Tanked it...

So this weekend was a bust for me. I crashed last weekend in Lagrange, and it really told on me this weekend. I did decent in the team time trial, finding out this morning that my time was originally messed up, and instead of sixth place(last) and a 34 minute ttt we got fourth place and had a 32 minute ttt. That sounded much more in line with what my power file showed, and made the rest of the weekend of getting dropped much better. I got dropped after 3 laps in the crit, and got dropped early in the 2 mile climb on the first lap of the road race.

On another note, the rest of my team did pretty well, with my newest teammate Gary Papka doing extremely well once again getting 2nd overall in the 4/5 category, and getting some nice top 10 finishes with a definite win in the ttt. Star did well in the crit, and Andy did well in the crit and road race (go figure the climbing guy does well in climbing races, lol). It was a good weekend for the team, and I'm glad we all did well, had a good time, and got away with minor injuries (get better Eddie!)!

The Damage...

So yesterday I took a trip to the bike shop to pull my bike apart a bit and figure out what all was damaged in my solo adventure to the pavement. So far the only things needing to be replaced were my rear derailleur cable, rear shifter hood, and bar tape. I haven't had my wheel trued yet, but Joe at the shop is going to try today I think, so we'll see there. Physically speaking, I'm still pretty sore, but have healed up remarkably well so far. I'm taking two more days off to fully recover and get ready for Rome.

At It Again!

So this weekend six of us went down to Lagrange, Georgia for the Georgia cup of the weekend. My cat 4 boys threw down and came out with I believe 3-4 top 10 race finishes (not counting TT’s), and two top 10 overalls! Our new guy Gary Papka threw down in style even though it was his first weekend racing with us. We all also got to know him a lot better and learned how cool of a guy he was; “Guys if I don’t eat something soon I’m gonna start flippin tables and throwin stuff up in here!”. On a personal stance, I got third in the TT, which was a tough little 3k course with some technical turns and such. The crit went fairly well, with me covering breaks and such trying to watch out for the MAR (Most Aggressive Rider) laps to pick up some time bonus’s. I ended up picking up a whopping 0 of these, but got a decent 15th pack finish. I was a little angry with myself (for chasing breaks for nothing) and had a little energy left, so I entered the Pro/1/2/3/4 category Win and Out race. This was a crit of 15 laps where the first 5 laps were warm-up, and afterwards there were 10 laps each worth 100 bucks each. The pace was high and I won no money, but I did get a taste of how fast some Pro/1/2 crits are. I was dropped on the last lap due to trying to chase a break and get a jump on the two guys in said break. The only problem was these two guys were of the higher category persuasion, so my chase was in vain. The Road Race went fairly well on the first lap, but I chased WAY too much when I should have been sitting in. I got a little sore on the second lap, but the miles rolled on and with 5k to go I was feeling pretty good. We rounded the turn for 3k to go and something happened. A friend who was behind me said my rear derailleur jumped or something, but when I finally got up and looked at my bike my rear cable was broken, so I’m not sure if this happened before or after my solo exploration of the pavement. All I know is I dropped my chain while climbing a hill at 955 watts (or so my SRM says). When the chain dropped it surged me forward, which caused me to unclip my right cleat, smack my mid-gentlemen very hard on the top tube, and spill knee/elbow first into the asphalt. I got the pack finish, though, and ended up 7th overall for the weekend (sound familiar?). Enough to make me happy! This weekend is the Rome GA Cup! Let’s Climb!!!

A little trip down southwards way…ish

So this weekend me and my teammates are headed to Lagrange Georgia for the State Criterium Championships. There’s also a stage race somewhere in that, but that’s just an added bonus. I really don’t know what to say about the weekend to be except I’m thinking I’ll take the video camera since I’m not driving and hit up some video-age for your viewing pleasure. Don’t get too excited, as you all know I’m lazy and probably won’t do it anyways. The missus has a pretty tight clutch on the camera anyways now that Aaron aka “Little Man” is starting to do those cute little things babies do when they become aware of everyday things like their feet, and their daddy’s scruffy face. Regardless, I’ll update while down there if you’re lucky and I’m not lazy, with a definite update Sunday or Monday. This is also the first weekend our new teammate, Gary Papka, will be racing with us. Let’s just say this guy has already beat me badly in the local time trial and he’s a cat 5, so I’m sure there are promising things awaiting him this weekend.

“Daddy? Do you HAVE to go race?”


