Drive Faster Alstublieft

Update your blog! Part II

2010-02-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

Not that many people read my blog, but if you visited my blog yesterday, I apologize. You were on Tim C.'s blog, saw that I updated, then came here to see, finally, what I have been doing with my life for the last few months. I deceived you, you really didn't deserve it, so to make up for it here is my real post. The life of John Zaccone (over the past few months.):

Right now my life is inchoate. Haplessly I have a todo list a mile long and I cannot burgeon until it is finished. I've seen a bunch of my garrulous girlfriend, Irene, which has been great, and I also amalgamated with Reid my first weekend in MD. For those of you who don't know I started a job
in Batimore with Northrop Grumman as a Software Engineer at the end of Januray. The move has enervated me and left me impecunious. Waiting for my first paycheck is noisome and has caused me to act petulant. Riding has stopped and I have become quiescence. But let me descry that the career will not attenuate my riding. In fact, I aver that the job will engender my cycling career to improve with great efficacy.

If you did not understand that last paragraph you clearly will not do well on the GRE.

In other news I am dreaming about being back in school. I am signed up to take the GRE tomorrow (friday), which hopefully will still happen. (snow storm 2010) I want to get my masters in math, and teach at a community college.

I am NOT riding, unfortunately. Today I came to work early so I could leave at 3 to go ride for an hour. Luckily, Northrop lets employees work whatever hours they want during the day as long as its not too crazy. Getting to work is always a challange. One trip to the office consists of getting on and off 5 different freeways. I like to day-dream while I drive in the morning so usually that ends up with me missing one of my 5 exits. Hopefully that will improve.

Anyways I am going to NC State RR weekend, so i'll see you there if your going.

PEACE

JZ

Update your blog!

2010-02-02T17:27:00.001-08:00

Blog Updated

Mt Biking

2009-08-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends think I have a bad taste for music. It all started freshman year driving to a race at around 6:00 AM in the team van. I was listening to "Barbie Girl" on my ipod. I was sitting in the back and noticed everybody slowly turn their droopy heads back at me. My headphones were up too loud. I don't know why I had it, I went for a week listening to it. Its catchy.. OK? But none the less, even though I listen to a lot of great music (that other people would call great too), the talk is true. I just downloaded a couple of Grove Coverage songs. Haven't heard of them? It's music you might hear at a roller rink.

In other news, I have officially entered my mountain biking phase. I borrowed a sick bike from Justin M., and he is letting me keep it so i can practice riding it.

I'm really afraid this is going to happen.

-JZ

21st

2009-08-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I am finally part of the fun.

It is illegal to buy alcohol after Midnight in Virginia. I went to Kroger last night at 11:50. They wouldn't sell to me. I walked out embarrassed and unsatisfied with a bag of sun chips and a loaf of bread.

New obsession - Weeds, watch it. Makes you want to deal drugs.

Going out tonight to the cellar and beyond. I'm thinking firehouse for dinner. Booyah.

Crash

2009-07-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

A lot has changed since I last posted. I moved back to Blacksburg, VA. I have a full-time internship with dish-network in Christiansburg. But I don't answer phones. Racing wise, I did the second rainy roanoke crit and got dropped. Mostly because I couldn't corner well after I few close calls with some back wheel slippage. I got tired of chasing back on after every turn, so I got dropped after about 15 minutes.

Today I finished up an omnium in TN/VA. There were only 12-13 guys in each race, which was kind of weird. In the RR, I started a break with one other 10 minutes in, and Timmy C. quickly bridged up. We worked together well putting in over 3 minutes on the field. I wasn't feeling well, and my pulls turned into no watts, so I opted to drop out of the break instead of sitting on after about 40 miles. Tim and the other guy, Jason, made it until the last lap before getting reeled in. I finished in the back of the pack, 11th.

The crit was supposed to be downtown, but they changed the course at the last second. So instead, we had a 1 km course with 4 u-turns. Living hell. Watching all the day's races before mine, I figure I should just be in the top 3 the entire time or I was going to get gapped out of the corners. I did that right from the gun, and by the end of the first lap I was off the front with one other. On the third lap I messed up a turn and crashed, mostly because I was trying to match the speed of my breakaway companion, who can corner like crazy. He went on to lap everybody, I jumped back into the race and finished in the field.

Congrats to Andrew Olson for winning the Category 1 Omnium. All in the TT.

This was all a test to see if I can type for work tomorrow.

