Here's where I'm going tomorrow

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory open house

Here's an example of what they do at the LDEO:

Doesn't seem like just eight days ago!

I found this on Adam's excellent blog . . .

So close yet so far

I wish I could've been up in NYC to listen to this!

You have two options . . .

Option A: lead a teammate out for a top-5 finish while securing a top-12 for yourself in a stacked field of some of the best criterium racers from around the world, earning roughly $5k for the team in the process.

Option B: go down in an inescapable crash on the last lap while in the top-10, but make sure your teammate goes down with you so that you no longer have any shot of getting a rider in the $50k prize money to the top-25. Oh, and your teammate's bike is also totaled and your own body goes through the SIXTH crash of the season.

Well, I don't know about you all, but I definitely picked Option B! I could think of no more fitting way to close out my season than to crash out of the top-10 in the richest one-day race in the country after pegging it for much of the race and having one of the best field sprinters in country ready to launch off my wheel.

Ok, enough sarcasm for one post. Time Pro Cycling ran a more active race than any team there, including Garmin and Kelly Benefits (with EIGHT riders!), and we had a guy off the front for a total of probably 1/2 of the race! We won two $1,000 premes outright, the first when I attacked a break just as it was being swallowed up and rode a lap solo, the second came when Tom Soladay was solo off the front for almost 10 laps, and I even performed my trademark flying-lap to take second on the preme for $500! Jon Hamblen was super active at the front, as always, chasing down anything dangerous and just being an incredible workhorse, while Adam stayed safely tucked away in the field getting ready for the inevitable sprint.

The course was held on Pennsylvania avenue, just ten blocks away from the capital . . . beautiful! There were many spectators, an awesome kids race, and generally top-notch organization and funding. We were taken out to a very nice restaurant, Sonoma, and given free reign on their ultra-expensive menu, then slept in one of DC's longest-running hotels, the Hotel Harrington, again provided by the race organization. My hat is off to them!

After our excellent race, it was just heartbreaking to get taken out in the final lap. However, after venting to my dad, I realized that we were racing against Tour de France podium contenders and the winner of the Tour of Missouri, multiple USPRO national champions, Tour of California stage winners, etc. I am a full-time student at Princeton, starting a company in my spare time (I guess that's what you would call it?), and also racing my bike at the tender age of 21. I realized that, crash or not, it's pretty cool to be fighting for the win at the end of a long first professional season with riders who have been there, done that, and won that.

I'm just left of center . . . this 180-turnaround was actually less sketchy than I thought it would be, and made the course very interesting.

Adam and I were on Hilton's wheel with less than 1k to go . . .

Well, time to hang the bike up for a few weeks and kick back! I've been looking forward to this for a long time, but then I also know I'm going to miss racing SO much! I may have to figure something out to keep my sanity this winter. I do have my sweet Silver Ghost now (a Vespa GT200), and the Princeton team is going to take full advantage of having our own Craig Cook around to motorpace us!

Thanks for reading, and I *HOPE* to make an entry about the Espoir National Road Race ASAP, it was my strongest performance (again, without a top result!) this season. Now it's time to get those problem sets done!

Off to the nation's capital I go!

For the ING Direct Capital Criterium. $50,000 on the line with $10k to the winner, multiple $1k+ ING Orange savings account primes, Christian Vande Velde and a stacked Garmin squad as well as Bahati and Fast Freddy and Cando with a stacked Kelly team . . . need I go on?

85 kilometers around an INTERESTING course, right in the heart of Washington--WHO'S EXCITED?!

I'm getting ready to ride my bike with a backpack of stuff over to Doylestown, PA to hitch a ride with Jackie Simes and his pops, then we're shacked up at the swanky Hotel Harrington with swanny-support! We'll be racing our bikes tomorrow, just just sitting in, because I have a feeling that Garmin will continue to attack until it gets a couple guys in a five man break (so that they can get second place, of course!). We have excellent options for bike racing tomorrow with the ever-attacking Hamblen (who should be ripping it because 'cross season is coming up) as well as strong-man Tom Soladay.

However, we have a ringer: Adam Myerson. He is going very well (again, those 'cross guys can get MOTIVATED) and we'll try to give him a clear shot at the line on the last lap if it's all together.

