The Categorical Imperative

Questionable Fortune

2008-06-12T01:55:00.001-06:00

I went to Germany and I was racing over my head. My goal was to finish the race. I knew it would be hard goal, but it was maintainable. However, as luck would have it, I wasn’t to finish.

The first stage wasn’t a great start. For the most part Danny and were dangling last 20 guys. Moving up was hard; every time you would get to the front 80 people would manage to swarm around you. The pack was either strung out from the pace or bunched together. There was no in-between. The first hill came and it was nuts. I averaged probably 450 watts for 5 minutes and I was dying at the end of the hill to hang on finally the last 4k came and I was trying to move up then again there was another wreck. Someone took my teammate down and then I went down behind him. He got up uninjured and I got a chunk of my skin out on my hip and my wrist is swollen again from Paris Roubaix.

When I got back from the race it seemed as if every little thing was against me. The hotel we stay at has very strange rules. You pay for drinks, you pay for internet and they changed dinner so you have to have a ticket to eat. I go inside and the waiter outside the dinner tells me I have to have a ticket to enter the dining area. So I go upstairs to the elevator and I manage to get stuck in the elevator with the Australian national team. Finally we just opened the door and walked up the stairs. I ask Chris if he had the tickets and he said no Noel does. Noel was downstairs eating so finally I have to tell the waiter that my coach is in the dinning room eating. I actually got to eat a little bit.

The next day is even worse for me. It was a long day 170 kilometers. I got dropped 60 k in the race and I was dying. I was in a group of 12 guys with Austin Carroll my teammate. Ahead the main field was neutralized by a train so we caught up to it. When I was in the pack I was surprised to find myself hurting more than normal. Noel told me to move up but I couldn’t sprint to save my life and I was having a hard time holding my line. Finally when the group started picking the pace up, I was gone. I was going slower and slower and then when I was pulled in the feed zone and when I was putting my bike into the car I tried to move my wheel and it wouldn’t even move. My breaks were rubbing, bad. I found out later that I broke a spoke.

Noel wasn’t too happy when we got back. He told me that I should have known that my break was rubbing and he was mad at other people for not moving up and sitting at the back. Austin and max finished 10 minutes down and the others finished in the second group 40 seconds down.

So unless someone else drops out I have to stay here in Germany. Sitting in a hotel room all day won’t be too fun. I’ll have to find something to do. For those of you concerned of my well being I am indeed having a tough time but I would rather it be a tough time than a good time. In good times we find comfort and in tough times we find growth. Regardless, I’m looking forward to a bit of time off the bike when we get back and a little bit of peace.

A Sunday in Hell

2008-06-08T01:32:00.004-06:00

The only way I could describe Paris Roubaix was bad luck. Some riders go down because they do something stupid, others are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s me.

The pack was nasty out there. The pack was constantly breaking and stopping. In addition we were in very condensed quarters. One little slip and everything could go wrong. I remember Noel telling me not to waste energy trying to stay up at the front the entire race and move up to the front at the important parts. In the back of my head I was dreading the Paris Roubaix junior race. I prayed to god it wouldn’t happen to me again.

I constantly looked down at my speedometer, 30 kilometers into the race. There was still an ample amount of time to move up and no reason to do any unnecessary work. I remember telling Danny Summerhill if he needed anything just let me know. In an appreciative manner he told me thanks.

40k, then 45k. Time to move up right before the first cobble stone section, then all of the sudden there was a hard stop up at the road. In a split second a hit my breaks but no use, the guy ahead of me was cross-wheeled with the guys ahead of him. He goes down hard. I hit him and prepare to do a summersault that I learned from martial arts. I use my right arm to roll and slam my left one on the ground to stop impact. Immediately when I land I look back to see the carnage coming towards me. I ran into the ditch and got up after the wreckage. I was frantically looking for my bike. I looked to the left, I looked to the right. Then there it was in the ditch. There was a pause I just looked at the rider on the ground curled up in a ball crying, surrounded by people trying to help him. I saw the riders picking up there bikes trying to get back in the pack then there was my bike, sitting in the ditch broken in half; one part on the left of the crying rider and another part on the right. I paused for what seemed an eternity but in reality it was only for a couple a seconds. Then I screamed and shouted. Son of a bitch! Why can’t you guys stay up right?

While I was having my outburst of anger, Noel and the mechanic came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go on. I was fixed on going on, even If I would just quit up the road anyway. There was no way in hell I was going to pull out before the cobblestone sections. I take the spare bike which didn’t fit me at all and I headed off with only a couple of riders.

I guess up the road when they hit the first cobblestone section the motorcycles ended up going down which neutralized the field. I could tell you first hand, it wasn’t because they did something stupid. Those cobblestones were greased up with mud. There were riders that got off their bikes and start running on the sides. Suffice to say it was nuts catching back up to the pack. I caught strangling riders dangling off having a miserable time; riders with flats, mechanicals and some whom just couldn’t hold the pace.

Finally I caught up with the pack again. The pack was moving along at an extremely slow pace and finally came to a stop. I could feel my right wrist swelling up. Noel came up to me in a hurry and told me to talk to a doctor. I went with him dogging cars people and riders and found the doctor. He was taking a pee on the side of the road and finally looks at me. He brushes my wounds and then he tells me to take a pain killer for my wrist. Noel tells me to move up threw the grass. I do that and right when I unclip, get into the grass they start the race again. So I cyclocross mounted on to my bike and got on the back. I made it threw a few cobblestone sections and then pulled out 80k into the race. Little bit under half way.