-JZ

Living at Home

2009-05-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

I am in Michigan living with my parents over the summer. It was nice for about two days, then it started to feel a little bit like high school. I would move out, but I don't have a car. My mom is giving me a car for my last semester of college, or whenever I get a job, so I have to wait until then. Living at home does have its perks, however. Unlimited amounts of food at the house with a blank check to go get more at the grocery store. Lots of free time to ride and to work on personal blogosphere like websites that I will try to be done with by the end of the summer. Free transportation to races plus entry fees when my dad races with me and all the bike parts I can find in the house are fair game. (We have more than 17 bikes + parts in the house, so I never have to go to the bike store) All of this for doing some household chores and cooking dinner two nights a week is a pretty good deal.

Our family has a new dog, his name is Bear.

His nickname is the "automatic peeing machine." It is exactly what it sounds like. He spends most of his time in his cage, but when he comes out, better not touch him, because he'll pee all over you. He is only 9 months old, so hopefully he'll grow out of it.

Here's one of him licking my crotch.

In other news, we are camping this weekend on Lake Higgins, up near West Branch for this weekends race. It should be a lot of fun, hopefully not too much fun the night before the race, I want to do well.

Oh, and sorry for that last video, it was really stupid. But I got another one to make up for it.

Worst Video on YouTube

2009-05-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Tour Das Frankenmuth

2009-05-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Le tour de F is a flat course. 20 ish mile laps, 5 laps, just under 80 miles. I developed a chest cold the night before, which I felt did not affect my race at all. The race started off raining making it kind of miserable. The goal for today was to watch the big teams, mainly Bissell, to make sure I was in any break that looked good. Out of all the teams there, Bissell was the team that wasn't going to miss the break, so I based my efforts on that.

The 3rd lap I got in a break of about 10 riders that slipped away from the field. Even though the break was big, we rotated fairly well, with only one rider sitting in (Bissell had only one rider in the break.) I was OK with racing for second place. Another group of 10 bridged up and we started attacking from the break. Eventually everything got back together by the next lap.

When we got brought back, I fell to the back of the field, while the winning break with both Williams brothers rolls away with 4 others. I hear Bissell talking about how they wanted to bridge, they only had one rider in the break, and I looked for the next move to go up the road.

By the last lap, nothing has escaped from the field yet, and there was still attack after attack, but people were losing their snap. Finally one Bissell and green team rider (named the green team, because I don't know who they are,) had a small gap on the field, with a wolverine bridging. I jumped across with a Dayton rider and we had a group of 5 that the field let go.

We worked together the last 5 miles or so to the finish, I had myself pegged for second out of the break. The one Bissell rider was a great sprinter, and a couple of the other riders were having trouble pulling through. We rolled into the final k and took the left turn onto the finishing straight with a good gap on the field. I see the people lined on the side of the road cheering us on and I jump. I went for about 5 seconds when I realized the finish line was waaaaay too far away. I looked back and the Bissell rider has a big smile on his face as we both realized my mistake at the same time. He jumps around me, taking 7th by a long shot. The other three riders competed in the sprint and I tried to jump on their wheels, but alas, I am an idiot. So last out of the break, 11th for the day, just inside the money.

Shout out to David Williams who took the win.

Next week is West Branch. There is some climbing so hopefully it will be more exciting than the flat race we had today.

JZ

Summer Vacation

2009-05-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

I just got done with a monster 5 hour ride. My legs hurt.

Yesterday was Kensington, and I was very disappointed. I was riding with the front group, still feeling fresh, when others started popping off the back because of the distance. I had a mechanical (only slightly my fault), and I had to stop and fix it. I started to chase back on, and got a good look at the race when I approached the turn-around and saw the field(s) coming from the other direction. The group split into two, with a 3 man break still up the road, and many riders were dangling off the back. I never got back on. I think I could have placed 8th or higher.

Summer vacation is finally here. Yesterday after the race Derek came down from Lansing and me Alex, Derek, Elisa, Zack and co. spent a night on the town in Ann Arbor. Stories have been shared, camping trips have been planned. The next month is "Road Race" season in Michigan. One of the only places to have one. Coming up in the next few weekends we have two road races and one stage race. The next criterium is June 20th.

Colligate nationals was last week, and it was probably the most fun out of the last three years I have been. The trip was full of inside jokes, and new nicknames. The bff's and I will reflect on these memories everytime we get together. Results wise, we didn't do so well. The altitude makes it much harder for us to compete. Tim had our best result for both days like 64th place.

Family movie time, stay tuned for a recap of my next race, tour de frankenmuth.

-JZ

ACCCCCCCCC Crit

2009-04-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

I lapped the field with 8 others in the crit. It started as 4, then I bridged up solo over a half lap. Then over the next 20 minutes 4 others joined our group making it 9.

Joey and Winck made the break strong.

We lapped the field with 1 lap to go. Here is a picture of us right when we caught the field.

The breakaway just joined on the back-left side of the photo.

