There is so much potential

If we could just get people off the sofas, out of their cars and on to a bike I think communities and businesses would realize the healing power of 2 wheels.

LOTO....BLAH

I've been putting off writing this post. I frankly am kind of over it already but I know some of you out there (maybe one of the 4 or 5 who read this blog) are aching to know. LOTOJA was last Saturday. Everything was in place for a good ride, I had a great nights sleep, I had eaten well the week or so before, I felt good. The only thing that was worrying me was my hamstring had been acting up. On Thursday Eugie, Jansen and I went for a short 30 miler road ride. About half way into the ride my hamstring started to hurt (my biceps femoris muscle for the anatomists). It has been a minor injury I've been nursing for a month or so. This ride though it was killing me. It hurt so bad that I pretty much hobbled home. Scared that this was going to destroy my race in a day I iced it, and rolled it out really well that evening. The next day it felt great, no worries there right?

Race morning was pretty good. I woke up early and started getting ready. We had all my family and some friends staying at our place so things were a little busy around the house but not too bad. The weather report looked great for the day and we were getting excited. After some last m minute things Jansen, Eugie, Kellen and I took off for a small warm up on our way to the start. We timed it perfectly and rolled to the start about 3 minutes before our scheduled start time. All the pirates gathered and waited. We had myself, Cap'n, Jansen, Kellen, Eugie, and Scott all riding in the same group so it was great. And Jay the dentist was only starting 6 minutes behind. They started us and off we went rolling through Logan towards Preston, ID. Jansen, Kellen and I had planned on racing with the pack so we planned on skipping the first feed zone in Preston to avoid the huge crowds and ball of nervousness in Preston. We took enough food and water to get us to the Montpelier feed zone. From Preston the road begins to climb towards strawberry summit. Once the climbing really began some of the guys in the group turned up the pace and I just follow their wheels. Once guy really cranked up the pace and blew what was left of the group apart. Kellen and Jansen could hold on and rode at their own pace the rest of the day. As we neared the top of strawberry summit we looked around and there were only 6 or 7 of us left from our group. I was right where I wanted to be, the only problem was that my left was starting to bother me a little bit.

We dropped down to Montpelier for the feed. I got my stuff with out a problem (except my Ibuprofen that I forgot to take...) and started to climb with the other 6 guys up the towards the next challenges of the day, Geneva summit and Salt River pass. Going up those climbs the pace was fast but not killer. The King/Queen of the mountain was on salt river pass and I decided that I wanted to "win" the KOM for our group even though I wouldn't get anything for it (they only give a prize to the top king/queen for the whole race!). It was more a matter of trying to save face since by then my hamstring was on fire. I took off from my comrades around 1.5-2 kilometers from the top and scorched my way to the top. We regrouped on the descent and rode well together into the next feed zone of Afton.

I got my feed in Afton from Kellen's wife Rachel (she switched to support me since I was ahead of Kellen and Jansen). I had a small croissant sandwich that I ate and finally took some Ibuprofen. The road turned up Star valley and we had a 10-13 mph head/cross wind to make things nice. After we left Afton I started to feel sick. My stomach went into anarchy mode and was cramping severely. Plus my leg was starting to turn into a stabbing pain instead of the aching that it had been the previous 130 miles. My stomach got worse, my leg got worse and I fell off the back of the other 5 or 6 guys. So long......I was gone. I knew I had at least a 20 mile ride into the next feed zone at Alpine Junction. The wind was relentless, the stomach cramps never let up and I was practically pedaling one legged because it hurt too much to put power into my right leg. It was a long and painful 20 miles. I fought and fought to get into Alpine. I made up my mind that I was going to call it a day once I got there. I did not think I was capable of riding the last 46 miles or so to the finish.