Stay tuned, this should be interesting!

incredible!

SEASON IS OVER, back to school for one last year :-(

Well, it's official: no more big races for me in 2009. I have one last race, the ING Criterium in DC, in two weeks and the team and I will be gunning for the $10,000 top prize out of a substantial $50k+ purse.

I ended on a very strong note with a good ride in the USPRO RR, making it to the final ascent of Paris Mountain in the lead group that was whittled down to less than 50 guys. Tony Cruz had a gnarly crash on the run-up to the climb, and I was gapped off a little, but the legs were basically toast after 100 super-fast miles in heat and humidity.

Then we hoped into the van after packing up and drove straight down to Atlanta to try and find some semblance of rest before a 7AM (!!!) start for the Atlanta 100k Classic circuit race. Daniel had told us that, from experience, you just don't get any rest after the USPRO RR and have to suck wheel for the first half the the 100k, which starts in darkness it is so early. However, the race is perfectly suited to tail-gunning and is basically 2.5 hours of motorpacing. Stoop made it into an excellent move of four at and was off the front for the final two laps (each lap was roughly eight kilometers). The move ended up lasting and winning, just barely ahead of the charging field in the downhill, 50mph sprint (NOT exaggerating!), but Stoop made a tactical error and was dropped from the break just a few hundred meters before the line. He was very frustrated, but he also made it into the winning move and just made an error during crunch time--it was very cool that he made the move to put himself in position for the win. I on the other hand was boxed in a little after getting a late jump on the sprint and came in with my brakes on for a random 26th place.

After a day back in Winston-Salem to pack up all of my belongings, Daniel and I headed up to Richmond for a great easy ride (Stoop has the best "tourist rides" I have ever been on!) and then pushed further northward to Philly to stay at some host housing for the Univest Grand Prix weekend, just a couple days ago. By the way, Mark and Gwen Cukierski as well as Jim and Pat Gill are some of the best hosts we have ever had the pleasure of staying with! They cooked two excellent dinners for us, and it made us feel like stars as well as comfortable and at home.

Daniel and I had been watching the weather all week, and for the first time ever, they had predicted it perfectly over five days out! This was quite unfortunate: essentially a downgraded hurricane dumped rain onto us as we traversed narrow, undulating Pennsylvania roads doing upwards of 30mph for much of the first hour.

We were present at the front to stay safe, but also not driving any breaks, just following. Usually an early break goes and then is reeled back in before final finishing circuits in the town of Souderton, PA. However, due in large part to the atrocious weather, the race basically blew apart with every man for himself, riding as hard as he could, and forming splintered groups that would become even more fractured after each nasty crash. I found myself cross-eyed moving up over the first King of the Mountain sprint, and I bridged a considerable gap up to the lead group of just 20 riders with Daniel and Tom Soladay in the group right behind. That ended up being the winning move. Yay!! But then . . .

. . . my chainring bolts came loose and disappeared, causing my chain to fall off on the 25% monster of a second KOM. Bye-bye, winning break. Stoop was a great teammate to stop and see what was wrong, but I was so cross-eyed and frustrated that I just screamed at him to keep going. Then I got in the car with Erik and pouted for a while before wanting to apologize to Stoop as well as kick myself in the behind for getting down on myself--after all, I made it into the winning move!

After Daniel flatted and the rest of the guys were dropped, we were determined to find redemption the next day. The Doylestown Criterium is a 50 mile, 1.5 mile/lap affair that is entirely on the side of a large hill--therefore, all the way up, all the way down, each lap. It is a lot like Downer's Grove in that respect, but it is a much harder race and often splinters in the end. The German, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, and Mexican teams also make it a very fast, challenging race. Luckily we had beautiful weather and an excellent crowd, and the guys and I were all feeling really fast and opened up after our previous day's nightmare.

