couple days before starting another stage race (4 days long) in Redlands on Thursday. I didn't do great in the time trial, but it's still quite a relief to have that tt, and the pain that accompanies it, out of the way. Now for the circuit race tomorrow...

My team for 2010

2009-11-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mountain-khakis-brings-in-jittery-joes-sponsorship

Nationals

2009-08-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

Oregon is a cool place, I especially liked Portland, deserts suck tho.

The first 2 races (road race and time trial) went pretty terrible for me. The only thing I've been able to figure is that it was the heat that was killing me. I guess part of Oregon, Bend included, has been having a crazy heat wave because the temperatures were right around 100 degrees while we were there. It's also basically a desert too so the air is super dry. Anyhow, it was hot and there have been very few times that I have ever felt that bad on my bike. I felt like I had the speed but after the first couple efforts, it was taking ages to recover like I normally do so I was basically worthless for the rest of the race. In the road race, however, Oscar had a standout ride, attacking solo and then joining a big group that separated from the pack on the climb. He road to 17th place and upon looking at the results, I realized that everyone that beat him that day, with the exception of only a couple, has or still does ride for the national team....crazy. The road race was such a hard race that that's a really good result.

I didn't quite leave Oregon completely depressed, however. The last race of the week was the crit in downtown Bend. An early break of 3 went up the road and despite the sporadic efforts of me, Oscar, and about a dozen New Englanders (from at least 3 different teams) who all appeared to be working for Keough, we didn't catch them. I was a little disappointed but followed moves for the remainder of the race until, before I knew it, it was 1 lap to go and I found myself third wheel sprinting for 4th. Keough did end up coming flying past me right before the line, but he was the only one and I passed the two in front to secure the final spot on the podium: 5th. I was pretty happy with that. So I got a medal and some podium photos out of the week after all.

Pre-nats

2009-08-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

The week before nationals was, without a doubt, the most complete recovery week I have ever had. I rode the hour or two per day as was instructed but besides that, my daily activities included Tour watching, general web surfing, and watching the complete first season of Heroes. In addition, every night after dinner (and sometimes before dinner as well) we would sit down for family movie time and watch one of our many borrowed dvd's that we scored at the Kutztown public library (great alternative to the movie store). The point is that besides the occasional trip to the kitchen, I was basically laying down for a week straight....my legs were gonna be so fresh for nationals.

Highlights of the week leading up to our trip to Oregon include the day that Thomas and Oscar went out on a gathering mission and came home with at least 5 or 6 lbs of wild rasberries. We'd seen them lining the backroads for a week prior but hadn't discovered their identity until Thomas stopped and asked some guy that seemed to be picking the berries. Anyway, all Thomas's wildest dreams came true (rasberries are his favorite food) and we ate rasberries with every meal for 3 days straight.

Also, while out training on Thursday, Thomas and I got caught in a terrential downpoar. The rain was coming down hard, and Oscar even called wondering if he should come pick us up somewhere but we brushed off the offer thinking we were gonna be totally badass and pound it out through the rain storm. Good call......not! Fifteen minutes later I found myself on the ground sliding across a metal open grate bridge and then onto the concrete. Whathahappent was, as we were riding in a straight line across this bridge, even going slow I might add, I either jerked my biked a little or maybe just peddled. Either way, the metal was sooooooo slick and something I did made my bike start sliding sideways, and before I knew it I was sliding hands and head first across the ground.

Being wet, the concrete portion of the ground was awful kind to me and didn't give me any of the ordinary road rash. The metal grate bridge on the other hand, did what all graters do best and sliced into my palm. The area of infliction was the squishy, meaty part right under my thumb, and split open, I got a first hand view of what a thumb muscle looks like.....no different than a piece of raw chicken breast (except bloodier). Looking down to see my own skin parted and a little sliver of chicken sticking out between the skin flaps really messed with my head. Almost immediately I got nauseous and sorta dizzy. As I stumbled over to a stone wall to sit down, Thomas called Oscar back to take him up on his offer. I was doing all I could to keep from throwing up for the next half hour as I sat in the rain. I calmed down soon enough however, and by the time we were on the way to the hospital I had actually discovered that by flexing my thumb I could suck that little extruding piece of meat back up into my skin and then release to make it hang back out again. Thomas thought that was pretty cool but Oscar wouldn't look and I think I almost made him pass out while driving just by telling him about it.

No one was in the emergency room so it was a quick n' easy visit (except for the 2 or 3 shots the lady put right into my hand, that hurt!!!!!) and I only got 4 stitches. After the nurse lady was done I admired her work at closing it up so well and she even said, "Yeah, I just had to shove that little piece of meat back up in there." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Raccoon Rock, aka Hamburg Hole, aka Schuylkill River Cliff Jump, aka IQ Test

2009-07-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Oscar's research and discovery of one of the best sites on the internet, swimmingholes.org, we were able to obtain knowledge that probably only a small number of locals even know about. Upon finding out that there was what seemed to be a pretty nice swimming spot in Hamburg, PA on the Schuykill River only like 15 or 20 miles away, we set out bathing suits in hand (well some of us anyway...we've been twice and Oscar somehow forgot his suit both times) to check it out. It did not disappoint.

It's hard to beat a good swimming hole in the dead of summer. I mean, I really don't think there's anything that can match the good clean fun that a swimming hole can provide to people of all ages during a blazing summer day. Of course not everyone keeps it good ol' clean fun. Every uncommercialized swimming hole has its share of people that bring beer and weed to the spot without fail, and this one was no different. It's sorta puzzling to me why impairment always seems to be a necessity, and all I can think of is that the druggies must simple be braver people by nature and must be searching for that extra bit of thrill. I guess free falling for 40 or 50 ft into a murky current isn't enough for them, but for me, completely sober I was scared shitless and had absolutely no trust in my own two feet as I edged out onto this peninsula of a rock; I can't imagine trying to keep my balance up there shwasted. But then again I would never back flip off this rock either. I guess its just one of those things that people, who are way more daring than I, do. Some do back flips off the 45 ft cliff, some do front flips, some do one-and-a-halfs, some do gainers, some dive, and some jump off it so blown that they can't see straight.

Anyway, we got there, jumped off lower rocks and swam around for a bit, staring up at the looming cliff as some poor 14 year old was being pressured into jumping by two of the more drunk 40 somethings. The rock looked intimidating but I knew I wanted to jump off it, but more than that, I knew that I didn't want to be fried alive under pressure like the 14 year old that eventually walked away without jumping after at least half an hour in the spotlight. Lucky for me, the old guys soon left along with much of the crowd, and the top of the rock was now ours for the taking. The first time I walked out on the little rock peninsula at the top was also the first time I had ever felt afraid of heights. Yeah it was just water below and I'd witnessed dozens of people jump and live to tell the tale, but I started feeling woozy at the sight of it. It sort of freaked me out that I was even getting freaked out by this. Usually when I jump off stuff its just my common sense that I have to argue with to convince myself to do it, but this time, my it seemed my body was giving me real physical signs that this was a bad idea. I still wanted to do it.

After convincing Thomas to do it if I did, my peer pressure then shifted to Oscar as I tried to get myself amped up more than anything. The O was not only resistant to my pressure (saying NO immediately), but he went further to say that "Neither you or Thomas is going to do it and we're just going to stand up here all day thinking about it, so we might as well leave now." Well jeez, I was sorta looking for someone to try to motivate me to jump, but Oscar was obviously not the one in this situation, he must be really scared of this jump. So Thomas and I did exactly as Oscar had predicted, danced around on top of the cliff squealing like little girls for at least a good half hour to 45 min. All of a sudden, fed up with our childish ways and wanting to leave, Oscar charges by me. I met his eyes but they were locked on something distant, his body was faintly quivering, and he was walking so fast that it looked like running would probably be more efficient. There he went, right off the edge of the rock, not even looking down until his foot had left solid land. Oscar hadn't wanted to do it at all so I was bewildered at the sight.

Oscar's survival from the jump paved the way for Thomas to do it soon after, and then me (even longer after). I guess I knew I would feel this way, but after the first jump and with the excitement over, I saw how simple and harmless it was and felt completely silly for making such a big deal out of it. But still, it was the highest thing I've ever jumped off of.

(I know it looks small in the picture, but I swear it felt really high)

The Velodrome

2009-07-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Since my return to Kutztown after my 2 week stay at home, we've gotten the opportunity to race the track twice on Tuesday nights. I don't exactly have any killer results to boast about, but we've held our own, every once in a while getting a top 5 in some of the races. Its about what I would expect, not because everyone here is in better shape than us, they are just in better track shape. After so much road racing, I can't expect my track legs to be as good as those of the guys that are here racing and training on the velodrome every week. The first week back, we got to do a madison which was pretty dang scary for me because the track was really crowded, unlike the races at Dick Lane which split up the moment Jeff says "GO." Oscar and I got 5th in this madison, here's a link with a few cool photos of us in action: http://www.cyclingcaptured.com/gallery/8822745_jYA9t#586780364_HJMM2

Tonight we're going to the track to do our first Friday night racing here. It's supposed to be the "pro race" by invite only, so that should be fast.