I rolled into Alpine defeated. I saw Rachel and told her I was done. She coerced me into riding up a little ways where she could try to massage my legs out a bit (I was lucky that she happens to be a massage therapist). I sat on the ground in Alpine for 25 minutes, trying not to throw up, and having Rachel rub out my right leg. I used the restroom and told her I would try to ride a little farther. She said she would meet me in Hoback junction (some 25 miles from the finish). Luckily the wind had turned up the canyon so we had a nice tail wind to push us along. I felt better but was still struggling. I made it to Hoback, and Rachel gave me another 20 minute leg rub massage. I knew at that point that I could finish. The last 20 miles or so are a blur. I had enough energy and pain management to grab onto the tail end of a 4 person group into Jackson. One of the worst parts about this race is that you hit Jackson Hole around mile 200, but the finish is actually in Teton Village, another 6 miles away! I pushed as hard as I could that last 1/2 hour. It was painful and was not pretty but I rolled across the line with a finish time of 11 hours and 1 minute. My bike computer gives me a ride time of 10 hours and 14 minutes, so I spent around 45 minutes on the side of the road trying not to die. After the race I felt even worse. My stomach in an attempt to destroy me was cramping so badly that I hardly made it back to the finish line to see Eugena and my dad finish (her story of extreme suffering and incredible fortitude is a story for her to tell).

So almost one week later, I feel pretty good. The seasons are changing and its been great to get out on the mountain bike (the sugar and I went for a 24 mile mountain ride deep in the Wasatch today that was incredible). I'm a little disappointed in how my race turned out, but since bike racing isn't my life's purpose I'm ok with it. I know I could have done well (the guys I was riding with until mile 130 took 1,2,3,4 for our group), and I always have plenty of biking seasons ahead of me. I would like to get a sub 10 hour race some day, maybe next year, maybe the year after (I'm trying to talk Eugie into riding it next year on a tandem with me). So for now, I have a lot of cool mountain biking to do.

PS. I finished my 2nd week of clinical rotations and have already learned more about real, practical medicine than a whole quarter of school. I love being out helping patients.

The Hillclimb

So after a week or so of hanging out in California (not really riding much after our awesome rides), and driving back to Utah, my brother Kellen and I signed up to do the snowbird hillclimb road race. Basically its a 9.6 mile suffer fest up Little Cottonwood canyon. You climb 3300 feet from the valley up to Snowbird ski resort. This climb is worthy of any Grand Tour. I hoped to race well but my legs felt empty and I had some stomach problems. I just checked the results and I ended up taking 14th in the cat 4/5 group. Ohh well, luckily I felt better as the climb went on and I was able to finish strong. Captain, Eugie and Scott left early and met us up at the finish so it was cool to see them up there. Eugena took this picture right at the finish so I was deep in the hurt box. Below is a little video I found of the Google Earth version of Little Cottonwood canyon.

SSP in cali day 4-The Lost Coast

Today was the Queen day of the trip. We were about to get all we could ever ask for in a bike ride; Amazing scenery, epic views, great weather, awesome climbs, thrilling descents, good company, and excellent support. We started the ride in the Avenue of the Giants - it is a road that is surrounded by gigantic redwood trees hence the name Avenue of the Giants. We rode in the redwoods for about 25 miles but since part of out destination was the lost coast we needed to get over the hills and mountains that separated us from the beach. That took us to Panther Gap, a nice 8 mile climb up and over the coastal mountains. The climb was beautiful, no cars, amazing scenery, and switchbacks!
From the top of the climb we had an incredible view of Mendocino county. From there we had some rolling hills and a few 1 miler climbs to get us to the lost coast. We were on an amazing descent then suddenly the ocean opens up to your view. The road along the coast was a little more challenging then we anticipated. I'm not sure if it was the 25-30 mph winds, or the occasional sand blasting that we got along the 6 mile stretch, not to mention the only way to get off the coastal road is up "The Wall".
The Wall is a 16-18% 1 mile climb that juts up from the coast to get you over the coastal mountains. The look of it is exactly what it feels like, pure and unadulterated suffering. Its steep, it was windy, and it was amazing. I haven't ever rode up something so steep for so long. It was a pure brute of a climb, it really isn't that long, but when you are going 4-5 mph it seems to take forever. Once over the top of this hill we had a nice fast descent before beginning the next climb, the "Endless Hill", aptly named for it's length (8 miles) plus the loads of false summits that give you the rush that you're almost done only to disappoint again and again. I left the Capn' and eugie on this climb, mostly because I just wanted to get it done with and under my belt, knowing we had a 7 mile descent to Ferndale, were we would finish. I felt great on the climb and quickly settled into a rhythm. When the Capn and Eugie finally rolled over the top of the climb we were excited to be done and loving the ride we had just been on. This maybe the coolest ride I've ever done. The scenery was amazing, and the views were unbeatable.
Stats: 77 miles, 8200 feet of climbing, Lots of huge Redwoods, 25-30 mph winds, 1 insanely and excruciatingly steep climb (the other climbs weren't quite as steep as the Wall), miles of twisty fast descents and one great ride.

