Welp I Made it Home

Before I say anything else. Pat you were wrong! knowbody wants to here about "pro life". I even asked all ya'll to ask questions, but all I heard back were crickets chirping! I got several fold more views on my whiny blog post about my problems, than I did on the previous one when I opened the floor up to conversation. I interpret this as.... No one wants advice from me (assumptions are that I know nothing), however, people do read my writing to make them feel better about themselves, for not being as much of an idiot as me.... In my current emotional state my response is, fuck it, whatever keeps people coming back... give it two more weeks and I'm sure I'll manage to put a negative twist to it.

Im back in VT! 17 hours of driving and 4 medium dunkin dounuts coffees, 3 venti starbucks coffees, and 1 5 hour energy later I have made it. The new car that I bought is begging for me to put it out of its misery, but that girl aint seen nothin yet... the drive to Tuscon will be a drive time of 2 days and 4 hours!

Luckily I will have Colin('a) to keep me company on the drive. (the ('a) is just for effect because he's a total pansy and I'm going to own him when we get on the bike, but I still love him).

Anyways, I just wanted to say fair well to my Winston friends. Jenna, Joe, Zack, and Jamie, I had a great time visiting with you. I literally spent an entire day playing black ops with Jamie (something like 28.5 hours)! WTF! Riding with my new teammate Chris and old teammate Evan, we have so much to look forward to this season. Sierra your still cool, your pretty non-existent but "it's whatever", as you would say it. Emile I saw you one to many times, but its all good, its better this way. The whole Winston community is so supportive of each other and of me and my awkward lifestyle, you guys are awesome and I will miss you dearly this winter. Sorry I missed the cross race, its probably good that I didnt race anyways because I'm pretty sure I have the plague now.

Alright. Time to go workout in the basement. Its snowing and 18 degrees here, and its been dark for 3 hours. Its all good though because in 2 weeks I will be riding up this!

What do people want to know?

Okay, so it seems like there actually are a couple people who have an interest in what I have to say, so I feel like I should open the door for suggestions about future blog posts.

If there is any questions that you would like to have answered, I would love to take a stab at them. Are you curious about Kenda Pro Cycling's line up for next season? What are my goals for 2011? What to expect on the US pro circuit for 2011? Why am I bi-polar? Why have my panties been all in a bunch for the last week? Or just some general insight from a pro cyclist, just leave a comment on this thread and I will get at it.

Disclaimer! UVM'ers! Please do not exercise the same degree of respect that you have toward your own list serve... interpret that as you will.

Some Pics that I recently stumbled upon.

Future roommate, former lab co-worker Graham drinking dry-ice lab ethanol coffee



Here we see former UVM cyclist Vinnie making an impression of his former girlfriend.... moderately inappropriate, sorry.

What is Best in Life

Not that this video is needed nor fully appreciated now but it was when we were getting hyphy on NOS in our Dallas hotel room, getting ready for Texas Tough. With Cross Nationals today this video is being swapped around like a dirty magazine in a room full of 14 year old boys. Well, I'm that kid who's tearing a page out so that I dont forget about it down the road when I need it to get all hot and bothered before a big race.

* Holly crap that dudes the Governor of Ca

Well I cant get the movie to post so ill just include the link

Video

I going home. home is whenever Im with you!

Oh my god I will never ever forget that song. Last year after the Air Force race weekend Jon Hamlen put that song on repeat for literally 6 hours in what was, to this date, the best van ride ever. Thats pretty much all I can say to describe it but those words sure have a deeper meaning.

Although, literally, I get to go home soon. One more week in this cold, social-lifeless town. I had planned originally to leave on Monday, but after finding out today actually just how bad I am, I've decided to give it another week here before I go home and get fat on beer and cookies.

Yesterday I secured an apartment in Tuscon for the beginning of January. For the first time I am headed out for winter training with two of my best friends, Ben Zawacki and Colin Jazzerwitz (I'm not really sure how to spell his name but he is really fuckin polish). Every year it has been a solo trip, and I am really really really cracked on traveling by myself.

Other than that fact that I am pushing 2% less power at threshold now than I was at the beginning of the year, I feel like things are starting to come together for 2011 to be another year of great successes in cycling for me.

Sadly the things that I do on the bike are only a small fraction of the challenges of living this lifestyle, and right now it seems like all things have gone wrong. Relationships in particular, all the traveling makes it very hard to keep important ones strong, and it makes it impossible to start new ones.

I'm looking forward to the spring because Kenda has provided me with the means to be able to get my own apartment, and I hope that I'm able to go back home to Vermont. Its been way too long.

As so now, I'm in a little emotional rut but life cant stop because of I'm sad. Its definitely time to just sack up and do what I have to do to show I deserve what I've been given.



This fine gem was courtesy of Tim Jackson over at Masi Bicycles! things fast!

Days Get Shorter and Depression Gets Deeper

Im sad Im lonely Im not happy with where I am right now. This blog is my journal, its not cyclingnews and I dont want to rewrite a race report with my sub-par writing skills. I want to use this space to express my emotions about this fucked up life that I'm living. Finally I feel something. I miss my family, I miss my girl. I love my sport. I want to be a doctor someday. I want to fall in love. I want to want something more than I want to be the best in my sport. No one reads my shitty writing. Sometimes I think that I only am doing this sport just because all you assholes said that I'd never amount to anything. Fuck you. Every pedal stroke brings me happiness and anger. I'm addicted. I don't owe anyone shit, no matter how gifted you think I am. This is where I am because of my choices and commitments that I've made. I wish that I wasn't poor. I love bike racing.

Do you ever see an old photo from your past and become overwhelmed with appreciation for the friends that you have made along the way? I can’t express how fortunate I feel to have such good friends.






I was looking at pictures I took from my old phone and came across these. Some of the best memories of my life, pretty rad.

