Sometimes I Wake-up Grumpy

Sometimes I let her sleep.

Saturday Training Ride

I decided to bag the crit in Ft. Morgan since there are no upgrade points available and instead do a long training ride. The 100+ degree temps forcasted for Denver, saw me Ty, and Taylor leaving my house at 6am (ouch)to try and beat the heat. Taylor was our tour guide today, and from the start was all business. We did 71 miles in 4:04 w/ 4400ft of climbing

Avgs: speed 17.8 mph, hr 147, power 172

Max: speed 53 mph, hr 178, power 1117

total work: 2407 kj

Looking forward to more of the same tommorrow.

Oh Yeah - It sucks when your AC freezes and it is 101 out.

Andy Finch/Sara Kay Memorial Crit

Andrei and I, along with 45 other nut jobs braved the fierce
condtions for 50 minutes of pain on Sunday. (Temp was 59 and poured rain the whole race) I could have used a snorkel the first couple of laps. Felt like someone was holding a water hose in my face. After I settled in, tried my hand at getting off the front with a few other guys. We would get about 5-8 guys off the front but only about half would work or pull through. After my second attempt I went back to the pack and Andrei had a go which helped keep the pace high. I was able to recover during this point and when he was caught I attacked again over the top of
the climb to keep popping guys off. I never made an all out effort
to go solo, just to gap the field with the hope a few guys would
bridge and we could get going. After this attack no one bridged so I
sat up. That left us with 2 laps to go. Starting the last lap over the hill one of the guys I had been in an earlier break with attacked and got a good gap. I waited to see if anyone else was going to go, not wanting to drag the whole group up to his wheel. Finally Greg (Spike Cycling Team) jumped so I worked with him to bridge. The three of us ended up getting caught on the last straightaway, but had done our damage to the field because only 1 guy was able to counter before the last corner and climb. I ended up getting 4th. Greg got me by half a wheel for 3rd. The Winner got off the front after about 2 laps, and soloed home. I never knew he was gone until somebody said something with 3 laps to go, as I spent the first couple laps towards the back. I was really happy with race, being able to get off the front 4 different times and still finish strong on the climb. It was good to see Andrei at the front putting the hurt on as well and finish strong in 18th. We are now tied for 3rd place for the Best Team Competition and only 23 points out of first.

Proctor Cycling Classic

Last weekend I headed back to Illinois to visit my bro and get a race in. I did the Proctor Cycling Classic Road Race which also happened to be the Illinois State Championship. I was excited to race back home, just to see how it compared to Colorado.

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The course was challenging with several rolling hills, but a little short for the 4s if you ask me, only 32 miles. My plan was to sit in the first lap then hammer the last 5 miles (several steep climbs) as I thought it would split apart leaving ~15 guys. 32 miles wouldn't be long enough to make endurance a factor or be a advantage for me. Race started off as planned, basically a group ride. No real attacks, and no one driving the pace, big suprise. Waited for the last 3 climbs and I went to the front and picked the pace up. Got a good gap over the first climb and hoped some guys would bridge, instead 1 guy dragged everyone up to me at which time, I gave the flick of the elbow to pull through with no reaction, so I sat up, and so did everyone else. On the next climb did the same thing, got everything strung out, and finally turned around and told the guy to pull through, to which he replied, I can't. So basically they wouldn't let me go, but wouldn't work either. At this point we only had 2 miles left and I couldn't recover in time for the sprint, so came through in 8th place. Team Mack won with XXX taking 2nd or 3rd. Big results for 2 teams that had over 5 guys each who didn't attack, help ride tempo, or do anything proactive. Do I sound a little bitter? I guess they did win, but we should have all just hung out telling stories for an hour, then got on our bikes and sprinted for the town sign. What a waste of a cool course. If I come back next year, I'll definately be bringing some teamates.

Differences between Ill and CO - Colorado is more agressive, faster, and teams play more of a role in the race. Competition is a lot tougher in CO. CO Courses are a lot longer, usually 50-65 miles. ILL climbs are bumps in the road in CO. While 30 guys did finish with the main pack, if this same race had happened in CO the whole race would have stayed together. Field size was only 70 guys.

Similarities - 4s race negatively in both states. Bike handeling skills basically the same.

Dead Dog Classic

2 weekends ago I did the Dead Dog Stage Race. I was really excited and my form seemed to be great as well. So I headed up to Laramie, Wy on Friday and spent most of the night with Jeremy and Andrei trying to get my bike set up. In preparation of the TT on Sunday, I had a full TT cockpit set up on my road bike with cables, shifters and all, so I could get the best result possible. When putting my road handlebars back on I frayed my rear derailer cable hence the 3 hours it took us to get it shifting properly. Anyway I was pretty amped the next morning. We had a good breakfast at the Chuckwagon restaurant. I was so nervous before the race that an older gentlemen sitting behind me in the booth at the restaurant said if I didn't' stop shaking, he was going to spill his coffee and food all over himself. That gave Jeremy and Andrei a good laugh. The first disappointment was that the race course had to be changed do to a forrest fire, so the 7 mile climb was out and the course ended up being flat with 2 large rollers each way. Jeremy and Andrei went immediately to the front and started picking up the pace. This strung out the pack, but none of the other teams were really helping to keep the pace high. I sat in about 20th place. Eventually Jeremy got up with a group of 12 or so guys and Andrei and Matt put the brakes on opening up a nice gap. I then rolled up just to say high and helped block. As soon as I did this, I started getting yelled at to close the gap and stop blocking, boo whooo. Had one rider yell at me with the commment, "oh, they are really going to get away." If he didn't think they were, then why did he come around me and start chasing? This is why racing 4s sucks. Everybody races so negatively. No breaks get established, no one will work, etc. We were just trying to get some action going. Otherwise it is always the same - speed up, brake, speed up, brake, crash, attack through feed zone, brake, crash, field sprint. I personally get tired of this and want to make the race hard, so there isn't 50 guys left at the end. Anyway, Matt, Jeremy, and Andrei all got dropped and I was left alone with 10 miles to go so I had not choice but to sit in. About 3 miles out I was thinking I had good enough legs to win. I positioned myself on the yellow line sheltered from the crosswind. This side had been surging all race when there was an acceleration. I was sitting 3rd wheel behind Brent who got 2nd at Hugo the week before. Usually someone jumps with about 1k to go and things split up allowing you to move around. Not this time everyone held tight until 300m and then a guy on the outside jumped, but the guy in front of Brent never reacted, boxing us in. Never even had space to sprint so ended up 15th. This sat the tone for the rest of the weekend. It was basically going to come down to the TT, because we had 30 guys with the same time. The crit the next morning was uneventful as suspected. All my teamates got dropped again, so I spent a lap hammering the pace to try to drop even more guys so that there weren't as many to contend with at the TT. My legs were cooked after this and could only manage 13th in the sprint. I ended up 20th in the TT, which I was happy with, since it was my best TT placing all year. I ended up 16th on GC because 4 of the guys that beat me in the TT got dropped in the crit, so I guess keeping the pace high helped. Overall a frustrating weekend.