Michael Pincus' life

New Braunfels 2012 Roadrace

2012-02-05T06:52:00.002-06:00

As I lined up in the parking lot I knew that this was going to be my first official "road race" of the year. I lined up with my team and listened to the official going over the normal rules and reminders they need to tell us race before each race. I talked and joked with some friends I have not seen since summer, and prepared my self for the next few hours of racing.

The race started off awkwardly as we were told to roll through the crowded parking lot. Racers were forced to circumnavigate around shops, pedestrians, and parked cars until we hit the main road. My primary concern was to get to the front early on. I remembered last year at this race the field was torn apart after the first lap because of the wind, I did not want history to repeat itself. After 3/4s of the first lap I made it towards the front when the roads opened up. I sat near the front watching, making sure nothing was going to roll away.

This plan didn't work 3 laps later a decent sized split occur in the tail/cross wind section. I was near the front at the time, and did what ever I could to try to get across. However I did not have the power to bridge such a gap solo. A handful of others tried to get across as well, but it was too late. After a lap of confusion in the pack my team got to the front in a small rotation trying to bring back the leaders. We stayed on the front for almost the remainder of the race until the final 5 kilometers where the other teams with sprinters decided to move up. At this time I had done my fair share of work and did not have the power to catch onto the back of the now splintering pack.

I rolled into the finish line with a small group that had got separated a few minutes before me.

This early season weekend is showing that I am where I need to be for this time of the year. my training has been paying off and I am going to be looking forward for bigger results later down the road.

Tour of New Braunfels 2012 Omloop

2012-02-02T10:37:00.000-06:00

The race started off rather fast. Nothing unexpected, for many people this was the start of the race season. I was no exception. I quickly found a few of my teammates and decided to stay close to them. I needed to stay near the front and make sure no large splits happened, especially if no one from SS was represented. As the first few laps unfolded, I was taking the cobwebs off my mind and legs as I remembered how to ride in a group again. This included basic group riding etiquette from cycling 101 (ride heads up, don't overlap wheels, draft, ect). As the race progressed so did my confidence. I was riding up at the front like I needed to and was able to follow moves.

Post Omloop Sightseeing

As the raced progressed to the 20 minute mark a large split formed off the front of the pack. Shane was able to get into this powerful move with about 10 (?) others. Several racers that missed the break tried to get across to it. I even followed a few attacks to get across my self, but the leaders were too far up the road. Any bridge attempts were quickly brought back into the fold. Towards the end of the race I had used a lot of my energy going after chase groups and did not have the ability to contest the group sprint. I rolled in safely at the back of the pack. Shane was able to get a 4th place.

First race of the year as well as my first race with the team. Needless to say I had a successful day, and I will be super happy to see where the rest of the season will be take me.

On the way to the start off the seaon

2012-02-02T10:13:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was the start of my cycling season. I was super happy to be back on the road after several months of off season training. I quickly found out that it felt like I had taken no time off at all. I was picked up my Louis Tannos and we were off on our way to the races. It was really nice to be back on the road, and just talk about cycling again. Something I can not do at my school.

When we got into town it was really cool to meet the Garmin u23 team as well as a few of their elite racers. It is not everyday I get to meet current and ex pros that have raced in the tour. After eating a nice meal in Wimberly I went back to the Garmin Jr Training home in Wimberly. It was very nice out in that part of town. Lots of quiet open roads to ride on as well a worry free atmosphere.

My first race as a Cat 1 was less than 24 hours away. I was not nervous, just really excited to back in the scene of things

The Start of 2012

2012-01-22T10:22:00.002-06:00

Lots of things have been happening since my last post, So i just want to fill my followers in on what has been going on.
In terms of my cycling things have been going great. I have been getting in lots of good training miles in preparation for the race season. Since October I have been a cat 1 racer. A goal that has taken 5 short yet awesome years to achieve. I will also be racing for team Super Squadra 2012 and forward. One of the most successful Texas teams around. Super excited to be around such great mentors who will be able to help me mature farther in the sport of competitive cycling. My first race will be the Tour of New Braunfels (a week from this post).

French Alps

In terms of my education and schooling, things have been going great as well! I have made it to the second semester of my Sr year in high school. All my grades have been phenomenal, as well as all my friends I have surrounded my self with over the years. All that's left at Dawson will just be Prom, Project Graduation, and AP Tests... I also have been getting my post high school education settled. I have been accepted and plan on going to the Cullin School of Engineering at the University of Houston under an academic scholarship.

Red Black and white with Super Squadra

SO all in all things have been great. I plan to come back to my blogger with a bit more than just bike racing. Maybe right about my opinions and what else comes to my mind.

End of 2011

2011-09-29T15:24:00.001-05:00

I know I have been bad about my blog lately and I have left quite a few people in the dark on what I have been doing these last few months. So instead of making it up with a mass of mediocre reports since Nationals, I am going to choose to start with a clean slate on how my state championships went last weekend, as well has my plans going into 2012.

For my state Championships I am going to try to get full race reports sent to the racing post magazine with the hope of at least one of them getting published. In the mean time I would like to let everyone know that I think I ended my last year as a Jr cyclist with a bang. Everything the last couple weeks leading up last weekend had been going fanstatic. My racing, training, school, everything. Then everything seemed to climax the monday after States.

It started with winning the STATE wheels series overall in the Pro12 category, I finished in front a lot of big names and despite not finishing the final race of the series and getting dropped.

My next positive result was I ended up getting a 9th in a very hard chapel hill road race (every year its the hardest race to finish) I finished right behind some very strong Cat 1 racers as well as in front of a lot of strong Cat 1s and 2s.

States was the following race were I raced the Cat 2 men. Long story short (i'm going to get a full race report up either in the racing post or online soon) I raced very smart and used every one man team tactic I knew to come to the line with 5 people and just get beat in the sprint by a very strong Bryan Reid. Nothing wrong with silver

The next day I raced the Jr Open, were I was animating the race at any point I saw to make the race safer. (hills, cross winds, redlights, trains). The final 5 k it it was pretty much Me, Kyle Parrot, and John Ryan in a four man group that got away from the 15-16 year olds. coming down to the the sprint John Ryan led it out and I was on his wheel. Kyle came around me as I came around John with 150 meters to go. Getting my self my second silver medal in two days. Nothing wrong with that. Me and Kyle were definably feeling the 99 miles of the day before in our legs.

Jr Open State Road Race

Then something I have been waiting to see for several years happened Monday. I got my racing upgrade request to cat 1 approved. One of the biggest mile stones for anyone in the sport. Not a bad way to end the year if you ask me. ;)

Again I could not have been able to do this without the support of my family, my friends, my team, my coach, and a drive to better my self every day.

University Oaks criterium 123

2011-06-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

The final race in a four race block I've been on.

The start of the race was fast filled with racers trying to get off the front as well as move into position at the front. After a few laps of racers trying to get up towards the front, the pack was in single file. I could also see that gaps were opening as well. I waited until the cross wind section and I put it a small attack to help split the field some more. To my suprise I got away from everybody else and was solo off the front. I held a small gap for a few laps before I was brought back into the fold. Luckily it was only a group of around 12 riders that brought me back. The chase to bring me back finally split the field. I surveyed the riders around me and noticed that all the large teams were represented. After seeing this I started to work with the riders knowing that the majority of the main group will be blocking. I also used the fact I was a team of one to my advantage and did a bit less work than the others. As the laps went on I continued to work and was able to jump out at get 4 primes. (I thought they said 50 dollar prime, not sock prime! however I did get a nice wheel bag from chrome)

Heading into the final 5 laps the pack was in view in front and were going to lap them soon. I continued to follow the wheels of the other attacks waiting to launch an attack of my own. with 2 laps to go I put in a hard attack and bridged the 5 second gap to the back of the peloton, once i caught on i moved quickly to the front to keep the pace high. As I got to the front of the pack we started the final lap. The break I attacked from caught the back of the pack at the start of the final lap and started to move up towards me. Luckily one of my JR friends, Nick Green, who as been sitting in the whole race saw me and moved to the front to try to string out the pack. This helped as I came around the final corner sitting second wheel and jumped around not only to win the race but also the pack sprint.

Beltarra 2011

2011-06-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

After a confusing and compact few days of racing I was finally going to be racing the Beltarra Circuit race. I have never raced this course before and from what I here it is one of the hardest races to complete.

It was hot and humid. One of the first hot and humid days we have had all year, and marking the beginning of the summer racing season.

At the start of the race we had around 45-50 riders all lined up at the barricades. Soon after we started a small group went up the road. I sat patiently and waited to see if anyone was going to jump across, to the lead group of 3 that got away. After I saw that no one was jumping across I moved comfortably towards the front of the race and waited for power hills and temperature to start hurting the competition. After a few hard accelerations and speedy laps I could see that the field was starting to splinter. I did everything I could to stay near the front, this helped me tremendously since I was able to keep from losing the front of group, which contained the strongest guys in the race. Before I knew it I was in a select group of 7 including some of the fastest racers in the state, as well as current and ex pros. I did everything I could to stay with this group of 7 knowing that they were the fastest left in the race and no one from behind was going to bridge across to us. After a couple hard laps of pulling Stefan Rothe put in a hard attack and gapped me on the bottom of the course. I did everything I could to get back on in the fast down hill section, and right before I could get back on, Lawson Craddock attacked the flats. That ended my chances of finishing with the leaders and I was sent back by myself. After a few laps of solo riding I was caught by a small chase group including fellow Houston racer Wally Groda. I did everything I could to stay with them but I was too spent after trying to stay with the leaders and was quickly dropped off the back of that group. After two laps of some more solo riding I was caught by another small group of two. However I was able to recover enough to be able to work with this group. For the remainder of the race I worked with my chase group. Coming into the sprint I was sitting third wheel and was able to win the sprint of my break getting mysekf a respectable 14th place.

After finishing I was surprised to find out that the officials pulled all the other racers behind our group and that only 17 of the 45-50 starters finished the full race.

Lago Vista day 2011 day 1 win

2011-04-01T13:47:00.002-05:00

The racing post was able to put in my write up for this race in the April edition of the magazine. Everybody should check it out on the online format.

The racing post april 2011 issue

Ronde Von Manor 2011 P1/2/3

2011-03-29T22:18:00.002-05:00

72 miles 6 laps

Race started off fast with attacks going on the first head wind stretch. Eventually a break of 10 riders got up the road and started to pull away. I tried to bridge across with Kremke (bike barn) once but we only got half way across before the pack got on our wheels. As the race progressed I started to feel stronger and more awake. Just as I got stronger with time, so did the winds. quickly the gutter was getting filled up with suffering riders. during the chaos of trying to get every little piece of shelter possible from the winds, I didn't see a large crack in the road that I ended up hitting square on. I ended up getting a pinch flat on the second lap (there was 6 total) of the race and then got a non jr rear wheel. So technically I was DQ'd the moment I started to chase back on. The chase gave me little hope. I knew there was no way I could possibly catch a flying Pro 1/2/3 field solo with so many strong riders trying to catch the break still up the road. I chased hard for one lap before I finally threw in the towel and started cooling down with another lap. I was able to ride a lap with Chris Tricky (Woolly Mammoth) and get in a nice chat. Once I finished this easy lap with Tricky, I pulled out and got ready to watch the finish of the race.

I really wish I could write more about Manor. This course was awesome, the weather was awesome, Velossimo was awesome, and the ghost town was awesome. Can't really prepare for a flat tire like that.

Next race on the list is going to be Ft Davis Stage race. AKA "Hammerfest"

Fayetteville stage race cat 2 2011

2011-03-29T21:43:00.002-05:00

Stage one 63 miles

3rd Cat 2 iTT

the stage started off at a slow reasonable pace with a lot of chitchat going on amongst the racers. Everybody seemed content to stay in the pack and save energy for the later stages. As the race progressed things seemed to stay calm for the most part. I was enjoying the pace and the fresh country air as I sat in the middle of the group talking to my teammate Jake Boone and other racers I don't normally have time to talk to. Heading into the sprint I was about half way back from the front of the pack and had no chance on moving up for a top ten. I made sure there were no time gaps and finished safely in the middle.

Stage 2 iTT
For the time trial I started off above what I would normally do for a TT of this length. However with a strong head wind start I knew that the most time would be made by going off full gas and slowly tapering off as I neared the finish. My TT strategy paid off in the end. I ended up getting third on the stage 4 second off of first and moving third in GC.

Stage three 96 Miles

Finishing Stage 3

Stage started off calm with one attack coming from Chris Tricky (Wooly Mammoth) straight off the neutral start. He ended up rolling off the front solo while the rest of the field was getting ready for a long day. As the race continued to progress team 787 was controlling the front for the beginning of the race preventing any large groups that could hurt Biard's GC lead. I stayed near the front with my one teammate Jake trying to make sure 787 didn't sneak any of their other GC guys into any early breaks. As the race progressed things stayed together for the most part, with Tricky now solo off the front with a 2.5 minute lead. As we entered the single lane road on the 3rd lap there was a small split at the front of the pack that contained about 6 riders. This split had riders from a lot of different teams in it. the gap to this break got up to 15-20 seconds but looked like it wasn't going to get away. As I told Jake to jump across to the group, I heard a whistle being blown by the ref, singling for the group to go neutral. The reason for this neutralization was because the cat 3s were catching us from behind and we had to make room for them. This normally doesn't mean much for me, except the Officials didn't stop the break, and Jake couldn't get across in time. As we sat there spinning our small chain rings waiting for the 3s to pass us I could see the insignificant break that was just up the road start motoring away with no one allowed to bring it back. Once we were allowed to race the break had a lead of 2.5 minuts and was out of sight on the other side of the cat 3s. As the raced progressed a few teams that missed the break went towards the front to try to bring it back to a reasonable time. We ended up re-catching the cat 3s. The break of 6 that were up the road were only up two minutes now. That is when disaster struck for a second time. The cat 3s caught the my field for a second time as they started singling out for their sprint finish. As I waited for the single file peloton of racers to go around us. the break of six went up to a daunting 5.5 minute gap. Once we were allowed to race again the pack had a different mentality and started slow down knowing that the break was just too far up the road to do anything about. With about 2 laps to go I started doing a few attacks off the front of the pack in the harder cross wind sections to try to form a chase group to get away from all the sprinters that have been sitting in all race. After several failed attempts of trying to get away, I was able to form a small group of 4 at that start of the final lap. the four of us (Anthony White, Jeremy Thompson, and Rusty Stover) were able to get a smooth rotation going at the top of the course and kept things pretty smooth for the rest of the lap.