TOV; Stage 3

2009-07-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

The fourth and final stage of the weekend was a crit held in Youngstown, OH, and as we pulled in to town, much of what Jim Behrins had described about the town unfolded before our eyes. It had definitely seen better days; I guess it was a booming area when the steel industry was thriving, but from the looks of it, most of the factories, warehouses, and other random buildings had since been abandoned. Granted it was a Sunday, but the city streets still seemed eerily empty to me.

With the box of powerbar gels having seemingly disappeared from the van (???), before the race got underway I managed to swipe a couple free Mountain Dews from the hospitality tent to fill my bottles with sugar. The fuel situation taken care of, the only thing left to do before the race got under way was go drop the kids off at the pool…. something I would NEVER DARE start a race without doing. I’m talkin, this is more important than any warm up or whatever other pre-race customs you can think of. So, to take care of business I followed the trail of riders into this supa fancy shmancy wine bar (I think it was called Rosetta Stone), the owner of which I’m sure was cursing himself for even getting out of bed that morning, much less being open and inviting to the cyclists. “The bathroom is all the way in the back? Oh, ok thanks. Back on the other side of that pristine, polished, hardwood dance floor you got back there? Alright, don’t mind if I do…” Yeah, no joke, I’m estimating that at least half the cyclists at this race used that bathroom, tromping straight across that wooden dance floor in their click-clackin cleats. Momma woulda been horrified at the site, and because her scolding me for walking across a wood floor in metal cleats was all I could think of, I couldn’t bring myself to look down to inspect the damage, as I tried to ever-so-gently make my way across the dance floor.

When it was my turn in the john, just as every other cyclist who had sat on that same throne that afternoon had done, I blew it up in there, flushed and made as quick a get away as possible. That brings up an entirely different problem that the Rosetta Stone management was also going to need to address…

As for the race itself, it didn’t quite unfold in picture perfect fashion, but it worked out nonetheless. With Jafer sporting the yellow jersey and a sizeable lead on all but one other competitor, all that ideally needed to be done was to lead Jafer out for the sprint, so he could win or at least place high enough to maintain his lead. Maybe a quarter of the way into the race, I looked up and found myself staring at Paul Martin’s butt (which is about at face level because the dude is so big) seconds before he launched an attack. Well that’s a no brainer, I’m already on his wheel and no one is getting away without us, so I follow him. We get a gap, I refuse to pull through as is necessary when trying to defend a jersey back in the field, but before I know it, Oscar has covered another attack and bridged up with 2 other Panther guys and another GC contender. I say hi to the O and all that’s left to do at that point is sit on for the ride, so that’s what we did; neither of us taking a single pull. I knew we were with a strong little bunch, but our gap hovered at only around 15 to 20 sec for at least half an hour, so I was sure we were gonna eventually get brought back. Well all of a sudden, in the last 10 laps our gap grew immensely. We weren’t getting caught at that point, and a Panther guy attacked with 2 laps to go. Oscar wasted no time in hitting the front of our little group for the first time all day to make sure this got brought back, and he did it with perfection. Oscar smashed the lone attacker’s dreams for victory just 2 or 3 turns from the finish, and peeled off to hang on for 4th. I then went into the last corner 3rd wheel, and sprinted to victory up the left side after nearly getting pinched into the barriers as 2nd-place took desperate measures to try to keep from getting passed.

After Martin’s complaint (he got pinched out and forced to take 3rd) about 2nd place taking us into the barriers, that guy got relegated to 3rd, giving Martin 2nd instead. It was a hard call for the officials, but I didn’t see much wrong with what had happened. Of course my opinion might have been different had I not won, but still, to me it seems like that sort of thing is just a part of bike racing. People get pinched, squeezed, pushed, and bumped in and out of position every day in races. Anywhoo, with the win and Martin in 3rd, I thought I had the weekend all sewn up with enough points to take the overall win, but with the officials’ decision to move Paul Martin into 2nd on the stage, gave him enough points to be tied with me in the overall GC. There were a few nervous minutes when I thought they would decide the tie by whoever did better in the time trial (which was him) but luckily it came down to which one of us had won more stages (which was me), with the TT as the tie breaker only if number of stage wins was a tie as well.

So, to wrap up this essay, I won the overall title, Jafer took third overall, and Oscar got fifth. A good weekend and decent paycheck for the boys.

TOV; Stage 2

2009-07-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Dont got much time, but Jafer had a great ride today. We did a road race that had a couple big hills and lots of rollers and he got in a break first lap that stayed away. He gobbled up both KOM sprints which earned him extra points for the overall, and he won the stage by attacking the break with like I Km or less to go. He is in the lead overall now and all we've got left is a crit tomorrow to defend his title. It should be good fun. Oscar and I are also sitting 4th and 5th overall which is good but top 3 is where most of the money is at so we're gonna go chasing it tomorrow.....gotta get that moooooooooooooollllaaaaahaahhhhhhhhhhhh

Tour of the Valley; Day One

2009-07-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

I had a rather disappointing time trial this morning: Oscar got 5th, Jafer got 7th, and I got 8th, and the others were not too far behind. It wasn't all that bad, but for the competition, we knew we could do better. I don't know what's up with me and TT's, I think I just don't get along with my bike.

The crit went waaay better, we killed it, in fact. After following and making attacks for much of the race, everything happened in the last 6 or 7 laps when I followed Panther's Paul Martin off the front, just the 2 of us. While I spent a few laps working with him trying to figure out how I was gonna beat such a big dude, Oscar made the absolute smartest move of the race. I looked across this traffic island to the road on the other side where the course sorta doubled back on itself and saw Oscar off the front with just one other guy, and not a Panther guy either. I was set from this point on, I only soft peddled when I took pulls and then sat on the guy i was with for the whole last lap and a half. If Oscar caught us that'd have been to my and his advantage, and if not, no big deal cause the only way we were gonna stay away was if Paul Martin pulled more than me. We ended up not getting caught, and I had gas left at the end so I won the sprint between the two of us. Oscar beat his companion for 3rd, and after a lead out from Jafer and Mikey, Thomas and Anthony went 1, 2 in the field sprint. We basically won on all possible fronts and it was a good feeling.

Really quick recap with few details....

2009-07-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened that I havent quite kept up with since the last post, but there's no time for that now. Basically, we raced Nature Valley which was hard every day. I didnt really do as good as I wanted there, placing only 4th in best young rider instead of top 3 which woulda earned us some money. Then after a days rest (that began while we were still at the casino from the night before), we went to the Tour of Ohio which was an amateur only race and had a pretty poor turn out (45 or so) compared to previous years when there were over 100 racers. We were pretty worn out by the end but ended up with some good results, winning a 3 of 6 stages, and I wound up with the overall win and the sprint jersey.

Taking a break from racing, I headed home for 2 weeks during which time I went to the beach, swam in lakes and rivers, rode some, and raced the track. It was a really good change of scenery and activity.... not that the jjoe's crew is getting old or anything :)

Now its nice to get back to Kutztown and redirect my focus to training and recover.... I need sleep!

Twitter

2009-06-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

I just made a twitter this morning, so feel free to follow me on that. We just got done with the first day of the Nature Vally Grand Prix, and it lasts til Sunday so I'll probably just wait til then to do a little recap/race report. I will be keeping up with the days events on twitter cause that's much quicker. Its www.twitter.com/joeyrosskopf

Tour of High Bridge.....again

2009-06-09T07:48:00.001-07:00

Because the 100 degree heat and painfully steep hill that we experienced last year at this race wasn't enough to scare us away, we returned to New Jersey to do the Tour of High Bridge just as we had done one year ago. It wasn't quite so hot this time but the hill was just as hellish as I remember. The 3 mile circuit features a 2 step hill, the first of which has got to be over 20% and 2 or 3 hundred meters long. After that, the road winds down a driveway width alley that is so torn up and patched that a dirt road would be much smoother. I felt great poundin it out over the torn up road, but I think that kind of hill ain't really my thang.

I got in a break again after 2 or 3 laps and eventually, with 2 to go I couldn't follow an attack on the steep section. Two guys got away from us and the rest of us didn't have much left in the tank to chase. When it became clear that trying to work with the rest of the guys in the break wasn't gaining us any ground on the lead 2, I attacked the little group, taking one tag-along who had been saying he was way too dead to ever pull through....if you can follow an attack, you can rotate through a dang paceline..... After a bit of yelling I got him to pull through once or twice but we never caught up. I beat him in the sprint for third place.

