This year...

Things I have learned

2012-01-19T14:45:00.002-06:00

Perhaps a little elementary I know but I sat down today and wrote out a rough intro to bike racing as best I know how... I know there are numerous things I dont cover, how to drink from the bike, how to take a feed, how to descend, how to crash, how to take a free lap, what to do when you get a flat, when your chain falls off, how to pose at the finish line,..... okay so there really is a lot I dont mention... but anyway here is what I could come up with that I would say to someone who was just starting to race.... and because I am sooo good all of this stuff I mention you can basically live by, there really is no other way to do it other than my way so if you want to be superfast like me.... hahah okok whatever.

Racing tips and tricks

JoeTortorelli

Training to race: There are lots and lots of different workouts out there and as long as you find time to do 2-3 hard workouts a week and the rest of the time just ride easy totaling 5-10 hours of riding a week you will be more than ready to start of the racing season!

Race week: The week of the race not much tapering needs to be done, at least not early in the season. Do a hard ride on Wednesday or Thursday and spend Friday riding for an hour easy, and throw in 2-3 spin outs (high cadence for 30 sec) and/or a 4min hard effort. Make sure you are plenty hydrated all week as well. It can take a few days to become fully hydrated! Looking over the course route is also essential. Knowing if you will be tackling hills or technical turns or a long flat rout is important. Finding places that will be good for attacking and noting where you must be for the sprint can help you plan out your race and can be the difference between winning and turning the wrong way on the final turns!

Night before: If you are traveling to the race make sure you know the directions! Print out maps, making sure to know where you are going to park and where race registration and the bathrooms are! Printing out a copy of the race start list will also keep you from running late. Plan to arrive and be parked 1 hour before your scheduled race start time. A pasta dinner has never done me wrong, however trying to eat 1lb of pasta is probably not what we are trying to go for. Blah blah whole grains blah blah whatever… Make sure you pack everything you will need for your race day and have it ready to go in the morning.

· Include such items as:

o Bike, wheels, pedals, shoes, helmet, bottles, trainer

o gloves, shorts, jersey, leg/arm warmers, hat, rain coat, vest, coat,

o tools, pump, spare tubes, lube,

o Towel, water, race food, extra food, money/checks, license, pins, TP, sunblock,

o Maps, directions, gas,

Morning of: Depending on what time your race is determines what time you get up and eat and depart. I always overestimate the time it takes to get somewhere because being late/missing a race is really a drag! So breakfast… oatmeal blah, bagels, toast, nutella, Dan and I used to eat doughnuts and chocolate milk, and have a redbull 20min before kickoff… Find what you like and have at it… just plan accordingly, if you want to eat a heavier breakfast perhaps 2 hours is a good time before the race… if you eat 3-4 hours before… you might need some more fuel in your body before you start! Snacking on bagels in the car on the drive to the race is very common. So you eat and pack and takeoff to the race at your set time so you arrive at least 1 hour before you are supposed to be racing!

Arrive like a pro: You will know you are getting close when you see signs for the race (usually these are tiny signs staked in the ground similar to campaign signs) and people on bikes. Find some parking, preferably in the shade, you can always roll your window down and ask where registration is. Park, throw your bike together put on your helmet, grab your license and check and head over to register. Note: I almost always register day of, the 5$ you save by preregistering can hardly make up for that one or two times where you might get stormed out, or you forget something or get sick or yadda yadda yadda, and even when you preregister you still have to go wait in line and get your number… So you register, come back to the car pin your number on (see below) , check the time, either get dressed and warm up or hang out and watch some other races until you have about 45 min to your race.

· Number Pinning

o Note the side your number is supposed to be on, either at registration or by looking around.

o Grab lots of pins with your number, use at least 7-8 per number,

o You want the number to be tight against your body when you are in race position

o Ask for help your first few times

o Folding/crumpling your number so it fits better is not advised because the finish camera cannot see the number as well… but it does help keep your number tight!

o Try to use old pin holes to guide where your new numbers should go

Race start: With 2 laps to go in the race preceding yours you should already be warmed up and waiting to line up on the start/finish line. The more people that are at the race, the more important starting near the front becomes. (races 30 or less it usually doesn’t matter where you start but being on the front you avoid getting stuck behind start line crashes and other mishaps). The whistle blows and everyone rushes to clip in and go, make sure you take your time and avoid people that struggle to clip in. Starting by one of the sides usually avoids this… usually. Make sure you keep your eyes up the road and avoid getting slowed down by people that are not staying with the group. If you see a gap start to form, jump around him/her PRONTO! The more time you waste the harder it will be to make it up. Prime position is top 10-20 in most races. This avoids most all crashes and you also avoid the “accordion” effect. Or the dramatic slowing and accelerating out of the corners. The farther back you are the more pronounced this becomes. If you are near the front you actually save energy by avoiding these accelerations. If you didn’t fall and you didn’t get dropped then congratulations you started like a PRO!... well I am sure not as suave or collected but hey that’s a start!

Cornering: Soon after the start of the race you must turn! Turning solo is pretty straight forward, start as wide as possible and cut the ‘apex’ of the corner and finish wide. This allows you to maintain the most speed through all turns. People talk about your ‘line’ through the turn. Literally imagine a line which you are following, keep your eyes looking forward through the turn. You should be positioned as low as possible on the bike, with your inside foot up and outside foot positioned down. You will learn how much you can lean and still pedal, if you pedal too soon you may clip your foot, but if you don’t panic a minor clip can still be recovered before you hit pavement. Exiting your turn you should start to pedal again as soon as possible, making sure to keep your weight centered so you do not slip out. Cornering with a group around you makes it much more interesting. I touched a little on the “accordion” effect. If you are stuck in the rears there are a couple of attitudes to take. You can allow a slight space to form in front of you so you can keep your speed up and not have to slam on your breaks as you enter the turn. This will allow you to keep some of your momentum through the turn and avoid wasting energy accelerating out of every turn. However this can allow for some more aggressive rider to sneak in front of you and make you slam on your breaks again… alas such is racing. What you really want to do is move up. In larger races, if you are not constantly passing people , usually that means you are moving backwards ! Generally people move up along the sides and then get near the front and move back in the middle. Moving up along the straight sections can be the easiest if the group is moving slow… and it is not bunched up so much that you can find room. When the pack is moving fast, trying to move up could mean sprinting and wasting so much energy that when you get up to the front you just slow to the back again! So moving up smart is key. Take advantage of all small gaps and corners to slide up a few places. Make note of what corers you can pass on the inside and which leaves room on the outside. Position yourself accordingly to make these moves with as little extra effort as possible. Make sure to hold your spot aggressively. If someone comes next to you and starts to move in, keep your handle bars even with theirs and do not allow them to move in. (courtesy can be used sparingly haha) Out of every corner just expect to accelerate, make sure you are not in too big of a gear. Grinding away with a low cadence is more wasted energy; shift down if necessary to maintain a high efficient cadence.

Drafting: 25-45% that is HUGE! Use it to your advantage. Suck wheel, suck lots of wheel. It is a race not a courtesy ride. Race to race, do what you need to do to give yourself the best chance of a win. 3’’-12’’ is about the distance you need to be behind someone. In a cross wind make sure you know what side of the riders you need to be positioned on to maintain a good draft.

Attacking: You cannot win if you don’t attack. Attacking from the gun, late attack, attack after a prime (mid way sprint), attacking after another attack, these are some different strategies that are used when attacking. When you attack you want to be sneaky! You want to start your attack a few positions back, and try to avoid having people latch onto the back of your wheel. If you start back and accelerate you will pass the first riders at a faster pace making it harder for them to catch you! If you sense a little lull or slowing in the group that can be the time to go! Less hesitation and more guts is all you need!...ish

· From the gun: advantage is people might think it is too long to the finish and will not chase you, disadvantage is everyone has energy so escaping may prove to be difficult.

· Late attack: usually with 1-2 laps to go sometimes even farther : advantage, people are waiting for the sprint so they do not want to waste energy chasing you now, they think you will get caught by others…if everyone thinks that then you are golden! If you have a strong 5min power but a weaker sprint this might be your only viable opportunity for a win. Disadvantage, you might waste your energy if you are caught and then will have nothing left for the sprint. It is an all or nothing move.

· Attacking after a prime: A prime (pronounced Pr-ee-mm) is called out in a crit for the winner of the next lap, they will offer prizes or money or points to the first riders to cross the s/f line and then the race will continue. Some riders will sprint for these and then expect to get caught by the group again, this is an opportune time to attack as lots of riders may be tired from the sprint. You can also try for the prime and then continue on into a breakaway, sometimes the group will assume you will come back to rest and will not notice your breakaway. Disadvantage is you may be tired yourself during this time.

· Attacking after a breakaway has just come back: similar to attacking after a prime.

· Attacking up a hill can be one of the hardest but most successful ways to attack. Because of the incline your speed slows down, and so does the wind resistance. So drafting has less of an effect at lower speeds. If you attack up a hill everyone must put in an effort similar to or greater than your own to catch you, being behind you they do not benefit as much from the draft so your strength to weight ratio becomes much more prominent and you can separate yourself easier from those who are weaker than you!

Bridging/Chasing: If someone attacks and you did not go with. Knowing whether or not to chase a breakaway or bridge to it can be one of the most difficult decisions in a race. If you bridge up (attack from the group and chase the breakaway) and the break dies… then you have wasted more energy than the breakawayers and the chasers! If you help others chase the break down then you are still wasting some energy that others in the group are not. However if the breakaway is getting far up the road, if you don’t chase you will lose… and racing is not about saving your energy for 5^th place! “if you’re not first you are last” So if you decide that the break has some good riders in it, or your manager tells you to bridge then you bridge! Attack from the group avoiding too many chasers, if you can bring one or two along to help all the better, but do not bring everyone ! After you are clear you must settle into a pace that will allow you to catch the break without burning yourself out! Pace yourself, I know you can catch them by going all out but you must not go ‘into the red’ while trying to chase, or you will have nothing once you get there! Bridge up cool calm and collected and once you get there, sit on and recover a bit, then help out! If you cannot escape the group, try to convince others to help share the work of chasing the breakaway back.

The Break: Once you are in the breakaway pace yourself. NEVER do the most work in the group. This may seem counterproductive but if you pull 3 other people to the line they will beat you in the finish… if you are stronger than them, attack the break and make them chase you. If you cannot beat them that way then stay in the break and do an even amount of work. Establish a working paceline (riders rotating through the front and then having time to recover behind the other riders , like a reverse indian run) keep the speed up through the corners, avoid rapid accelerations and keep a constant pace. Remember to drink/eat depending on how long you are in the break. If you are solo in a break, congratulations! Crossing the line solo is very rewarding but getting there can be the most painful! Just think TimeTrial mode, get in your rhythm, take the corners as fast as you can and don’t look back! Sometimes even a gap of 5 seconds can prove enough if the group decides to let up and not bring you back!

Finish: I talked about some ways to get to the finish solo or with a reduced group, but if you are not alone you will have to sprint to win! 200-300meters is a sprint. 400-500 is almost an extended attack and anything longer you will not be sprinting. There is plenty of tactics here, fake attack, just shifting up then back down to see what your opponent will do. A heads up sprint can be fun but a wrong move can lose you the race even if your opponent may not be as strong as you! Starting in 2^nd position is usually the way to go. Attack from the rear and pass your opponent going as fast as you can, try to swing to the side to make him/her chase you farther and disallow them to enter your draft. If you get too close to the finish without starting the sprint the first place rider has the advantage because you will run out of room/time to come around them. If you are in the group the speed usually remains high.. usually. But again you do not want to be first… although 2^nd -4^th is about the perfect position. You must think ahead as to where you need to be for the last 5 laps, and more importantly the last lap and last corner. Some you must be first, and others you must not! It is tricky because if you are sitting pretty in 5^th place and then on the last lap everyone else wants to be where you are so they work really hard and come up the sides and move toward the middle, this can push you back in the group right before the finish! No good! So you must constantly be looking to the left and right and if you see riders starting to ‘swarm’ on one side or another you must move up and stay in the front. This is the only time I would suggest sticking your nose in the wind! Stay in the front 5 riders and do NOT let yourself get shuffled to the back. (Some really strong guys, and some lucky guys can start the last lap in 30^th or whatever and find ways to sneak up to the front just in time to sprint but if there is a crash or something you will not make it ) if you have the strength stay near the front even if that means working harder. It is the finish after all! By 200 meters you must be out of the saddle sprinting trying to come around your opponents. If you are first keep going and do not stop until you throw your bike across the line!