The last ten laps were given an indelible Time Pro Cycling stamp . . . we owned it! Because we didn't have a top sprinter like Yuri Metlushenko to work for, it was up to us to make a late-race break stick. We came oh-so-close, but no cigar, and Stoop and I came in for 17th and 13th in a terribly hard uphill sprint. Check out the excellent television coverage of the race with Craig Hummer, the new announcer for the Tour on Versus, providing some decent commentary. If you want to see the exciting part, wait for the whole video to download (just pause it and go do something else for ten minutes) and then move the position-slider-dot-thing to directly above the right corner of the "G" in "BLING*BOX" (in other words, get to about 12 laps to go in the race). Daniel and Tom put in an excellent move with just a few laps remaining after Stoop was off the front and attacking for much of the second half of the race. Then Stoop and I blocked a bit, the gap grew to almost ten seconds, and then I was second or third wheel for the final few laps before getting swarmed a bit in the hectic final two laps and coming in for 13th.

I spent the rest of Sunday moving in my stuff to school (I have a SWEET single in 1903 looking over a courtyard, and I am just 100 feet from our bike room in the gym, food at our campus center, and The Street with Cap and the E-Quad in sight!). Then I had dinner with my great-aunt and uncle, my surrogate grandparents, before going out to the Cap and Gown Club to celebrate the end to a long, hard, eye-opening, and somewhat successful season!

Thanks for reading, I will keep you updated with my plans for the coming year . . . many life decisions are on the way . . .

USPRO TT: out like a lion, in like a lamb

Whoever said it is better to run "negative splits" was definitely on to something! I just got done with the USPRO TT in Greenville, South Carolina, a three lap affair with three roundabouts and many turns and undulations, not to mention some considerable heat and humidity. I came in 18th, just over three minutes down on the Z-man himself, Dave Zabriskie. However, if you took my first-lap split and tripled it, I would have come in just 1:24 down and slotted in for sixth place! Let's just say I got myself a little in over my head after the first lap's blazing effort.

I really liked the course, essentially a north and a south loop with an out and back thrown in for good measure. There were some corners that could be taken at full speed, sometimes even in the aerobars, but they were quite exhilarating to say the least. There were many spectators and photographers, as well as follow vehicles, to keep one motivated, but that was definitely not my problem! It's funny, in only the third time trial I have done all year I have basically run the gamut in terms of time trial "don'ts": at Nature Valley, I dropped my chain three times on the considerable final climb to the finish and had to big-ring it, then at U23 Nationals in California I didn't push it hard enough in the middle 50% of the course while I was all alone and I also didn't hydrate well or stay cool, and now I made the most amateur yet common mistake of just going out at 105% and paying for it in the middle!

I am relaxing up in a cabin on top of a mountain at Jamie Bennette's father's vacation home with Daniel Ramsey and Mike Stoop, half-watching Constantine and trying to recover for tomorrow. We are scheduled for 110 miles, in the hottest part of the day with four trips up a considerable 10-minute climb called Paris Mountain. The climb has been made famous after two years of deciding the US Professional Champion, and George Hincapie even lives on the climb. He will have his work cutout for him tomorrow, as Slipstream is obviously the team to beat with leaders such as Christian Vande Velde, Danny Pate, Tom Danielson, and Dave Zabriskie, not to mention Will Frischkorn, Steven Cozza, and Tom Peterson!!

Our plan tomorrow is to just do as little work as possible, conserving the legs as much as we can, until the Paris Mountain ascents. At that point, it really is every man for himself. I know that I need to see the front of the race at the base of the climb in order to mentally enter the pain cave, and I need to ride a very consistent tempo and not slow down during any hesitations. I also need to keep a very high cadence, around 100-110. However, MOST importantly, I have to make sure to stay cool. Paris Mountain is mostly concealed by trees, but feeding with plenty of Dedicated Athlete Rapidaide as well as numerous socks filled with ice is what will allow us to consistently stay in the front group for as long as possible. I don't have any illusions about tomorrow--it is at nearly the same level as Philly. However, I know I'm riding very well right now, and I want to give it my best shot and see how it works out. I know that if I can make it over the top of Paris without too much of a gap to the lead group, I can descend like a madman and make the catch!

Thanks for reading, and check back to Cyclingnews for results from the TT and maybe even some pictures of me or the Time Pro Cycling boys! I also promise to get up a report from the U23 Nationals RR, Downer's Grove USPRO Crit, and Chris Thater Invitational!!!

