Hell of the North

This last weekend I had the opportunity to race one of my most feared races “Hell of the North” in Salt Lake City, Utah. The course was designed in honor of Paris-Roubaix which by tradition is the Sunday following the race. My race was 50 miles long on a 4-cornered circuit where each lap has a 2-mile long section of pave. The race started with a neutral roll out at 18 mph, and as soon as we crossed the start/finish line the pace jumped to nearly 30 mph. I nor anyone else was expecting the increase in speed and as a result several riders were caught off guard. The turn before we hit the dirt section was insane everyone was jousting for position at the front of the peloton because it was the safest place due to everyone’s nerves and the pace at which we were traveling. After the first lap I sat up and relaxed that I was in a 3-man break away and we had a decent gap on the shattered peloton. Little did I know that my fellow companions in the break were none other than Tommy (a pro from team Bissell) and Chris Mckay (pro from team Competitive Cyclist). These guys were the real deal and made it very clear from the begging that if I wasn’t committed to the survival of this breakaway that I need to get off their wheel and ride with the peloton. I told them that not only was I committed but that I was willing to work and give the break all I had. We hammered the pace so hard that after each pull I had a hard time sitting in the draft. The pave was insane holding a line while bouncing over a dirt/gravel road at 25 mph is a nightmare. The race official on lap 5 of 10 rolled up next to our break and told us that we had opened the gap up to nearly 2.5 minutes. Thinking that this was a good sign I expected Tommy to sit up and tell us to ride hard but at steady state. I was wrong in fact the two pros said the opposite and dropped their heads and increased the pace drastically. I stayed with the breakaway for almost the entire race until lap 7 when I almost got bucked off my bike on the pave sector which caused me to slow down for a split second which way just enough room for a small gap to open up between me and my other two breakaway companions. I ended up soloing from then on until I crossed the white line. I finished 3^rd overall, with a time 1:45:16 we averaged over 25 mph. It was a great race super hard and intense and it made me have a greater appreciation for the cobbled classics.

I’ll be off the bike for a few weeks this month because this Saturday I’m marrying my lady in Seattle and then we’ll be heading to Mexico for our honeymoon. I’m so grateful for her and the support she gives me, she’s my best friend and I can’t wait till she is a Litchfield. 

Tour Del Sol

I know its been awhile since my last post, Ive been busy with wedding stuff, school, work, and training. But here is a short race report from my first race of the season.

This last weekend I raced the Tour Del Sol stage race in St. George Utah, I knew the race was going to be tough but I was nowhere prepared for the pain that I was going to experience. I drove down Friday with a few of my team members in there RV, after pre-riding the course on Friday we settled in for the evening in preparation for Saturdays TT and crit. The TT course was an out and back style course, I started 30 seconds after Clint which was fun. I had a great time trail except for my encounter with a tumbleweed, at the turn around I was getting back on to the main road when I noticed a tumble weed being blown across the street. I remember telling myself that I needed to time this perfectly to avoid hitting it. I did just that! The tumbleweed hit my rear wheel and I had to reach down and pull it out with my bare hands I felt a lot like Taylor Phinney in last years Tour de France TTT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpy1vVdPzg). After a painful 12k I was able to finish with a time of 28:15 which was good enough for 15^th in the GC, I was pretty happy with my result despite my tumbleweed encounter and the gnarly 15mph head/cross wind.

            

Later that day at 6pm we had our crit race at the old airport, it was a really fast and fun course that consisted of 4 corners on great asphalt. Unfortunately I went out to hard and ended up getting cooked, it was a crazy fast race we rode nearly 27 mile in 60 minutes and were hitting speeds in excess of 42 mph. I was able to finish in with the group at around 25^th place I believe. Clint did some serious work and chased down nearly every single breakaway because his teammate was sitting in 2^nd place overall. The crit was a lot of fun and made me realize that Criterium racing wouldn’t be so bad if all of the courses were like this one. One thing that’s nice about racing at an elite level is that you can take corners at 40 mph and feel completely safe because you know everyone in the peloton knows how to handle their bike.