I'm a wiener! (Race Ave)

2009-06-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Opting out of the time trial that Oscar and I were supposed to do Saturday morning, the four of us instead went to Lancaster to do a crit called Race Avenue. For a local race, I was actually impressed with some of the guys that showed up. Not wasting much time, I found myself following a couple wheels and off the front after maybe 15 min of racing. It was sorta exciting when I realized that I was off the front with Chad Gerlach, among 3 others (5 of us total). Four of us worked pretty well together til Gerlack attacked with 2 to go. We looked at each other until I jumped to bridge the gap. We regrouped with about half a lap to go and then I won the sprint, waiting a while before I came around (it was a really long sprint and I think everyone went a bit early). It felt really good to get a win under my belt before heading to Nature Valley this week where I'm in for some killer suffering.

After a good lead out effort by Oscar and Anthony, Thomas took third in the field sprint for 8th in the race. With a Wawa stop on the way home, it was a great day.

Back at "home"

2009-06-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

I feel as if I never left this little town. I'm back in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in the house on Whiteoak St just as I was last summer. This is where we'll be based out of for the remainder of the summer.

The house had nothing when we showed up but since then we furnished it real nice with a couch from an alley nearby, and silverwear, a pot, and bowls from dollar general. We still dont have a table but we're working on that. No internet either so I'm at a coffee shop right now and this lady is trying to set up for a drum circle so i gotta get out the way!

Tulsa was tough

2009-06-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Tulsa came and went with no real surprises. The races had big money, lots of teams, and were hard. No one really did better than expected, or worse, for that matter. I placed 25th, 18th, and 29th in the three crits, in that order. I was pretty disappointed with how I finished and wanted to do a little better, but I guess that's part of bike racing; you get beat by people that are faster than you. For whatever reason, I just felt sketchy and not confident in the first two days and then in the third race when I was actually feeling pretty good each time we crested the steep hill, I just lost my legs (and my position went with it) in the last couple laps.

The third race (Sunday) does deserve a little talking about, however, because it was quite a spectacle. It was a river-front course that looped a block inland into a neighborhood every lap. Turning off of the riverfront immediately took riders up a short, steep hill that lead to another right turn. The steep grade of the hill continued through the corner and onto the backside of the course for another block or so. It was a real leg buster, but what made the hill bearable was the incredible fans lining the street on that hill. It was an absolute scorcher of a day (like 92 degrees or something) and despite the fact that the race started at 3 pm (a little early to be drinking, in my opinion) there was a full fledged party going on on this hill on the backside of the course. Someone had a band in their front yard, many were stripped down to just bathing suits in an effort to stay cool, there was beer everywhere, and the majority of the crowd was standing in the street cheering their brains out, only leaving a gap that might have been just wide enough for a small car to squeeze through very cautiously. Every fan was also armed with water. Whether it was plastic bottle feeds for us to dump over our heads, garden hoses, or squirt guns, it seemed like everyone had some form of water. Once I got over the initial shock of being nailed in the face by one stream of water or another every lap, I started to look forward to the cooling sensation it provided. Basically, it felt like we were reenacting a very short segment of a grand tour climb over and over again in the midst of this criterium. The fact that once and a while I would glance over and see Floyd Landis riding next to me even seemed furthered the reality of my imaginary Tour experience.

next race: Tulsa Tough

2009-05-27T22:38:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

Had a good stay with Jordan and (Aunt) Molly

2009-05-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-05-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

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!

Cali

2008-08-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

The team and I are now in California for U23 Nationals. We've been here since Saturday, raced the time trial yesterday, and race the criterium tonight. I got 36th in the TT and Oscar got 23rd, hopefully we'll be able to do a bit better tonight. It was nice arriving at our beach house days before the first race because that gave us plenty of time to pre-ride the courses and even spend a little time in the waves (though we have had to be super careful not to wear ourselves out).

(I haven't felt very motivated to write recently, so that's why I haven't been. I figure there's no reason to sit down and make myself write when I don't feel like it because if I'm not motivated, the writing will probably be boring anyway. Hopefully I'll come up with some good stories to tell soon...)

Das alotta drivin'

2008-07-25T18:53:00.001-07:00

Already packed up from the night before we woke up bright and early (4:30) Tuesday morning to head back to Pennsylvania. We thought leaving by 5 would at least get us through Chicago before the morning rush hour hit, but we had no such luck. Before we knew it we were rolling slow in traffic at like 6 am! The hold up wasn't too bad however, and as we made our way across the states we probably spent close to $30 on tolls on our 14 hour trek. Arriving in Kutztown that evening, it was nice to be back in that familiar house that we had called home for the first half of the summer.

The next morning, while Oscar and Thomas slept in longer than I had ever seen them, I ran out and got coffee and prepared pancakes for the 3 of us. Soon after they woke up we got straight to work planning and packing the Volvo. It ended up that we had to ship 2 boxes of random stuff home (in addition to the TT bikes we sent to CA) so that we would have enough room in the car for everything, but it was still and incredibly tight squeeze. If it weren't for Thomas working his master packing skills like he always does, there's no way everything would have fit. The car was absolutely stuffed to the brim (remember that we brought 2 cars up here in the first place, and the only difference now was that Jafer had already headed home with his bags).

Thursday morning, again we woke up bright and early (5:30 this time) to start on the home stretch back to Atlanta. This leg of the trip lasted around 13 hours including all the bathroom and gas stops we made. Weighed down as it was, the car was not getting near as good of gas mileage as it normally did....but i was kinda ok with that because it meant we got to stop more which I always enjoyed. Having half of the back seat and sitting with all our pillows and sheets, Thomas made a nest and passed out for most of the ride after putting in his first couple hours at the wheel. We arrived home at a pretty decent time (around 7:30 pm) which gave me plenty of time to go out and catch up with friends. We've driven a total of 27 hours in the last 3 days....it was good to be home.

Holy Hill Road Race (Monday) & more...

2008-07-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

This was our last day of racing, and, honestly, we probably could have done without it. Oscar and I started the race which was shortened to 68 miles instead of 90 after the start got delayed. Oscar dropped out about half way through after putting in a couple good attacks, and I didn't have much of an impressive finish either. There were a couple big rollers on the course and I just never really felt good going over them.... or anywhere else on the course for that matter. It actually kind of felt like my brakes were rubbing the whole race (they weren't actually, but that's how sluggish I felt). At the finish I didn't really have room to sprint anywhere either because it just got so swarmed and crowded. I came across the line around 35th or 40th.

A good thing that happened Monday was that my cousin, Logan Biggs, who is going to school in Milwaukee came to watch the race. He drove his motorcycle out to the course and then followed us home to hang out for a while. We ended up going over to his girlfriend's loft to play some video games, eat, and just hang out for the night. It was really good to get to see him.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 4:30 am and started our 13 hour drive back to Kutztown. Now today, Wednesday, we have spent much of the day packing up and planning how we're going to fit everything in the car for tomorrow's drive home. We packed up 2 TT bikes in a box, 5 wheels in another box, and some other random stuff in another box to ship home because we won't have room in the car to carry everything (we had 2 cars to bring it all up here). We plan to leave early tomorrow morning and arrive in Atlanta in the evening. It's going to be good to get home for a while, but I can't get too settled in because we leave to go to California for nationals on August 2nd.

Evanston (Sunday)

2008-07-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

For Sunday's criterium we headed back down to the Chicago area to the suburb of Evanston, IL. There was a huge showing for Sunday's race in both fans and riders. I'd say this was one of the biggest fields we had raced against in Superweek, and that, in combination with a couple tight turns and a nearly a dozen poorly situated man-hole covers made for a pretty sketchy race. The race was stopped twice because of bad crashes (situations where the rider(s) does not get up right away and then nobody wants him to move until the ambulance gets there...so he just lays in the street); we were first stopped for 15 or 20 min with 16 laps to go which was actually fine with me because I had just gotten caught from going off the front trying (unsuccessfully) to get a prime, so it allowed me time to recover. When that crash happened, with 17 to go, Oscar was on my wheel and I was on the wheel of the guy who wrecked.....basically, I think he took the corner too wide and might have been blinded by the bright setting sun and ended up running into the outside curb/barrier which sent his bike flying up and back out onto the road right in front of me! I kind of ducked and swerved to avoid the back half of his bike which was right at eye level in front of me, and Oscar and I both escaped alive.