I was in the car with Noel and he was telling me all about the race while he was driving like a maniac staying with the peloton. Danny Summerhill came back and had to use his spare bike because the one he used apparently wasn’t shifting at all. Noel stops at the feed zone, throws my bike on the ground and tells me to go with the team helper Chris Fox. I rode back with David Talbot and the car ride for the most part was silent. When we were approaching the velodrome I remember breaking silence and said we won because we were the first one to cross the velodrome. Chris said he beat us because he was first then David replied that he was DQed because he wasn’t u23. Chris sarcastic in nature said David F you.

When we got to the velodrome I got my stuff to take a shower. I used some of my French to find out how to get to the shower and they showed me where it was. The kiddies’ race just finished and there were a handful of kids in there. By all the benches you could see all the names of the pro riders who did Paris Roubaix. I just took one without caring and I showered up.

In the shower opposite from mine a kid went up to it and was trying to reach the shower plug. The only thing that divided us was a wall in between me and him. All I could see was his small hand trying to reach the shower. I was showering and he kept trying to get the plug but kept failing. Finally I pulled it for him. The Paris Roubaix showers are turned on from a chain hanging down from the shower valve with a plug at the end of the chain. And it only stays on for 30 seconds so you have to keep on pulling it. Once the 30 seconds finished for the child I saw his hand go up once more and I kept pulling the plug for him. Finally I was done.

We went back and saw the finish of the race. Danny finished 7^th in a group of 8. Austin Carrol was in that group but he wrecked and finished top 35. A rabobbank guy ended up winning. After the race we took a team picture with my broken bike.

Els the house keeper was convinced that my wrist was broken so I went to the hospital with Noel. I talked for him with a while about Belgium, school, racing and everything else. Finally after a while I got my X-ray and as I suspected nothing broken. It was really hot in the hospital and I started asking for water but there was no water fountain and I started to pass out and I was lying on the table and noel was waving a towel over me to cool me down. Finally I get back home and tell everyone the good suspected news.

My wrist healed with some time and now I’m off to a stage race in Germany that’s supposedly super hard and I will supposedly have a hard time keeping up. It’s a 6 day stage race that has harbored many pro tour riders like Thomas Deckor (however you spell his name). It will be rolling hills, and it has one 38k TT. I race Tuesday and it’s over Sunday. Tell then

T’is.

Paris Roubaix

2008-06-01T01:19:00.001-06:00

Today I leave for Paris Roubaix I’ll update you when I’m done. I’m sitting here a nervous wreck waiting for the day to finish. I don’t have much time but I’ll edit this post after the day is over.

Welcome to Izegem

2008-05-27T02:24:00.002-06:00

It’s been a while since I updated my blog. Part of that is I was diverted by all the fun I was having and didn’t have time/energy to make a new blog post.

Comparatively, I’m not fast to everyone up here. I may do well in the local 1,2 races back home and yes that’s enough to make me fast .However, I probably won’t be taking any top tens here let alone top 40. So my goal in this case is to finish. There shouldn’t be too much pressure on me in that case. My other goal is to have fun and my final goal is to come back faster to the states. I’m trying to avoid thinking about racing and I’m trying to lighten up. This is so I avoid cracking.

I finished my first race and it wasn’t too bad until the end. I made the mistake of not eating enough and got dropped 5k to go. It started raining on us once we hit the circuits and suffice to say there were some wrecks. I staid upright though and everything ended up fine. I finished three minutes down, somewhere in the top half with a group of 10. there was 200 starters in all.

Next week I do Paris Roubaix u23. I know that the world champion u23 rider will be there so I know I’m probably going to crack in this race. I don’t even know if I’ll finish or not.

Life up here other than racing is pretty boring so we find things to do to kill the time. I’m reading Angela’s ashes and I’m almost done with that. Someone brought Into the Wilds up here so I may read that after I’m done with the book I’m reading now. We’re watching band of brothers again and I’m messing around with Matt Brandt & Christian Parrett all day.

What Doesn't Kill You . . . .

2008-02-13T11:55:00.004-06:00

There's no question to it, cycling is a hard sport. Everyone loses more than they'll win. However, it's a fact of life, that no one can win them all, no matter who you are. What it's mostly about is losing. One guy wins while the rest technically lose. Cycling isn't all about 1st place, in fact it has little to do with first place. Cycling is about meeting goals for yourself and yourself alone. This could mean finishing a race or getting better cycling skills, becoming a better person, getting in shape, or even just having fun.

However some cyclist lose the point of why they bike race. When they get a taste of a win they want more, they start yearning for more and start competing at higher levels. The satisfaction of a race win becomes more than a want, it becomes an addiction. The satisfaction of ataraxia is something we achieve after doing well in a race. We only get an appetizer, and after any appetizer we start to crave more. So after that we'll want more and we'll get it sooner or later, then something bad will happen; a bad wreck, drop out of a race, or something else. A lot of riders are extremely hard on themselves and sometimes they burn out.

WAKE UP!

Wake up from this illusion you're having, and remember why you started bike racing in the first place. Look how far you came and think of all the goals you met. When you're looking back at this ridiculous path of glory you were on, what was really at the end of that trail? I'll tell you what will happen, it's a premorse ending with the outcome of you, burning out and quitting. Of course you probably already knew I was going to say that.

Now how do we change this? What's the right path? You must succumb to the fact that you will probably lose a lot of races. Everyone does, even Lance Armstrong. What you need to do is look at what you did wrong in that race and then try to improve your mistakes. Don't weep over it. If you won you wouldn't know what your weakness is.

A real cyclist could lose and come back from it. It's more about surviving the hard times, than how many wins you can get.

"If you're going through hell, keep going." -Winston Churchill

In honor of Martin Luther King

2008-01-23T15:31:00.000-06:00

What does the American flag represent? Does it represent all the Americans that fought and died for our right to live?

Some wars don't involve guns or other countries. Some wars our being fought in our own heart. Men like Martin Luther King fought for the people, he fought for their rights.