Off Season in Winston-Salem

After a month of sitting on my ass, drinking beer and doing laboratory research at the UVM hospital, it was time for me to to dust off my bicycle and head south. Burlington has always been my place of solace, and it is never easy to leave. It takes discipline to be a successful bike racer, and every year about this time I find myself re-evaluating my priorities in life. I'm seeing all my friends growing up and starting to making names for themselves outside of their passion for cycling, and I cant help but to be jealous. My two biggest dreams in life have been to become a professional cyclist and to become a doctor. This year it is time for me to start making some moves.

I have been on and off studying for the MCAT exam ever since I graduated in the fall of 2008. It is so frustrating. This stupid exam is probably going to be the hardest thing that I have ever done, and I cant handle the pressure of it anymore. I cant afford to take a exam prep course, so I am going at it alone. I am taking the test January 28th 2011! Ive got my books and I plan on spending my days riding and my evening learnin me up sum science. (im probably going to have to learn how to read and write at some point in there)

I have no idea how well im am going to do this year in the racing scene. My expectations are to be no less than the best and I am taking the right steps to come into the 2011 season faster than ever, but I wont let my cycling goals interfere with my dreams outside of the sport. I especially don't want to have this huge MCAT hurdle standing between me and getting into school.

I will be in Winston for the next 4 weeks, then home for holiday, then arizona. Expect many more blog journals entries to follow because I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the cafe. chicks dig blogging.

First Weekend Back in NE

Well, to start things off I lost a bike race to a teenager. Yeah he might be more accomplished than me and a protege of LANCE ARMSTRONG, but hes still a child compared to me, and he beat me in a sprint! Gavin jumped before me, came around me, then I wasnt able to re-open and close his door. The Portsmouth Crit was awesome and I was legitimately beat and I am very happy that I got the opportunity to race there this past weekend. There were a lot of good riders from the local scene, and it made for a fun challenging race. I put out much higher numbers at portsmouth than I did at the USA Crit finals in Dallas. Consider that at dallas I was hiding out the whole race and at Portsmouth I was trying to make up for Richard Fries not giving me a call up, so I was riding off the front as much as I could, but for a local race it was pretty good.



I have been sitting around starbucks since 9am... chillin and interneting. I've drank two grande cups of Italian roast and a sausage breakfast sandwich. The toughest decision that I have made today was calculating what screen brightness to use to assure that I will have enough battery life to last until 3pm when I go for a bike ride with my very busy, but very close good friend Ben Coleman. If your wondering I calculated right. 2:07pm with 1:27 battery left.

I have no idea what to do with my time this fall. I could stay here in burlington doing nothing, but being with my friends, then move to Tuscon after christmas to start training for 2011 race season, or I can move back to the TMK team house in winston-salem and have free housing and a job! I know what decision I should make, but its not really the one that is going to make me the happiest. If anyone knows how I can make money in Burlington please let me know, Escort services is not an option, sorry.

My dads coming up to VT to go fishing with me tomorrow or friday. I hope his old man wisdom will help make this decision a bit more easy.

USA Crit finals tonight!

so first thing, im not very committed to the blog... clearly. But I intend on working on our relationship in the next few weeks. Im super bored with writing about bike races, soon my life will get more interesting. Tonight it the finals! tonight I have to defend the jersey for one last day. Im feeling good and the team is really riding good. My two older brothers flew out to watch the race and I was lucky enough to get them two VIP passes, courtesy of Geoff Godsey from Texas Tough. Shits gon be Dank! Im pretty nervous, but I am confident in my abilities and Im confident in my team. So, on that note, let me just post a few pictures of things that make me happy.









soak it up while you're waiting for us to tear it up tonight.

Boise Idaho is NOT a shit hole

(downtown boise as seen from outside the french cafe where we ate breakfast every morning)


(This is the Boise River, hundreds of people float down on tubes every day, but we opted to just jump off "the tree of life" as one kid called it)

Boise Idaho was the first place that I have gone that I have been thinking about my return to the city before I actually have even left. I had so much fun on this trip. Boise is like a whole different world than anything that I have ever been exposed too. I’m actually upset that I am flying home.





I don’t even know how to explain it. The mountains, the rivers, the people, everything about Boise was awesome…. Except that it in Idaho. I took a bunch of photos to help capture what I am talking about, I foresaw having difficulty explaining this place.
Before I get to dreamy about fly fishing and hiking in Boise, I can’t forget to talk about why we went here in the first place. The NRC Boise Twilight Criterium, USA Crit series stop number 6.
The race took place right in downtown outside the swanky studio 43 hotel where we were being put up by the USA Crits series.



The flat four corner crit was unpredictably hard. I’m not sure if it was the course, the 101 degree dry air, or the pressure of chasing the USA Crits overall that made the race so difficult.
All night dangerous moves kept rolling off the front but in the end it did come down to a sprint, and that shit was a bitch to say the least. Fly V had all 8 of their guys lined up on the front for the last tens laps. The battle for the rest of us was for the spot in the back of their train. I smashed and crashed my way onto Hilton’s wheel, who was first behind fly v, but jamis was not happy with that at all. With 3 laps to go luis ameron hit me harder than I thought possible, and all my efforts to win such valuable real estate were instantly negated. I had to settle for Hanson’s wheel who was sitting on Borajo.
With two to go Fly V still had 8 guys pulling, they picked the pace up real quick. For the last two laps we averaged 36 miles per hour. I tried one last time to sabotage Jamis for what they did to me, so in turn two on the last lap I took the inside and went in to try to get back Hilton’s wheel, but my energy was just wasted. At 36mph I could only go a couple mph faster, in an all out sprint, they easily shut my door.
I put my tail between my legs and went back behind Hason. My position didn’t change in the sprint, I ended up 7th after all the lead out guys fell off in the last 500 meters.
I’m not thrilled with my result. My job was to sprint and I got last out of the group of well-known sprinters that were there. I have some stuff to learn about smashing in the final laps, but really I think that I just need Adam or Mark to help guide me through the last few laps. I am strong enough to sprint with these guys, but as Hilton said to me after the race, “you have to win to get the respect”. Its kinda lame, but I totally understand it. No one is going to let me in, or give me a wheel in the last few laps, until I have kicked their ass enough times so that they know I am a good wheel to sit behind.
I still feel a little weak from the break that I took at the beginning of July, but I have a couple 10-12 days of solid training before I head back out to Chicago for Elk Grove at the beginning of august. Thanks for reading.