SSP in cali day 3-Bit off more then we could chew

We decided to use day 3 sort of as a rest day. We had a century on the schedule but we decided to cut the ride short and only do like 70 miles or so. We headed out of Healdsburg (a little north of Santa Rosa, Ca) by car to get a lot of climbing out of the way. At least we thought we were getting a lot of the climbing out of the way. Right after we started we had a quick 1/4 mile jaunt up a 16% grade. The road was mostly up and down, but quiet and once we got into a rhythm, a beautiful ride. We ended up riding only for a couple hours and we didn't make it that far. But we had a nice time out in the hills above the vineyards.
Stats: 22 miles, 2200 feet of climbing, One amazing Buddhist Temple complex, and a great little warm up for the next day.

SSP in cali day 2-Sierra the Great

Day 2 brought the arrival of the Sky Captain and his lovely Queen and we decided to head out to so one of the coolest rides in the bay area: Calaveras road. The road snakes along the back side of the foothills east of the bay and has been featured as the last part of a stage in the last 2 years of the Tour of California. We headed out on Calaveras road which snakes it's way along the hillside, above a reservoir and winding through Oak groves. We headed to a little town called Sunol where we got some lunch then made our way back. I won the KOM points on the way back after a suprise attack from the captain. Really the only traffic we saw on the road was a random cow that had wandered onto the road. We headed back to town and the Sky Captain and I broke off from Eugie to ride up Sierra Road. This climb is a beast. Its not the length (only 3.6 miles) but rather the grade. It starts off right away with a 16% pitch and on some of the switchbacks kicks to 18%. The climb never gets easy. Once you're at the top though you get unspoiled view of the sprawling city below and are rewarded with a fast and exhilarating descent back home. This is one of my all time favorite rides and it was great to ride it with eugie and the Captain.
Stats: 57 miles, 5500 feet climbing, 1 bown cow, and a heaping bowl of suffering on Sierra.

SSP plunder california Day 1

Day 1: After arriving in cali on Sunday we headed out for a sweet and killer ride on monday morning. The weather was a nice cool 70 deg and we decided to do a ride called the "Bay to Coast Classic". It starts in Palo Alto and heads over the mountains to Pescadero on the coast. Part of the race that I did in June is on the same roads so we were excited to get some sweet riding in. The road immediatly turned upward with a 9 mile climb into the coastal mountains. The climb was beautiful as we rose above the sea of asphalt and metal that is the Bay area, although it was a pretty steep climb. Once on the top though we were treated to an amazing 7 mile descent through the redwoods to get to the small community of Pescadero. After meeting our family there for lunch we headed out on Stage road (part of the Pescadero classic race course). The course proved to have a little more climbing then we anticipated so we decided to change our course a little bit and end up hooking back on the route we took to the coast. It's hard to be upset that your climbing a long hard hill when the road you are on is free of traffic and you can sit and spin quietly as you ride through beautiful redwood forests. After all the climbing was done we had a thrilling descent back to the car below. It was a great ride and I'd jump at the chance to ride it again.
Stats: 60 miles, 6600 feet of climbing, 2 pesto chicken sandwiches and 1 giant cast iron skeleton with a 50 caliber machine gun.

