The year so far

After reading Roberts >Factory Rider
blog about this years racing, I decided to count my numbers:

30 races as of today in 2009. This includes 1 mtb race, 1 tim tyler race, westlakes, and the usac races starting with deer creek back on april 13th. I wonder what the final total will be by December? Still bummed I can't make the races this weekend. I was hoping to try the 1/2/3 race at zoar.

I still have a few races in August that I would like to do. On the really want to do list is the Milk Race, and Shreve. On the if i'm available, I'll do it list is The Garret Wonders Crit, Milford Crit- with Frankie Andreau as the announcer up in michigan, and the Big Valley Mtb race- which due to my craptacular technical skills I would be attempting sport class.

zoar no more - but atleast a good tuesday nighter

'The Man' has me working all weekend. So that means no rubber city crit, and even worse- no zoar. I was really looking forward to this race. So atleast I was able to get over to Westlake for some racing. It was warm, and humid. I got my normal quarter mile warmup in compliments of working till 6pm. The race started and my legs felt like crap. I drifted all the way to the very back with the intentions of just sitting on the back for the rest of the race if not drop out and become a spectator.

My legs must have received a proper warm up after those few laps. Mitch looks like he is going to move up in the field, and maybe go catch the breakaway, I decide to join in the fun. We work hard to move up to them (it was mostly mitch towing me) as we make our way onto the breakaway group. Long story short, I actually stuck with the break until the end of the race. By far my best westlake this year.

Now I really need a standard crankset. Because when the sprint came, I was in my 50x12 and got passed like I was standing still. Hope all have fun this weekend at zoar.

Troy Classic & Tour D' Burg

I wasn't able to find anyone to join me for the trip down to southwestern ohio. But, off I was saturday morning down to troy ohio. As soon as i get out of the car the ambulance squeezes by me and takes someone out on a stretcher. Well, thats not very welcoming. But, what was welcoming was the Whacky Wavy Inflatable Flailing Arm Tube Man that was awaiting for me at registration. Onto the race.

The ref was just talking, saying it will be a few mins until we start, etc. Then all of a sudden blows the whistle, while half of us are just standing around not even clipped in. The race had about 4-5 crashes. It rained for a little bit of it, and that probably helped contribute to some of it. I was near the front for a lot of the race with Brent Martin, and a National Engineering rider. Nobody else seemed to want to pull through. The bell rings, and I am slowly moving my way up. Coming around the final corner I believe I was in a decent position to get in a money spot, but I got stuck behind the final crash on the last turn, and had to pretty much ride onto the sidewalk to avoid running someone over. Blah.

Troy Ohio is not an interesting town.

Sunday I arrive at Miamisburg to some nice, warmer, sunnier weather. Whistle blows and we take off. Few laps in, and I took off attacking out of the final 2 corners before the straightaway. I ended up on a solo breakaway for about half of the race. After winning 2 primes with no contest, I need to slow it down a bit if I want to finish the race. 1 rider bridges up, so thats enough recovery for me- I jump on his wheel. First turn on our 2 man breakaway and he goes down in the corner for what reason I don't know. I slam on the brakes, skid, somehow clip out and land on my feet, and pull my bike out of the street before the pack came by all in one motion. I wish they got it on video, it was beautiful. No damage to my bike, and just a slightly crushed fingernail, so I head off to the pit. Get back in and am part of a 4 man break for a lap or 2. We get caught. I am tired. I finish in the back of the field. I felt strong, but really wish I could have stuck that solo break. I am wuss. And the 2 primes I won were kind of wimpy.

TOTV day 3

After eating my continental breakfast in columbiana; we arrived at downtown youngstown. Lovely town. And by lovely, I mean shitty. The race was 60 minutes, and I was just riding along, just enjoying the day. Didn't even go towards the front. But it was fun to just be able to go ride real hard for the past 3 days. I had a blast this weekend. A well deserved yellow jersey went to ThomDom. And props to Carbon racing for putting on an awesome innaugural event. I hope its bigger and better next year!

Next up: Troy Classic and Tour D'Burg

TOTV day 2

It was tough. 66 miles. Tried to go with the guys for the KOM. Didn't get it. I tried to bridge the gap to another rider and we got a 40 second time gap on the field. They caught us. It started to rain. I finished with the field- though they scored me lower than I did. bastards. Day 3 tomorrow.

This has been a real fun weekend so far!

TOTV day 1

TT- First TT. It wasn't that fun. I guess the point is to ride your bike as hard as you can for a specific amount of mileage and try to get the lowest time out of anyone. Everyone had these space-age looking bicycles with goofy wheels and things erecting off of the handlebars. I rode my road bike and felt dorky. I ended up dead center of the cat 3s with a 12:58 time over the 5.6 mile course which works out to somewhere around 25.9mph average. The winner had an 11:47 - that is moving.

Trying to find lunch was kind of hard. We went to downtown canfield, and tried to go to 'Barney's Deli.' It was in the basement of an office building where there were offices right across from the tables, and the door to get in was a blanket hung on the door frame. We booked it out of there just incase it turned out to be Uncle Barneys Rape Dungeon. We finally ended up at some pizza joint which made a very mediocre pizza but at the price of $5.50 for a medium 1 topping, I wasn't complaining.

Crit- Sweet course. I rode like a wussy and my results show that. I finished with the field. It was quick and fun though, so the weekend is a hit so far with me!

Tomorrow is the Road Race. 67 miles of painful fun.