Sunday morning started way to early, at 6am I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed to get ready for todays 85 miles road race. The weather was surprisingly cold for this time of year, when our race started it was 29 degrees outside. The race was the hardest race I have ever done in my life. The course was a loop that started in Gunlock state park and went up through the mountain and up a ridiculously steep climb known as “the wall”, on our first lap we rode the wall at a relatively moderate pace. The second time around was crazy; I don’t know if it was because of my fitness or the fact that I had done a TT and a crit the night before but that race made me go through Hell and back. There were several times during that I debated throwing in the towel. I managed thanks to Clint who willingly took a few of my pulls in the pace line (thanks buddy). In the end I rolled in a few minutes behind the leaders at 3:48 the pace was relentless full of attacks and climbs and was definitely a good judge of my preseason training. About 15 racers had to abandon from Sundays stage because of the pace or mechanicals, in the end I finished 25^th for the stage and 19^th overall. I know its hard for me to truly express how hard Sundays race was so I’ll tell you this as soon as I crossed the finish line I got off my bike and walked over behind the officials car and threw up. I was seeing stars for a few hours afterwards and I know everyone else was. All things considered it was great race I would highly recommend it to anyone and its on my calendar for next year. I learned a lot made some new friends, and most importantly had a great time riding with some truly talented racers from all over the West coast.  

           

The roots of a Hero

“Il est interdit d’interdire”

It is forbidden to forbid. I recently read this quote and decided to do a little research on it. Webster’s dictionary defines the word forbid as the following: “to hinder or prevent as if by an effectual command”. In the spring of 1968 in the streets of Paris Daniel Cohn-Bendit (now a well-known EU parliament member) told a crowd of students this very phrase which had a lasting impact on the evolution of European mentalities. This phrase meant much to students who were struggling to scale the mountains of social injustice and eventually became the motto of the Paris Student Revolution.  We live in a world that tells us to Just Do it and that Impossible is Nothing, while these phrases have grown in popularity and become almost cliché I feel that we have forgotten that a true hero never succumbs to anyone let alone opposition. As a cyclist, athlete, and student I can relate full-heartedly to this statement in my own pursuit of glory. In order to achieve this stardom that we desire so badly we must first learn to conquer ourselves. This struggle is in its most basic form is about learning how to stop oneself from forbidding ourselves from the future and our potential. It is in that struggle where men become heroes!

I won this t-shirt!

Last Tuesday I was finally able to end my streak of bad luck and close calls by winning my first ever night race called Clammy Cross. I started writing this post before I left for my race and while I was riding I couldn't help but recall on my studies which in turn allowed me to forbid myself from going through the "what-ifs" of racing, such as: what if I get a flat, what if I crash and second place catches up to me, what if, what if, what if... I was able to cross the finish line with my arms stretched out accompanied by a hugh smile. I would like to thank my parents (sponsors), family, friends, team, and lady for helping me through this season. 

Santa’s and Pasta Hand-ups

Hands up high

            Cyclocross season seems to be passing faster than I ever imagined already the season is almost halfway over and I feel like I’m just now getting used to the pain that occurs from a 60-minute race through mud, sand, and grass. Over the last few weeks I have been racing 2-3 times per week, and it’s starting to show. My body aches in ways that it never did while I was racing on the road, my bike is constantly needing overhauling, and I couldn’t be happier. In an effort to keep cross weird someone at my last race was doing spaghetti hand-ups and if you didn’t take them, you got shower on the next lap with a handful of oil less pasta. It was also our Halloween race weekend; people came dress and raced in everything from Lance Armstrong, ninjas, to star wars characters. Ty and Mark came out on Saturday dressed as Santa Clauses, it was awesome they had the megaphone blasting and the heckling never ceased. Nothing makes me want to ride hard that having a few Santa’s run along side of you telling you that you aren’t even trying and that the girls go faster than you do!

This is how I reward myself for finishing!

I have experienced some great success over the last few weekends. Most recently was last weekend October 27 and 28, our local race series held Halloween Cross weekend at Big Cottonwood Sports complex in Murray Utah. The course was just less than 2 miles long and each lap had 2 sandpit crossings, a muddy run-up, and 2-4 barriers. Since the course was in a park it meant that the course was extremely wide and great for passing. Since I’m sitting in 5^th place in the overall series standing for points I got a great call-up on the front row. The gun went off and I had a textbook perfect start, got my pedal immediately and somehow managed to get the hole shot. I was able to maintain my momentum throughout the entire race until the last lap, a group of 3 racers were gaining on me quickly so I was forced to take some risks in the corners. I had less than a mile to the finish line and about a 9 second lead on the chasers when all of a sudden my luck race out and went down on an off camber turn because of some wet leaves. My falls wasn’t painful and my bike was fine but due to the slant of the course I wasn’t able to get unclipped and lost my lead. When I finally did get pedaling again I sprinted like a madman and managed to pass one guy and finish 3^rd.