Wheres Izak been up to? hmm

Well I just spent the first half of this flight to Boise working on my athletic resume. All this thought about next season reminds me about how I have been keeping everyone in the dark about what in the hell has been going on in my life this season!
To start. I just got off a 5 day break in the beginning of July. It was exciting. I went Camping with Megan and my family and basically just sat on the beach and drank wine mixed with pineapple juice, which is exceptionally tasty btw.

I needed that break big time, I was starting to get really cracked on being on the road and my legs were starting to feel like they were taking a turn for the worst. I did 6 races in 10 days before my break. They first 3 were in Milwaukee and the last 3 were in Ohio.




If you haven’t yet heard from elsewhere, I am no longer in the leader Jersey for USA CRITS…. Ohh wait. Let me first say that I GOT SECOND at grafton and took the Leaders jersey, but that’s right, I’ve already lost it. Its all good though, Im going to get it back. Like I said I spent 5 days on the beach drinking and decompressing, it was to be expected that I would be a little rusty when we started racing again.



In addition to taking the series lead during our ten day trip to the Midwest, I also experienced two new firsts for this season. Most notably, I got my first win of 2009 at the Maderiea Centennial Criterium in Cincinnati Ohio. It was a cool that that had two 180 degree turn arounds, that crushed the dreams of anyone trying to break away. The race came down to a field sprint and I jumped into the last corner first and managed to hold off the field to the line. It was a pretty awesome feeling, but it quickly was shadowed by the events of Hype Park Blast (USA Crits) the following night.




After just coming off a win the previous night, the team was very confident in our prospects if the race should come down to a field sprint. Plus considering I was in the leader jersey, it was important to work on building my lead In the overall. The team rode flawlessly, killing themselves to assure that the race would come down to a bunch sprint so that I would have the best shot at taking another win and asserting my leadership in the USA Crits series. It “almost” played out like that!

The long 500 meter sprint tested my patience and positioning tactics more so than previous races, and to be honest I messed up a bit by misjudging the strength of the 5 riders in front of me coming out of the last corner. I expected that atleast two of the riders would be eliminated by 300 meters to go and that all I would have to do is come around 1 maybe 2 guys as the other 3 would fan out across the road in attempt to out kick each other for the line. Well that didn’t happen.

Only first guy pulled off and everyone just sat on the second guys wheel as we inched closer and closer to the 200 meter mark. I realized that I would have to jump first to have enough time to pass all those guys to win the sprint, so I went early and made it past two guys and just waited for a second on the outer slipstream of Emile Aberham who was 3rd wheel. With about a hundred meters to go I made my last surge to come around the remaining three guys but just as I was passing emile he slammed into his teammate who was on his right side (rider 2) bouncing off of him and ramming into me. We both toppled over at 41.6mph (as per my power file that graphically reports my almost certain podium finish followed by quick deceleration as my body ground to a halt).



Immediately after that crash I was able to spring back up and walk across the line, still finishing in the money in 27th place. It was the most upsetting thing that has ever happened to me in a bike race. All I could see in front of me before I went down was empty space, followed by a face full of pavement. Luckily I walk away from the crash with only road rash, because it could have easily ended my season. I am very thankful for that. On the down side, that is where the current series leader made up a lot of ground on me because he went on to finish 3rd that night.

There is tons more racing to be done (as I am finishing this blog now sitting in the hotel killing time, awaiting the start of the boise twilight in 4 hours) and I still have to write about my Iron hill and Capital Crit experiences. I have taken a lot of photos from here in boise. This place is awesome. I will most certainly post more tomorrow as I will have 8 hours of travel to get it done. Thank you for reading.

Just the Tip in Ricola Twilight

So I finally got a result! I was inches from getting the 3rd step on the podium but a few things went wrong that resulted in my 4th. Truth is that my 4th place is great for me and all, but it didnt get me any attention and I'm going to need to do better to get any press.

This photo clearly shows me in 3rd.... camera must me wrong :(

Wednesdays race was blisteringly hot, like the kind of hot that when you get sweat in your eyes it feels like you sprayed lemon juice in them. I would ride around to warm up then have to drink a ton of water, but so much that I would immediately have to pee. This is a big problem with crit racing because you want to make sure that you are completely hydrated for the race, but you dont want to drink to close to the time of the event because there will be no chance to pee during the race (like you can in road races) because it is just way to fast.

The race got off to a slow start. There were a bunch of delays for cars being parked on the coarse, but even once we got rolling the race was still pretty tame for a while. Everyone was really limited by the heat. It made me feel like someone just put a bunch of weights on my bike. I could still go really deep, but the results seemed to be a lot less that the perception of the effort.

I spent the race just slowly surfing around the field. Sometimes I would drift to far back and have to make a big effort to get back in a safe position, but for the most part I didn't do much during the race. The team was pretty sure that the race would end in a field sprint, so they felt good about having me sit in, but we made sure to have a couple guys working the race to make sure we didnt miss any thing.

Sadly, we still did miss the break that seemed like it was going to stay away. A couple guys worked to chase it back to a small gap and I tried to jump across to the break of 5 when the gap was brought down to about 5 seconds, but I just wasn't able to make it. Right when I got caught a group of three attacked and they were able to make it to the group.