Recap

2011-11-10T09:59:00.002-06:00

Total number of races for 2011...4...great.

Living in CA was great, had a lot of fun riding out there, the guys I worked with flight instructing were a blast. I will definitely end up somewhere out west shortly but as of right now I have found myself back in eastcentral IL...just in time for WINTER!!!! woot.

I arrived back in the C-U in August and was excited to get out on the bike some, but not even two weeks later I lost all motivation to be anywhere near the thing... I would walk by it in the garage and try not to look, I was embarrassed. I hated the thing so much... I knew I shouldnt but there was just no desire, want or need to ride. I felt the guilt building as I counted the weeks in the back of my head where I didnt ride at all. I know this year will be the last year for a while where I will have a decent enough schedule to train regularly enough to not get my ass handed to me in the summer. September was an entire month without any biking at all.. October had some rides and got my knees back into it but November has started off in the correct direction. Motivation is back, I love my bike again. I lift the weights up spin on the trainer sweat some... I think this is training? Well only 41/2 months of this to go before consistent riding outdoors can happen again, more than enough time to loose all hope again.

Looking forward I really am hoping to block out all of TOAD and race the whole thing. Put in a handful of races before to prep and really call it a season after that... I might get a job and work the rest of the summer.... so really this is it. last call before the real world finally catches up to this 25yr old soul and demands its pay. Responsibilities, bills, work and worst of all no time for riding... so depressing.... better make this a season to remember!

Hope your holidays go well and we all get nice and fat together haha CHEERS!

CenturyHouring....andNothing else

2011-05-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

I made a new century hour.... its kickass . BUT that does gives me a great excuse for why I have not been riding the past two weeks....

I will not be able to make the TourDeChampaign BUT it will be kickass and you should attend if you can!

I AM currently in CHICAGO, the first time in over 6months. Damn it feels good to be back in 'merica.... Although I must say that Redding, CA is much more rednek than anything found here in the great state of Illinois....

If YOU are out on the town tonight, maybe ill see you at the hangee uppe, if you are superawesome that is.

There has been some recent developments in the breaking story of "ME, in search of a riding scene in Redding" So, I found a bike shop on the west side of town, not only did they have MOOTS and MERCKS in the window, but a whole line of other expensive bikes and parts neatly displayed in the shop. The sweet smell of SPEED here was almost overwhelming. Everyone in the shop looked so L337, so PRO, so ... I walked up to the guy behind the counter, careful not to gaze into the tempting line of Campagnolo SUPER RECORD being displayed under the glass countertop to ask him my question.

ME:"hey hows it going, I like your shop I am feeling faster already!"

PRO:"yeah, I was PRO, we sell SPEED here, for guys like me"

ME: "Thats so cool, you are soo cool, how can I be like you?"

PRO:"well first you much purchase SPEED, then you must do the WED WORLDS"

ME:" thats soo great! I have no money for speed, but how do I race WED WORLDS?"

PRO:" well they meet at a secret location, on a special day, but they will drop you, they drop everyone"

ME:"Oh, I see.... but could you tell me this magic time/place anyway?"

(at this moment another PRO appears at the door and PROly makes his way into the shop, the bike shop owner/teller who is also PRO knows all PRO's and immediately greets his friend and leaves me right in my moment of anticipation.)

I end up leaving the shop with a CLUE but nothing more...... more on this story when I finally track down these elusive speed bandits.

That is all....

neuMusikkkk CHeckitout

2011-04-25T14:21:00.001-05:00

DjNojst has some new ♫ checkit. http://djnojst.wordpress.com/

Chico Stage Race and my long list of Firsts....

2011-04-23T00:36:00.003-05:00

Chico Stage Race!

90mi RR, TT and Crit.... I experienced a lot of personal firsts this past weekend and I would like to share them with you all.

first pro1/2 RR, first RR over 60mi, first stage race in cali, first flat in a RR, first time waiting 10 min for a wheel change, first time riding 45mi solo to finish a race, first official TT, first crit in cali, and FIRST 'lanterne rouge'!

Yes the 45min I lost in the road race was just enough to put me into last place for the weekend. You had to finish the race to ride the next day... and they threw out the time cut, so after I rolled past the s/f line the judges told me I had to finish , I told them...'well I guess I'll see you in 2.5 hours!'

So the Road race was mostly flat 45mile loop with a 4 mile section of uphill very soft very rocky gravel near the end of the lap. A group had 1 min on the peleton until the first time we hit the gravel, the pace exploded and I was able to hang on as the group shattered across the gravel, there was only about .5miles left until I was out of the rocks when my rear wheel flatted. Luckily it happened right infront of the cameraDUDE... Naturally the wheel support was trailing helping out all of the other poor souls who flatted earlier... by the time I got helped the field was long gone...infact everyone was long gone.... I just had to tell myself that I didnt want to see a DNF on the results....45min after the finishers crossed the line I rolled in... brutally cramped, alone, and sunburned....at least it wasnt 38F and raining....

I have no TT bike, Time Trials hurt ... alot... and the winning time was surely not going to be mine... So I got to line up first the next morning, and got to enjoy some more solo riding.... although I had some company as guys were passing me within the first 5min or so.... I think the winning time was 20.54 for the 10mi tt....

The crit was fun. .6mile 6 turns. I was able to hang in there, the boys out here dont seem to get as much crit practice as us midwestern boys do back home... all those corners kept me in it. A break was away the whole 70min and ended up winning by about 7 seconds I think... I finished midpack.

It was fun. I had fun. Glad I finished, and perhaps this will be the last time getting last this year....

RaceSeason 2011

2011-04-11T00:01:00.002-05:00

Copperopolis: The Copper Town Circut Race-

Drove 3 hours, spent the night at a friends place in Stockton, drove 30min to the race the next morning. Overcast 65F and light winds, a great way to start racing in anyones book! The course was excellent, a 6mile loop, basically almost 3mile out and then back on rolling smooth roads, closed course with the s/f line right before the course did a fun crit style section through the town, around a roundabout then back out to the country. About 40 starters in the Cat2 field, my goal was to simply finish. A break went on the first lap, came back at the start of the second, then another one went and that was that. The field brought the breakaways within 10seconds before we crossed the finish, and ... yea thats about it. Fun, fast and I would say that my fears of being grossly out of shape might be slightly over exaggerated.

The riding has been improving, mostly because I currently have been working about 2 hours a day... Sometimes the aviation business is slow... but that makes for faster bike racers I suppose.

This weekend is the Chico Stage Race. A 90 RR, crit and TT.... Based on time and you have to finish each stage before starting the next.... 60miles in these hills is hard ... 90.... well my goal again will not to be dropped 45miles from my car. hahaha

HardMarch

2011-03-24T11:52:00.003-05:00

It.....has......rained......the... ENTIRE MONTH OF MARCH! Seriously, I can't take this.

When it rains

if the clouds are low

we cant fly

If we dont fly we dont get paid, so we sit at home....in the rain.... watching netflix. The bike is gathering dust. My legs feel like jelly, there is literally nothing to do here when the weather is crap. mer mer mer I am whyyyyniiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnning. I actually think I might just do my first race of the year this Sat down in Sac. A crit with the only intention to not get dropped. Its flat so I think I can? That is the only goal, to finish.

I was getting in some great riding before this monsoon season decided to come down from Oregon and sit over norcal for a month. ....

Nothing to report, just a case of cabin fever.

If you see the sun, tell him he is an ass for me.

The Climbs of Hella NORCAL

2011-02-06T00:33:00.002-06:00

Been getting some good riding in the past 3 weeks! Got my tan rockin, and I am slowly learning how to get myself up and over some of these climbs. I have come across some pretty epic upslopes.... Here are some of the profiles!

Looks like racing will start mid February, in search of 2pts to earn the ever elusive upgrade....

Hope your training is on the up and up! ....and yes I will brag that it is 72 not 27 and snowy... I will brag all winter long! hahahaha

Dear January

2011-01-21T20:21:00.003-06:00

I never knew you could be so nice. Seventy degrees and sunny? Every day? Why thank you!

Have been getting in some great riding the past 2 weeks due to the awesomepossom weather of tehnorcalz. Rode the "Sacramento River Trail" on Monday and made it to some real mountains today on my day off. I think I even got some color on the road. While racing is still a few months away, I surely must be in better shape now than last year. I guess I must sit and wait to see how these Westcoastenerzrz ride their bicycles.

aaaaaaaaaaand here are some picz

HellaNorCal Riding

2011-01-13T12:54:00.003-06:00

Well, believe it or not its 'hella' rainy in Northern California in the winter. I am already sick of the trainer after one week of riding it and decided to take on the rain, well sure enough if the rain just up and stopped as soon as I got on the bike! This gave me a chance to go explore the flatness that is the 'valley'. To the North West and East is straight up mountains within 15miles, this will be great in a month or two when I am ready to forge up the mountains and become a speedy climber, but first one must not damage his knees by overreaching his current bodily limitations... and they are really hard to do and im out of shape. so yeah 1,500ft of climbing is boutas flat as yer can git round dees partz. I think it is a fair trade from the screaming winds of the midwest in the winter, the wind hardly ever blows here, and if its 15mph its a 'very windy' day....

Today is another rainy 40f day in paradise, hope yer ridin an trainin is going supermegagalttasticly.

OuttaShape

2011-01-07T01:13:00.003-06:00

uff. I know riding the trainer is hard but for more than 20min seems impossible... haha well yeah just got my trainer shipped out here to sunny....ahem... SUNNY ....ok how about hellarainy norcal. This week is actually the first 2 days in a row without rain since before Christmas. I work before the sun comes up and it is dark when I come home... depressing. Yesterday my trainer arrived and all was good once again... but wait? Its missing the lever that holds the bike in place? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That will not stop me... here are the pictures of what you need to replace a part like this... and yes it works wonderfully and I have now spent almost 1 whole hour on the trainer ... and that accounts for 100% of my 2011 training... I got to get to work... I hope all of yall are having more sucess in finding motivation to ride in January.

alwaysaparty

-Joe

anotherBlog

2010-12-21T01:53:00.002-06:00

yo yo, well the bike is stuck on the wall as this work learnin people airplane skillz is dominating all my time. I made another blog just for my music playlistings. so if you like yourself some new fresh music ideas...and some excellent playlists go on and check it out http://djnojst.wordpress.com

Cheers all

2.0

2010-11-12T02:58:00.004-06:00

There must be something in the air.... this is the first time I have thought about throwin down on the ole blogospherz and I notice that the "FASTGRRLZ" have just posted some sweet vids not more than a few hours ago! Motivation , yes motivation is drifting off the Pacific coast at this very moment.

If you did not know, I moved to sunny warm and wonderful Redding, CA. Today is day 5 on the bicycle after a wonderful and productive 2010 racing season followed by 2months of pure 100% lardassieness. No bike, lots of fastfood and bacon, and no bike... seriously ...none. It is quite hard to start up again slow when every day is 70, sunny and there are perfect 13mile climbs (IronMountain) at your disposal... the great thing about redding is that the mountians are all to the north, west and east... but south is just as flat as the 'paign. ... well... even the 'flat' route here would demolish any hills we had back home but all in all there is a perfect variety of terrain to ride on.

As for the picture... I just wanted you to get a good glimpse at the vastness of my legpubes that I let grow over the 2months of inactivity... and the pastyness that came along with it.... please do not fret, they are now as soft and smooth as ever... and if you could believe it... tan again! There have been few sightings of other 'riders' on the roads, and those I see have been bundled up with leg and arm warmers...these guys are wimps, who needs warmers when its 60 and sunny? Californians...ill tell you what.

Well I suppose I will call upon the blog once again to build my motivation as I start training for a new season of 10speedpeadlebicycleracing. Again I set my goals high...perhaps even higher than last season... in hopes of reaching somewhere safely below them. Lame training updates are sure ensue, followed close behind by the excuses for missing rides, avoiding my diet (I am trying to loose weight for these hillz) and overall wimpyness. zzzzzzzzzz so its sure to be a bitchin time, please stay tuned for more killer rad and hella awesome posts straight from the northvalley.