P.S. they are going to have LIVE coverage of the race on the USPRO website tomorrow from 1PM to 5:30PM EST!!! Also check this website if the USPRO website isn't working.

Finally, some good legs at the U23 Nationals!

Right now I am in the team van rocking out to some techno with my teammate Eric Barlevav and another rider, Miles, driving from Binghamton, NY to Philly then Richmond then Winston-Salem. I figured now would be just as good (read: terrible) a time as any for my latest (and very late) blog entry!

I have been traveling pretty much three weeks straight now, save for a few days of training in Winston-Salem. Young Andy Baker and I were in California at U23 Nationals with Eric Barlevav and Jackie Simes, then we flew back to NC and drove home before packing up again to fly to Chicago for one of my favorite races: the Downer’s Grove USPRO National Criterium! We had a stacked team there, but only Tom Soladay and Eric stayed with me afterwards in a far-south Chicago suburb for a few days before high-tailing it across the Northeast to NYC for a night and then up to Binghamton, NY for the Chris Thater Invitational today.

I do not profess to be a cycling coach—rather, I learn by experience, trial, and [much] error. Example: the drive from Chicago to Binghamton is only 11 hours, but we decided to save a few dollars on a hotel room and Tom wanted to see his sister in NYC, so we drove for 13 hours on Friday. Not bad . . . until we found ourselves on the road (and in a ton of traffic) for another 5 hours BACK ON THE SAME ROAD up to Binghamton on Saturday! NOT good for the legs, and I definitely felt it during the first hour of today’s race at Thater.

So, do as I say, NOT as I do! But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the Cali trip . . .

Andy and I were the only two on our team slotted in for the U23 TT, and we gave up our spots at our team’s home races (Charlotte and Haynes Park). The team ripped it up at those two races, and I was very jealous that I could not take part in the glory (and the incredible dough!) . . . just more motivation to kill it at Nationals, right?

The TT course was definitely not your daddy’s run-of-the-mill flat out-and-back! To get the legs nice and seared, there was a 1000+ foot climb from the gun, then a fast but short downhill followed by mostly flat with some spikes before a turnaround and a final leg to the base of what was the downhill on the way out. I thought long and hard about how to ride my fastest race, although I knew going into it that my preparation was far from optimal or even close to what it was last year when I won. However, a time trial is just you and the clock, and you have to figure out how to get from A to B as fast as you can without worrying about where others will go faster or slower. I always have trouble with “slow” time trials, where the average speed is low and there are many areas on the course that require super-threshold efforts followed by sub-threshold recovery periods, and this course definitely favored climbing and unsteady pacing. I decided I would ride fast but steady on the hill, recover on the descent, and hold back until the turnaround because the headwind, uphill final leg would be the most crucial portion of the race.

I ended up 7th, which I was satisfied with, all things considered. It was disappointing to go into Nationals without the TT preparation that I had hoped for, but I was super happy to be right up there with small time gaps to truly standout riders in the U23 category. In retrospect, I would have only changed a few things: I needed to start out with an ice pack under my jersey and drink more water during the race, because it was super hot, and I also needed to go harder after the climb and before the turnaround because there was never any wind to make one section much harder than another. I kept telling myself that the most time would be won or lost after the turnaround during the final 8k of the TT, but it turned out to be just more of the same, coupled with intense, stifling heat.

Andy and I found respite back at our swanky hotel right next to Disneyland and then we had an excellent dinner with my parents (who FLEW TO CA FROM IOWA!) at a hole-in-the-wall home style Italian restaurant: wonderful service, an incredible beverage menu, and amazing food. We got a nice night’s sleep and then spun around the next morning with my old Hottubes teammate Spencer Beamer and his DLP teammate Scott Jackson. We checked out the criterium course and watched the finish of the U23 Women, and I also ran into Avery May, the Webcor soigneur and our savior at the Tour of PA. It was nice to catch up, although we wish she were still working for us!

