On the way home from Portland last weekend, the truck died in this scenic rest stop.
I tried to bless it back to life with a bamboo stick.
May
09
Tour of the Gila is all wrapped up. After the final stage, we had a few beers and hung out at the guest house. Everyone was too tired to drive, so we loaded up the van and prepped it for the morning. We rolled out of Silver City Monday morning and drove straight back to Salt Lake, arriving at about 11pm. I got a few hours of sleep at Tyler’s, then loaded my car and drove back to Bend on Tuesday. It was two hard days of driving, but my legs really needed the rest.
Backing up a bit, stage 4 on Saturday was the criterium. I had great legs and was active in the race, going off the front a few times. Nothing stuck. With about 15 laps to go, there was a pretty big pile up in turn 4 that I managed to avoid. After stopping in the pits, my legs had a hard time to get going again. Regardless, Tyler snagged a 2nd place on the day, so that was pretty cool.
Day 5 was the final day: 100 miles with a lot of climbing. I was content to sit at the back of the field and let the break go early, which is exactly what happened. Luckily, Bryce was in the break, so it made my job pretty easy for the rest of the day. I had good legs again, so through the first feed zone I set tempo on the front. Once we crested the first part of the Emory Pass climb, I settled in mid-pack. Things got a little stressful up to the turnaround and I lost contact with the group in the last 1k, but caught back on on the descent. Through the valley it was pretty chill, but because I skipped the first feed zone on Emory, I was needing some water. It got wound up through the 2nd feed zone and in the chaos I missed getting a bottle. I knew I was in trouble. I managed to get a gatorade from Tyler, but I could only choke down part of that nasty, warm, orange syrup. It helped a little and I was able to stay close to the front going into the Sapillo climb. Amazingly, my legs held up well through the climb and, while I lost contact with the front group, I could see they were still fairly close. In addition, Tyler and Joe were just up the road in front of me, giving me motivation to re-connect with them over the top of the climb. With about a K to go to the top of the climb, (roughly 10k from the finish) I completely fell apart. I went from hoping to make it back to the front group to just hoping I could finish the stage. Lost about 15 minutes in the last 10k stretch. I was completely miserable. People who were dropped at the bottom of the climb were catching and passing me. It was demoralizing, to say the least. But I was so badly in the shitbox that I almost didn’t care about racing anymore. I just cared about finishing and finding water. Well I finished. And I found water. But I was, and still am, pretty bummed about having such a cataclysmic breakdown so close to the line on a day where I had great legs and high hopes for a solid finish. But I can only blame myself for not getting those water bottles. Live and learn.
So, now I’m back in Bend, taking it easy and getting back into the work routine. I have a few races planned for the rest of May, but the next big stage race will be Mt. Hood in early June. Motivation is high and that feels good.
May
05
Welcome to Silver City and the Tour of the Gila. Seems to get harder every year. This year, with the race upgrading to UCI, the 1/2 field is combined, making it even more difficult for a slightly above average rider like myself. These guys are fast. No joke.
Day one, about a hundred super strong dudes lined up at the start and it was game on from the drop of the ping-pong paddle. Yes, the lead car actually waved a ping-pong paddle to signal the start. A break of 5 got up the road pretty quick. Shortly after that, Joe bridged up with a few other guys, making the group 8 strong, I believe. I figured the break was set for the day and it would be riding tempo for the next 4 hours. Well, Simple Green wasn’t content with 2 guys in the break, so a third guy attacked and tried to bridge up. I went with the move, along with another guy, and we crossed the gap. I was pretty much cross-eyed just following wheels to the break, so that was fun. Once we got there, I wanted to recover and not work, so I got some shit for that. Plus, my front derailleur was completely jacked up, so I kept trying to shift it into working order and I even tried to reach down a couple times to twist it back into place. Anyway, I got gapped, messing with my derailleur and that was the end of my day in the break. A glorious 30 minutes, tops. I quickly pulled over and punched my derailleur back into place, or close enough at least. It was still grinding on the chain, but I could get it into the small ring and it wasn’t jumping off to the outside like before. We had about 7 minutes on the field when I dropped, so I just rode along, waiting for the field to catch me. They finally did just after the first feed zone. From there, I sat in mid-pack and tried to recover from my wasted efforts. The rest of my race was fairly uneventful. There was a mega-high speed crash on the flats with about 20 miles to go. Josh went down and separated his shoulder. We shed some people in the crosswinds and through the feed zone hill, leaving our group about 50 strong coming into the final climb. I was pretty shattered by the first pitch, so I did my best riding my own pace to the top. Slow.
Day two is still the hardest stage at this race for me. I just can’t seem to conquer that early climb over Pinos Altos. I was just wrecked by the halfway point and the field rolled away. Year 3 of riding in a groupetto. We lost about 20 minutes to the winner, which is not all that bad, considering I’ve lost upwards of 45 minutes on that stage before. One of these years I will get it right.
Yesterday, day three, was the time trial. I am not great at TTs, so I had no expectations whatsoever. All I wanted was to set a PR on the course, which I did by about 2:30. I still placed toward the bottom of the field, but when guys are ripping off 35 minute TTs (which would have been a top 10 UCI finish) there really isn’t much one can do except marvel at their speed and strength. I really wanted to be closer to 40 min, but a PR is a PR.
