OUCH!!!!

What a hockey puck does to your leg.

The Final Stage

I don't know about anybody else but this is the longest stage race I have ever done. Most stage races are 3 stages, but you throw that extra stage in there and it makes a difference, lets face it, I am not getting any younger. So the 4th stage in 3 days is a 85 mile road race with around 5200ft of climbing. I have ridden the loop before and was really worried about this stage. It has three, 3mile climbs and you do the loop twice, so do the math. Did I mention that I am really tired, but I decided at the beginning of this stage I am finishing no matter what happens. So the race begins and I am sitting about 1:50 seconds down which is not bad. Everybody is just cruising along talking and 3 guys take off. Everybody just looks at each other because these guys are not in contention, but they are smart and I wish I would have gone with them. Why you ask, well they were getting a head start on the steepest climb of the day, smart move. Well long story short, I survived the first climb which is about 15miles into the race. The decent of this climb is super sketchy and some guys totally bombed it. At the bottom is a 90* left hand turn, that usually has a fair amount of gravel and dirt on it and I got gaped. The 2nd climb starts right after the turn and is super steep probably in the 10% range and doesn't let up for about a mile. I got popped bad, blew ski high and had to sit up. I chased for a while and about went of the side of the mountain on the decent trying to get back with the group, but it wasn't going to happen they were gone so I settled in and realized I had 60 miles to go. I caught some guys that had been dropped and one guy stayed with me and we suffered together to the finish. I still managed to average 18mph for the day and was happy that I finished. I ended up 23 out of 30 guys, but it was a great experience and I am still carrying good form into cyclocross because of it.

Celebration continued

Its been a few weeks, but cyclocross season started and we have been super busy. So here is the rest of the stage race. Early Sunday morning the Time Trial took place. I was in 11th overall so not to bad for me, my main goal for the TT, or any TT, is not to finish last. The cours was a 7 mile out and back fairly flat so decide to ride my fixed gear track bike. I really think it helped me because i did not finish last. Later that day was the crit, I was really looking foward to this because that is kinda my turf. As the race started I decided to just hang out because the guy in 1st had a good team and they were controlling everything. so with a lap to go I moved up the inside on the backstrech and went into the final corner in 3rd. It is 300m to the line from the corner so i was thinking second win of the season. As we came around the corner the guys in front of me just died and I had to make a split second decision. Lead it out or get swarmed from behind and have no chance of winning. I went by the saying, "when in doubt lead it out." So that is what I did, and took the winner all the way to the line. I was able to hold 38mph for about 200m but he came around me right at the line and there was a guy on my left that got me but a tire, so got 3rd which is good enough for me.

Eugene Celebration

This past weekend I participated in the hardest stage race I have ever done, the Eugene Celebration stage race. This race was done on time so you had to be careful not to get dropped or give people time by letting gaps open up. I have been training so I thought I was halfway ready for it. Heather also raced which was awesome. So here we go. Saturday morning was a 55 mile road race to start the event. We had about 30 guys which around here is pretty good, so off we went. The first real climb was 4.5 miles into the race, it is called "welders hill" because there used to be welding shop at the top of it. Welders is about 2 miles in length and around 7-8% grade. We went up it the first time pretty easy at about 15mph. Ya that is right 15mph, welcome to Eugene. From there it is rolling with nothing to bad till you get to "sprinters hill". Sprinter is about a mile long with around 6-8% grade and about 4 miles from the finish. We had a tail wind at this point so we cruised up it at about 17mph. The first lap was pretty tame so I was getting worried that the second lap would get crazy and it did. As we approached welders the second time the pace was much higher because a couple of guys had got off the front and teams were chasing. We went up welders the second time in our big chain rings at about 20mph and man it hurt, I hit a higher heart rate climbing that, than I did in the sprint. After cresting that climb nobody let up, it was full gas for the rest of the lap. As we approached sprinters we were in the 30+mph range and had brought the gap back to about 45 seconds, I was getting worried about sprinters and how fast these guys would go up it so I got to the front so I could drift back if I need to. I had put myself in a good position because attacks went and I was able to respond. In the sprint it got a little stupid,but don't they all, and I came across the line in 11th shutting it down about 100meters from the line because since it is time, not points, there is no need wasting energy. The guys stayed off the front and had about 40 seconds on the field.