Random "Cute" Pic

Solo Today, Yesterday Was Actually Fun, Though

I'll start with yesterday. I headed out with the normal Saturday group, hitting up the sprints I could. Not much exciting going on there, except we had a horse run out in front of us at one point, and a duck ran out in front of me a little later. After the petting zoo, I headed out with my teammates and a few others for a few more hours. I felt pretty good the whole day, and definitely busted myself. Stats after the post...
Today was a bit different, as I headed out solo for 3.5 hours. I had no power, and the stats will show. Nothing exciting at all happened today other than I had no power whatsoever the entire ride, and basically had to force myself to get what power I did outta my legs. Now for the stats:

Saturday...
Time-4hrs. 27mins.
Dist.-82.99 Miles
Avg.-189 Watts
Norm.-253 Watts

Sunday...
Time-3hrs. 27mins.
Dist.-58.6 Miles
Avg.-180 Watts
Norm.-210 Watts

Two almost solo days...

Saturday was like any other Saturday local ride for me. I rode with the Habersham Bicycles crew for about 20ish miles, and then set out for another 45-50 miles on my own. I can’t think of anything interesting about this ride other than I had no flats or cramps, which is always good. Yesterday was set up to be a bit longer ride. I left the house to ride over to another more “mountainous” part of the county so as to make a loop and ride back with the hopes of having a total of about 4.5 hours worth of riding (Saturday was 3.5). Once I got over there, I met Sammy Arial, who rode with me for about 30 miles, and definitely added some good ole’ companionship to the otherwise lonely day. After all was said and done, I ended up with 4.25 hours for yesterday, with that being 7.75 hours for the weekend, no cramps or flats, and about 140 miles. Definitely a productive weekend!

Nice and Easy

Last night I rode the Tuesday Night Throw Down with the various local folks and teammates. Usually it's a pretty fast ride, hence the name, but last night me and a few others decided to drop off early and take it easy. It was quite the pleasant ride, and was a nice break from the monotony of hard training that usually takes place on Tuesdays. Afterwards, we had a nice wait at Johnny's Pizza, and an hour-sih later we finally got to enjoy some pizza. Good friends, good food, good fellowship...Who could ask for more?!

A good weekend...

So this weekend was the “Union City Stage Race” with the road race yesterday being the Georgia State Championship. Might as well start off with the TT and go through the weekend…

The time trial was a first for me, in that I was the first 2/3 racer to go off. This means I had no one to chase, which I guess could be a bad thing. I feel it was also a good thing, though, in that I had no one to chase in vain and risk blowing up and screwing myself for the GC. I headed off on my merry way, for the 10 mile mind game. I guess the hardest part of the whole TT was not looking over my shoulder to see if I was being caught, but concentrating on keeping my head in that magical aero position as much as possible. I hit the turn in less than 10 minutes, and THOUGHT I had it in the bag. What I didn’t realize was that there was more climbing on the way back, and my effort was a bit too hard on the way out, potentially toasting me on the way back. After the first “big” rollers I hit some 250-270 watt recoveries to regain what I could, and then busted myself going up the 1k-ish climb to the finish coming in at 22:30. Power was 326avg., 336norm., and avg. speed was about 26.6mph. Good enough for 8th place in a large field of good time trialists!

The team then loaded up and headed over to the criterium course where we would spend the rest of our day laying around, fellowshipping, and racing. I was the first to go out with the 2/3’s, and had a good race. I got my best 2/3 finish to date, which was 6th, and held my position in the GC, which, of course, was 8th. The younger guys represented with Reilly Mahon getting a solid pack finish. Star took a firm grasp of his MAR jersey in the 35+ race, and definitely is going to make it as hard as he can for someone to take it from him. The older guys are always interesting to watch, as they work together so well in throwing guy after guy off the front to wear down the pack and get the right person in place for the MAR points and pack sprint at the end. My power for the crit was 254avg., 301norm., and avg. speed was 25.3mph.

The road race yesterday was a first for me in a few ways. For starters, I think it was the first road race I’ve done which was over 60 miles (66.5). Second, it was the first road race I’ve done without a teammate to help out. My strategy today was spelled out by the ever-so-wise Matt Schectman, which was “Don’t do any work and don’t cramp”. Pretty simple, yet powerful, words, lol. The sitting in part was easy, as I stayed up in the top 20 for the entire race minus when I dropped to the back in the feed zone to attempt to get a bottle, which failed miserably. No biggie, as I had the “emergency” bottle in pocket, and drank some good ole nast..I mean tasty Union City water. I quickly moved back up to the front 20 of the pack in the next few miles, and continued to watch the break add one here and there to reach a total of 8 in all, which we never caught. I rolled in with the pack, giving as hard a leadout as possible in the final 1/2k to string out the pack what little I could to minimize a crash chance for that 9th place sprint. I ended up 19th on the day, 7th overall, and had a pretty dang good weekend! The numbers for the road race were 202avg. power, 279norm. power, and 24.6mph avg. speed.

All in all, the weekend was good, and I'm glad I didn't crap out like I've been known to do, lol. The rest of the team did really well, with everyone having a good showing and good overall finishes. Next up is Lagrange!