The second stoppage of the race occurred after a wreck with 5 or 6 laps to go. After a long 20 min intermission we were back on the road and they had bumped the lap counter up to 10 laps to go so they would have time to finish handing out primes. I was feeling really good in the closing laps and was able to fight for and maintain position close to the front. I passed a few people in the sprint but not as many as I would have liked to or could have had it been more wide open. The next day however, when we looked at results, I was not listed..... I think it may have been because I finished on the opposite side of the road than the camera was on so I may have been blocked by other riders. By then, most of the checks had already been handed out and there wasn't much I could do about the wrong results.

Thomas was feeling pretty worn out from all the racing and didn't finish Evanston, and Oscar was in good form towards the end but just never really made it up to the front to contest the sprint or attack.

Lake Michigan (Saturday)

2008-07-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

We all took another rest day today which turned out to be a good choice cause it was a nasty, wet day anyway. Instead of racing we took the opportunity to go check out Lake Michigan which is pretty close by. Down by the lake it was super foggy and made for a really cool, peaceful setting as we skipped rocks, played on the shore, and climbed out on some barrier boulders. I brought my towel cause my mind was set on swimming but as soon as I touched the water I decided otherwise. It was as cold as an ice bath, and almost the second I submerged my foot it went numb....I'll pass on the swimming.

While we were out we also stopped at this awesome bakery and picked up two homemade loaves of bread which we've been devouring ever since.

I've also come to realize how lucky we've been with host housing. We've stayed at 3 host houses in a row and every time we've been treated to our own living area in the basement of the host's house. In Chicago, the Joslyns could not have been a single bit more helpful or enjoyable to be around then they were; and this time we even have our own mini fridge and big flat screen T.V. in the basement! Everyone is so nice to host and put up with cyclists like us.

Not quite the ideal race situation....

2008-07-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

With a big pancake/waffle lunch sitting heavy in our stomachs, we piled into the car a little after 3 pm and headed to the town of Ripon, WI for Friday's race. We knew we had 80-something miles ahead of us to get to the race and had planned to leave at 2:30, but the lunch I had prepared ran a little longer than expected...but no biggie, we'd still arrive like an hour and a half before our 6 pm start time (we thought). So around 3:45, while we were on the road, Oscar picks up this piece of paper in the back seat, looks at it for a minute, looks up at us and goes, "You know the race starts at 4:45 right?" In the front seat, all Thomas and I could say was "uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh." We looked at our directions and an atlas and figured we still had around 50 miles to go....and about an hour before the race starts, "Well, we're almost half way there, lets just try to make it." Instead of driving 60 mph and stopping to get coffee as I had requested, we started pushing the speed limit a bit and the only stop we made was when we pulled over for 30 seconds because Oscar swore he was about to pee all over the back seat.

We got to Ripon at exactly 4:45 expecting hear the starters gun unload as soon as we pulled up, but luckily the women's race was still in progress. I don't think I've ever been happier to see a race running late. Oscar had decided to take the day off, so he ran over to registration to check in and pick up wrist bands for Thomas and me as the two of us whipped our clothes on, pumped tires, and mixed drinks and made it to the start line in about 15 min. The course had hills on 3 of the 4 straightaways so it was terribly hard to start the race with no warm up. Actually, it was worse than terrible; I immediately started doing Oscars famously funny "pain cave dance," but this time it was no joke. The first 45 min was the most I've ever struggled in the early going of a race. First of all, I started at the back of the group which meant there was a huge acceleration out of each corner and up the hills. My stomach cramped almost immediately simply because we'd just finished stuffing our faces with waffles just 2 hours prior to the start, and in addition, my legs felt pretty stiff and not "opened up" from taking that rest day the day before. Totally out of breath and suffering, I started taking the corners really sloppily, and that only added to the pain inflicted by having to sprint out of the corners even harder. Other riders that I had been so much better than in previous stages were coming flying by me on the hills and I was doing all I could just to hold on to the back, sitting almost last wheel. Only 2 laps into the race I was ready to slam on the brakes, drop out, and head home. A thousand things started swarming through my head "I'll probably feel better tomorrow, I don't have to finish today," "why am I doing this to myself?" "what's wrong with me!?!" I knew I couldn't finish the race, so now it was just a question of how long I wanted to torture myself.

It usually takes me while into a race to warm up, but I never thought I'd pull out of this one. Then, between like 70 and 65 laps to go (it was a 100 lap race) I just started feeling better and better with every lap and my attitude changed. It came as somewhat of a surprise and relief to myself when I finally got the feeling that I was gonna be able to make it. Instead of dancing with pain, I started dancing with ease up the hills each lap. Then, with 20 laps to go, it started raining..... 3of 4 corners on the course were downhill and fast. The race had already blown apart with only like 30 riders remaining, but as soon as it started raining, riders started dropping like flies; not "getting dropped" but sliding out and falling almost every lap. Most of these guys got back in however, and by the finish it seemed like about half the field now had bloody, skinned up hips. I'm pleased to say that I went yet another day retaining all my skin.

While making sure to take the corners carefully was a good thing in the closing, rainy laps of the race, it hurt me a little bit on the very last lap (by then the roads were nearly dry again). I was feeling decent and if I hadn't been a little too cautious around a couple of the last turns, I would have been able to jump past a few people on the hills, but I didn't. I pretty much just held my position on the last lap and was able to keep anyone from passing me in the sprint. I'd say I ended up placing around 15th in the bunch.

Shorewood = rest day for me

2008-07-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning Oscar, Thomas and I loaded up the Volvo and headed North to Milwaukee where the second week of Super "Week" was to take place. Jafer departed the night before to spend a couple days in downtown Chicago with his cousin and then a couple more on a farm with his grandparents and uncles. We won't see him again until we get back to Atlanta (we're gonna be back sometime in the last few days of July), so he got to skip out on the 25 hours of driving we have to get from here to Kutztown and then back to Atlanta......lucky!

After settling in a bit at our new host house, about 2 hours from Chicago, we headed down the road to Shorewood for the kiddies to race (I was taking the day off). I almost got swept up and convinced to race by just being around all the race hub bub, but I thought better of it and decided to stick to the plan and take a rest day. Instead, I took off for a nice easy spin along the coast of Lake Michigan, mouth agape at how incredibly huge some of the lake front mansions were. I'm not sure how people can afford such huge houses on such pricey land, but it must nice to live on the water like that.

After riding I returned to the course just as the boys' race was starting and, after occupying a Starbucks bathroom for too long to fill up bottles and a jug, I headed around to the backside of the course to feed Oscar and Thomas. There was a huge field, and they were absolutely flying and super strung out each time they came through. After being helped to the front by the OC with about 3 laps to go, Thomas was sitting in a really good spot with 1 lap to go but said some really sketchy stuff happened on the last lap. Both boys rolled across the line outside of the top 30. With Kelly Benefits on the front chasing a break down for the entire race, it looked like a pretty unrelentingly fast race.

Two days of Bensenville (Tuesday & Wednesday)

2008-07-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday and Wednesday the crits were held on the same course, and both days the field was whittled down to a mere 40 riders by the finish. Breaks had been successful the past couple days, so both Tuesday we went in with the objective of getting in one ourselves. Tuesday saw a group of around 8 go off the front really early on (like 5 or 10 laps into the 80 lap race), and none of us were prepared or in a position where we could follow it so unfortunately they escaped without us and lapped the field. Later that day, starting with about 20 laps to go, Oscar and I moved up to hang around the front, looking for another move to go. A group of 4 or 5 got away without us, but as soon as the next person jumped, attempting to bridge, I went with him. The two of us gained a little time on the group we were chasing (which never got out of sight), but after only a couple laps we were swallowed back up again. With expert timing, as soon as Oscar saw me surrender to the charging field, he jumped off the front, and within the next lap or two he joined the group already off the front. Nearing the end, another group of around 7 caught up to Oscar's group and they all rode it out to the finish. Because there had already been a group of 8 to lap the field, Oscar's group was battling it out for 9th place through 20 something. Oscar managed to get around 10th in the sprint, securing him 19th in the race.

The next day not much happened. After making the mistake of not coming to the front until the break had already escaped the first day, I made sure to stay up in the front for maybe the first 15 or 20 laps until it was clear that Rock Racing didn't care to get in a break that day. Unlike previous days or any other teams, Rock had 7 riders on Wednesday and were just sitting on and chasing attacks. As the field got whittled down to around 30 or 40 riders again, I waited until the closing 20 laps before I came back to the front. Attacks had started once again, and I was only jumping on the sruff that had Rock guys in it. Nothing stuck except for a really awesome solo effort by a member of the Columbian National Track team who will be going to the Olympics very soon. He escaped by himself and put 45 seconds on the rest of us by the finish. I didn't set up for the sprint very well and got a little held up by a couple guys in front of me that weren't contesting. I think I ended up placing about 30th.

Richton Park Crit (Monday)

2008-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Richton park we looked at results from the previous day and found out that Thomas had placed 16th and I 19th. We also picked up our payout from the first 2 stages and have a combined total of $230 so far...hopefully we can keep adding to the pot!