When we caught the field BW tried to get me through to the front, but I couldn't hold his wheel. I started my seated sprint from the back of the field, went as fast as a I could, and watched as the back of the field rode away from me. I was 8th, second to last of the break. I should have done better, I was very disappointed with myself. It was one of those races where you swear really loudly on the backside of the course during your cool-down lap.

Yet again Joey laps the field, then goes on to beat everybody in the field sprint. I have no idea how he does it.

After the race we had the award ceremonies for the conference. The VT team did well, winning the Men's A, Women's A and Men's C overall, and second in the team competition to Navy.

Up next is collegiate nationals. My training for conferences was to taper for 4 weeks, and I did not have the legs in the end. I think this time I will train hard for the next 2 weeks, then take an easy week before nationals.

F*&KING CONFERENCES

2009-04-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Two words: BW is the man. BW is like a mechanical pencil. You use him for awhile, but then you run out of lead, so you put him in your backpack. Then, the day of your final exam, when you don't have any other writing utensils, you pull out Ben and desperately try to get more lead. Turns out there was one piece left, and you get an 'A-' on the test.

Ben Warren was third for the day, but not before going off the front solo for 3 out of the 6 laps.

2 words, bad luck. Webb flatted the second lap. Eoin fell and hit his head, got back into the group, then flatted on the last lap. Tim broke a spoke. Still 3rd and 4th (Ben and Reid respectively) with the only two teammates left in the field is pretty good.

Kudos to the Men's B squad for setting the fastest time on the course in the TTT (including the men's A), with a time of 56 plus change. Over 26 mph average.

Kudos to the Men's D, Andy wants it. He deserves if for speed walking the crit course on a full stomach after the banquet with J Frink.

Good Luck in the crit tomorrow. Thanks, I need it.

JZ

Guest Blog Post

2009-04-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

jz's given me the opportunity to guest post, i'm over at his place watching the office, so i have some time to recall one of the better stories i know about jz

jz's training is probably going pretty well, he's a man of understatement so you never really know how much riding hes doing or how its going but it looks like he's shaving his legs and right now he's doing a bike fit with sara so right now the priority is the bike

i was at the race on Saturday really gutsy riding by the vt squad, i'll turn it over to jz now because he has quite the story to tell

ok well race morning i wasn't sure how things would go, training without the powertap this last month has been difficult, but going back to riding by feel makes you feel closer to the bike, and much closer to the effort of riding hard, the feeling of your lungs in your throat, your chest hurting so much after a hard effort that you think your lungs are trying to leap out of your chest, squinting like the pain will stop if you shut your eyes

i felt that pain saturday morning at the road race, after the roll out, i started riding tempo at the front of the field, not hard, but i just rolled of the front, after a glance back, i really put some hard pedalling in and spent the next thirty miles off the front, i envisioned my power animal, i saw myself riding through a hurricane, i am a warrior preparing for battle, i'm on the front line of the battle field

i just had my pubic synthesis reset, oh yeah, my socks dont match

JEFF CUP

2009-03-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Starters = 125 riders = INSANE. Aggressive level = 5. Sketchyness = 5. Cramping Lap = 5. Place = 30. Finishers = 68. Mountains in area = 1. Mountains on course = 0. Johnny D Placing = 3. Tim's Jamoke Level = 11. (does that mean that 11's the new 10? or is 11 higher than the old 10?)

Spring Break/ Training Camp #2

2009-03-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

This week has been most excellent for riding bikes. Eoin, Reid, Sam C., Steven and myself drove down to Eoin's house for some gorgeous weather and ice cream cake.
(Mrs. McDonnell's third batch of ice cream cake this week)

Monday - Rode through UNC Campus for around an hour to holla at some ladies. Steven talked to some girl at a stop light. Later he talked about how he talked to a girl. We visited some of the famous landmarks on campus including the well, the sun dial, bell tower, the garden and a castle that is the host of some sort of secret society (though we don't know what.) Total miles: 5, 10 at best.

Tuesday - Steven's last day with us before he left for DLP training camp. We rode for 2.5 hours then did 6 x 3 min v02 max efforts up a climb. The whole team got in on it and treated the efforts as races. Total ride time: 3 hr 45 min.

Wednesday - The crew rode for 2 hours in the morning then rested before a twilight training criterium with the NC State cycling team later that night. The course was the NC State crit course but backwards. There was about 20 people there and it made for a fun race. It is not often I get to participate in a race at night, and it got me thinking about the Athens Twilight Crit, which I may have the opportunity to race next month...

Thursday - 100 miles. Similar to last year's 100 mile ride in its epic-ness, but different in style.

