Road Race, Team Time Trial, Fruita Crit

The FLC Team Rig!
Chops throwing down in the B Men crit

The Road race was held outside Grand Junction. The mesas are cool there but other than that I don't like that place. Anyway, we had a strong team attending the race. I set up the teammates to attack on the first climb. I pinned it pretty hard and Eric Ransom launched the attack and that was the move of the day. He went with three other guys and had 8 minutes at one time. The course was a lollie pop where we head out and do laps. On the second 8 mile lap I attacked with my teammate Mike Schmidt. "Schmidty" cracked when we caught Justin Rose, from DU. Justin is also a fellow Pocatello potato head, we grew up in the same Idaho town. I basically let him pull me through the whole descent on the third lap and then left him in an attempt to bridge to the leaders. Thanks Justin for pulling me that whole entire descent. I got sketched out when we came up on some cows in the middle of the road. Justin shot right through them, in true wuss fashion I slammed on the brakes and crept through. Needless to say after chasing for the next 12 miles I brought the break back to under a minute and could see them. The break was moving faster though toward the downhill finish and I couldn't catch them. Eric Ransom had it in the bag anyway. Good job Eric.

The Team time trial was later that afternoon. I barely had time to eat a Cheetah Bar before we were back in the skinsuits with the time trial bikes out ready to throw down. We were able to race with five guys and that made it a little easier. We ended up winning but not without some serious yelling and screaming at each other. I didn't think it was possible to say the F-word that many times in a thirty minute time trial. We have got to get it together. More practice will help hopefully. Chris Kuhl almost got us DQed for dropping the F-bomb and the finish line in front of a bunch of kids. Nice Kuhl! I guess a police officer filed a formal complaint. Chris might need his mom to wash his mouth out with soap! Ha!

The second day of racing in Grand Junction went well. We actually race in downtown Fruita on an a sweet crit course. It was hard to get away because you could take the corners super fast and there was a long straightaway. There was even a round-about in the course that we went all the way around. It was a fun safe course.

The team worked perfectly together. I waited awhile to warm up and threw a solo attack that stuck for about 10 minutes before being brought back. Then the teammates attacked again. We kept the pressure on and I tried another solo attack with 19 minutes left of the 60 minute crit. This was the move when Troy Wells bridged up and then Chris "potty mouth" Kuhl and Mike Stevens bridged up with one University of Northern Colorado dude. We softened the UNC guy up a bit before the sprint. Stevens was the first to go and hung on for the win. I was right there but missed the jump and needed another gear. We finished 1st, myself second, fourth and fifth out of the break. Domination!

Finals week is upon me and I am ready for a break. I am training hard through Thursday and then tapering off for the Tour of th Gila next week. I can't believe it is here already. I love that race and hopefully I can do better than last season. It shouldn't be hard to accomplish this because last season I dropped out on the last day with 30 miles to go. I was finito!

Grand Junction

A shot of the mountains on top of Molass Pass

I made it to Grand Junction today with the FLC team. The school kicked down huge this year and bought the team a new trailer and a new F-350 Powerstroke Diesel. I will take a picture of it tomorrow. It isn't painted yet in team colors but it is so much nicer than riding around in the box van. That thing would spit oil all over the place. When we took our bikes off the trailer it was covered in oil. The new trailer is huge and closed in. It is so much nicer.

It looks like the team is doing well in Georgia. Colby got 10th today in the stage. Awesome! Wells had a sick time trial yesterday. I think Danielson is going to put it to Floyd on the Brass Town Bald Climb tomorrow. What an awesome race it has been. I wish I was there. Maybe next year I will be able to attend the big show.

I had a good time trial myself yesterday in the time trial series in Durango. We did a team time trial practice first and then we did individual time trials. I changed my position on the bike to get a little lower and not as stretched out. I felt much better and set a new course record and personal best. 28:00 flat for the Dead Elk Time Trial. I think the changes I made are for the better.

Tomorrow we will be racing in a road race in the morning and then we are are going to have to race a team time trial in the afternoon. It should be a good day of training. The road race is supposed to be rolly with some good climbs and then a false flat for about 6 miles to the finish. It should be a good race. I will try to throw up some picks tomorrow.

Target Training in Georgia

Man reading the teammates websites and watching the live coverage of the Tour de Georgia is awesome. I wish that I was there racing with those guys. It sounds like so much fun and the stages sound epic. Alejandro was off the front today for 100 miles! That is a huge breakaway. Tomorrow is the Time trial and I think Ryan Blickem could have an incredible ride. That dude can time trial. Wells should be right in there too because he can not only time trial, but he can suffer like a dog. It is good to see the team getting right in the mix. I feel proud to be part of a team that is killing it in big races. Keep up the good work teammates.

Speaking of team stuff. I received the rest of my clothing today via UPS. The driver handed me a box that looked like it had been run over and then opened by ten different people. The side was blown out, you couldn't even read the address. I am amazed the package even made it. I think I am missing a couple of hats out of all the stuff that was in the box. Bummer! Should have used Fed-Ex.

I ended up doing the Worlds ride last night. The rides have been weird this year. Everyone is content on going slow out the valley and waiting to unleash the fury on the climbs. I think it is more fun when people are constantly attacking, it's a better workout too! I was feeling the race a little still and popped on the climb and then got worked over in the sprint. It was super slow going into the sprint. Chocolate Factory guys are riding awesome! Corey Collier is pretty much crushing everyone right now, good work.

That is pretty much it here in D-Town. The weather is cold again and I have Team Time Trial practice tomorrow. I am headed to Grand Junction for a collegaite race this weekend and then finals begin on Monday. I am ready to be done!

Squawker Redemption!

Yesterday was the conclusion of the Squawker Classic. It is an awesome circuit race that consists of 6.5 miles with 650 feet of climbing per lap. I think just about everyone who raced had a great time. There were a ton of fans out there beating drums, screaming, and one dude was wearing a cape with some super short running shorts and no shirt. There were writings of encouragement all over the road. It was a great event and the team is incredible this year. We just need to iron out some things and we will be all set for nationals.
FLC was on the attack from the start. Chris Kuhl and Lee Rosenthal attacked from the start and got an awesome gap. I waited until the climb and bridged up solo with Johnny Hayes right behind. We quickly got rid of the dead weight in the group, a CSU guy. Soon it was the Fort Lewis Train at the front of the pack. We drilled it for four laps and got caught halfway into the 5th lap. I didn't even look to see who was in the group and attacked as soon as they caught us. It wasn't expected and soon I had a good gap. I held onto the attack solo for 4.5 laps. I felt better every lap up the climb, but they would gain on me every descent because the wind was fierce. On the last lap I had about 30 seconds on the chasers and cruised up the climb. I was a little worried about getting caught on the climb so I saved some energy in case I needed to sprint. I even threw up an arm and pumped the fist, first time I think I have ever celebrated. I was excited! Check out the article in the paper at the Durango Herald. There is even a good photo of the FLC Train climbing front hill. I will have some more photos as soon as my slacker brother stops putting it on the pedestal and emails them to me!
It felt good to redeem myself for dropping out of the race the previous year. It was also good to see that the climbing legs are coming back on, just in time for the Gila. I think I will try to get some more climbing in this week in the passes. Skipping the Tuesday Worlds double valley for some climbing. Thanks to everyone out there on the course cheering us on. It feels good to be a part of a tight cycling community and an awesome college team. I think this is the best team ever. The girls are even crushing it! Good sign of things to come next month in Kansas. We will find out soon enough! I am heading to Grand Junction this week for some more collegiate race action.

Squawk Stage 1 & 2

The Squawker Team Time Trial went pretty good! The team I was on ended up getting 3rd place to CU by one second and our other team won. FLC had three solid teams. We all had a good ride but we made some mistakes that we need to iron out. Our team consisted of Troy Well (Tiaa-Cref), Chris Kuhl (Sakonnet), Johny Hayes (Sakonnet), and myself. Right from he start we lost about 10 seconds because Kuhl's bike wasn't working. Then we drilled it out the valley and kind of blew up a little bit. Miss judged the wind a few times and I totally botched the turn around. It was so much fun to race with the college teammates. Good job to the other teammates who won!