Getting the crowd pumped up!

On Sunday we returned for day two of racing, although it was warmer than the day before my muscles were aching and my body didn’t feel like racing. Reluctantly I geared up and rode to the start/finish line. My start wasn’t as good Sunday and it was Saturday but I still managed to finish our first lap in 4^th place. As we were approaching the sand pit a teammate of mine came of next to me and told me he was going to get me as close to the front as possible before he bonked. His surges were relentless and timed perfectly. When he finally threw in the towel I was sitting in 2^nd place and had only one racer on my wheel. The leader had about a 20 second lead on us, so I convinced the guy on my wheel to work with me to close the gap. We took turns pulling for about 25 minutes then my friend and teammate who was watching the race Tim told me that it was time to leave him and do the rest of the work by myself because he was cooked and just sitting on my wheel. I launched a 30 second attack and that was all it took to drop him. I spend the remaining 2 laps riding myself to the point of exhaustion. I never did catch the leader but managed to close the gap to 10 seconds. I finished 2^nd for the 3^rd time this season, for some reason that top step seem to be just out of my reach. Ill keep training and practicing so that I stop making stupid mistakes that end up costing me the race. Having said that tonight I’m racing Clammy Cross which is a night race down in the Provo area, hopefully my legs have recovered and my body feels like going 

Taking a Bow

This week I raced 2 races, the first race I did was race #3 of a 5 race series in Provo Utah. As I was warming up I knew that today wasn’t my day and that the course didn’t suit my style/skill of racing very well. The race started and I immediately realized that we were playing for keeps as I got cut off and shoved into a tree. The course was full of switchbacks and hard U-turns (no exactly what a roadie wants to see). Within 2 laps the leaders broke away from the rest of the field. When I saw leaders I mean the 3 full time professional cross racers, the state champ, and the national champ. Once they were out of sight I tried and tried again to get into the groove of this course but failed…miserably. While passing through the start finish line I tried to ride on my pedal to long before unclipping to jump over a few barriers. All I’m going to say is that I learned my lesson it is better to have to take an extra step or two rather than coast and hit the barrier. When I hit the grass I realized that not only had I destroyed my gap on the 4 guys that were chasing me, but that I had done this in front of all of the spectators and my family. I jumped to my feet, took a bow, laughed it off and started to pedal for my life once again. This experience taught me that even when we have made a mess of our lead in life that we need not hesitate to get back on our bikes, because laying on the floor will only set you back longer. I was able to finish the race and managed to take 10^th place overall, I was able to hold off 2 guys from passing me but due to a bell lap cramp I knew my chances of finishing higher were over.

On Saturday I race Moose Cross in Victor Idaho, this was the first cross race that I had ever competed in and it also marked my one-year anniversary of racing CX. In the past year I have managed to stand on the podium over a dozen times which is an accomplishment in itself. However this race has always appealed to me because it is one of the closest races to where I go to school and I’m good friends with most of the event organizers. Going into the race I knew I was a marked man because 3 of my opponents were buddies of mine from the road season. This year I managed to win all of the races in Idaho Falls against these guys and knew that they were planning on giving me a run for my money! As soon as the gun went off the chaos began, although I didn’t have to “take a bow” this course was full of its own demons like a 20+ foot run-up with steps in it that were 2-3 feet in height, lose dry berms, and a set of 3 barriers in a row. My bike is light but after racing this course for 60 minutes every time I had to carry my bike I felt like my arms were going to fall off. On the last lap I was able to catch 2 racers that were in front of me, and somehow ride myself into 8^th place overall. But the stat that I’m most proud of is that I rode the fast lap time of the entire day 4:30 flat and it was on my last lap (the next close lap time was 4:43). This week has taught me many things about life and racing such as the fact the tire pressure really does matter, and that you are never actually warmed up for a race. I know that I have a ton of room for improvement and feel like this will come with experience. After all I have only been racing for a year!

Here are a few photos from the P-town race in Provo and Moose Cross in Victor, Idaho

Enjoy and please remember to let me live them down!