A Reflection of last year: The ride was an unofficial "race." Owen Nielson and Reid took off around mile 25 and finished 45 minutes before everybody else. Left in the ride is Steven, Eoin, Bryan and I. With 20 miles to go Bryan attacked, and with no reaction with the remaining 3 riders, started to ride the last little bit by himself. As Steven, Eoin and I came into the last 2 miles, we see Bryan come in from a side street up ahead. It was obvious he made a wrong turn. Bryan sees us coming 100 meters away and starts to hammer. With the help of Steven and Eoin, I launch myself up to Bryan and catch him before the town sign. EPIC.

In this year's ride we decided to make it a "tempo" ride, where we would a do a double paceline, with the people pulling doing tempo and the people sitting in recovering. Tempo turned into low lt, thanks to Will from NC state. We sprinted for county signs and by the end of the ride we were exausted. Near the end of the ride Eoin, Reid, BW and I rolled it up and sprinted for the last sign. Reid wins the county lines sprints points competition and the overall win.

But wait, we only road 93 miles. So we rolled around for 7 more miles around chapel hill. I bonked hardcore in that last 7 miles and could barely push the pedals on the way home. Not top sporter. Good thing there was ice cream cake for instant recovery!

Friday (today) - the weather is crappy so we didn't ride. (Reid rode the rollers on the porch) We are talking now about if anybody if going to show up for the P-ride tomorrow.

That's it for now. No races this weekend, so maybe I'll finally do PB&J post I have been wanting to do.

New Bikes and NC State/WFU

2009-02-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-16T19:44:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

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.

Andrew Gold

2009-01-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

My Andrew Gold was pretty unexciting, so I will tell it in John Delong's point of view...

Today I rode hard at the front. I continued to ride hard until almost everybody was dropped. I took it easy riding with what was left of the group until we turned off Dry Run onto Mt Tabor coming back into town. That's when I decided to rip some legs off. I caught Reid who was up the road and won the race.

The End

Motivational Poster

2009-01-22T07:30:00.001-08:00

I made this myself:

First Day of Class

2009-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day of class. My early determination to pay attention in my first class was trumped by drawing pictures of bikes and Godzilla:

This drawing was completed in a class called "Professionalism in Computer Science," a class made as a requirement for all CS students because we are anti-social, are bad at public speaking, and don't know how to write. The first assignment is to submit a cover letter and a resume- an assignment that I have completed 5 times since I started college. I think I am going to dislike this class.

Every semester I get at least one class where I decide in the first 5 minutes that I don't like the professor. The professor of choosing this semester started the day off right by standing in front of the class and addressed us like a bunch of 5th graders with her shrilling, annoying voice:

"How do you know I am the professor.. Is it because I am standing here? How do you know I am not just some old lady standing up here... How do you know that..? How do you know your in the right class..? Because it says so on your schedule..? How do you know that?"

This went on for awhile and I closed my eyes and pretended it was all a bad dream until she stopped. She eventually started talking normally so at least its not like this all the time.

My second class on my first day was "Operating Systems," which the professor told us most of his class last semester found "hard," while the other portion found it "excruciating," so I am excited for that. He did, however, leave us with a joke I found funny, but you probably will not. (unless you are in CS)

Three men, a physicists, an engineer and a computer scientist, are traveling in a car. Suddenly, the car starts to smoke and stops. The three men try and solve the problem...

The Physicists says "This is obviously a classic problem of torque. It has been overloaded the elasticity limit of the main axis."

The Engineer says "No no no, the problem is that is has been burned the spark of the connecting rod to the dynamo of the radiator, it can easily be repaired by hammering."

The computer scientist says "What if we get out of the car, wait a minute, then get back in and try again?"

It is cold outside so I am going to hop on the rollers before class.

Adios,

JZ

New Pepsi Team

2009-01-19T09:14:00.001-08:00

I am currently trying to nail down a Pepsi sponsorship for a new team for the 2009 regular racing season. We will have "The Pepsi Kid" deal with all of our public relations:

I am also working on sponsorships from Firehouse Pizza, Smuckers Peanut Butter, and Welches Jelly. Watch out Coca-Cola!

I fixed my bike, but it is ugly

2009-01-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

I worked on my bike non-stop (during commercials) the last couple days and I present the finished product:

I made the handlebar tape match the seat, but unfortunately, they don't match the rest of the bike. Not to mention the brown and orange tires I have on there. In cycling I believe in a few strict rules (in no particular order)

1. The 3 hour rule. (2 hour rule for some road races)
2. Don't walk around after 5 p.m. the night before your race.
3. In order to go fast, you have to look fast.
4. Protein night before, carbs two nights before.
5. Never eat pancakes.
6. Make sure you bike is ready the night before the race, not the day of.
7. Cold water at the end of every shower.

According to rule number 3 on the above list, I will need to work on my bikes appearance before the season starts on Feb 7th. (Owen Cup)

2009-01-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

Lance Armstrong a hipster!!!???

