Coldspring RR P12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.