I think the American flag represents people who died for our country like our soldiers and like Martin Luther king. Martin Luther king, to me, was a solider.

As long as people are alive, your words will always be remembered.

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him." -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

Salt Lake City/U23 Team Camp

2008-01-21T14:27:00.000-06:00

As you may have heard, I attended the U23 team camp in Salt Lake City. Let me wrap up all of the details for you.

We were lectured on a few things; insurance, nutrition, doping, training peaks, and our personal goals for next year.

As I've explained in my last post, insurance will be a necessity for Europe. It will cost 3 dollars a day, so it will be a little pricey. However, that's at 75 percent off, so you can only imagine how expensive it would be if you're not getting any discounts. The insurance, MedNex (whatever it is), is for when you seriously hurt yourself in a race. The ambulance wont deny you permission to be treated in a hospital or at all. Instead of paying them up front or getting left behind, you can just give them some paper work and you're off. If you don't have money or insurance, you just have to sit there until someone will pay up for you. So that means if I don't have insurance I have to wait for Noel (the u23 team manager) while he's in the caravan. You also get to go home instead of sitting around in Europe doing nothing after you just had surgery. I already explained this in my previous post, so I'm sure you don't want to hear any of it again.

The nutrition was interesting. I'm not going to go into details about everything she said but I will tell you some interesting things that were brought up. One of them being about chocolate milk. She said that chocolate milk wasn't the best recovery drink for after a bike ride. She didn't say it was bad but it's not geared towards cycling in general. Truthfully, it's really for bodybuilding. She said to use different drinks weakly and not to drink a lot of one specific drink. Another thing I thought was helpful, is that when you lose weight you should eat less on your recovery days than on your long days. On your long or intense days you will need all that fuel to properly exercise your muscles. However, every once in a while, you want to go out and ride on a somewhat empty stomach to teach your body to ride on the edge. Also, you should eat your main meal 2-3 hours before the race, 60 minuets before the race would be bars or something small, and 60 to go should be very easily digestible races. Of course in stage races, you need to eat more for energy but they should be very specifically geared towards carbs. The last thing she said is sweating salt. She said that some people sweat a lot of salt so putting more salt on their food would increase performance. I'll find you more details on this stuff later but for now let me talk about something else.

The doping was kind of interesting. Most of the subjects that were mentioned you probably already know but something I found interesting were a lot of the domestic pro teams and eastern block pro team are more likely to dope because USADA and WADA regulations don't apply to them. At least that's the speculation. Noel told all of us that you will be better in time if you stay clean than if you were to dope. Which in that case you would just be fast for a couple years and then slowly kill yourself.

The rest would just bore you to tears, as I'm sure you don't want to know how to download training peaks on your computer.

A couple nights at the camp we went out to dinner, but the last night me and my roommate Christan Perrate, who was on the junior national team with me, missed dinner. I thought we had to leave at 6:00pm but I guess they left at 5:45pm. So instead, we just ate at Cracker Barrel. We were a little embarrassed but no one cared, so no harm done. After that Matt Brandt and I wrestled around and we went to bed.

The next day we were getting ready to leave salt lake city. I was squatting down to pick up a bike box and all the sudden I hear a tear. I immediately knew what this was. I looked at my ass and I saw that I just ripped my pants. I was like "dude, I think I just ripped my pants." When Carter Jones saw the rip on my ass, we started to crack up! It was hilariously! I ended up taking my pants off in broad daylight, in the hotel parking lot, and luckily I had my bag with me so I could put on a new pair of pants. I need to invest in some better clothing!

After the camp I susprised to come back and see how cold it is over here. It's colder than it was in Salt Lake City.

link here

In other news...

Taylor Phinney won the Olympic Pursuit Qualifier, so he will be going for the golds at the Olympics. Some 17 year old kid has a chance to win golds at Olympics. That's nuts! Good luck Taylor.

link: here and here

Insurance

2008-01-15T22:33:00.000-06:00

I arrived in Salt Lake City today. I went past the Rocky Mountains which was a pretty magnificent site to see. The white snowy peaks looked like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. I am on the other side of the Rockies, with white snow on the ground.

Once we got out of the salt lake airport, we hit the ground running. I wasn’t sure when we were doing a VO2max test, so I waited around and did nothing. I ended up not doing any kind of testing and I attended some insurance seminar. It basically said that we will need MedEx to send us back to America when we bust our ass. It also prevents us from being denied into any hospital in Europe. It’s something that we will be required to have this year, in order to be on the u23 national team.

Some of the other stuff is personally engineered esoles, Bike fittings with three dimensional imaging, blood testing, and of course, a VO2 max test.

I’ll update tomorrow maybe, but don't count on it.

Father Guthrie

2008-01-13T14:38:00.000-06:00

Recently, I've been doing fix gear Guthrie (if that's how you spell Guthrie) rides on Saturday. My fitness has notably increased these last two weeks. This is to be expected, for before hand I was only riding once a week. I know, it's a lot.

Jan, Ethan, and someone named john rode with me this Saturday. If you're not familiar with the Guthrie route it's a sixty mile loop with some steep rolling hills. It usually takes about 3 and a half hours to ride. It's not a loop that you would typically ride a fix gear on either.

The climax of the ride is of course, father Guthrie. Father Gurthrie is a steep, long hill in Boone County. Now a smart ass would say Guthrie isn't big compared to Tour de France or Tour of California hills, but we don't live in California or France, do we? So anyway, before the hill, there's a downhill which leads to a valley; a sight which only cycling can deliver. Then after the downhill, you ride through the valley and then you see . . . Father Guthrie. The Pain and Agony you see in front of you is truly a sight to behold if it's your first time. Even the more experienced riders will feel a slight chill down their spines when approaching the hill.