I don't know if maybe none of us were just having the best day on the bike, or if the pace was really just that much faster.....but Monday's race was hard. There were a lot of fast guys there including a few riders from teams like Kelly Benefits, Rock Racing, Team Type 1, Texas Roadhouse (who won the stage), and Bissell. We did the full 100 km distance, and it seemed to crawl by as floated back and forth in through the field, not really wanting to expend too much energy before the finish. Pretty early on, a break of 8 got up the road and ended up lapping the field just before the finish despite the efforts of many riders who tried to up the pace with about 30 laps to go. When we finally did reach 10 to go I started moving up and jumping on some last minute attacks made by other riders, but I guess having already made the mistake of letting one break slip away today, no one in the bunch wanted to let it happen again. With about 3 to go, Thomas and I were just trying to hang tough towards the front, but I was really hurting at this point; we couldn't make it up far enough to be in contention for the sprint. As Thomas whizzed by me at the finish, I had no acceleration left and we both settled for around a top 30 or 40. Fast race.

Olympia Park Crit (Sunday's race)

2008-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

First off, we found out results from the previous day. In the Blue Island crit, I crossed the line in 18th, Thomas in 25th, Oscar around 45th, and Jafer in 50th.

Sunday's Olympia Park crit was a pretty interesting race. As we arrived, parked, and jumped out to go sign in and survey the course, we found ourselves more or less in the middle of a construction site. The course, which they had shortened to a crazy .45 mi, was a 4 corner circuit through one of those ugly new neighborhoods where the developer just clear cuts hundreds of acres and then builds the same house about a hundred times....the only difference was that all the houses hadn't even been built yet. This meant that in parts of the course, on either side of the street there mud pits and construction supplies stacked up very close to the edge of the road.

About 30 min before our scheduled start time, the officials called all racers up to the line to get our opinion on something. Apparently they were in a debate with one another on whether or not we should even race; on the backside of the course there was little downhill that, when paired with the tailwind on that side, made for an extremely fast 3rd corner; other than that, there was a small but potentially deadly lip running the length of the course, on both sides of the road sticking out about a foot or so from the curbs. That, on top of the short distance of the lap had the officials worried that our race may develop into a chaotic free-for-all with numerous riders lapping the field numerous times in the midst of horrific crashes in the 3rd corner. Well, I can tell you that none of that happened, and it turned into a very sane race for the amount of deliberation and worry that went on before hand. Long story short, the officials didn't actually want our input, and we kinda just sat there for about 30 minutes watching them deliberate between running 2 separate heats, splitting up the pro/1 riders from us cat 2's (which we were all for, because that would have put us in good position for the stage win), shortening the race, or canceling it all together. In the end they decided to simply shorten it to 80 laps.

Once underway, Jafer and I both got flat tires (Jafer's almost causing him to wipe out in a corner) but were back in business pretty quick after visiting the Sram neutral support pit where they suited us up with some nice Zipp 404's that they used for spares. Thomas also ended up breaking a shifting cable in the midst of the action and was graciously allowed back in after a number of free laps.

There were a few crashes along the way, most, if not all happening in that 3rd corner. Jafer came closest to hitting the deck when he started sliding out in the 3rd corner but was caught and bounced back up by the guy riding on his inside through the turn. In one especially bad episode, an Australian rider went down in the 3rd turn and didn't get up. No one wanted to move him before the ambulance arrived so the race was stopped with only 16 laps (less than 8 miles) to go! We sat there at the start line for 15 or 20 min waiting for the rider to be carted from the road, and by the time we got under way again the pain of having cooled down after a hard effort had set in as I tried to get back up to speed.

The rest of the race played out fine. When we were stopped with 16 to go there was a 4 man break up the road with a strong Bissell rider in it; those guys survived the remainder without getting caught, and as Rock Racing lead out the field in the closing laps, Thomas held on for around a 10th place finish in the field (14th in the race). I wasn't too far behind, and while we don't have any results yet, I'm pretty sure I made it into the top 25 (that's how deep prize dolla bills go).

Superweek begins

2008-07-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Last night we competed in our first crit of the Superweek series. We will be racing here in Illinois through the 16th before we head up to Milwaukee for the remainder (the series goes through the 28th (i think), but we have yet to determine how many more races we will do once in Wisconsin before heading back home).

Yesterday was a simple, pan-flat crit course with 4 corners and wide city roads so with the exception of some indented man-hole covers and sizable cracks on the backside of the course, there was not much at all to slow the speed of the race. I think all 8 of our legs felt pretty good, but there was some fast (and sketchy) competition. In the closing laps we were packed into the peloton pretty tight, and Thomas and I managed to pass a few people in the long finishing stretch to both place inside the top 25.

The fans at this race were pretty incredible. The front (finishing) straight of the course was on the main street in Blue Island, and the back stretch tore through what looked like an old, rather historic neighborhood; both sides were lined with spectators, the front with the normal cheering crowd (including our host parents who had made a big green Kudzu.com sign to cheer us on), and the back was scattered with picnicking partiers. It seemed like every house the race passed had a canopy, chairs, and blankets scattering the front yard, with all the residents enjoying a dinner picnic as they screamed at us every lap. Not only this, but as soon as we pulled up and parked at the race, an older woman and two little boys (the woman and boys came separately) hurried over asking for our autographs! Not that our signatures would mean anything to them because they weren't exactly legible and I'm sure they've never heard of us before even if they could read the names we scribbled.....but it still felt really cool and motivating.

How dat boy pedal so fast?

2008-07-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Fitchburg wasn't all piss and games; after Oscar finished 14th in both the time trial and the road race's mountaintop finish, the boys dominated the last two sprinters' races, Thomas winning both of those. Winning 2 stages out of 4 is really quite impressive, and the dedication, determination, and skill with which Jafer and Oscar rode to get Thomas the wins was pretty amazing in itself.

I, on the other hand, went out to put in a couple good days of training by myself. Saturday, as the other three competed in the circuit race, I went out and did some repeats of this 20 min climb nearby, and then rode to the race in time to see the closing laps of the cat 2 race and our victory. Sunday, I arrived at the crit course just a minute or two after the finish of our race, so I just missed our second win. They did real good.

Piss party

2008-07-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

My warm, clear stream steadily impacted and trickled down the bark of a pine tree across the street from the time trial start line at stage 1 of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. While I was fully aware of what I was pissing ON, what (or who) i was pissing OFF was another story. Apparently, as I pissed on the tree approximately 90 seconds before the start of my TT, I was being watched by a race official who, with was becoming increasingly pissed off with each additional drop of piss I added to the tree. With no knowledge of anyone's level of pissedness, I started the TT blissfully unaware of the fact that no matter how hard I pushed on the pedals, my result in the race would remain the same: DSQ. That stands for disqualified. Looking online through the results later that night, we discovered the DSQ, and Jeremy immediately called the head official to get an explanation. The official had witnessed me taking a piss, become pissed cause that was against the rules, and after arguing with him for a good long while, Jeremy became pissed at the official's stubborn manner. I, in turn, got pretty pissed at myself for pissing where the pissed official could see me. I was out of the race for the remaining 3 stages.

I'm back!!!

2008-07-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for the long absence! I had a little problem at Fitchburg and didn't feel like writing, and then I was doing some hectic traveling so didn't get a chance to post, but I'll try to get everyone updated pretty soon.)

(This is something I actually posted after the Brownstown race but before Fitchburg, but I took it down to avoid Oscar the embarrassment....but sorry Oscar, I wanted to put it back up):

Shoulda been a BMXer

Our easy ride turned a bit hazardous today as Oscar and Thomas hit a sweet jump off this grass hill next to a barn on the side of the road. Sprinting off the side of the road and up over the top of this hill, Thomas was the first one to catch big air, and Oscar followed. Mike, Jackie, and I stayed safe and sound on the road to watch the two bozos in action. Right after Thomas rolled away from the jump clean, Oscar vaulted over the jump right behind him and looked to land clean himself....but not for long. The backside of the tabletop hill was really steep and Oscar landed half on it. Immediately after the landing there was a gravel driveway, and doing practically a nose-wheelie, Oscar plowed right into it and washed out, going down hard on his side. Unluckily for him the owners had decided to fill their driveway not only with gravel, but with broken bits of clam shell as well. They sliced into his skin real nice. That's his hand.

