broken bike. Again.

So remember back in July when I broke my bike?  Well it happened again.  Same thing, Shimano chain failed, wound up in the spokes and took the derailleur and  non replaceable hanger with it.  Rather than fix it with the same part that could fail (again) I looked into other options.  Long story short:  no other options.

The dilemma:  I need a rain bike.  My rain bike is broken.
Possible solutions:
1)  buy a new frame
2)  have Ruckus Components fix the dropout again and hope I don't break another chain

Nope, not spending money this time.  Going to try and fix it myself.  Below is a short photo diary of the fixing process.

road trip: Spokane, WA to Fort Collins, CO

December 17th:

-wake up at 3:30am and head to Shari's with CB

-get on a plane at some ungodly hour for the flight to Spokane.  Side note:  I really like flying, especially in the morning.  I witnessed one of the greatest sunrises in my memory:  the sun rising over a set of altostratus clouds and I got to watch it seemingly ripple away from the plane.  Think about this image but only seeing it from the air.  Pretty rad.

cleanliness

Eh, while I'm up, why not another one.

back on the bike

I just came to the realization that almost all of these posts are written/posted after midnight/1am; looks like this one will be no different.

So after a solid 2-3 weeks off the bike I'm back on it, this time cranking out the boring winter miles.  When I got back on I know I'd want to immediately jump back to the fitness I was in August but alas, it wasn't too be.

2010 racing in review

So, my "rookie year," looking back on it I accomplished a lot.  57 races in 44 weeks!

photo credit:  Jose Sandoval

OBRA CCX Champs

Photo credit:  Nita Galambos

Overall, good race.  Not my best place but snot nearly as bad as last week.  This course was super hard (at least for me).  Lots of peanut-buttery mud, lots of elevation, a ton of off-camber sections and parts that you almost couldn't even run.  I finished 18/24 on the day--again, not the best day out there.

Cross Crusade-Barton Park: Bad day on the bike

Instead of a race report this post is more of an open letter to my teammates, friends and everyone else supports me both on and off the bike.

Why we wear helmets

One of my rides takes me down a steep little hill then dumps me into a wide, open left hand turn.  Monday that was covered with wet leaves.  No big deal, my tires always unhook on the corner and I usually just take it wide and slide both wheels through.  That wasn't the case on Monday.  Down the hill, tires started to slide like normal, bike leaned a little more than normal but was able to correct it, something happens and I'm kind of tangled in the bike going down.  On the way down I thought, "hey this isn't going to be that bad, I'll slide a little and continue my ride."  And that's pretty much exactly what happened.  I remember hitting the back of my head on the ground and hearing a noise but hey, we all hear stuff when we crash right?  I laid there for about 5 seconds, thought, "hmm, well that sucked."  Got up, put my glasses back together and continued my ride.

I didn't realize how "bad" the crash was until I caught a glimpse of my helmet laying on the floor that afternoon.  I counted 3 major cracks in the back, one in the main body and another in the front, all completely through the material.

Well, I guess helmets are worth it after all.  I was able to ride away without a headache or any injury whatsoever.  Had I not been wearing it circumstances would be a little different.

WEAR YOUR DAMN HELMET WHENEVER YOU'RE ON A BIKE!!!

Sunday: Cross Crusade-Hillsboro

After the half-race Saturday my legs were feeling a little off.  I couldn't really pinpoint it but there was *something* going on.  Meh, let's race anyway.

A look at one of the shallower mud pits
Photo credit:  David Mackintosh

Saturday: EZ Orchards

photo:  Matt H

Saturday didn't go too poorly.  M and I headed down to volunteer so we spent 3 hours what we'd normally do at a cross race:  walking around, picking up cones, heckling people and trying to get people to crash on slick corners.  Oh, and we got to race for free, can't complain about that.

This course was, well, boring.  Here's about the rundown:  200m straight stretch, 90 degree turn, 400m straight gravel road, turn down row of apple orchard, etc.  Long, straight and flat.  Definitely more of a road course than a cross race.

M took the hole shot and led for about 1/2 a lap.  I attacked on the gravel stretch and blew up the race from there.  I wound up second on the day.  M took third.  Ok, I'll give you the rest of the information.  There were 4 starters in the A race and one of them dropped out.  Either way, it was a free "race" and we were able to support a new venue.

