It has been great racing season so far for 2007. So great that I haven't had any time to write about it. I started a bike team this year, Start Haus Cycling. It is based out of the ski-shop I run, consists of only local Tahoe area riders, and is steadily growing as the summer goes on.
The following is a summary of my race calendar from the last months with a few race reports as well.
April 24, Boca Road Race - Pack
April 28-29, Madera Stage Race - 18th
Madera is a pretty simple 2-day, 3-stage race. It started with the easiest, slowest criterium I have ever done. Everyone was saving their strength for the Time Trial in the afternoon where the race would be decided. The TT was 10 miles long, pancake flat, and very windy. The temperatures had reached over 100 degrees by the time I was scheduled to start. After a long warm-up, I went to zip-up my jersey but broke my zipper – which instantly put me into panic-mode, as my start time was only minutes away. I dug through my car and found my other jersey, re-pinned my number and proceeded to BREAK THAT ZIPPER TOO. Now I was officially late for my start, so my TT time had started and I wasn't even racing yet. I rode over to the registration area and used a handful of pins to stitch my jersey shut. I then rode like a madman to the TT start about a mile away. I put in a great time (top 3), however I was penalized 2 minutes for being so late. The road race the next day was fairly un-eventful, and I tried to do a much damage I could on the last lap to shed anyone hanging in for the sprint, which for some reason I didn't contest
May 1, Air Center Crit - 16th
May 6, Pine Nut Cracker Cross Country - 1st
I won this race in the first 5 minutes with a hard effort. I thought that the final checkpoint was the finish line and sat up to spin back to my car. A few minutes later a rider came ripping by me, and at that point I realized I had not crossed the real finish yet. I felt bad when I sprinted past rider that had passed me, because he had probably been chasing me hard the whole race and thought he was going to win.
May 8, Fernley Road Race - 3rd
May 15, Air Center Crit - Pack
Raced with Bobby Julich of Team CSC who was home for a few weeks in Reno, gearing up for Le Tour. I had visions of getting raped by Bjarne Riis if I crashed Bobby.
May 20, Panoche Valley Road Race - 3rd
This was an out-and-back course featuring rolling hills and a fierce head-wind on the return. I attacked constantly during the race (on almost every climb), trying to escape and trying to hurt the field. Looking at my heart-rate monitor data following the race, I counted fifteen separate attacks that I initiated. Unfortunately the pack was riding extremely defensively, and only one attack stayed away for more than a few minutes. I gave up my attacks as the finish line approached, and angrily sprinted for a podium spot.
May 22, Geiger Grade Uphill Time Trial - 17th 36:01
May 27, Mt Hamilton Road Race - 18th
This point-to-point race starts with a 20 mile, 4500' climb, followed by rolling hills, a tough 3 mile climb and finally a long downhill to the finish in Livermore. I think my warm-up was sub-par as I was dropped from the first group in the final few miles of the climb. On the descent I chased so hard that I over-shot a corner and flipped my bike over a cliff. Somehow my bike and I landed on the sole bit of plant-life growing out of the cliff-side. There I was clinging to this bush, holding my bike, overlooking a 300 foot drop as a spectator scrambled to pull me back up. I almost died, but I was so intent on catching the first group that I hopped back on my bike and kept chasing. I re-grouped with a few other chasers, then ditched them on the final major climb to chase solo for 20 minutes before I finally managed to catch what I thought was the lead group. Unfortunately they were a chasing the lead group as well, and they weren't chasing very fast. At this point my legs were gone, so I sat in to take the sprint for what I thought would be 8th, but it ended up being 18th. Since this race was point-to-point, I had to ride another 50 miles (only 40 if you don't get lost in Livermore) back to San Jose for a tiring 110 mile day.
May 29, Boca Road Race - 26th
June 2, Peavine Cross Country - 2nd
There was a fire on the course started by a pedal hitting a rock (yes it was that hot), and I was directed to a wrong turn for 2nd place.
June 12, Summit Crit - 13th
June 26, Boca Road Race - 6th
June 30, Leesville Gap Road Race - 1st
This race features the worst roads of any race in California. Chewed up asphalt and gravel farm roads that have not been maintained since they were built in the 1930s, for 65 fucking miles. It sucked. Bernard Hinault hated Paris Roubiax, but that didn't stop him from winning it either. I broke away on the first climb with 9 other riders and we stayed away for the remaining 40 miles. I played it smart at the flat finish and won the bunch sprint.
July 1, Vacaville Gran Prix - 3rd
Vacaville Gran Prix is crit in downtown Vacaville featuring many turns and nice hill. I was feeling really fresh still from Leesville and my plan was to attack on the last lap hill and hold it for the win. I tested this plan by winning a prime and knew it would work. However with 3 laps to go, I got crashed into a gutter (my 3rd crash in 3 weeks). A rider landed on me and just sat there dazed, I pushed him off me, grabbed my bike and spent a lap catching the field. I made it to the front just in time for a very close bunch sprint.
July 3, Air Center Crit - DNF
Too fucking hot to race, saved my strength for Davis.
July 4, Davis 4th Crit - 24th
107 Degree downtown crit, yeesh.
July 10, Boca RR - 13th
July 14, Downieville Cross Country - 5th
I borrowed my dad's full suspension Blur LT for this race, because it features of 17 miles of white-knuckle downhill. This was not a place for my hard-tail. The race is point-to-point 10 miles straight up, and than 17 miles down with a few mini climbs thrown in. I put at least 5-10 minutes into the entire field on the climb (I caught some pros), however that is where my troubles began. They didn't have waterbottles at the neutral feed, they only had open water containers. I am used to tossing my waterbottle on my bike and grabbing a fresh one at neutral feed, so before I even saw their pitiful water offering – I had already tossed my waterbottle. So with an hour or more left in the race, I was out of water. On the downhill some asshole tried to pass me at the worst possible time, and I refused to move over for him because it was unsafe. So he elbowed me over and crashed me into some rocks. I was fucking furious (I passed this asshole on the next climb and I should have bashed his head-in with a rock). This crash broke my rear shifter by only allowing me to shift to an easier gear, but not back to a harder gear. But by the time I realized this, I was stuck in my easiest gear (34t cog). I stopped and got off my bike and tried to physically bend the derailleur into a harder gear, because my speed dropped by half with this gear issue. There was no way to fix it, so I was stuck spinning at 200rpm for the rest of the race as people passed me. Then my front wheel came loose and fell off at the top of a climb. Then I got stung by a bee. The last mile into the finish was paved, and it was faster for me to pump my bike with one foot like a skateboard than it was to pedal. I hate loosing knowing that I would have won before these mishaps.
Article was last edited on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 @ 3:31 PM