The dual

Last Saturday we gathered in southern Utah for a supported century called the Desperado Dual. It is held in beautiful southern utah canyon country and it did not disappoint. The morning was a bit chilly and we started the 106 mile loop about 5 minutes late. Soon the temp warmed up and we started the gentle climb up red canyon. About mile 38 Sugar who was wearing the best young rider jersey called it a day and split to ride back to Panguitch. After around mile 40 the team finally found it's groove. We had the core SSP team with a few friends that wanted to ride with the Pirates for the day. We had a total of 10 or so riders. Around mile 45 we cruised upon a small group and they hopped on the back of the Pirate train. It was a pretty site seeing 10 or so SSPs pushing a 26 mph pace at the front of a group of 30 or so riders. The rest of the day was fast and fun. We flew down a long descent and the ride back to town was a little slower with a slight head wind. All in all it was a very fun century for the team. We'll be back next year.

Good Mountains

The last couple weeks have been kind of crazy. Eugena, Kiowa and I made the move from Kirksville, MO to Logan, UT about 2 weeks ago and are finally getting settled in. We were down in SLC a couple days for my younger brothers wedding and I had the chance of riding the most epic and leg-busting ride of my life...more on that later. First our new place in Logan is pretty much the sweetest place we've had thus far in our relatively short married life. We have a good sized house with a nice backyard. There is a little canal that runs along the outside of the fence so Kiowa gets morning and afternoon swims to keep her furriness cool during these hot summer days. The house is withing walking distance to a bunch of stores, and the best part by far is that I have space for a sweet bike shop. No longer will I have to use our office/study room/storage room to work on our bikes. Logan so far is awesome, it's sitting right by the mountains and is a pretty quiet town. Bigger than the ville, but not so huge that you get choked out by asphalt everywhere. I went mountain biking with Eugena and my Dad yesterday and it was so nice to be up in the mountains. Man I didn't realize how much I missed the high country, plus the trails out here are pretty cool. I did go on a mtn ride with some guys from a local shop and was able to see a guy endo and face plant into a rock (a nice chance to practice a little wilderness medicine), he busted out some teeth and after we got him down the canyon to a doctor he ended up with 3 busted teeth, a fractured maxilla and some facial lacerations. So it was a pretty exciting first mountain biking outing.

By far the coolest ride I was able to do since being back at elevation was what we have dubbed the "Triple Death Threat" ride. My older brother (Mr. Fabulous), my then-soon-to-be-wed younger brother (k-dog) and I left early one morning for Millcreek canyon. Millcreek would be the first of three canyons, followed by Big Cottonwood, then finally Little Cottonwood. Millcreek is a great climb, about 8.5 miles long and averages around 6.5% grade with sections that kick up to 15%. Big Cottonwood was just that, big. It's about 15 miles avg 5% grade. Then when we finally came to Little Cottonwood, the hardest of them all, 9 miles at around 8% avg grade, and in the heat of the afternoon. It was easily the hardest ride I've ever done. This was a courageous endevour, We didn't know the exact milage or the exact amount of feet to be climbed when we started, we just knew it would be a lot....This is what my ibike elevation profile revealed: If you look at the bottom you can see the elevation climbed....yeah almost 11,000 feet in 86 miles. It was a blast.

Tomorrow we are hitting the road again first for southern utah for an organized century, then to california for a week long Salt Sea Pirates LOTOJA training camp. Eugie has organized a bunch of sweet road rides in northern california so it should be a blast.

The bike shop

The new addition to the bike family

Capital "P"

I just got my board scores back and.....I passed! A nice relief, now I can actually enjoy the rest of the summer.