Now the break had 8 guys in it and that totally changed the dynamic of the group and guys started sitting on in the break away, which quickly lead to the breaks demise. With 3 laps to go Neil and I hooked up in the front of the field and I told him to stick with me through the sprint.

I thought we had great position. I came out of the corner 5-6 wheel and I thought for certain the sprint was to long so that 2 of the guys would get shelled out of the sprint and then all I would have to do is come around 3-4 guys (which I'm confident could have been done) but the guys on the front managed to maintain their speed all the way to about 200 meters to go, so now I was having to sprint from 5-6 position.

I knew that I couldn't win at that point because it was just to much of a gap to close on the lead guys, but I quickly realized that I was quickly catching the 3rd rider. I swear I got the Bissel rider on the line but the camera doesn't lie and where the camera was he had a tired width on me. DAMNIT!

What I took from this race is that A) I'm going good enough to contest these NRC crits and B) that my sprint is way better than I think and I should hit out way earlier.

My previous theory on sprinting was to constantly accelerate through the finish line, but since then Ive been corrected and I guess the correct way to sprint is to go early enough that you are on the cusp of starting to slow down right when you pass the line. I will use this new information to recalculate my sprint for Somerville. Should be helpful seeing as the sprint is like 500 meters long.

Here is a link to a write up about the race. There is a pretty cool video of the sprint. http://baskingridge.patch.com/articles/video-world-class-riders-speed-through-basking-ridge-in-base-camp-international-race#c

Road Rash Sucks

Most people who haven't personally experienced crashing on a bicycle are still able to imagine how potentially painful crashing can be, but if you can't, imagine what it would be like to jump out your car window naked. That is exactly what crashing on a bicycle feels like, trust me, I have done both.

One of the 5 crashes I endured at Downers Grove last season

Surprisingly, in most cases the initial injures are not that painful. The real pain does not set in until several days after when the road rash starts to heal.

I'm writing this post to bring gravity to the magnitude of pain one faces when recovering from road rash. There is nothing sweet about the "raspberries" that liter the skin of cyclists after a crash. I always manage to get road rash right on places that bare weight when walking, sleeping, wearing cloths, and or everything. These puss spewing injuries hurt like a bastard all that time.

Clearly this post is motivated by the good sized scrape that I acquired at Wilmington. That sucker has forced me to sleep on my left side all night because every time I move I am woken up by the shooting pain that fills my body.

Picture of my puss filled hip

My crash was actually not bad at all, it could have been a million times worse. I just wanted to make a point to anyone who hasn't crashed on a bike. Even though the rider usually gets back up and continues racing after they crash, they are going to be dealing with an ever increasingly painful injury that will last for weeks to come.

On that note, its time to go get dressed for Ricola Twilight... dont worry, I've been knocking on wood since I started this post. I'll be good.

Getting Back to the Game

Man, it has been such a long time since I have last written a post. I want to apologize to the loyal select few who have chosen to read read my blog over the past few months, I've been kinda lazy. Well, there is more to it than just being lazy.

Speed week was a total wash for me personally, and even though I do not speak as a representative for the team, I am pretty sure that as a team we did not live up to every ones expectations. Last season Speed week was my first team race, and our team absolutely crushed the competition, it was really hard for me to deal with having such high expectations for myself and then going to the race and not performing. Clearly there were unforeseen obstacles that limited my performance, but that aside, people only care about results.

I choose to wait a while to write a post about speed week because I am determined to keep my blog from becoming an arena for me to make excuses for under performance, and all I had until now were excuses.

Every race at speedweek had a video summery made that can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/USACrits2010 . Id say that they are a little biased against us as I dont think we were ever mentioned in any of the videos, but that is kind of a representation of how the week went. I am preferential to the Athens Video as it does give some mention to the epic chase that our team put on after missing the winning move....

In the end I came out of speedweek with 2nd in the U25 classification, 7th in the Sandy Springs Crit, and 11th overall in the Series. All of these results were far from what I had expected, but there is not enough time to dwell on my shortcoming. I needed pick myself back up and get ready for the next showdown.

After speedweek I had 3 weeks of solid training before my next race in Wilmington Delaware. This was one of the most lonely 20 days of training I have ever done because all but 2 of the rides I did were solo. I did 725 miles by myself in the past 3 weeks, and it totally sucked! I am pretty sure that I now hate the new White Panda - Versus Mixtape, because I listened to it about a hundred times. Dont get me wrong, the tape is awesome and you should download it now (link included!) I'm just sick of it

BJ Basham from Peaks Cycling Group is my coach and he has really put the hammer down on me to work on my 1 to 5 minute power since the California trip, and the extended training block that I just went through really gave him the opportunity to beat me up with intervals without much rest.

Forgive me if this sounds stupid, but training actually works. When you have a coach who can identify your weaknesses and can keep you working on them, you get better. I haven't had that direction before and especially now that I have a power meter it is awesome to be able to see how quickly my body can adapt to handle the types of training I am doing. Makes me feel very confident that with BJ's direction, I can get really really fast.

The one thing that know one seems to be able to help me with is how to win a big race. I feel like I am strong enough now to contest these big races, but for some reason shit always goes wrong.

Wilmington Grand Prix NRC Crit was two days ago and I had more crap happen to me that ruined my chance of contesting the finish. For the first time this season our team races well. I say "well" because for the first time we races like how we did last season, and last season we killed it every day. As we team we stopped waiting for other teams to dictate the race and we went for it from the first lap and initiated almost every breakaway on the day. Sadly, in the races most decisiveness moments it started to rain. Our team had three guys in the top 5 who all ate shit on the down hill because the pavement turned to glass the instant it got wet. I was won of them. Right before I crashed I was preparing to attack because I knew that the rain would cause the field to hesitate some, and the field was already exhausted from the previous hour of hard racing. Anyways, I ate shit along with two other teammates and almost immediately after 2 riders attacked and got away and stayed away until the finish. After getting back into the race I already had lost the race.

unclip to prevent from doing the same.">

Cycling news captured a photos of my teammate Will Hoffarth falling in the same stretch that so many of us had fallen the previous lap.

