Salida Omnium Race Report: Day 3, Criterium

Beth Fisk wins the criterium and steals the overall victory in the omnium! (photo not actually Beth, but Christian McCarthy who also won the men's race, however the pose was the same at the finish).

With the points scoring for this omnium there was only way for Beth to win the omnium today, she had to win the crit and hope Kristen Danielson finished 3rd or worse. So we worked to make the race aggressive and fast from the start which set Beth up to take off in a very ideal breakaway. She handily took the sprint from the group and I got the arm-chair ride of sitting in the field all day just marking riders to help make sure the break stayed away. I ended up 5th today getting outsprinted by a speedy SyRae who leaped over me in the overall yesterday. So I ended up 5th as well for the weekend.

So it was an awesome weekend for the team with Beth winning the big money crit as well as the omnium. Not to be out done by the girls, the boys also won the crit and their omnium too.

Salida Omnium Race Report: Day 2, Road Race

I had a pretty good ride today, but unfortunately it was on this rocking horse and not on my bicycle. I finished 6th after getting dropped, catching up, getting dropped again, falling behind, and then falling way behind. Beth did much better by catching up, then dropping everyone else. She finished 4th.
Mike's ride wasn't any better than mine today.
This kid had a sweet ride though and so did SyRae, she finished 3rd.

I was pretty tired when I was done so I made sure to get my recovery drink so I can be wicked fast for the crit tomorrow.
Note: it's not an especially good idea to go spin around the merry-go-round at warp speed after imbibing fermented recovery beverages.

Salida Omnium Day 1 Race Report: TT
Beth rode so hard in the TT tonight that she had to hook herself up to the zapper for a little added recovery. Beth did a fantastic ride to finish 2nd, just 1 sec behind 1st. I was 4th.

Landis: I'll be stepping off that bandwagon now.

"The Phonak Cycling Team confirmed Thursday that Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is the rider who submitted a positive "A" sample following the 17th stage of this year's Tour de France." click here to read more.


If that wasn't enough for Floyd to get caught, but they also got Hasselhoff, click here to read more.

Ohhh, I don't want to get old.

A black cloud looms over the velodrome... and my whole day.

How could today be so bad when yesterday was so good? Yesterday I was in such a good mood, I got my track bike built up finally, I got some bike parts I had been waiting for since Feb, and then some guy at the bike shop was like "hey good job at Fitchburg". A) I didn't know he even knew who I was and 2) why would he care, that was like a month ago. Still it was nice and just goes to feeding my big fat ego.

Then today it all went wrong. I got rained out in about 2 laps in my morning workout on the track. Then I got rained out again for track racing in the evening. It wouldn't be so bad if Nationals weren't in 2 weeks and I had actually been on the track for more than 10 laps this whole season. So I had to scramble at 5 o'clock to get my road bike back together for a rain ride this evening and I had a bit of a mishap trying to get my seized bottom bracket out.

Friends don't let friends let me work on my bike with a hammer. It all just put me in a foul mood. To top it off, I found out later track racing wasn't actually cancelled. It stopped raining just in time. DANG! That's worse than if it had been rained out!

Post tour hangover.
I feel lost this morning with nothing to do but work. What am I supposed to do with all my free time now?

The tour is kind of like a summer fling. You go hot and heavy for a couple of weeks, spend all your waking moments together, and completely ignore all your friends and family so you can spend more time with him. You clearly see isn't going to last forever, then one day you wake up and it's over. You're kind of bummed for a couple of days, a little bored and sad, but you move on... The Vuelta starts in just 4 weeks anyway.

Go this way!
I spent the morning marshalling at 10,000 feet as the riders made their way to the top of Mount Evans, which happens to be the highest paved road in the US at 14,000 feet. Marshalling, while not the most enviable task, is a hell of a lot better than having to ride up it myself.

Here Beth is taking a picture of me while taking a picture of her. She chose the leisurely route on the way up, but honorably took one for the team by being the only one to race it.
Although she took her time I believe she beat this guy whose bike was missing something.

