Karma

Post wrecking out of the 3/4 at the Reston GP. my buddy from r1v started to make fun of me. Later after calling him to find out his results from the 4 race, he explained his visit with karma.
I have that pic blown up on my background. And each time i lock my computer to get up and go walk around the office (which happens to be a lot), i laugh out loud. without fail, every single time. i wonder how long that will last.

pic thanks to Jim Wilson

P.S. that guy in the red forced him into the curb. not surprising in a race like that though.

Reston Gp (3/4)

In short. i suffered through my first 3 race. was in the top 10 with 2 to go. had all 3 teammates around including Larry to lead me out and i wrecked.

Possibilities of why-
1.Tubular rolled of the rim when booking around that hard corner.
2.caught the edge of the rim
3.clipped the pedal on the pavement? dont think so.
4. out of ideas.

I'm pretty sure my front tubular rolled of the rim. I was assured that the tires and what not were in great working condition.

my teammate Larry salvaged 4th.

In the 4 race (which i wasn't present for) i got an introduction. wtf? called a sprinting phenom by the race announcer? (i will say this though, it makes my cuts hurt a little less)
pic thanks to Jim Wilson

Poolesville = FUN (field sprint for 6th)

That race was fun.

Wednesday i came down with a sinus infection...and a little bit a digestive problem. so i thought my chances at winning were shot so i figured aim top 10.

each lap was somewhere around 10 miles.

lap 1
slow boring. moved up. (lost 1 of 2 water bottles on the gravel section)

lap 2.
slow. got stuck on the front at the beginning. gunned it through the gravel section. 2 attacks went near the end. followed by me trying to bridge up.

lap 3
still trying to bridge but 1.wasn't able to shake the field and 2. wasn't able to make it all the way up to the chase.

i ended up bridging a guy to the chase (F!) then i red lined and sat in for a bit and then threw down a bigger attack. the chase group had a good lead on the field and i lost sight of the field, but the closest i got was about 20-30 yards off. that last little bit i couldn't close down despite later hearing from Martin that they were "waiting for me"...makes me feel a little worse. then later it was almost all brought back together but another team bridged two of their guys up plus 2 more guys instead and then turned their team's gear into neutral. so that means the 3 biggest teams in the field have guys up in the break and i'm left solo.

lap 4
tried in vain to chase more and more. rest. chase.rest.chase. but i heard 1:30 and gave up. not to mention still a lot of blocking going on. good for them...bad for me.

the end of lap 4 was a bit faster. hit the last corner with around 300m to go. with 200m to go a couple guys let out their sprint...i just sat on their wheel for a second and then let it rip. I let off a tad but a NCVC guy came running up the side so i had to pump it a bit further and i threw the bike for good measure.

so i got the field sprint for 6th. after being disappointed about not making the break i realized later i'd made my goal...still hacking nastiness up (and not from the race.)

Tomorrow is Reston GP with the 3/4 and 4 fields.

Oh and i was right Martin won.

Sunny Day is back!

That's right. Sunny Day Real Estate has reunited for another tour with all original members. The only that could have been better would be Fugazi getting back together.

Two dates i'm considering is:
9/27 in NYC (Dan, if you go, i will meet you there)
9/30 @ 930 Club (the date seems intentional)

**just got a text from Dan, its official i'm going to NYC 9/27 to see Sunny Day Real Estate

Saturday = Fun

This weekend is another triple race weekend for me and is looking to be one of my last weekends racing.

i have a few more races lined up, but i'm 3 points off my upgrade to 3, which i don't plan on sandbagging the 4's, i'd rather line up and probably get my ass kicked which would be the remainder of the season.

So for Saturday its the Poolsville Road Race, which apparently is a big deal since it features a mile of gravel road. I really love gravel roads. Most of my routes features a gravel section or the possibility to add one, in which most cases i take it.

I guess the only difference for this race will be a higher crash/flat probability, though despite hammering away on lots of gravel roads, nailing large potholes, and weird ripple sections i've avoided flats (due to gravel roads) and wrecks (but i have come close). I hope this weekend isn't a first for either of those.

I also heard that unlike the Fawn Grove Roubaix, the "gravel road" will be mostly compact dirt versus a pool of small rocks to sink into like sand which was the case at Fawn Grove. sick!

ToWC

Lets keep this quick-

Stage 1 RR (with hills...)
Felt like crap (didn't ride due to inoperable bike previous two days). Sat in the pack...was in the middle and looked behind and i was on the back because the "back" had been dropped after the first lap. 3rd lap my chain wrapped around the rear D. Dude in the mechanic van had me back on the bike like Mechov at the Giro. amazingly quick. eventually caught the group, but exhausted. got dropped. caught back on. next lap, got dropped. i figured this would be the trend the rest of the race, but unfortunately i wasn't able to catch on a 3rd time. The top 10 hammered it out. My legs finally came around (despite cramping), and i caught about 10-15 people on the last lap and limited my losses by 2:59. Too bad i went into the RR so terribly

State 2 ITT
With the legs opened up and feeling better, i was a bit confident. Had a nice warm up, got on the course and did my thing. i remembered why i liked TT's as a junior. Threw up in my mouth a couple times, and then once all over myself in the last 2 miles. avg around 307 for watts. time was 29:23 for 12 miles. First time riding in the TT position in 7-8 years. I'm looking forward to next year and doing more ITT's. 29:23 was good enough for 13th moving me up into 17th overall.