I finished 8th on the stage and went back to 7th in GC. We were able to bring the break down from a 7 minute lead to a 2-2.5 minute lead.

as a recap of the race weekend- I believe the best thing about Fayetteville was how great I felt starting that final lap of a near 100 mile road race. This is a good sign my form is coming along great and things are still going to be going up with Nationals coming in June.

Lago vista day 2011 day 2

2011-03-16T22:07:00.000-05:00

After having a win on Saturday, the start of the race was a lot less stressful than usual. The start of the race was a little bit more timid than normal mostly because they were running the race counter clockwise, which is reverse than normal and none of the racers have raced in this direction before. With this reverse in the direction we would be climbing all the hills at once and have a long gradual down hill towards the finish for 14 laps. As the race progressed on the first couple of laps I was able to ride near the front on the uphill sections and slowly drift through the downhills getting dragged around in the draft of the pack, trying to familiarize my self with this long descent.

After a few laps of chilling in the pack and chasing down a few large groups that got off the front, a group of 7 made it up the road. I was feeling a bit tired from chasing earlier moves and I couldn't jump across on the fast down hill when they made their move. All the largest teams had a guy up the road and I instantly knew that the podium was riding away from me and I had to try to get across. Once the break was established I waited near the front every lap hoping that someone would make a move to get across but nothing was going. However riders from the break away up the road started getting dropped changing the tactics of the largest teams from block, to chase. But as the race continued the break continued to stay away despite the chase efforts being done by a few of intact teams left in the race.

On the final two laps I got to the front on the uphill sections to try to get some sort of chase going one last time but no chase was ever formed. After two laps of digging deep to get away the pack, I was swallow up on the downhill and I coasted into the finishing sprint mid pack. the winner of the race Was Todd Farrell (williamscycling.com) who stayed away in the break for almost the entirety of the race

Pacebend Cat 2s 80 miles

2011-02-23T18:56:00.002-06:00

the break:
Photo courtesy: Nicki Kupecz

As always it was a beautiful, perfect day in Spicewood Texas. Every year Pacebend has proven why it is one of the best venues in Texas. I arrived to the start of the race with fellow Jr teammate Jake Boone. Things were looking like it was going to be a great day of racing.

-The race started out with a mad dash to the first turn before things settled down. Once the pace calmed down Jake and I moved up to the front of the group to keep an eye out for any early breaks that might want to get away. Early on the first lap of the race a few groups tried to get away early. One of these included a dangerous group of 15 riders, when I saw this group go I jumped across to it, but we were quickly brought back. Eventually a small early break of three went up the road allowing the pack to calm down. I was feeling a bit antsy with this small group pulling away even though it was still on the first lap. I quickly found Jake and we talked about what we should do about this early break, we both decided to wait for it to come back on its own. While the break was up the road several small groups of riders tried to bridge the now 45 second split. Jake and I followed wheels to these chase groups but they were all quickly brought back. After a few laps of nervous energy from a lot of riders, the break was eventually caught. However the race didn’t get any less stressful. After making the connection with the break a strong counter came from the pack. I looked up the road and figured that it was still too early get in a break. However three other racers took after the solo rider and formed a small group of four. Both Jake and I saw this and still didn’t think it was going to stay away. The gap the lead group got on the field increased quickly to one minute and then to ninety seconds. The pack seemed to be taking a nap and uninterested in chasing down the quickly pulling away leaders. I was getting nervous from this lack of interest, especially now that I found out two of the three largest teams had a guy up the road. While I was trying to decide on what to do about this break a group of two attacked on the far side of the road out of the front to bridge to the leaders. I was waiting at the front of the main bunch for the time gaps to come in while trying to hold my composure. Now at just over halfway through the race there was a lead group of four with a two-minute advantage, and a chase group of two with a one-minute advantage. When I heard these splits I moved up towards the front and waited for the hilly section of the course. As we hit the hills I started to do a lot of work on the front to try to get any split going and start a chase, but every time I pulled off a teammate from a racer ahead would soft pedal through to try to disrupt the pace. I was getting angry with the team tactics going on (because they were working!) and put another attack on a slight downgrade. This must have surprised the pack because no one was chasing and I quickly got some daylight on the group and started to bridge towards the leaders. After a few minutes of solo bridging I looked back to see Austin Stewart (Elbowz) bridging across to me. The two of us came together and formed chase group 2 with a minute to bridge to chase group one and another minute to the leaders. We were both taking strong hard pulls at the front up the hills and across the flats quickly closing in on the groups up front. We eventually caught a fellow Houston racer Pedro Martinez (Sun and Ski) in the middle of the gap. A little over a lap after Austin and I started bridging we caught the chase group and now formed a new chase group of four. We kept the pace high knowing that with four racers we could catch the leaders (1 minute up the road now) relatively quick. All four of us took equal pulls and worked hard at the front bringing the time gap down. We caught the leaders exactly one lap after Austin and I caught the chase (two laps after I got away from the bunch). Now we were getting some new time gaps saying that we were only 20 seconds up the road from a large group. I looked back and to my surprise and group of around eight to ten had been bridging across to us. As soon as they caught us we formed one large lead group of 11-15 riders with all the large teams represented. We continued to work hard with over 30 miles to go towards the finish line. Within the break there were a few attacks to try to get rid of the excess amount of riders but for the most part things stayed together as we charged towards the finish. Some of the teams that had more than two guys in the group started sending riders up the road to try to split the group. I tried my best just to follow wheels to prevent my self from getting stuck behind any dropping riders. As the laps started ticking down so did the snap in everybody’s legs. As we started the final lap we were still a large group of almost 15 riders moving towards the finish. As we were cruising along I kept an eye out for any of the strong looking guys that might want to try to go solo towards the finish. In the final kilometers all the late moves that tried to go all got brought back and everyone was getting ready for the final sprint towards the line. When we were in the final kilometer I positioned my self up towards the front of the group on the right side sitting comfortably on 4^th wheel thinking I had got my self a good position for the uphill 250-meter sprint. As we hit the base of the hill I was sitting third wheel and started my charge up the hill on the right. As I was starting to come around the riders I was behind almost every single person behind me surged around on my left. I quickly tried to get behind them to get some momentum for another kick for the line. Unfortunately this second kick never came and I finished behind the bulk of the break getting an 11^th on the day.

Photo courtesy:
Nicki Kupecz

After this race I was very happy with how I made it into the winning move and how I was almost in the position to get a big result. Now I just need to work on that finishing jump and positioning. (I was a little bit too close to the front for this finish) Better things will be coming these next couple weeks that I am certain about. Not just for me but also for my team, Jake finished in the top end of the pack sprint and Cody and Stephan both placed top 10 in the pro 1 race

Walburg Cat 2s 72 Miles

2011-02-21T22:19:00.002-06:00

Photo by: Nicki Kupecz

The race started out with a mad dash to the first turn before things settled down. Once the pace calmed down Jake and I moved up to the front of the group to keep an eye out for any early breaks that might want to get away. Early on the first lap of the race a few groups tried to get away early. One of these included a dangerous group of 15 riders, when I saw this group go I jumped across to it, but we were quickly brought back. Eventually a small early break of three went up the road allowing the pack to calm down. I was feeling a bit antsy with this small group pulling away even though it was still on the first lap. I quickly found Jake and we talked about what we should do about this early break, we both decided to wait for it to come back on its own. While the break was up the road several small groups of riders tried to bridge the now 45 second split. Jake and I followed wheels to these chase groups but they were all quickly brought back. After a few laps of nervous energy from a lot of riders, the break was eventually caught. However the race didn’t get any less stressful. After making the connection with the break a strong counter came from the pack. I looked up the road and figured that it was still too early get in a break. However three other racers took after the solo rider and formed a small group of four. Both Jake and I saw this and still didn’t think it was going to stay away. The gap the lead group got on the field increased quickly to one minute and then to ninety seconds. The pack seemed to be taking a nap and uninterested in chasing down the quickly pulling away leaders. I was getting nervous from this lack of interest, especially now that I found out two of the three largest teams had a guy up the road. While I was trying to decide on what to do about this break a group of two attacked on the far side of the road out of the front to bridge to the leaders. I was waiting at the front of the main bunch for the time gaps to come in while trying to hold my composure. Now at just over halfway through the race there was a lead group of four with a two-minute advantage, and a chase group of two with a one-minute advantage. When I heard these splits I moved up towards the front and waited for the hilly section of the course. As we hit the hills I started to do a lot of work on the front to try to get any split going and start a chase, but every time I pulled off a teammate from a racer ahead would soft pedal through to try to disrupt the pace. I was getting angry with the team tactics going on (because they were working!) and put another attack on a slight downgrade. This must have surprised the pack because no one was chasing and I quickly got some daylight on the group and started to bridge towards the leaders. After a few minutes of solo bridging I looked back to see Austin Stewart (Elbowz) bridging across to me. The two of us came together and formed chase group 2 with a minute to bridge to chase group one and another minute to the leaders. We were both taking strong hard pulls at the front up the hills and across the flats quickly closing in on the groups up front. We eventually caught a fellow Houston racer Pedro Martinez (Sun and Ski) in the middle of the gap. A little over a lap after Austin and I started bridging we caught the chase group and now formed a new chase group of four. We kept the pace high knowing that with four racers we could catch the leaders (1 minute up the road now) relatively quick. All four of us took equal pulls and worked hard at the front bringing the time gap down. We caught the leaders exactly one lap after Austin and I caught the chase (two laps after I got away from the bunch). Now we were getting some new time gaps saying that we were only 20 seconds up the road from a large group. I looked back and to my surprise and group of around eight to ten had been bridging across to us. As soon as they caught us we formed one large lead group of 11-15 riders with all the large teams represented. We continued to work hard with over 30 miles to go towards the finish line. Within the break there were a few attacks to try to get rid of the excess amount of riders but for the most part things stayed together as we charged towards the finish. Some of the teams that had more than two guys in the group started sending riders up the road to try to split the group. I tried my best just to follow wheels to prevent my self from getting stuck behind any dropping riders. As the laps started ticking down so did the snap in everybody’s legs. As we started the final lap we were still a large group of almost 15 riders moving towards the finish. As we were cruising along I kept an eye out for any of the strong looking guys that might want to try to go solo towards the finish. In the final kilometers all the late moves that tried to go all got brought back and everyone was getting ready for the final sprint towards the line. When we were in the final kilometer I positioned my self up towards the front of the group on the right side sitting comfortably on 4^th wheel thinking I had got my self a good position for the uphill 250-meter sprint. As we hit the base of the hill I was sitting third wheel and started my charge up the hill on the right. As I was starting to come around the riders I was behind almost every single person behind me surged around on my left. I quickly tried to get behind them to get some momentum for another kick for the line. Unfortunately this second kick never came and I finished behind the bulk of the break getting an 11^th on the day.

The Break:
Photo by Nicki Kupecz

Tour of New Braunfels and Team Camp 2011

2011-02-15T21:17:00.002-06:00

It has been a long and hectic off-season but the race season is about to officially start up again at Tour of New Braunfels. This race isn’t to important in terms of finishing because it is the start of the season for me, but a great chance to meet some of the new racers on my newly revamped FCS Cycling team for 2011.

After a short 3 hour drive to New Braunfels with Bike Barn racer and friend Wally Groda I was picked up by Team Director Tim Redus and James Karthauser. Two guys I have gotten to know over the years of my cycling through coaching, development camp, and Tour de L’Abitibi. Once I got to the team house we were staying at I quickly met the racers of the team that would be with me this weekend. This includes Tucker Gerald, Cody Foster, Stephan Hirsch, Booey Hottenstein, Jake Boone, and Jack Funk. Will Rader and Zach Noonen weren’t able to make it to the race/camp this weekend.

Omloop 2/3s

Team Dome

The weather was perfect for the first race of the year. Light Winds and the temperature in the 60s. This first race is a short circuit race around a small 2-3 mile loop for 50 minutes. The race started out very calm and speed was slowly picked up as the momentum of the field started going. We started with a large group of over 60 riders and must have been one of the bigger fields of the day. As the race progressed I was able to move up with my teammates Jake and Booey towards the front of the field to try to get a good position. We wanted to be in the front early in order to respond to anything that could have the potential to stay away. Once we were up there I felt moderately comfortable in the pack but I could tell that my pack handling skills weren’t up to par. Booey and Jake seemed pretty comfortable being towards the front of the group with me. As the race progressed we as a team tried to stay in the field and conserve energy for the sprint. Every once in a while Jake or me would follow a wheel into a small break that would quickly get reeled in on the very fast smooth course. On the final lap about a mile and a half from the finish line it was time to get in a position for the sprint. I worked up the left hand side of the pack on the downhill section and got right behind Jake who has been riding in the top 10 the entire race. He saw me get behind him and immediately gets to the front to drill it to the line in order to give me a lead out. When he started to hammer I was pushed off of his wheel by another racer and was out of the draft. I continued to fight for position but was now sitting 4^th wheel and slightly in the wind to the left of the line. Jake continued to drill it all the way to the to the 350 meters mark. At this point I could see racers starting to come around me in my peripherals. I get out of the saddle to try to push it to the line before I get boxed in. About 2 pedal strokes into my sprint I had to do some emergency braking as Jake pulled off to the left and got directly in front of me as he floated back from his lead out. I desperately looked for an out but I lost too much speed and started floating backwards behind my teammate. Both Jake and me ended rolling in with the back end of the pack. Fortunately Booey was able to get a top 10 with a 7^th place for the team in the race.

