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I'll keep it short and sweet . . .

First off, I'm BEGGING you all, my wonderful readers and devoted friends/family/fans and the people who keep me motivated and going 110%, to PLEASE DONATE ANY SMALL AMOUNT TO MY TEAM, CICLISMO RACING!! It means a ton to us and we'll get you hooked up with the bi-weekly team newsletter, and with your help we'll even be able to afford chamois cream.

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On Saturday I had planned to ride from Princeton down to the Philly circuit race, do the race, and ride home. Well, I got started a touch late and ended up doing a decently hard TT with a full backpack on for two hours, only to get hopelessly lost in a great part of North Philly (wink wink). I ended up watching the race and heckling some guys, then rode home. But again, the ride home was a bear because I had a headwind the whole way and took an even longer, more circuitous route! ARGH. Got home after 6+ hours of riding and 5000kJ.


Notice the large spike in HR and elevation at around mile 50? That's the Manayunk Wall! Brought back many fond memories . . . it's crazy to just ride it after only racing on it, and it definitely hurts at the top!!


The team got up before dawn on Sunday (I didn't even get off my bike on Saturday until 8PM!) to drive down and race the TTT and criterium. We rode the TTT on our fast bikes, but did about 85% to just get things smooth and figure out our communication and rotation. We pushed it a little near the end, but were really happy with how controlled and smooth the effort was. We won by over 20 seconds!


The criterium was a very fast but easy race on a wide-open flat course with only three huge, smooth turns. A sprint finish if I've ever guessed a race correctly! With 6 laps to go, a break had been off the front with a consistent ~10 second gap for much of the race, and Austin and I finally decided enough is enough so we got to the front and ripped it. We had a lot of help from Chris Ruhl which lead us to bring the break back in just under 3 laps! Argh . . . to early. After some amazing late-race moves by UVM and the ever-powerful Josh Lipka, Austin and I did our best to get Big Bennette a leadout. I was tapped out just about 50 meters too early, and Nick had to do the whole final drag against UVM's endless stream of guys--he got third to a fast Colin J and a coordinated UVM team effort. Kudos.


Now I've been locked in my room for over a day writing my nuclear physics paper--AHHHHHHH!!! Then tonight/tomorrow I have to do my automatic control systems take-home midterm--DOUBLE AHHHHHHHHH!!!

"Just four weeks left, Nick . . . "

My first mobile blog!

I wish I could insert pictures into the iPhone's email . . . Although
I hear they're going to be upgrading to iPhone 3.0 pretty soon!

About to suit up and ride 45 miles to the Philly circuit race, then
ride home! First efforts since training camp, we will see how the
legs are going. I wish the weather was as nice as it was yesterday,
but at least it isn't cold!

Sent from my iPhone

I'm gonna need a 58t . . .

I just clocked ~6 hours putting this baby together! I've you'll look closely, there is no rear brake cable . . . ran out! Oh well, brakes are only for slowing down.

I rode her on the trainer for about 1 minute . . . WOW!!! I can't wait for the UPenn TTT this Sunday! I'll try to get some pics and/or video.

P.S. DONATE TO MY TEAM, CICLISMO RACING!!! Any amount, even if it's just $20, is super helpful. We're going to some big races this year and I want to keep everyone updated, so sign up for our excellent email newsletter (probably bi-weekly updates on the team) and help us out with some spare coin for tubes, bar tape, and beer---er, Gatoraide.

Ian, what a stud. We got punished up the climbs by the local Silver City group on the last day of camp.

I am actually in serious pain with a horrible sunburn at this point! ;-)

I don't know about living here, but I'll definitely be down here for a lot of training in the coming years!!!

Hopefully they let me come back!

The requisite team headshot . . . mine wasn't as hilarious as some of the other guys' pics, but I'm actually pretty happy with it.

Princeton Criterium, a B-day, and Silver City!

A great 22nd birthday present!

TEAMWORK AT RUTGERS!

The skinsuits are key.

My good friend Doug came to the race with his parents!

That was worth it!

Wind is not your friend.

Those BMC SLC01 Pro Machines are sweet.

I'm going to miss my time at Princeton.

"REALLY?!"

I almost killed Chris Wynnyk here . . .

Corner three was pretty sweet, especially since I had to rail it each time to keep my gap!

Well, the weekend of March 7-8, just before my 22nd birthday on March 9th, was a BLAST! Dad drove across the country from the land of corn and hogs, sat in on some classes, had dinner with the Princeton team, and watched us tear it up at our home race and the Rutgers circuit race.

It has been a hectic, stressful couple of weeks leading up to Spring Break, as it always is with our midterms and problem sets due just before we leave. I made it through without cracking, and did a respectable job with [most of] my work. I went into our first races of the season knowing I had good form, but also not feeling quite right on my brand-new BMC . . . I decided to just enjoy things and let it rip! Sure enough, I felt good in the Princeton criterium and went off the front just three laps in to solo to a win--but not actually. I had missed the start after warming up for a little too long and just jumped in midway through the second lap! Argh . . . a sophomoric mistake, but oh well, we put on a good show and I confirmed to myself that I'm riding well at this point in the year.

It was a blast seeing all of my old collegiate racing buddies! I love the vibe of collegiate races, very fun and not too serious, but the guys don't pull punches--the races are 100%. It's a great way to have fun, get in some seriously intense training, and hopefully get some wins and bring up new riders through the categories by passing down the incredible knowledge we've accumulated by touching a hot frying pan many times!

Dad and I had a great time at Princeton, and I know he really soaked it in since I'll be moving on in just another couple of months. I had some intense problem solving sessions post-Princeton-race in order to get my final loose ends tied before flying to New Mexico, but sure enough I had my things packed and ready to go come Thursday night . . .

Woke up late--8:20 for a 9:30AM flight IN PHILLY, a 1.5hr train/cab away. No worries, changed my flight on Southwest--love them! Well, got my things together, made a frou-frou soy capuccino and headed down the stairs to grab my bike bag and go. Uh . . . NO BIKE BAG!!! Maybe it's in the bike room? Maybe I just had some dream about leaving it there to pick up in the morning . . . nope, it's gone. Wow. Well, better get the old Ibis fixed up and ready to train on so I have a reason to even go to training camp!

Long story short, I made it to Silver City, New Mexico with the Ciclismo boys, ready to ride my bike up many thousands of feet of amazing Tour of the Gila courses while burning a nice farmer's tan into my arms and legs! While I am very jealous of the other guys' sweet BMC SLC01 road bikes, I've got some good legs and I'm SO excited to be racing with the new team. We've gelled amazingly in a very short time, and we've got the advantage of being under the radar while having a great card to play on the climbs, in the sprints, and in the time trials. I can't wait to graduate and get out to Colorado to pursue racing as well as selling the best bamboo bikes in the country. Big things to come . . .