A beautiful place and a great race

When we were making plans for our trip in California and Utah I was trying to figure out how we could spend enough time in California with eugie's family while still being able to be back in slc for the sugarhouse crit that I wanted to do. It just so happened that I came across another race in California the same day as the sugarhouse crit, that was the same price and it kept us in cali another 2 days. When I found the race it was full so I put my name on the waiting list and hoped for the best. So last Saturday I was able to race the coolest race I've ever done. It was held in Pescadero, CA which is between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. It is a small town settled between the pacific ocean and the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The thing that attracted me to this race was the fact that it was a mountain top finish. The course was a 27 mile loop that we (Cat 5s) did 1.7 times. It had 3 major climbs, 2 one milers in a row, then a gradual climb up a canyon, then finished with a 2+ mile climb through the redwoods before a nice 8 mile descent back to pescadero.
Then we did the loop again but finishing at the top of the big climb. The scenery was incredible, we started off rolling through coastal grasslands and the big climb went through huge redwoods.

I was excited to race but I was also a tad nervous. People had told us that the Bay Area has one of the most competitive amateur cycling communities in the country and that a "Cat 5" in the bay area may be considered a "Cat 3" elsewhere in the country. In other words, people there are fast and fit. So I was curious to see how I would do. In reality I didn't come to the race completely rested (My relay team took 2nd in the Men's relay at the Vikingman 1/2 ironman the saturday previous, and I did a nice 50 mile climb with around 4k feet of climbing on Tuesday. But the legs were feeling ok. The race started out with a neutral start 5 miles of rollers before those first 2 one miler climbs. The pace wasn't too bad. The club hosting the race was Webcor and they had a around 5 or 6 guys riding in the cat 5s. Usually in the lower categories of racing you don't see too many team tactics being used, so it showed that everyone was a step higher because Webcor tried to control the group. You could tell they were setting on of their people up for the win. We went through the first lap without any significant breakaways. I rode away on the big climb with about 4 other guys but it wasn't too intense and we regrouped on the descent. When we came through pescadero the 2nd time the pace got shifted up a gear. We hit the 2 smaller climbs again going much faster and the group was beginning to dwindle to around 35 riders or so. When we started heading up the canyon we were flying (we had a nice tailwind coming in from the ocean so that helped with the pace). The Webcor riders put in some fast accelerations that shot some more people out the back. We came through the feedzone and started to approach the base of the finishing climb. I had told myself before the race that no matter what situation I was in that I would attack at the base of the climb. We took a nice right hand turn, the gradient kicked up to around 9% and we started climbing. I shifted down a few gears and unleashed an attack along the inside with full pirate fury. It was great, I gapped the group quickly and tried to settle into a pace that I could maintain. I didn't want to wait for Webcor to do something for their guy. As I was trying not to explode my pace dropped a little bit. 2 guys (one of them was a Webcor) bridged up to me and passed me, I tried to stay on their wheels but didn't have the kick in my legs to do so. I could see the "kilometers to go" marks on the sides of the road ticking down and was doing my best to keep myself in the top 3. A third guy bridged up and passed and I tried to maintain as much as I could handle. I could feel the previous week's efforts taking their toll. A 5th guy came up and rode on my wheel. He would come around me, then I would sit on his wheel and come around him. We switched off like this a few times till the climb leveled off a bit towards the top. I decided I didn't want 5th place so I kicked it up a bit and finished strong.

I ended up taking 4th in the cat 5 group. After the finish we had a nice 8 mile cool down descent back to our cars. It was nice to chat with the guys that finished around me. This race was by far the coolest race I've done so far. I wish I had the fire in my legs to hold them off, but ohh well. I'll take 4th in a group like this. I did get a nice alloy Ritchey handlebar for my place though.

If you want to read how Eugena did in her race you can look at her blog here.

