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.
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'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
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?)
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.
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.
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:
Joey and Winck made the break strong.
The breakaway just joined on the back-left side of the photo.
Steven and I start an early break:
