I turned into a Tuna Melt at Altoona today

Well my good result in the Tour de Toona just turned into a chunk light tuna melt today. I had a good ride on stage 3 he other day that my teammate Frank Pipp won. I was in it to win it all the way to the end and even attacked with a little inside 1k to the finish with one of the Navigators guys. The group brought us back and Frank attacked for the win. It was his biggest win yet and he deserves it. I ended up moving into 11th.

The past couple days have been really hard as well and with Frank sitting in second place we have been making sure we keep him up front out of trouble at all times. On Stage 4 I got caught in a crash that happened at the front of the group. I landed on my feet and slid on my shoes and cleats then took a tumble. I was fine and thought all was good on my bike, but I actually tore the bottle cage bolts out of the downtube. Luckily our mechanic Jelly, had another bike all built up for me the next day. Yea, it is pretty sweet being on a team that has extra bikes.

Stage 5 was hard as well and we had to get on the front and rotate with Health Net for the last 10 miles of the race. Those guys are so strong and trying to pull through after their pulls is so hard. We brought the gap down before the finish from 2 minutes to 22 second. The last 1k was so turny and it was raining. The same Quebexican that crashed himself in stage two crashed himself again in the last 5oo meters. I hung on to my 11th only 39 seconds down from the leader.

Stage 6 was today and it was intense all day. Lots of little climbs that I could feel digging into the reserves. I made it to the first climb and was at the front. I started cracking with 5k to the top. Way to early to crack. I hung close and came over the top at about 15 seconds behind the chase group. Some Toyota guys had gotten away on the climb including Chris Wherry. The chase was on. I regrouped with some guys on the descent and we got back on with the big chase group. As soon as I got on Frank called us up to the front to help pull back the leaders. I was already on the rivet. I went up there with my teammates Chris and Dustin to take pulls. Again we were pulling with the Health Net guys. It was so hard to pull around them. Nathan O'neil is such a monster on a bike and trying to take a pull was like trying to pass a big semi. I hung on until shortly before the last climb at about 15 K to the finish. Then I just tried to ride in with some guys and limit the damage.

I don't know where I am in the GC now, I am sure that I have slipped back maybe out of the top 15 but hopefully in the top 20 still. Anyway, it was a brutal day. Tomorrow is the final day and I want it to be over. It has been fun but 7 days is ruining me. I wish I could have hung on a bit longer and finished with Franks group then I would probably still be in 11th. Whatever, I gave it my all.

Tour de Toona

After two stages of the Tour de Toona already down this race is flying by. The time trial could have gone better but I am not to disappointed with the result. I lost 20 seconds to the leader. It was a course where if you don't take risks then you aren't going to win. I blew the first couple corners going to slow. Then I took one corner to fast and almost dumped it on the pavement. I backed it off a little after the near carnage.

Yesterday was the second stage and it was a 63 mile circuit race. The group of riders is huge and there are some sketchy dudes out there. I think the only Domestic team that is missing is Tiaa-Cref, the rest are attending. We averaged 29 mph and finished the race in 2:13:00. Super fast! I felt pretty good but screwed up when I missed the break that ended up getting the KOM points. Stefano Barberri was the KOM leader after the stage and I was right on his wheel when he took off. I didn't think the move would stay away as long as it did. Long enough to get the points. There were some good crashes and one of the Quebexicans blew a tight left hand corner and t-boned a curb putting himself on a lawn in downtown. It was a pack finish.

I am hanging out at the host housing right now just drinking some water trying to hydrate. It is going to be a hot day today and a long stage. The longest and hardest of the week. Lots of climbing. Chris Wherry (D-Town) won the stage last year so he will be someone to watch and follow today because he may be after a win again. If I can hang with Wherry then I am having a great day. Wish me luck! I will throw up another post later upon my return. Here is a link to the Mount Holly-Smithville GP on cycling news as promised.

Mennonite Country, Pennsylvania

Mount Holly-Springville GP in the break!
On the podium with the Navigator Boys
Holding my breath on the podium
Van Ulden and I all alone early on, joined later by more Navigators

I promised some photos from Mount Holly and here they are. I look like I am holding my breath in one of the podium shots.

We are hanging out in Altoona, PA getting ready for the time trial in downtown Altoona. It is going to be a good one. I am not even riding a TT bike. I am going to ride my road bike with some clip-ons for the one straight away. The course is fast and rolling. I will throw up a race report either later today or in the morning. Wish me luck!

8th Annual Mount Holly

I made it to the East last Thursday afternoon and was greeted by 3 hours off jam packed traffic. A drive to Westport from NYC that usually only takes an hour took us 3 and a half. Gotta love the all the people driving their $50,000 BMW's and Mercedes.

Yesterday was the Mount Holly-Smithville Grand Prix in New Jersey and it went well for me. The course is pretty much dead flat with a few small rollers and I would say a total of 200 feet of climbing over 147Kilometers. The weather was insane and it poured on us for most of the race. At one point the entire road was covered with water and we were riding through a river. Epic! On the second lap there was a massive pile up and about 60 guys went down. Both ditches were filled with riders and the entire road was covered with bikes and bodies. I saw the crash happening right in front of me and maneuvered to the right. Some dude overlapped my wheel and I think that was what caused the crash. It wasn't my fault though. One of the Sakkonet dudes freaked out and it caused a chain reaction of fast movements in the peleton and that is all it took. The crash was endless with the usual noises of brakes screetching, tires exploding, bodies crumbling, and bikes bending and breaking. I hate that noise.

Shortly after the crash I attacked and got away with a few riders. We almost got caught by the mainfield when Navigators Bernard Van Ulden attacked and I went with him. We stayed away for 10 miles before being joined by two more Navigators guys. Coming into the final circuit I was outnumbered and ready for the attacks to come. Van Ulden attacked with 12K to go and I covered it only to be attacked by race winner Glen Chadwick. I tried to follow but was cooked and the other Navigator was right on my wheel and he later attacked me. I was left out to dry for the last 7k and rode solo to the finish taking 3rd place. I also ended up 3rd in the sprinters competition and had no idea that there was a sprinters jersey. Dang! I think I could have taken that for sure. I only threw down the Shriver Surge a couple of times during the race.

How about Floyd Landis! What an amazing Tour this year. I think it was so exciting. Eleven yellow jersey changes, awesome. I think Floyd will win a couple more if his hip surgery goes well. Floyd seems like kind of a weird dude! It is good to see an American win, but I think it would have been good to have a Euro win it instead of the USA taking and 8th straight win. My prediction is that Floyd will get his hip replaced with some Carbon Fiber-Titanium hip, win 8 Tours, inspiring millions of people with prosthetics and start a HIP-STRONG Foundation. There will be a HIP-STRONG bracelet made out of Muskrat fur and Billions of them will be sold making Muskrat an endangered species.
That's it for me, I am resting for Tour de Toona that starts tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep the momentum rolling. I am feeling strong on the bike. Yesterday was a good sign with no races in me for weeks. The leg speed wasn't there. Stay tuned!

Leaving Durango again!

I threw up a few photos of the Texas Creek area ride that I did a few days ago. It has been hot again but nothing like back east. The dry hot is so much better than the hot with humidity. I am looking forward to racing but not to the heat and humidity. I am not a big fan of the east coast, sorry to offend anyone.
I have to leave Durango bright and early on Thursday morning. The only ticket that I could find not over $1000 was out of Farmington at 6:00 am which means I have to leave here at like 4:30! Snap! Not a good way to start off a month of racing, tired and cracked from traveling all day.
It has been great being home hitting up Burger Night at the Palace and the group rides with a little Bread bakery in the morning...mmmmm! My new favorite place to hang out and watch the Tour is down at Carvers. They have great breakfast and it is cheap and no one is in there eating breakfast while wearing a chamois. At Bread there are a bunch of people who chamois up for a ten minute ride to the bakery and sit there all day in there chamois drinking coffee and eating muffins and then they ride home. It cracks me up.
The weather here has been super hot. I have been doing double days of hard training and today I am doing another hard day to finish the last hard effort before heading out East. I will hit up the group ride and surely get crushed because I am wounded from the past couple days of hard training. Tuesday Worlds is pretty much a hard race and I think guys in Durango try to peak on Tuesday. I know allot of them treat it as race day. They have 5 shots of espresso and make sure that they eat their race meal. I am surprised that they don't have someone out there to feed them in a feedzone or something.
The ball is rolling big time for the cross race this fall on campus. I met with some Fort Lewis College Administrators yesterday to make sure that the course was approved. It is looking like a go. Now we are working on drumming up the prize money and the beer tent sponsor. The course is going to be awesome. Troy Wells and I designed it so of course it is going to be awesome! It comes in and out of the Football stadium 3 times and will probably run through the beer garden with barriers possible inside the beer tent. It isn't totally official and as soon as we get prize money we will be sending out flyers. If we get the money we are after it is going to be a huge payout! Stay tuned, cross season is just around the corner!

Training Hard in D-Town

Stopping to smell the wild flowers in Falls Creek, the little bee was getting some sweet nectar!
Training with Wessley Hartman back in Westport
Falls Creek in Durango just before the storm rolled in
The famous rock walls of Connecticut from the revolutionary war

It has been great resting up here at home in Durango. I have been training pretty hard this week and I am starting to feel better on the bike at altitude. The first few days it was hard to breath and the legs just didn't recovery that quickly. Now it is much better.

The weather is also perfect with the temps into the 80's but no humidity. It is so nice to not be sweating at night when you are trying to sleep and not having to sleep with the AC cranked. My evening ritual has been to run down to the Animas River and soak the legs, grab a cold beer at pint night and then crash out. Ah the rough life.

It all comes to an end on Thursday as I have to fly back out very early. Too early in fact. 6:00 out of Farmington which means I have to be on the road no later than 5 am. CRAP! Whatever, I can sleep on the plane and it is a good thing I am a morning person.

I talked to Guppy last night and he is of to Europe today to ride for the U-25 team in Belgium. Good luck over there and make us all proud. Guppy has turned into a great racer and one of the best young riders I know. I think he will do very well.

I have to go out and train a bit today in the Southwest sunshine. Working on the bronze tan today.

Alright, I guess I will update the site

It has been awhile since I have updated my website and about time I stop leaving everyone in the dark. I hung out in New Jersey for a few days with the Director Ken Mills. It wasn't to bad because I started a good rest block the day after Fitchburg. It was good for Ken to because I cracked the whip and made him put down the Dunkin Donuts and get out on a few rides. We just took it easy and Mills was cracking hard at the end of a 2 hour recovery ride. We had to stop and get more water because it was hot and Mills needed to pour it all over himself. God it was funny watching that guy crack at 12 mph. The next day he tried to drop me with the famous " Mills Mash". It is sort of like his version of the "Shriver Surge" but not even close. That was at 1.5 hours into our ride and that was all she wrote for Ken after that effort, DONE!
I have been back in Durango for the last week now and it has been great. I arrived to pouring rain and it rained every day for the first 5 days I was here. The monsoon season is here. It is nice though because it only rains part of the day and keeps it nice and cool and the training is great. I started another hard block of training a few days ago to bring the form back on after a week of rest. I have been suffering a little because of the altitude which is something that I have never really experienced before. The recovery just takes forever. You can't go as hard and expect to have that same kind of effort in the tank later in a ride. I hit up the group ride yesterday and it was just as hard as I remember. I went ahead and did an hour of intervals and threshold work before the ride to so that made it even harder. I got punished on the climb up Shalona a little but saved enough to crush it at the end. Overend tried to out sprint me at the end of the ride. What was he thinking sprinting with me when I hadn't even unleashed the Shriver Surge? Doesn't he know I am a sprinter now? It was great to ride with the local crew and as usual they are all super fit and lean. It also means being able to do climbs longer than one minute. I did two climbs today that were 10 miles long and 6 miles long. I love it and hopefully it will help me regain the climbing legs for Altoona.
I head back out to the East Coast next week. I am looking forward to racing some more and want to better my results and do well for the team. Anyway, more later, I am on a vacation and over updating the website. Thanks for stopping in!

Recovering from Fitchburg

The Fitchburg Longsjo Classic came to a close yesterday with the downtown criterium. The weather held up and it was actually very hot instead of pouring rain. The previous days of racing had taken its toll on the riders in the field and the pace wasn't unbearably fast like some of the crits have been this season. Going into the stage I was in 3rd place in the Sprint Points competition. There was no way that I could move up into first so my goal was to try to hang onto 3rd place. With 20 laps to go I attacked on the back section and was the first guy through the last corner. Toyota United was right on my wheel but I don't think they were to worried about me getting away. I eased up a tad and two guys pulled around me. There was a stiff headwind so I swung to the right side of the road and attacked again and stole a 25 more points for the competition. Luckily I was able to hold onto my 3rd place for my first podium in an NRC event. I put on a clean jersey that was two sizes to small and a fresh hat. It was great to be on the podium and I look forward to more results soon.
Now I am hanging out in New Jersey at my director Ken Mills' house sipping on a cup of coffee and watching the tour. I think it more exciting without Lance in the race. It is anyone's race right now and it was a huge surprise to see Hincapie in the yellow.
Last night we got in at 2:30 in the morning because we had to drive 3 hours in the wrong direction to drop of some of the riders in Westport and then head back down to Jersey. Ken's stories never stop and at the end of the drive my ears were bleeding from all the squawk. He does have some good stories after directing so many teams over the years.
Well I can't wait to get back to Durango to rest up and get some good training in. Maybe even hit the dirt for a little mountain biking. I am thinking about doing the Mount Evans race as well for the first time. I may not be ready to ride at elevation though, so we will see.

Sneaking in the Top 10

Yesterday was the road stage of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in Fitchburg Massachusetts. It was 104 miles with a couple of good climbs. My goal was to just finish the stage. On the first lap it was all I could do to hang on up the climb through the feedzone. It was pretty fast and the legs were not feeling great. I had covered an early move and that effort still had me in the hurt locker a little bit. About one kilometer from the top on the second lap a split started happening. My teammate Alejandro Acton from Argentina yelled into the radio " Go Matt, go, go ,go go,go,!" I usually can't understand a word that Alej is saying in the radio, but yesterday his usually broken English was loud and clear. If I didn't suffer across the small gap and get onto the group I would be sitting in the group all day. I made it into the break of 20 guys or so and that was it. We soon had 7 minutes on the rest of the field. I was told to try to get the sprint points so I tried a fed times but a CCB guy was killing me. I got one, second in another and 3rd. I decided to cut my losses and just try to hang on. I made the final selection going into the last climb that was super steep and about a mile or so long. I was so cracked it was so cracked it was all I could do just to hang on. Guys were coming off lefts and right and soon the group was down to twelve guys. Then Heath Blackgrove attacked and I watched everyone ride away and clawed my way to the finish. I got pimped at the line by Ian McGregor from Tiaa-Cref for 9th, Dang! That kid is impressive. I just didn't have anything left in the legs. I hung on for 10th place!
So I moved up to 32nd in the G.C. Which isn't that good,but I am stoked to have finished in the top 10 yesterday in an NRC. I wish would have conserved more energy. Whatever? Still learning the ropes of this road racing stuff.
Today is the criterium and it is an interesting course. There are some good pot-holes in the road and lots of man covers with three corners. It should be interesting. There is a gradual up hill and then you make a gradual 180 and come back down. There is allot of paint on the roads and that gets slick when it is wet and it is pouring rain right now while I write this. It should be interesting. I am sitting in 3rd in the sprints points but I am pretty far down and don't see myself having the legs to go for any of them today. We will see. I would have to pretty much win all of the sprints to take that competition. Wish me luck, I will be in New Jersey hangin out until I fly back to Durango on Wednesday. Hopefully there will be time to get a post up about the race tonight, but most likely tomorrow.

Fitchburg Circuit Race...Tour pics!

I cracked hard in the circuit race yesterday. After doing allot of work early on in the race and chasing attacks throwing attacks and even going for some sprint points I cracked with 7 laps to go and lost 9 minutes. I did feel closer to normal than I have in a long time. The legs felt pretty good but the fuel tank is only half full right now. It was hot yesterday and when I was done my face was covered in salt from dripping sweat. The fans were awesome on the climb and Snyder was out there again cheering. I could hear him yelling "Shriver Surge" every time. I unleashed the surge a couple of times but cracked soon after. Going into one of the sprint laps there was some lady walking her dog and it was right on the course in a really fast corner. At the last second we yelled at her and she yanked the thing out of the way. That would have been tragic for everyone.
After all of the ongoing drug stuff with the tour it is hard to say who will win this year. I am going to throw out a few guys I think will be strong and my pics for this year. I think Floyd Landis could win. Cadel Evans is going to be a surprise rider, followed by George Hincapie from Discovery. Those are my picks and I could be way off, but hey, at this point it is any mans race.
Today we have a 104 mile road race with some good climbing in it. We will be aggressive and get some guys in the breaks, I kind of hope to go in an early break and maybe I can get a better result this way. It is supposed to be another hot one at 85 and humid. SNAP! That could crack me. I am going to hydrate up. Race report later.