recap of the season so far

back to the blogging world since Alec Kassin requested that I update my blog once in a while. If anyone is actually reading this then I am willing to throw out some stuff about what I am doing/racing. I am currently sitting in the library at Occidental College with my friend Ethan Weiss who is writing a paper. I am on spring break, hanging out in LA after San Dimas and waiting for Redlands which starts in a few days.

There seems to be so much going on with the social networking internet stuff that I am sort of bored by it now. It seems like every person has a twitter and a fb and a blog and constantly updating what they are doing etc that I don't really feel the need

to be doing that. It's just too much it feels now, so I have shy'ed away from it a bit. Anyhow here is a quick recap of the racing that I have done and some pictures to keep it a bit entertaining maybe. I am very lucky to be on a great team this year, California Giant/Specialized and they have been giving me some fantastic support so far this year and I am really excited to be racing for them.

Training Camp

It seems that the season started at training camp. I got to meet the team and we hung out in a sweet place in Watsonville right on the beach. The weather was great for the most part and we got to tour Specialized and get in some great riding. My team is awesome and they have got their shit together and I felt like a pro walking into camp being handed a suitcase full of clothes and shoes and helmet and sunglasses and a new bike. It was awesome.

Cherry Pie Criterium

First race of the season. Excited. It was just the new guys on the team at the race. Me, Chris Stastny, Andrew Talansky and Brandon Trafton. Chris and Andrew got into the break and Brandon and I were left to patrol the peloton. I took one of the primes during the race. Was feeling pretty strong and confident in the front of the group. The break stayed away, Chris got 2nd and I rolled in near the back after not being where I needed to be with 1 to go, no sense in making dangerous moves near the end sprinting for 10th or something place since there was a big break up the road.

Snelling Road Race

The first big road race of the year. I was excited. Drove all the way out to the middle of no where and was planning on staying their for the weekend and doing snelling and merced crit. The race started and the field was pretty huge. The neutral section was pretty sketchy with everyone feeling ready to start out the season and get it going. Neutral section ends, 10 seconds later some guy in front of me is hitting the deck. I had enough time to think and jump off the bike and somehow ducking as people flew over me. I then had to pull 3-4 guys off my bike and get it going to put in a hard chase. No luck, field was gone. While I was finishing I was told by a guy riding with me that my frame looked cracked. Wow. disaster. it was in fact cracked on the seat tube. So I came out of the crash with 0 scratches on my body and a cracked frame. Just great. Luckily I was able to go to Watsonville and get a new frame from my boss the next day. Once again, my team has just been giving me great support.

Bike #2

Merco Criterium

I was a bit worried about this weekend since last year I had been crashed out of both the crit and the road race, so I was looking to stay safe this year. My dad was also working for Sram at the race though, so I wanted to race well in front of him. The crit started out well, I was in the front going with some early moves, trying to maybe grab a prime, which my team was doing a great job of getting. I then started to hurt and the rest of the race was a bit of suffering as I was trying to stay near the front, but not doing such a great job of it.

Hurtin

Hangin on

Merco Road Race

Race went with a bunch of attacks going on throughout the first lap, me trying to get in a few of them. Then during the 2nd lap, my teammate James Mattis helped me get to the front and told me to follow the next few moves. Just then my teammate from last year Evan Huffman attacked on my left and I jumped on and we started rolling. And then we were gone with a few other guys from Bissell and United Health Care. I was the only representation from my team, so I was feeling the pressure to perform so I did not want to dig too deep too early. We still had like 90 miles to go. I had a feeling that this break might stick it all the way though. During the 3rd lap a chase group caught us and my teammate Steve Reaney was in it, so I was happy to have someone else there to help me out. At this point I still felt good, but there was a long way to go and I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the distance in the break. I was not doing as much pulling, and a few of the pro's were getting pissed at me. That was not making me happy, I did not want to piss them off, but I wanted to do all I could for my team. At the end of the 4th lap I got popped from the break on one of the rollers leading into the finish. My team car loaded me up with bottles to bring to my teammates in the field and I sat up for a bit and waited for the peloton to catch me. Once in the field again it felt so easy to have so much draft. Then mid last lap I started to bonk hard, then I found a snickers in my pocket. I downed it and started to feel great. I moved near the front in preparation to go for the sprint finish, even though the break was going to stay away. Then with about 5k to go, psss "oh dang sucks some guy got a flat right now" - I thought, "oh shit that's me" My dad actually came out to change my wheel. I just spun it on in to the finish. Disappointed with how the day had worked out, but glad to have made the break and learned some things.