Astoria Sunday

So I've decided some stories are better left untold.  Let's just say Astoria Sunday was everything I expected it to be, and then some.

photo credit:  Dave Roth

Astoria weekend (aka Halloween s***-show)

As with the best plans, this one was devised at the very last minute.  My original plan was to head to Astoria Friday evening after a test which is supposed to cover every engineering topic I learned sophomore year.  Thursday morning I learned that plan wasn’t going to happen.  After a huge flurry of emails and phone calls the perfect plan worked out:  I would skip work, bio class and that huge test and head out to Astoria Friday morning, giving me the chance to hang out, pre-ride in the gorgeous weather and just generally enjoy not being in school.  I never really took a fall break so this was going to be it for me.  And that it was. 

yay, sponsors!

I rode awesome today

Cross Crusade #4--PIR.

This race was the event of my first win (in the lowly Cs) last year and the course is always fast with an ample amount of mud mixed in so I was definitely looking forward to this race.

Double CX weekend

Ninkrossi at Washougal MX Park and Cross Crusade #3 and Sherwood Equestrian Center.  Makes for a full weekend.

After last weekend's slog-fest out at Heiser and my subsequent skipping of Cross Crusade #2 I was looking forward to a full weekend of racing and not destroying bikes.

The Domination of Thursday...well, someone got dominated, it wasn't Thursday

completely unrelated:
yes, that bike is called the Bush Pilot...
it would be pink

So, I went to bed Wednesday evening with the intention of absolutely dominating Thursday.  The following is a report of Thursday.

My deliverables (yeah engineers, how you like that?) for Thursday:  Thermo lab formal report, Thermo lab quiz, Biomaterials quiz, Psych midterm.

Here's how it all went down:

weekend race report.

this is only 1/4 mile into the race...
you couldn't see my skin at the end
(photo credit:  Matt Haughey)

I'm going to make this short because not a whole lot happened.

Raced Heiser Farms CX.  Molly Cameron showed up with her entourage.  First race with a B bike and switched to it  after 3/4 lap and rode it the rest of the race.  Ok, with the exception of power sliding the majority of the course, almost falling down a dropoff and oh yeah, when I finally broke the derailleur and hanger AGAIN.  I was in 4th until that s*** happened.  Ended up running/walking/slogging the last 3/4 mile surprisingly only losing 2 places.  Oh, and I finished in the money at 6th!  Hey, pays for gas money!

After coming home sore bloody and with a broken bike I wasn't too psyched about racing Sunday.  That was further reinforced when I woke up Sunday morning and saw the sky tear in half and an ocean pour down on us.  I wasn't feeling like slogging through another mud pit and potentially breaking even more stuff so I stayed home and did homework for 13 hours...

One note:  a special thanks to Jim for driving, cheering, holding bikes and being "that spectator" with his new airhorn.  Thanks Jim!

Full weekend

Ok, I'm going to make this quick.
Next week is midterms and I have a huge (stupid) Biomaterials assignment due Modnay night.  So what am I dong this weekend?  Homework?  Nope!  Heiser Farms CX race Saturday then Cross Crusade #2 at Rainier on Sunday!  Somewhere in there I'm going to attempt cram just a little bit of homework in but we all know that's not really going to happen.  But you know the glorious thing about next week?  REST WEEK!!!  Ok, I love riding/racing my bikes but there's something about 6 days of incredibly easy riding and just taking it easy that I just can't pass up every once in a while.  Race reports from this weekend probably won't be up until mid-next week but until then enjoy this video from the Krosstoberfest race in San Dimas CA this past weekend:

SocalCross KROSSTOBERFEST 2010 Day 1 from mark colton on Vimeo.

first "real" A race

1500 racers.  Alpenrose Dairy.  Cross Crusade #1.  Holy crap.

(photo credit:  PDX Cross)

first A race

Battle at Barlow.

A little history from last year:  I raced C and broke a chain halfway through Lap 2.  I went into this race with two goals:  1)  don't get completely thrashed; 2)  finish the race (no mechanicals)

I didn't really meet either of those goals.  Busted my derailleur hanger 52 minutes in--I was leading Chris Sheppard, eventual race winner, by 100 meters.  And by leading by 100 meters I mean 1.5 miles behind...    The course was sloppy, I couldn't get traction, I didn't run through my routine beforehand, but no excuses, I didn't ride the race I should have.  Below are a few pictures from the race  (click 'more').

called out

so I just got called out on OBRA Chat.  Keep in mind, I already got an email from Candi so I was planning on upgrading anyway.  Regardless:

To:  OBRA List
From:  Jeff L
Subject:  Early Season 'Cross Points Series
Message:

I learned several things while compiling this data:
1. Always show appreciation to the judges, particularly the ones who have been around long enough to have a lot of experience with manual data entry.
2. There is a three-way tie for first in the Women's Cat B series.
3. Alex Wentz (Cat B) and Geoff Rice (Master Cat B) need to upgrade.