This goes against everything I used to believe in.

(Lance shows up about halfway through with a white t-shirt)

In other news, the weather here in Blacksburg sucks. 15 degrees F outside today, definitely too cold to ride. The weather seems especially bad after beautiful 80 degree weather in Daytona Beach, Florida, where I spent a week with some of my VT teammates. Read Reids blog for more info on that.

I don't mind the weather as much as I should since my bicycle is currently being repaired...

Quite a bit of work needs to be done to my bike, including replacing the bottom bracket, handle bar tape, fixing my powertap mount, lowering my front derailleur, replacing my break pads, replacing my chain and a few cables with a bit of cable housing. Don't ask me why I let all of this build up until now.

Yes... I am finally changing my bar tape, so quit bugging me.

Chasing Clouds, Mopeds, and Dreams...

2008-11-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

All cyclists run into the occasional challenge while on their bike, whether it be riding away from a dog, racing cars around the drillfield, or the random student on the moped. The other day I tried to race a cloud. I was riding in a tail wind on the SAYG route in the warmth of the sun, when the shadow of a cloud came right over me. I picked up the pace pushing it to 500 watts for a minute trying to stay in the warm, wonderful sun. The cloud won.

Another challenge commonly run into by cyclists are dogs. Out on these country roads people don't believe in leashes, and fences are for farms. Running into dogs can sometimes be dangerous. The best defense? Squirting water. Dogs hate water. Normally I am not that afraid of dogs, though I do participate in the ritual of riding really fast when I see one, but something happened to me last week which changed my fear for dogs. I was riding "the fun way," (a shorter version of the SAYG route) behind Foxridge when I came across an old lady walking her dog. She saw me coming, so I thought it was safe to pass. The old (senile) woman did not hold on to her dog, and it bit me in the leg as I was riding by. At first I didn't think it broke skin, but I looked down and saw my leg was bleeding. I went back to get the lady's information, but she refused to believe her dog bit me even though my leg was clearly bleeding. I threatened to call the cops but she just walked away. It makes me mad just thinking about it.

In other news, if you read fruitloops blog you'll see that I called him out last night. This is true. Let the smack talk begin.

5 dollars if you kiss this:

JZ

Start of a New Era

2008-10-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a really long time. The time missed could be seperated into three seperate eras...

Moving In :

I moved into my new apartment in Blacksburg with my good friend Eoin who also rides bikes and with a friend of a friend named Andrew. For awhile, life was grand. We had a HD projecter set up on the wall hooked up to a Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and all the games you could need. The most important game of all being Rock Band. The band got together at least once a week to "practice are f*^#ing balls off," and we started to sound great. However, Andrew, due to a sequence of unfortunate events, resigned from Virginia Tech, so he moved out, taking his Xbox, guitar hero and his projecter with him. But, I think we will survive.

Program:

Going into school I was probably riding every other day for at least an hour (SAYGing it up of course), until the VT home mtb race. The short track was on Sunday, so I thought I would try it out on my cross bike. "PSHHHHHHHH" would be the sound of the day. Someone pointed out to me that even though I raced for free, I went through 15 dollars worth in tubes. Thanks alot buddy. The main problem with the course was a path of rocks that everybody had to ride through every lap. It was kind of skecthy and I was kind of afraid that I would crash in front of the massive crowd. Thank god for Tim.

Ben King won the race, but later got disqualified for not racing his category. Nice job sandbagging the A's...

Due two weeks after the race, hence the name of this era, was THE PROGRAM. The program was assigned the first day of class, and we were informed to start working on it right away. Two weeks before it was due, the professor said in class "if you haven't started yet, drop the course." I believe more than half the class started the program the next day, including myself. So I started working, my head buried in my computer for two weeks straight. I believe I invested more than 45 hours in this program in 2 weeks. Throw that in with my other school work and I didn't have any time to ride. In fact, I didn't even change my flat tires from the race until the day after I submitted my project. I handed it in 2 days late, which is not too bad considering alot of people were still working on it when I turned it in.

Post-Program/Riding Again

Free from thinking about c++ for awhile, I started to focus on what I was going to do for training. Currently I am in the process of reading Training and Racing with a Power Meter and also looking at what coach Friel has to say. I am trying to get a bunch of different feedback from different people about what I should be doing right now. If somebody has any advise, don't hesitate to comment. I don't think I'll get a coach this season still, but I will not do strictly what Joe Friel tells me to do. I plan on combining everything everybody else tells me into one crazy looking plan.

That's it for now, I will try and post more often from now on.