Go see it, but wear a diaper because it's so funny you might pee your pants. Definitely the funniest thing I've seen all year.

Dear Floyd,
I wasn't on the bandwagon before. I am now.

BOOM!

Did you hear that? I think there was some kind of explosion in France today.

That was painful to watch and the type of day you wouldn't wish on anyone.

Home Again.

-31 days on the road
-over 100 hours in the car (ipod broke on hour 50, booh!)
- 0 speeding tickets, but one major accident (sorry Kate)
- raced 14 of the last 23 days in 6 different states
- 0 crashes (yeah!)
- 0 mechanicals (thanks Jose')
- 0 successful breaks (but many, many, many tries)
- 0 wins but 5 top 10's
- over $900 in prize $$
- got to see friends and family all over the country

I guess I'd have to call that a successful trip.

Things I saw today...
Chicago, the view from the apartment I stayed in last night. p.s. thanks team Hub
Illinois
Iowa

Nebraska

Ok, it all looks the same, you're right. But it's a heck of a lot better than Kansas and Missouri. Today I finally reached the limit, I am so over driving all over the country now. I had a little melt down in the food court of a mall in the middle of Iowa today as I actually thought about who I could call to come get me because I couldn't drive any further. I collected myself and kept on. I'm almost home, almost...

Superweek Race Report: Day 7, Bensenville finale

Superweek over = Peak over. I actually think my peak ended after Thursday night because that was my last race where I felt super-dooper. I felt ok today in the race on Sunday, not super, not bad, but a hell of a lot better than Waukesha. In the end Superweek finished just like every year at Bensenville, jacked up by a crash. No, I didn't go down, but I did have to lock 'em up on the last lap as there was a random crash on the back side. Oh well, that's why we keep going back year after year, to chase the glory we never had.

Superweek ended as it always should, with cheap swill beer in hand whilst watching the men's race. Extra bonus is that after racing in near 100 degree weather, cheap beer will make you a cheap drunk. Yah, I didn't leave Chicago last night...
The men's race was fun to watch as there were plenty of crashes in the last corner, lap after lap after lap. They revised the course and suspended all primes because the finish was too "dangerous". Dan Shmatz shows just how far you can lean the bike over before you crash in the finale. The boys took this corner a wee bit faster than we did.

Superweek Race Report: Day 6, Waukesha

Superweek finally arrived. It's just not Superweek if you're not doing a crit in the blazing heat. I heard it was hot in Colorado today, but with 98 degrees (no not the band, the temperature) and humidity about 85% it was ridiculously hot today.
It was so hot I tried pre cooling my jersey by jamming it in the cooler and stuffed it with ice. It's so cold when you put it on it takes your breath away. Unfortunately today it only cooled me off for about 5 minutes, and all the ice I jammed in my pockets kept me cooler for about 5 more. The ice I jammed in my sports bra even less. At one point I went to spritz myself with a little water. It was like pouring hot molten lava on my body as I think the water in my bottles had reached boiling point by half way in the race.
Another trick to cool off during the race is to just take a little break mid-way. If you don't have a legitimate mechanical to take a free lap then create one. psssssssssss.

Whatever you do when it's hot out, don't make your jeans in to cut offs, especially if you're a guy and you go past mid-thigh.

In the end I battled tirelessly all day with Becky Broeder for the tail-gunner of the day award. I'm happy to report I've retained my title.

Superweek Race Report: Day ???? I have no idea what day it is, but we raced at Brewer's Hill which is in the most ghettotastic part of Milwaukee.

Today could have been a nasty race report because it rained pretty steady for the 2 hours leading up to the race, and today's course with a couple of fast down hill turns, and a little bit of brick in the corners would have been no fun. Watching the cat 4 race in the rain was like a carnage carnival, there were guys bleeding and dirty from sliding out and at least one guy who clearly broke his collarbone. So walking the course before the race I really doubted I would finish if it were raining, I should have just skipped today like coach said.

