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.