More Bay Area riding

I'm going to try to get out on this ride today or tomorrow. It has around 6,000 ft of climbing and uses some of the course that I hope to be racing this Saturday.

PIctures from today's ride on Calaveras and Sierra road

Beautiful California

My next ride

Ahhhhhh....so much better

There should be a surgeon general's warning about studying for boards....It's terrible for your health. I have 2 weeks full of hanging out with family and friends and lots of biking. I'm stoked.

It will be better 1 week from today...

Until then its 12 hour days with books and filling my head with the most random diseases....

Great music by 3 great artists

3 of my favorite artists. G-love, Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter.

A great weekend on the bike

This last Saturday my friend Nick and I headed out to Lincoln, NE for a road bike race. The race was the Lincoln Plating Spring Cycling classic and is a 2 day 3 stage race. Saturday had a 12.8 time trial (ITT) in the morning with the 38 mile (for the cat 5s) road race in the afternoon. Sunday was a 30 minute criterium, short and fast. Nick and I went out there with the intention on just racing Saturday and to come back sat evening. We drove out Friday, had some good food (seriously there is no good place to eat in kirksville), stayed in a hotel room, and got up sat morning ready to race. The Saturday races were being held at Branched Oak Lake just north-west of town. Going into the weekend had looked at the weather and knew that it was going to be a good temperature and windy. I didn't know it would be REALLY windy. We had a constant 25-30 mph wind out of the south the whole day.

We were a little late getting there and were kind of rushed to get ready for the ITT at 9am (9:04:30 to be exact). We got a nice little warm up and got to the start area. Nick was posted to start right before me (we went at 30s intervals) so it would be nice to use him as my "rabbit". Talking with Thomas earlier in the week he suggested that I "sandbag" the ITT and save my energy for the road race knowing that I wouldn't be going for the overall. So I got to the ITT start, pulled up to the line, someone grabbed the back of my bike so I could clip in, counted down from 10, and I was off. The course was a little hilly, with a good climb at the beginning. We basically headed west out of the park, then took a right turn into a 1.5 or so mile climb then went clockwise around the lake. So we got a combo of tail wind, then a cross wind, then a brutal head wind, then another cross wind. The climb wasn't too bad, for 2 reasons: One, it was only around a 5-6% grade, Two, we had a 25-30mph tail wind. I was able to keep 20-21mph going up the climb.....it was nice. I was riding the ITT pretty well, I decided that I wasn't going to soft pedal around the lake so I decided to catch Nick. I caught up with him right after the climb and just kept on ticking away. The rest of the ITT I just tried to keep a rhythm, knowing that we would be riding the same course for the road race in a few hours. On the south-eastern part of the course we had to cross the dam. This is also where we had a head wind and I kept thinking to myself, "it is going to be brutal in the road race today with this type of wind". I finished the TT and rolled in to the car. When they posted the results an hour or so later I found out that I took a respectable 4th place. Not to bad for not pushing it too much. We kind of relaxed and refueled in prep for the road race.

For the road race we would do 3 laps around the same course. We lined up at the start, right behind the Collegiate racers and got ready to roll. A couple cool things, we had to sign in before the start, and we had a neutral support/wheel car, and we had a mile long neutral start until we made a right turn onto the hill. Kind of felt like a big time race...

