Can't believe it's almost May! I'm counting down my last few days of class and finals. Only two days after my last final I jet over to Europe for two months of racing. I received a schedule awhile back, here it is below. As always, things can change but this leaves some room for either/or races so it should be pretty close (the multiple listings of each month show the different options for race schedule: 3 for may, 2 for june). Regardless of which races I do it looks like I'll be doing mostly stage races and doing a bunch of climbing, so I'm really excited.
MAY 3-4 travel Haut Anjou, Triptyque, Ardenees Ronde Isard
MAY GP Wallonie, Triptyque Ardenees, Ronde Isard
MAY Haut Anjou, Fleche du Sud
JUNE Vuelta Tarragona, Ronde de L'Oise, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk June 28th travel home
JUNE Thuringhen Rundfhart, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk
Other than the pollen counts making my life absolutely miserable, training is going well. Last weekend I even got out on a group ride in Macon with some of the guys from around here. I love the riding there and I owe a lot to all the people in the cycling community in Macon. Hopefully i'll make it out to the tuesday night worlds ride sometime this season.
alright, time for some training!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Gaps
The Gaps in North Georgia have gotten a pretty fair amount of recognition as a training grounds for cyclists, and I have to say, that area is hard to beat for a solid weekend block of climbing. This past weekend I found myself staying at Will's house, yet again, for back-to-back big climbing days. It says something about your weekend when Six Gap was the "flatter" day (the other day consisted of some doubling back on climbs that meant something like 8 total, without the easy side of Woody's). It may not have a huge variety of roads to offer up endless new routes like Greenville, and it doesn't have climbs as lengthy as the ones found further up into he Appalachians, but all Six gaps are reasonable climbs that are pretty close to each other. And if that's not enough, you can add in Brasstown or any number of the "secret" 5-10 minute climbs we've discovered.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
hmmmmmm
I refuse to talk about Redlands. I'm actually gonna pretend the trip never happened.
Training has been going well and I'm getting really excited for my Europe trip. If i haven't mentioned it before, I go over May 3rd this year and come back June 28th. Congrats to the guys over there now who are tearing it up. This year I'm lucky to have a really nice calendar or races, mostly stage races and plenty of climbing and time trialing. So very well suited to me. I'll also get to travel a bit more of Europe which is always great.
What's with the crazy weather? It's been darn cold in Georgia for April. With less than four weeks until I go to Europe, it's looking like the warm clothes are staying in circulation until I get home at the end of June....just think, it's gonna be July before I can put the warm stuff away for awhile. I don't mind too much though, and our Hincapie stuff is wicked nice so it's almost good to get an excuse to wear it!
Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I can keep the updates rolling a little more consistently.
check the sweet kits.
Blair creeping into my headshot at our last team camp
Training has been going well and I'm getting really excited for my Europe trip. If i haven't mentioned it before, I go over May 3rd this year and come back June 28th. Congrats to the guys over there now who are tearing it up. This year I'm lucky to have a really nice calendar or races, mostly stage races and plenty of climbing and time trialing. So very well suited to me. I'll also get to travel a bit more of Europe which is always great.
What's with the crazy weather? It's been darn cold in Georgia for April. With less than four weeks until I go to Europe, it's looking like the warm clothes are staying in circulation until I get home at the end of June....just think, it's gonna be July before I can put the warm stuff away for awhile. I don't mind too much though, and our Hincapie stuff is wicked nice so it's almost good to get an excuse to wear it!
Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I can keep the updates rolling a little more consistently.
check the sweet kits.
Blair creeping into my headshot at our last team camp
Monday, March 16, 2009
rule for life #1
Will McGinnis tells me that rule for life #1 is Don't be a dumbfuck. If you follow that, you won't really need a #2.
Best way to violate that rule in a crit-yell at me about how to take a corner, then crash yourself trying to follow me through a corner on the last lap.
