Monday, March 30, 2009
Jeff Cup
This year's Jeff cup was pretty easy to sit in, but hard to stay off the front. On the 4th lap I tried to shatter the field on the rise past the start finsh, and even manage to string it out and break it up into little groups, but before the next hill most everyone was back. On that same lap I got away with Mike Githens and we were drilling it, but still got caught - he is pretty strong. On the last lap on the climb Brian Butts and 3 others got away. DC Velo and Richmond Pro strung it out trying to real them in, but never made contact. A DC Velo guy tried a solo bridge before the turn onto the start finish. In the field, Ryan DeWald was on my wheel for a lead out. At 1K I started the lead out, and we flew by the DC Velo guy. At around 500 meters I heard DeWald laughing and when I looked back, we were well clear of the field , so we rode in easy side by side talking for 5th and 6th. Brian Got beat in the break away sprint in a photo finish. So, we got 2nd, 5th, 6th, a broken rear derailer hanger, 2 flat and outs and 2 crashes. Lame.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Day 2 of Jay's Barn
Last night Jeremiah Bishop hijacked my computer and posted the brush your teeth thing, it could have been worse.
Today we started by doing the Lost River Classic course. It was difficult, two punch you in the quad climbs which were short but hard enough to help determine the outcome of the race. People better have some handling skills too. If I do it, I hope it is only about 5 laps long, any more than that and it's a death march.
About 3 hours into the ride we split into two 6 man groups and did lead out sprints side by side. Damn that was hard! 3 guys would rotate for about 5 k, then the next two would all out followed by the sprint. After 5 times of this, we could barley pedal. It took about 2 hours to get back to the barn and we went up the difficult climb to the barn on the back side. I think Keck made it to the top first followed by Jeremiah and Jose then Brian.
Today we started by doing the Lost River Classic course. It was difficult, two punch you in the quad climbs which were short but hard enough to help determine the outcome of the race. People better have some handling skills too. If I do it, I hope it is only about 5 laps long, any more than that and it's a death march.
About 3 hours into the ride we split into two 6 man groups and did lead out sprints side by side. Damn that was hard! 3 guys would rotate for about 5 k, then the next two would all out followed by the sprint. After 5 times of this, we could barley pedal. It took about 2 hours to get back to the barn and we went up the difficult climb to the barn on the back side. I think Keck made it to the top first followed by Jeremiah and Jose then Brian.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Jay's place, day 1
Ouch.
OK, that was fun, but ouch.
We did a 3 and a half hour ride, lots of climbing, talking and laughing - and Russ got mad at me for going nuts on every climb. He was right, but it felt good to be able to fly up the climbs this year compared to last year when I had to hold on to the truck half the time. I thought I had a 27 cog, but I only have a 25 and zig zaged up the dirt climb back to the barn. I did well on all of the short climbs, but on the long dirt climb Jeremiah showed us why he has multiple national championship jerseys and put what I think were minutes on me.
When we got back to the barn, Jay's girlfriend Audry had chili waiting - it was perfect. NCVC left us a pretty good selection of beers (thanks guys). So, full belly, beer in hand and sore legs from riding, I am in heaven.
OK, that was fun, but ouch.
We did a 3 and a half hour ride, lots of climbing, talking and laughing - and Russ got mad at me for going nuts on every climb. He was right, but it felt good to be able to fly up the climbs this year compared to last year when I had to hold on to the truck half the time. I thought I had a 27 cog, but I only have a 25 and zig zaged up the dirt climb back to the barn. I did well on all of the short climbs, but on the long dirt climb Jeremiah showed us why he has multiple national championship jerseys and put what I think were minutes on me.
When we got back to the barn, Jay's girlfriend Audry had chili waiting - it was perfect. NCVC left us a pretty good selection of beers (thanks guys). So, full belly, beer in hand and sore legs from riding, I am in heaven.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I can do that!
What's up with me! When I was younger I trained long distance with a steady hard tempo, and it made me (in my mind) pretty fast all round. Now, I don't start feeling good until 20 or 30 miles into the ride, and then I am flying. Cool if I am doing a road race, but if I am doing a crit, I have to show up an hour and a half early! Seriously, at tradezone last week the old legs finally kicked in on the last lap. If I hop out of the car at hains point, I never get a chance to really warm up. I guess having to warm up before an event is better than not being fit at all.
Les Doerfler posted a link to this picture of my new team mate..http://www.downwarddogphotography.com/p1033367721/h381643d8#h381643d8
and the first thing I think is "I can do that", but fact of the matter is I have never really tried - but it is tempting because it looks real cool, like doing a wheely on a road bike (which Page, Hipp and Dewald all can do). I want to be able to do stunts on my road bike! If you see me with a cast on my leg and a black eye, you know what I tried.
Les Doerfler posted a link to this picture of my new team mate..http://www.downwarddogphotography.com/p1033367721/h381643d8#h381643d8
and the first thing I think is "I can do that", but fact of the matter is I have never really tried - but it is tempting because it looks real cool, like doing a wheely on a road bike (which Page, Hipp and Dewald all can do). I want to be able to do stunts on my road bike! If you see me with a cast on my leg and a black eye, you know what I tried.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Training Races
Well, the training race season is over for me, and in a few days I go to my team training camp for awhile.
