DNeid

Back on the blog...for now

2011-08-11T23:29:00.002-05:00

So, like most, I fell off the blog map. However, I plan on writing a bit more now that I'll have a steady job and whatnot. Also, I saw that Joe had a fancy widget on his blog that shows all his rides and ride summaries. So, I investigated this Strava website and found that it easily uploads rides, routes, and data from my Garmin 500. Pretty neat stuff. Now. you can see how much I'm riding (or not riding), whichever happens to be the case. For a second I considered the consequence of showing my training to competitors, but let's be real...I'm not racing much and I'm not doing anything ground breaking with my training schedule. Just riding when I can. I think if enough people start uploading their info, it could make training just a little more fun and add some friendly competition.

In the future, you can look for updates on my KU senior design project, Jayhawk Motorsports, which took all of my life for about 6 months or more. I'll also include some info and stories about the trips I took for project as well as a brief europe trip overview with some cool pics.

I wonder what bike I'll ride tomorrow?

Dirty Kanza Documentary

2010-07-19T21:33:00.002-05:00

The DK 200 was on June 5th, and this year I decided to bring along a support crew (my parents) to follow along, give me food/water, and take some video for a documentary competition. My dad, being a video production teacher, seemed to be perfect for the job and has ample equipment for the job! This is what we came up with. He did the majority of the original video edits and I followed up with some touch ups and integrated a little music. The reason this video has developed so late is because I've been racing and riding a bunch. I hurt my back on friday so to rest up I decided to edit video for a day. The videos (2 parts) seem to show my experience quite well and I think will hold this accomplishment in a unique and memorable way. I had to split the video into 2 and cut the resolution quite a bit in order to post to Youtube. The HD version looks much better!

Hope you guys can gain some appreciation for how intense this race is and I hope you enjoy this video!

Memorial Day Ride to Rulo, NE

2010-05-31T21:01:00.007-05:00

Every Memorial Day I ride a 100 miles to Rulo, NE with my buddies from St. Joe. This year was no different, and with 20 other St. Josephites and 2 support vehicles along, we had a nice crowd. The weather was perfect and I felt absolutely great the entire ride. Took it easy for the first 35 miles or so and then motor paced one of the support vehicles on the flats into Rulo at 35 to 42 mph! It was a freaking blast and an awesome workout! You can see where I was motor pacing from the Garmin data below (miles 35-50). Also got up to 51 and 53 mph going down into the valleys (fun). Nice hills going out and some easy flats coming back. Looking forward to the DK 200 this Saturday, and feeling good about it!

(Blurry photo... click to enhance)

Summer Racing

2010-05-24T22:06:00.005-05:00

The last post I wrote covered Hell's Kitchen RR in early March, so I've definitely been neglecting the whole blog scene. I'm not sure how I feel about my disregard for my inherent race-report blog habits, so I'll leave it at that...

KU Cycling

I raced in Manhattan, KS, Iowa City, IA, Lincoln, NE, and Minneapolis, MN against all teams in the NCCCC. Last year I raced as a Category C, and this year I bumped up to A so that I could have a chance to make nationals. Had a ton of fun racing with all the new KU Cyclists and saw them all become quite good racers. Everyone is sticking around for next year, so we are bound to have some epic good times again! Overall, I ended up doing mediocre in the A/B races held all seasons and wound up qualifying for the Collegiate Nationals Criterium and Road Race. With school pressing down on me, no one to travel with, and 9 hours between my school projects and racing against pros way out of my league, I decided to stay home. Next year, I will try my best to go.

As for summer racing, almost the entire KU Cycling team joined the local Colavita team, so we can continue to race together throughout the summer and into cross season. We have formed a really close group, and I'm glad we are continuing to race on the same team.

MO State Champs RR

Sam, Andy, and I traveled to Sainte Genevieve and had a good time rolling to some 50s music with the windows down hauling at 80 mph.