After the race the team and me met up and discussed what happened. The Team raced phenomenally, the only fault I could see is I just wasn’t aggressive enough when I needed to hold Jakes wheel and I kind of let a top finish just get out of my reach. Nonetheless It was a great race and an awesome season opener. The team and I rode back to our team “dome” where we spent the rest of the day eating, and relaxing.

Road race P 1/2s

From the moment I got out of the team van I knew that today was going to hurt. The wind was blowing a still 15-20 mph and the course offered little protection and I had 72 miles of racing to complete. In this race I would be racing with my Cat 1 teammates Tucker, Cody, and Stephan who I didn’t race with the day before.

I ended up getting a really poor starting position in the race and found my self in the back half of the pack in what I personally thought was a very slow start. As the race started rolling I kept trying to find a way to move up towards the front but I wasn’t finding any open gaps. It wasn’t until after the feed zone on the first of six laps that the cross winds started to move riders around. The wind started shearing at the pack coming across our right shoulders and pushing the group closer and closer to the yellow line. I was trying my hardest to hold my position and move up but the speed was slowly getting faster. I desperately tried to spin my gears to hold any draft I could but I was getting closer and closer to crossing that yellow line and risk getting penalized, or worst get my team disqualified. I quickly tried to start a second echelon in the back of the group as a last chance to try to get a draft going but as more riders tried to work with me the more and more they ended up putting me back in the gutter. I looked up to see in my horror that I was now off the back of the race on the first lap with half of the pack in the incoming traffic lane. I quickly got as low as I could and kept pedaling. I was able to form a small group of 5 and then we were able to catch onto the back of the main field in the head wind. As soon as we made the connection I was able to move up to the front of the thinned out-group and find my teammates. The next two laps felt a little bit easier now that there was an established break off the front and my teammate Stephan was in a chase group trying to get across. However every time we got into the crosswind section after the feed zone I kept getting pushed into the gutter and over the yellow line. I refused to go across it fearing I could end up getting my team penalized. However it was this following of the rules that got me off the back a second time in the race. After getting dislodged from the group a second time there was nothing I could do to try to get my legs to work. I was officially off the back. I completed the lap I was on and pulled out of the race a lap early. I was fried and defeated by the winds of central Texas.

After the race I got with my team to discuss what went on in the race. All of us missed the break that stuck and the chase group with Stephan was caught around the same time I was ejected off the back of the group. However it turns out that the entire main field was disqualified from the race from continued yellow line infringement. Something that I was afraid would happen just by watching the strung out-group take up the entire road without concern for incoming traffic. None the less it was a fun race while it lasted and gave me a sneak peek of what I should expect from the P1 /2 races of the year. I cannot wait to head out for my next race with better legs and more confidence to get a better result.

Tour Of Austin 2010

2010-10-05T14:26:00.001-05:00

Tour of Austin P12

After another ride with my one of my favorite Pearland cyclists Ronnie Strange we arrived at the Driveway Race track where stage one of the tour of Austin will take place. This Stage is a 3.4 individual time trial on the famous driveway race car and crit course.

After heading up with Stranger Danger I was able to get all my stuff ready and find my team. The course was the big loop that used the top and the bottom of the course and. We had to do about two laps around it. After finding and hooking up with the team I proceeded to warm up on the trainer to get ready for the race. With the race being so short I wanted to be at the line warm and ready to roll. After a good 20-25 minute warm up I rolled over to the start ramp on was waiting for my start time.

Stage one 3.4 mile iTT

When the timer said Go I launched myself down the start ramp and sped into the first corner which officially got me on to the course. I got in my aero tuck and starting to put the hammer down. Heading down the back side of the course I put my bike in the bigger gear and spun as fast as I could to keep my speed up. I was holding nothing back since it was only two laps. Half way through the second lap I must have sounded like a oxygen deprived pack a day smoker as I was trying to get every bit of oxygen into my lungs to power me to the line. I came across the line at full throttle putting in 100% into that effort. Later that night I found out that I finished 15^th doing the course in about 6:28:20in the Pro 1/2, my best
result in this field all year.

Stage two 50 mile Criterium

The course for the first crit in the race was the same venue as the one that we raced the TT bikes on the day before. The race Started off very fast and we were quickly doing well over 35mph on the back stretch. My goal in this race was to just do what my team wanted me to do which was to follow and sit on wheels. The racecourse was very fast but the roads were so wide that the speed didn’t help string it out that much and everyone was able to stay in contact with the field for the most part. As the race progressed I could feel that my legs were getting worn out from the very high speed going down the back side ever y lap and my Jr gear restrictions weren’t helping me ether. By the time the race came down to the final couple laps I tried my best to get to the front to help out my team in any way I could but The course was too wide and fast for me and I ended up pulling off on the final lap as things started to get sketchy in the field.

Stage three 90 min e’stigma criterium

With the completion of the first two stages of the tour of Austin complete. My teammate Andrew Gonzales was sitting third in the omnium race and the goal was to try to keep the race together so he can sprint for maximum points on the line. The race started out very fast as most of the races do with attacks going from the gun from all the big teams. I found myself in the middle of a strung out pack and trying to get to the front. By the time I got to the front of the race the race already had a break off the front with a few riders from every team including Brett Crosby from Metro Volkswagen. Even though we had a guy in the break I still told by the team to get to the front to try to bring everything back together so Gonzo had a chance to win maximum points in the sprint. I was at the front with a couple other teammates in a rotation at the front of the field. I was taking pulls as long as I could trying to bring back the group that was about one minute off the front of us. After a few laps of being in the rotation I could feel that my legs were starting to feel the sting of a long 90 minute race. After a couple rotations at the front there was a lul in the pace and a few riders attacked and formed a chase group. One of these riders was Gonzo who was the rider that we were trying to get the win for. I took a breather and sat near the front of the pack taking a few pulls until I pulled off on the final straight away knowing I contributed to the team and had no energy to contribute to the final sprint. The main break was never caught but Brett won from the lead group, Gonzo finished third in the chase getting so valuable omnium points and Tyler Jewell won the field sprint. It was a good day for the team.

Stage four 90 minute ‘Pickle Criterium’

After Gonzo Performance yesterday in the crit he moved tied for a podium position in the omnium, so the primary goal of the team was to try to get him on the first place pedestal. Something that would take a lot of hard work and maybe a little bit of luck. By the time the race started the weather was very hot with the temperature already past 100 degrees and the wind was picking up from a small storm that just went through. When the race started I could feel the fatigue from already racing 3 days before and didn’t know exactly how my body would respond to this race. The race was extremely hard. Harder than any other previous race I have ever done before. Every lap there was a long up hill and a downhill which were both on the cross wind sections of the course. The race started out with a bang and every lap I found my self sprinting with everything I could to try to stay in contact with the group going up the hardest section of the course. I tried my best to get to the front but I couldn’t find the energy to move up after a couple laps of sprinting up the hard side. Every time I tried to move up I got blasted by the strong head wind and ended up losing even more spots that if I just hung on. I lasted at this pace for about 28 minutes before I just unhitched from the pack and rode to the side of the road to try to breath. This was by far the hardest race I ever started.

Hotter than Hell Weekend

2010-10-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

Hotter than hell 100 pro 1 cat 2

After a smooth start to a new school year it was time to drive up north to race the Hotter than Hell 100. This race consisted of a crit Friday night, a 100 mile road race Saturday morning and a crit Sunday afternoon. I went up to Wichita Falls with fellow Pearland rider Ronnie strange as well as a few of the racers from Texas San Jose racing team, including Carlos Varges and Travis Brant.

When we arrived at the convention center to pick up our race numbers and packets the entire place was filled with racers as well as riders that will be doing the 100 mile charity ride that goes off after the racers start.

Crit 1:

The Friday night race was a very fast course with tons of people watching the race from all around, when the race started it started off really fast and I found myself in the middle quick a moving peloton. I quickly found myself in a position where I needed to move to the front to be ready to follow attacks and help out my team in any way possible. After spending almost twenty minutes moving up a few riders at a time I finally made it to the front fifteen riders where I wanted to be. Things were going smooth for me in terms of positioning but I was starting to feel the pain of holding my position and the race was still far from being over. At about forty minutes into the race I could feel all my energy going away and starting losing positions as I drifted back to the back of the strung out field. Once I made it to the back I gave it one last push to try to stay connected with the field but the speed was too high and I came off the back of the pack and rolled in.

In terms of cycling I thought I did great in terms of pack control and being where I wanted to be, I just didn’t have the energy or snap to stay with the pack in the ending half of the race.

RR: The Hotter than hell 100 is was going to be my first 100 mile road race and I was excited for this event. The race started out very fast as we left the neighborhood. We were cruising down the road at 30 plus like it was no one’s business. For the first couple of hours I pretty much just rode in the middle front of the pack trying to stay out of trouble and stay sheltered from the wind that was lightly blowing. With still about 30-40 miles left in the race a break went off the front with a few riders from every team including my teammate Russ “big daddy” Walker. Back in the pack however all the teams seemed content with letting that break go off the front so there was no big chase to bring everyone back together. As we hit the final 10 miles of the race my team had a rotating pace line going at the front of the pack and I jumped in to help out the best I can. We kept things under control for the next 20 minutes before some of the other teams started bringing their riders to the front for the lead out in the final 2 miles. I tried to move back to the front to try to help out my team with a final push our sprinter. As I was moving up in the final k there was a big crash right in front of me on the overpass. I slammed on my breaks and was able to get around it without falling. However by the time I got my rhythm going the field was in full sprint mode and I just rode in the final 900m easy to try to save some energy for the third race of the weekend. From the break that stayed away Big Daddy took a solo win. It was great day for the team.

Crit2: The start of crit number two was set in the middle of the day by the convention center. It was very very hot and even windier; the course its self didn’t look that complex but with the high winds it was going to be pretty hard. The race started out very fast like I knew it would, I quickly found myself in the back end of the field at the mercy of the riders at the front. Every lap I tried to move up but anytime we hit the strong crosswind section I could feel that I was losing positions to the stronger riders. After what felt like an endless circle of laps I was on the tail end of the group getting whipped around as I tried to hold contact with the group. Once the race was in the final 20-30 minutes I lost contact with the group and was quickly off the back in the strong cross wind section. I pulled off a lap later to prevent getting heat exhaustion.

Recap: I defiantly feel like I had a good weekend with a lot of positive reinforcement. Mostly in terms of working with my team in the road race and being able to move around better in the pack.

Special thanks to my team and sponsors for allowing me to race this race with them. Another thanks to Ronnie Strange for Driving me all the way from Pearland for this race and Kyle Anderson and his parents for allowing me and some of the team to stay at their house over the weekend.

Tour de L'Abitibi

2010-07-27T14:02:00.001-05:00

The first time I heard of this race was 2 years ago back when I was 14 at the southwest regional camp in Lubbock Texas. Tour De L'Abitibi is the largest and only UCI jr stage race in the western hemisphere. The race takes place in the small town of Val d'Or in Quebec Canada. In order to get to race you must be on a team that gets invited and have a racing age of 17-18.

Getting to and from this race has got to be one of the most difficult accomplishments I have conquered. I left Pearland and flew to Tulsa where I met up with teammate Alex Battles-Wood and was then picked up by the team director Tim Redus before we headed on the 3 day drive to the Great White North. Once we got to Detroit we met up with the rest of the team which composed up Will Rader, Cody Tapley, Alex Parks, as well as our mechanic Mike Wooderd and Soigneur James Karthauser.

After a very long drive from Detroit to Val d'Or we finally made it to where we would be racing for the next week.

Stage 1

The first stage in the Tour de L'Abitibi was going to be my first taste of what racing against some of the top Jrs in North America would be like. In the first 200m of the first race there was a major pile up directly in front of me causing me to have to dismount my bike and jump of the pile of bikes and bodies. I was able to quickly rejoin to main group after a few minutes of chasing with a few other guys that got caught behind the the crash with me. Once I caught onto the group again it was time to start moving to the front of the 156 person peloton and prepare for the rest of the day's stage. As the stage progressed I found that I was able to move up to the front of the field relatively easy since we had full rolling enclosure. The only hard thing was that I was having some trouble staying up at the front as was cycling through from the front to the middle of the pack for the rest of the day. After a very fast run in to the city circuits I was at the back end of the pack and quickly found my self surrounded by dropping riders. I did my best to sprint around the opening holes but I couldn't get around all of them and I found myself solo in no mans land just about thirty seconds off the back of the dwindling main group. I went into TT mode to try to catch the rear end of the group that I was never able to catch. I finished about 1 minute behind the group. Not the best way to start a stage race.