Brownstown Road Race

2008-06-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday we drove the 45 min necessary to get to Brownstown, PA where we were registered to do a 50 mile circuit race. Nearing our destination not much looked different from the roads around here other than the fact that there were tons more horse drawn buggies on the road. I had seen them before out on rides around Kutztown, but before this I had maybe seen 2 or 3 in the last 3 weeks of riding. In Brownstown, they were all over the place. As we were getting ready by the car on the side of the road, a buggy would trot past us every couple minutes with the little Amish children sitting in the back seat staring at us (half naked and wearing bright-colored spandex) and all of us staring back at them (fully clothed, complete with suspenders and top hats). I think it was a real culturally eye-opening experience for both parties of starers. This was Amish country apparently.

Not long after we had registered, suited up, and pinned numbers, the clouds opened up to give us a nice soaking before the start of the race. Not long after, the rain stopped and we lined up to start the race......all 17 of us......that's right, there were only 17 people there to race in the Pro/1/2/3 category. As the race unfolded, we ended up making a mistake or two and two guys ended up off the front without us. No big deal right, it's only 2 guys versus the 4 of us, and one of the guys we knew was not very fast anyway....well that's what we thought. As Oscar and I went to the front and started chasing, these guys were still gaining time on us. The two of us were accompanied at the front by a couple other guys that were not only content to let us do the chasing, but they wanted to get in our way to slow the chase. So, one time, after a good hard pull, Oscar pulled off and slotted in line right behind me as I pulled through, first wheel now. He let a big gap open up in front of him and behind me as I pulled away from the bunch. Doing this, I was not actually supposed to go anywhere serious, it was just an effort to make all the guys sitting in behind Oscar a little scared and have to sprint around him in an effort to hold my wheel....but I guess everyone was content with going slow cause no one came around him. I ended up riding off the front by myself and was now in an effort to chase the leaders alone. Oscar eventually bridged up to help me but this was a pretty bad position to be in. Through the strong winds and intense rain, we just didn't have enough gas to close down the growing gap to the two leaders. I ended up with 3rd in the race and Oscar 4th. It still kinda blows my mind how those two guys gained such a big gap (around 2 min at the finish) on the rest of us, and honestly, it's kind of embarrassing.

Race update

2008-06-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

So we are not leaving tomorrow after all. Instead of going up to Massachusetts for a couple crits this weekend, we are not going up there until Tuesday to prepare for Fitchburg. Instead, we found a circuit race that's happening tomorrow and is a lot is closer. We are going there to race tomorrow afternoon and then not race Sunday or Monday as we had planned.

A couple good days of riding.

2008-06-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Heading out yesterday for a ride, we kind of did a dirt road tour, hitting 3 or 4 different dirt roads in about 2 hours. Any dirt road is a good road, and when you race down them it just makes it all the better. Not everything went so smooth on this ride, as it hardly ever does when you're riding dirt. One scary encounter was on the second dirt road we took. This road actually turned to somewhat of a paved road halfway through but was still no wider than one lane. While bombing down a hill after just racing to the hilltop, Thomas, Jafer, and I all leaned into this blind left-hand bend at 30+ mph. Just through the apex of the corner, I looked up to find myself staring directly into the front grill of a huge farm tractor hauling a gigantic trailer of hay bails.....taking up the entire road. In the split second before we smashed into the front of it, all we had time to do was throw our butts back behind our seats, lock up the brakes, and swerve off into the grassy ditch on the side of the road. No worries though, no one fell, and we all escaped with a laugh.....though I'm sure the tractor driver was pretty terrified.

Last night was junior night at the track so Mike Niemi (the boyo from Florida that is staying with us) went to do some racing. We made it there to watch him, and that's what the pictures are from. He was the junior 15-16 national time trial champion last year so he pretty much won all the races of the night. Its fun to support someone you know is gonna win.

Then, today, looking for a nice recovery ride, we rode out to Trexlertown to this bagel shop and had some of the best bagel sandwiches I've ever had.

Picnic

2008-06-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight, after a day of playing Scrabble and chipping golf balls around the back yard (I took the day off from riding), we prepared some food and then drove to the local Gun and Rod club to cook out. When I say "we prepared some food" what I really mean is "Thomas Prepared" almost everything including turkey burgers, asparagus, baked beans, potato salad, and banana bread. I made fruit salad and made the grocery store run to get all the goods. We also brought the small grill from the house that we have to cook everything on.

We ended up with an incredible feast alongside the stream and could barely waddle back to the car once we were done gorging ourselves. And I caught a couple more fish :)

BAM!!!

2008-06-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

That's the sound the tubular on my disc wheel made as it went from 130 psi to 0 in about half a second. I was warming up on rollers 10 minutes before the start of our first of 4 races when my tubular tire pretty much fell apart and flatted. We hadn't brought any extra track wheels from home in Georgia...much less to the track last night; nor had we brought any tools other than the one hex-wrench we used to put our wheels on. No worries though, as soon as it happened, the guy in the stall across from us in the infield offered up a spare wheel of his....and his tools. And then he actually ended up switching the gear and wheel for me because I guess I was doing it too unbearably slow for him to watch.

While I no longer had the advantage of racing with my aero disc wheel, I got back in business pretty quickly and off to a good night of racing. I finished 6th in the Win n' Out after getting in a break; Thomas rode a smart Miss n' Out and finished 6th out of 35 rider field; and Oscar, with the best performance of the night rode to a 5th place in the Points Race to be the best placed cat 2. For being the best placed cat 2 rider, he got a $44 prize that someone in the crowd had offered up, along with $10 for 5th place.

It was a full track of 35 riders again and once again filled with some good talent. The Australian national track team (either juniors or U23) were there along with Rite Aid's Bobby Lea who just qualified to go to the Olympics with the US track team.

I felt a lot more comfortable on the track last night even though I didn't place any better than last week. I felt good riding a fast, steady pace but could never really spin up my legs fast enough to contest any sprints. That was to be expected after my 4 hour ride the day before, and after the past weekend's racing. With some rest the next few days I think I'll gain a lot of speed back.....hopefully enough to do well at Fitchburg!

A ride on a Monday???

2008-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the first Monday in probably my entire life that I did a real training ride. Monday's have historically been a day to rest and recover from the weekend, with just an easy hour ride at most. Well today I broke tradition and rode 4 hours with Oscar and Jackie. While I usually wouldn't have wanted such a long ride after a weekend of racing, these next couple days are the only ones I am going to have before I need to start cutting back my volume of training to get ready for Fitchburg.

This week is one of my last in this house. Either Friday or Saturday we are heading up into the New England area to race a few crits up there. Then, Fitchburg starts on next Thursday, so since we'll be in the area, I think the plan is or just get a hotel up there until the race starts. Fitchburg is a stage race that goes from Thursday to Sunday. Then, the day that ends (July 6th) I fly out of Boston to come home and drive to Pfeiffer for orientation. Aaaaaand then I get to go see Jordan at camp Celo! After a couple days there I fly into Chicago on Friday for the start of a race series called Superweek, our last set of races to tune up before nationals. Finally, after Superweek, we'll be back at the house for a couple days before coming home and flying out to California....

Giro Di Jersey done

2008-06-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

In both today's and yesterday's stages of the race there were some strong, organized teams along with the Rite Aid pro team. We are a little bit unaccustomed to as much organization in races because not many teams are so strong or organized in the Georgia cup races. While it often does make the racing faster and harder, it also makes it more predictable. The last two days of racing were both circuit races with hills playing in as a major factor; each day Jafer got in the the main breakaway of the day, and each day I worked to lead out the sprint in the final miles. Though he did make the important moves, as he always seems to do, Jafer found little cooperation in his off the front efforts, and they did not stick. Our best placing of the weekend was made by Oscar on today's long, uphill sprint finish; after the first 10 riders finished in a break, Oscar placed 5th in the field sprint....ending up 15th for the day. Oscar and I both recieved a little bit of pay out at the end of the weekend for our positions in the overall general classification, placing 24th and 20th respectively.

Last night we decided to get a cheap room at the Extended Stay Hotel in Somersey, NJ which turned out to be a really good call. Booking the room saved us almost 4 hours of driving (back home and then to the race again today), and gave us plenty of time to lounge around, shower, wash out our clothes, get our bikes ready for the next day, and eat.........a lot. After cheching into the room, we immediately headed back out to fill our starvin bellies with some grub (we had just finished racing 74 miles so we was huuuuuuuungry). After a short bit of wandering in the volvo, we came upon a business district in a city called Bound Brook. If I had been knocked out and woke up to find myself in Bound Brook, I would have sworn I was somewhere in Mexico. There were probably at least 20 Mexican restaurants and various other stores (all with signs in spanish) lining a few blocks. Luckily, the thought of mexican food sounded great so we sat down at one of the smallest, hole-in-the-wall restaurants there was. After eating our authentic and very spicey tacos one of the guys sitting in there started talking to us and when he heard where we were from he told us he used to work in Carrolton and in Lawrenceville, so that was cool.

