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What’s Going On |
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May 1 New Job My latest unemployment streak is over. I am now the proud employee of Hutch’s Bicycles in Bend. I am really looking forward to working there and will start next week. I was getting ready to start worrying that I was going to have to apply to Initech. If I was going to be unemployed any longer I was going to start getting really fast. So it is probably better for all the fast guys that I am going back to work. I had been taking full advantage of the extra time and putting in solid hours on the bike, and loving it. I just wish the weather was a bit nicer this week. My buddy Jim from Bell sent me an awesome new helmet that goes perfect with the DA kit, thanks Jim. I finally cleaned my garage up and am about as close as possible to having all my bikes running. Now I just need to put a summer coat of wax on my skis and re-tension my training wheel on my road bike after a wreck from last weekend after getting doored by a car in downtown. Speaking of cars Shelley got a brand new one this week and it is hot. April 21 Sea Otter It feels like forever since I updated last. But I have been really busy and did not actually turn on my computer at Sea Otter to give updates while there. So I guess I will start from the end of the last post. Well last week started off pretty bad as I got laid off from work. I guess I will have more time for training as I look for a new job. But prospects are pretty poor at the moment, I hear unemployment for this area is over 18%, ouch. About 5 pm the night before we were driving to Monterey all the Dedicated Athlete kits showed up at my door along with some parts that will get the rest of my bikes built up to riding condition, it is single speed season. The drive down there while long was pretty sweet. It is super pretty heading south out of Bend, There are a ton of trees that are so thick along the road. Then around Shasta it is really pretty. It is always cool to see the green rolling hills east of the Bay Area. Sea Otter is the coolest race of the year. All the companies are there and expo is huge. I wish all mtb races were like this. Registration was a breeze this year, I remember last year it was a nightmare. Dan a at Mavic set me up for the year so I will have some stylish kicks and some hot wheels, they are really sweet. The short track did not go quite as planned. I did not make it to the finish, it has been awhile since I got pulled in s STXC. I was feeling fine and was just hanging out just behind a good sized group, catching up on the steep climb and resting a bit on the downhill. I had plans of gaining a few spots once the 3 laps to go cards came out, but alas I was pulled. It was a new experience to finish one of those and not be blown. After that I did a short lap of the XC with Shelley and we saw a huge snake out there, it freaked Shelley out and I had to chase it away so she would continue. The XC really did not go as planned. Well it started out as I expected. I just hung out in the pack and watched people crash into each other while riding a straight road, go figure, and just waited for the super bottleneck when we hit the dirt. Then I just held on for the first downhill. I was being really conservative for the first part of the race, face it I am not going to win Sea Otter on the opening downhill. Once we hit the feed zone I stayed within limits and really started moving forward. The next few miles I went from a bad position to a pretty good one and I was really feeling like I was ready for a strong 2nd lap, but then I felt that familiar squish in the rear end. My first co2 failed so I had to use the backup. That got me to top of the climb out but the rolly singletrack to the race track I was flat again. I rode it to the tech zone where I got a tube and pumped it up, but there was a thorn in my tire, that I did not search for, and by the time I rolled out of the zone I was on a squishy tire again. With the 3rd flat I called it a day, buy this point I was way outside any chance at a unembarrasing finish and all my motivation was shot. I was pulled over by the police today on a bike ride. That was kind of fun. But I am trying to figure out my next move. I am spending a bunch of time on the bike and checking the internet for jobs so if you have ideas let me know. April 6 Finish of Cherry Blossom I made it. I hadn’t done a stage race in a few years, and it was a bit harder than I remember. After the TT where I could not get my heart rate much over 150 I had my first crit since I stopped racing collegiate races in 04. The tt got me all opened up I guess because it was soooo much easier than I remember crits being. I guess it was because it was shortened due to a horrid crash in the women's race. The final stage was pretty tough. There were two solid climbs each lap and we had to do three laps, and it was over 80 miles and again I hadn't done that sort of thing in a few years. A break went on the first lap and they where holding at about a minute. On the first climb on the 2nd lap I bridged up to the break and we gained time up to over 3 minutes by the end of the lap. Then I just could not hold that pace. I came off at the start of the first climb on the final lap and just at the top of the climb a group came by me and I hoped in and rode their wheels to the finish. I ended up just inside the money, but not quite the performance I think I am capable of. I learned a bit and can defiantly see what I need to improve on before I race on the road again. But I am looking forward to some more. Hopefully I will gain some form for Sea Otter. Oh yea a sweet box of from SRAM showed up and my door and once again Dawson is the MAN. April 4 First half of Cherry Blossom I am road racing again. It has been years since I have done a stage race. I am having a bit of trouble getting back into it. I defiantly push too big of a gear to be much of a road racer, looks like that will be on the top of the list of things to work on. I am also feeling a bit run down. I wonder if the couple nights of hardly any sleep I had during the travel days for Fontana are catching up with me, that might mean I am getting old. I