Anyway, this weekend in Rome went pretty well. I didn't do anything special but felt really great on the finish climb of the road race both times over. We managed to win the tt, omnium and road race. Big congrats to Tyler Karnes who is 17, just upgraded to Cat 2s and won the road race. He made the early breakaway that ended up staying away and raced strong and smart to beat the five guys he was with soundly to take a great win.
Last weekend in Greenville-let's just say I road phenomenal, spent most of the day off the front, and took a perfect flyer out of the breakaway with 2 or so miles to go. Got caught within 200 meters of the finish. Quite the heartbreaker, but it's still just local racing and I've got my mind on the mountains of Europe in May and June.
Best way to violate that rule in a crit-yell at me about how to take a corner, then crash yourself trying to follow me through a corner on the last lap.
Anyway, this weekend in Rome went pretty well. I didn't do anything special but felt really great on the finish climb of the road race both times over. We managed to win the tt, omnium and road race. Big congrats to Tyler Karnes who is 17, just upgraded to Cat 2s and won the road race. He made the early breakaway that ended up staying away and raced strong and smart to beat the five guys he was with soundly to take a great win.
Last weekend in Greenville-let's just say I road phenomenal, spent most of the day off the front, and took a perfect flyer out of the breakaway with 2 or so miles to go. Got caught within 200 meters of the finish. Quite the heartbreaker, but it's still just local racing and I've got my mind on the mountains of Europe in May and June.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
stranded in greenville
Freak winter storm leaves me stranded in Greenville....gosh, that's just awful.
Between the roads here, the roads in Atlanta and 85 being either closed or backed up for hours, I didn't make it home in time for class monday. Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Helms, I am still in Greenville since I don't have class on tuesday. I enjoyed my day off the bike sunday by staying warm and inside most of the day. Of course, once the snow piled up I had to enjoy my first snow ball fight in years and some attempts at sledding.
Yesterday Strad and I used our day off school to go for a nice ride. Everyone we tried to talk into coming with seemed to think we were crazy....I actually thought we were too, but it ended up being great. The sides of the roads were piled with snow but the pavement was clear. We even got out to Caesar's head and did the first 2/3s of the climb before we hit slushy spots. We played it safe and turned around there so we didn't have to descend through ice. Climbing through switchbacks with snow piled on the sides of the road was one of the coolest things I've done lately on a bike. Now I'm chilling out, waiting to meet up with my teammate Chris to do another ride, hopefully making it to the top of the Mountain this time. After that, hopefully I'll make it back to Atlanta for classes Wednesday...and then be right back up here for the River Falls road race saturday!
Oh yeah, almost forgot-the first part of our kit order came in yesterday. So far just long sleeve jerseys and vests, but the rest should be in soon. They look great!
Between the roads here, the roads in Atlanta and 85 being either closed or backed up for hours, I didn't make it home in time for class monday. Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Helms, I am still in Greenville since I don't have class on tuesday. I enjoyed my day off the bike sunday by staying warm and inside most of the day. Of course, once the snow piled up I had to enjoy my first snow ball fight in years and some attempts at sledding.
Yesterday Strad and I used our day off school to go for a nice ride. Everyone we tried to talk into coming with seemed to think we were crazy....I actually thought we were too, but it ended up being great. The sides of the roads were piled with snow but the pavement was clear. We even got out to Caesar's head and did the first 2/3s of the climb before we hit slushy spots. We played it safe and turned around there so we didn't have to descend through ice. Climbing through switchbacks with snow piled on the sides of the road was one of the coolest things I've done lately on a bike. Now I'm chilling out, waiting to meet up with my teammate Chris to do another ride, hopefully making it to the top of the Mountain this time. After that, hopefully I'll make it back to Atlanta for classes Wednesday...and then be right back up here for the River Falls road race saturday!
Oh yeah, almost forgot-the first part of our kit order came in yesterday. So far just long sleeve jerseys and vests, but the rest should be in soon. They look great!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
first race
Hey all. I'm sitting in a warm living room in Greenville watching the awful weather outside. Today's race was unfortunately cancelled thanks to the freak winter storm hitting the southeast.