That hill in particular, has a lot of memories. Looking back now, the first time I took my sorry ass up that hill, Luke Musselman was pushing me on one side, and on the other, my dad was pushing me. Once we reached the top, I remember Butthead proudly telling me " You rode up Father Guthrie Gupp, all your sins are forgiven." After Guthrie, I had no choice but to call "mom".

However, things have changed a bit over time. Oh have I grown. Last Saturday I conquered the hill single handed, with only a fix gear. I remember dropping dad, and then catching up to someone else and dropping them. It was truly a day to remember.

In other news...
Currently I am doing 8 hours of riding every weekend plus weight lifting on Friday. I've been doing one Guthrie fix gear ride every weekend and I've been getting a lot stronger from working out at the gym. However I'm horrible at jump rope. This Friday, there was a child no older than eleven. While I was trying to attempt to jump rope, the child grabbed a jump rope came beside and proceeded to "own" me. I looked over in disgust, and then I walked away in shame. There was nothing else to do at that point.

Soon I'll be heading out Tuesday Morning to Salt Lake City Utah for the U23 national team camp. I'm gonna have to wake up at 3:30am in KC to make my 6:00am flight. Oh joy! Here's the link on the camp and there is also a link on the front page of www.usacycling.org

Over the course of the last few weeks the 2008 USA Cycling Professional Tour was announced along with the UCI-sanctioned trade teams for this season, the U.S. men's and women's BMX programs are ranked number one in the world again, mechanics from around the nation are participating in USA Cycling's annual Bill Woodul Mechanic's clinic, special offers to USA Cycling members are available for the upcoming UCI Track World Cup in L.A., USA Cycling is preparing for its annual training camp with its National Development Team and Women's National Team programs in Utah and much more... Click here to read the latest edition of the USA Cycling Weekly News Update.

USA Cycling has invited 22 young men to its annual National Development Team camp at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (T.O.S.H.) in Salt Lake City, Jan. 14-17. This year’s attendees, which represent the next generation of elite American cyclists, include Brad Armstrong (Burleson, Texas), Chris Barton (Ojai, Calif.), Chad Beyer (Anthem, Ariz.), Benjamin Bradshaw (Winchester, Calif.), Matthew Brandt (Sheboygan, Wis.), Austin Carroll (Orange, Calif.), Guy East (Indianapolis, Ind.), Nolan Froese (Colombia, Mo.), Cole House (Oneida, Wis.), Max Jenkins (Berkeley, Calif.), Carter Jones (Maplewood, N.J.), Joseph Kukolla (Indianapolis, Ind.), Julian Kyer (Lyons, Colo.), Christopher Monteleone (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Christian Parrett (Macon, Ga.), Eric Riggs (Antelope, Calif.), Bjorn Selander (Hudson, Wis.), Taylor Shelden (Breckenridge, Colo.), Kevin Soller (Breckenridge, Colo.), Scott Stewart (Oxford, Mich.), David Talbot (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) and Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo.). While at camp, the athletes will undergo scientific, medical, fitness and power testing at T.O.S.H., participate in photo shoots and attend seminars on various subjects including nutrition, anti-doping, sport psychology and equipment and training software application.
Joining the 22 young men at the USA Cycling National Development Team camp will be several women who are part of USA Cycling’s Women’s National Team program – Katharine Carroll (Sausalito, Calif.), Alison Powers (Boulder, Colo.), Christina Ruiter (Bend, Ore.) and Carmen McNellis (Durango, Colo.).

2008 prolouge

2008-01-01T19:22:00.000-06:00

2008 is here and I'm getting back in shape.

The gravel grumbles happened and yes I bonked. The Fix Gear has became my winter bike this year. For those of you who don't know what the ix gear is, it's when you have to pedal in only one gear or else you wreck. So far, no wrecks. I also have been doing some Martial Arts correlating with a weight lifting schedule and that's going ok. It's a decent workout but best of all it helps my posture out a lot. Especially when I'm exercising.

Recently I have been trying to think of ways to reduce the impact of my kyphosis/back problems. As it has proven difficult, I have found some nifty tricks that help. Like sleeping on my back which has helped me out a lot. I can feel that my back has gotten straighter and stronger. However the door swings both ways. It hurts my sleep. I just got to get use to that.

In addition to everything, I have started my French lessons. My teacher has just moved here from France so there are still some language barriers still, but it's been going well so far.

Christmas and new years went well. We've been seeing a lot of movies and I think I've seen enough for now. There aren't any interesting stories yet just because nothing interesting has happened. I guess I could go on about how boring and unimportant life is but why talk about that when you could just rent out fight club.

I need to study some more as college is just around the corner. I will update my blog after my camp in salt lake city, which will be sometime in mid/late January.

Lords of the Rhymes

2007-12-20T13:15:00.001-06:00

Academy award winner Peter Jackson is making "The Hobbit" for 2010.

In honor for The Hobbit and all the lord of the ring movies.

2008

2007-12-17T11:54:00.000-06:00

I know it’s been around 5 forevers since I updated this thing but I finally did it. 2008 is right around the corner and I would like to address some things.

No, I’m not on the slipstream development team if that’s what you thought and no I won’t be staying on mesa. I will be on a new team that Dan Schmatz is putting on. We will be doing some NRC racing as well as local racing. The team consists of guys from Missouri and Colorado. In addition, we will be getting the opal from Orbea. That’s all I know about the team so far.

I will also be on the Elite national team as well. I don’t know when I go to Europe but I know I will be over there for around 2 months. I could go over there two times this year as far as I know. There is also a camp I will be attending soon, that will fit me on my bike for Europe and do some testing on me. The camp is in Salt Lake city and it’s the “other” Olympic training camp.