Cheers

REALLY!?

2010-07-05T23:55:00.003-05:00

Alllrighty this is good...really really good. Sooooooo anybody out there have problems catting up? Ever send in the resume and it just wasnt enough? Even if you are a whole 10 pts over the minimum? Well I'm sure you have your own stories and here is mine.

(granted keeping track of racers starting I though was more of a fudged number as the usacycling.org lists used to list only the finishers and not DNFers....)

1st email I send in: yada yada yada race resluts yadda.

usacyclingcoachinchargeofupgrades emails back: berr berr berr you only have 2o pts not the required 25 and surely not the 3o you claim.

I email back: .... yesss see here 5+2+6+7+3+7=30

He emails back: ....noooo you counted too many riders in your races... they were not worth as many points as you have written down.... and ps you got 20th in a race that you said you got 5th in ... wtf? 5+0+3+5+2+4+1=20 points

My response:

Steve,

I can understand being picky for the number of starters as the race dynamic changes greatly between a race of 12 riders and 150 riders, however spitting hairs on two occasions in this resume over 1 rider seems... picky to say the least. There is little difference between a race with 46 people and 51 and 50 people and 51... but I guess the line must be drawn, however hard or soft I guess is determined by those who know best. I would like to note that some of your records are still incomplete/inaccurate. I finished 5th place in the Demarvelous Crit in St. Louis on 5/25/10... and it states in the usacycling rulebook that 4th place in a road race of 21-50 riders gives me 4pts not 3 as you had stated below for the ofallon Grand prix road race...

I will enjoy racing as a cat3 until my abilities prove to be the caliber of a category 2 rider.

-Joe

Im sure hes a way-cool guy and he knows what is best for the safety of a cat2 field and my abilities as a rider... and it would be ridiculous to allow leeway for a judgment call on things that are as serious as this... aaaand I am sorry to call this out but if saftey is the main concern then results should not be the only thing considered... If you DNF every other race you enter... and more than one person knows you as "crash or win".... yeah....yeah.... ANYWAY there is a rant for you.

ps... again I understand that there are rules and however strictly they are enforced is not up to me, but when someone tries to be a stickler for the rules and uses WRONG information... well then I get pissy

ToAD

2010-06-28T12:49:00.002-05:00

Alright recap:

Mon- Road America: Awesome awesome course, I was super stoked to hear we would be racing on this course as I may have been an avid FORZA MOTORSPORT player at one time in my life and have driven that course many times in the game... and sure enough it was just like it in rl. Although in the videogame you dont realize the large climb to the start... So I just saved my energy, i think we had 11 laps or something...so lots of hills, with 4 to do I launched a big attack up the long gradual hill and it strung out the field and i guess people got split off the back but no breakaway as the rest of the course is a screaming downhill. I cant sprint and up steep hills is even worse. In the front of the pack to the base of the final steep section and then got 22. Still an awesome course

Tues-She-boy-gan: Excellent! Teammate John-the express-herrel got himself into a 2man break and I took the easy job of blocking for him and he rolled in 30seconds ahead of the field for a cool 2nd place! Soooo good

Wed-Waterloo: we came early trying to find a place to watch the USA match...no luck, we (john and I) go to the trek factory to see if there is a tv in the lobby...nope so we go on the tour, and there are TV's in the workout room. So we try and ask some more questions to stall and watch the worldcup. The course was nice 1.3 miles i think? another winding narrow uphill on the backstretch. I attacked up there 3 laps in a row but no breakaway luck... managed 4th just by staying up in front up the hill and not fading so much during the sprint...

Thurs-GreenBush: 40mile breakaway in a 50 mile race. I attacked up the long startfinish line on the start of the 2nd lap to catch a solo man who had been up front for the first lap. Draged one guy with me and us three were met by 7 others at the start of the 3rd lap. Everyone was driving it hard and by the start of the 4th lap there were 5 of us. We had at least 3min in the field at one point and thats when i stopped working... Sure ill take some flack for that but its bike racing and if 4 of the break-mates wanna kill it up the hills and back down the other side I will gladly let them. I still didnt have the legs to beat the 2 that outsprinted me, but they were truly some beasts. either way it was a great day.

more updates in a bit...

it's um eR A Playlist?

2010-06-17T18:32:00.004-05:00

So if you want some bumpin' tunes for your summer night parties I made this list with a bunch of new songs and some good standbys. Turn on your Amp and try not to blow your speakers. Get out your black lights, strobe lights, solo cups, BUSCH LIGHT, cheap liquor, expensive liquor, and call the ladies and get your dance on... like I said, its hot.

99% of the songs are on Youtube, and there are certain video2mp3 sites that can take the music from the internets to your home! The greatest song on there "Call on thunder" #29( and YES the order of the playlist was hand picked as well) is nowhere to be found on the internets, If you really really want the best song on the playlist you will have to hit me up for it.

CHEERS!

goingtogetgoing

2010-06-07T16:25:00.002-05:00

RaceReportz: Saturday the Ofallon Gran Prix Illinois State Road Race. 67 miles of amazing. The course was excellent, lots of turns, small rolling hills, trees, and the roads were wide enough in enough places that moving up in the pack was not a problem. So we (new cat3 and teammate John Hairball) start this adventure into 90F hot and humid weather at a nice slow pace and John and I sit all the way at the back conserving as much energy as possible. After the first lap (22.3 mi) I have a good understanding of the course and move up to the front of the race. I attempt to get something going just a few miles into the second lap and nobody decides to come with, I prolly sit out by myself for a good 5 min or so... I come back and sit and wait near the front. Then a group of two gets off the front and gains some ground and I decide to jump with Nick from WildCard. We get another and then there is a group of 7 up the road and we are putting time into the field! A paceline is formed and we already have slackers... The break hobbles along and we loose Nick and another rider, but we still have dead weight. With 15miles to go the motivation of the group was getting low. I attacked hard up one of the rollers and nobody came with. They just slowly crawled up to me and then let up... so with 5 to go we got caught...I was not letting myself get shuffled to the back after all that work I had done, so up the hill to the finish I cranked it to stay up near the front and ended up with a 4th place in the sprint.

As for Saturday night...just imagine RedRoofInn, 9000 KidCudi wannabe highschoolers, PBR, and cops on segways and paddywagons. Lets just say we did a lot of people watching at the bar along 'delmar ave' in St. Louis.... it was amusing.

SUNDAY: Ofallon Grand Prix Criterium. I also enjoyed this course, basically a 4 corner crit with one section that is very narrow followed by a sharp 90 turn. I told John that this race I would not attempt a break until half way into the race, to avoid the implosion that I endured 2 weeks ago at Champaign. Race starts fast, and I move to the front right away to avoid getting wHipped at the back through the narrow sections. A few breaks go but nothing is lasting long. We go by and I see 22 min on the board... I wait one more lap and see 25 and there is my friend John from Momentum Cycling just a few seconds up the road, I jump up to him tap on the back and say 'here we go'. We start cruising and he is doing an awesome job keeping pace and both him and I have teammates blocking for us! After 10 min we are joined by 3 more riders which give us more firepower and more teams blocking. Two of the guys were just hanging on the back but they were just there to hang on for 4th and 5th so it wasnt as if they were sandbagging it to the line... either way I was pretty nervous being caught every time I have been in a break this year. Well with 1 lap to go we had about 15 seconds and we were not going to get caught. Coming around turn 1 I was last wheel and I saw my breakmates spread across the road and let up. I felt like Ballan (1:35) and his attack at the world championships I knew I had to go and just dropped down and gave it everything I had to go past them. Nobody reacted and around turn 2 I had a pretty big gap and already knew I had it. I kept giving it all I had and around the final turn I looked back and had enough time to savor my first victory! The blocking was perfect, the break was perfect, the attack was .... perfect, oh it feels good!

Another HUGE thanks to VerizionWireless Teammate John for working hard to chase down the pack, awesome awesome awesome.

alright I might miss out on next weekends races and prepare for ToAD! We will see.

Cheers!

forur health

2010-06-01T21:06:00.002-05:00

Wa Pello- Burllington : em it was actually a most enjoyable ride. There were quite a number of riders starting out and I got stuck starting in the rears. After about 4 miles I had made my way to the front of the race where I decided to stay. There was one move I joined with about 5 guys that looked to have a glimmer of hope... I believe we caught the pro race after 10 miles or so and we were neutralized until they turned off the main drag to go ride more miles... we continued cruising along and right behind me a large crashboombang erupted and it sounded pretty big. There was put a pretty hard dig thereafter by myself and rosenfield, and with 30mph+ going up the roller we just couldnt shake the field... bummer, as my sprint is nothing special I knew this finish would not see me on the front. Then the rider with the creaking, noisy zipp wheels unclipped right in front of me on the sprint and I saw my top 10 spot whizz out of site and finished 21...

I did spend the evening at the lovely "DRAKE" restaurant with the even lovelier Sammy mcCute right there on the river. They had a live band, busch light cold-as-a-mountain-stream-smooth-as-its-name bottles, and excellent food! I would recommend it to anyone.

Snake Alley: decided to take it off after DNFing the last 2 years...

Mellon City: a graduation party and disk golf a decent alternative to speed bumps and soul melting humidity...

Quad Cities! Tail gunnin the first 8 laps. Jumping around people getting shelled. Move up to teammate Mr. Sills. sit behind him for the race.... with one lap to go I get up to 2nd wheel as we cross the line, a large pileup is then heard right behind me, and with again rossenfield leading the charge and me sitting just 3 wheels behind I feel like a top 10 is at hand.... but alas we get caught again, I wanted to be 1st coming around turn 7 but was pretty gassed after moving all the way up before the last lap and lost some position. Ending 18th looser.

Yes another fun weekend, yes my stomach really hurts still and I dont know whats wrong... the doctor is going to be visited first thing tomorrow... and yes the state championship road race is 4 days away... something that should fit my skillz a little better than "cage matches"

for your health

Tour De C-U

2010-05-24T15:10:00.002-05:00

Race Report: The smooth 4corner champaign crit on Saturday... Some attacks go early, and the first slowing of the pack I take off. I was out by myself for a lap and a half until some others came up to me. That break stayed away for a few laps before being reeled back in. The next big move was from my boy Dan Penner, he attacked and had a 10sec or so lead, I marked IsCorp and we made it a 5some up at the front of the race. We worked together for a couple of laps before we were almost caught, then IsCorp goes on the left side and I follow him. We then stay away for the next 12 laps or so. I was truly dead with 5 laps to go, but kept hanging on and unfourtunately got caught with about 2/3 of the last lap to go... Rosenfield-ISCorp kept powering on for the win... sososo close, although I had never been so far into the"red" as I was in that break.

Urbana Grand-Prix: 150F, humid, 180degree turn, a hard hard race. Over half the field DNF'd... I found myself off the front very early and there was no way I could hold another break for so long so I dropped back. Then Rosenfield goes again... uff, I go with him and he drags me and a few guys around for a couple of laps but like I said... I just didnt have it. Im sure he was frustrated in my 'negative' racing but I didnt want to let him go there and it seemed to me that nobody else would have stopped him... So that gets the break brought back... then freakin Ramirez-Burnham goes with some other fast guys, but no Verizionz... lame. They lap the field, I finish 12 of the 18 finishers...and 19DNFers....
-and to who ever said I was "chopping" you in every corner... "CHOPPING" from what I understand is cutting a corner in tight, the swing out at the last second and cutting in... or just cutting in on someone in a corner... I believe you were confusing that with you just being to close to my wheel around that 180 bub...

anyway I suppose if I wouldnt have initiated so many breaks on Saturday we could have stayed away.... so lame,

Next weekend is quadcities, and the burllington RR.

so... im late...

2010-05-19T21:51:00.002-05:00

Thanks Peloton-pix.com

Hopefully no one has heard that dreaded phrase... but yes, my race report is rather late.

So MONSTERZ

em, wide roads, long straight aways... it was pretty easy to move up at will in the 3's so I decided to just chill for the first half of the race. There was one promising move of about 6 or so that I jumped up to, but with ZERO organization i found myself back in the pack. I figured I could slide up on the back stretch of the last lap, considering last year I got swarmed at that same spot... however, with a crash before turn 1, a crash on the STRAIGHT after turn 2 and a crash around turn 4 of the final lap it was not to be...