Today is the crit and tomorrow is the final Queen stage. I will try to post a final recap when I get back to Salt Lake on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for reading! Here are a couple pictures I took the day before the race:
Apr
23
Highlight of my week at the Sea Otter Classic:
Oh and here are a couple unofficial photos that our host family took on the last day:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44394639@N04/7106889261/in/set-72157629519679428/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44394639@N04/7106879429/in/set-72157629519679428
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44394639@N04/7106887305/in/set-72157629519679428/
Apr
16
Here’s a recap of this weekend’s race:
Stage 1 was a 6mi TT. I went out way too hard and blew up. I’m still in the process of learning how to time-trial…
Stage 2, an 83 mile road race, was later that afternoon. After some post-TT mexican food, we saddled up for the long day ahead. With the nasty winds in the valley, the race turned out to be over 4 hours long. I spent the first half off the front with 2 other guys. Most of the time, I was thinking about what a poor choice lunch was. My gut was pretty rocked, but I hung in there. The gap hovered around 1 min for the entire time. The group wouldn’t let us get too far up the road because one of the escapees was sitting 4th overall. Eventually, we were caught by 2 others (one of them being Bryce, a teammate of mine) making our group 5 strong. Bryce attacked the break with about 30 miles to go, bringing one other guy with him. The rest of us were reabsorbed back into the field, including the guy who was 4th overall. Meanwhile, back in the bunch, I sat on the front and set tempo, not letting the break get more than 2 minutes up the road, as that would put Bryce’s companion in the overall lead. Eventually, Bryce put the hammer down and dropped his companion, powering solo toward the finish. At that point, my job was done for the day and I just faded to the back of the field, eventually being dropped on the feed zone hill. Bryce was caught about 5 miles from the finish, but Joe and Tyler (who we protected all day) were able to pull in a 2nd and 5th.
Stage 3 was the circuit race, a 7 mile loop with a long, shallow climb on the backside of the course. Again, Bryce and I were aggressive in the early laps, with Bryce eventually making it into a 3 man move. From there I sat on the front and set tempo with Eric, holding the gap between 2-3 minutes. With a few laps remaining, Tyler and Joe started attacking the field and the race got very fast very quickly. Needless to say, I was pretty spent from yesterday and from being on the front for the first half of the circuit race, so I got shelled pretty hard. In the end, we lost a slot in the overall and Tyler finished 3rd while Joe wrapped up 4th.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. We tactically made a few mistakes here and there, but things we can learn from. We brought home almost 400 bucks, which should cover gas to California and back this week. That is a nice reward for a hard weekend. Anyway, we are off to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California tomorrow morning, so I will post again when I get back!
Podium, with Tyler 3rd and Joe 4th.
Apr
12
I’ve realized lately (well, a long time ago, actually) that my blog has gotten less and less interesting. Not that it ever was in the first place, which means it’s getting really bad. All I do is post photos. Well, I’m going to try and change that this morning, so here we go:
Last weekend Danyel and I took a quick trip to Portland to celebrate Mario’s birthday, Teddy’s birthday and Easter with her family. We had a lot of good food and the weather was perfect for a couple 3 hour rides. As much as I like riding in Bend, I’ve been wearing out the roads there. So I’m pretty excited whenever I get a chance to explore around the Portland area. There is some really great riding there. Especially the hills on the westside of Portland and the hills up north across the river by Vancouver, WA. Good stuff.
Monday I piled in the car at 5:30 and pushed the gas pedal for 12 straight hours to Salt Lake City, where I will be spending the next month, roughly. We have a string of races coming up in the next 3 weeks. The Tour of the Depot, located just outside SLC, is this weekend. Next weekend we travel to Monterey, CA for the Sea Otter classic. Then about 10 days after that we travel down to Silver City, NM for the Tour of the Gila. Lots of traveling and bike racing coming up and I’m pretty excited about it. In the meantime, I’m working a little bit at the Canyon Bicycles shop to fill my time and help make ends meet. The weather has been really nice here the last couple days, and I actually saw the return of my beloved tan lines. The weather turned last night, however, and it looks like rain off and on through the weekend. Tonight there is a time trial that I will probably race, as long as it isn’t a complete downpour at the start.
Ok, well here are some photos from the drive down and from a couple rides I’ve done here.
Cows in Oregon.
Nevada.
The shop.
A lot of great canyons on the East side of town.
One of the many Mormon temples.
Some of the canyons are quite steep. I hit 51mph coming down this bad boy.
The new weapon for this season. Weighing in at 15.3 lbs, it's like being on a fighter jet.
Mar
14
Well, where do I start? Busy working, riding and playing with my new phone. Yea, I got one of those magic phones for my birthday. It takes some pretty awesome photos. Here are a few from my birthday weekend, modified with the super cool Instagram app:
Birthday party!
Birthday sword fight!
Driving to the coast.
Ocean?
Ocean!
Riding the coast.
More driving.
Portland.
City of bridges.
Multnomah falls.
Feb
25
Turquoise
Is the color of my afternoon
As the clouds sob their icy gray tears
Through the window
I see frost filled cracks in the dirt
Where our garden will be
When the evenings are orange
And afternoons are
Turquoise again
Feb
10
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” - Soren Kierkegaard
