This was a good weekend. It started with a road race in the Palouse wheat fields outside of Walla Walla. Chris and Jace were the first up. 30 miles later, Chris was 13th and Jace learned about racing. Beth was the next contestant. Again, a learning experience. She got back to the van with question after question about tactics, but not about her legs. She is definitely coming to form and should be a force in the coming weeks. Colton was also educated in the road race. He stayed in the pack rather than going with a break only to find that all the teams with the horsepower to bring the break in had a man up the road, but still managed to take 3rd in the field sprint and 10th on the day. I learned once again that UW is going to be a pain in my butt all year long. The got one guy up the road early, I tried to bridge and another Husky grabbed my wheel. I realized quickly that if I bridged up, I would be ridden into the ground until I wore myself out, then they would be gone and I'd be screwed. So when Chris (the UW rider that was sitting on my wheel) attacked me, I decided to sit up and rejoin the pack in the hope that me and another non-Husky would get up the road and bridge up. Unfortunately, the rest of the UW team was on their game and marked every move that came along. 3 laps in, I decided to downshift on a hill, and had just a little too much load on the chain. It dropped and got wedged between the awesomely large BB on my Fuji and my crank. A ride back to the parking lot and a new chain later, I was ready for the TTT.
As a small team, our time trial teams are always a bit unusual. This week we had Chris and Jace in the D field and Beth, Colton and I made up the A team. At this race last year, Chris and Beth made up one team and Blair, Jackson, and I were the other. Jackson was struggling through the TTT, and we got "chicked." Chris and Colton rocked it, taking 4th with a 26:14 time. There's something with this course and Chris that just seems to work. I think it's the cheering of Whitman's most faithful volunteer, Woody Post. The A team lost by a minute plus to our Ds, but not a total flop on our part. Montana State missed their stdart time and crashed , so this year I got to be on the giving end of a chicking.
The crit was a new event to this year's race. It was a windy, 5 corner course out by the airport. Jace struggled today, but he's learning and is doing a whole lot better than I was at that stage in my racing life. He's got some potential and will be a very good rider someday. Beth lost track of the race and missed the bell for the final lap. She did put a pretty solid attack in the next lap though, which nobody went with. Colton was solid as usual, taking 9th. I missed the early break, as usual, but tried my best to get back to it. I got up the road in a chase group with an Oregon rider, a WSU rider, and Chris from the road race. Since both the riders up the road were UW riders (surprise!), I knew Chris wasn't going to work. Jake, the WSU rider, must not have liked the mix of the chase group and decided to sit on. That left myself and McKenzie (UO) to pull the break back. We tried, but wound up getting caught. I rested up as much as I could, and tried again. No go. Rinse and repeat. Nope. At this point we were getting fairly close to finishing. I decided to sit on and grab a wheel for a late move if there was an opportunity to do so. With 3 laps to go, Danny (UW), took off and I decided from watching him do the same thing and fail last week to let him go. This was clearly not last week. He held off the pack for the rest of the race. I'd taken a look around the pack, and saw a lot of strong riders. I knew I didn't really want to take them all on in a short field sprint, so I decided to take a flyer on the backside of the bell lap. I took off and managed to stay away for 5th place. I'm very happy with that result and look forward to improving on it next week at the home race. I wore Chris' helmet-cam and that footage should be pretty killer, so I'll post that along with some photos as soon as it's edited down.
The race course is looking good for this weekend, and should provide a challenge along with a good time. Boise Fry Co. will be out serving up a lot of excellent food on Saturday. Still looking for a few more volunteers, so hit me up if you can help out.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Circle of Cycling
This weekend was the Willamette/Portland State race. The first day featured a very cool crit around the Oregon Capitol Building and a TTT. The crit went pretty well for me. I didn't quite accelerate quickly enough to get on with the winning move, but I jumped the field shortly after and was in a two-man chase for about 20 minutes. That got reeled in. I was hurting, but I knew that the race was up the road and I wouldn't do well in a field sprint. So I hung on for a few laps and recovered. Then I attacked again. Small gap established. Got caught again. Tried again. No gap established. Sat on and waited to get killed in the sprint. Got killed in the sprint. I didn't get the result I was hoping for, but I felt good and I am getting closer to the tipping point from pack fodder to race contender.
The team time trial was interesting, to say the least. Our Men's A team consisted of Beth Kobza (Women's B), Dustin Sharpe (Men's D), and myself. This is also known as our entire team this weekend. We knew going into it that we weren't going to win or even come close to not being last, so we relaxed and took home the 58 team points for finishing. I had to "assert my dominance" on the hills though. I would spin up them, the other two would lag behind, then we'd all get back together until the next one. We finished a slight 10 minutes, 26 seconds off of 4th and 14:25 away from winning.