Stage 2

The start of stage 2 was a lot smoother off of the line as there was no crashes in the first two minutes of the race. I started to move up as soon as I could but the race was still in town and it was on some really narrow roads we were riding on. That was when there was a major wreck directly in front of me and I had no where to go but into it. As I ran into the pile up I was locking up both my brakes and my rear wheel was fishtailing around the right side of me. As I hit the group I flipped over the right side of my bike and landed on my side and side of my helmet. The worst of the wreck was when I was sliding on my back when some large rider ran into my bike and he flipped over and landed on my legs pushing them enough to hyperextend my back causing excruciating pains. And before I could get up a second rider rode into the side of my face tearing up my sunglasses and somehow knocking my contact lenses out of my eyes. Once I stopped sliding across the ground like a rag doll I stood up as fast as I could to find my bike and begin chasing back onto the group. But by back felt terribly wrong and I couldn't stand up straight. The race doctor saw this and made me lay down to make sure I didn't break anything. After laying on the ground for 30-45 seconds she let me up and said I could get in the ambulance if I wanted to but I said no and got on my bike and started chasing. By this time however the caravan and the field were way out of sight and I still had about 60 mile / 95 k left to the line. After I cleared my mind and got focused on the chase I relized how bad a shape I was in on my solo chase, my back was in unbearable pain, my helmet was shattered, half my face hurt from where I was ran over, there was a crack in my fork, my left shifter blade was cracked strait through, I was bleeding out my left knee, all my water bottles fell out, and the worst of it all was that I had no way to see the road up ahead of me since I somehow lost my contacts in the crash with another 2.5 hours of racing to do. While I was mindlessly chasing I caught 2 more riders. Out of this group I was the strongest and was taking massive pulls for 5 minutes at a time to try to keep the pace as fast as possible. The other riders including one of my teammate Booey where taking shorter pulls since they didn't want to slow the speed down and he said he wasn't feeling well. This continued till it was about 40k from the line where I couldn't even hold the pace I was pulling at earlier for even a minute. Shortly after this point I hit the wall when all my emotions, pain from the wreck and fatigue from chasing so hard with no sign of the group started combining leaving me feeling the worst I've ever felt on the bike. After barely able to hold onto the wheels of my group I was able to make it to the circuit where I was quickly dropped by my Teammate on the climb on the circuit. I finished the race cold, sore, bleeding, blind, and crestfallen, and in extreme pain. And over 30 mins behind the stage winner.

Later that night after being checked my the doctors I received the worst possible news. I missed the time cut by a mere 90 seconds. After hearing this I couldn't believe it. I never felt so torn apart. The only good news I heard was that Booey, who was with me after the crash and was in my small group of chasers made the time cut by only 8 seconds. One of the narrowest margins ever at this race.

Stage 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For the rest of the week up at the race I was pretty much team support and got to see how the racing was from a mangers point of view and see the stress of the caravan first hand. Something that seemed as stressful as the racing itself.

Well I would like to give a special thanks to all the people that made this experiance possible for me. I would like to thank my team Will, Alex B, Alex P, Cody and Booey. As well as my team Director Tim Redus, Mechanic Mike Woodered, and Soigneur James Karthauser. I would like to thank my sponsors Hotel San Jose, Juwi solar, Reed and Scardino,Austin Subaru, As well as Metro Volkswagen, The Pearland Cycling Club and the Pearland Racing Team. I also want to thank my coach David Wenger of Durata Training for preparing me for this race. And most of all I want to thank Mom and Dad for all there love and support.

Now I want to head back next year even stronger and make a good showing next year.

Sent from my iPhone

Off to L'Abitibi

2010-07-17T10:11:00.001-05:00

Heading off to canada. I will try to update blog when I'm up there but no guarantee.

Nationals 2010 17-18 Bend Oregon

2010-07-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

After a years worth of Training and preparation I finally got out of my plane and into the familiar Pine Tree scent of Bend Oregon. The very first thing I noticed about Oregon was the Temperature, Or more like the lack of Temperature. When I got off the plane I was blasted by cold winter like air from the 55 degree weather that has been covering the state. A very nice change from the scorching heat and melting humidity of my coastal home back in Pearland Texas. Well After retrieving my bike box and luggage at baggage claim I headed out to the curb to be picked up by my Coach David Wenger of Durata Training. A few minutes later Picked up fellow teammate and Will Rader. Me, Will, and Wenger then headed towards the house that we would be staying at for the next couple days. Before finishing out the rest of Nationals with the Rader Family

24K Time Trial

The first event of road nationals for the 17-18 was the time trial also known as the race against the clock. After getting my Gear Checked by an official and pumping my tires I headed out for a warmup before the start of my race. As I was warming up I was doing my routine gear check making sure everything was working like it was supposed to like the shifting, turning, and brakes. After a 45 min warmup I went over to the starting house and started getting focused on what i have to do. The final 10 minutes before the start of any Time trial are always the slowest for me. I just tried my best to relax and think of were I need to expend my energy on the course and were I have to take it a little easier. Soon enough I found my self getting held up by an official as he gave the 30 second countdown. This is when time seems to speed up as The Official gave the familiar five-second finger count. As he waved me through I gave a long sprint down the ramp to get my speed up before I tucked myself into my aero position. After a few early turns in the first two Kilometers I took the right hand turn onto the main road were the majority of the course is. For the first part of the time trial things were going steady, my power was up, my speed was up, my breathing felt regular and in control. That was until I reached the first steep pitch of the course and everything started to fall apart. I quickly shifted to my small chain ring as my speed started to plummet and I got out of the drops and in the bull horns to try to spin my way up this first steep gradient. Once I got over this first steep pitch there was a slight downhill where I got into my big ring and tried to get back into the rhythm I was in just 3 minutes earlier. I was quickly noticing my speed was gradually getting lower on the false flat that I was on and noticed that I was starting to lose power as well. I did my best to muscle through this part of the course all the way till I made it to the second steep pitch of the course. I slammed my chain into the small ring and spun up the hill like I did with the earlier. Once I made it to the top I still had a little over a mile till the turn around and then a long down hill. At the turn around I made my turn and started drilling it back to the finish. In my head I knew that I chocked on the way up the hill so I was doing everything I could to try to get the best out of what was left of the time trial. My speed quickly reached 42 miles per hour going down the steep pitches of the course and I never saw the speed drop below 35. I was humming the entire way down doing my best to spin my 52x14 as fast as I could to end this time trial. When I hit the line I could see that my time was a solid 36:47 which would be good enough for 33rd place. I was shooting for a top 15 but I just couldn’t make it up the hill like I wanted to.

50k Criterium

After a little bit of a drive to downtown Bend for the start of the crit everything was looking good, my equipment worked, I was feeling strong, as well as hydrated and ready to go. Once the officials opened up the course for a warm up lap me and the team took advantage of it and got a nice look of the rectangular four corner course that we were about to race around. the majority of the course was three lanes wide with only one tight section going through corners three and four. After two laps of preview the officials allowed us to line up and await the pre race instructions.

I got myself a pretty poor starting positions as usual for large jr races since everybody is rolled out at the line right before the start. The race started with the shot of a gun and everybody was off the line at full speed. I took the first lap very gingerly waiting for the pack to thin out a little before I start making my way towards the front of the pack. The first eight laps were at a brutal pace as everyone was eager to stretch out the legs a little. I was able to slowly move up two to four positions a lap as the hammer was still on full throttle. When I finally made it up to the front half of the pack disaster struck as there was a large wreck in corner three about 5 positions ahead of me. I slammed on both my brakes as I t-boned a bicycle and flipped over the handle bars and landed in a pile of bikes and bodies. Luckily my speed was slow enough that I caught my self before my face hit the pavement and was able to get up and check my equipment before I went to the pit to get my free lap. When the pack came around again they were in full attack mode chasing a small group off the front. I gave it everything I had to sprint up to 33 mph to get onto the tail end of the group. As we were coming around I could still see a few bodies on the pavement that went down in the crash I walked away from without a scratch. The pace was still going at full speed and I was stuck at the back of the pack because of the wreck. I could see infront of me that some of the Jrs in front of me were starting to let gaps open. I did my best to pick around them without leaving myself exposed in the wind, but since the last 30 positions of the pack were signal file that was impossible. That is when the worst possible thing happened, a rider about 4 positions ahead of me opened a gap and couldn’t close it. I did my best to sprint around him to catch the pack but I didn’t have enough speed to catch the tail end. I quickly got as low as I could and started to get into a steady pace to try to catch the group again. I could see that they were still pulling away slightly but I didn’t stop. After about five laps of chasing solo off the back I was able to make connection with the pack again. After making the connection I was able to quickly move up to the front like I’ve been trying to since the race started. After catching on and moving up there was a hard acceleration out of the corner into the headwind section and I got up on the pedals to do my best to match it but I was falling back at very dangerous speeds and I saw the very back of the pack go flying by me. I gave it one more stamp on the pedals to try to catch that last wheel but I missed it and was off the back for a second time, the only difference was that I was truly spent and there was no catching back on this time. I then rode around for a few more laps before I was pulled by an official, something that I haven't had a lot this year.

I then watched the rest of the crit from the sidelines in anger and disappointment, leaving me one more chance to try to get a good result in the road race

70 mile road race

The start of the Road race was a pretty normal one with a massive pileup about three seconds into the race. The course itself was a loop that we would hit 4 times each lap with two large climbs as well as several smaller ups and downs.

As the race progressed I slowly moved my self towards the front of the pack with little or now effort and pretty much just sat there waiting for the hills to come. The first lap around the course was more of people getting comfortable on the descents and figuring out where the uphills were in relation to each other as there were few attacks and large accelerations. The second lap is where the real racing officially began as large groups of strong riders would attack the uphills. I did everything I could to stay near the front to make sure a large group would not getting off the front. Heading up the steepest part of the course on the second lap shredded the field down as riders were going off the back faster than those going off the front. I gritted my teeth to try to hold the wheel in front of me as we made it to the top of the hill before the decent and the start of the third lap. The third lap was no different from the second except that a small group of riders had gotten off the front of the pack and the pack itself was a quarter the size. As the pack was chasing down the leaders I slowly moved myself to the front after catching my breath from the efforts up Archie Briggs (name of the road with the steep hill) Once I made it too the front no one looked fresh and the misery of two more laps was setting in the face of the riders. The third lap seemed a little bit easier than that of the second because not everyone was attacking as viciously from being tired. The third time up Archie Briggs had a few attacks but nothing was going off the front. On the fourth and final lap I was still in the main group and there was a small group of riders still off the front of the group. On the false flat after the feedzone climb I put in a hard attack to try to get away from the tiring field. I quickly found myself in no-mans land solo between the leaders and the field. I was hoping someone would jump with me but no one was on my wheel I then went into TT mode to see if I could get farther away from the pack but they were slowly bringing me back into the fold. I was then caught about two kilometers before Archie Briggs and held onto the back of the pack for dear life as the final attacks of the race went underway. After summiting the climb it was a short three kilometers from the finish. I gave it everything I had one more time to try to move up but I couldn’t get to the front anymore, everyone was swelling at the front to prepare for the sprint. As I was doing everything I could to try to move up we reached the roundabout about one and a half k from the line and there was noway I could move up now, so I just sat mid pack and sprinted in mid pack for an even more disappointing 47th place.

Post Nationals.

Although I didn’t do as well as I wanted in all three of the events up in Bend I had a good time without any hard falls or loss of skin. I can’t wait for next year to race this course in 2011 Nationals.

I would Like to thank my team Metro Volkswagen, my coach David Wenger, my friends back in Pearland, and Houston, the Pearland Racing team, Pearland Cycling Club, Chris Sanders at MSHC.net, and everybody else that supported me throughout the earlier part of the year

I also want to thank the Rader Family for taking care of me up in Bend for almost a week. Without you guys I don’t know what I would have done.

I want to give a special thanks to my parents though, because without them I wouldn’t be anywhere in this world, with all there love and support that they give me all the time, and the sacrifices they made along the way to help me.

Gary Glickmen Memorial Crit and Cat 2 State Crit Championships

2010-06-03T20:06:00.000-05:00

After a fast 4 hour drive to dallas I was able to make contact with Jr Teammate Will Rader and Kyle Anderson.

The next morning me and Will woke up ate some food and headed out to the races. When we got to the parking lot we can see that the team had set up an area with chairs and shade, as well as water and drinks, a very pleasant change from the Pearland TT mafia.

Gary Glickmen cat 2

The race started out extremely slow and gradually got harder as the race went on. after a leisurely lap or so the pace started to pick up and a few riders went out on the attack. At this point of the race I was sitting towards the front with teammates Will, Gonzo, and Chopper. it wasn't until about 20 mins into the race i put in a hard attack to try to get a break going. I got a small group of 4 off the front for a lap but Park Place wouldn't let anything off of the front. by after I was brought back into the field i could feel the heat starting to take a toll on me from my early hard efforts. When the final sprint came I wasn't sitting in a good position and got blown apart when the field hit the finishing hill. However Gonzo was able to get second in the race with a strong sprint.

Cat 2 State Criterium Championships

This race was going bad from me even before the start. By the time i was lined up at the start finish i was already bleeding from a crash in my preview lap
The race started out extremely fast and i found my self losing positions every time the field went through corner seven. after about 3 really fast laps i found my self riding tailgun with very few opportunities to move up in the field. about 20 mins into the race I turned my self inside out to try to move back up to the front and I was able to get about 20 people from the front before I would lose all my positions and be at the back again. After about 35 mins of riding the tail I lost contact with the field and took myself out of the race.

However Gonzo was able to make it to the break of about 10 riders that made it off the front with about 20 mins to go. Gonzo won the state title with a strong sprint from the final 300 meters. good Job Gonzo

recap:
had a bad weekend. well better luck next week at Tulsa

Metro Criterium

2010-05-22T15:37:00.000-05:00

Metro Crit P123

heading up to the metro criterium in Sugarland gave me some mixed emotions, the reason was that this was a fast technical parking lot crit and it started to shower. I wasn’t too worried about the rain. Wet weather usually plays out in my favor.

