New Bikes and NC State/WFU

Bike Number 1:


The "Silver Flash" was born on February 21st, 2009 at 11:30 am. The NC State Road Race # 2 was at 12:00 pm just 30 minutes later. I had enough time to get dressed and roll around for 15-20 minutes before the start of the race. Usually in road races you can get by with no warm-up, but this race was an exception. Starting from mile one the race was fast. I went into the red zone a couple times attacking and trying to get into the winning break, which made me feel very nauseous. I felt bad the whole race, and riding a brand new bike, which I did not have time to adjust properly, made it even worse. Oh well, I have nobody to blame but myself.

The next day I re-adjusted by bike and felt alot better. The WFU crit on Sunday was at Dixie Fairgrounds, where the wind was insane. Warming up on the rollers was almost impossible and I made a complete A-hole of myself falling over a few times. Just like the road race, the crit was fast from the beginning, but I was ready this time. There was a crash about 7 minutes in involving my teammate Reid Beloni and a Pfieffer rider. Both cracked their forks. I was to the left of it and had to slow down to get around it. When I looked up at the 10 riders in front of me, they were taking advantage of the crash and putting the hammer down! I managed to get back to the group and was the only VT rider left in the race. Or so I thought. Tim came out of nowhere a lap later and caught on and now we had two out of about 12. One pfieffer rider took off and ended up lapping the field. Tim got away with Turner Johnson, and they almost lapped the field as well. Tim ended up finishing 3rd, and I placed 3rd in the field sprint finishing 6th overall. I had the perfect leadout for the sprint and was the only rider to have a clear shot up the non-wind side, so in theory I should have walked away with that race. But my sprint sucked.... I need to practice that.

Although I had a bad intial ride on my new bike, the bike is actually awesome. It's an Alan, a hand-made brand from Italy- an aluminum frame with carbon stays and fork/steering tube. The bike is huge and it only runs 18.4 pounds. I got this frame and group set dirt cheap from Stratton Delony. He runs a bike shop called Keirin Culture based out of Roanoke. If you ever go by there stop and check it out. He has done alot in sponsering the VT cycling team.

Bike Number 2:


No I did not get a new Trek time trial bike with comic carbones. This bike is my dad's and he is allowing me to use it for the colligiate season. Hopefully I can make it to go fast this weekend at the Navy TT.

That's all for now, I am going to go rebel and mix some toppers with some hybrids.

-JZ

NC State Crit

The NC state crit was pretty bland. They shortened the race to 45 minutes. I spent most of my race chasing down Lees McRae riders who were constantly off the front. Near the end I was at the back, waiting for a crash in the chicane. I didn't bother trying to move up at the last second, I don't trust half the collegiate A field. Here are some pictures:

Coming out of the chicane:


Getting ready to pounce on Steven:



Steven and I start an early break:


Riding behind Sean and John Doyle:

First Collegiate Race, NC State

I am tired so let's make this short.

The RR was dull until my man Ben Warren made a "real" attack off the front. What I mean by "real" is that he attacked hard enough so nobody could go with him. As a result, BW rode half the race by himself while Tim and I blocked back in the field. After a few fast periods of racing courtesy of Navy and NC State, BW came back right before the last of four laps.

The fourth lap was the hardest. Everybody was trying to make a new break, and I stayed near the front and followed attacks. About half-way through the lap, a break started to stick with Reid in it and 4 others up the road including Andrew from Navy, Sean Barrie, Andrew Troy and Turner Johnson. I counted the number of people vs. Reid in the break and decided that I should try to bridge up. I attacked the field, bringing one Navy rider with me and after riding 45 seconds at 590 watts I made it to the break. So now there were 2 VT and 2 Navy riders with representation from GT, VCU and Pfieffer. The break went on to hammer up the next few miles of false flat. I did not pull through in this time period, I merely sat on the back averaging around 280 watts. Finally we got to a place where I could recover and I started to rotate with the group. I confessed to Reid that my legs were blown and I had no sprint. I told him to expect a late attack from me.