So I pulled out the lucky no rain black socks. I guarantee if I had been wearing white socks today it would have rained. By the time we started the roads were just damp and by the end of the race the sun was peaking out and it was like racing in a Wisconsin oven.

There's not much else to report on for the race. That's the way it goes, you have a sparky like race followed by an unsparky like race. I tail gunned most of the day which meant closing about a million gaps around the girls who kept on popping off the back. I think we dropped about a third of the field today. It wasn't that hard, I just think some people are getting tired. I finished 23rd.

I did get to go out to lunch in downtown Milwaukee with one of my clients I coach out here in Wisco. He's pretty fun to hang out with even though he is a mountain biker.

Superweek Day 4 Race Report: Shorewood Criterium

Bear with me because this may be an overly-detailed, long-and-boring, no-one-cares-but-your-mom race report.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda....
Today was a good race. I was fairly smart, fairly attentive, and the closest I've been to the winning break at the Superweek, but still so far from actually making it there. I think I actually finished last or very close to it, but here's why. So I hang out in the pack most of the day except for my customary hot lap at the start. So on 8 to go, I go for a prime, but go way too hard for it and create a big gap for me and one of the Kiwi riders. So we go and stay away for a couple of laps, then a group bridges up on the next points sprint lap. Katie Mactier takes the sprint and keeps on going, so I go with her. Then it's just me and her with 5 to go. You know if you are going to be in a break, then being in a break with the former World Champ in the pursuit is a pretty good thing. It was a nice move, it just wasn't quite enough. We got caught with just over a lap to go. The difference though between me and Katie is she still got up there for 2nd place. I blew right out the back of the pack once we were caught. It could have had something to do with being off the front for 7 of the last 8 laps...

The consolation to the finish is that I took 4 primes for $175. I wouldn't have made that much even if I had won the race. So I still gotta be happy with that.

Superweek Race Report: Day 3, Whitnall Park Circuit Race

Today's Highlights:
- Getting to see Superfast Brad Huff Secretariat who came out for his first Superweek race today. He got in the break and did real good. He didn't win, but I think he got all the primes.
- Racing fairly smart for a spaztastic rider like myself. Only bridged up to one well represented break and didn't spend the day chasing everything that moved, and NO attacks on the first lap!
- Getting to race in the botanical gardens.
...so botanical

Lowlights:
- Finishing 23rd. I raced real good right up until the last 300 m approcahing the last corner in to the long uphill finish. It got real narrow and I got real pushed back, way back. I went from 6th or 7th to like 30th in the approach to that corner. Funny, didn't the same exact thing happen last week in the circuit at Fitchburg, you'd think I'd learn...

I think I'm just too small. At one point in the race I had to tap a girl on the hip who was coming in on me. She turns to me and with total seriousness says "If you expect me to see you back there, you're going to need to grow a little bit taller."

Medical supplies.

Superweek Race Report: Day 2, no race to report.

So I took the day off from racing today. I had planned to skip one or two of the races this week, so it seemed like a good idea to skip today as it rained most of the day anyway. Instead I went to the beach, well not really the beach, this is Lake Michigan and I'm staying about a block away from it. It's no Santa Barbara.

Superweek Race Report: Day 1, Alpine Valley Road Race

So this is a Wisconsin version of a mountain....Today's race was out at Alpine Valley, the hilly area near Milwaukee, and it was hilly, but not that bad. You can suffer up anything for 2 minutes or less. Today was a road race and it went like every other race I've ever done at Superweek. There were a lot of attacks that went no where (including my own), there was at least one random crash, the pack all stayed together in the end, and I finished right around 15th (16th to be exact). That's pretty much the pattern for every race. If I have a great day I'm in the top 10, if I have a lousy day I finish 21st (one out of the money).

It's only day one of Superweek but I'm already hitting the frozen custard. It's a slippery slope to beer and brauts next.

In hopes of getting wicked fast for Superweek I've increased my consumption of tea this weekend.