I not bitching/making excuses for not performing because I clearly didnt adjust my riding style quick enough to avoid crashing once the pavement got wet. Tons of guys didnt crash... so they were all doing something right. However, I am still really really bummed that my results dont represent the race that I raced. I need to finish the job and get it done.

Luckily I have a ton of races in the next few weeks and if I have the legs now, Ill likely still be fast in these upcoming races. Wednesday we are racing in Basking Ridge NJ, and on Memorial day we are racing in Somerville NJ. Then we are driving back to Winston-Salem for the night and Will Neil and myself are leaving for our All-Star trip to Tulsa Oklahoma for 3 days of Crit racing, competing for a prize purse of over a hundred thousand dollars! Great timing to be coming into some fitness.

Sopping Wet Twilight Report

I had planned writing about the terrors of the Athens Twilight completely separate from all else, but as you will soon see, the last few days have been less than awesome.

As I am coming to expect the race on Saturday night got pushed back over an hour past scheduled start time and me and the guys were left huddling under out tent trying to stay warm and dry until we got called to the start line just for 10pm.

We were lucky that the rain took a break just long enough for the announcer to make all the call ups, at least we weren’t freezing on the start line. It wasn’t long after the race began that the heavens opened up and it began to rain from every direction.

The race started with over a 150 riders, but after 30 minutes the race was down to just over 50 guys. The heavy rains along with fast paced racing tested more than just the racers fitness as we whipped around the 4 corner course 80 times in just over 90 minutes.

The team rode flawlessly all night, with the exception of one single mistake. The race winning attack happened right in front of Adam and myself, but for a multitude of reasons we just watched it go and let our teammate Will cover the move. Sadly, Will never made contact with the break away and our team was left to chase the break, or accept defeat.

TMK is lined out on the front in hot pursuit of the breakaway

With 40 laps to go all 8 of our guys (yes we were for sure the only team who had not lost any riders yet) lined up on the front of the bike race and started drilling it, in an attempt to reverse the quickly growing gap to the break of 6 guys.

We pulled and pulled but hardly made back more than 20 seconds on the break. We were tearing the race apart, as we would find out after the race when only just over 30 racers finished, but we couldn’t neutralize the break that had slipped away. We were racing for 7^th place.

We had decided to race for Adam that day because he is by far the most skilled bike handler in the rain, so as all of us worked at the front, Adam tried to conserve as much energy as he could for the sprint for 7^th. Our team lead the race until 1 lap to go when our team was overtaken by the United Healthcare team. Adam was able to jump of the back of their lead out and was in great position going into the last turn, but unfortunately his sprint was ruined as we had to dodge a rider who crashed right in front of him 200m from the line.

My sprint was much less exciting. After having pulled to chase the break back for 45 minutes, and after suffering from a flat tire (damn officials were putting people back in the race from the back of the field) I had no energy to contest the sprint. All I could do was finish. I rolled across the line in 18^th place I think.

Crappy conclusion to what was a valiant effort from our team, but luckily there are 5 more races were me may correct our mistakes.

Moments Before Twilight

Im not much of a writer and so it is far too easy for me to simply blurb out the details of how a race played out, but that is neither useful or interesting to read. I really want to use this blog for more than just my take on a bike races highlights. I am an independent from the races that I participate, and so here is another attempt to open up and enlighten you to the types of things that go through my mind in the hours leading up to the biggest race of my season.

Its 3:30pm, its thundering and lightening outside and I’m just beginning to warm up from my morning ride. The last few days have really tested my faith in the existence of cycling gods, because everyone knows that no god would ever put his children through the agony of racing twilight in the rain. The weather forecasts were as vague as always, and our fate was not sealed until we woke up this morning to sound of rain slamming the wooden deck just outside my basement bedroom.

I have dreamed about winning this race every day since the first time I stepped foot onto the Athens streets wearing a cycling kit a year ago today. The energy of the “40k” spectators is enough to bring a greater sense of purpose to my job. For one night a year we are important and we are treated like celebrities. I cannot come close to describing the feeling that Athens Twilight brings me, other than to say that this one race justifies all the ill treatment that I face by motorists all year round.

From the day that I was offered a contract for 2010, management has said that the door is open for you to show us what you have got, to show us just how fast you really are. If I have the legs this year than I will not be overshadowed by the incredible successes of my former teammates. This bold statement was seemingly inconsequential when it was first said, but as the minutes tick down those words are leaving a cotton ball feeling in the back of my throat. I think I swallowed my tongue.

I do not question my ability to compete with the top sprinters on every domestic pro team. I certainly do not have the long list of victories on my resume that many of these guys have, but that doesn’t mean shit when your neck and neck with 200 meters to go. What I find myself questioning is my confidence that I have the experience that is needed to make the right decisions, day in and day out over the next 10 days, to assure that I come out of the last corner in a position to sprint.

The rain and the horrible nightmare of “could be” crashes, on top of the immense pressure that I feel to solidify my competence as a sprinter has resulted in my present behavior. I should be sleeping, but every time I close my eyes all I do is think about the bike race. What will I do if there is a break and I am not in it? What will I do if I get in a break? What if I crash? The “could be” possibilities are fucking endless and I will not be content until I know exactly what I am going to do in every single situation. It is a terrible burden that I have placed upon myself to expect such success, but it is a challenge that I am eager to take. Sitting back and being complacent will not yield the outcome that I am so desperate to achieve. I don’t live my life like that and so there is not excuse to race by bike like that.

What separates good cyclists from winners is their ability to adapt to adversity. I still may be pissing nails right now, but Ill tell you what, Im adapting the shit out of this adversity.

