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.

Racing is hard!!

Well it has been a while since i have updated anything and i was told to stop writing about Zach and start writing more about racing so here you go.



I have done 2 "real" races since we move to Eugene but there are "training" races every Tuesday night in which I also participate. I am still trying to find out why they call them "training" races because these guys go like hell from the gun. It is a 1,2,3 race and there are mostly 1,2 that do the races which makes them extremely hard for guys like me that are lucky to get out once a week. The course is about 1K and is shaped like a D. I have only finished one race and got 11th. the rest I have been completely shelled. lets take last week for example. we started at a nice comfortable pace of 27+mph for the first 3 laps then the attacks went. That forced the pace up to the 30mph range with accelerations up in the mid 30's. i did mention that we are less than 5 minutes into the hour long race, right. It did not surprise me since the cascade classic, a pro race, was staring in Bend on Thursday so the pros were in Eugene to kill us, and they did. I would like to say that last Tuesday was a rare exception but it is not, the Tuesday night races are harder than anything I have done in a long time, but they make 3's only races seem pretty easy.

Now for the first real race. The first was up in Salem, and was a circuit race. The course had a substantial climb every lap and a wicked descent into a 90* right hand corner followed by another 90* corner that led you on to the finishing straight and back to the climb. The climb was a little over half a mile and ascended 80' each lap. The total ascension for the whole race was 880' in 24 miles OUCH!!! The race started pretty smooth and the first time up the climb I was wishing I had put my 23 on, but the faster we went up the hill the better and my 21 was fine. The race stayed together for a while then a 5 man break went off. I watched it go thinking ,"if I go with that I am going to blow." Oh I forgot to mention it was about 95* outside. So after the break went I settled in and thought about the field sprint for 6th. The last time up the climb there were a bunch of attacks and I was on the rivet but managed to hold on and got into the place I wanted for the descent. As we came around for the finish the lead out started to slow so I jumped down the gutter side with about 400m to go hoping nobody decided to do the same because I would have been eating curb for lunch. One guy got the jump on me so I finished second in the field sprint and ended up getting 5th. apparently at some point 2 guys got dropped from the break, good thing I was paying attention. so fifth in my first race I Oregon not to bad , I got 2 cliff bars and a bottle of sparking apple juice for my troubles.

Scott

Zach eating strawberries

Zach has turned into a strawberry monster. He is having his "desert." At this point he is on strawberry number 7.

scott

Just under 10 hours

Well the hardest mural I have ever undertaken has been completed. It took way longer than I expected, but I think the finished product looks pretty darn good and the most important thing is Zach loves it.

scott

The bicycling is amazing and so is the town

I did not think you could ascend over 2000' in less than 15 miles but I managed to do it the other day, heck just getting out of our subdivision you climb 100 feet in less than a minute and then another 200 if you want to go out the back way to the non busy roads. I have found some climbs that are around two miles in length that avg 4 to 6% and then some that hit 18%+. Then if you want to ride into town, like to the Tuesday night crit, you descend 340' in less than a mile hitting 40+mph, the only problem with that is that you have to climb back up that thing on the way home, it really hurts after you have just done a 25mile crit averaging 24+.

They also have a Saturday and Sunday morning ride. I was able to do the Saturday ride and man those guys are strong on the climbs luckily they wait for everybody when they get to the top. We climbed over 3000' that day. So I guess I need to get myself back into climbing shape after living in the flat lands for the last 2 years.

On the house front we have just about got all the boxes unloaded and I have been working real hard on getting the murals in Zach's room done before Heather goes back to work. This town is really cool, there is so much to do. On Saturday and Tuesday they have the"city market" downtown. They sell everything from fresh produce to jewelry and pottery. Zach has turned into a strawberry monster, when we go to the market we have to try to keep him away from the areas where the strawberries are or he goes over and tries to take some off the table.

Well, that is all for now it almost 1am and i have a hunnydo list a mile long for tomorrow so I better get some sleep.

WOW

Well I have no idea wherer to start, so many cool things have happened in the last 2 weeks. I guess I will start with the road trip, after 2 days of driving through the flattest states on earth, we learned that you should never take the advise of a hot waitress. A young women in Laramie, WY told my Dad and I that if you took Hwy 238 instead of 80 you would save 4 hours and have stunning scenery. I will give here credit on the stunning scenery but, by the end of the day, we had drove an extra 200+ miles and went over several mountain passes, turning what was supposed to be a 9-10 hour day into an 15-16 hour day. The following day from Boise, ID to Eugene was an easy drive and very beautiful going over the Cascade mountains, it was great to see Heather and Zach after almost a week of being apart, that was the longest I had ever been away from Zach.

WE MADE IT

We have been super busy so I don't have much time to write right now, but I promise I will write in depth tomorrow about the road trip and what we have been doing. To give you and idea here are a couple pictures of Zach at the Pacific Ocean.