When you find errors in this, and I'm sure you will, please let me know politely. This information is not linked to any OBRA database. I manually entered every name and result for each race, for all 16 categories.

Some of these competitions are still very close. Should make for some great racing at Barlow! Remember, the top three from each category will receive a call-up at the Alpenrose Crusade!

And special thanks to everyone who made it to the Hood River Double Cross. We had 780 racers over the weekend, an increase of about 150 over last year!

 Jeff L

--End Message--

I knew I was due for the upgrade and I have no problem getting thrashed in the As but i wasn't expecting such a public callout.  In my defense, I've only raced 6 B races!

Rapha Gentleman's Race: revisited

So enough time has finally passed that I have forgotten the hell we all went through on August 14th.  That said, the video and picture below bring all of it back.  Maybe it's time to put this memory on the shelf for a while.  In the mean time, enjoy the video below.


2010 NW Gentlemen's Race from RAPHA on Vimeo.


For photos please see the race website and look at the 'feature menu' on the left.

Yes, I had an amazing time on that hot, hellish day but I'm very glad it's over and not coming around for another 11 months.

"the email"

Crap, it finally arrived.

To:  alex -----
From:  Candi ------
Subject:  Ccx Category
Message:
Alex

You are going to have to cat up. The guidelines are 3 top 3 or 5 top 5s

Candi 

--End message--

Well crap, the call has finally arrived and it's way too early.  My goal for this season was "Cat A by the end of the season"  NOT 3 weeks into the season!  

oh well, looks like it's time to go play with the big boys.  And by that I mean try and finish on the same lap as this dude.  I'll let you know how my a**-kicking goes at Alpenrose 

photo credit:  Oregon Cycling Action

Ya win some, ya lose some.

Hood River Double Cross:  two days of racing, two chances to win.

terrible picture of me but you get the point
(Photo credit: Katie Doyle)

I rode with Stephen, one of my UP teammates, out to the races this past weekend, meaning getting up way to early to race on a course while the officials are still putting up all the barriers.  While the idea of hanging out for 6 hours before my race didn't sound like a bunch of fun at the time I found a way to make it fun:  be the most obnoxious spectator out there.  No one comes out for the morning races so I had some making up to do.  Let's just say I laid down some Cross Crusade-quality heckling.  Making fun of skinny guys, people on $6k carbon setups in the beginner race and cheering my a** off for every person on a mountain bike getting thrashed by the field.  Hell, I had a ton of fun and I still hadn't even raced yet.  Alright, I'll get on with it.

More Pain on the Peak pictures

The photos below are courtesy of Christian Reed

on the start line
(photo credit to Christian Reed)

all pumped up and going nowhere
(photo credit to Christian Reed)

No Cross Over Stage Race... Pain on the Peak instead

So a little bit of whining first.  Ever since I heard about the Cross Over Stage Race (a 3 stage cyclocross race in Eugene) last year I knew I wanted to do it.  When planning my CX racing schedule I made sure that event was at the forefront of the calendar.  It also worked out nicely that it would be my first 'cross race of the season and while I may not win it the idea of that type of racing really intrigued me.  Until Thursday evening.  I checked my email around 10:15 Thursday evening and found an email time-stamped 10:01.  "CROSSOVER postponed" it read.  Turns out there are supposedly 7 construction projects going on the at the race location this weekend.  Isn't it the promoters job to prevent this kind of thing from happening.  And do you usually let people know more than 36 hours before the first field takes off?!?

most of us didn't realize how
fitting this name would be

Eugene Celebration Road Race

Today offered a slight bit of redemption after thinking I completely blew (please excuse the vulgar, yet descriptive language) in the prologue yesterday.  When I checked my time at the sign-in today I realize I'd ridden a 12:34 instead of 12:55 in the prologue yesterday.  Still quite a ways off my goal, yet it put me in 16th instead of 30th out of 40 or so riders.  While I was excited about the result, it meant I actually had to do work the rest of this race.  That said, it's still an end-of-the-season stage race and I can't make up the time needed in the time trial tomorrow to pull out a good result.  With that in mind, today was my chance to do something.

Eugene Celebration Prologue

I am so over road racing.  I should have known better than to have raced the dirt crit at Kruger's last weekend.  While it was awesome to get back on the cross bike again it made me totally check out from road racing.  It's been a long season and I've been racing essentially non-stop since mid-February, I'm ready for a change.  With that said, here's a look at today's prologue for Eugene Celebration:

It sucked.  This prologue was a short (5k), yet steep, oh, and it sucked.  This morning I was 3 lbs under my average weight and my legs were feeling awesome.  That feeling didn't quite carry over to the race.