The race started out very fast with attacks coming out of the first turn. It was obvious that there was going to be an early break especially with all the gaps that were being opened around the wet turns. I was able to easily move up to the front of the strung out field using the other racers cautious riding to my advantage. After I got to the front of the pack I looked back and saw that I was in a small group of riders including Kevin Kremke (Bike Barn), Lawson Craddock (Hot Tubes), Alan Ting (Supra Squadra), Cody Foster (San Jose), and Russ Walker (Metro Volkswagen). In this select group of riders we kept things pretty smooth most of the way without that many attacks. Once we were 20 minutes into the race it was apparent that we were not going to get caught. As the race was going I put in a few surges in the technical section to see if anyone was getting fatigued but I was quickly brought back into the fold. On the final lap of the race things really slowed down as the cat and mouse games began. Me being the inexperienced on in the break launched the first attack to try to go with a half lap fly through the technical section. I was quickly reeled in by Kremke as we hit the last 250 meters. Kremke and Lawson lit up the sprint and I was barely able to hold there coat tails in the sprint getting my self a third place. A very good result considering who beat me. ;)

Sugar crit 123

2010-05-04T17:52:00.002-05:00

Sugar Crit 123

Being my third year racing sugar crit all I can say is that this is my favorite crit venue that I’ve ever raced, and every year the race becomes faster and more fun. When I did this race last year in the 3/4s and won with a solo break with a few laps to go. After my win I was then kind of pushed into the 123s with sore and tired legs and was killed in the first couple laps by some of the best racers in Texas. This year however I was racing only the 123s only and had no excuse for a poor performance. The weather happened to be beautiful with sunshine and few clouds.

After about 20 minutes of warming up in a parking garage and getting my rollout I got lined up at the start finish and waited for the announcers to go through the pre race announcements. The announcers then called a few Racers to the front as a call out for the crowd including myself. Being called out and getting to line up in front of the pack with David Wenger (Supra Squadra), Kevin Kremke (Bike Barn), and a couple other of the fastest racers in the state is defiantly a really cool experience that I don’t get to experience too much first hand, another reason I lover this race.

The race started out just as I remember it from last year, it was an all out sprint to the first corner, and I quickly found my self-midpack and fighting my way to the front. Crits as fast and technical as Sugar tend to breakup really fast and never finish with a large pack finish. After about 2 laps of all out attacks and crazy speeds I finally made it towards the front of the pack and was where I wanted to be to prepare for any attacks or break attempts that is when I realized that I was in a select group of riders off the front with a lot of the strong racers of the field in it. But even when I was in a break with only about 10 riders the attacks were still going off, and I was finding very little recovery in this break. The pack then slowly started to bring us in when a second hard attack went, a lot of the strong riders that were in the original break went with this move and I quickly found my self between the leaders and the main field with Jason Bentley (Brain and Spin) and Colt (GCCA). After a couple laps of trying to close the gap to the leaders we were caught by the main pack and I was spent from several laps of chasing. I quickly got to the front of the pack to try to save energy and recovery. At this point Alan Ting (Supra Squadra) made a hard attack to try to bridge to the leaders, I was on his wheel and gave it all I could to hang on but after about 50 meters I lost connection with his wheel and fell back to the pack and watched the break gain time on the pack with every corner it took. Soon after the break was out of sight around the corners of the Sugarland Town center I was able to catch my breath and get focused on trying to get the best possible place I can. In the main field GCCA had a large team that was constantly at the front pulling trying to bring back the leaders. In the final 3 laps the pace had gotten higher and we caught a 3 man group that fell off the leaders and I could see that the riders behind me were licking their chops with only a few more laps left. In the final lap there was a large crash in front of me heading out of turn 2 where the 4 guys in front of me went down, I was able to find a 4 inch hole and ride through it with unblinking eyes, not one person followed me through that crash and I was now in no mans land and still needing to get to the line. When I finished I found out that I had gotten 13^th, a new best result in the P12 field.

Again sugar didn’t surprise me as being one of my highlighted races of the Texas circuit, All I can tell my self is that I was just one move off of being on the winning break and All I have to do next time is just time the areas where I expend energy better. I know that I can be a top racer in the P12 field and all I have to do is learn where and when to work as well as how to suffer more then I ever have. Can’t wait till my next race.

Coldspring RR P12

2010-05-04T16:01:00.000-05:00

After an early morning and hour drive to the race with Jeremy Thomson (Proactive) I was at the High school and getting my numbers for my race. Once I got myself pinned up and rolled out I found myself lined up with the other racers that I would be competing against that day.

After a nice neutral rollout the race was in full throttle with several attacks from all teams in the flat tailwind section of the course. Every couple minutes look at my speedometer and see that we were cruising at 35 mph+ in certainty sections. After lots of attacks from several different teams the pack let David Wenger (Supra Squadra) get in a solo move about halfway through the first lap before the hilly back section of the course. Once we hit the hill on the course the field was going at a steadier pace with few big hard attacks, in this time of calm riding I moved my self more towards the front knowing that the fast flat section was coming up soon. Once we hit this flat section again the field was back to full throttle and the pace was up and the speed was killer, there were a few more attacks but nothing like that of the first lap and as time went on so did the laps.

It wasn’t until with 2 laps to go on the flat section the real heavy hitters began to show their legs. The pace was way up again on this section of the road and I found myself losing a few positions from just the immense amount of speed that the pack was moving at. That is when I looked up and saw that the field was split and a large group of about 15 riders had gotten gap and where cruising away. I nervously looked around to see if anyone was going to bridge the gap and when I saw that no one was going I put in a hard jump to try to catch the leaders, I was able to get to a group of about five riders that where in-between the pack and the lead group, once I made contact with this group I could see that no one looked like they were going to try to close the last 20 seconds to the leaders. That is when I saw any chance of making the podium ride away from me in that select group of riders up the road. For the final lap I was in the second group on the road and was starting to feel the snap go from my legs after a long day of racing. With about 2k to go till the line I took a solo flyer to the finish from my group of about 15-20 riders and got caught at the line by 5 riders. I was able to get 20^th place on the race

After this race I was slightly disappointed with the fact I missed the split. The race itself was really fun and I had a great time racing. Can’t wait till summer comes, that is when the real racing begins.

Ronde von Manda 123 77 miles

2010-04-02T23:08:00.003-05:00

Ronde von Manda 123. A taste of what’s to come

This would be my first Road race with the 1, 2 crowd and I was feeling confident that I would be able to finish the race. I however was not expecting the race to have 30 mph winds by the time my race started.

The race started out really fast as we made the first right hand turn into the headwind. At that moment I moved myself up towards the front of the pack to get into a good position to avoid the full on force of the cross wind. By the time the field had made the turn into the cross wind section I was still out of the echelon and forced into the gutter to try to survive until the pace slowed a little. However the pace never let up and all I can do was wait until the next turn out of the cross winds before I can move up towards the front. Once we made the turn to get out of the cross wind I found my self having no relief cause we turned into the tailwind section and before I knew it I was doing all I can do to stay in contact with the field in the tailwind section at 37 miles per hour as I was spinning my Jr gears. This first tailwind section ended quickly as we turned back into a crosswind section and I was unable to find any spot in the field that could offer much relief from the pace that was being done at the front. Around this point in the race there were a few attacks which brought the pace way up just as we made the right hand turn onto the really long tailwind section. before I knew I knew it I was spinning as fast as I could to try to keep up with the 40 mph pace being pushed at the front, but this section was way too long for me to keep up at that speed and I started floating backwards. To my astonishment when I looked back there was no pack left. The group I just lost contact with wasn’t the peloton but they were the lead pack. As I was drifting back and recovering I got picked up by the main pack which was down to less than 20 riders or so. I tried to get into this group but It was way too soon after getting shelled by the leaders and I couldn’t put out the power to get reconnected. After a few more minutes of solo riding I then got picked up by a group of about 10 riders. Once on the back of this group I was able to sit on for a few minutes to catch my breath, after getting enough recovery I started to pull through (this is when we finished the first of six laps). Once In this group I was able to hold even and take my pulls when it was my turn, all the way until the same very long tailwind section that I lost connection with the leaders a lap earlier, this is where i lost connection with this group. I was shortly picked up by a few more riders and I was now in a group of about five or six. We worked smoothly without any attacks. After a few more laps we were down to four riders with two laps to go. At this point all four of us just looked at each other and shook our heads, but we just kept riding. In the final kilometer of racing we can see the finish and we didn’t really care about sprinting for the line. I started my sprint probably about 500 meters to go not really caring about my placing. I got passed by one rider at the line but I didn’t really mind, All I kept thinking was I finished a 77 mile RR against the best in the state.

After changing I went up to see the results and saw I finished 18th. That is way better that what I thought I was going to get. What I can say about this experience is that it was a lot fun while I was mixing it up in the lead group. It felt great racing against racers who are a lot faster than me and seeing what I’m going to have to do to be on the top of the podium. Every race from here on out is going to be very hard and a test of willpower as well as dedication to this sport.

Id like to thank and congratulate Eric Attayi for driving me to the race as well as his win in the 3/4s that same day.

Fayetteville stage race cat 3 2010. Never Giving Up

2010-03-24T16:32:00.002-05:00

Fayetteville Stage race

Heading to Fayetteville for the third time in my racing career with on of my ex teammates Paul Wellen. The first time I did this race I won the GC as a Jr in the Jr open back in 08. The second time a raced hear 10th in the GC in the cat 3s and I was looking to improve that standing. Me and Paul made it to Fayetteville and got our packets and numbers before I met with Teammate Will Rader in Lagrange. The plan was that I was going to stay with Will for the weekend and then come home with Paul once the racing was done.

Stage 1 67 miles 3 laps

After waking up very early to make the 7:30 start time me and Will both glanced at our phones and saw that the weather said it was going to get wet by the time the race ends, and we figured it would be a mostly dry and warm day of racing (to those of you that survived that weekend you know what was about to come)

The race had several starters with around 75-80, and the sky was a little cloudy but nothing too bad. As the race rolled by the neutral start it started off really slow and I was having some difficulty moving to the front of the pack because of it. I wasn’t able to get to the front of the pack till before the feed zone on the first lap. Shortly after I got to the front Will attacked and was off the front with one rider from Wooly Mammoth. The two of them got a small gap on the field but the pack seems to have a No Jr off the front policy and started to real them back in. By the time we hit the hot Spot hill the pack was about to catch my teammate and I was getting ready to launch the counter attack that is when the entire world around the race had changed. The storm was over hour early and the winds started to pick up. I looked to the West and saw a wall of lighting come down. Once the hail started pummeling the field we caught the break and I launched a hard attack into the cross winds. I looked back to see the field was strung out from the confusion of the weather and cross winds. After about a minute of hard effort I was off the front with teammate Will and another Wooly rider. This was exactly what me and Will wanted, we wanted to both get into a small group off the front of the pack.The three of us where making some good time on the field. I was kinda getting some second thoughts thinking it might still be a little too early for a 3 man break with still over 30 miles to the finish. We soon hit the right hand turn onto the country road. The Three of us were going steady until I felt the too familiar feeling of riding a flat tire. I looked down to see to my horror that I had gotten a front flat in the most crucial part of the road race. I quickly yell as loud as I can at Will to let him know that I’m going back for a wheel change. I pulled into the ditch on the left side of the road and took off my front wheel and started waving it in the air like a mad man to get the wheel car to notice me in the middle of all the rain, hail, and lighting. They luckily see me after the pack rolls by and give me a front wheel. I changed the wheel as fast as I could and started my solo ride to the pack. At this point the pack was well out of sight and had over 2 minutes on me. Once I got into a rhythm chasing I was pissed. I was thinking about the several months of training I had and how it could all mean nothing with a simple puncture. I was thinking of giving up right there and then and possible save my self the pain from chasing a gap that looked nearly impossible. By the time I made it to the feed zone I saw that Club member Todd had flatted and was getting his wheels changed. I made a “U” turn to pick him up thinking riding back with another rider will help me catch the pack. After picking up Todd 4 more riders that had flatted or got dropped caught on and we had a 6 man rotation chasing to get back to the pack. We were working pretty good together but I was thinking that there was no way a group of 5 chasers can get to the back of a pack of over 50 racers trying to win the race as we were working to get to the pack we were passing well over a dozen riders who had gotten a puncture out on the course and were waiting for the wheel truck to come and help them. The 5 of us started dwindling as the chase progressed and by the time we hit the Tail Cross wind section at the beginning of the final lap the chase group was down to just Me and Lee Eldridge. The two of us were working smoothly together until we saw the best thing in the world. We saw the back of the pack just cresting the hotspot hill. This gave us an extra boost cause we got a glimpse of what seemed impossible 20 miles earlier. The two of us the hammered up that hotspot hill knowing the pack was now reachable and maybe just 90 seconds in front. Once we got onto the country road (where I flatted just 1 lap earlier) we had brought the pack close enough so that they were now permanently in front of us and we where almost tasting a pack finish. the two of us then caught some riders that were just dropped and used them to the best of our ability to get them to work as hard as they can to catch back on. I then saw that they were way too weak to help me catch the back of the pack so I launched a solo attack from the chase group to try to bridge the final 25 seconds on my own. After several hard minutes of a solo bridge I tagged on to the back of the pack at the start of the feed zone.I looked back and saw that Lee was the only one that followed be across the gap. nobody else in the chase group was able to make it across.After catching my breath I shot up to front of the pack and found Will and got a status report on what was going on. Turned out that the pack had still together and no one was off the front. Heading into the final 4 kilometers Danny Parks of GS Tenzing attacked a wet corner and was flying solo. Will shot across the gap to Danny as well as a third rider from the pack. Quickly a second devastation occurred when Will touched wheels and crashed from the break. All I can do was look in fright and anger as my last teammate went down in the middle of the road as we started the final approach to the line. In the final sprint for the line I was able to get a 9th place. I knew I could do better than that but after chasing on for over a lap my legs where feeling it and couldn’t sprint at all. On the ride back to the parking lot I started going hypothermic and shivering like crazy. Not only did it rain, and get windier but now the temp dropped from 55 to a bone chilling 41. At the lot I found Will and we headed back to the hotel to assess the race and look at possible damages.