Athens Twilight Grid Qualifiers

I had very low expectations for this race seeing as I have terrible power beyond 5 minutes of all out effort, but I still did not want to go out a look like a fool. I wanted to go just hard enough to open my legs up for tomorrows race, and still not getting last place while wearing a pro teams jersey. Apparently I'm destined to look like a joker.

I didn't get last but it was a real struggle in the competition. The format of this race is that they have eight stationary bikes set up on a stage. The "trainers" as they are called are hooked up to a computer program that simulates the terrain of tomorrows race, it moderates the resistance on the wheels to simulate the hills and descents that are on the Athens Criterium course.

Why the hell would the do that when the trainers are set up on the very same roads that the race goes over tomorrow? good question! I think that it is simply because it is easier to organize an event that doesn't move, and it makes for an interesting shift from the norm.... but mostly the easier part.

These races are qualifiers for tomorrows event in that the higher you place in the trainer race, the better (closer to front of the pack) you get to start in tomorrow nights race, and with 200 racers on a 1k course, a front row starting position is prime real estate.

I wasnt to worried about the event because I am pretty good at moving through the pack. I assume that no matter where I start, I will be in the top ten after 5 laps. Thats just how I roll. Nevertheless, a good starting position makes for less energy expenditure on avoidable hurdles.

From another perspective, it was awesome to be a spectator tonight. Rarely do I get to be a part of the crowd who is hollering at the bike racers as they push themselves further than what appears healthy.

Two of my teammates made the "finals", which was a championship round of the top 8 guys that went off at 9pm. It was crazy! There were about a thousand people screaming for 7 minutes as those riders of the stage went from cool and collected at minute 0 all the way down to what looked like the deepest darkest inescapable pain cave. It was incredible to watch how all of their energy was directed straight into spinning that rear wheel. The fastest guys were the ones that looked like they were going the easiest... go figure.

It was awesome. I captured this photo of will in the later moments of the race. He looks like he would rather be dead right now that continue putting himself through that agony. I know the feeling and I'm still trying to figure out what it is that motivates me to defy my humanly instinct, which is to stop doing what is physically hurting me, but instead I just to go even harder because I know other people are hurting just as bad. Ohh what stupid games we humans play.

The last photo shows you what it is like being behind the stage looking out onto the crowds. Its and awesome feeling to have that many people screaming at you. Tomorrow is my day. The weather looks like its going to be a wet one, but all that means is that the pavement will be softer when everyone else lands on it. I want to start the season with the respect in the peleton that I think that I deserve, and there is no better way to take that seat than to go out and show them that Im not fucking around anymore. This is a new season and I am a new rider. Its gonna be like when Happy Gilmore learned how to putt, this seasons already been won.

A Trip to Alabama

It sure has been a long time since I last made a post, but there hasnt been that much happening in the last month. I wrote a post to follow up the cali trip, but I still havent got it posted. I will put it up soon, I just wanted to make sure I could get some thoughts out about Sunny King Criterium before they escape me.

I flew down to Winston-Salem on Wednesday night after a pleasant extended stay in Burlington Vermont. There I able to catch up with friends that I hadnt seen since January, as well as get some much needed training to top up before Speedweek.

After a stress filled Friday morning, I was eager to leave the team house and start traveling south. I picked Will up in Charlotte and together we drove to Atlanta and spent the night at Thomas's house.

As a result of the recent conflict between Bahati Foundation and United Healthcare (my opinions regarding that to follow) the team was uncertain how the race would play out, so we spent the whole drive to Anniston going over possible race scenarios.

Well after all the conversations we had, the ONE possibility that we were all certain wouldn't happen happened. A huge break got away with one of our none sprinters. 13 dudes got away with our tank Will Hofarth. The kid is as strong as a brick shit house, but he has a school girl sprint in comparison to the rest of the guys the made up the move. As a result of some hesitation on Thomas and my behalf, as well as a completely satisfied peleton, there quickly became no way that we could get a second guy into the break.

The break eventually would lap the field and our only chance at getting the win would be if Will could make a solo effort in the last few laps and hold off the field. He made a good attempt but it was a bit to early (8 to go) and the field was determined to duke it out in a sprint.

Thomas and I tried to keep Will with us in the front but for me, it was nearly impossible to look after anyone else but myself going into the last two laps. The sprint was relatively safe, other than bahati, but I was pleased winning a 3rd place in the sprint. Sadly it was not for a podium position, but for 15th. Hopefully I can be sprinting for the win at Athens.

This is the highlights video from the race. It was an awesome event

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

This is a photo of one of the orange groves in the back yard of the house. The family said that there is roughly 300 orange trees and each tree can have upwards of 200 oranges. I have been eating so many that my body reeks of citrus.
The house has two types of Avacado trees. The one pictured above grows the ones that are smooth and green. Were as the other Avocado plant looks like a weaping willow tree mixed with a small bush, and that type of plant grows the Avocados that are prongy and dark.
This is the pool house were 5 of the guys on the team are staying. Im on the purple bed near the tv. This family has the right kind of pool house. The kind with a pool table, not the kind thats just propped right next to a pool. The main house is built completely around the pool
This is a photo of the house from the street. Isnt it so authentic looking. They call this style of home "Santa Fe".
The orange grove path down the to the pool house where our rooms are. You can see Big Bear Mountain in the background. I hear that climb is epic.
Apparently the trusses in the home were made from telephone poles that did not pass the test to hold up wires.... makes you wonder how strong the house is... nah their just decoration anyways. Sure looks awesome
The house was built only ten years ago, but our hosts managed to capture this aged rustic atmosphere, while managing to keep the same sturdy clean feeling that you get from a modern home. I cant think of a better place to be while preparing for and recovering during the Redlands Classic.