I felt awesome the first half of the race but blew up around mile 1.5.  I caught my 30-second man about a mile into the race but knew I was in bad shape.  the last half of the race was pure, sweet suffering.  I was aiming for a time right around 12 minutes but wound up with ~12:50.  Long story short, the rest of this race is going to be used helping my teammates and training for cross.

Here's a look at the data from the race.  800 feet of climbing in under 3 miles.  Average speed:  slow.

Cycling, it's been a year

Cyclocross training
 in April 2009-terrible
 form and all
(photo credit: Stephen Street)

Today marks my one year anniversary of my first bike race.

When I started training seriously in May 2009 I really had no clue what I was getting myself into but I knew cycling was something that I enjoyed and would hopefully satisfy my longing to be competitive once again.  Little did I know that it would take hold of me and transform me into (what I hope has been) a better person.

During tonight's race at PIR I began thinking that exactly one year ago I was being pulled around in the 4/5 race and just holding on for dear life.  Here I was a year later in the 1/2/3 race putting in attacks, blocking for a teammate up the road and racing alongside some of the best amateur racers in the nation.  Ok, enough blabbering, here's a look back at some of the past year's highlights: (after the break)

I raced my bike. I won. And I liked it.

So I finally gave into the pressure.  After spending the last two weeks all but strangling myself with an inner tube to get on my cross bike I allowed myself that simple pleasure the past two days.

Yesterday I spent an amazing 3 hours on the bike scoping out some new training grounds, getting used to file treads again, ripping through Forest Park and testing a beautifully glued set of fresh tubulars... only to bust my derailleur and hanger!!

RR Champs

So here's a great photo taken by Catherine Cooper.
What this shot shows:
-the size of out chase group before it shattered
-Team O had a commanding presence in the entire race (ok, so we didn't have a guy in the lead group...)
-and JLV is ready for this race to be over

What this shot doesn't show:
-I took that water bottle in the chest at about 15mph  (oww)

I'm just glad that race is over and done with

Photo dump

So it's been a while since I actually uploaded and posted any of the few pictures I've taken in the past month.  Well here's a few favorites:

this is my productivity everyday for the last 2.5 weeks of working at Acumed

early morning ride, post OBRA RR Champs

Saw this on the ride out to Vista House.  Kind of want to stop there just because of the name

The view from Vista House.  Always amazing

Pro/1/2 field at Portland Twilight Crit (I guess these guys are kind of fast)

and this is where I'm riding for the next week.

Alright, that's all for now.  Working on a report for the Rapha Gentlemans' Race; just waiting until forget about it enough to remember the good parts

picture from Tabor

ok, so this picture (yes, that red blur is me) was from a while ago (6/23) and resulted in this post from fellow racer Steve.  Still, a very good race and didn't realize that we had that big of a gap on the rest of the field.  Steve, if you're reading this you're one hell of a racer and I'm looking forward to racing with/against you in cross this year.

longest interval of my life!

So the OBRA road race championships were today.  Originally billed as a sprinters' course I knew better coming from Chad Sperry.  This is the wonderful individual who puts on death/hammer-fests such as the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic and the Cascade Cycling Classic.

I went into this race feeling awesome.  For the first time in two months my quads weren't sore, I'd eaten well and I had been sleeping incredibly.  I may have had a false sense of security but I felt like I could actually contend, probably not win but at least finish with the lead group and put in a good showing.  It was not to be.

When I showed up at the start line it was my understanding that we would be doing one large loop and one small loop.  Turns out we had to do two.  Normally this wouldn't have been bad BUT upon arrival to the staging area there was a 20 mph cross wind:  bad f***ing news for Derf.  I'm a decent climber, can hold my own in sprints and can descend fairly well but one thing I don't do well is damn cross winds!

2 weeks!

I only have 2 more weeks at Acumed, then I’m free!! (for 2 weeks until school starts…). I realized the other night just how fun, full and awesome this summer has been. At the start of the summer I was kind of apprehensive because everything seemed to be going my way and falling into place just the way I’d planned it (it’s never happened to this degree before). That said I’m sitting 2 weeks away from the end of my internship, 3 weeks from my move into school, 4 weeks from the start of school and 5 weeks from my last road race of the season. But most importantly it is only 40 days until THE FIRST CROSS RACE OF THE SEASON!! You have no idea how much this video makes me miss cyclocross. Immediately following the completion of the Eugene Celebration Stage Race I am riding my cross bike until the very moment I have to hop in a car to drive to Eugene.