We rolled through the neutral start and hit the climb (with the tail wind). A big guy just kind of rode off the front and the rest of the group kept a nice easy pace up the climb. Somehow Nick and I ended up at the front. I didn't mind doing a little work at the beginning but I knew I didn't want to be up there too long especially when we hit the cross/head wind. We finished the climb, took a right turn and headed into the wind. I was still at the front and when I tried to pull off to finish my turn no one would come up to replace nick and i at the front. I would pull off and slow down, the whole group would slow down. I was getting frustrated by the fact that no one would work. I think everyone was too scared of the wind and didn't want to blow their chances by wasting too much energy at the front. I looked at nick, told him we should light up the pack a bit and see if we can catch the guy out in front. I was just hoping to put some fire into the field's legs, get things moving a bit. We came on a small hill, I looked at nick and picked up the pace. It was a good attack, I went hard for about 15 seconds and looked back.......nothing. No response, nick wasn't feeling it so he had dropped back. No one was responding, I had a gap, may as well go catch the guy in front, so I did. I caught up with him on the dam. The wind was brutal, as I came up on him I told him the field was being lazy and we should work together. I don't think he heard a word I said over the sound of the wind. I got in front of him hoping he would pick up on it and get on my wheel, soon however I noticed that he had fallen off my pace. So here I am, 7 or so miles into a 38 mile race, alone out in front in a 25 mph headwind, did I mention that I was alone....may as well go for it and see what happens. I came to the next right turn and was happy to turn that headwind into a cross wind. At this point the field could still see me up the road. I figured that if this is going to have any chance at succeeding I need to mess with their minds a bit. I realized that if I can get out of their sight it will only demoralize them since they will have no idea just how far up I am. So I tried to take advantage of one of my stronger points in cycling and hit the small rollers/hills pretty hard. Slowly increasing the gap. I kept glancing back over my shoulder and seeing the field fade into the distance. This was feeling pretty good. A bit lonely but pretty good nonetheless. I came up to the hill with the tailwind now and hit the climb going almost 30mph. I kept a 20mph speed up the climb and just felt great. Going into the wind and across the dam kept me at around a 16 mph speed, but I tried to make it up on the crosswind sections. The only company I had out there was cat 5 lead car in front of me, a radio car behind me, and the occasional stragglers from the collegiate fields in front of me that would offer some encouragement. So I kept going, trying to ride in my limits but pushing hard to maintain the gap. I finished lap 2 in about 34 minutes, 3.5 minutes quicker then I rode it for the ITT. Last lap, could I pull it off, was the field getting their crap together? I kept my head down and thought of great solo cycling artists like Jens Voight, Vino, and my buddy thomas who soloed for 100+ miles to win a race. I guessed that if I could hold them off enough that they were still out of sight by the time I crossed the dam then I had a good chance of keeping it clear. I rode up the little riser at the end of the dam, looked back over my shoulder......no one. I smiled, shifted down a gear and started cranking towards my first 1st place finish. I came to the turn to the finish line and could hear the race director on the loud speakers announcing my name. It was a cool feeling. Solo victory, and with the field nowhere in sight. I came across the finish, rose a clenched fist, and a smile across my face. I started for a 2 handed victory salute but a big gust of wind right at that moment almost sent me tumbling across the finish line. It was a sweet finish. As I was cooling down I heard the director calling me back to the finish over the loud speakers. I made my way back, got up on the officials stand and conducted a post-race interview! He asked me what it was like out there, why I decided to attack so early, and so on. I told him the legs felt good and the field just didn't respond to my move. After finishing the interview, the next group of 4 riders came cruising across the line for 2nd and 3rd place. Yep, I had time to do a short cool down, and conduct a post-race interview before the next group finished. I crushed them, not that I am super strong I just don't think they expected that anyone would last out there in the wind. A good combination of strength and luck.

They posted the official results a few days later. Since I didn't race the criterium the next day I essentially gave the race away to someone else. It would have been cool to win the overall but looking back it is pretty spezzatura-ish to crush a race then walk away from the overall like I have better things to move on to. The results show me finishing at EXACTLY 2:00:00 (my computer clocked a time of 1:55:45) and the next group finishing at EXACTLY 2:02:00. Seems a little weird to me with the round numbers and all. It felt like I had put more then 2 minutes between when I finished and the next group. Regardless it felt great to go out there see my training pay off. Plus the Moots is pretty much awesome and practically rode itself to a dominating victory.



Below is the power graph from the iBike. It wasn't dialed in right so the wattage reading are off but you can get the idea. The blue line is my power output and the red line is the elevation change. You can see when I attacked around minute 25 as the power spikes then remains elevated as I crank away solo. You can also see the climb on each of the 2 laps.