Post RR Assessment

At the hotel I found out that Will’s crash tore up his elbows and hands enough so that he couldn’t ride his TT bike that afternoon. I was feeling that every hardship Fayetteville through my was affecting me more each time. First the flat, then Will’s crash, and now Will can’t start the TT effectively taking him out of the entire race.

Stage 2 6 mile iTT

After making several phone calls I was able to get a ride to the time trial with fellow Jr racer Ethan Moorhead. By the time the Time trials started the rain had stopped and the Temperature was sticking to around 43 degrees. However the winds had picked up quite drastically and were blowing at 25 with gusts into the 30s as I was getting ready for the TT I was looking at others riders warm up seeing them getting blow all over the road in their aero gear and all I was saying to myself was that I don’t care what the weather was. I kept telling my self that this was a time trial, an event where only the strongest and most pain numb racers win. I looked at my TT set up and I had all my aero gear on, thinking that there is no way the wind was going to cause me not to give it 100% effort.I wanted to take a vengeance on the course. After a short warmup I was being held in the start line waiting for my start. When the clock hit my time I let off the start line in a strong sprint and quickly got into my aero tuck and started turning the pedals as hard as I could. Almost the entire tail wind section I was going any where from 28-38 MPH just cruising along. I could feel the wind grabbing my front wheel and helmet and trying to knock me down throughout the course but I just kept going all the way through all the way to the finish line. When I finished I looked at my time and saw 14:34:00 that is a blistering time for this course especially in that wind strong.

Post TT & day 1 assessment

After the getting the TT results I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had the second fasted time in the Cat 3s which was good enough to put me in the GC lead in the race. I didn’t know what to feel all I know is that I turned me and Will’s misfortune and bad luck into a chance to pull off something truly amazing. I was to head into stage 3 with about a 29 second lead over Lee Eldridge and a 32 second lead over Danny Parks

Stage 3 62 miles 4 laps

After getting to the parking lot for the start of stage 3 the temperature was 36. When I got to the Eventually of the race I was truly alone, my entire team was out of the race. I had 29 seconds over second and was surrounded by over 30 men who knew exactly who I was and what I had to do to win the race. It was time for me to use every skill I learned from the past, race smart and use my strength and race experience to best I could. It was time to truly grow up and turn the worst race start ever to the biggest win of my career. The race started out very aggressive with several attacks from Wooly Mammoth. Eventually Wooly got one man solo off the front. I was able to relax a little finding out that the rider was over 10 minutes back from a flat on Saturday. After the first lap the wind was starting to pick up. At the start of the second lap two of my friends Brian Darby and Andrew Ennis attacked and started pulling away from the pack. Luckily I was talking to them earlier and found out that they were both over 10 minutes back from me due to flats in stage 1. Now there where 3 riders off the front and I was being isolated at the front of the pack. It wasn’t until the Cross wind section that 2 more riders attacked and got off the front. I had to be very careful when letting someone get off the front cause I knew that several riders were several minutes back from flats on stage 1. After the 5 riders where off the front I didn’t allow any one else go and started putting my foot down as the GC leader. In the final two laps the wind was the highest it was going to be all day and I was getting angry at the field for not being cooperative and making me pull back everything that went off on the attack.I started putting in some attacking of my own to try to hurt the field and try to nullify any more attacks. The pack was coming apart quite nicely and was shrinking in size. I did the same on the same section on the final lap as well and at one point got a gap and started going solo, but the pack didn’t want to let the GC leader just ride away and they caught me quickly. I knew that the pack was too tired to attack me anymore and I was now just trying to limit the time loss on the break in the final miles by just putting out some tempo from the front. The pack stayed together and finished in a pack sprint. I was able to get 5 in the sprint getting a 10th on the stage. The break didn’t finish even more than a minute and didn’t affect the GC and I was able to hold onto first, pulling off the biggest win of my racing career.

I couldn’t have been able to pull of the result if it wasn’t for Paul Wellen for getting me to and from the race, as well as Will Rader for giving me a place to sleep for the first day of racing as well as Ethan Moorhead for giving me rides to the races after Will went home from his crash after the first stage. I would also like to thank my Team Metro VW, as well as my coach David Wenger for getting me strong enough to be able to do what I did. This race has given me an idea what can do out on the road and I’ll never forget this weekend of racing.

Lago weekend. cat 2/3s two 60 mile races

2010-03-01T20:48:00.004-06:00

Lago vista weekend, this was going to be the second year in a row that I completed the Lago course. Lago vista is a unique course because it is a very long climb followed by a very long and fast decent. Last year I hit a new speed record of almost 56 miles per hour. I headed up with Ronnie strange a little before noon on Friday to get to the races, which are about 30 miles west of A-TX

After getting to stay at Mellow Johnnie’s for the Gary Fisher presentation I headed to Lago at around 22:00. Once I made it there I found my team and the cabin we where staying at and started to unpack and get ready for the races in the morning.

Having a race that starts at 12:50 is one of the few joys I have in my life. Me, Ian, and Will all got to sleep in and get a good breakfast before we even thought about getting ready for the race.

Saturday road race 11 laps

After oiling up the legs the team and I headed out for a warm up before the Saturday road race that would be about 11 laps around the course. The race started out like a lot of road races and there were no big accelerations. In this leisurely period time I moved up the pack to get towards the front that way if I needed to do something I’d be in the right spot to respond. Going up the back section there were a few attacks but nothing got much distance until about 3 laps in where a few strong cat 2s attacked including Eric Benz and got some separation on the field. Now there was a group of about 4 riders off the front and we were still within an hour of the race start. I figured that there was no way the field was going to let such a strong group of riders go off the front like they did but I was wrong, and before I knew it I was trying to find a way to try to get someone from my team up to the break. Some teams tried to send a few riders to the front to try to bring it back, but the course wasn't smooth enough to get one single chase going, every time we got moving a hill would break up the pace. At one point the break was getting closer and was about 30 seconds up the road. Once it was this close Ian, Will, and I where alternating attacks to try to bridge up to the leaders. Will was the first to try to get across but he couldn't make it and floated back. I then launched a counter to try to get across and I was getting really close but I they looked back and saw me coming then upped the pace once they got to one of the flat sections of the course I then lost all the time I made on the uphill from coming across and floated back to the pack. Shortly after that Ian launched what would be the last hard effort from our team to try to get someone across but again we got close but the break was working too good to try to get there solo. After Ian came back Will and I were toasted and I had to sit in the pack for a couple laps to try to catch my breath and think of what I could do to try to get the next best result. It wasn't until with 2 laps to go Ian floated back and scolded at me to get back to the front, and he was right it was getting too close to the finish to sit back so I started to move up. By that point the pack had lost all interest in chasing down the break and obviously was content with sprinting for 5th place. Heading into the final lap Ian and me were riding strong near the front and where preparing for the field sprint. After the down hill at 51 mph we where 1 k from the line and things where getting heated. I tried my best to stay on Ian’s wheel to get some sort of boost in the sprint but before I knew it I lost contact with Ian's wheel and moved to the outside to prepare for the sprint. Once we got past the tree that marked about 500 m to go I moved all the way over to the far left side of the road and started drilling it, I started my sprint right before the base of the hill and was able to pass a few riders to snag 10th place.

After the race Ian, Will, and me had a long discussion over what we did wrong and how we can change it on Sundays race

Sunday road race 14 laps

Another race in the late afternoon means I got to sleep in and get as much rest as I needed. This morning I ate myself some eggs and bagels and me and the team proceeded to watch Zombie-Land with some of the GS Tenzing Jrs who we were sharing the house with. The race today was on a slightly shorter loop but the biggest difference was that there where some very strong winds blowing which favors me and the team a lot better than the windless race the day earlier. This race started off a lot harder than the day before with people attacking from the gun trying to get in an early break since the days conditions suited this a lot more. It was gutter fest the entire way up the climb. This helped me and the team move to the front of the pack. From the front we were all over every attack. We switched who covered the moves to make sure there was always a fresh set of legs in the break. At one point Will was in a 4-man break that got a small gap on the field. They were working pretty well together from what I saw. While Will was off the front, I positioned my self on third wheel and covered any bridge attempts. After the feed zone, it was obvious that the break was getting pulled back so I moved up to second wheel. The break was a mere 2 seconds off the front when we hit the steepest part of the climb. I shot out of the pack to put in my counter move. I was drilling it up the steepest part of the hill and looked back after I made it to the crosswind section and saw that my teammate Will Rader was on as well as Eric Benz (Team Brain and Spine Cycling), Colton Jarisch (GCCA) and Mario Arroyave (Velossimo) had made the split. These were same three guys from the break the day before. There where also a handful of other riders that made the break including Danny Parks (GS Tenzing) and Christopher Tricky (Wooly Mammoth). With this combination of riders, we had most of the teams represented. The remaining teams left in the field couldn't get organized to chase us in the crosswind. We quickly started to build a gap on the field and knew that we made the winning move. Once in the break got into a rhythm Will Rader was policing me to assure I didn't use too much energy at the beginning of the break and he took several hard pulls so I can sit in a little more. After several hard laps, Will pulled out of the break and fell back to the pack to block with Ian. By this time we only had 7 or 8 laps left. It was apparent that several riders in the break were feeling the fatigue of a long early break and the rotation that we had was falling apart on the hilly section. Me, Benz and Colton attacked the break a few times to try to get rid of the extra baggage, but nothing worked and we were just wasting matches. After a lap of no attacks Mario attacked and no one followed him. He got a small gap on us and it was slowly getting bigger as people in the break were hesitant to chase. We tried to rotate hoping that to bring him back, but were not successful. About a lap later Benz attacked on the flat section of the course, while I was sitting on second wheel, but no one responded. I believe everyone was looking at me to chase, but there was no way i was going to waste the rest of my strength chasing the cat 2 state TT champ. As Mario and Eric where going up the road, it became apparent that the best place I can hope for would be 3rd. With 2 laps to go I sat at the back of the break to try to save energy and figure out what I could try to do to make the last spot on the podium. Colton tried a few attacks to try to get the third place slot on this lap, but the break wasn't about to let a 3rd rider just ride away. That was until the start of the final lap, where I rolled off the front on the downhill after the feed zone. I was quickly attacked when the break made reconnection to my wheel but followed through with a hard counter. I opened a large gap and one solo rider came with me. The two of us worked pretty equally up the hill until we got through he descent. Once we were in the final 500 meters, he was sitting on my wheel hoping to pimp me at the line. I was prepared for this and moved as far right as I could to leave him in the gutter as I was speeding towards the finish. I started my sprint at the base of the hill. He was slowly starting to make ground on me but once we got into the final 20 meters he blew up and I was able to get third place by a Bike length.

This race played out perfectly for our team. Being on the top of the podium would have been nice, but me and my team are very happy with our podium placing. I have to give a special thanks to my VW teammates Will Rader and Ian Sewalt for their selfless teamwork and team tactics, which allowed us to get a podium slot for the race. I'm proud to be surrounded by such teammates. I’m confident we're going to do some great things as the season progresses.

I'd also like to thank Ronnie Strange and Kevin Kremke for giving me a ride to the race (Ronnie) and back to Houston (Kremke). I'd also like to thank Danny and his dad for letting me and the team stay at one of the cabins on the course.

Pace bend cat 3s 60 miles

2010-02-21T19:42:00.003-06:00

Pace bend cat 3s 60 miles
After spending the night with Eric Benz at his house along with fellow
houstonian Jason Bently. We headed to the start of pacebend in the
early afternoon at around 10:30. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees
pluse and very sunny. I gotto the race and got my numbers and got
everything pinned, even wore my new shorts that came with the kit. I'm
pretty sure that metro v dub has the sexiest kit on the txbra cuircuit
right now, sorry patty and Zach.
The start of the race was very slow and leisurly which always makes me
happy. The race was 10 Laps long. There were severall attacks and such
but nothing got more than 20 seconds on the field. Me, Will, and Ian
used this race as a great oppurtunity to practice our teamwork and
communication in the pack. At the start the team decieded to make me
the leader and expend their energy to try to get me the win. There
were a few times I called on Will, Ian, or Todd (one of the club
riders) to move up to the front to bring back a break that had
potential to be a threat. At one point I we had every Volkswagen guy
rotating at the front to bring back a break that had alot of teams
represented. For alot of the race nothing super interesting happened
there were no big crashes and such for the first nine laps. Heading
into the final lap the field had a completly diffrent mentality than
the begining. The entire race I was fuiling perfectly. Drank all three
my bottles and ate all my GUs. The entire race leading up to the final
lap me and my team were taking about how we where going to set up a
good leadout to try to get me up the hill first. But Ian was cramping
bad on the final lap and when crunch time was approaching we couldn't
find eachother right away and the finish was approaching really fast.
Will had made it to the front and was trying to raise the speed to try
to catch the lone rider still off the front but the pack let him go
and he was between a solo leader and a dangerous cat 3 field with less
than a kilometer to go. Back in the pack things were getting pretty
physical. I had to even had to headbut a rider to protect my position
and stay safe. We then hit the bottom of the finishing hill at 30+
miles per hour and I was holding the white line on the far left of the
road. I then started revving up my sprint and was making up enourmous
ground on everyone. That is when disaster struck and the rider.
Directly infront if me crashed with 200m to go and I ran into him
(didn't crash though) causing me to lose all my speed and momentum.
All I can do now was watch as the guy I was about to pass get third
place and Will
Get caught with 100 meters to go A for sure podium postiton loss in a
fraction of a second after spending over 3 hours getting ready for
that final charge up the hill.
Race was very fun, I love this course good job by San Jose for
hosting. Got to give a very special thanks to my teamates for all the
work they put in for me, so close yet so far. Also have to give thanks
to Eric Benz for letting me sleep at his place Saturday night and
Jason Bently for driving me to the race and all the way back to P-
land. Next race might be Lago.