Yesterday was a nice way to kick off the season. 60 miles in the pouring rain on a rolling course in Ware Shoals, SC. About 40 or 50 riders lined up for the Pro/1/2 race. My teammate Chris Butler got away early with two other riders while I enjoyed hanging out in the field and playing defense. The first rider was dropped early but the field didn't organize and chase very well. Chris ended up riding away for the solo win. I flexed my legs with a couple miles to go and got away in a little move. Thad Dulin got me for 2nd, but I ended up 3rd and was just happy to get to test out the fitness a bit. So all in all, a good day for the team. Cinthia won the women's race and our Cat 3s road well and put Blair into 4th, so solid results all around.
Me: "Cinthia! Did you win?"
her: "YES!"
Yesterday was a nice way to kick off the season. 60 miles in the pouring rain on a rolling course in Ware Shoals, SC. About 40 or 50 riders lined up for the Pro/1/2 race. My teammate Chris Butler got away early with two other riders while I enjoyed hanging out in the field and playing defense. The first rider was dropped early but the field didn't organize and chase very well. Chris ended up riding away for the solo win. I flexed my legs with a couple miles to go and got away in a little move. Thad Dulin got me for 2nd, but I ended up 3rd and was just happy to get to test out the fitness a bit. So all in all, a good day for the team. Cinthia won the women's race and our Cat 3s road well and put Blair into 4th, so solid results all around.
Me: "Cinthia! Did you win?"
her: "YES!"
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
counting down!!!
I was back in Greenville this weekend for the first of three straight weekends up there. No racing, but I did get my bike situation fixed and do some great training.
Saturday was one of the coolest rides I've ever done. only 5 hours, so not especially epic, but still incredible. My brand new scott addict and I headed out of Greenville northwards into the mountains. Probably half the ride was on roads I've never done before, yet somehow I managed to not get lost and turn it into a 7 hour ride. Don't laugh, it's happened before. The bike is incredible and I'm really lucky to be on such great equipment.
Anyway, back to the title-four days until my first race of the year! I'll be racing both days the next two weekends in Greenville at the Hincapie spring series. I'm planning on mostly using it for good race-effort type training, and learning to race with my teammates. I think even without much focus we can pull out at least some decent results though.
Here's a tentative schedule for the first half of the Season if anyone's interested:
February 28/March 1st-Greenville
March 7th/8th-Greenville
March 14th/15th-Rome GeorgiaCup
March 21st/22nd-Union City GaCup
March 26-30-Redlands Stage Race
April 4/5-Chattanooga GaCup or Rock Hill
April 18/18th-Chattanooga Scenic City Velo weekend
and the biggie:
May 3rd-June 28th: Europe
Saturday was one of the coolest rides I've ever done. only 5 hours, so not especially epic, but still incredible. My brand new scott addict and I headed out of Greenville northwards into the mountains. Probably half the ride was on roads I've never done before, yet somehow I managed to not get lost and turn it into a 7 hour ride. Don't laugh, it's happened before. The bike is incredible and I'm really lucky to be on such great equipment.
Anyway, back to the title-four days until my first race of the year! I'll be racing both days the next two weekends in Greenville at the Hincapie spring series. I'm planning on mostly using it for good race-effort type training, and learning to race with my teammates. I think even without much focus we can pull out at least some decent results though.
Here's a tentative schedule for the first half of the Season if anyone's interested:
February 28/March 1st-Greenville
March 7th/8th-Greenville
March 14th/15th-Rome GeorgiaCup
March 21st/22nd-Union City GaCup
March 26-30-Redlands Stage Race
April 4/5-Chattanooga GaCup or Rock Hill
April 18/18th-Chattanooga Scenic City Velo weekend
and the biggie:
May 3rd-June 28th: Europe
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