will be trying to get some more sleep the next few days. I need to be all rested going into Sea Otter. I am using this race to get ready for Sea Otter. Hopefully about 2 weeks after this race I will be seeing some form and not just all the fitness I have been building all winter. The first stage was a road race. Brandon and I showed up to the race about 5 minutes before the start we got dressed super fast and jumped on our bikes just as he field rolled out. While I was trying to go from the back of the pack to the middle of the pack, a few guys attacked and then a few miles later a few more guys bridged up and we had like 15 guys up the road and all the team were represented so the field basically let them go. The break did whittle down to 5 guys by the finish but the group rolled in 10:25 down. So my chances at a good GC are gone. I did do a decent job at staying near the front at the end of the race which I was happy with, especially since it had been so long since I did a road race. The TT was this morning. I just didn’t have very good legs. I rode ok but not as well as I had hoped. I do need to work on my TT ability before Cascade. I think that I need to work on my position as well, my seat just feels like it is in the wrong spot, guess that happens when you only dust the bike off every 3 years. I am going to take a nap and watch some TV before the crit, or recovery ride as I am hoping for, tonight. Tomorrow is another road race and I am really hoping to get a sweet workout in. I guess my finish is not very important but I need to come away wasted. Maybe I will do some silly pulling when I do not need to. Anyway this is just a training race and I can use all the training I can get. April 2 Justin’s Birthday Today is Justin’s 25th birthday. Happy birthday. Yesterday I had the worst day training. I only got an hour in and I was doing some tempo and I got dizzy and had to stop. Then I had to sit on the ground for awhile then I had to call Shelley to come get me. It sucked pretty bad. I didn’t even feel like I could ride at all. I hope I feel better this weekend with the stage race. March 29 Fontucky The first race of the year in over. I am glad to have it behind me. I was pretty disappointed in my performance down there. I was so worried about the start that I did not pay enough attention to actually making around the course enough times. I pushed really hard the first lap and moved up from my poor starting spot up to where I wanted to finish then held it for the remainder of the first lap. Then I came apart. Pretty discouraging. Late in the race the legs came back around and my 4th and 5th laps were not that bad, I even think I had another lap in my legs at that pace. But my 2nd and 3rd laps were really slow. I will do better in Sea Otter I think. It is a bit later in the season and hopefully I worked out all the kinks last weekend. Plus this weekend is the Cherry Blossom stage race and that should really help with the form as well as weight loss. I spent the weekend rooming with Stephen Ettinger and Greg Carpenter. IT was pretty sweet, we had a good time and you should have seen the grin on Steven’s face as Greg gave him the Dutch rudder. We were close enough to the venue to ride there each day and it was cheap enough for us to afford. On the way to the airport Monday morning we even fit all three of us and all three of our bike boxes and luggage into the Nissan Altima we had rented. The ProXTC looks like it could make it. There were a ton of people there. There is supposed to be tv coverage. The moto show drew quite the crowd. The field was HUGE. All in all it looks like mtb racing could be on the come back. Thanks Scott. Also I want to let everyone know about www.cyclingdirt.org if you have not been yet check it out. Colt is doing some pretty cool stuff. There are a ton of interviews and there is good race video, there is even like a 24 minute video that covers the mens race better than we have ever had in the past by leaps and bounds. This needs to be the new site we all check 8 times a day. People like Colt are what our sport needs. March 25 Last day of training before race season Now the trouble begins. If I was going to get fast this winter my chances are now over. All I have to do is rest the legs and not eat too much to be ready for Fontana. I did the group ride last night and I just hadn’t gotten in enough time on my race bike so I put on some slicks and pulled it out, I even threw on the baggies so I could complete the whole package. Well I did not get dropped. I even did pretty well on the climbs. But my measly 44x11 with 26 inchers was no match for those 53s and bigger wheels on the flats. All the spots where I usually get to hang out as someone else does the work had me in the absolute pain cave last night. But I did manage to sneak to the front and take a pull or two. My weight is just over what it was last year at the time. But it stayed so high all winter that just getting it down to here was a big accomplishment. I am pretty fit but I think Sea Otter will be much better that Fontana. I am so looking forward to joining the summer circus again. I miss my summer family and cannot wait to see them all again. Some guys have new colors, even me. Some guys will have gotten lots faster, hopefully me. And unfortunately there will some guys that do not return but with that there are going to be a ton new guys to meet. It is going to be an exciting weekend. March 23 Hutch’s Century Well I made it, but it wasn’t very much fun. After a beautiful day on Saturday it was a bit hard to get on the bike to snow early Sunday morning. The group was much smaller than it would have been if the sun was out. But we soldiered on. It rained on us for the first 3.5 hours, unless you don’t count the last hour when it was snowing instead of raining. Just until we started the climb up to Prineville reservoir when it wouldn’t have been so bad to be rained on. Then once over the hill the wind really kicked in and we were drilling it to ride 15 mph for the last 20 miles or so. The weather made the day much worse than it should have been, and I am really glad it is over. At least I got my moneys worth at the feed stations.
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