As for the rest of the year it was ok. I haven’t been training at all if you don’t include the cross racing. I won a couple b races as well as wrecking out of a couple b races this year. When nationals came I wimped out and decided not to do the U23 men. Instead I did the u29 B men on Thursday. Saying that I’m out of shape, It’s cross, and it’s a race at nationals, I only took 16^th. However Chris Wallace who will soon be on Mesa Cycles took second in the men 15-16 junior nationals. Add to that, my dad took eleventh in master nationals. That raps up my cross season really. I found literally no motivation or drive to get in the cold and train for cross.

I will be looking at a LONG season next year with a NRC schedule and the National team

My next post will be sometime after Christmas and I will post another one after the team camp.

Dvinsk Clan-Le Parkour

2007-10-27T09:24:00.001-06:00

Switzerland

2007-09-07T02:06:00.000-06:00

Last week I did the GP Rubiland junior 2.hc race. I ended up taking 14th over all and some of my teammates did really well in some of the stages. The race had former racers like Ivan Basso. And when he raced he didn’t podium so it gives you an idea of the race.

There was like 10 national teams here so it was a big race. No joking about that.

The race was fun but what was cool was the scenery. There were huge rolling hills and it was green as far as the eye can see. The weather was perfect and I was one of the first guys to go down one of the descents and I could see blue skies with the right amount of white clouds. I could see the sun in the corner of my eyes and I could see the big hills in the distance. The most beautiful place I have ever been.

Now I’m back in Belgium and a got a couple days left. I’m over here racing the local races that are still hard but not quiet as cool. I race an interclub Saturday which is a bigger junior race and a kermes on Sunday, and then I leave for home. TJ Erlacker is over here with me right now and he is racing as well.

Matt Brandt has left back home and he seemed really happy about it. The only guys in the house right now are TJ, the juniors and Ben Sharp. The other U23 guys left for a big stage race.

I will be at the Capital Twilight crit when I come back home but that’s my last crit for the year.

Back in Europe

2007-08-27T01:18:00.000-06:00

Well I’m back in Europe again. I wasn’t that burnt out after Downers Grove but now I am.

Europe is boring and uneventful. It’s already been a week and I’m saying that. I was talking to a u23 guy and this is what he had to say “Not bad? Fun? This is like being pro. No one in their right minds would come up here and do this for fun.” There you go.

The house is about to fill up and someone will have to stay in the hotel. Everyone is fighting for that spot.

I did two races in which both I did too much work. The first race I attacked like a madman and took 19th and the second race I did even more work and finished in the field. Not the smartest idea in Belgium. Belgium isn’t like America where there is one attack every five laps. Up here there’s an attack every second and there’s no easy point in the race. If you decided to attack at the wrong time, that’s wasted energy. The breaks are usually a group of twenty. Most of the time you have to bridge up to it because you font know if it will stick or not. Racing here is like learning to race all over again.

We do another race tomorrow and we leave to Switzerland on Thursday. For now I’ll have to pass the time on somehow.

Tulsa Tough

2007-06-07T11:43:00.000-06:00

Tulsa Tough was a blast! It had a crap load of money and it had good competition.

Here's how it went down.

The Friday night crit was dry when we first started but then it started to rain fairly hard. Jan attacked the pack and the pack was chasing. It was beginning to sprinkle when Jan went through a corner and slid out and wrecked. Since the pack wasn't too far back I almost hit Jan so I had to touch my breaks just a little bit and I went down.

The corners were so slick if you just applied a small amount of pressure to the breaks you would go down. In addition to how slick they were, these corners got even worse because of all the paint strips, spray paint and sewer lids on the ground.

I was pretty banged up and I didn't feel like hopping back on because I just found out how slick the corners were. My teammate (Jan) got my moral back up and we re-entered the race. The officials had us start in the back of the pack. So I had to move all the way back up to the front in the rain. However, it was a better idea than sitting in the back though. In the back, I would either wreck or get guttered. In the front I could place and concentrate more in the corners instead of worrying about riders wrecking me out.

So when I was moving up all the riders were getting scared of me. I was very aggressive when I was moving up. Everyone was scared of someone doing something stupid and wrecking. In other words, they were scared of me. However I held it upright for the rest of the race and managed to move up while all the guys freaking out ended up wrecking.

The last few laps I was in the top five with the Cat 3 winner from Joe martin. Coming into the last corner I knew I wasn't going to win the sprint because of my junior gears and my positioning. I was 5th wheel and the sprint was only 150 meters long coming out of the last corner so it was impossible for me to come around anyone. The guy on my wheel Joseph Smaltlz is a junior who managed to stay up towards the front as well. He ended up taking 6 th and me in 5th and the winner from Joe Martin won. Joe and I both agreed that junior gears sucked in that sprint.

After my race I found out that all my teammates wrecked with 50 percent of the field. I looked down on myself and noticed that I was bloody and that I was a tatterdemalion kid who just got done with a bike race.

There was a junior race on Saturday. We were the main team but there was one other strong guy that I was worried about. Thacker Revees a fast junior that lined up with us. We ended up getting in the break with one other guy. I didn't pull because I would like two of us to be in the top three. The other guy got dropped and Zach Hockett was bridging up to us. I tried to attack the kid a couple times but I never could get away. Zach finally caught up to us but then the kid attacked again and I just sat on his wheel and Zach bridged back up. We caught some lapped riders for the sprint and one of them tried to contest the field sprint with us and he went down right in front of me going through the last corner. I was right behind him and I hit his bike and went over my bars flying over the curb, into the grass. I got back up and finished taking third and Zach Hockett taking second.