Walburg cat 3s 72 miles

2010-02-20T15:17:00.002-06:00

Walburg cat 3s 72 miles
Walburg , one of the most miserable courses in the state of Texas,
this was my first race in 2010 and I've been looking forward for it
for several months. I left for the race after school friday with my
old teammate Rich. We headed up our hotel and slept pretty good
considering we were watching figure skating. The morning of the race
we packed up and drove off to a burger king for some breakfast yatta
yatta yatta. ...... We got to the parking lot and everything was dry,
a change from the normal walburg experiance. I found my Volkswagen
guys and was able to get the new kit to open my season in. I was
unable to warm up the way I'd like to from the fact it took me a
little longer to get ready
The start of the race was very slow and leisurly which I liked,
72 miles is a pretty long race. From what I saw about halfway through
the first lap a break of around 6 had formed and the pack didn't seem
that interested in chasing. The break by the end of the first lap had
built up a lead of around 90 seconds or so. Teammate Will Rader took a
few really hard pulls to try to get an effective chase to go on, and
it worked temporaraly becuase the break was well in sight with a small
30 second gap with about 10 miles to go in the second of three laps.
The pack then decieded to sit up even though the break was very close
and the leaders then slowley started to pull away and by the end of
the second lap they were back to a 90 second gap. I attacked the
finishng hill to see if the pack was gong to do anything and they let
me go for a couple mins untill they decieded to chase me and a few
others that came with me down. I was starting to get really frustrated
with the fields inability to keep the pace up. In the final 15 miles
or so there where some attacks to try to get away but the field wasn't
letting anything go too easily, with about 9 miles or so I attacked
after the field went pretty hard up a hill and started to build a gap
from the field, I quickly caught one rider that was off the front and
joined by two other riders that bridged to me. The four of us then
went into overdrive and started pulling away from the field very
quicky and before I knew it we were 30 seconds up the road. Have to
give credit to Will, Rich, and Todd for good blocking. By the time we
reached the final kilometer the lead break was within 20 seconds of us
and almost touchable. Half way up the hill one rider jumped a little
early and I sprinted after him and claimed 5th place. Really pleased
with this result, great way to start the year.
Got to give another thanks to Rich for the ride up and some blocking
as well as Will for blocking and trying to bring the break back. Great
race up on by all the officials, going to race Pace bend tomorrow
afternoon.

Sent from my iPhone

Metro Volkswagon Teambuilding camp

2010-02-01T18:56:00.005-06:00

Metro Volkswagen team building camp

The final weekend of January I was privileged enough to get to fly up to Dallas to meet my new team for 2010. I have been waiting to go to this camp for a long time for it would give me an oppurtunity to meet my jr teammates Will, Ian, and Kyle. As well as the elite men.

Of course the weekend I decided to come to Dallas a cold front had came through and brought the weather below freezing for the majority of the weekend. For the weekend i stayed at the Rader's were they gave me a place to sleep as well as some very good food to eat. The first thing that we did as a team at the camp was that we watched the Dallas Stars hockey game inside one of the VIP booths. The game was really cool And I got to meet all the jrs and alot of the elite guys. After the game i went back to Will's house (it was snowing) and rest up for the long rides we where planning on doing in the morning.

The next day we had planned two long rides with the team, the only problem is that is was way too cold to ride. 28 degrees. After the ride had started I was frozen, it was a goodthing Will had some extra clothes to keep me warm cause my Houston winter gear wasn't cutting it. About thirty mins into the first ride my bottles had actually frozen for the first time. After the first part of the ride we rode for around 90 mins or so just ridng in a double paceline the place. After this ride we went back to the shop and sat around for a little while. once everybody got warm again we headed out for the second part of the ride. For the second part of the ride we rode for around 4 hours around a diffrent loop, this second ride had a bit a drama. It had tears, blood, crying, a bunch of really miserable looking faces, and one car wreck. (no one was hurt, just bad truck driver hitting a car) between a moving truck and some old people. At the very end of the ride I got to strech my legs a little and do some chasing with the elite guys and even after 100 miles (omgwtfbbq) still got to power through.
After this ride me and Will drove home ate some of his mom's ravioli and got cleaned up for the team presentations that night. At the team presentations I met everyone and got to see what the bikes are going to look like for next year as well as get a team polo :).

The next morning was another long ride, but was more of a hard group ride were you can just let it hang. This was another very cold moring but I was prepared for once and was nice and warm, I even wore my state champion jersey for the ride ;) I had alot of fun ridding through dallas This day. the weather felt alot warmer and we were going alot faster so warm blood was pumping keeping me alot warmer then yesterday.. At the end of this ride some of the elite guys went for a sprint about a mile or two out and i tagged along for the sprint. after the sprint the ride was over and we just cruised into the start of the.

After the ride me and the Radar's grabbed some chinese food and went to the house to pack for my flight back to Pearland.

All in all I can say is that im really happy to be part of the Metro Volkswagen team for the next season and look forward to a very fun 2010 racing season.

1-9-10 cold ride

2010-01-09T15:22:00.003-06:00

Just on blogger while i recover from my ride.

after some really cold cold front came through the weather was a lot colder than it normally is. the weather was almost 20 degrees colder than what it normally is which is pretty cold considering it has been in the 50s for the last couple weeks. On this ride we delayed the ride a couple hours to hopefully have some warmer weather to ride in. at 9:50 i headed to the start of the group ride and the weather was right at freezing. The goal of the ride was to do the normal wee mart route which is usually around 3 hours and around 65 miles or so. when I arrived at the start of the ride the only people there where Darrell, Rich , and Evan. we started the ride and the cold wasn't too bad. I was just worried about my feet because i have a problem with my feet and the cold. After the first thirty mins of the ride my feet where starting to feel cold. this was good because at least i can still feel them, around this time darrell turned home. After the first hour of the ride was done my feet went from cold to burning from the cold, not a good sign since it still isn't the halfway point and there is a head wind all the way back. We made it to wee mart (halfway point) in around 1.5 hours which was good. I felt pretty good on the way down and won the two sprint zones. After a quick stop and some food at wee mart we started to our way home. by now it hasn't even been two hours and my feet where gone I couldn't feel couldn't feel anything below my ankles. On the way home we all took good long pulls to fight the head wind and get home to warm up as fast as we could. On the way home we did two more sprints. Me,Rich, and Evan finished the ride in about 3 hours and had no casualties.

well now i can say that i finished my coldest ride of my life. Sunday should be a little warmer.

Start of 2010

2010-01-06T16:29:00.005-06:00

Hello, I know I haven't blogged in a while but one of my new years
resolutions is to keep all my blog followers more updated as I get
faster and better on the bike. For those who haven't been part of my
Twitter tweets and don't know what I've been doing since the off
season has started. Well since my off season started way back in
October I've taken part in my schools cross country and had a little
success, even made the regional team as an alternate.
After the cross country season ended I turned back to cycling. And
here i am right now training and getting faster so that i can continue
my success from the past and get better and better.

Age Based Texas State Championship Criterium.

2009-06-18T13:51:00.006-05:00

Going to this race I wanted to win. I didn't want anything less than first. This was my first time racing against the Jr Texas field this year so I saw some old friends along with some new kids I have never seen before.

My race didn't start till after 1pm so it was going to be a very hot race when I got there the temp was already over 95. warming up I just rode around for 15 mins I was scared to overheat just from peddling around slowly.

At the start of the race I all the Jrs rolled out as usual. The race started off really slow as any Jr race does. After about 2 or 3 laps a big Metro Volkswagen Jr got to the front and put in a hard 3 laps to hopefully weaken to field. Just as he pulled off I attacked and soloed off the front. I then got a 20 second gap on the field and after 20 mins of a hard solo effort some the Bigger stronger Jrs brought me back. this included Cody Foster who is a strong Cat 2 Jr. Once I was caught I quickly countered myself and was on another solo break. After being off the front for another 10 mins Cody Bridged up to me from the Jr pack and the 2 of us started to work really well together. going into the final lap me and Cody had a very large gap and we knew one of us was going to win. heading into the final 200m I was in optimal position and started my sprint with 150m and was able to win my half a bike length then my friend Zach was able to get third from the Pack sprint

11 traits of the champion. from hot tubes developmental team websight

2009-05-18T19:00:00.001-05:00

11 Traits of a Champion

1) Calmness: Champions demonstrate a stoic calmness that allows them to focus on the task at hand. No prima Dona outbursts or ridiculous demands on friends or trainers; Just calm commitment.

2) Self-Assured: Champions, the really great ones, never really boast. They have a quiet self assuredness that transcends talk, and they seldom distract themselves with such foolishness.

3) Aggressiveness: Champions seem to be very aggressive. Strong moves are indicative of the outstanding athlete. Yet the moves whether made by design or by instinct are not made frivolously but rather only at times when their chances can be greatly enhanced by such a maneuver.

4) Tenacious: Certainly one of the primary traits that all champions’ show is tenacity. They just keep on coming whether it be a part of their training, a race or another part of their lives. Adversity is only a step in the process rather than an impassable hurdle.

5) Not afraid to fail: To a degree, we are all afraid to fail. The champion seems to be willing to risk it in spite of the possibility of catastrophe.

6) Patience: Part of being a champion is the realization that patience is an integral part of success. Patience is not just a trait, it is a tool that a champion uses to a definite advantage.

7) Self Direction: This does not mean the champion is self-coached or self centered, but rather that the champion knows where he or she is going and will use the best available means at their disposal to achieve that end.

8) Consistency: Champions seem to demonstrate a great deal of consistency, both in temperament and performance.

9) Inward Focus: The really great champions seem unconcerned about whom they are competing against. The riders in a particular event only provide a standard by which they will apply and measure themselves. The champion competes against their own abilities and limitations. The champion does not look outward, blaming others for a loss, but rather inward to those areas that can be improved for the future.

10) Willingness to suffer: Great champions do not wish to suffer any more than you or I, but seem to accept the pain of athletic suffering as part of their endeavor. They seem to force more out of their bodies than other riders do, especially when the going gets tough. Much of this sport, at all levels, is decided by a mental commitment that allows the body to react accordingly.

An eleventh attribute that is harder to define in a single word and is probably as important as any. Ultimately, a bicycle race is just a bicycle race, lives are not saved, the homeless are not housed. Champions seem to realize this as well, and realize the lessons of racing and training are really only valid when applied to our life as a whole.

Cold Spring RR cat 3s- A bit late. 62 miles

2009-05-16T13:43:00.003-05:00

Quick write over the Coldspring RR. The race started out slow with several unsuccessful attempts at forming a break. Going through the hills on the 2nd of the 4 laps I attacked to set a break but no one came to my wheel. I was caught after 4 or 5 miles. The pack stayed together even after ALOT of attacks on the last run through the hills.

Heading up the final Hill was on Jason Bentley's wheel on the right hand side. He surged with about 400m to go. I sprinted by him for my dash to the line. With about 25 meters I got passed by one one rider from bikesport. I got 2nd and was looking good for the Sugar crit that was the next day

Sugar crit 3/4s

2009-05-05T22:42:00.004-05:00

Photo by Courtney Scott

The reason I went to the 09 Sugarland Criterium was to win. I did this event in the 3/4s last year and placed second. So I wanted to place one better after a full year of training. Everything I hear about this event is positive, not only are the roads in perfect condition but it is right in the middle of the town center square, and to top off the list of good things is there is always a good size crowed to watch and enjoy the race.