I had fun pretending to be fast in the 1/2/3 race shortly after. I had no legs to throw attacks with the u25 guys but I had fun jumping up to do what I could to shut down a chase, and I believe I found myself at the tail end of at least one separation... again fun was the word to describe that race, fast and fun.

TourDeChampaign!

yeah, with long lost racing buddy Senor Penner flying all the way back from Oregon just to race, it is going to be a grand time. Both courses look sweet and sexy and so do the podium girls from what I hear...

And that is why I hate....

2010-04-25T21:02:00.006-05:00

"see mmmm uh hu, ya and thats why I hate white people..." words actually yelled at big axel and myself this weekend whilst in the middle of a minor traffic altercation on the way to the last stage of the Tour de St. Louis....

Lets build this story a bit though.

Saturday, Cardonlet Park, stage one of Tour De St. Louis. Rain, a curvaceous course, wet and the first crit of my season. The skilz were rusty, got in a break, it died after 2 laps. Was a mess coming into the sprint. I am glad I stayed upright...especially as there was a crash right after the finish line...(shakes head in disgust while looking down in disapproval and making a pfushhhhh sound at fallen riders)

Saturday night=TT action. I already was not going to do it. Alex gets ready, tornado comes...literally a tornado, hail, winds, sirens, and yes we are right by the mighty mississip.... well storm blows by in 30min and we have sunny skies 70F and a light breeze! Those who waited got some great conditions. He placed himself mighty well and threw down a pretty cat2tastic time.

Hotel. We drive up to a "Hellen McGuilliguties" or whatever/ "Day's inn holiday resort" the 6 row parking lot is PACKED. We walk in, little kids screaming and running around, Pool, arcade games, ect... "Hello, yes I reserved a room?..." "Yes one double bed" .... "Oh... well um... do we get a discount if the bathroom door is missing?"...."a new room? that would be lovely"...."at the same price of course?" "Thank you"

Unpack-and we decided to eat at the Irish Pub that is conveniently attached to our "inn" and currently "poppin off" ! Have a nice 'irish' meal, clean the bikes and now its Sunday.

SOOoo eat at the "breakfast" while watching some of the most disgustingly captivating people you would ever find in a 2star continental breakfast buffet. Watch liege-bastonge-liege, pack and leave for the race!

Right on our way! The light is green we drive, and get this... an uninsured, drivers-licenseless ......uhffff yess... black woman in a red un-registered mustang pulls out right in front of us! Breaks squeal but the wet roads and gravel only guided us to an inevitable light tap of the ladies bumper. Although no damage to our vehicle, the mustang had its bumper askew and an outraged black gurl. In no time she is out of the car on her phone calling her "boyfriend" over here... Before her threats of violence became fists the cops I called finally showed up, see our skid marks and the gurl screaming at us; take the info down and let us on our way... with time to spare before the race!

The talk to the Cops I believe was the adrenaline rush we needed for the race. 55 and rain, the warm-up was in the heated car with the heated seats... My race starts. about 20min in, front flat... wheel exchange and back in, about 5min later a trio gets off the front with all the major teams... another goes, I latch on to it and now there are 6of us up the road. Another lap goes by and 2 or 3 more keep coming up. With about 30min +3laps to go we have 13 up the road and it isnt getting brought back. Everyone works on through the head-wind...3laps to go a strongman gets off the front and doesnt come back, I have 2nd wheel around corner 3, get passed around corner 4, no legs to gain on the 3 that came around me, but held off the rest for 5th....

aaaannnd Alex beasted the pro1/2 in a mid race trio and pulled out a very impressive 2nd place over some very strong riders.

An eventful weekend, lots of laughs, some productive racing. Next up is Monsters I believe... I gotta look fly for FORMAL this weekend, hOllaa.

another week

2010-04-18T19:17:00.002-05:00

First off, this is a doorknob in the Nuclear Engineering Building... any ideas?

Had a good week of riding ending it off nicely with a fun 5hr ride on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!

Next on the race schedule is TourofSt.Louis I believe, unless people are racing elsewhere.

Oh it was mom's weekend here at the UofI... you know what that means eh eh? Apparently I danced with a mom at KAMS and afterwards she had an asthma attack... I guess my skillz are to hott to handle! aaahhhh ha haha... thats funny. The rest of the night was as you can imagine... or perhaps you have never experienced KAMS...? WELL imagine the most perfect place in all the world, now imagine that inside a campus bar, now imagine the exact opposite... NO! KAMS is not the slimy freshman stink-hole of a hookup bar that you may hear rumor of. It is the home of the Drinking Illini! It is a place where romance blooms and everybody knows your name. It is the greatest place on earth and imagine now, an extra 300 moms inside! Life can not get any better.

that is all!

so it begins

2010-04-11T19:36:00.002-05:00

Race Report:

Never before have I been so nervous for a race. Sure it is the big season opener but more than that I felt like I was ready for it...

Race starts, good position, easy peasy. There was no dominating team presence and enough guys willing to chase anything that after the first lap of unsuccessful breaks I decided nothing was going to stick and I would just chill till the end. Some breaks were attempted and I saw someone dangle off the front for at least 15miles. I suppose if he got someone with him he could have stayed away... So it came down to the last climbs into the city. Had decent position, and stayed near the front up the climb. Over the top and down to the bricks I made up some spots, Left turn 4 guys up the road about 5seconds. I was with another group, and stuck with them instead of trying to jump up... left turn 1st place is too far up, sprint, 5th place.

One of the most boring races with one of my better results... fun times and a good start to a new season!

post.

2010-03-29T00:22:00.003-05:00

Yes Florida was good. really really good. 6days of riding, good food and SUN! The surf never picked up but such is life...I am still finding sand in my hair.

So now its just all hard all the time... and the time change has made my life an hour brighter which helps the riding/job shuffle.

...yes I am counting down to Hillsboro and the start of another fantasmic cycling season.

the next conflict comes when I must decide whether to attend my 4th consecutive Lil'500 or to race down in St.Louie... not leaving that to the magic8ball, rather my legs...although right now the lean is towards racing...what should I do?

oh for all you StarWars fans... this guy Adawayn re-edited episode IV you can find it on torrents no problem and its pretty sweet. here is the list of all the 156 things he changed!

that is all

Spring Break update

2010-03-25T11:50:00.002-05:00

Cocoa Beach has been living up to any and all expectations I had given it the 2 months leading up to the trip. The overnight drive down was mostly painless and the full first season of "Glee" was entertainment enough. We arrived around 2pm to 70 degree weather and sunny skies, perfect for an afternoon spin.

Well just got back from a ride and are now going shopping for more food! More updates on the epic rides, kite wars, surfing and good eats at a later time.

Can almost smell the coast!

2010-03-15T21:59:00.005-05:00

The clouds threatened to rain

all weekend long we still rode

instead it was wind.

shazam! haikoo master...

Saturday was actually windless and rainless. The jr/sr ride went out at an impressively early 9am Saturday morning with the Sills and Tortorelli clan tearing out west to the beautiful foothills that are Alerton Park. Papa Tort used his superior experience and guile to take the Polka dot and Green jerseys along the jaunt. It was a good dry ride.

Sunday was actually windfull and very windy... The cold north wind assaulted our trio as we battled the wind from whence it came. A healthy diet of JUJU fish ( "Ju Ju Fish will disappear so quickly, you will swear they are swimming down your mouth. ") provided enough energy for the return trip and an opportunity to showcase my uber impressive power as I powered the cannondale six13 and myself to a blistering 40mph...woot

aaaand leaving in 4 days for the sunny coast.

Pushin Through

2010-03-12T18:24:00.002-06:00

Yeah so teh sickness... still here...

Got tested for strep... nooo not that... and this week started out with such awesome weather that I couldnt just not ride! I guess today will be taken all the way off. Tomorrow is looking to be a lot of wet and soggy hours on the bicycle.

On a side note I can not tell enough people about how AWESOME "The White Panda" is! All free to download, some of the best mixes ever. period. Just put it on loop and you will be able to....

-Ride for hours carefree on the trainer

-Ride tempo for hours in the rain

-Dance by yourself......in public......restrooms

Eh, still cant wait for spring break and the season to start... I will leave you with some other funnies...

-spaghetti cat

-leonard nimoy

-old greg....

Sick

2010-03-07T12:34:00.002-06:00

It could have unofficially been the St. Patricks Day celebration, or perhaps a stray germ on my all but pristine cutting board...but I am sick.

-Hot/Cold Sweat

-Fever

-Sore throat/Chest

-ect. ect. ect.

Rode yesterday which did not help the situation, however once on the bike I feel like the symptoms go away for the ride.

Attended my first "skills clinic" with the UofI club guys yesterday. I had always wanted to play all of those fun "pick up the waterbottle off the ground" "bump elbows/wheels" "knock eachother off bikes" games that I have read about in training articles and such. 10 guys, many attending their first race this coming weekend got to have fun throwing waterbottles at eachother and falling down in a muddy field. Excellent job Ethan for putting that on!

aaaand so being sick means I get to sit in bed and make playlists... MY FAVORITE!!!!

this one is for sure a winner if you are in need of a fresh new bumpin party mix!

ghuuhhhhbgha

2010-03-01T18:49:00.004-06:00

Weeks ago I had decided that today would be the day to attempt my first TT on the WildCardCycling Bi-Weekly TT course.... I Guess it makes sense in the training schedule and I GUESS I figured that it would be warmer by March 1st. I Guessed WROOONG. God it was horrible. Drove home from work, gathered my things, threw the bike in the rocket-car and floored it out to the course. I wanted to make sure I knew where the turnaround is and with my sunlight at less than 1hr I decided to drive the course and just get a 15min warmup (not enough). Well with 32F and a 17mph wind howling out of the north I started the run with the wind directly at my back. All the time dreading the turnaround into the wind. Turned around, and sure enough the wind picked up to about 40mph and left me and my totally naked setup struggling to keep an even 10mph and the bike upright... All in all that time was not what I expected... but then again neither were the conditions. I suppose Ill try that again in a couple of weeks on an equally miserable day and see if it still sucks... I am guessing it will.

Ridez/akward toilet

2010-02-28T22:19:00.003-06:00

Aha haha! so got outside one the bike TWICE this weekend, ballin!

Saturday was a brutally cold and windy ride with big Sills Sr. papa Torts and the yougest gun Ethan the Mouth Stone. Yep so cold and windy pretty much sums up that ride.

Sunday, hella warmer, papa Torts and Mr. Althouse meandered out to Monticello. Felt much better. I have been wearing an extra pair of shorts to keep warm... and apparently that also means you should lower your seat... did not realize this until my hips started creaking on the way back. So keep that in mind if you ever desire extra padding or insulation "down there".

So a full month of kwality training, totally awesome!

AAAANnnnnnnd an aside...

-so I think there are many posts on a certain listserve for a certain collegiate cycling team are quite hilarious and for the most part unnecessary. I completely understand the value of such a listserve, and I completely understand the largely overinflated ego of the average cyclist. However, when my inbox is flooded with emails explaining how "the weekend" ride is at 8am, and responses stating such a time is too early, and then serious responses stating the ride is at 7am in sub-arctic conditions.... I find myself unable to resist an overly sarcastic post of my own... I state that my ride is leaving at 3am.... and apparently it is no longer funny.

-Well checking my emails again tonight similar email chatter has been flooding my inbox. "the ride leaves at 3" "the ride leaves at 4", "if your a newb go at 3", "your a wimp if you dont go", ........ so Im hosting a ride at 7am... I wonder if anyone finds the humor in it... or if its just me?

...seriously though I am going at 7... and I know that i am seriously

W
A

Weather it out

2010-02-25T17:03:00.002-06:00

Cold. Wet. COLD. winter is the pits... eh c'est la vie right?

I am rather envious of those collegiate racers about to kick off the season with an epically awesome RR in some brutal conditions down in Murray. The suffering endured last year only makes me wish I could partake in it again...especially after having quite a few good weeks of training under the belt! Almost makes me want to do grad-school just to race... almost.

The closest thing I am looking forward to is the riding to be done in Sunny Warm COCOA BEACH! I cant wait for shorts weather, and not having your joints and bones be freezing during your entire ride.

aaaaand again hillsboro is looming just below the horizion 6 weeks away....

Training is uber fun on the trainer... I need to get outside.