I also did the Cat three race that day and I ended up taking 8th in the field sprint and I got a unofficial prime. It was definitely a hard course for Junior gears Zach and I hopped the curb a couple times moving up as well which impressed some of the other cat three riders.

Sunday was my best day out of all three days. In the junior race Jan attacked two times then he got up the road. Thacker Reves bridge up to Jan and then I bridged up to them solo. I attacked them really hard with seven laps to go I stayed away then I lapped the pack. Jan almost caught Thacker at the end and Zach won the field sprint.

1st place Nolan Froese
2nd Place Thacker Reves
3rd Place Jan Bradford watts
4th Place Zach Hockett
5th Place Luke Pirtle

The threes race went pretty well for me as well. I attacked up the climb with a OKC guy on my wheel. The pack was reeling us back in until another OKC guy came a crossed and attacked. OKC velo and Zach Hockett started blocking so we were starting to get some serious time on the pack. Christian, the guy who won Joe martin cat threes bridged up to us and helped the break out. We ended up lapping the pack at the end. I ended up in third place.

Out of the whole weekend I was second overall which I am really happy with saying that the guy in first needs to move up. Our team made quite a bit of money.

PICS

end

Memorial Rant

2007-06-05T13:40:00.000-06:00

I went up to memorial weekend great courses but the jr races were kind of silly. Sorry but there's something about 10 riders on one team, most of them sprinters and the race only being 10 laps.

The day I was hoping to do well was at the snake. It ended up raining which didn't suit me because I'm not very technical and I never really have raced in the rain before. I wrecked pretty bad in the warm-up. I went over a sewer lid going downhill. I wasn't able to see it and my front wheel goes out and I go down. In the race I was in the top 5 hoping to be top three. My gears ended up skipping and I fell back to the second group. The rider who won got past a huge group of lapped riders and the other two couldn't get past them. My teammate Zach Hockett had a bad start so he jumped to the curb to move up. He caught me with a couple to go when my gears skipped. I ended up blocking for him on the hill at the end and Zach got away to take 5 th and I ended up taking 7th. The threes race was fun and technical at the same time.

The cat 3's on the snake went ok. It was funny because I had a hard time with the wet technical turns and I would get gapped but I would gap the other riders on the flats. I wrecked once going up the hill. You had to sit on the snake as it was very wet.

The Melon city was only ten laps long and it was impossible to get a break going. There was a break with Adam Leibovitz me and another kid up the road. Iscorp got two riders to bridge up to the break so you would think we would be fine. But no, they had to chase it down. I ended up killing myself chasing Adam down. Two Iscorp riders got a gap and Adam and I went to the back because we were so tired. I ended taking 18 th and Zach ended up taking third. The cat three race went ok, saying that I can't position my self worth of crap. I got in one good break but it got caught two or three laps to go. I was in the top ten for the sprint but I got stuck behind someone having problems up the hill. I got back in the top ten and then going through the last corner someone almost took me out. Wow. Zach Hockett took 8th and I took 13th.

Rock Island was fun and the race went a little better. In the juniors I let Iscorp try to chase Adam down. When he got up the road Iscorp wasn't chasing but then started to but they couldn't bring him back. I was in a catch twenty-two situation every junior race. Go with Adam and go for the win but have a huge chance of going blowing my chance to place or let Iscorp chase Adam and place well. So I let Iscorp chase and Adam got up the road and won. I ended up sprinting for a prime and got it but they didn't give me the prime. Adam was up the road when they called the prime and they gave it to him. It was for the field so I don't know what the officials were thinking. We were all sprinting. Then at the end I ended up taking second in the field sprint but they gave me fourth because apparently someone was ahead of me. I ended up beating the guy by a cm I know because I saw his wheel at the line I and it was behind mine. I tried to protest but they were too strict on it so I was screwed. The threes went ok I ended up taking tenth and Zach ended up taking fourth. I decided to just sit in the pack and let everyone chase each other down. Adam attacked again and won because no one knew who he was and let him go. Once he gets a gap he can hold it pretty well. I wasn't in good placing for the sprint but I passed some people going through the corners. The pack sprint was really bunched up. I could see Zach towards my right at the end and there were six people in between me and him. The women's race went well Catherine Walberg and Samantha Schneider took first and second which was really cool to see.

Torn up, ignored, unlucky, marked, pwned and cheated I still had a pretty fun weekend and I got tons of experience. I hope I get more from Tulsa Tough because that is my last big race until Fitchburg.

PICS

Hard work looking that good

His first BIG race

The Champ Adam

The Girls

Joe Martin

2007-05-16T22:24:00.000-06:00

We got to Fayetteville Arkansas Friday night. The Pro 1 race just finished when we got there a little after that the Cat 1/2's finished. The Pro 1 road race was a big nasty sprint finish. The race for the most part was a headwind so the pack stayed together. Steve Tilford went down going like 40mph and broke his bike. He got a replacemtent bike and rode it for the next day. That night we ate at a Mexican restaurant with Tracy, Samantha, Dave and Jeff. I was happy to see the other guys again even though I was tired for some reason.

Saturday we woke up and did the road race. It seemed like nothing could stick because everyone chased. I was trying to get a break going the whole time but nothing would seem to stick. Finally at the last 4 kilometers to go one guy attacked and no one decided to chase. I kept yelling at them to chase but they ignored me so I had to cross over the yellow line a bit and chase him down my self. No one else would help. I ended up sacrificing my sprint position just to close the gap on the guy. He still had a small gap of about three seconds and got the time bonus for first which was 15 seconds.

The Time Trial went ok. The same guy who won the road race won the time trail and I ended up taking 5th. I ended up going way to hard at the beginning and ended up dry heaving half way through. I got a 9 minutes and 48 seconds but I think I could of got more like a 9.28 if I would have taken better lines and paced my self better. Oh well. That would still only put me in top 3 because the winning time was 9.23 which I don't think I could beat. I was kind of bummed out that I couldn't have taken top 3.