DNF.
No excuses, it was just way too hard. I don't have any remorse about the decision, and I certainly wasn't alone because I think only about half the field finished. With Superweek starting on Monday, I decided not to make a bad day worse. As I thougth, the course did totally decimate the field. The biggest pack was only 6 or 7 girls, most everyone else came in groups of onesie twosies... a long lonely day for a lot of people.

p.s. This is what it looks like as you launch the sprint about 300m before winning Nationals. Oh yeah, Mara Abbott kicks ass and pulled off an unbelievable ride today to finish in the lead group of 5 in the Elite race to get her second (U-23) title of the week.

So I'll go ahead and tell you I'm straight out scared of the race tomorrow. After seeing the course, I know this is going to be the hardest race I've ever done. Couple this crazy hard course with a very stacked field, all super-motivated to win, and that spells about 81 miles of hell. I predict a race of attrition tomorrow and the winner will certainly be the strongest and totally deserving of a national title.
I'm out in Seven Springs, PA getting ready to race the elite National Championships Road Race tomorrow. Here's part of the course, which fortunately we go down this hill, the bad part is we have to climb back up that much and more on the other side of the course.

In other news, this number thing is getting out of hand... it's palindro-crazy!

It's nice to be home again to visit. It's funny how some things change and some things stay the same. Like my sister Donna still organizes her clothes by throwing them all over the floor of her closet, but at least now I don't mind getting her hand-me-downs because she has way better taste in clothes than me.
I'm just glad after all this time I finally grew in to that belly.

So the other great thing about coming home to do Fitchburg is LOBSTAH!

Lobster dinner is a 4th of July tradition for our family, actually it's kind of a Christmas, New Year's, birthday, well anytime I come home tradition. There's not a lot of lobster is Colorado, so any time I'm home mom gets me lobster for dinner at least once. Now all I need before I go back to CO is some CHOWDAH.

Coast to Coast, Portsmouth, NH
So it's official. I have driven coast to coast this year, while not all at the same time, that's still a lot of driving. I kind of feel like Forest Gump. "I just felt like dri-vingh."

Porstmouth is one of my favorite places in New Hampshire. In college I spent many a late evening hanging out on this dock waiting for the buzz to wear off before heading home from the pub.
Donna and I had sister day walking about, shopping, doing all sorts of girly stuff. I barely felt like a bike racer today.

Fitchburg Stage Race Criterium Race Report:

So you'd think I'd be a little happier about getting an official call up to the start line today. I guess this is what folks call my game face. No wonder people think I'm scary.

Before the race Lisa Matlock gives me some instructions on how to "get big" in the pack so I can better maintain position.

Here I am tailgunning on the back side of the course. Man, today was tough, or maybe I was just tired from racing yesterday. I had all these plans to ride aggressively but mostly I just stayed in the back out of trouble, mostly.

I did however do a typical ill-advised attack with 5 to go. Here I am bridging up to then counter attacking Meredith Miller. I realized it was a bad idea to go it alone about 300m past this point. My attack didn't last long, but in the end it was fine because I finished in the pack. So not only did I maintain my place, but I actually moved up 2 spots to 8th on GC. Unfortunately for some there was a lot of confusion on the last 2 laps as Sarah Superman Ulmer was lapping the field on our 2 to go, she was on 1 to go. So half the field sprinted on the next lap. What happened was she sat up right as she caught us, so we still had two to go. So in all the confusion and several people sprinted a lap early. That wasn't as bad as the guy in the Cat 2 race who actually raised his arms at the finish line on his bell lap (oops!).

So I had a very good race this weekend. The hard work paid off. All those times up Lookout and Gold Camp. All those dang VO2 intervals. All that beer I didn't drink in May and June. It all paid off with a nice top ten at a legit national race. Now that phase one is complete I've still got 2 more weeks of solid racing to tackle. Let's hope this form holds a little longer.
Pictures today courtesy of my sister Donna who refuses to sign a release for photos to be published on the blog, so here's one of her feet. After coming to the race today she decided she would also like to become an athlete because we all have such nice butts. When I told her that being an athlete might invovle exercise she declined.