I've had to race many times this year with no teammates so I'm hoping in the future I'll have some guys to work with in the 3s. Again, I was alone for the MO State RR champs, and midway through the brutal furnace-fest, I was feeling the effects of no racing and little riding (finals suck) since my last collegiate race in April. Kent and Eric (KC guys from Bike Shack) were kind enough to be friendly during the race, and we all found ourselves up at the front with 20 miles to go. I was out of water by this point and literally holding on by a thread, so I tried to just keep from having a heat stroke. I was dropped on the last KOM hill and managed to bridge back within the next couple of miles. Hard work and I missed seeing the break and really had no idea what was going on. I knew Kent was up the road, and there were about 10 riders in the group. Some fireworks happened in last couple of miles and I found myself at the back of a fast train going into the sprint. I thought we still had a couple of miles to go, but we were within 500 meters and guys were starting to jump. I didn't end up doing much and was really just relieved that I made it back alive. I ended up getting up and overtook some guys for a 10th place finish overall. Not bad for how I felt. I'll be looking for some placing/podiums in the near future. Congrats to Kent for taking the MO state Champs title!

Dirty Kanza is coming up June 5th, so I'll be prepping for that. I may race the Wichita RR this weekend, but it's not a definite just yet.

Hell's Kitchen RR

2010-03-14T22:57:00.005-05:00

Friday night at Freestate, a group of us decided to head down to Arkansas to race in a gnarly road race called Hell's Kitchen. We spent the night at KU teammate Blake Romine's place and enjoyed the hospitality of his parents. They had a place for each of us to sleep, delicious pancakes at 5:30am, and bananas and powerade for us to take.

We arrived at the race location plenty early and had time to do a little warm up before the 60 mile race began. At 44 degrees and overcast, the day was looking to be chilly, but luckily there wasn't really much wind. The course consists of 3 laps of a 20 mile course with 1 good sized hill and then 1 HUGE hill called "Hell's Kitchen." Looking at the garmin stats, the first hill was a good 9-10% gradient and the Hell's kitchen hill gradient is as follows: 9% for awhile, 3% for a bit, up to 11% for awhile, down to 4% briefly, kick up to 18%, down to 9% (around a bend), kick up to 12%, and then gradually level off until the 11% feed zone hill. This hill is about 2 miles long from the beginning till the feed zone end.

The Cat. 3 group took off about 10 minutes after the PRO/1/2 field, and things seemed to be going rather slowly. Matt was up front setting pace, and I was just surveying the field in my first Cat. 3 road race. Everything held together until the 2nd lap where Matt attacked on the 1st good sized hill and 4 other guys followed, I thought I could make it, but popped and could hardly make it up with the rest of the field. From here, the Walmart guys began to chase hard because they had no one in the break. The pace was blistering, and I was hurting. We ended up catching the 1/2 field and passing them. They then passed us, and then we passed them up again for quite a while. Matt's group must have been long gone. The 1/2s didn't catch us until Hell's kitchen, where Brian Jensen was attacking hard with Steve Tilford in tow. At this point, there were 1s, 2s, and 3s all mixed up. I was blown and so were many of the other 1/2/3s. So everyone began to work together to try and catch our respective fields. I'm not sure what ended up happening relegation wise, but I'm pretty sure some guys were DQ'd for working with other categories. I know for awhile there were 1/2s sucking my wheel until I finally blew for good. About 4 miles from the end of the 2nd lap, I was done, cooked, and ready to quit. I worked with several guys who were also cooked, but I kept getting more and more weak. I ended up riding the last lap by myself, took a pee break, and talked with some other guys along the way that had also been popped and were finishing solo. I was hurting pretty bad, and didn't think I was going to make it up Hell's Kitchen the 3rd time. I suffered, but made it. With 2k to go, a group of 4 Cat 3s came blowing around me from out of nowhere. Weird, I figured all the Cat 3s had either quit or were in front of me. So I caught on, worked for a bit, and then only beat 2 of the guys out on the finishing hill.