After killing some time, and then twiddling our thumbs, and then people watching, we left our internet oasis at the Hilton and went to race in the middle of a gigantic asphalt parking lot. Apparently this is quite common in LA: erect a bunch of barricades in a very sketchy, snake-like configuration and watch the fireworks and carnage ensue as Lycra and skin are shredded! I had amazing legs after getting opened up in the previous day’s TT, and was very active off the front with the obviously-dominate Slipstream. I basically followed most dangerous moves, the counters to those moves, and then finished most attacks off with a solo effort in the hopes a little group would come up to me. Well, none of those three things worked by the end of the race, and our only hope was getting our sprinter, Eric Barlevav, a clear shot at the win.

Well, the last few laps were some of the most dangerous and twitchy of any race that I have done this season. Basically, the race was too short and way too easy to cause any selections, so everyone went crazy at the end, which is even worse in the U23 category because many riders do not know how to handle their bikes very well. I soft-pedaled the last lap after almost crashing three times and watching an excellent rider on Toshiba, Bobby Sweating, go down in a gnarly wreck with two to go. Eric came in for fourth in a photo-finish for the books, but he never even got the chance to get a true sprint off when the eventual winner, Justin Williams of Rock Racing, shot the gap between Jake Keough (Kelly Benefits) and the barricades. He was frustrated, as using brakes and sprinting are not supposed to happen at the same time, but I was happy with our overall result: Andy and I were in tons of moves and I felt great, Jackie was active, and Eric was in the perfect position to win—it just wasn’t his day.

Thanks for reading, and check back soon for my report on the road race, followed by Downer’s Grove and Thater in another post!

Another Crossroads race and a super-smooth flight to Cali

Well, after the Mocksville race on Tuesday and a tough two rides on Wednesday with some VO2 and steady-state intervals, I was goaded into racing Thursday night! We sent most of the guys who wouldn't be racing in the big weekend races (Jon Hamblen, Tom Soladay, Andy Baker, Jackie Simes, David Duncan, and yours truly). I knew the legs were super tired, but I figured then I could take it really easy Friday and Saturday before packing up and flying out to Nationals in LA on Sunday morning.

The race was fast, but I really enjoy the figure-eight course and relatively smooth turns. I didn't enjoy the risks taken by many racers in such a "local" event, but I stayed safe and was able to go off the front and do some big efforts to help out Tom for the finish. Jon Hamblen was super active as usual, and our combined efforts meant that Tom only had to follow others in pursuit of us. He was in perfect position for the sprint, and had followed Lucca Damiani (Colavita rider who won the top-level CSC Invitational at the beginning of Philly Week this year) and they had even gapped Davide Fratini! Just as Tom was coming around Lucca in the final stretch (he said he wasn't even working that hard to come around!) Lucca swung him from the middle of the road over to the barriers. Tom unclipped and almost crashed, rolling in for third after Lucca won and Davide sprinted by.

FRUSTRATING! I felt really bad for Tom, as he hasn't had a win this season even though he has really had a breakout year in some of the biggest races on the calendar. I told him it would come, that he is lucky to be safe and going well for this weekend. I myself was very happy to get one final hard hour effort in and stay safe. I could tell that the legs are going to feel excellent after some serious recovery!

Now Andy Baker and I are chilling in a two-room suite at the Hampton Inn near Disneyland in LA. We drove to Pat Raines' house last night, then woke up at 3:45 AM EST to pack up into a cab, go to the Raleigh airport, and then fly to Charlotte and then LAX. The flights were quite nice and perfectly on time, not stressful at all, and they even checked my wheels for free after there was no coat storage on the plane! After landing in beautiful Cali, Andy and I took a friendly shuttle to the Advantage rental car agency, happily paid $830 for a week-long van rental (!!!), and then went and got some authentic Mexican at a local drive-thru! I love it here.

After we unpacked and built up our road and TT bikes, we rode the later for an hour and made sure everything worked and that our slightly modified positions were dialed in (Andy is on a completely new TT bike and has only raced a TT two other times in his life, while I just changed to the new ISM seat which I am absolutely IN LOVE with!). I think we might chill in the pool or watch the first Godfather before getting an early sleep and wrecking shop at the continental breakfast tomorrow morning (gotta get breakfast, lunch, AND dinner in the morning, after all!) and then heading out to ride the TT course and get in some good final efforts before the big morning on Wednesday.

PSYCHED FOR NATIONALS! Thanks for reading!