We stayed with Brandon Archibald this weekend. Brandon used to race for Bob's and came with us for my first ever collegiate race. We were talking about things over a beer that night when the story of the TTT for that race came up. Our team was Brandon (Cat. 1), Chris Stuart (Cat. 1), Kai (at the time Cat. 2, upgraded shortly after), and myself (Cat. 5 at the time). It takes 3 riders across the line to stop the clock. I took one pull at the front, got dropped like a rock, turned around and loaded up the van. I learned a ton that weekend, mainly from watching those guys and listening them talk from Boise to Corvallis and back. Now I'm the one dropping the new riders, thanks to help from the more experienced riders.
Sunday was the PSU Hagg Lake RR. I was feeling good again and just waiting for the right move to head up the road when I felt that horrible bumping sensation coming from my bike. It was slight at first, then quickly became apparent that I had a flat. I pulled off, raised my hand, and got a new wheel. The flat came at the worst time. Riders were starting to attack and the race was picking up just as it happened. As a result, I couldn't catch on. When the B field caught up to me, I jumped on the back and cruised in with those guys. I once again found myself as the voice of experience as I dished out advice, encouragement, and peach rings to the stragglers in the back.
This is why I love collegiate cycling so much. There is such a fantastic spectrum of racers from first timers to potential professionals. The knowledge sharing is amazing as riders discuss the race from team to team, then the teammates get to talk it out all the way back home. There is no way that I would be at the point I'm at now without connecting with Kai, Brandon, and Stu. Now I'm just trying to race at their level and help as much as they did for me.
The team time trial was interesting, to say the least. Our Men's A team consisted of Beth Kobza (Women's B), Dustin Sharpe (Men's D), and myself. This is also known as our entire team this weekend. We knew going into it that we weren't going to win or even come close to not being last, so we relaxed and took home the 58 team points for finishing. I had to "assert my dominance" on the hills though. I would spin up them, the other two would lag behind, then we'd all get back together until the next one. We finished a slight 10 minutes, 26 seconds off of 4th and 14:25 away from winning.
We stayed with Brandon Archibald this weekend. Brandon used to race for Bob's and came with us for my first ever collegiate race. We were talking about things over a beer that night when the story of the TTT for that race came up. Our team was Brandon (Cat. 1), Chris Stuart (Cat. 1), Kai (at the time Cat. 2, upgraded shortly after), and myself (Cat. 5 at the time). It takes 3 riders across the line to stop the clock. I took one pull at the front, got dropped like a rock, turned around and loaded up the van. I learned a ton that weekend, mainly from watching those guys and listening them talk from Boise to Corvallis and back. Now I'm the one dropping the new riders, thanks to help from the more experienced riders.
Sunday was the PSU Hagg Lake RR. I was feeling good again and just waiting for the right move to head up the road when I felt that horrible bumping sensation coming from my bike. It was slight at first, then quickly became apparent that I had a flat. I pulled off, raised my hand, and got a new wheel. The flat came at the worst time. Riders were starting to attack and the race was picking up just as it happened. As a result, I couldn't catch on. When the B field caught up to me, I jumped on the back and cruised in with those guys. I once again found myself as the voice of experience as I dished out advice, encouragement, and peach rings to the stragglers in the back.
This is why I love collegiate cycling so much. There is such a fantastic spectrum of racers from first timers to potential professionals. The knowledge sharing is amazing as riders discuss the race from team to team, then the teammates get to talk it out all the way back home. There is no way that I would be at the point I'm at now without connecting with Kai, Brandon, and Stu. Now I'm just trying to race at their level and help as much as they did for me.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Rough Start
Things didn't go exactly as planned this weekend. In the road race, I hadn't figured the winds into the opposing teams' plans and missed the break in the first 500 yards. I immediately knew I'd made a mistake and something had to be done to fix it. I started attacking out of the group and trying to bridge up for the next 15-20 miles. I made 3 or 4 attempts to get up to the leaders to no avail. Shortly after, others started attacking themselves and I just couldn't hang on. I spent another 15 miles hanging on to a group of stragglers until I popped off of that. Then I was on my own for the rest of the race. It was cold and wet and miserable, but I"m refusing to quit this year. I finished the race 2nd to last out of the finishers, but that beats DNF any day. I think I scared the new guys when I came back because I was shivering uncontrollably, not talking, and generally looking like a corpse. I spent a while curled up in my sleeping bag between races and came back to life.