State 3 Crit
Felt tired. Sat in and suffered. handlebars ended up pointing at the ground after hitting a couple potholes on laps 3 and 5(?)...it was early in the race. Ref said no for the free lap. moved up with 2 to go. and again with 1 to go. Unfortunately for me and Peter Warner, he wrecked in the last corner. For me it caused a gap to open up costing me the win for the crit...i had to settle for 4th. the front 4th got a head start on the sprint and i only caught the 4th one. i hit 1300 watts in that sprint which is pretty avg for sprints now-a-days. Mind you, with jacked up handlebars to boot.

So with the previous goal of 15th overall. i JUST missed it ending 17th overall all thanks to bad legs/mechanicals on the first stage. next year...

New Bike

While preparing for ToWC's TT last night i finally accepted that i bought a bike way too big. I've been pondering it for quite some time. Its amazing what a few cm's in the wrong direction does.

this is the new bike...mind you i only purchased the frame/fork so everything else i'm swapping over from my other bike and i'll be selling my frame/fork.
My teammate John sold it to me. Hopefully i can get it built before saturday...got to find the time.

My first "Vee"!

i'm still proud.

http://www.vimeo.com/4233274

the end is all that really counts...

thats my wife in the corner with the white jacket jumping up and down...

What NOT winning looks like...

The grand look of confusion "I WON! wait...what?"

no i didn't get passed at the line. no chance for that to happen. But i didn't get the "win" due to a restart. i guess its only fair and considering the circumstances it didn't really matter.

at least i found this picture and still got 4th the second time around.

pciture thanks to Amy Jones

Smart Start or Total

i just had an awesome start to my day...

1. I woke up at 6 to go ride, felt like crap-tired from going to bed late every night and getting up at 6 every morning to go ride. Its the kind of tired where you fall asleep putting your socks on or for whatever reason you lay down on the living room floor after having put your helmet on and accidentally fall asleep for 10 mins. (i didnt do that this morning but still.)
   
2. Kind of rainy out despite no actual precipitation (probably more of a positive thing, but wetness is still wet).
3. Ride the 7 miles to work only to get a flat within the last mile (better the last mile than the 1st i suppose).
   
4. After dropping off my stuff at work and changing the flat, I ride over to the road where i do my sprints. 1st sprint my chain slips and i slam my knee into my handlebars.
   
5. felt like crap each and every sprint.

i got my whole workout in which is good.

It always seems to rain on Tuesday and i usually work at the shop tuesday nights so i get to ride in the rain to my real job 7 miles, then ride to the bike shop in the rain 2 miles away, and than at 9:00 at night ride home in the rain another 7 miles.

I like riding in the rain, but having to get geared up 2 extra times in dirty, wet clothes just to ride such a short distance sucks.

Now for breakfast i can't decide. Smart Start or Total.

Ride Sally Ride (CAT 4)

Our race was called early, about halfway through... they called last lap. i won the sprint and thought we were going home after 10 miles of racing, but no. they called us back to the line.

great.

They posted 10 laps to go. Josh Flexman on the last lap made the move on the inside. i had to solo sprint from the last corner to MAYBE catch the 2 trying to contend with Josh. We also passed the guy on the breakaway attempt from earlier. I was 4th.

They gave me the prime for the initial "win". I also got points for 1st...so that's really what i wanted.

Still kind of disappointing, but 4th isn't bad and a prime and points for 1st.

**note-i'm now hearing that we get BOTH results. for i get results for 1st and 4th. sick.

Man, i love Chipotle

Did the Bryan Park Circuit race yesterday. It was my first CAT 4 race...not any different than any CAT 5 race i've been in. Not sure what to make of that.

They had prime's (free burrito @ Chipotle) every other lap for the middle part of the race. I went for the first one. got it. made a couple jokes with the guy i beat for it. To be honest it was a fairly boring race but fast enough (for me) that i wouldn't be able to get away and stay away, besides the fact i can fair pretty well in any sprint, so any 'fun' that could be had was well received.

6 laps to go i started sliding out in the turns. rear tire was flat. i panicked, yelled for my wife to grab my other wheels (not in the pit, but in the car...my costly mistake). too late though. pack made it around just before she got back. i said forget it...i got my free burrito, no reason to chase for 5 laps and finish dead last. I should have continued on the half flat tire another lap, my wife would have been back, i could have changed it out and been rolling again.

Dan Baur grabbed 7th, just in the points. thats awesome.