Looking back on this summer I’m amazed how much (racing) I’ve managed to cram in. I joined an awesome team at the end of May and it’s been non-stop since then. Elkhorn Stage Race, Mt. Tabor Series, High Desert Omnium and Lord-knows how many PIRs; it’s been a great summer. Glancing back through results I realized that I finished top 10 in almost every race I entered. I don’t know if that means anything but I’m marking it as a successful first road season. Oh yeah, and I reached my goal of “Cat 3 by the end of the season” about 2 months early…

I guess the entire purpose of this post is a giant “thank you” to Portland, OBRA, my team, my friends who’ve put up with my insane training/racing schedule and oh yeah, my aunt and uncle who have provided me with an excellent place to stay and some incredible food. So, THANK YOU ALL!
I’m going to cut this one off but I have a bunch of material for another post: getting put on a watchlist, blackberries, and just general Portland awesome-ness but I’ll save that for another time. Until then, get outside and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts! I’m going to be pleading for rain as soon as I finish the last stage in Eugene: CROSS SEASON IS ALMOST HERE!

Sorry, one mention of a friend "Andrea," (I think that's what I called her)--the one who was on the New Orleans trip, who placed SECOND in her age group of her first triathlon.  For being a sprinter/hurdler not bad mixing it up with us endurance types!

Depressed Derf moves out, the new lady moves in

The new frame has arrived!  Add that to a free new Dura Ace chain and rear derailleur courtesy of Shimano customer service and the future is beginning to look a little brighter.

New frame is a Jamis Xenith Team, essentially the same weight as the Scott but has tapered headtube and BB30so looking forward to those upgrades.  Ok, enough talk, here she is:

the quest for a new frame

and the search continues...

After going to both Cycle Path (local Scott dealer) and Revolver on Thursday I set out on Saturday determined to find a solution to fix the $20 broken part which would salvage my $2k+ frame.

Between Southwest Bicycles, River City, Athletes Lounge, Bike Gallery AND Veloshop the only thing I came up with was a very small chance at a warranty.  So, at the end of the day, I'm stuck looking for a new frame.  :( --yes, that is one of the only times you will ever see me use any form of stupid 'emoticon'.

I attended the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge swap meet today in hope of finding the perfect frame at a reasonable price.  No such luck, the only frames there were too large, over-priced CX frames.

Next option: appeal to my fellow OBRAites.  There have been a few Scott Addicts in my size up there in the past so maybe I'll just get lucky.  That said, I've already started the search for a new frame.  While I REALLY don't want to buy a brand new frame there's not a whole lot of other options.  I had a good chunk of change set aside for a new cyclocross bike to be purchased through a team deal but it looks like that may have to wait a little while.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to lust over sub-900 gram frames and hope something magically works out... yeah right.

Grumpy Gus moves out. Depressed Derf moves in

For those of you that know me fairly well you may know that some of my engineering friends have nicknamed me “Grumpy Gus.”  I don’t remember the exact evolution of this name but I have to credit Pat G. with it.  Anyway, Grumpy Gus left on Wednesday night and Depressed Derf has moved in.

Instead of reading a race report from Tabor on Wednesday night you’re going to be reading about the shattering of dreams.

High Desert Omnium Road Race (and entire weekend) report

Ok, the road race was yet another road race.  We rode.  Some Bend d-bags attacked, chased their teammates down and then weren't willing to pull anywhere.  The group stayed together for the most part courtesy of lots of disorganization in part of the local racers.  Teammate Pat G went out and did some good work in a break but again, no one was working together so that came back together.  Not really a whole lot memorable about the race.  Someone was screaming because we "attacked" through the feed zone (instead of slowing to 10 mph several of us simply moved to the outside of the lane and coasted by).  Other than that, fairly uneventful.  Leading into the final 5 miles teammates Alex C and Pat G tried to get a leadout going for me but we were all pretty spent so that fell apart with about 1K to go.  Still, ended up sitting on just the right wheel and was able to dig deep to pull out a 3rd in the field sprint, good for 4th overall.  Top 5!  Heck yes, I get cash.  Overall, good race but legs never really seemed to click until about 5 miles to go.

High Desert Omnium Time Trial

Screw time trials!  Sitting at dinner and looking out at the wind I knew the race would be bad but I had no idea of how bad.  Going into the course I hadn’t seen the elevation profile but I’d heard stories:  enough elevation to make your life hell but not enough to classify it as an “uphill” time trial.  Add a 20 mph crosswind to that and you have a brutal TT course. 