Day 2:

2008-07-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

The TT (20 km)(21 riders)(Windy):

After a good result yesterday, my dad decided to let me use his TT bike because I was in contention for the omnium. The course was basically a lap of the road race course, a little shorter. I missed my start time but fortunately they gave me a new one. I started behind Tom Burke, which sucked, because I never saw him after the first corner. Big Ray started 1 minute in front of me though, so I chased him. I knew I would have to beat him to have a shot at the overall. The TT went well, and I placed 6th place (29:22), beating the two riders who were ahead of me in the RR. Big Ray was 8th, and the rider who came in 2nd in the RR was 9th. My teammate, Chris Aten, placed well with a time of 29 flat for a solid 4th place. Burke won the TT with a time of 27:50. I still had to figure out where I was overall, but I had the feeling I was within grasp of 1st.

The Crit(60 min)(30 riders):

Before the crit I went and had a chat with Ray and we discussed tactics. He told me the count down for the top ten. I was in 5th overall, but only 9 points shy of 1st. A win today would most likely wrap up the whole onmuim. Health Net is relentless...

The course was the worst ever. 8 turns in .7 miles. Two of the turns had potholes scattered about in them, and another was blocked by a big banner that the race put up, so you couldn't see all the way through it. The race started, and I stayed near the front keeping an eye out for the GC guys. The guy in fourth went off, but I decided to wait and see it come back, but it never did. The guy I was mainly marking was Tom Burke, because I knew on a course like this he could easily stay away. He took off once, with me on his wheel. We stayed off for a couple laps, but ended up being caught by the field. A few laps later he went again, but this time I was too far back to do anything. I tryed to jump up with the help of Alex, but after a couple laps of working really hard on the front, I just couldn't close the gap. With two guys in front of me in the GC, my hopes of winning the overall have vanished, and I just focused on making the best of the situation. In the field sprint I put several places over Ray, but one other rider passed me up in the GC. I stayed in 5th overall, still not a bad result.

"Pancake" Stage Race

2008-07-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Pancake Stage Race in Indiana, and they weren't kidding when they said pancake, there isn't a hill in sight.

Day 1:

The course(RR):
15 miles loops, first half - tailwind, second-half - headwind. Pretty strong winds. Length -5 laps(75 miles) Field - 35 riders

The RR:
I wish there was a most aggressive rider award cause I would've gotten it. Today, I was our teams "breakaway" guy, which meant I had to be on the front following attacks from the get go. Right off the gun I saw Tom Burke, a good man to watch, attack in the very first K. I went after him with one other guy and the three of us worked well together from there, putting over 2 minutes on the field. After one lap, I looked back and the field was about 30 seconds behind. I was definitely the weak man in the break, and the truth of the matter was, either I skipped a couple pulls or I was getting dropped. I was on the rivet ever since we got out of the headwind. I opted to getting dropped and waiting for the field, the more demoralizing option, but it turned out to be the better choice. The two riders stayed away for the next two laps. Finally, when the two riders were about 40 seconds in front of the field, I told Chris (same team, same team), to sit in and recover while I took hard pulls on the front in the head wind section of the 3rd lap. I don't want to brag and say I pulled them in by myself, but basically I did just that. I got them within 2o seconds and the field took over from there. A series of attacks went off when the break was caught, but nothing seemed to be sticking. Big Ray got off the front with 2 laps to go, however, with one other rider, and I knew I couldn't let that go. I jumped up with one rider on my wheel, and started the second of two breaks of the day. We dropped a guy right away, so 3 of us worked hard to put the field out of sight. A big thanks to Chris and Rob for blocking for me while I was away. John Rigdon flatted early on in the race, where Eric and Alex went back to bring him up to the field. Unfortunatly the pace quickened in the field, and they never made it back...

With a half lap to go, I thought I had the win. I knew I could beat both riders in the break in the sprint. I was already riding this blog entry in my head, that's how confident I was. My legs were cramping big time in the last headwind section and I knew if I stood up to sprint, me legs would seize. So I attacked with 1 km to go, starting my attack a few bike lengths behind so I could ramp up my speed before I passed them. It worked! I was in the clear! But then my legs seized up and I lost. 3rd for the day wasn't too bad though, best cat 1,2 result yet. Big Ray took the win and the other guy got second.

A Couple Crits

2008-07-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend can be summed up in three words: Texas Roadhouse Domination. Not only did they have the strongest riders, but they were 8 strong for both races with 40-50 rider fields. They placed 1,2 in both crits, as well as a bunch of other top tens. It was like racing against the Virginia Tech cycling team...

The Troy classic was on Saturday. A 9 corner crit with smooth roads, this race proved to be alot of fun. The race was 50 laps, or about 50 miles. About a quarter way into the race, a break went off with a bunch of TR guys and I felt that this was the one. My teammate Alex jumped off the front with me on his wheel. After his heoric effort, I pulled through and managed to bridge up to the break with the help of a couple of other riders. This break, however, was not the one. I need to be more patient.