Weekend forecast 40F/Mostly Sunny!

aaannnnnndddd its gone

2010-02-17T09:28:00.003-06:00

Got paid... and registered for Hillsboro. number 90. only 35spots left in the 3's.... thats just a stupid lot of people for a RR in central IL....

Freezing...

2010-02-16T15:27:00.002-06:00

Day after day the forecast for the 61822 never changes! 30 mostly cloudy, windy... and by 4pm its back below 25. Did you know the average temp is around 42F for this time of year? OR that the record high was 71. For March the averages are supposed to be around 45F, with records in the 80's...wouldn't that be nice?

However what WILL be nice is COCOA BEACH! Spring Break 31 days and counting... Bringing the bike for some nice long rides up and down the coast/intercoastal. Early mornings on the bike followed by the sun, beach, surf and fresh fish, perfect!

I did get out last week, Sunday the sun peaked through in the afternoon and after already doing a trainer ride in the morning I knocked off the sweat-salt crust from where the wheel meets the floor and took the old girl out for a nice cruise in the "sun". It was great.

More trainer riding tonight. Perhaps the 2002 Roubaix? I'm tired of watching doped up DOMO guys beating poor Georgie...

Races.

2010-02-11T21:37:00.002-06:00

These races look like a fun season.

4/10- Hillsboro (I'm gonna give that a 50/50 right now)

4/24-25 Tour of St. Louis ( Races in April... who knows)

5/15- Monsters (Need redemption from last year's mismanaged last 800m)

5/22-23- Tour de Champaign/Urbana (2nd year, hometown race!)

5/31- Quad Cities (stay upright on turn 7)

6/5- ABD Twilight tentative (...tentative?!)

6/6- Spring Prairie RR (find some legs up the hill for the sprint?)

6/13- "Tour of St. Louis Grove" (Freakin tour of Winghaven... took me forever to find it)

6/17-27- ToAD (awesomeawesomeawesomeawesome, sooo much fun last year)

6/27- Proctor (? if its 150F and 150mph wind then I am staying in Wisconsin)

7/3- UWW RR (excellente road coarse,...ohhh I have a wedding to go to, scratch that.)

7/11 - Lake Geneva RR (this is new... no info yet but I would do it)

7/24- Glencoe (fun)

7/25- Chicago Crit (have not done this yet)

7/31- Elk Grove (quite tentative...)

Although stating this most surely means I either: best case- get a full time flight instructing job and will be forced off the bike...worst case- break some body part/get sick/other misc injury forcing a sub-par season...

Will I get a ride outside this week....magic 8ball says....."don't count on it"

takin it easy

2010-02-09T18:24:00.000-06:00

Right now I am watching the Ronde van Vlaaderen 08/college basketball waiting for my after-work snack of whole grain pasta to digest enough so it wont come up on the intense trainer ride that is on for tonight.

As long as I have the music playing, and two things to watch on separate screens my attention can be entertained long enough to get a real workout in the living room. The box fan helps too.

If the relationship from training to race results is linear than the results this year should not be outside the top 5... ever... I wish that was how it works! Seriously though, waking up and riding in the morning, and riding in the evenings is much easier without any school work to keep you busy, and living 6miles off campus makes it much harder to stop by the bars for happy hour! It's almost like life out in the boonies is just like..."takin it easy"...

It is pretty much full-on blizzard conditions outside, 30mph winds, blowing snow, and arctic temp. My street never gets plowed and to make matters worse, I am almost out of my home-brew stash!

I havent brewed anything new since Nov. And I think its about time to brew again. Perhaps something for St. Patricks day? The first irish stout came out excellent, so I think that is what I will be brewing again.

On the trainer now!

stat rep

2010-02-06T17:43:00.000-06:00

4" of snow put a big stop to any hope of an outdoor ride today.

Slept in. Watched basketball. Trainer ride. Mexican food and Margaritas tonight!

other than the 3-4 hours that I wont be getting in tomorrow the training plan is going quite well. It gets me up every day for a morning spin, and keeps the motivation up for the harder rides on the trainer in the evenings.

Excellent breakfast idea...

"the breakfast pizza"

had no food for breakfast, so fried up some taters, bacon, onion, garlic. Found a pilsbury pizza dough. Some sauce, and lots and lots of motz and some eggs on top! quite quite good.

on the horse

2010-02-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

There she stood, confined to her stable, I approached slowly. With my head held high and shoulders back, I whispered sweet nothings into the air and softly blew them towards her...At her side I let my right hand make its way slowly up to the saddle, and nimbly swung my right leg over so as not to put but the slightest weight onto her. I grasped my hands firmly on her horns trying not to think of what was waiting for me in the upcoming 60 minutes... I waited for the clock to center up on 8:46 and away we went! An hour long aerobic suffer fest to start the real "training" of the 2010 season!

Im super cerial guys. its gonna be a good year.

oh and ps... this is a ROFLCPTR

2010-02-02T15:10:00.001-06:00

itsshaboy!

2010-02-01T23:46:00.000-06:00

I watched some of the grammys..ies... and its good to know that Jay-Z's laugh is the same off his songs as it is in them...

Got out Sunday and Today! also put some time on the trainer as well... excellente'. I am curious as to how this season is going to turn out. Last year I had high hopes and little training... in the past 3 weeks I have felt more motivated than I fell like I have ever felt!... lots of feeling going on here and I dont know how I feel about that....

eh... less than 10 weeks and 50 spots left for Hillsborough's 3's... I dont know if I will be ready/want to battle the "winter warriors" for their peak race... but like everone else, I am ready to pin on numbers again. perhaps there will be a few spots open the week before the race and then I will decide...ha... ha .... ha... what the cat 4's filled up in 1hour? redic.

harder day tomorow. ...

hallla'

Schedule

2010-01-28T21:46:00.000-06:00

With the help of: chicagobikeracing.com, truesport.com, wicycling.org, illinoiscycling.org (which has greatly improved!), and just to make sure that no stone was unturned...usacycling.org...the poorestly updated site of them all....I skillfully crafted a summer 2010 race schedule! It was motivation enough to sit on the trainer for a whole 29min today, a new record!.... I have found if you put on the paris roubaix on the computer and xgames/ncaa basketball on the tv, and have them side by side, and talk on the phone... I can distract myself almost enough to get a decent number of spins on my legs before I become bored again.

The sun was bright and shining today! With a high of 20F... I dont know if it got that warm... and tomorrow is supposed to break 15F, just barely. More awesomejawesome trainer time!

and seriously omglasergunspewpewpew!

Gattastick

2010-01-27T21:07:00.000-06:00

I know this is not a new album('s) but I was requested to make a mix tape of some of my hip-hop beatz and underground rap for a friend and came across an old favorite... "The Gatalog: A Collection of Chaos" by Celph Titled.... close to 100 songs these tunes will satisfy that craving you have for ill beats and sick flow.

It snowed again today, there was about 20min of sunlight today however just about as long as I spent on the traininer today! heh. More training ahead, prost!

lam-ba-da thats the forbidden dance

2010-01-25T15:54:00.000-06:00

ski school.

Well the 12 days spent in Colorado snowboarding is pretty much excellente'. I wonder if the 12 straight days of fog/freezing rain/mist/clouds has been my just punification for having too much fun off the bike.... Kams, Firehaus, Illini Inn and the Pig have been my weekly alternatives to training and let me tell you... if I could spend the 20hours a week I spend at the bars on my bike, I would not have to complain about loosing cat3 races or not having any money!

Went out in the fog with Sills Sr. and papa torts for 2 hours in the fog the other day, and I didnt keel over dead. It gives me hope that this year I will be able to average over 20mph on the 10mile TT...we will see

Training

2009-11-02T19:47:00.000-06:00

The bike looks like it actually belongs right here in the living room with a fresh towel folded and draped over the top tube placed right in front of the tv. I let RobbieV. beat me up at downers grove on his training video.

Other news, the first batch was quite excellent. I will keep a few for those who would like to sample! The 2nd batch is now quite good after 3 weeks in the bottles. Tastes like a lighter IPA. with a slight hint floral fruityness from the uberawesome cascade hops. The 3rd batch is still fermenting but it should be quite hoppy, at least it smells excellente so far.

Off Season Smosh Season

2009-10-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

well... Been ridin for the past month'n'a half: Sprint days with Hoosier and fellow Roomate mr. Herrel, My best (but still rather poor) 10 mile "naked" TT, Perfect weather (aka no wind), one epic 6hour ride in the rain, a week long plague of aphids, and a much needed increase in motivation to start a 6 month training regime... we will see how long that lasts. As for now in the mid'st of brewing my second batch of beer. The first should be ready in a week.

Eh, well thats about it.

Ahhh yep... take two for Uber År

2009-08-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

new tires, tubes, chain, tape, and motivation. all things necessary to star the new season. I threw in the towel after the Indian State Crit Championships. After ending 11th after feeling strong all race and being sketched out of all the corners I said enough for the season... It has been almost a month of not touching the bike and I have done many things worthwhile instead. Camping, hiking, fishing, canoeing, movie nights, day o' fun, tennis, the list could go on. But now that the semester is starting and all I have is work and .... well yeah no classes I am planning on a productive off season, hopefully some cyclocross, and come out of the winter ready to crush souls and dreams like I have always wanted to.

so one last weekend off up to northern wisconsin for the second weekend in a row, for more fishing and maxin 'n relaxin.

Best of luck to all those starting epic bike journeys this week!

ToADL and such

2009-06-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

Ahhh well lets see, did Winghaven-poor Bluemounds-DNF Tues-Saturday of ToADL- much better.

It turns out my legs were hiding along some beautiful and brutal road courses up in the hills of Wisconsin. The tour of Americas Dairyland was much better than SuperWeek. Great road races, and safe crit courses. Some well organized teams... well at least one who basically dominated all the races. It was fun having the legs to throw some attacks, get in breaks, chase... No spectacular results but I feel much stronger...

Work, peace

2009-05-29T15:55:00.000-05:00

Well, monsters was fun-
-Stayed in around 4-10 positions all race, chilled, with one lap to go it was myself in 3rd, and BigBoneBilly on my wheel for the leadout... on turn 1 the two in front of us wipeout... so I start the leadout on the loooong back stretch into the wind...just to leave out sprinter 150meters short of the place where he should have launched... a fun race though.

-Snake... it rained, and yeah no thanks...

-Quad... it rained, and yeah crashed, got a wheel, came in adjusted the rubbing breaks, crashed again... still got 31... Hogan Sills got most aggressive and finished 4th.

the weekend was pretty fun though, tubing and drinks at the lake with Johnny "the mouth" Hairball and a pretty girl made the crashes worthwhile.

Next up is Windfield on the 6th and either ABR Nats or Spring Prarie on the 7th...

Tomorrow I get to have a pretty girl motor pace me down to Neoga for more lake fun'n stuff, so thats pretty sweet. Now its time for intervals...uff

MONSTER ...pokey sticks...?

2009-05-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

Well, its time for Monsters...

Last time I wrote my plans for the race they went almost exactly as had hoped... so I will try it again... and I will let you know if it was right.

Graduate on Sunday. Good times.

that is all.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/72434/saturday-night-live-motherlover

Egg Cheese Bacon Souffle...Down and up... Like the hills we did.

2009-05-13T10:32:00.000-05:00

So the WildCard cycling fellows put on a Tues night crit out in a completely closed off 1.8 mile nicely paved loop just north of town and boy that sure is sick! 35min plus a lap with Druber, Stone, Sills, HulkHogan, and myself repping the black and red, and about 7 other guys from the WildCard team began the race. It was fast, and really fun. I decided to chase down my own teamates from a certain break away about half way through... Lets pretend I didnt do that... (ya see the thing is... Druber/Hogan get off the front, race over they win... I just figured, "good job guys I get it, I'll bring it back and we can try winning a different way...) ANYWAY then Hogan Stone and ...gosh I cant remembe his name... from WildCard got a gap on me and I decided to claw my way back to them over the next lap and a half... and they kinda let up for me... Picked up some lapped riders, sprinted, Hogan won, Stone nipped WildCard and I rolled in 4...

I actuall will prolly do it next tuesday, I need more high end workouts.

Its raining, I think Ill get a new chain and clean the bike again...

2009-05-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

Eh, putting off studying for my final...