I woke up at six and downed a bowl of cereal with a couple shots of espresso before heading up with teammate Dan Morgan. Once we arrived I got my number and got pinned then warmed up in a nearby parking garage with Dan as well as Rich Schmidt. After warming up for 20 mins we went down to wait for the Jrs to finish then get a good position at the start line. Once the course was opened I got at the very front skipping a preview lap knowing the only wet corner is the 180. While I was at the start I looked at my competition to see if anyone really stood out and I didn’t see anyone particular, but what I did see was certain teams had good amounts of riders, which could work together to make the race a little bit more difficult for me and the team. Pearland had quite a few amount of riders in the 3/4s the riders where Dan, Rich, Tom, Paul, and me. However Tom and Paul had just finished the 4/5s earlier

The start of the crit was fast like any other crit is, the speed slowed down considerably after the first 4 laps though. Once the race slowed down Me, Rich and Dan got positioning towards the front and went into defense mode and looked to see what was going on. After 40 some mins I decided the race needed some actions so I decided to put in a small attack. I luckily timed it just enough so I stayed away for 1.5 laps and picked up a prime for a source Endurance lactate test. Once I was caught Rich put in a quick counter attack. While the pack was chasing Rich down I got towards the front of the pack to see what was happening. Eventually the pack brought him back after about 2.5 laps. That is when Dan put in a hard attack. The pack was getting more hesitant at bringing in the Attackers. Once the pack brought in Dan, Rich went again at a prime lap. I then got in second position behind the lead chaser and attacked. Rich and I went one two for the prime. This Prime I got a $25 coupon to Perry’s Steakhouse. Once I got the second place prime I kept going till I bridged up to Rich. At this time Rich and me where both off the front with a small 5 second gap to the pack. I looked at rich and said, “let’s go!” the two of us drilled it for the next lap to open a good gap before he fell back to block the chase. At this time there was only 5 laps to go, and I was solo off the front with a 10-15 second gap to the chasers. I just put my chin on the bars and started hammering. I kept looking back to see if the pack was getting closer but the gap stayed. As the laps slowly went by I could here my Coach David Wenger of Source yelling splits at me, along with the huge crowed that have came to watch the race yelling for me to go harder. In the final 200 meters I realized I had it and slowed up a little to enjoy my victory, I took my hands off the bars and did my first victory solute of the 09-race season

I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this win if it wasn’t for the teamwork my team used heading up to the final 20 mins of the race

I would like to Thank: teammates-Rich, Dan, Tom, and Paul for the efforts in the race. I would like to thank my Family for all the support. I would like to thank my Coach Dave Wenger for getting me strong enough to have a chance of doing anything on a bike, as well as my Sponsors- MSHC.net, Pearland Cycling Club, Apache Services, Turbo care, Trialtir

Fayettvile stage race cat 3

2009-04-11T17:08:00.008-05:00

I'm a little late....

stage one. this was around a 60 mile RR.

well after staying in the RV teammate Steve got to use from his company Apache services and enjoying the awesome cooking of Ms. Gaye Koenning of Fitness solutions And her Husband Aaron. during the race the fog was so thick you couldn't see a thing. any ways the race stayed together for the majority of it with almost no attacks. the reason for the calmness of the race was every one was waiting for the 6.6 mile TT later that afternoon. well the RR ended up with a big field sprint. I was able to get sixth place in the field sprint just one place away from a time bonus.

Stage 2

This was a fast 6.6 mile ITT.

well writing about Timetrials is very easy to get good at. I started off hard and went harder as I got closer to the finish line in the end I did a 15:23 which was a very fast time which got me 8 for the stage and 10 overall

Stage 3

another 60 mile RR on a slightly smaller loop (more laps)

well the race started out fast because now every one was racing to get the overall. I sat towards the front of the pack and I was watching Danny from San jose because he was sitting 2nd in Gc and he has been looking good all season. well several attacker's went off the front but nothing stuck. I even surged once across the peloton to chase down a break. but like I said the pack wasn't letting anything go. with about 1 mile from the finish people were getting very crazy and starting to get fidgety. with 1 k to go the was a major crash and half the pack went down. I was able to avoid the crash because I was riding at the front. I was able to get 16th in the sprint.

special thanks

I have to thank Steve with Apache for getting the team an RV to stay in and Aron and Gaye for the hospitality and food

Lago Vista day 1 and 2

2009-03-13T18:11:00.012-05:00

All I can say is that I without the woodland cycling club I wouldn't have been able to race, for they were the ones that got me a place to sleep and stay over for the 2 days of racing and I owe thanks to one of my best friends Patrick Davis or as I would say BSD and his parents for schlepping me to and fro

Day 1

the first day of lago was a 50 mile RR that consisted of 9 loops. when the race started I was near the front like your suppose to and was in a good position to cover any attacks that would have went. after about 15 mins the attacks started to go and the race finally got harder. after several laps on the famous lago Climb and the even or famous decent Scott attacked and I bridged up to him with one other person. together the three of us started to pull away from the group and after about a lap and a half 2 more people bridged up including Jr racer Ian Sewalt. by this time the entire break was really hurting and we slowly become less efficient and then became sloppy. after about 2 laps the pack finally caught us and we all reintegrated. I then moved bake to the front to recover for the final couple laps. the pack was pretty calm till the final mile uf the uphill. then out of the blue Ian Sewalt attacked the Peloton and started to pull away. I saw this and really though the pack would react, but nothing happened. as the group started to go down the decent then the pace really picked up, which meant 50+mph down the hill. towards the end of the decent Tucker Gerald (fellow Jr from Lubbock camp) surged and caught Ian who was still solo off the front. they both go 1, 2 tucker then Ian. meanwhile I'm in the middle of the crazy cat 3 field trying to sprint for whatever position I can get. I ended up 14th for the day.

still day one but after the race (also a little before)

Before my race went on the way Patrick was racing the Jr 4/5 and was going for his first win of the year. from what I saw... Patty attacked early in the race and got a 2 man break with Shelby Redding. after Pulling the entire race Pat surged with 400m to go and held it off for the win. Congratulations.

After all the races were done me Patrick and Travis Burandt all hung out at the condo and watched survivor man till we went to bed. The next mourning Travis' Mom made all of us probably the best breakfast burritos ever and then just hung around waiting for the races. While waiting me and Travis just gave Patrick some Paranoia about his new bike.

Day 2

This race was another 50 mile RR but on a little smaller circuit. which meant more laps. I got to breakout my White shorts for this race which meant I was ready to win. At the start of the race about 5-15 mins into the race there where several attacks but nothing got more then 30 seconds. About half way through the race I bridged up to a solo rider and a strong San jose guy followed me. the 3 of us started working together really good and started to put some time from us and the pack. at the most we probably had 45 seconds maybe... well after 2.5 laps of just pain and tears the pack finally closed down on us and the San jose squad put in some hard counter attacks. but still nothing got away from the pack. meanwhile I'm in the front trying to conserve energy for the almost inevitable sprint coming up. with only 1 lap to go the pack was still together and waiting for the down hill that is coming up.coming up the final hill there was a huge surge by the stronger riders to try to open a gap before the decent. going down the down hill I found myself too far on the front which is not where I wanted to be doing 50+ mph. half way down the hill there was an attacked from the front and I was already at my capacity to even think about going with him. about 3 seconds later the pack surged after him and I started to go backwards through the center of the pack. heading into the final K I was mid pack and just trying to hang on as the strong men left in the pack where revving up their sprints. Josh Brown took it for the win I came in with the rest of the pack.

After the races

I came home with Patty and his parents which was fun. the drive went by really fast.

Recap

I had fun I raced both smart and dumb so I can't reall say much here.

Special thanks

I have to give a special thanks to

-Woodlands cyling club for giving me a place to stay

-Patrick's parents for also giving me place to stay and a ride to and back from the races

-also Travis Burandt's mom for the best dinner and breakfast ever

pace bend

2009-02-27T21:19:00.004-06:00

funnest race in a long time. I'm going to cu this report short. after leaving the hotel I got to the park and waited around for awhile for my race to start
Once my race stared I was in the middle of what had to be the safest cat 3 field I've ever been in after around 8 to nine laps of racing I was still in the pack and was preparing for the sprint (at this point there is about 2 miles left and no break aways) I moved up to about 7th wheel after sitting mid pack the entire race and was getting ready to go up the finishing hill as fast as possible. as the pack took the left hander before the line I hear a major crash from behind and a start my dash with about 200 meters to go. I start to pass fellow Jr Cody foster up the hill as I flew to the line. with about 50 meters to go I see one guy fly by me on the left I I see that he has it in the bag. I keep going hard to hold 2nd but then I see Cody started to pass me on the left along with one other guy to my right. I cross the line in4 which was above my expectations. also in the womens race Jen won the fpr P ;and in the womans 4s

recap

I did everything by the book and probably wouldn't change much the only way I would have one was to probably start 1 or 2 more slots back but thats it.

walburg and first race of 09

2009-02-27T20:41:00.007-06:00

after I long and crazy off season alot has happened since my last post. the most important one has got to be I had to go through another type of eye surgery which ruined the first week of my winter vacation and caused me to loose alot of fitness that I have been working on in secret since the end of states. Any way, walburg was my first race of the season and i was racing the cat 3s which happened to be a 72 mile race which was the same distance as the pros.
That Friday mourning I got up and started to get ready for my teammate paul to pick me up. Once he picked me up we started to head North to the Austin area and our hotel. after a while we arrive at the hotel to find my racing buddy Patric staying right below us.
once I got my # pinned and rolled out I was at the start line and ready to go. once we started to go I was at the front like my coach told me to and was waiting for the crosswind section. then I see scott simmons attack and went off the front solo. This didn't alarm me cause I knew he wasn't going to solo 70 miles of 30mph winds. as the lap went on we finally made the right hander into walburgs famous 30 mph crosswind I immediately got cover in the front and got teammate rich up to the front as well, then Me and rich along with some San jose riders started a rotating pacer line the wind and started to shred the pack. after one lap the pack went from 70 to 11 and still with 50 miles to go. I was one of those 11 but pretty much used up all my energy to to help shred to group in the cross wind. we then caught Scott and the pace went up again. 2 guys then attacked scott and he bridged up. this left about 7 chasing down 3 guys off the front. after about 20 mins at this pace I got dropped right before the strong cross again. I then pulled out after 50 miles of racing

Recap
I've come to learn I do to much work in windy races i have to learn to rest more in the pack and expend energy when necessary.

it is now 11-6

2008-11-06T21:48:00.001-06:00

I'm almost a month in the off season And will try to update my blog as frequently as possible.

I will update those 2 track races eventually

10-11 Track racing Endurance night

2008-10-14T13:03:00.003-05:00

Long racing mean easy money. Or so I thought.

The promoters cancelled the Jrs and and the masters and combined them with the 123s. which to me is awesome. any ways the first race was a 30 lap scratch. after a couple laps me Lawson and Alex got off the front and started working. I was soon dropped from the break and finished from the pack.

The next race was the 60 lap points race. I went off the front with on other person and I got the first two sprints and then was caught by Lawson and Alex so the four of us worked of a bit before Alex and Lawson dropped me. I was then caught by the field and was with them for the next couple laps before we were lapped by the leaders After the race finished I figured out that I actually got 3rd place in that race.so I'm still exited from that

The final race was a 75 lap scratch. I sat in and got dropped and lapped by Alex and Lawson. Anyways I attacked with 22 laps to go to try to get a lap back. at one point I brought back 3/4s a lap but I was soon caught with 6 laps to go. I then sprinted for 6th

Recap- all I can say is I love the track and every body should atleast try it once

10-10 track racing

2008-10-14T12:46:00.003-05:00

Today was the first time I raced the track since July and couldn't wait. Track is one of the funnest things about bike racing. When I went to the track I saw that all my track friends where there and that there was a small group of racers. As the races stared I did 10 lap scratch race that I got slapped in against Lawson and Danial Walker. Then I did a 3 lap handicap that I totally just got shredded. I then had a very good 12 lap points race with sprints every 3 laps. I took 1 lap flyers in the 1st and last sprint points and got those. the next race was a miss n out where the last person from every lap is pulled. I got pulled first in an attempt to help a teammate ;). I then did an 18 lap tempo in the JRs that I had to pull my self out of due to my wheel coming loose and becoming a safety hazard Then in the final race of the day me and Dan did the 50 lapper. Our goal was to attack Lawson till we dropped him. unfortunately Lawson dropped both of us in the last 10 laps and won.

Recap

I'm starting to find the weaknesses of a few of the riders at the track and I'm going to win next time

New sponsorship

2008-10-06T18:28:00.002-05:00

I'd like to thank the All smiles dentistry for helping me with my bike-racing and helping me achieve my goals in becoming pro one day. Thank you very much

Chapple hill states road race

2008-10-06T18:14:00.003-05:00

Ok I can finally blog.

After waking up at around 4 am me and my teammate Rich drive out to Chapple Hill for the Road Race state Championships. On the drive up I was Mostly in my own world going back and forth between my consciouses and sub-conscious. Once me and Rich got to the race we registered and got our numbers and got our selfs pinned up. We then met up with Dan and started warming up. Our plan was a simple one, don't do anything till the last hour of the race.

Well the race started and me and my Team started at the front of the race. The race stared slow and Dan rolled off the front with a few other people from the group. Now me and Rich had to start blocking. After the first couple laps we were cruising at a fair pace around the course. Nothing too fast or too slow and I sat near the front and received Bottles from my Teammate Stephanie who was working the feed zone for the team. After 64 miles of blocking the break was finally caught and the entire group was back together with around 10 miles till the finish. around now I was pretty tired from all the blocking I was doing and could tell the energy was draining from my legs for the last couple miles no-one did anything and when the sprint finally came down I was going backwards. I pushed my self as hard as I could in the sprint and I managed to hold onto an 18 place finish.

Recap

Never block. Just kidding. well I don't regret anything i enjoyed the entire race and enjoyed all 3.5 hours of it. I just wasn't properly prepared for a 76 miler after Ike. Well Race season is finally over

First day of school since ike went by.

2008-09-26T06:16:00.003-05:00

Let's see how this goes

quick write up

2008-09-23T11:36:00.002-05:00

today was the first time I rode my bike in one week after a much needed off week and I'm still off of school. anyways I'm now in the process if getting back into shape so I can head out and do good at states.

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-12T19:40:00.004-05:00

19:48

9-12-08

Ok. Ike is coming in and me my dad and Teammate Rich were able to nail plywood on all the major windows and doors. It looks like Ike is going to hit us as a strong CAT2 (not bike terms) Any way I'm pissed that they cancelled state Road race but I can handle it. Just a little UPRS (unnecessary Pre Race Stress)

well this blog is going to be about what I do during this event.

well since "plywooding" my house yesterday I just been enjoying the weather. NOT. well Thursday I took the dogs out on a walk and since then I have been Face Booking. well I'll update this blog for as long as I can.