Tour Das Frankenmuth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.