The Crit went ok as well. I attacked my ass off and ended up getting nowhere again. The guy who won attacked at the end again got off the front and won. I almost felt as if I was being used because it seemed like no one would pull but me. My teammate Mike Flanigan made a good move and stayed off the front for a lap. That move helped me recover a bit. I attacked on the last lap and almost stayed away. When I was just 400 meters from the finish I could see the pack about to swarm me and I stood up and sprinted as hard as I could. My legs felt like crap because of the huge effort I did to stay away and I had no time to recover. I could feel the huge lactic acid build up in my legs. Finally the finish line came and I ended up getting beat by a centimeter by some IsCorp rider. I didn't get the time bonus nor did I stay away. However I still got fourth, which isn't bad saying that I was one of few guys pulling out there.

Waiting for the crit to start was the worst wait in my life. I hate it when everyone leaves and no one sees your race. Its just hard to pump your self up. It was good seeing Matt Brandt again. we talked after the Pro 1 race.

The night we got back I saw batman begins for the third time, great movie.

I really want to race, train and ride right now. Can't wait for memorial weekend.

Hell of The North

2007-04-24T14:58:00.000-06:00

Everyone keeps asking me what Paris Roubaix is like. Sorry folks I never really had the time to tell but here you go.

We pre-rode the course Thursday and let me tell you. THOESE COBBLES HURT! My fingers, my palm of my hands and my shoulders were killing me the next day. It seemed like I was going fast. I was keeping up with Taylor Phinney on the cobbles and everyone was telling me I was looking strong.

There were a lot of national national teams were there. English, Slovakians, French and I think Germans. There was Tom Boonen's Junior team, Balen.

The race started in the junior rollout everyone tried to get in line first cutting and screaming. Then the neutral rollout came where everyone was still fighting for position. Finally we got to the start line where I ended up in the dirt off the road trying to find a good starting place. Once the race started fifty screaming Belgium's came around me and I ended up at the back yet again. SO I tried to move up on the left hand side and what do you know? A crash happens right in front of me. I slammed on my breaks as hard as I could. I was hoping to miss it but I was just a split second off. I ended up going over my handle bars. I got up fairly quick look around and the pack was haling ass. I got my bike up and was about to ride it but I looked down and I see the bars were bent, the stem was twisted and the chain was off. I got the bars straight and got the chain on but I was struggling to get that stem twisted back. The mechanic stopped and helped me but by the time I got everything fixed it was too late. The pack was already hauling ass at 28mph on a flat section and I was already 3 minutes back. I ended up having to get back in the broom wagon before I could ever hit the first cobbles. I wasn't the only one to wreck out though. Half of the field wrecked out. Taylor Phinney wrecked three times. The only guy who finished was Ben king and he had a lot of mishaps.

Everyone's morale was low I could tell. All this training just to wreck out. Things got better when we saw the Pros came in though. It was pretty cool being right next to the pros when they arrived.

A French kid ended up winning and Balen was all in the top 15. http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2007/apr07/parisroubaixjuniors07
and
http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=2889

I think I may of got a small cold from the riders of there because I am beginning to hack again. Great. Hope it goes away soon.

Next blog post= Lincoln Plating Nebraska

Wanted: Missing Butt Cheek

2007-04-19T21:20:00.000-06:00

Gotta hurt.

2007-04-12T12:14:00.000-06:00

Euro Trip

As you may have heard, I just left for Belgium a little while ago. I left on the flight in St Louis. There I met two of my teammates, Ryan and Taylor Phinney and the junior director Ben Sharp.

Once we got in Belgium some guy drove us to the place where everyone hangs out in Izegem. All the u23 guys were there John Devine, Brent Bookwalker, Bjorn Sealander, Cole House, Walker Salvage and a lot other guys. We spent one day there and left for the race.

We stayed at a very nice hotel. A lot of pro teams stayed there before and they served us breakfast lunch and dinner.

The races were crazy. You have to move up on the sidewalks and the whole time we would average 26-27 mph. The euros would break on purpose in the corners to string out the pack. We averaged 280 watts the whole time. Some of the fastest juniors in the world were there.

The first day was ok. The TT was short and I didn't take my lines too good. I think
I could of shaved ten seconds off my time. Doesn't sound like much but it is. The first road stage was hard. I got stuck in the back and couldn't move up and ended up getting dropped with a lap and a half to go. Taylor Phinney ended up 15 th in the prologue and just finished Top 40 in the road race.

The second day was better for me I finished half way up in the pack. Alex Coelho wrecked with a bit more than 1k to go so he lost some time. Taylor Phinney wrecked and half of his butt cheek came off when he wrecked. But since it was 1k before the finish line he got pack time. He ended up moving up by one spot to 14th.

The third race was the hardest of the entire race. The crosswind were brutal, people got dropped and the pack split up into two groups. Phinney broke a spoke and he had to catch back on. Alex went back to help him out. I don't think I could of helped that much if I would have fallen back.

I finished in the second pack and Ben king ended up bridging up to the first group which was only a couple seconds away.

So Phinney lost his top 15 placing which sucks.

Sylvan Springs

2007-03-29T14:09:00.000-06:00

It's a litttle late to be talking about a race that happened two and one half weeks ago but I want to get to it.

The Sylvans Spring crit usually isn't a big juniors race. You are usually lucky to find one cat three junior in it. However this year there seemed to be more juniors in this race. My self, Zach Hockett, Jan Bradford Watts and John caldwel did this race and we are all cat 3 juniors. So as you can see the junior race this year was the hardist it has ever been in a long time. Add to that that the juniors like Zach Stein and Logan are a hell of a lot faster this year. Usually I use the junior races as warm ups. Not this time. My legs were killing me after this race. I was suprised I did so well in the 1,2,3s.