The TTT was probably the best event of the weekend for the team. The D team rocked it, taking 3rd. Not too bad for an old guy and 2 first timers. The A team, composed of 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, and 1 Women's B, didn't beat anybody but showed more heart than any other team there. We had Mark literally heaving by the finish of the race, but he kept pushing and finished strong.
The Crit was tough. Another early move was aided by the winds. I tried going with a few bridge attempts, but the stage racing legs just aren't there yet. I probably could have hung in the pack all day and not tried to get up the road, but that wouldn't have improved my situation at all and I would rather race my bike. I was off the back within the first 10 minutes. Finished it out again though.
It was definitely not a bad weekend, despite the poor results from me. The team did great. Colton took 2nd in the RR, and is in 3rd overall. Beth got 3rd in the crit and 7th in the RR. The first time racers handled themselves well and seemed to enjoy the experience (and raced pretty well too). Beyond the results, it was just a good weekend in general. I've really missed this. I'm running around all willy nilly all weekend, not getting enough sleep and spending far too much time in a van that can only be described as "stanky." It's not a glamorous life, but it's a great one. It's just a good time. The team is ridiculous and never leaves a dull moment. Whether it's the potatosaurus made from Colton's fries and Jackson's baked potato that "don't make no sense" to him, driving the roads of Eugene looking for a trailer hitch, or "What Mark Thinks Moments," there's always something going on to make the weekend fun.
I want to thank all the guys for coming out and racing. It's a great experience and it only gets better the more races you do. Chris took a ton of photos that you all should check out. Here's a few of my favorites that really show what collegiate racing is all about:
The TTT was probably the best event of the weekend for the team. The D team rocked it, taking 3rd. Not too bad for an old guy and 2 first timers. The A team, composed of 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, and 1 Women's B, didn't beat anybody but showed more heart than any other team there. We had Mark literally heaving by the finish of the race, but he kept pushing and finished strong.
The Crit was tough. Another early move was aided by the winds. I tried going with a few bridge attempts, but the stage racing legs just aren't there yet. I probably could have hung in the pack all day and not tried to get up the road, but that wouldn't have improved my situation at all and I would rather race my bike. I was off the back within the first 10 minutes. Finished it out again though.
It was definitely not a bad weekend, despite the poor results from me. The team did great. Colton took 2nd in the RR, and is in 3rd overall. Beth got 3rd in the crit and 7th in the RR. The first time racers handled themselves well and seemed to enjoy the experience (and raced pretty well too). Beyond the results, it was just a good weekend in general. I've really missed this. I'm running around all willy nilly all weekend, not getting enough sleep and spending far too much time in a van that can only be described as "stanky." It's not a glamorous life, but it's a great one. It's just a good time. The team is ridiculous and never leaves a dull moment. Whether it's the potatosaurus made from Colton's fries and Jackson's baked potato that "don't make no sense" to him, driving the roads of Eugene looking for a trailer hitch, or "What Mark Thinks Moments," there's always something going on to make the weekend fun.
I want to thank all the guys for coming out and racing. It's a great experience and it only gets better the more races you do. Chris took a ton of photos that you all should check out. Here's a few of my favorites that really show what collegiate racing is all about:
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| Tough B Racers |
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| First Timers |
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| Probably my best moment of racing this weekend. Attacked the field, bridged up to the UW rider, worked for a while, got caught again. |
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| It's probably best that I'm not really sure what's going on. |
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| Jace raced hard and had a great first effort. Look for big things to come out of him. |
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| Hodge-podge Men's A TTT Team (and Jackson). This really shows the characters of this team (extra goofiness is going on behind the camera). |
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| The B guys working together |
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| Every collegiate cyclist should give Bill a high five... and a beer. |
Friday, March 11, 2011
Pack Ahead
I've got a rare moment of peace before I hit the road to Oregon, and thought I'd post something. As I loaded the van, I started thinking about all the stuff required to race. Then I started thinking about why I'm loading all this crap into a giant van. The best reason that I could come up with is goal attainment.
We all have goals that we'd like to achieve. In my various roles, I have various lists of goals. As a team director, I'm trying to be more organized and avoid being known as "Team Fred" this year. This is not going to be easy, as we have a lot of first time racers and very few people with significant travel race experience. I'm lucky enough to have some connections with people that are smarter than I am and are willing to teach. Kai and Hoene from Elite Protocol have been fantastic and volunteered a good amount of time to help the new riders. It's my job now to take it from there and make sure that numbers are pinned on right and everybody is eating properly and all that nonsense, hence the cooler, water jug, pots and pans, Coleman stove, pocket full of safety pins.
I'll be posting more as I can over the weekend. Full Race Report will be in by Monday.
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| There's even more tucked under the seat... |
I'll be posting more as I can over the weekend. Full Race Report will be in by Monday.
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