Went for a ride out to some hills again yesterday morning, early, like 7am... yikes. No wind, low gray clouds, mist, light rain. Long ride out, lots of times going up steep hillz, long back, it does get lonely out there... I almost wanted to go on a group ride but I hear that they can be dangerous and considering I cant hold onto my water bottles, I may be too!

I am feeling a bit stronger fer sure and looks like plans are set for Snake / LakeHaus/ Quad Cities in 2 weeks... I am just going to realize that the snake will tear me apart again... but whats better than spending $30 to race one of the best crits in the nation... and putting yourself through all sorts of pain and shame? ... prolly asking a cute girl to come watch you do it!...uff

anyway perhaps there might be some sort of A. Stone downgrading to a 3 to race it ... but you didn't hear that from me...

"I just don't dig on swine"

2009-04-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

Okay so that is a lie... I love bacon.

The 10day forecast yesterday stated that the weekend and next week would be sunny and warm...Today it looks rainy and cold... lame.

As finals approach once again that familiar urge to procrastinate kicks into one of its highest level since the week before spring break... After planning out my race schedule for the entire summer, training schedule, and cleaning my bicycle I decided all that was left was to blog about my efforts in procrastination...

Yes and yesterday was highly successful in doing no school related work save attendance at my one evening class... Low ceilings kept us grounded at the airport leaving me up at 8:00am without a class until 4:30pm...a.k.a. long ride! It was misting off and on and about 70 F, fog and cloudy all day, but with relatively light winds I was all too eager to set out on a 4plus hour journey to the east... Made a stop in Homer and again in Catlin, went north and got to experience some real hills and scenery as I rode past the middle fork river and up towards Kickapoo, a stop in Oakwood and back home in time for class. Felt good, got swoll, tanned up, didnt study... perfect day.

Snake alley is looming 3.5 weeks ahead and with any luck I can fool myself into thinking that I am fit enough to race it... either way I will be there, either on the bike or on the cooler... I just need suggestions on what to put in it...

I'm Ron Burgondy?

2009-04-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ah ha!

The surf in Costa Rica is long gone, the cold held on for 2 more weeks and now finals and school stress start to build, but last week I got to touch the bike every day and that makes me happy enough to tell the blogosphere all about it. Some decent weather and the arrival of the new Team Verizon kits my motivation quickly returned, the legs got a clean shave and back on the bike I have been! I have been feeling great and just adding up miles wherever/whenever I can but an...incident this weekend on the long ride has put another bump in my season...

Perhaps due to some natural phenomena (solar flare? shift in earths magnetic flux?) I... dropped a bottle... As I heard the hollow sound of the empty bottle hit the pavement I felt my ego fall with it. I let out a high shriek of surprise and shock, followed shortly by a feeling of disbelief and embarrassment ... surely there never was a more humbling experience than this n00b mistake... perhaps this just tells me I still have a way to go before I can reach that l337 (or leet, as in elite) status those sexy Cat.1's have achieved. I hope to be there one day, sooner rather than later but until then you will have to give me a wide berth whenever you see my hands leave the hoods...

I will slowly pick up the pieces and continue on, perhaps with a a little less spring in my step and a little more humble I ride on...

Other note! The LIL' 500 is happenin down in HoosierVille this weekend and I will be attending to do some singlespeedpedalbicycle race watching, some "sink the Biz" Nick's, Killroys, Sports, and all the other things that make hoosierland so... unique? I suppose I will bring the trusty steede and pedal up some hills hungover on saturday morning just for fun as well.

lata

meeting goals/saving face

2009-03-02T08:41:00.000-06:00

Murray State what what! heh, so race weekend recap....

(the 10 day forecast for the weekend started at 54 and a chance of rain... and as the week progressed the % of rain kept increasing and the temp kept decreasing... by Saturday morning it was 32F with rain/freezing rain/sleet/snow....)

6 eager UofI collegiate racers enter the cars at 6:25pm on Friday evening for the 4.5 hour drive to southern Kentucky. A stop at McD's to grab some nugg's and no wrong turns led us directly to the all too elegant and quite spacious room 158 at the Super8. Unfourtanetly due to people backing out at the last second our two room reservation was reduced to just a single room... no worries 6 racers and 6 race machines have no problem squeezing into a motel room for race weekend!

Race day- the 6 phone alarms to politely wake our room at 7:00am... apparently John turns to his right in the mornings and smacks his alarm on snooze... where my face happend to be on this paticular morning... so that was funny. Got up, dom'd on some free breakfast, drank some "coffe" packed up and headed out to the Road Race.

Due to the rain/cold/wind/road race I did not witness anything more than the start of the Men's D, C, and Womens B race. We had a new racer John, who had never done a road race (nor a crit) before so he was rather eager. After fixing him up with a trash bag as a rain coat, and learning the new riders how to pin on numbers he was the first off. He finished which was surely a plus on his first race! Vess, Sam, and Wayde all did the men's C race. It sounded like there was a crash or two, but we had some finishers and cold boys after that race as well. Morgan gave the ladies hell until the killer hill on the back side of the 16mi course decided it had enough of her dominacne and removed her from the group.

ahem now for the Men's A race...
Well after a warmup in a slight drizzle, and arriving to the staging area not a min early Boris decided to make sure everyone was equally cold before the race and delayed us with his amazing french accent and black chuck T's... (zis is ze menz Az... you all vould not be here if you deid not know ze rulez so no funny buiznezz.... (ect...)) so a neutral roll out of Id guess 45 riders? to arrive onto the 16mile rolling hill (with one larger hill) beautifully paved road course. The pace started out extremely fast and I quickly found myself near then end of a very stretched out peloton. I thought surely this pace could not hold as we had over 60 miles still to ride... Apparently Marion, Lindsey Wilson, Wisconsin, perhaps Purdue were all throwing some attacks and/or chasing wildly ( I couldnt see as my position kept me out of the wind and well off the front...) after we tackled the larger climb the first time more attacks and more chasing ensued. Next came a 3-4 mile section of rather sever crosswind which almost took me clean out of the race... once gaps form between the riders in the back and a pack of 15 then 20 then 25 start out ahead of you things start to look rather dismal rather quick... luckily a few guys behind me had it in them to bridge and I decided life on the right side of the white line of the road was the only way to stay in it... With the wind on the extremely smooth but rather we road there were a few high speed crashes due to a lack of concentration for sure... Attackes kept going and the wind and rain slowly turned to Sleet at the beginning of the 4th lap... by this time a group of 5 had just left and would not be seen again... the lap stayed fast for the first 1/4 then slowed down and that pretty much was the end of the event, I just had to not completely freeze, nor drop out due to the cramps in every muscle in my legs. And sure enough I rolled into the finish with the main group... Exceding expectations/personal goals as I hadn't touched the bike in over a week and the training before this hasnt been anything to note...

Other exciting things happen to be
-Post race pizza is awesome
-Murray is a dry county...
-Hungry racers at 9pm=find out keys are locked in the car=local locksmith tells us 12miles south is Tennessee (aka beer)= drive to find the "south of the border" drive through liquor store + Wendys Drive through=a good night

I didnt do the crit and I will talk about that later if I get around to it... but the road course/race was awesome hella lots of fun. SO a good weekend all in all.

Cheers

Veagas baby

2009-02-26T21:03:00.000-06:00

So I just saw swingers earlier this week and it made me appreciate cell phones, Vince Vaughn and NHL '94 on SEGA...

Yep, thats how great the riding has been, the two decent days to ride this week I was booked all day at the airport, so total bummer. Did get a good ride on the hills in and around the Indiana Campus two weekends ago... um chased the dragons on the stationary bikes at the ARC making a lake of sweat under the machine which started overflowing onto the running track... Our intermural b-ball team "Busch it to the limit" won again smashing the "Pink" 40-19...

In other news aparently its the Collegiate season opener down in Murray, KY. Who knew?! heh okay I have been waiting for this all month... I fully expect to get roasted in both the RR and Crit but racing is fun either way, and there has to be other kids out there in my same position right? Looking forward to racing the Men's A's. I am suspecting an early break, and the race being shut down realativly early... I plan on catching a free ride to the break and all the way to the finish... if I make it that long... The update will be posted Sunday night so stay tuned....

Aaaaaand I cleand my bicycle. That is all.

Oh, new kits should be coming in a monthish. Superstoked/superbroke

Training Camp 1

2008-12-27T14:54:00.000-06:00

After being hella pissed about missing out on my East Coast snowboarding trip, traveling for 24 hours and ending up back at my house... I decide that this week I will have to create my own "fun" by enrolling myself in my own personal training camp...

Two-a-Day's or Three-a-Day's are terms you normally associate to swimming, football or even cross-country practice but now even cyclists can enjoy the fun and exciting thrills that are associated with these bodacious and rad training practices... Since I can't bring myself to sit on a trainer for more than an hour and some change without tearing my hair out, I am deciding to attempt mounting the trainer for numerous times each day....I know this is not as good for building endurance but hell, all my friends are out of town and Filler is only so much fun...

It seems that the big names of the MWCCC are all still thawing from racing Cross this season... no I dont read their blogs... but to know your competition is ... better than not knowing it.

Now I will go try and injure myself playing some basketball. I hope spring comes soon.

if you can achieve something without a struggle it's not going to be satisfying.

2008-11-24T07:52:00.000-06:00

I finally took basically 2 weeks straight off the bike. A little pickup basketball, ultimate frisbee, and some rock climbing have been my only activities (other than studying...) and seeing how crappy the weather has been I have justified this by telling myself that too much training will burn you out...

But, just to hear that a few people might already start to be mounting their machines again has helped me find a spark again in my (now rather unkempt) legs to get out and ride again.

Perhaps I will make a new playlist to listen to.

So less than four months until Collegiate... which still seems pretty far away, but with the 12 days of snowboarding I have planned this season, a few Christmas/New Years parties to attend and perhaps a little bit of work to do, I think it will fly by.

Resuming activity, this is J.T signing off.

....Weak

2008-11-10T19:21:00.000-06:00

Did lots of school work,
Had little time for the bike,

and I dont like wind.

(procrastination at its finest right here...)

Yeah last week kinda blew for training... although luckily I somehow sill squeezed X hours on the bike.

This past weekend I enjoyed riding in the snow.... on basically a 4 hour "easy" ride where, you had to go at mach 1.0 into the 45mph wind and then pull off 10 seconds later and sit back behind 18 other guys, where you then proceed to sweat, then freeze... then go really hard, sweat and freeze again...little did I know that those guys were turning around half way... really good group riding etiquette if you ask me... should have just gone by myself...oh wait that was what I did on the "group ride" on Sunday.... grrrrrg.... (thats the sound you make when people dont come ride with you when its cold/cloudy/miserable and you are stuck all day by yourself...)

Saints preserve us, its so easy to complain... here's a look on the bright side;

1. got a good ride in today, (it was sunny and no wind... woot!)
2. Might be able to ride every day this week.
3. .... um and I'm not sick...yet.

until next week, you can enjoy your off season knowing that there is someone else out there who hates the same weather you hate, but still decides that he wants to be better than you and rides in it (cause I'm sooooo cooool)... actually I will most likely just burn out before the season starts, so dont let this motivate you to ride at all....or else you will burn out to... ........

Cheers

Make me a Busch Light Can....please?

2008-11-02T22:16:00.000-06:00

Halloween party, Spins, Halloween party, Dad's day, and 1hour less of usable sunlight every day....

That sums up the week pretty well... It was truly epic in all ways except on the bike....

yea.. thats about it

This week the weather is looking spectacular and I have high hopes of getting in some real miles.

Ride lots. -Eddy Merckx
Enough with this Sunday stroll . . . let's hurt a little bit. -American Flyers
It never gets easier, you just go faster. -Greg Lemond

Dave: Buon giorno, Papa!

Dad: I'm not 'papa.' I'm your g*d-d@*ned father.

-Breaking Away

Take a deep breath....

2008-10-26T19:03:00.000-05:00

Today was the smack to the face that, yes indeed, it is October and winter is a'comin... With some good ole midwestern winds gusting 35-40mph and only 3 people showing up for the Sunday ride... "life at 13mph" was all too much a reality today.

No excitement in regards to life on the road to Cat 2dom this week, a handful of solo rides, one miserable ride in 45F rainstorm, the aforementioned ride today and some homemade potato soup is about it.