The second stage was an uphill time trial to the top of Shalona. Alex Hagman posted the fastest collegiate time wining by one second. I ended up tying for second with Noah Singer. Noah uncorking a solid race. Good job Noah. Everyone was out there at the bottom of Shalona. It was pretty cool. One of the Chocolate Factory duded crushed it, the new guy Corey Collier. I am not sure what time Overend posted.

Today is the road race and it is usually a pretty brutal race. Ten times up the front hill of the college and back around the golf course. Things have gone really good for me on this course and also really bad. Two years ago I won and last year I cracked on like the 3rd lap, hung on for 6 and then pulled the plug. Hopefully things are different today.

I will throw up some pictures and some results tonight. Stay tuned and check out the site for some news later. Thanks for stopping by!

Squawker Classic

This weekend is the annual Squawker Classic Collegiate race put on by FLC cycling. I am going to be racing in the collegiate division. You might think this race is going to be easy, but that would be underestimating the competition in the collegiate division. Our conference is by far the toughest and it is composed of mostly Pro 1 and 2 riders. There will be some serious competition. The FLC team is looking extremely fast this year. We have about 10 guys on the team that could walk away with the race. Anyone of them could win. The course consists of riding up the front hill 10 times and around behind the golf course. A 6.5 mile loop that has about 700 feet of climbing per lap. That is allot of climbing. It only takes about 12 minutes per lap. Our girls team looks very strong as well. Hopefully we can win all the races this weekend.
The team time trial is tomorrow and is our strongest event. We have never lost at our home race and are the defending Team Time Trial National Champions. So to all of those out there who want to take a shot at the title tomorrow, bring your A game! I hear Danielson is going to race with the RMCF team. Tom could probably win solo. They will be a strong team, but you are only as strong as your weakest guy. I hope they don't crash him out before Georgia!
My training has been going good. I was totally worked last Tuesday after the El Paso race and I got a little stomach bug down there. My guts were torn up for a few days. I am feeling back to normal though now. Everyone is riding so well right now, I got shelled on the climb on Tuesday. I am not gonna make any excuses, I just got shelled. The Real Joey is riding the best I have ever seen, props to him for all of his hard work this winter.
I finally got the power tap hooked up, first ride with it was on Tuesday night. The infamous Shriver surge has finally been measured in watts and is standing at 1201 watts in the sprint at the end. I am not sure what that means, good or bad. I know I was holding about 420 up Shalona before I blew to the moon. I think that means I was going way to hard. It is amazing how much information you get. I look forward to training with it. My bike only weighs 19.5 pounds, 22.5 with two bottles. This is my road bike! Tanker with the Power tap on there, I guess I will be going way faster when we get the carbon bikes with some light wheels on there. That is the idea anyway.
I will try to throw up some race results as we race tomorrow. The Team TT and the individual TT up Shalona are tomorrow. Wish me luck and look for some updates with results and photos. Thanks for stopping by.