Just a few hours later, when we headed out for dinner, we went a different direction and found ourselves on the streets of New Brunswick right by Rutgers University. We enjoyed dinner at a little pizza/pasta/hooka bar place in the college town.

After all the driving and down time we've had between races, I have become a sudoku master.

Time trial come and gone

2008-06-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Jafer wrote this for the team blog so i just copied and pasted cause he pretty much said all there was to say:

It was another early morning as we headed off to New Jersey for the Giro time trial. It didn't take long for the mercury to rise as we warmed up on the 15K course. Today's course was mostly rolling with only one serious hill towards the finish. The first part of the course was super fast as it was mostly downhill with only minor rollers. After the turn around, the real race started as we gave it everything we had, to have a faster split time. We faced a large field as there were 80 riders in the pro/1/2 race. The course suited Jafer as he posted the fastest time on the team taking 20th place, followed by Joey with 25th and Oscar in 28th and Thomas saved himself for tomorrows race.

Now this is me writing:

Once home, after putsin around on the computer and taking a power nap, I got dressed again and went out for an easy spin with Jafer. An hour and a few sprints later we returned, got dressed and headed out for sushi.....just me and Jafer.....it was our little date. Returning home with bellies full of fish protien, it was time for a real, pre-race meal so we made some pasta to get ready for tomorrow's 70 mile road race.

Upcoming Races

2008-06-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are starting a local race in New Jersey called the Giro di Jersey. Tomorrow's (Friday's) race is a 15 km time trial. Then, on Saturday we go back for a long road race and then again Sunday for a circuit race. Stay tuned for race reports.

Got dirty at a car race

2008-06-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Last night when I returned from my ride I heard the same noise we had all heard the Wednesday before. It was the blaring sound of either car or motorcycle engines somewhere close by. After listening to it all through dinner, we just couldn't take it anymore and set out to find the cars. It turns out that in the Kutztown fairgrounds, a 5 min drive away, there is a little, flat, dirt racetrack, and they host Wednesday night racing. We got there towards the end of the night, but stayed for the remainder of the races. It was actually quite a sight. These amateur drivers were driving what looked like really fast go-carts with cages and flimsy metal built around them. When they started each race, the track would explode in a giant dust cloud, and the wind would blow it directly onto the stands. Each time they tore around the corners at each end, they would go into a sideways skid and each time I was almost certain they weren't going to recover, but they usually did. Well, sort of.....there was a crash almost every other lap.

Tuesday night track racin

2008-06-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

For the first time since we've been here, we got to race at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome. We showed up with plenty of time to spare and registered for the Pro/1/2 races that we'd be competing in. The following is the race report on the points race that I wrote for the team blog. The races prior to this one went well for Thomas, but not really for anyone else. Oscar rode very aggressively, attacking off the front many times, but being so short, the Win n' Out and Scratch race really suited Thomas' strengths the best. He placed 4th in both of those races. The points race played out as follows:

Being the very last event of the night, it was nearly eleven o'clock as we set up along the track getting ready to start the points race. We had been at the track since 6 pm that evening and had already competed in three events. I had no idea how my legs would hold up for this final 30 laps around the track. It seemed like there were many things going against me going into the start: every race we had already completed had been one of the fastest track events I've experienced, the last meal we had eaten was lunch, and it already the time of night when we usually go to sleep. We started in high spirits nonetheless.

The first sprint came and went very quickly as the 36-man field thinned down due to the fast pace. As soon as the speed had slowed a bit, right after the sprint, a couple of us had the same idea to attack. We yo-yoed off the front for a minute as others chased off and on, but eventually, after a couple hard accelerations two other riders and I broke clear of the front end of the peloton and quickly built a substantial gap. One of the guys I was in the break with was a familiar face, his name is Nik Reinert. I last saw him a year ago at junior track nationals where he won our the men's 17-18 points race, 3k pursuit, and madison. While I was off the front, Thomas and Oscar did an excellent job of sitting on the front of the peloton keeping the pace low and jumping on any attacks that people attempted, thus discouraging further attacks. My two break away companions and I rolled through the next couple sprints with me taking the second place points, but I was really starting to hurt. Then, after leading out the whole lap of the second to last sprint, I got made a minor error in judgement when I pulled up track to let the other two come through to pull, and I got gaped off their wheels. Just then, the two I had been with lapped the field, each gaining 20 points automatically. For the remainder of the race I was so close to lap the group, but just didn't have enough gas left in the tank. I ended up with third place at the end of the race which was considerable better than any of my other placings that night, so that made me happy.

After swinging by the gas station to grab a snack and a "big gulp" (64 oz of whatever your heart desires) with our $10 in race winnings, we returned home at nearly 12:00!!! By the time we had showered and eaten dinner, it was well passed our bed time, and all we could do was stumble up the stairs and pass out on our bouncy, plastic beds.

For more pictures and stuff, keep checking the team blog!

Haircut

2008-06-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Thats my new cut. After an easy hour ride this morning, I went and got a haircut and did laundry. It was a pretty productive day. Now we're off to race at the track for the first time.

Turkey Boogers

2008-06-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thomas made these really awesome turkey burgers for us for dinner last night. Thats a picture of them.

and then it rained.

and then oscar got a haircut from thomas. it was really sad 'cause oscar's afro was awesome.

and then before all this we whatched the finale of the us open golf championship and rocco almost came through but tiger never folds under pressure

then we ate bannana bread with chocolate chips in it, from the bannana's that we got for 1 dollar a box, 'cause they was rotted.

then we went to bed

I have a confession to make.

2008-06-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

I watched golf today and liked it. After 3 days of being forced to watch the US Open golf championships, today, even though Oscar and Thomas weren't here to turn it on.....I turned it on by myself to watch Tiger tie with Rocco forcing a playoff round between the two tomorrow.

I'm all alone.

2008-06-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

I was the only one to wake up to ride at 7:30 this morning.....everyone else wanted a rest day. Then, after my 3 1/2 hour ride, I returned to an empty house.....they had all gone to Harlem to watch a crit Jason was doing. They didn't get back until like 9:30 pm. I sat and layed around all day. Pretty uneventful.

Every road is a good road in PA

2008-06-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

It's is really hard to find roads here that you don't want to ride on (except for the highways). Both today and yesterday we covered some new ground on our rides, and nearly every road we took was a great road to ride on. On our rides, we wind between farms and through big pastures, but within a matter of minutes we can also be in the middle of forested mountains where the pitch of the road changes with ever turn.

I don't, however, want to give you the wrong impression about our rides; when we go hard, it still hurts, and today hurt a lot. We started our three and a half hour death march at 9:30 this morning, and from the gun, Jason was tearing our legs off. Having come to stay at this house and ride these roads for many summers past, he knew a good route and was leading the ride: i.e., we were at his mercy. The only times in the whole ride he was not at the front was on some of the long, steep hills we climbed.....and those hurt because they were hills. After a much needed gas station stop, we did eventually make it back to town, and just for the record, I'd like everyone to know that I edged out some tough competition including the likes of Oscar Clarke and Thomas Brown to win the sprint to the Kutztown city limit sign on the way home.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out

2008-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

I just added a link to our team blog in the upper left corner of this page. Jafer created it and has been bringing viewers up to speed on what has been going on so far this season. Stay tuned, we will soon get the team blog up to date and then it will be a good place to access our race calendar and current results.

In other news, this morning we went down the road to a really big farmer's market that is only open Fridays and Saturdays and picked up some much needed groceries. All the vegges, friut, meat, eggs, and bread we bought were farmed/raised/made locally.

I ain't got no kinda coordination.....

2008-06-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

After being inspired by watching some big golf tournament on tv while eating the corn pancakes I cooked up, we went out to hit (and miss, in my case) some balls of our own. First was the driving range where I discovered that I'm about as coordinated as a drunk German at a soccer game. While Oscar and Thomas railed balls way out to the 175 meter mark, I struggled to get mine to leave the mat. After a quick pause to eat some italian ice, we turned to the putt-putt course to test our skills there. Jafer and Thomas excelled in this discipline of the stupid sport, but at least I didn't get last....that spot was reserved for Oscar.

Again, we headed to the velodrome, and again we didn't really know what to expect other than the fact that there was gonna be some kind of group ride. Today we got the crit we had been hoping for yesterday. It wasn't just a group ride though, this was a well-organized practice race with numbers, $5 entry fee, and waivers. We hadn't brought our licenses but Oscar sweet talked the guy into letting us race be saying "Aww, c'mon, we's jus a coupla stoopid jawr-juh boooys." Haha, no the guy was really nice and didn't need the sweet talk....but Oscar did say that.

This was a fast race. We did 30 laps around this 1 mile loop in the park, with sprints for points every 3 laps. We all took some turns off the front, and Thomas did what he does best and placed in most of the sprints. After that, plus the ride home, we were all pretty pooped; its been a hard but really fun couple of days of riding. Some really good training I think.