Things to look forward to this week...
-Presentation due, Interview, FAA knowledge test, Flight plans, 2 essays... blah blahblah
-Halloween, Dad's day, football game against IOWA/ day'o'fun
-BDL 2.0 week 2
-Gettin some riding in...

So, next week we will complain about crappy weather, all the busch light consumed, the 4 month wait before a race, and about how hard cycling actually is.

Blatz-3
Schlitz-3

and how do I get the nickname...

Ugly Kid Joe....

...smooth as its name....Busch....

2008-10-19T19:43:00.000-05:00

After what started out looking like another week of minimal riding, the weather cleared allowing the logging of some notable miles.

So, here is the playlist that is currently on my LG that I listen to on the longer solo rides...

HIP HOP/RAP
-Celph Titled
-Estelle
-T.I

ROCK/INDIE/emo
-Zebrahead
-The Police
-The Kooks
-The Cure
-The Academy Is...
-Santogold
-Razorlight
-Phoenix
-Led Zeppelin
-Kings of Leon
-Faith no More
-Cute is what we aim for
-Crosby, Stills, and Nash
-Braid

TECHNO/ELECTRONICAish
-Basshunter
-Chromeo
-Digitalism
-Kaleidoscopio
-MGMT
-Moby
-Tiga
-Paul Oakenfold

CLASSICAL/LATIN/JAZZ
-The Three Tenors
-Paco Pena
-Paco de Lucia
-Maceo Parker
-Joshua Redman
-Guiseppe Verdi
-Gioachino Rossini
-Amy Winehouse

Inactivity promotes...inactivity

2008-10-12T21:07:00.000-05:00

Yeah... I am sure there is a way of having an easy week and still riding...

-Homecoming was fun, The Illini defense/special teams lost.... however tailgating for 8 hours followed by a night at Kams really cant be beat!

-Training less than half of my normal weekly hours is slightly upsetting although it seems that every 3rd week I have taken an easy week and come back in full force, and I really needed a break.

-Today's ride was a battle between my hangover and the stiff southerly wind. Luckily I had my pa to share the work with me.

and now... why I like racing bicycles...

There are many other reasons, but what I thought of today was...

There are no excuses in bicycle racing. You either win or lose. There are flats, mechanicals, crashes, dogs, spectators, cramps in every race, everyone is subjected to the same elements and if you are good, you can win consistently in a variety of circumstances and terrain despite the "unluck" that everyone is trying to avoid.

"if your not first your last"

This must mean I need an easy week...

2008-10-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

After such motivating events as the Fall Fling, slugging miles with local TT superstar Druber, and watching the 2001, 2002, and 2006 ParisRoubaix I have kept my eagerness to log the miles necessary to hopefully upgrade after a few good results come spring time. However with my tan lines as sharp as ever, the hours on the bike have left me a bit tired comming into the 6th week of hard training since I started teh killer personal training plan... and I decided to nap today rather than ride... I figure the rest of the week will be easy, as it is homecomming here in Illini country which will surely bring out the orange and blue... and tailgaiting....

so cheers all!

I-L-L

...well...surely motivated!

2008-09-30T00:31:00.000-05:00

So... the fall fling...Cat1,2,3 48.9 mile recap...

-round 83 degrees with about a 10mph wind
-the race was 6 laps around an 8 mile rectangle with 3 noticeable rolling hills...
-again a cat 1,2,3 race so we had the ABD/GearGrinder team well represented with folks like (Mr. Meyers, White Brothers, a Schrotlein, and a Skeeter) all in all there were about 25 1,2 guys and 25 cat 3's including teamate Sr. Sillis

The race started with a 2oo meter neutral rollout to the start line, and the attacks started immediately. I was far enough back to not see, nor care about anything trying to get away on the first lap. Comming around to start the third lap a group of 6 or 7 had escaped from the main field and were chasing a group of 5-6 that had snuck off the front without me noticing or caring once more... As I was sitting on Mr. Meyers wheel in the peleton along with at least 4 of the ABD/GG team I had no worries. I heard mention that the odds of the ABDer up the road were getting less and less as a few other guys made the bridge to the main chase group, which was about 30sec off the front of the peloton at the moment.

I look up and see my ride up the the chase group leaving me! Meyers decided to bridge and I knew I needed to be with him, so doing my only cyclecross of the season, I moved up along the large flat grassy shoulder and hopped onto his wheel along with another cat 3 ABD member. I just listened to whatever the Cat.1 had to say about pace making and pulling through and sure enough we caught the chase group a few miles down the road. Now the chase group was about 7, and with equal work done by everyone we caught the 5-6 that were dieing up the road by the end of the lap. Those guys were feeling it and some couldn't hang on and were dropped.

About 1 mile after the start of the 5th lap a White Bro, attacked out of our group and I went with along with another cat 3. After being assured that the other two ABD/GG in the break would not chase we all decided to work together and we were off! About another mile or so down we were greeted by the other White and a Cat 2 Turin fellow. So now a group of 5 gaining time on everyone with less than two laps to go!

The teamwork was pretty well distributed, as I didnt hear any swearing in any direction. I had some fun bluffing some cramps before the start of the final lap, which caused my fellow Cat 3 to put in an attack and cramp himself out a bit... On the final lap I put an attack in on one of the rollers which took out the large legged Turin rider leaving two Cat 1 White Brothers and two Cat3 noobz. It was pretty clear we were not getting caught as the main field was practically out of sight... so sprint setup ensued, a slight mixup of a rear derailure and a front tire took one white brother out of the sprint... I hesitated and the sprint started, the other White let up and I ran out of room to come around my opponent...finishing 2nd place...yep. I sleep with the medal...

so back to training, seeing that it is working! and watch out collegiate riders...(although I am currently a B racer, and they might not upgrade me until I get some results... which might be frustrating come February...)

so Cheers!

...228...Will you go to the fall fling with me?

2008-09-25T23:11:00.000-05:00

well some big news... Got a new bike...! Cannondale six13 full Dura-Ace. I'd like to thank my lovely parents and a shout out to Mike Osmond for having an affinity for nice bikes.

So last week involved my birthday, (great party, tunes, dancing, drinks...) new bike (adjusting stem height/seat height) so not that many hours on the bike.

This week however, back into full swing on the new ride. Had a good ride with teh Sills Clan and Druber on the Sunday Refinery ride (10am), a lucky canceled class which led to a long solo ride, puttin the hurt on the PCC Wed ride... cept for those pesky boys on the tandem. aaaannd I think right now I will do the ABR Fall Fling!

So... cat 1,2,3 RR up in Rockford area...

-Should have 2 teamates Sr. Sills, and Mr. T-Rex
-48 miles... my legs should be good enough to hang, and to have something left at the end
-the end is never my strong point

so the plan...
-wait till the last 150 meters
-IF we have some teams present... aka, ABD GG, or those Trek/Vitamin water guys... we could be looking for a free ride in the break... guess it depends on who shows, but it should be good weather, and I would like to race once before February...

Cheers!

...243....

2008-09-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

Well the 10 day recap looks something like this....
-just under 12 hours last week....with a hard day on friday...followed by league play of the BDL
and football game on Saturday...
- this week the count is at 9 hours with 2x20's on monday....my birthday is on saturday...and I suspect that there will be some boozin going down....and BDL play on friday evening.... so ....the training is going well, next week will be the hardest of the month, and then an easier week. I hope to do the fall fling RR at the end of the month... so we will see....a good movie if you havent seen it is "Overcoming" its about CSC...

"if you're not first your last"

Collegiate Nationals...253 days and counting....

2008-09-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

Yes folks that is the plan... The academic year is getting into gear, bringing with the distinct smell of xeroxed paper, "Illinois Loyalty" on the Quad Bells, the smell of Kam's/C.O's, and alas actual homework assignments...which I am promptly putting off to send this blog out into the dark and deep corners of teh internets that is the blogosphere.

First ReCap

-Downers Grooove, I actually felt good most of the race, had good position, 3 laps to go, moved up, 2 laps to go, 2nd place behind some fast kid who won glencoe the week before or something... coming into the last lap, about 10th..... lost more on the fast sweepers to follow... gained some on turn 7, WDT crashes in front of me in turn 8.... the race is already over... I finish for 26th.... Well for Downers I am calling staying upright and feeling good a positive result. Thats about it for that race....yeah, future thoughts on that.... Well I will be a 2 by then next year so win the 2's?......yes I am cocky.

-State Road Race Oak Brook Illinois! I do not think anyone could have had a bad time at this race. The course was great, we (the cat 3's) managed to keep hold of all of our 48 miles promised to us at registration, weather was not to bad, no traffic problems, plenty of room on the course to move up... yeah it was a good race too. This was actually the FIRST race that I can say resembled "real" road racing that I have done all year. We had attacks, break attempts, teams to bring them back, teams to attack/block, yeah it was FUN! I had my hand in a promising break with 5 other guys each members of the larger teams represented at the race... about 9 laps into the 18 or so laps we were doing, it seemed to be the move, but nobody wanted to work that hard and we stayed away for only a half of a lap.... After that I said no to chasing. I had mega Sills keeping the Trek/Vitamin Water guys in check and those guys showed an impressive train to pull a pink escape' back with 1 lap remaining. The sprint was long and I started too late, 6th place.... my story would have been better with it ending in an..."oh and I won".....,.....

-ON to more pressing and interesting matters, yeas I said it. collegiate Nats.... I have not even raced A's before... .mostly due to double wrist surgery's spanning over 16months of total broken wrist time.... This Year however, the wrist is on the upswing, I got my ole' Bianchi Back and I took her out for 135 miles of sun and fun this Labor Day weekend. Got myself some hella sweet tan lines and a good start on the long hard road that will be my training for the next 9 months.... The road season starts in February so really I have to be showing good form by March.... so 7 months....

Yeah.... I have to get started on teh classworkzaurs.... Later noobsauz

Frustration is Sh!t 4$$ F*&%

2008-08-11T12:54:00.001-05:00

Damn,

Damn,

more later....

So the Glencoe Gran Prix! It was actually a stellar race. Very well run, time chips for fast results, big crowds, very reasonable payouts.

My younger sister and I went up there in the morning so she could do the Jr 15-18 crit. She had a very impressive showing as she stayed with some fast Juniors (Hogan Sills for one) for the opening laps, before a corner decided to challenge Claire's Juniority and slowed her down. She held on strong solo and finished 1st out of the women!... After a quick interview with the local paper and some photos on the podium next to 1st place in the mens 15-18, Hogan Sills, (a fellow C-U Racer) she was a bit more interested in racing bicycles...woot.

So now about me.

The threes were a good bunch this day. Guys I raced superweek with last year, some this year, and some from Indiana, St. Louis, Wisconsin, Chicagoland and a fellow Champaigner Mr. Sills. It is great to have a good friendly group of guys who wont bomb corners or freak if you ride next to them through a turn or two... The race... started reasonable, many primes, I was in a break for 2 laps, with some unknown that pulled me much more than I him... Apparently 3 friendlies got off the front with about 25 seconds while I was near the rear... and we did not catch them... the sprint came out of a 120degree turn to a 325meter sprint to the line. I was about 6th going into the corner, people started the sprint, I had good position and started to come around the three guys directly in front of me, but alas I am just not that much of a sprinter... 10th overall... Looking to my last post, surprisingly I did a few things correctly... although the mid race break wasted too much of my energy...

This weekend is Downers Grove, national championship cat 3 criterium race.... The title means NOTHING in anything but the pro and cat 1 races... however it will still be a balls fast cat 3 race and I am leaning towards registering for this coming Sunday...

My thoughts are still on the state championship RR in two weeks, but I am going to play the conserve and attack game this sunday just for some good fun times!

work on
-higher cadence on the sprint.. (am starting in too big of a gear)
-fitness will just not be there to stay away solo for the race...(dont try it)
-eating more pasta

results to follow

Cheers

21 days later...

2008-08-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

It has been 17 days since Evanston, although surprisingly it seems much longer. Working on my feet for 35 hours a week moving boxes and office furniture, combined with some long nights at the Bread Company washing dishes, Canopy Club listening to Piano man, Murphys to play "Murphys Quarters" and celebrating my good friend Daniel Penners' birthday... A wedding and some MONSTER training on the bicycle, left me about ready to pass out as my Pops and I started our easy 2 hour ride this evening. I never really felt any better all ride although we did discover some nice riding a few miles north of Mahomet...