On a Different note. I have tried almost every allergy medicine that I can get my hands on, and over the past few days I have made several interesting conclusions. All medications have side effects, but while taking allergy meds the side effects have been more severe than simply dealing with the allergies themselves. I woke up each day with a stuffy nose and sometimes got a headache while riding hard. After taking medicine I had watery eyes, dizziness, and drowsiness. The only medicine that works is Sudafed but sadly its banned from competition, so I have to stop taking it in the case that I get drug testing during this weekends race.

In conclusion, I plan on just taking IB profen before each stage and drinking a lot of coffee. That seems to be the only clean, effective way to deal with the pollen and or what ever it is that had been ruining my experience here in California.

The time trial starts tomorrow. I am number 71, I was 70 for San Dimas... weird. The course is really rough, but luckily I got to pre ride it this time. Going easy today I rode it in 13:30 pushing 310 watts. I cant imagine the kind of power past winners have had to put out in order to be sub 9 minutes. More tomorrow.

San Dimas Stage Race

So after Friday I was relatively excited about my form...considering its still march, I am still light years ahead of where I was last season at this time. I spent a lot of time working on climbing over the winter and even though I still not at the level of pure climbers, I'm now competitive with other riders who consider themselves sprinters. In Fridays time trial I placed somewhere around a 100th place, which sounds terrible, but I was still less than two minutes behind the winner.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I received my new power meter the other day and considering I have very bad time trial skills I knew that I needed to use this device to pace myself so that I could ride within my means. Heres a photos of my current bike with my new Quarq power meter! its awesome! (www.quarq.us) I knew that I could hold a 350 watt pace for the 15 minute effort so during the event I basically starred at my power meter the entire time.

This technique was useful for ensuring that I did not blow up to early in the race, but sadly as I found out after yesterdays ride, I did not go as hard as I could on race day. During the race I ended up averaging 342 watts for the race, but yesterday I went to the TT course again and managed to average 356 watts and take almost 50 seconds off my time. Im an idiot! How did I manage to go harder in training than during the race! Enough with talking numbers, this blog isnt suppose to be a nerded out power numbers blog.

Here are some cool photos from on top of the climb that the TT was on. If you look way down the ridge you can see the small cut out of a road that snakes through the valley. That is where the time trial goes, at this point I'm about 2 miles past the time trials finish.

Needless to say, I got dropped on sunday at the road race. It was flippin hard. The course was like a 6 mile crit course. There was only 200 feet of climbing per lap but if you were not on the front you had to be very heavy on the breaks because the course was so crappy. It was definitely the most dangerous race that I have ever done. There were cars on the course, roads were to narrow to accommodate the 170 person field, and there were random concrete islands and dividers littered all over the course. Im not making excuses for getting dropped, I knew where I needed to be in order to race the race, I just was not strong enough.

Its now Monday and Im dealing with some intense allergy/sinus issues. I never have had allergies but Im just going to keep telling myself thats what it is, I dont need to be thinking that Im sick going into another huge stage race this Thursday.

They Should Teach How to Use Public Transport in School

I made it to Pasadena in pretty good time and had no trouble getting a hold of a rental bike to ride for Tuesday and Wednesday, thanks to my excellent hosts. The family that took me in are the same people who have been hosting my long time friend Colin Jascqewitz. I really lucked out.

It was crazy, their house had an orange tree, a lemon tree, and a pecan tree growing in it. literally picked an orange right off the tree and ate it. Hows that for fresh!

The family that I was staying with was Irish, and it was St. Patrick's Day! Naturally the family had a traditional style party.

Sadly I had to opt out of the majority of the festivities (drinking lots of beer), but I was able to get a few sips of Guinness in me before passing out at 8:30 west coast time. Thursday would prove to me not nearly as awesome as the previous.

What a mother F of a "journey" that was! I had to get myself from South Pasadena to Ontario, probably not more than 40 miles, but somehow it took me 5 hours to make the trek. I divulge into the specifics that much but being relatively unfamiliar with public transit, seeing as I'm from New England, I made a lot of rookie mistakes that caused me to zigzag all over the place. I managed to make the 40 mile trip into more like an 80 mile trip. I was so cracked by the time I got to the city of Ontario that I resorted to sweet talking the front desk lady at a Holiday Inn to get get to use their hotels shuttle van to drive me the last 5 miles to the Hilton hotel where I am staying. I have her 3 dollars for her troubles...

I managed to get a photo from the train of the mountains just outside of town. Its kind of blurry, but nevertheless the mountains are amazing.

Today's stage is just a prologue. Its a less than 4 mile uphill time trial (in the same mountains seen in the previous photo... FML!) I will report on how things went as soon as I can. I now have new power meter, Thanks to Quarq, so I will be able to include a little more info rather than simply it was hard.

Going Back To Cali Cali

Jittery Joes does cycling about as good as they do coffee!
So camp is offically over and it is now time to start using this equipment for what it was made to do. Im on route westward to begin my season at San Dimas Stage race this friday, followed by Redlands Stage race next week. I cant express how excited, nervous, and anxious I am to start racing.

I have put so much work into training myself for this season and this will be the first test of my fitness. This is my oppertunity for the taking and this is the year that I have to make a name for myself.

The team is putting so much pressure on me to perform well this season, and even though I like the fact that people have such high hopes for me, I cant help but be scared about the chance in which I do not live up to their expectations.

California will be an interesting trip. Make no mistake, my goals for this trip are clearly to be the best here that I can be, but in my training I have been preparing for speedweek. I fought hard to be put on the California roaster and I am so happy that I am getting the opportunity to be here to support the stage racers on our team, but I understand that this season is very long and a lack of fitness now does not mean that I will not have a successful year. Even though I would really like to win that crit.... keep your fingers crossed

First Tracks at Team Camp

my team bike is sexy! our new team kit is sexy! and our team is going to kick some serious ass this year! theres really no other way of writing it. we have some new additions to the team that will help broaden the programs strengths and help us be as dominant in the NRC as we have been in the USA crits series in 2009.