Yesterday

2008-06-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

I was pretty tired and stayed up talking to Jordan on Skype so I ain't post noffin yestaday. It was actually a pretty eventful day though which is just what I needed/wanted after sitting on my butt for two days straight. The first thing that made it so nice was that the intense storm from the night before, had brought in some cooler temperatures. It was the first time in about 3 or 4 days that I had been able to wear a shirt for more than 5 minutes.

We didn't plan to ride until about 4 pm so after breakfast we headed out to make something of the day. First we got in the car and retraced our steps (or pedal strokes) to get to a pick-your-own strawberry patch we had noticed on a ride a few days before. Though the woman on the farm warned us that we might not find much because the hail had destroyed a lot of the crop, we went a-pickin anyway and soon filled the two quart baskets that she had given us. On the way home we stopped at one of the dozen road side produce stands where I picked up a zucchini, two green peppers, a bag of field greens, an apple, and two pears all for only four dollars! Once at home again, and determined not to get bored, Oscar and I headed out to go fishin, but despite driving around to numerous creeks out of determination, we came up empty handed.

Around 4 pm we then suited up and rode to the velodrome (about 10 miles away I'd guess) to meet up with a group ride. We didn't really know much about it but were pretty sure it was gonna be a practice crit through this wide bike path across the street from the drome. Turns out plans had been changed that day so the ride headed out of town for a little 33 mile loop. First disappointed by the slow pace, we welcomed the attacks and quickened pace that ensued about half way through at a designated point. That's really bout it.....it turned out to be a really good workout with some nice, long rolling hills.

lookit

2008-06-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Something I forgot to mention before: We got out team shirts in the mail today! Jeremy had them made and then shipped them up to us. They're pretty cool, I'm wearing one in the picture.

Hail Yeeeah

2008-06-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

If you think I did nothing yesterday, you shoulda seen me today. I took another rest off the bike with the possibility of racing at the track this evening, but that didn't happen. Right around 6 pm, as weather.com had predicted, dark clouds rolled in and a big thunderstorm started. We all rushed outside (still shirtless) hoping the rain would bring cooler temperatures and were nearly frozen dead in our tracks by the chilling gusts of wind blowing through the street. Then the hail started. It came in a few separate showers and the little ice pellets eventually grew to be at least the size of quarters, if not bigger. They hurt pretty bad if you stepped out from under our overhang.

As for the earlier part of the day, I got some laundry done at the laundromat and figured out Skype. Throughout the day I chatted with both Micah and Jordan face to face (we all have webcams) on skype. That was nice, and a bit more personal than just a regular phone call. That's bout all I got for you.

I've decided I've had enough resting....its getting VERY boring. Can't wait to get out of the house and ride tomorrow.

Butt-day

2008-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

I call it that because I never really got off my butt all day. I didn't even step foot outside until around 5 pm. I enjoyed a rest day sitting inside, shirtless, in front of a fan and the TV, munching away at whatever I could find in the kitchen. My legs were feelin a little tired after the hard effort yesterday, and unless the rain holds off and we get a chance to race at the track, tomorrow will be much the same. I didn't, however, remain a completely braindead, motionless blob for the entire day; after a while when I started feeling really useless I actually got up and cleaned the kitchen and was then eventually persuaded to go ride on the track.

Tonight there was open track at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome so we got down there around 7:30 pm to roll around for a little while and get Jafer some track experience. It was only his second time ever on a velodrome, but he road fine. Riding this track feels so nice and smooth compared to Dick Lane, but the shallower banking makes the corners feel a little different.

Heading home we stopped at a gas station and Oscar and Thomas each came out with a "Big Gulp" (64 oz) filled with gatorade. After a challenge from Thomas, Oscar proceeded to drink two "Big Gulps" (he refilled it), and start in on his third, in less than 30 min. Thomas trailed behind finishing a measly one "Big Gulp" in about the next hour and a half.

Good News

2008-06-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

- Jeremy found Curly.
- My elbow ain't so swole no mo.
- Our air conditioner started working again.

River Pictures

2008-06-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

Racin in New Joysey

2008-06-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today was sooooooooooooo hot. I haven't stopped sweating since I woke up, it was really almost 100 degrees here (and in New Jersey). Our upstairs AC unit is working overtime but we're all still sitting here shirtless with beads of sweat continuing to stream from our brow.

After a big pancake breakfast courtesy of Thomas, we headed out around 10:30 am to Highbridge, New Jersey to race. This was the hottest race I think we've all done in a long time, and the heat definitely took a toll on us....as did the incredibly steep uphill and the torn up roads in the 3 mile loop. Sections of the skinny back roads were almost comparable to cobbles. The field was pretty talented as well. A few former U23 National team riders showed up to race as well as a couple other strong teams. A huge group of about 17 riders eventually formed off the front as people started slipping up the road in small groups, and at the end of the day only Jafer and I finished. Out of 70 starters, only around 25 made it to the finish line at the end of our 11 lap race. Believe me, that was the longest 33 miles I've ever ridden, and if it weren't for a much needed water feed from Oscar towards the end of the race, I don't know what would have happened. Jafer and I finished in the only group remaining behind the group of 17. Stumbling to the car as soon as we finished, I think we both were severely dehydrated and overheated. That, however, was nothing a good dip in the river couldn't fix.

After laying in the river, stopping at a gas station/burgerking, and finishing the hour drive back to the place we now call home, we enjoyed some juicy burgers on the grill and then rushed upstairs to "chill" in the only room with AC.

More Landscape

2008-06-07T19:03:00.001-07:00

Gone Fishin

2008-06-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Our fishing trip was a success!!! While tearing through a narrow road in the woods in excess of 100 mph we came upon a gun club that had a pond full of nasty plants and frogs. Soon after Oscar's first cast of his Wal-Mart fishing pole, we discovered that that's not all that was in the lake. Over the next hour, taking turns with the pole, we all probably caught about 20 fish, a few of which were good sized small-mouth bass. We threw them all back.

For dinner, Jafer hand made us some pasta from scratch. That was cool, I'd never seen it done before. I played the role of the pasta catcher as he fed it through and cranked it through the cutter. While out we also picked up a homade shortbread cake and strawberries at this Amish/Menanite lady's produce stand. With some milk and sugar on top, it was very delicious.

i got noffin to do but write

2008-06-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just an update:

-Our house is REALLY hot. (Jafer went and bought a fan today so its getting better)
-While he was out, he discovered a farmersmarket where some of the locals take there goods. He got some delicious fresh bread and a couple other farm-grown crops...yum.
-My elbow (the one I hit hard in a crash 2 weeks ago) got swollen again. I think I mighta slept on it wrong and further irritated it by riding. It's pretty big now.
-Oscar dog, Curly, ran away :(
-We live next to the Kutztown bottling plant where they brew beer and make soda. They have a store in the building too, where we got root beer, birch beer, sasparilla, red cream soda, and black cherry.
-Now we're off to find a good creek to fish in....and a fishing pole to buy.

2008-06-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

B-E-A-UTIFUL

2008-06-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's ride to the velodrome lead by Jackie (one of the women that was already here when we arrived), today we decided to head a different direction, up towards the ridge. Off in the distance, there is a ridge that runs east to west and today we investigated. While it was around 90 degrees outside and felt like 101 cause of the humidity, it turned into a really nice ride. Once we climbed up into the ridge, we just rode along the top of it through the rolling hills and farms where Oscar dropped us a couple times. There are farms everywhere! Everywhere we go is rolling farmland and traffic is very minimal, its awesome, and makes for some really nice riding. Check out a couple picatures I took of the house and ride.

We made it to PA!

2008-06-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

Finally, around 10:30 Thursday night I was able to get up off my increasingly soar butt. We had made it to our house in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. We quickly got to unloading the piles of stuff we had managed to jam into Thomas's Volvo and out rental Pontiac. Out of glee for being done with that 12 + hr car ride I proceeded to unload with gleeful shouts and stomps.....until Oscar reminded me that Jackie and Yuki were probably sleeping. I felt kind of bad about that, but in the morning they were very nice and lied to us saying "Oh, no we didn't hear a thing when you guys showed up." Its a pretty skinny little house, only one room wide and three stories tall. We set up our air mattresses in the very top floor and installed an AC unit which, I think, is the single most important piece of equipment we packed....that top floor was blazing hot until we showed up.

Time to go ride, Oscar is already suited up and waiting on me....and telling me how big of a dork I am for setting this blog up.

joey is really good

2008-06-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

joey is awesooooommmmeeee
so coooooooolllll

joey rulllzzzzz

2008-06-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

joey roastkapf
rulllzzzz