So... Good things that have happened these past few weeks....

-have money to race
-have trained my ass off and am feeling pretty strong
-pwned some noobs on the wednesday night ride... (I hope I wont need this sorry excuse for an ego boost more than once, but it felt good to put my head down and drop everyone...although my little sister was there so I guess there is zero glory in demolishing a 15yr old girl who is just getting into cycling...guess I was the dick that day)
-have not been hitting the bars to hard...except a handful of times....but still much less then earlier in the summer
-finally lost those 3 lbs that were hiding around my midsection...
-Have 2 races to look forward to...

BAD things.... well bad for the training.... prolly just the booze... the cheap vodka, cheap beer, cheap wine... expensive wine, cocktails, expensive beer, and the all to occasional shot of Gem Clear/Ever Clear....

Well This weekend will be the Criterium at GlenCo.... With the improvement in the fitness, the current game plane looks something like....
-actually warm-up! at least 20 min.
-conserve the energy while people chase everyone that puts more than a bikes length between themselves and the pack
-Try a move with 12-15 ish laps to go, when/if caught, recover
-stay top 8 like there was Platoon SGT Gunnery SGT Parker screaming in my face
-Sprint to win...(top 5 is the goal)

This will be a good gauge as the State RR is two weeks later, AUG 23... and If I didnt have thoughts on placing on the podium I would be a puss.

Will let yall know how it turns out, now its time for some good ole American Flyers.

BoomHitStick

2008-07-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

Super Week kha ka ka kaak ak aaka Well Waulkeesha wakashua walkashaw, was fun... I knew it was a very technical course and with 3 laps to go it bit me. Went down by myself on corner four... although a spoke was loose after examining the front wheel and that could have been the reason why my front wheel to slide out from under me and then supermanning onto the pavement... The race was really really fast, and I dont think I stuck my nose into the wind once the entire race... although without the crash I can safely say I would have finished... unlike the 30 other panzy's that couldnt hack it and dropped out of the race...

Without any sarcasm or remorse I suppose I will dive right into the Evanston Cat 3 Crit! Although I will say that a good weekend of racing and driving will do the body good, and the mind... especially when listening to "Wisconsin's Self Help and Mental Wellness Improvement Radio Station" Dan and I learned how to really understand what our inner body was telling us, how to listen to what it is saying and how to communicate back with our subconscious mind through invigorating, self-helping, learning, feeling, touching, sort of ways.... let me tell you that that was the best 35 min of my life... during those exact 35 min of my life....

Alright so after psycho hose beast on the radio and 359 detours and running 5,000 tri-athletes with arrow bars higher than their seat posts, reflectors, cassette guards, and rear view mirrors, off of Sheridan Dr. We finally made it to the Evanston Crierium! While not the highest payout as far as cat 3 crits goes, it is one of the fastest, most well attended races both by racers and fans. I love the course and when 20,000 (no exaggeration needed) Evanstonians are pounding on the guard rails and posters as you fly by.... not much else can beat it....

The race. went from 40 to 30 laps without a single second.... we started with 30 laps to go. weak. well it was fast, and then with 12 to go.... a crash, the race stopped and then started again.... with some family and friends watching I had to make some show of it and with 9 to go I flew off the front to a group of two guys who the pack had deemed artards and had refused to chase.... for about 15 seconds.... I put time on the pack and just about caught the break...when we got caught .... less than a lap later... but hey they got to yell "GO JOE" as I was off the front.... well worth it, and I fulfilled a goal, to get off the front, now I must stay there. So there was a crash on the final turn which slowed me a bit, and a rather large crash 12 meters from the finish.... which helped me a bit.... granting me 19th out of the 85 starters and putting me in the money....woot.... it was very unfortunate for our friend Alex as he crashed and is going for the overall for superweek. I still think he can do it.

It turns out that with training less than half of over half the guys there you can still beat 3/4 the guys there, with ATTITUDE. Hell Yes. and some sweet cornering abillities. I have found that that that that that is one of my strengths... at least in the 3's, I am working on the "can do" spirit that will give me a win sooner rather than later I hope. I also need to stop with the pain face that I seem to make even when I am not in pain.... I really dont think everyone in the race and in the crowd care how my legs feel....

With Elk Grove, Downers Grove and such coming up I feel like the Indiana State Criterium Championships is the race for me... The smooth circular course with the slight up and down each lap I feel will really do wonders for my finishing position.... and the lack of riders... but I will plan on doing the 3's and the 1.2.3's so that will be fun fer sure!

until then some balls hard training and some heavy drinking must ensue.... they might even out and I can go into the race in 35 days about where I am right now...

p.s. I saw a jittery joes guy in the pro race....PEEEEING while going through turn five! at 30mph, with one hand on the handles and one hand directing the stream right to the outside of the turn... and most likely into the crowd.... WOW he must of had to go...

Maybe stronger, but more discouraged

2008-07-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

Well, this post will hopefully not have as many typos in it and I will try not to come across as a third grader writing about his family vacation for this hella awesome post. Well lets see, Blue Island and the start of Super week... Okay, so there was an 80% chance of thunderstorms for Saturday (Blue Island) so I was not planning on even going up to race. Friday night started at 4 with some "Rush Hour" and kept going till One World Pizza and 4:30am come around... so naturally I wake up at 7:30am and dont feel too bad. Took a nap and by 11:00 I decided I could do the race. Drove up had an hour before the race which was fine, got to the line along with 75 other Cat 3's all excited for the start of Super Week on the worst paved crit of the season.

On the line I saw a lot of friendly and familiar faces of the guys I raced with during Super Week last year. The start was fine and people were throwing themselves off the front as if there were primes every lap. The finishing straight was into the wind and hence most attacks went there. It also helped that the Mexicans brought all of their futbol noisemakers and made the finish line a pretty energized stretch of the course. I was playing my game of using as little energy as possible and cornering like a beast just having fun in the pack. I saw two guys get some space on a counter and so I jumped about on lap 10 of the 40 we were doing. I had some space and then 3289437532 guys jumped on my game and I immediately let up and let the swarm catch them on the next straight. Coming around the next lap I was looking for my fellow Champaign buddy Alex Voitik and I realized the little break that looked like all the rest had him in it... and they broke away... gained time... and we never saw them again. (he ended up soloing off the break to win...btdub) So I was bummed again, almost got taken out in turn three, bent a front spoke on someones rear derailleur and sent my wheel slightly out of alignment rubbing my front break. (which I didnt realize until stopping after the race) So the sprint was crazy, had great position 7 laps 6,5,4,3, 2, and they offered a prime with 2 laps to go.... and got shuffled back and didnt make it up in time.... the sadness...

So another sob story, solution? For me to win a race I really need to get into a break, a well organized break, with people who want to win....not too much to ask really I just need to make it happen.

Tonight is the Wednesday night ride, we might have 5 guys... so thats exciting. I hope to use this as a moral booster as I know I can put the hurt on the guys down here with the 900watts I can put out for just about an hour or so..... yeah.....no. but it will be fun.

Next up, Wakeesha...Wakashaw....WalKeeSha.... and Evanston. This weekend. No pregamming the race. No crashing. No loosing. Yes winning. Yes fast. Yes bring weapons. We will see how it goes.

on another note, the best t.w.s.s. was said today at work.... "do you think this will fit?.... no its too big.... oh! no I got it in, never mind..." (the office girl Amanda talking about moving a file cabinet down a ramp...

s'Ploshins....

2008-07-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

So, 4th of July weekend. Good friends, good food, lake house and beer. Overall an awesome weekend, and hell, I even got a race in...

The University of White Water Road Race... well in Palmyra, WI the Jr. Race started off at 8:35, and my 15 yr old sisters first race! She got about 15meters off the line and her chain fell off.... She took a wrong turn... chain fell off again... another wrong turn... tears and a DNF... It was tough for her to not finish something she started, but she is motivated to beat "the girl in the Pink Helmet" next race...and I think she has a chance.

The Pro1/2 started at 4:00(ish) for 73 miles and the Cat 3 started 5min behind them for 54 miles...With 12 pro1/2 riders and 20 cat 3 I was not expecting anything like what happened. The course was a 5.5 mile loop, basically half going uphill and half going down. The 3's caught the pro1/2's about 1/2 of the way through the first lap.... aaannnnd yeah we kept truckin, with about 3 guys on different teams just pulling us around the course. Then we would see the pro field spring around us as someone threw off an attack, and we would sit up, then someone would attack again and we would pass them... this happened for the first 3 of our laps... and the guys trying to sprint away started getting cramps and dropped, with 6 laps to go... SO the pro's finally passed us again and we were finally racing alone. As was nursing a slight calf cramp a group of 3 guys got off the front going up the hill... and we never caught them again... that was very upsetting but as my legs kept cramping in places I have never felt cramp before I dont think I could have held on to them. I ended up coasting in, toes pointing down as my calfs were so cramped I couldnt help it, but the last of the finishing 9....

I am glad I finished and I had a great cheering section as my family and friends came up to the race for the afternoon! I successfully received a feed and muscled through more pain than I have yet this year! So Ill chalk it up as a good workout and learning experience. (when the break is close... go for it!!!) Again super week dawns and my feelings are those of curiosity and excitement after this UWWRR. Time for some Chinese/Mexicana.

17 monts and some odd days later....

2008-06-29T23:54:00.000-05:00

SO... Colorado is hella sweet. Hangin out with 7 other ski and snowboard bums raging it up every night and checkin out some sweet mountains could not have been more fun. Did get some mountain biking in but its hard to justify 9 days of drinking and sitting in a van with an hour and a half single track ride in hiking shorts... No special IPA's were found which was disappointing, I was hoping for tons of local micro brews, but apparently all the mountain hippies drink is Pabts... which is what I bleed so I couldnt complain... although 3.50 for a glass is a bit...

Well the Pins are finally out of the wrist! Just a few stitches and bandages left and 3 more days until I can take them out and I will be as good as new... ish. I am already trying to get some motion back, but after having an immobile wrist for this long a small motorcycle revving motion is an accomplishment for my right wrist.

I have been off the bike for the longest time since may, which sucks, missing Proctor sucks, and getting out of shape and running low on funds as super week approaches sucks too... but again, being 3 pins lighter and no cast must have its advantages on the bike... I will go for a ride tomorrow and hopefully the rest of this week, long and hard, and then try and get some sprinting back in before the champaign boys head up for the stupor week.

Peace

Lets do this

2008-06-15T21:56:00.000-05:00

Well "lets do this". In furthering my attempts to keep my personal spirits and motivation high as the summer weather begins to set in, I am starting a blog. I have thought of blogging for some time and have always been impressed with the witty blogging of one TSK and one Dr. K which I will do my best to blog up to that caliber...(so far off to a shitty start)

This first blog is unfortunately after no motivating weekend ride, nor race but in fact during one of the worst hangovers of my life to date. The hangover is due mainly to large quantities of busch light (cold as a mountain stream smooth as its name BUSCH) and amplified by helping to remodel our kitchen. Sledging out ceramic floor tile in my family's unairconditioned kitchen...(worst job to do on a hangover, ever.) I guess this intro post will hopefully be followed by a post race wrap-up of the Proctor Crit June 29th. I have been puttin the hammer down on this whole training thing lately. The pins in my wrist have been pretty de-motivating for the past 17 months but they will be coming out the 27th. Hopefully recovery is quick from that... Back to the training, as I am starting to realize to reach my goals of winning races.... I need to be faster... especially at the end of the race... My endurance seems to be fine as I have yet to cramp up in a race, ever. It seems like I need to get this sprinting thing down. The past two races ABR National Crit Championships and Tour de Winghaven both required similar tactics, save energy for the first 2/3's of the race, in the last lap slide up to the top 5 (which has been rather easy to do) then burn for about 1mile or a bit less, and then sprint... with shitty sprinting it seems that 16th is about as best as one can do, as that was my result in both races...So sprinting intervals have been the priority this past week along with some newly purchased Whey protein... Unfortunately I will be in Colorado next week...without a bike... but I will say that the hiking in the high altitude will help some aerobic/anerobic stamina, or something, and the microbrews will help the soul.

Next time look forward to best/worst IPA in the Denver area, how it feels to bend your right wrist after 17 months of imobility, and the excitement and drama that is the Proctor State Crti Championship.