About half way through the race, everybody locked up on the first corner, and I slammed into the rider in front of me, taking a spill. It wasn't a bad crash however, and I was able to walk back to the pit, get a new wheel and jump back into the race. While I was getting a wheel change, the winning break went off the front. I tryed to bridge up when I got back into the race, but I didn't have the power to do it, so the break was gone. I road around in the very back of the peleton after that, coming to the front to win a $25 cash prime, then falling back again to where I was for the finish. 26th for the day out of 40 some riders.

The Tour de Burg's course was not as nice. It had a wicked chicane, into a slippery brick section (with missing bricks). The crit had 6 normal corners with bumpy roads all around. This was definitely not my favorite course. For this race I decided to sit in for at least the first half the race, which ended up being really easy because for most of the race there was one Texas Roadhouse guy off the front and team Inferno were doing tempo to reel him in. It started to rain in the middle of the race, which made me very nervous, and I tried not to think about what it would feel like to fall on my road rash. There was one crash that I saw- a group of 6 riders went down on a slippery corner, but I managed to avoid it and stay upright. With one lap to go I was in bad position and was looking to move up. Coming into the second to last corner I found the courage to dive the outside to get behind the texas roadhouse train and a RGF rider in about 6th position. I held that all the way out off the last corner, but I stood up for the sprint, and my legs had nothing. 10 guys passed me before I got to the line, I ended up 16th for the day.

The next race coming up this weekend is the Indiana Pancake stage race. There I will compete in a Road Race, TT and Crit on Sat and Sun. Thank god, I am getting tired of crits...

Blacksburg Weekend

2008-07-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

As far as bike racing is concerned, this weekend was a disaster. The weekend started off on friday with my brother and I getting up at 6:30 in the morning to leave home from Michigan. The crit in Roanoke started at 6:15 pm. I drove for the first 5 hours of the trip, then stopped to refuel. My brother Sam then took over for a little while. I told him to just drive down the highway that we were on until we got to West Virginia. I then proceed to fall asleep in the passanger seat of the car.

One hour later I wake up and we are on the wrong highway by Pittsburg which is COMPLETELY out of the way of where we were going. After calling for directions and getting back on the road, I took over the driving and sped all the way down 76 to try and make up for lost time. I knew it was going to be close, so we made one quick stop for lunch to go, then back on the road again. We got stopped by an accident which put us back another half hour. After awhile I realized we weren't going to make it (aka when the clock in my car read 6:15) and I slowed down. I arrived a half hour late to watch the end of the race, thoroughly dissapointed for missing it. I would like to note, though, that it was not my brother's fault for driving in the wrong direction. I never told him what highway he needed to stay on, and right after I put my head back was the junction of 80/77 and he simply guessed the wrong way. He even woke me up to ask me if we were supposed to be going east. We were supposed to be going south but I assumed it was just a turn on the road that wer were supposed to be on without even looking up. My bad.

Day two of ID3 (Independence day), was the uphill TT. I gladly skipped that to move out of my apartment. I should have took a picture of the room that I stored all my stuff into, but I forgot. Let's just say I made good use of the space.

Day three of ID3 was a crit in Blacksburg. The crit was basically Rockford, for all my Michigan readers. It had a decent sized hill every lap, with a some what technical decent for which to recover. "Bang" the gun went off and by the end of the first lap I was off the front with Andrew Olson and one other rider for a lap or two before getting caught by the field. It was sometime in the next few laps that John Hamlim of Time pro cycling team made his move on the outside up the climb. We chased hard for the next 10 laps, and I was barely hanging on. After about 5 laps of going all out on the hill, I found that I couldn't recover fast enough. The pace didn't let up, and I soon found myself off the back on the climb and out of the race. I am not sure why I did not feel good, but whatever did happen resulted in the biggest dissapointment of the year. I did not want to race bikes the half hour or so after the race. That dissapointment, however, turned into a training drive where I am determined to become a better cyclist and to stick to my training schedule for the rest of the summer. John Hamlin ended up lapping the field. Congrats to Ben King and Owen Nielson for getting 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Sorry there were no pictures today, I will try harder to remember to bring my camera in the future.

Until next time,

JZ

Broken Bike/ Rockford

2008-06-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

So after riding my bicycle through a crazy thunderstorm, I noticed that my bottom bracket was moving around inside my frame. I took it to the bike store for a better look, and it turns out there was a crack at the chain stay in the carbon fiber that I should be more concerned with. After talking with Trek for a few weeks they had decided not to warrentee my frame, so I am now without a road bike.

For now I will be sporting my Felt cross bike. I am OK with the change. I have already raced it at Allen Park and Rockford, and I can corner and handle my bike just as well as anyone else in the field. Plus, it looks cooler then my trek which is always the most important thing:

The next bike I buy will most likely be aluminum, considering I can't afford anything else.