I worry more about how hard training camp will be than races. Like Eli said last year "Great! I get to ride in the mountains with a bunch of ex-pros". I know what he means, but, guys on the team who were never pro (and even recently were cat 2), are the ones really killing it on the climbs, like Jose and Sean Berry!
My training crit season went well. I got 2 wins, 2 seconds and a seventh. I wish there were training road races closer to home like there was in California. I felt like trash in one race but still got 7th, and screwed up tactically in another and got 2nd.
Last thing, we got a new rider! His name is Jeremiah Bishop, and if you google him, he is pretty damn good. Looks like Harley will be stronger this year than last year in the NRC.
I worry more about how hard training camp will be than races. Like Eli said last year "Great! I get to ride in the mountains with a bunch of ex-pros". I know what he means, but, guys on the team who were never pro (and even recently were cat 2), are the ones really killing it on the climbs, like Jose and Sean Berry!
My training crit season went well. I got 2 wins, 2 seconds and a seventh. I wish there were training road races closer to home like there was in California. I felt like trash in one race but still got 7th, and screwed up tactically in another and got 2nd.
Last thing, we got a new rider! His name is Jeremiah Bishop, and if you google him, he is pretty damn good. Looks like Harley will be stronger this year than last year in the NRC.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Kicked off Harley?!?!
"And, your old too!" Eli yelled while simultaneously showing me his middle finger as he rolled away.
Let me start from the beginning.
After reading the MABRA list thing, I brought it up with Eli after the lunch ride that we had too many people registered at Jeff Cup and we needed fewer. When I was done talking, he said "OK, and.."
Me- "So we should do something about it now!"
E- "OK, your off the team."
Me- "But I'm the face of the team"
E- "No, that would be Dave, your too ugly"
Me- "The bad boy of the team?"
E- "Russ"
Me-"The new guy, the dark-horse?"
E- "That would be Sean O'Rourke"
Me-"The crazy/weird guy who everyone likes?"
E-"Ken Johnson"
Me- "What about that time I sharpened the pencils for the Hotel survey, that's got to count for something!"
E- "Sorry, we need to have less guys at Jeff Cup."
Me-"Fine! I'll go join a team and rival you guys then!"
E- "That would be Evan"
Then Eli flipped me off, said what he had to say and rode off into the sunset.
So, I called Mark Sommers (AKA "The Ferret") and asked about being on DC Velo. He told me to meet him by "the duck pond" and hung up. I found a duck pond and waited for several hours, but he never showed. While I was waiting I called Evan Fader about getting on Richmond Pro. He said I hurt his feelings too much to help me out, and like Mark, he hung up on me.
What to do now?
Let me start from the beginning.
After reading the MABRA list thing, I brought it up with Eli after the lunch ride that we had too many people registered at Jeff Cup and we needed fewer. When I was done talking, he said "OK, and.."
Me- "So we should do something about it now!"
E- "OK, your off the team."
Me- "But I'm the face of the team"
E- "No, that would be Dave, your too ugly"
Me- "The bad boy of the team?"
E- "Russ"
Me-"The new guy, the dark-horse?"
E- "That would be Sean O'Rourke"
Me-"The crazy/weird guy who everyone likes?"
E-"Ken Johnson"
Me- "What about that time I sharpened the pencils for the Hotel survey, that's got to count for something!"
E- "Sorry, we need to have less guys at Jeff Cup."
Me-"Fine! I'll go join a team and rival you guys then!"
E- "That would be Evan"
Then Eli flipped me off, said what he had to say and rode off into the sunset.
So, I called Mark Sommers (AKA "The Ferret") and asked about being on DC Velo. He told me to meet him by "the duck pond" and hung up. I found a duck pond and waited for several hours, but he never showed. While I was waiting I called Evan Fader about getting on Richmond Pro. He said I hurt his feelings too much to help me out, and like Mark, he hung up on me.
What to do now?
Monday, March 2, 2009
This and That
Going down Beach Drive Sat I saw this dude on the fattest tired mtn bike ever. How fun would that be today in the snow! I don't mind the snow, got to sleep in from work and school got canceled. I even enjoy shoveling the front and back walkways of the house and digging the cars out - mindless manual labor is kind of zen-like. These bad weather days worked out perfect with my last block of training, it's nice to sit around the house for a few days hanging with the family, reading/studying and eating.
Sean Berry on my team normally registers us for the races, but since he went to Africa I volunteered to register the team for Jeff Cup and Walkersville.
I logged on to the Bike Reg account and looked around, it seemed it would be no problem. With reg opening for Jeff cup at 9, I sat at the computer and kept hitting refresh starting about 8:55. I did not want to be the reason we, or some of us did not get in before it filled. Everything was fine until little details started getting kicked back for Bike Reg info versus USA Cycling stuff, and the extra stuff I had to do to get Dave and Ken their special BAR champ reg stuff. In the end it all worked out.
Sean Berry on my team normally registers us for the races, but since he went to Africa I volunteered to register the team for Jeff Cup and Walkersville.
I logged on to the Bike Reg account and looked around, it seemed it would be no problem. With reg opening for Jeff cup at 9, I sat at the computer and kept hitting refresh starting about 8:55. I did not want to be the reason we, or some of us did not get in before it filled. Everything was fine until little details started getting kicked back for Bike Reg info versus USA Cycling stuff, and the extra stuff I had to do to get Dave and Ken their special BAR champ reg stuff. In the end it all worked out.
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