First race of the season.

Last Saturday I woke up at 4am to drive 4 hours to Hillsboro, Il (I know kirksville is in the middle of nowhere, especially in the athletic/outdoor world). I've been eyeing the Hillsboro-Roubaix road race since last year so I made it a point to go race. It was my first race of the year and I was pretty excited. My friend Brian, who is just settling into road biking, decided to come along and join me. So here is the break down:

0430-0930-Drive, yeah nothing special here

0930-Arrive at the race start, check in, get my bike ready and do a nice 3-4 mile warm up ride

1045- Most of the racers do a ceremonial lap around town with the race organizer. It also gave us a chance to scout the finishing mile or two of the race.

1115-Start lining up for the race and watching the cat 1/2, 3s take off

1130-Our field starts (I decided to race the Cat 4/5 field). Our field would do two 22 mile loops on these really cool county roads. Below is the profile of the whole race taken from a friend's garmin:
We started off really quick out of the gun and at first I wasn't sure if I could hold a 25-27mph pace the whole race. Once we got about 4 miles in the group settled down a bit. We ended up doing the whole 44 mile race in almost exactly 2 hours so a 22 mph avg isn't too bad. The first lap was pretty conservative in terms of how I was riding. I sat most of the time in a great position in the front 10-12 riders, conserving my energy and not working when I didn't need to. There were a couple short steep hills that I felt really good on the first lap. The peak right in the middle of the profile above is the feed zone hill followed by another short steep climb. The first lap the feed zone hill was "neutral" meaning that it is common courtesy not to attack then. The second time it was fair game. The first loop was pretty uneventful, someone told me that there was a crash but it was towards the back of the pack so I didn't see it. It was the second lap that things began to pick up.

One hour later:

Brian took this picture as the field came through the start/finish for the beginning of the second lap (I'm in the sweet light blue pirate kit). About 5 miles into the 2nd lap there was a nice little climb that a few of us went off the front. There was maybe 6 of us and we had a nice little gap on the rest of the group. Me and another guy kept telling the small group that we had a gap and we need to work and open it up a bit more. No one else really seemed too interested so we got pulled back in pretty quickly. It was a nice little breakaway for a mile or so. During most of the day there was a pretty strong wind out of the south, and it seemed to get stronger as the race went on. The last 9 miles or so the course took a northeast course which meant that we had a tail/cross wind, but in the last 4 miles the course turned due east which meant that the tail wind became a cross wind. I figured that the deciding factor would be the climbs by the feed zone (once you got over the 150 foot climb it was only one mile to the finish) so I wanted to get in a good position going into the cross wind section. The field hit that turn into the cross wind going pretty quickly. I dropped a few positions in that turn and had to spend a bunch of energy fighting the wind to stay on the end of the front eschelon or about 15 riders. I didn't look back but someone told me that when we hit the cross wind the field blew apart. I was lucky to at least be in the front eschelon. I had spent so much energy that when we hit those climbs 1 mile from the finish I didn't have a ton of reserve left. I climbed the 150 vertical feet as hard as I could and gained a few spots. The finish was pretty cool, you crested the climb, had a nice quick downhill onto 1/2 mile of brick road (hence the Roubaix reference in the name), then the finish. I passed a couple more people on the brick and tried to hold it to the end. I ended up finishing 9th in the 4/5s (I happened to be the top cat 5 in the 4/5s also).

The race was a lot of fun, the roads had this cool northern france/belgium feel to them. I am pretty happy with my effort, if I could have kept a better position going into that corner into the cross wind I maybe could have broken top 5 but oh well. It was nice racing and being able to feel some of my work over the winter paying off.

Next up: I just signed up for a cool race in Lincoln, NB on April 21st. It has a 12 mile TT on sat followed by a road race. It should be a lot of fun.