In other news, Rockford went alright for me. I finished with the main field and strolled in for an easy 22nd place. Unfortunatley for me I did not realize they were paying to 20, so I should've tried harder that last lap.

Allen Park

2008-06-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Every year at the Allen Park Crit there is a break, and this year was no exception. The break went away with 7 riders about 30 minutes into the race, and unfortunately I was not in it. Because the course was wide open and windy, it made so that a group of this nature could work well together and put some major time into the field. They quickly built up their advantage to over 30 seconds and I knew the race was over. I stopped trying to get into chase groups, nothing was getting off anyway, and went to the back of the pack to chillax for a little while. The race, however, was far from over.

Sitting in the back, I see a chase group of about 8 riders forming off the front of the field and I knew I had to be there. I attacked the field and made way to bridge up to the chase, bringing along some other riders behind me. Three laps later I caught the chase, and was able to sit on while three Lathrup guys pushed the pace on the front. We closed down the gap to the break to about 10 seconds, when the only Saturn of Toledo rider in the break was dropped, causing Jon Card (also Saturn of Toledo) to help with the chase. We eventually caught the 7 riders, lapping the field at the same time, so there was now a group of 20 riders left in the race.

From there on out, everything was in slow motion. I went off in a couple breaks from this group, but everybody was tired and the group eventually brought everything back. It occurred to me at this point that a late breakaway might stick, since the field was tired and unable to follow attacks. So I gave it my best shot, with three laps to go I went solo off the front and put in a decent gap between me and the field. Here is a video of me coming through with one to go, with the field not too far behind:

I was caught right before the final corner of the last lap. Ben (the winner) had it right. Watching this video, he is the guy behind the Bissell master team lead out train, which totally made sense in this situation. I attacked with 3 laps to go. They had 3 guys and plenty of time to reel me back in. I should have either waited a lap with a stronger attack, or waited for the sprint, basing my timing with their team.

I will not be racing for another 2 weeks, so please stay tuned until then.

Rain Rain Go Away

2008-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the state road race championships here in good ol' Michigan. There were around 50-60 riders in the field, and our race was 102 miles. Sitting in the staging area, the group was lectured by the referee on a storm that was headed this way. We had a 10:00 start time, so the goal for the day? Beat the storm.

The race started off with an usual supsect, big Ray from Wolverines, going on a solo breakaway. The field surged and backed off several times while he was off the front, closing the gap to about 3 bike lengths. Big Ray, however, just kept on chugging with that engine of his and pulled out to 20 seconds again whenever the field let up. Eventually he was caught and another breakaway went away. That break was pulled back where then yet another breakaway went away. It went like this for pretty much the whole race. People would constantly launch attacks to the break, until the whole field was up there, then somebody else would start the next break. I managed to get into 3 or 4 of this little breakaways, including 1 or 2 promising ones, but nothing slipped away too easily.

On the 4th lap of 6 the field had come together right before the biggest climb of the course. I noticed this and got ready to get in what I thought would be the game-winning breakaway over the top of the climb. 5 riders attacked at the base of the climb, however, and held their gap over the top and increased it from there. I tried attacking away from the field 3 times to get into the break, but too many people were thinking the same thing. When the gap to the break increased to about 30 seconds I gave up my efforts and let it slip away without me. No worries though, the break came back within a half lap and the actual winning break slipped away in a counter of about 7 guys at the start of the 5th lap. The biggest mistake I made today was not being at the front when this break slipped away.

The storm hit us 3 km from the finish at the end of the 5th lap. We rolled in with downpouring rain and lightening, finishing a lap early. One rider on my team, John Ridgon, took advantage of the situation and attacked as the rain got bad. I think he held off for a top 15 finish. Nice! I was sastified with making it home alive, so I took my time, happy with my pack finish. All in all today was more of a learning experience then anything. Today I noticed that the riders who made the break were consistantly on the front the whole race, always attacking the field. I need to be more aggressive on the front and maybe do less work in early parts of the race when a breakaway is not as likely. So stay near the front, yet again, is what I need to be telling myself for upcoming races.

I would like to throw out a special thanks to Kris and Mark for helping out in the feed zone. Without out you guys I would have died of thrist over that long 87 miles!

Until next time,

JZ

First Blog

2008-05-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

My first blog. I will start off this blog by posting a picture of me lined up at the 2008 Tour of Leelanau next to the former u23 national champion and BMC professional cyclist Brent Bookwalters. We both got call ups for this year's Tour of Leelanau. I was called up first. I felt incredible unfit to be in that position next to Brent, for I was not a pro, and I wasn't even going to finish the race. But it symbolizes where I hope to be in a couple years...