Madera Stage Race

Day 1 - Hill Climb Time Trial

Drove out to middle of no where. Legs didn't feel great. I'm not really the gc man, so not super worried about the tt's, but still wanting to put in a good ride. The first half of the ride I felt good, then got passed heading into the climb and lost confidence and couldn't find anything on the climb. Pretty miserable time.

Day 2 - Time Trial

Legs still not great, pretty windy out. First half of tt was a piece of cake, then the last half was straight into a head wind. I did not want to destroy myself with the crit coming up in the afternoon, a race that I could actually do some damage in and might need to work for the team leaders.

Day 2 - Criterium

Super windy at the crit. Break got away with 2 Bissells and 2 yahoos. Immediate danger. We were able to get out whole team to the front and gutter the rest of the field. We basically did a team time trial for 2/3's of the crit. Brought the break back with 2 to go and had caused serious damage to the field, with only 20 guys left in the lead group. We got destroyed in the sprint after using all our men for the chase, but it was fun, and we kept our gc guy in 4th.

Day 3 - Road Race

Early morning road race, cold. Lots of attacking, I was in a few moves. A break ended up going with our gc guy in it and the leader of the race. They got far enough up the road that our man had virtually gone into 2nd place overall. Then Bissell decided that they didn't want to lose their chance of sweeping the podium so their 2nd and 3rd place riders, Paul Mach and Rob Britton, attacked and got away. We stuck our team on the front again hoping to pull them back so that our man, Jesse Moore, could move into 2nd. Even with our whole team chasing, the gap was growing. I was starting to crack, then through the rough section and the rollers with 1 to go I did blow. I finished the last lap in a small group.

San Dimas Stage Race

Day 1 - Hill Climb TT

terrible, warm day, legs felt pretty bad after driving all yesterday to LA. Couldn't get warmed up too good, nothing felt right. TT started, was hurting from the start and never stopped hurting, but just could not find that rhythm or speed. TT's are something I really need to work on. Another miserable time, but it was a great day for the team as we had guys in 3rd and 5th. In 3rd was our new rider that I just met today Sid Taberlay, who is an Australian MTB rider who has gone to the Olympics. In 5th was Andrew Talansky, a kid who is going places on the bike, watch out.

Day 2 - Circuit Race

Excited for today, I did really well in this race last year in the cat 2's and I was excited to see how it went in the pro/1's and especially excited to help out my team after some great rides yesterday. The first few laps felt like a crit on a circuit loop. It was fast, but I felt comfortable and was feeling better as the day went on. Then on the fourth or fifth lap I flatted on the descent going into the climb. I swear that it felt like my rear was flat, and so the guy changed that and started to push me off and I realized that my front was (also) flat, at the time I thought that I had double flatted. Turns out that it was only my front, my bad. Anyways, after putting in a hard effort, the field was no where to be seen, my day and stage race was over. major bummer. I rolled to the feed zone to help feed the rest of my team. I was able to feed a few of them and then I found out that 2 other riders on my team had flatted as well and we were left with only 3 guys in the race. No good. I rolled a few more laps with my teammate Chris Stastny aka The Staz. disappointing day.

Day 3 - The Crit

Since I did not get to race the crit, My teammate Ozzie who also flatted and I rolled to the top of Mount Baldy. It was freakin steep at the top and I was not loving life the last few miles of it, but it was a good ride and I got to ride up to the snow. Then I got to do something even more miserable which was watch a race that I was supposed to be in. not cool.

Looking forward, Redlands is next week. This will be the biggest stage race that I have ever done and I am looking forward to the experience and helping out my team. My goal is to make it through the race and I think that I will have to suffer more than I ever have before in order to even accomplish that.