High Desert Omnium Crit

This race reinforced why I don’t like crits:  too fast, hard to maintain position and s*** goes down REALLY fast.  Even as I was warming up I was asking myself why I signed up for the entire omnium, rather than just the road race (the only event I really care about here).  Then again, there’s the “go big or go home” attitude so if there’s 3 events by God I’m going to compete in all of them. 

Sometimes you have to race smarter rather than harder

Last night was the first time I actually thought about where I needed to be before going in to the final sprint. I know this seems like old-hat for most people but last night I realized that the little things all added up, especially at a race like Mt. Tabor. Instead of just climbing up the hill, diving for the corner and hanging on to a wheel I noticed that if I took the outside line and downshifted before I was at the top of the hill I could easily make up 6 places. Similarly, by taking the outside line (and running over a snake on one lap) I maintained position better and it was safer because I didn’t have the typical inside cornering slow down. Like I said, all these little things added up.

Oh, one other thing. It was over 90 degrees when we started our race. This was the first day it had actually been “hot” in Portland so I wasn’t completely acclimated to the heat yet. Typically, I don’t drink any water but after one lap my tongue was tuck to the roof of my mouth so I reconsidered.

Overall, nothing new or unusual to report. A break ended up getting away on the last prime and I didn’t even know they were there but I suspected it because skinny little Veloshop kid wasn’t around. As for the finish, I don’t think I could have planned it better myself. Descending on the last lap I was sitting halfway back in the field but took the outside line and was able to coast all the way to the front, starting the climb about 5th wheel. Learning from previous weeks I knew I didn’t have what it took to attack from the base of the climb so I sat in as a couple Gentle Lovers guys pulled me up. One by one people started peeling off, almost like it was a lead-out train just for me. Before the last bend I jumped. Took the inside corner (and pinched off a racer—oops, then again, it’s the leader’s course) and drilled it to the finish. Came in 6th overall but won the field sprint in my second Cat 3 race so I’m counting it as a win in my book.

Up this weekend: High Desert Omnium in Bend.

Wage-Grade Labor Sucks

In all honesty, I would be an exponentially better employee if I was on salary rather than being paid by the hour. At this moment I am sitting at work doing absolutely jack-s***. The cause of this complete lack of anything to do is my productivity. I’m sitting here staring at 3 completed projects and 2 others just waiting on people to make me parts. I don’t know if it’s because I’m more productive than everyone else or if everyone else around me is lazy. Now I have to admit, I when I work I don’t jump straight into a project and bury my head in it until it’s finished. Half the time I feel like I’m on a walk or reading cycling-related articles. That said, when I am sitting down and working on a project I’m productive. Now look where that’s gotten me: a day and a half before a holiday weekend and absolutely nothing to do. Seriously, what the hell am I still here?

Elkhorn pictures

So HERE is the link to all the pictures from Elkhorn.  None of them are awesome shots but at least it's something!  Upon reflection from Elkhorn, I'm glad that I did it but it's sure taken a toll on my body.  I'm toying with the idea of doing another stage race in a few weeks but I know Cat 3 is a whole different ball game.  We'll see, enjoy the pictures.  Thank you again to my driver for both driving and taking the pictures.  I really do appreciate it!

Couldn't have done this one without the team

I have a pretty awesome team.  I've been with them a whole, what, 4 weeks now?  I feel like I've ridden with these guys for year.  Not one of them has any issue with laying it all down on the line to see one of their teammates succeed.  These guys are amazing!

Elkhorn Stage Race-Stage 4-Dooley Mt Road Race

OOOWWWWWWWW!!!  Ok, so on Friday I said that was the hardest thing I had ever done on a bike, and it was true.  The Dooley Mt road race made Friday's b**** of a road race into the cutest golden retriever puppy you've ever seen.  Think of it like this:

At the conclusion of Friday's stage this is how I would have represented it:


After finishing Sunday's stage, this is what Friday's stage looks like:

After that brief reflection, here's the report:

Elkhorn Stage Race-Stage 3-Crit

Ok, so maybe crits aren't the terrible monster that I originally thought they were.  Granted, they're still fast and the 4/5 mix isn't my favorite but everyone seemed to have the understanding that the primes were the only things up for grabs, no time bonuses and no points so I think that made it a little more relaxed.

Elkhorn Stage Race--Stage 2--Individual Time Trial

Alright, for having never done something like that I don't think I did too poorly.  A HUGE thanks to Drew Willis for letting me borrow his clip-on aero bars.  They made a world of difference, THANK YOU DREW!  Sorry, no pictures yet but I'll post some of them later when I pull them off teammates cameras.  