Today the team got to do a serious training ride in NC that is called "triple hump". the ride consists of a hundred mile loop that spans the three largest climbs in the winston-salem area. We finally got the oppertunity to show off how hard each of us have been training for the past 4 months by racing each other to the summit of each of the three climbs.
I am pretty pleased with my form at this point. I certinaly am not in shape to be leading the team in the races in Cali next week, but I am certain that I will prove to be a useful tool for the GC guys over the course of the two stage races. I really hope that I will be in a position to get a result in either of the crits, but its hard to say how things will pan out. I have yet to do a crit this season, or a field sprint! so we shall see how this winters longer miles and slighly less intense training will have impacted my speed.
Another cool thing was that the team had a photographer driving with us and taking shots of us as we rode. I hope that I can get a few of the pictures to post on my blog.
Right now we are on route from NC to Athens to meet our Georgian sponsers and hopefully find some more pleasent weather. I have been slightly absent from my blog lately, but I assure you that I have much to write and it will be updated soon again.

Picture from when the team got to meet the guys at Mountain Khakis and Edifice Construction

Sunny Days and Pale Skin

Another day brings new problems worthy of blogging. I need not continue to bitch about the cold weather because at last we are getting a break from the ceaseless northern chill that hung around for the past two months. Now I am focusing my concerns with the expectation that shorts weather riding is right around the corner.

Today I exposed my arms and shins to the sun for the first time since October and I realized that my pasty complexion is super not pro. I am going to have to do something about putting some color into my skin before California. Even though I have little to no idea what it means to be "pro", I sure as hell know that you cant be going around looking like a Krispy Saltine. This is no Clearasil commercial, there is no bragging rights about being "clean and clear". Shaven pale legs look disgusting and feeble.

If I am as committed to this "breakout" season that I have been building up to my friends and family, I cannot do them wrong by not resolving this massive problem in swift time. As of now I have two ideas; first is the Clemson Cycling approach (more specifically the Ben Zawacki and followers approach...no hate) of going to a tanning salon and wearing my kit in the bed (I admit, I did it once or twice before), and the last idea is to lay out for a few hours after each ride to really hit those hard to reach spots. Regardless of how it gets done, we can all agree that it has to ge'it dun. I have to use those uv rays to burn the intimidating image of fitness into the eyes of my competitors so that people wont even attempt to cover my moves.



Cycling cosmetology is crucial but rarely discussed topic, just look at every cat 3 cyclist in america. Maybe Alex Grause (the "king"of UVM cycling swagger) could chime in and enlighten me on how to pull off the image of an accomplished cyclist, but we all know, this is not an image for me, this is my breakout year baby. Somebody dust my shoulders off.

I Prefer Barbecue Over Mexican

Its seems like every day someone makes a smug comment regarding my decision to spend the winter in the southeast. I do understand why so many people to go westward from the instant the leaves start to turn, but I am not that weak. As a New Hampshire native and a seasoning Vermonter, I am accustom to extreme climates. Racing Nordic in the darkness of winter and riding bikes when it was humanly possible, every winter I have pushed myself to the limits of what I thought was possible.

Although I have not experienced Arizona training personally, Toby Marzot compares, "a 3 hour New England winter ride is the equivalent of a 6 hour Tucson winter ride". This is both a blessing and a curse for someone in my position. Let me first point out how this makes my situation sweeter than everyone out west, and then I will get into why I may have made a bad call moving to NC.

I can do half as much training and still be as small as all you guys, or I can do that same amount of training but have the privilege of eating twice as much without gaining weight. Both options are equally awesome because as this posts title suggests, I love BBQ and the south has a shit ton of it for me to eat. Ummmm meaty!

The obvious down side to this temperamental weather is that it becomes nearly impossible to get in humongous training blocks. I've coined the phase "Myserson-Miles" to describe back to back 6 hour days, because the concept of criterium racer doing tour racer type training miles was completely foreign to me until this past winter. Each day I am more and more starting to realize that my stubborn New England attitude may be what is screwing me.

I am a crit racer by default, but that is probably because I haven't done enough to improve my road racing skills. This cold weather riding has limited the number of long rides that I can do in a week and has forced me to put precedence on intensity of training. As a result, I am really good at going hard for a short period of time but I cant make it to the finish with the lead guys in a 4-5 hour race.

This season has to be different. I cant make the same mistakes I made in past seasons while going off of poor advice. There is no substitute for volume, PERIOD! I have to use all the powers that make me sweet, like my ego, my superior brain power, and the incredible tenacity that one can only have after being in a nine person family, to motivate me to stop being such a little bitch and just get out on my bike and put in more Myerson-Miles. Only then will start to change my reputation as a bike racer. A revelation that may have come a bit late this season, but late is better than never. My goals are still centered about being successful in the us crit circuit, but I wouldn't mind turning some heads in a couple road races this year.

As I start to hypothesize about next winter I figure that I have two options. Either rent a condo in a retirement home in flordia, or I can sac up and learn to enjoy eating the unamerican foods that dominate the southwest. It hurts me to admit it, but I have a pretty good feeling about going to jump on the train and head west next winter with the rest of the US cycling crew.

Another day passes and another cyclist starts a blog

Hello ya'll! I decided to start this blog because everyone else is blogging and I cant be the only pro cyclist who does not have a blog. I am not confused about about the lack of importance that my posts will have on the lives of others, but I will do my best to piss you off enough to motivate you to comment and post your opinions. This is going to be a super long season and I am excited and eager to take on the responsibilities of being a second year pro on one of the fastest growing pro teams in the country. I am currently working on an article about a recent Retul bicycle fit that I had done at Portsmouth Trek Store located in Portsmouth NH, that should be up this week.