3rd in Tour of El Paso

My first time to El Paso was pretty fun. I got some great training in and some good racing. The form is coming on pretty good now and I should be riding very well by Gila, which is one of my bigger goals for the season. The drive down there is long but wasn't to bad because we decided to get there a day before the race so we wouldn't be to tired from all of the driving. Thanks to Jaime for letting us crash at his place.
Saturdays time trial didn't go very well for me. I am coming to realize that I just suck at individual time trialing. I either go out to hard and completely detonate before the end or start to slow and never actually get going. I ended up 10th overall, lost about a minute and a half to Anthony Colby. Anthony ended up getting second place and Ryan Blickem our other teammate was 4th. Ryan is just getting over the flu, so 4th place is on a bad day because he can time trial with the best of them.
Later that day we raced in the crit which turned out to be a pretty good course, even with a 180 turn in there. Our plan was to attack until we had two of us in the break. Ryan hit it pretty hard and after they chase him down I attacked and got a little gap. I thought there was no way it was going anywhere but I soon found myself with Patrick Walsh (CCB), Todd Bauer (NMVS), some old dude who was a hammer named Henry, and my teammate Anthony. We rode away from the group. With 2 laps to go it was time to try to soften the guys up, I attacked, then Anthony attacked, each time we were instantly covered. We made he mistake of not attacking enough and came into the sprint with 5 guys still. I decided to cover Todd Bauer again because he is a pretty good sprinter. Todd had me in the gutter in the sprint and was weaving all over the place, by the time I got around him Patrick Walsh had too big of a gap and I couldn't come around him. I ended up 2nd and Anthony was 5th. It was an exciting finish though and I was stoked to be in the mix.
After two events Anthony was sitting in first place in the overall and I was in second. Ryan was sitting in 5th. We were in a good position to take the overall as we raced in the road race. Ryan pretty much controlled the group all by himself the entire day. The first lap we hit the bottom of Trans Mountain, a 4.5 mile climb, we wanted to whittle the group down for the second lap. I turned the screws a little on the field and then Anthony turned them even more over the top. We had the group down to about eight guys. On the descent though the group jumped in behind the cars and drafted right back up, CHEATERS! I was irritating. So we wasted all that energy. The next time up the climb, the plan was to try to get two of us away in the group over the top. I went a little to hard and popped everyone but four guys. Then they pulled through super hard and that was all she wrote for me, I popped! Anthony made it into the lead group but was outnumbered two to one by the CCB guys. He ended up 2nd in the Road Race and I ended up 5th. I wish I could have hung on a little longer on the climb and made it into that move. Anthony took the overall and I ended up finishing in 3rd place.
Back in D-Town now it is awesome! I love this place, El Paso was nice and warm but there is just nothing there and it is so hot that the terrain is like a lunar landscape. I am counting the days until school gets out. The Squawker Classic collegiate race is this weekend and I am going to race. The collegiate race is longer and I want to race longer so I will be racing with the collegiate guys. There isn't much racing going on in the next couple of weeks. Good thing because it is crunch time in school.

Heading to El Paso, Texas

I just read the depressing news about Saul Raisin's worsening condition on Velonews. He was involved in a tragic crash that sounded like it could have been avoided, but bad promoting left this finish straight sketchy. I don't know Saul and never raced with him, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that he has a full and speedy recovery. Bike racing is scary business sometimes.

Today I am heading down to the Tour de El Paso in Texas. It is a two day race with three stages. Hopefully I can get a good result and maybe even come back with some dough. I will have two teammates to work with as well which will be nice. It is supposed to be super nice down there in El Paso, maybe even to hot.

It looks like I am going to be racing some collegiate action next weekend. I may even give collegiate nationals one more go and try to help the FLC team win the overall title. They need it bad because the college just dumped a ton of money into the program.

The most breaking news is that the townie wheel has been found! Mike Wilk found it down on the Lamp Post trail which is about 300 feet below the crash site. It was buried in the creek that runs along the trail. The police have it down in the homicide department trying to solve the attempted murder. Foul play was definitely involved in the incident. They have found finger prints on the quick release and are running the fingerprints through the FBI database and looking for other forensic evidence. Look for the suspect on next weeks Americas Most Wanted.

Disappointment: No Tour de Georgia for this guy

I found out last night that I am not on the Target Training squad for the Tour de Georgia. I am pretty disappointed that I will not be able to attend and race with some of the best in the world. These opportunities don't happen very often. I wanted to see how my form was against the elite riders and see what I could do for my teammates. I am also a little relieved. The anticipation is gone of waiting to find out and also I can just focus on my training and finish school strong. There are still plenty of races left in the season to look forward to. I know that the team selected will do well because they are all such strong and experienced guys. Good luck teammates!

I love daylight savings time. With daylight savings time comes the annual beginning of the Tuesday night rides all over the country (maybe the world?). The Tuesday rides are always fun and good training. It is hard to get that same kind of race effort during the week when training by yourself. Durango has some of the hardest rides ever. The Tuesday ride is known as "Tuesday Worlds" because of all the past world champions, national champions, and current champions that attend. It is just a brutal workout sometimes. I find it harder than races on the weekends because they are so short, but so freaking hard.

My ribs are still hurting a bit and feel tender. I may have to go in for an X-ray if they don't start feeling better. What can you do though for hurt ribs? From what I have heard, you just have to take it easy and wait it out. I am pretty sure they are just bruised, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to ride. I can ride hard without to much difficulty.

The weather in Durango is back to rain and there is actually a winter storm warning. Awesome! More snow, I am so over it. I feel like I live in Portland or Seattle now. Whatever, It just means I have to get my hardcore Belgian style training on in the rain.