Elkhorn-Stage 1-Oregon Trail Road Race

Holy f*** that was hard! (no, that’s not what she said…).  71 miles, over 6k of climbing and an average of 22 mph.  I can safely say I’ve never done anything like that before.  The first 30 miles or so were dead flat with a tailwind.  Everyone who knew anything about this race knew to sit in the pack and not do anything stupid.  It was really hard for me because after 5 miles I was bored and when I get bored I do stupid things.  One guy took off after about 8 miles and a teammate and one other guy took off after him.  The third guy pulled over got a pee break and my teammate was stuck out in no-man’s-land just hanging out.  He TT’d off the front for over half an hour and was actually pretty chipper once we caught him.  On the other hand “green jersey” was way the hell off the front, out of sight on even the longest straight-aways—s***.  The official car came back to tell us he’d supposedly built up an 8 minute lead on us, again, s***.  Then the climbing started.  First with a little roller, then one big sucker followed by some of the nastiest rollers I’ve ever seen.  The selection process was made over the “big sucker” and we had about a dozen guys half-assedly working together.  We caught “green jersey” and he sucked on.  Then the rollers started.  Again, the break is not working well together but there’s no chance of going solo because of the wind.  Then the huge rollers started.  People started blowing up and falling off the back.  My legs hurt like hell but there wasn’t any way I was going to drop back to the fractured peleton so I held on.  Unfortunately, I’d moved to the back of our poorly functioning paceline just as two guys took off on the front.  I knew I had the legs to ride with them but no one responded and they just rode away.  From that point on it was a matter of minimizing time loss.  I was sitting 4^th with some little d-bag kid from Bend hanging on my wheel.  I got sick of that so I dropped him and tried to bridge up to the guy in third riding solo.  I never made it.  Ripped down the last hill and TT’d the last 3k to the finish at 30mph.  Still waiting on official results but I’m either 4^th or 5^th and hopefully no more than a minute off the leaders. 

The individual time trial tomorrow is going to be interesting.  I have no TT bike, no aero helmet and no aero bars at this point.  I know I’m strong but we’ll see how much time I lose on those other guys who have that stuff. 

Overall today was a good day but I’m concerned about how my legs are going to respond to tomorrow.  Oh well, we’ll see how it goes and hopefully I can stay top 5.

Updated:  results- 4th in the GC 1:26 off the lead

update

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I'm terrible about updating this thing.  I could make excuses that I didn't have my computer for a while or that I've been busy riding but it would be just that... excuses.

Anyway, quick rundown of the past month and a half:

Nothing but the bike, Perpetuem, Clif Shots, road kill and hills, lots of hills

My ride on Thursday was incredible.  First of all, my Heat Transfer class was cancelled so other groups could present their projects.  My group presented earlier in the week leaving my a gigantic block of free time.  Of course, when faced with this situation and the choice between studying or riding my bike which one d you think I'm going to chose?!  The bike won again.  I'll keep this one short and just say that the ride was awesome.  It was cold but incredible.  I attacked up every single hill and pushed my legs hard the entire way.  Clif shots saved me on this ride.  I felt myself fading at the top of one of my last climbs, popped a few and was right back up to speed.  It's amazing how big of a difference such a little bit of food can make on a workout.

ACUMED!!

I got the Acumed internship!  I interviewed with them last Thursday and got the call on Monday.  When I picked up the phone and they told me I had the position I almost reacted the way one of my female engineering friends ('Andrea' in the New Orleans blog) would have:  jumping, celebrating, hitting everything I saw and just generally acting like I was on crack.  Anyway, with this job everything kind of fell into place.  I was really torn between Walla Walla and Portland (but not really).  Walla Walla would have been nice because I would have had access to a car, readily accessible training partners, an easy job with connections and it's Walla Walla: everything is close.

Long, draining weekend

Now that the weekend is winding down/over I realize just how busy it's been.  Between the three huge projects due next week, the Ronde De Portlandia and the trying to stay caught up on homework I managed to stay busy. The pie chart depicts my time allocation this weekend (Friday through Sunday).  As you can see, not a whole lot of down time.  Granted, I did a lot and accomplished even more but this weekend was incredibly draining for me on a physical, mental and even emotional level.  Physically, obviously because of the Ronde which I'm sure I'll be recovering from for the next few days; mentally because of the insane amounts of homework and projects I managed to accomplish.  I'm not kidding when I say that I worked from noon until midnight today on engineering projects (like assignment projects, not fun ones) and class work.  