1 km to go. Time to attack, but no, Sean Barrie was near the back with me, and Reid was stuck in second position behind Andrew. Attacking would be stupid. Reid realized he was in a bad position and he looked back to see what he should do. When he looked foward, Andrew had a gap, realized it, and started to make a run for it. Reid then looked back again at me- "JOHN!" Time to go to work. I got on the front and put out what watts I had left. 520 watts for 40 seconds and then I was blown, closing the gap to Andrew halfway. I blew up 200 meters from the line, and Reid took off, a bit too early but with lack of a better option. He held a great sprint all the way to the line and took second, catching Andrew but getting caught by Sean Barrie before the line. Still a decent result, 2nd of the day.

Kudos to Eoin and Tim for shutting down the field once the break was set. We performed well: Reid 2nd, Me 7th, Eoin 9th, Tim 11thish. We have shown that we are a strong team and we will be marked, as always, in the future races.

That wasn't that short. I will post about the crit tomorrow.

Owen Cup

A lot of people get "butterflies" before every race. I have been racing for awhile, so I tend to only get butterflies before the first couple races of the season, as well as before big races. This morning I woke at 7:30 to eat (3 hour rule, 3 hour rule) to prepare for the Owen Cup. Butterflies kicked in and after breakfast(eggs and oatmeal), I felt nauseous. I got over it as soon as I got on the bike, as always, on my way to Bollos...

RACE REPORT:

The course consisted of laps of about 25 miles. The first half lap is hard with non-stop rollers. If you are from MI reading this it is the equivalent to riding 15 miles worth of laps at kensington, but not the big laps, the small ones. Then the race drops down into the valley via Sandy Ridge for a strong head wind on the way back and not so many hills. At the end of each lap we ride up a 2.5 mile climb up Harding and Happy Hollow to the start of the next lap. On the last lap the race goes up an "alternate" ending and finishes up at the top of Harding.

With about 20 riders starting with the A's, the first half of lap one was somewhat fast. I got in a break with Steven Gordon Pro Bike Racer and Scottie Weiss early, too early, and it came back. We arrived at Sandy Ridge and the race stops. Andrew Olson was off the front and dangerously opened a large gap on the field. Steven unleashed some fury on the front but got pulled back. We eventually started working together in a nice smooth rotating pace line. We caught Andrew going up Harding and the group is together for the start of lap 2.

My race ended over the top of the post-switchback climb on the start of lap 2 when I realized I couldn't shift down in my rear cassette. My shifter was jammed and I was stuck in my 25, switching back and forth from my 39/53 up front. I sat up as I watched the remaining 10 riders ride away from me on the descent. Among the riders left was Scottie Weiss (Kenda), Reid Beloni, John Delong, Sam Froulich (really a triathlete), Andrew Olson, Aaron Synder (2007 Owen cup champion), John Webb, Steven Gordon (DLP), Aarons fellow Mtb. friend and maybe one or two more.

After I got dropped I stopped and figured out that I had to hold my big shifter to the right while I pushed the little one to the left in order for my piece of *&$* shifter to work. I should have figured this out while I was still in the group. I rode the rest of the race with the B's and headed back to the top of Harding to watch the end of the A race.

The end of the A race goes as follows:

Reid gets away at the start of lap 3. Steven goes after him starting at the county line hill. Steven catches Reid at the notch of Harding less then one mile from the finish. (very dramatic) They ride together to the finish, Steven has the legs to win the sprint. Nice Going.

I haven't been "performing" too well recently. I sat up at Andrew Gold, I sat up at last Sunday's race ride, and I had an mechanical at Owen Cup. Excuses, excuses. Hopefully things will turn around by the time the season starts in one week. Chances are I will be dropped in the road race as a result of eating too much of Mrs. Mcdonnell's ice cream cake.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for next week's race report of the NC state weekend.

P.S.

Ever wonder how long it takes to write a post such as this? If 'M' is the amount of time it takes to eat a one pound bag of m&m's and 'N' is the amount of time it takes to eat a extra large cheese Firehouse pizza, then this post took (M+N)/2 time.