I attacked pretty early in the race with logan and we ended up getting off the front. I wanted to keep him with me for a while because I know his teammate Martin Lang could try to pull me in. So I kept him for a while and then I ended up attacking him and lapped the pack to go to a place where no one could chase me down. Zach Hockett was weeding the field out trying to get away but thoese guys stuck on him. I helped him out a bit and we naraowed it down to john cladwel and zach stein with logan still up the road. It was a little to late to chase Logan down so he stayed in second place.

I think if Logon goes to L'abitabi this year he will do a lot better. He is a lot stronger.

1st Place Nolan Froese
2nd Place Logon VonBokel
3rd Place John Caldwell
4th Place Jan Bradford-watts
5th Place Zach Hockett
6th Place Zach Stein

In the 1,2,3 race it was really hard for me to get away. So a break was hardley a option. Austin attacked a little too soon and wore him self out but he still looked pretty strong. Zach Hockett and I were helping Tracy out at the end and he ended up taking 9th and I ened up with 12th and Richarrd a strong young mesa cat 3 finished right behind me. Zach finished somewhere in the back of the pack but he pulled pretty hard to chase the break down.

There was a younger junior who broke his collar bone in the juniors race. I know how it feels I broke my arm once to. This is where your true bike racing sprit comes in. Its the hard times that make you a good cyclist not the good times.
Hang in there. wish you well.

Thusly my Holy Trial bike appeared

2007-03-28T11:04:00.000-06:00

How does it work?
Book of Armaments (Chapter 2, verses 9-21)

And Saint Attila raised the bike up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this Thy trial bike that with it Thou mayest dropest Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu...

And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Bike, then shalt thou tighten carbon lightly not to tight, not to loose. Just tight enough where it stays on there shall be the tightness of thine bike, and the tightness of the bike shall be just right. sort of tight shalt thou not do, neither to loose, excepting that thou then proceed to not tight. Real tight is right out. Once the bike is right, being just tight enough, then riddest thou Holy Trial Bike of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjeJi07O7uQ

Froze Toes

2007-03-15T13:46:00.000-06:00

Our bikes came in last week and they seem nice. Just a tad bit lighter on the up hills and it handles a lot better then my old bike. They are really nice looking too. I seem to be able to clip in my pedals extra fast with these bikes. We got to race them for the Froze toes and they seemed to work pretty good. Here's how the froze toes went down. I was riding really aggressive throughout the beginning of the race. I finally got in the winning break. For a while the pack was pretty close to the us. Zach Reed Bridged up to us pretty quick which made 9 riders in the break. Two of them from the very start dropped out and I don't know who they are. The break was all Cat 1 (besides the two that dropped out) riders but me. Kurt Fletcher, Justin Maciekowicz, Luke Musselman, Andy Chocah, Zach Reed, Nolan Froese, and Tracy Thompson.

Mean while back in the pack the Big shark boys decided to chase the break down. Josh and Nate pulled in the gutter and broke everyone's legs. So Most everyone got dropped.

I ended up bonking and dropping out of the break and everyone caught me. I knew I bonked because I couldn't recover and stay on anyone's wheel. If I could of stayed on the next group wheel that would of meant I just went to hard. But that's not what happened.

1st Place Zach Reed
2nd Place Luke Musselman
3rd Place Justin Maciekowicz
4th place Kurt Fletcher
7th place Ethan Froese
8th Place Josh Johnson
9th Place Nathan Rice
14TH Place Richard Breiniger
20th Nolan Froese
21st Zach Hockett

After the race my back was hurting for 3 days. I stretched a bit and it felt a lot better after that. Now my back doesn't hurt that much when I go out and ride. I think it's the froze toes or the stretches I did.

In the 3s race Austin Allison won and Logan Vonbokel took 7th . Also Ben Pholman took 3rd in the juniors field and helped some of the other juniors out. Good job guys.

Hacks Around the Globe

2007-03-01T21:55:00.000-06:00

Hack Hack Hack! All day. It's a long blog worthy story.

About two weeks ago Brian Dziewa decided to ride along with us on our BOCMO group rides. Brian was sick. He had a small cold at the time and he turned off on the ride because of it. After that ride I have been coughing up hell. I bought three things of orange juice and drank them all in a day. Then I sucked down all of the cough drops.

This has been going on for a week and a half. You would think that lots of time and a lots of cough drops would do the trick but NO! I still have this dumb cough. To make things even worse I can't take any medicine for it. That's what my mother said at least.

Now Brian and I aren't the only ones who are sick; everyone across the continent is getting sick. What the hell? Did al-Qaeda send us a virus or something? From what I hear a lot of people in California are getting sick. It could be because of the change in weather. So now I don't even know where I got it from; al-Qaeda or Brian Dziewa.
Oh yes to clear some things up about Froze Toes. People were speculating that the reason why the Froze Toes was called off was because we thought not many people would come because it was cold. We called it off because we thought 3 inches of snow were going to be on the ground which would make it impossible to ride. For some reason people don't think it was called off because of the weather. I get the feeling that when people say "the Froze Toes was called off because we thought no one would come because it was cold" they seem to imply that they are mad at us. Well this is what I have to say to all of you guys. The weather forecast said 3 inches of snow. I'm sure even more people would be bitching at CBC if we were out in the snow but of course weatherDOTwrong had to say there will be snow on the ground. Also Sunday was windy as hell. It was so Windy that if you were to race out there, there probably would be a lot of crashes. So anyhow for whatever reason you think we called of froze toes we called it off because we thought there was going to be a lot of snow. End of story.