De Ronde Van West Portlandia

By far my favorite group ride and rivals my all-time favorite ride.  End of story... Ok, well I guess I could tell you a little bit about it.

This ride has become a legend within its own time for its brutally hard climbs and varied terrain.  Created in honor of the Tour of Flanders (one of the Classics pro cycling races in Europe) this ride which has become a legend in its own time.  Organized by none other than Brad Ross of the Cross Crusade series this ride started in 2007 (I think) and the numbers have swelled from a few dozen to 600-700 last year.  I don't know what the official count was this year but I wouldn't be surprised if it exceeded last year's numbers.  HERE is a link to the Bike Portland story about the ride last year and HERE is a link to the route.  Don't use the elevation tool, it lies.

A win to finish a week of hard racing

The Tuesday Night PIR race marked the end of my 5 races in 8 days streak. As of an hour before my race I was still debating whether to race the Cat 3/4 or the 4/5 race. I had two teammates who were going to be in the 4/5 race but I knew that if I placed I'd earn points in the 3/4 race. Part of me wanted to go out and beat up on the 4/5 guys and then I started listening to my body (stomach in particular). I knew that I'd had a hard stretch of races so I knew my legs wouldn't appreciate it if I went out and destroyed them again. Also, about 2.5 hours before the start of my race I'd eaten a HUGE bowl of pasta with a bunch of cream and meat in it. Oh yeah, and 3 Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies-at least twice the size of the ones pictures-(I didn't want them to go bad...). On the way over to the race I felt like there was a rock sitting in my stomach. Given this it wasn't too hard for my teammates to convince me to race the 4/5 race with them. Sorry, no pictures of me racing this race, you'll have to settle for the picture of me winning the race on Sunday in Walla Walla.

5 Races, 8 Days

Tomorrow ends my streak of 5 races in 8 days. After a dry spell and going for over 2 weeks without racing I decided to make up for it. The schedule called for a circuit race Tuesday night (4/6) at PIR, a crit in Hood River Thursday night, collegiate road race in Walla Walla on Saturday, a collegiate circuit race on Sunday and another circuit race at PIR the following Tuesday (tomorrow, 4/13). I'll just give a quick recap of each race and throw in what pictures I have.

New Orleans

So I went to New Orleans for Spring Break. I tell people that it was for a friend's 21st birthday (one of the people I was traveling with turned 21 the day before and her party was the night before we left) but the real reason is that a HUGE conference for biomedical engineering research and devices was being held there. I have no way to describe the city other than "completely insane."

I really can't do justice to the experience in words. HERE is a link to pictures. Take a look and I'll try and touch on the highlight below.

First of all, the plane ride there was fairly eventful. My friend who turned 21 the night before (let's call her Andrea) was in surprisingly good shape. If you knew her you wouldn't be surprised, she's Greek, hyper and I guess kind of ok to hang out with (sarcasm). So, our flight was broken up into three legs, Portland to Kansas City, KC to Dallas and Dallas to New Orleans. For me the flight to KC was just fine. The two 1.5 hour flight really did me in. We'll just say I'm prone to motion sickness but usually it's not too bad. The turbulence changed that. I'll keep this decent and just say that I had three 'presents' for the flight attendant.

Racing recap

So obviously it's been a while since the last post. I owe that to a variety of reasons, mainly school getting incredibly busy over those weeks and my computer suffering massive injuries for warranty purposes. I'm going to try and give the best summary I can of those weeks, the races and what I've been up, while keeping it as short as possible.

Sublimity Circuit Race

Road racing can go suck gigantic balls. Not only is it filled with pansies but they're all on damn nice bikes. Now as I'm saying this I in no way mean to insult my fellow racers, just the slow people in front of me that swerve all over the road, can't climb worth crap and just generally slow me down, block me while climbing and prevent me from winning. If you're faster than me I have absolutely no problem moving over and letting you pass me. My thought is: you're stronger, you've earned it. Now let's see if people can pass that on.

New Orleans: it's really going to happen!

Holy crap, Spring Break is only 3 weeks away and I am still in this mystical state not really believing I'm going to New Orleans in 21 short days. No, I know, I bought the tickets and we've already reserved a hotel but the fact that 4 of us are flying across the country to a completely unknown city just kind of hit me when my registration information and badge showed up in the mail.

I still think it's pretty amazing and even if we get absolutely nothing out of the conference (which I doubt), we're still going to have a blast. End of story.

Also, I checked my OBRA points and I scored 8 points yesterday, meaning I only need to get 7 more points to get out of Cat 5! That means a 2nd place (possibly 3rd depending on number of starters) next week, which I sure hope I can do. We'll see