Good race for experience I suppose. This was the first time this year that I have felt some decent form before I blew. I guess the endurance will come shortly. No idea how I finished, but dammit I finished.

Miles 15-58 of the race. Shows 2 of the Hell's Kitchen hills.

Spring Fling 2 & 3

2010-03-14T22:57:00.003-05:00

Spring Fling #2

Matt was off the front by himself the entire 3/4 race, so I had the luxury of just sitting in for 60 minutes. He ended up finishing nearly half a lap ahead, although there were times I was afraid we would catch him. Coming around the final 2 turns I had was sitting 3rd wheel and thought I had a decent chance to take 2nd, however, no sprint in the legs yet... bummer. The three of us up front never changed position during the sprint, and then someone can on the outside and edged us all. Took 5th.

Spring Fling #3

A small 3/4 field and a flat tire killed my day. About 20 minutes in, everything was together and I had my first flat tire during a race (actually it's my first flat while riding road in nearly 2 years). Luckily the flat happened around the last turn so I was able to coast to the finish line. I checked out with the officials since I had no spare, when suddenly Zach Dubas from KSU/Velotek offered his Zipp 808 for me to use. So we swapped the rear wheels out, and the officials let me go with the understanding that I couldn't contest any sprints. Fair enough, this race just became a training ride. They let me go when the field was about 200 meters out, so I casually rode up the hill waiting to catch onto the field. Little did I know, teammate Matt O had just started attacking. So Matt flys by at 30 mph, and there's about 5 guys on his wheel and chasing hard. I tried to sprint to close the gap on those 6, but failed and got sucked up by the rest of the chase pack. Those 6 got away. I made a valiant attempt to solo bridge back (and nearly did), but I failed to reconnect before the headwind section, and was left to wait for the field to catch up. KU teammate Spencer and I then took turns pulling for the weak field for the rest of the race. A 360 guy and a blue monster guy also helped out quite a bit, but no one else was going to pull through and race. This was stupid because 2 monster guys and a velotek guy were just ahead after being shed by Matt, a velotek guy, and a specs guy, and we could have stood to increase our placings if we caught those 3.

Spring Fling #1

2010-02-28T18:48:00.005-06:00

The first spring fling was a success. Thanks goes out to Jim Whittaker for again continuing this great series of early season races! We had a bunch of the KU Team out with our banner posted up on the team tent. It was a sunny day and the racing started off right. The 3/4 race was fast, but everyone was racing well, especially for the first race of the season. Several guys early in the race tried their legs out and attempted to get some distance on the field, but it wasn't happening today. Too many fast guys were in the pack, and no one was going to let a group go. I stayed towards the front of the pack for 90% of the race and took several 1/2 lap

pulls up front to feel the wind (No way I was launching, not today at least). With a lap and a half to go, good buddy and KU alumni Christian Beer laid down the law a set a really strong pace. I was sitting second wheel and suffering. Up until that point I was relatively comfortable, but right then I blew. It was like my blood turned to molasses and my legs felt as though they were stuck in 3 feet of mud. I pulled off of his wheel and attempted to keep the pace with a little more wind block. Towards the end of the final lap I was completely blown and pushing the pedals as hard as I could was getting me no where. Good. That kind of feeling is something that is hard to achieve while training, so this race served its purpose well. It was a perfect way to kick off my first build week. Also, this week looks to be nice (no absurd precipitation), so I'll get to take my bikes outside!

Congrats to Matt for taking 1st in the first and second primes, 2nd in the third prime, and 5th in the final sprint. He has the overall points lead at this point. Also Congrats to Spencer Martin for a 1st place Cat 4 finish, and to Amber Markey for a 2nd place Cat 4 finish.

Next weekend is the Spring Fling #2 and the first Dam race. I'm going to be tired.

Intervals

2010-02-17T21:36:00.003-06:00

Check it out. You're looking at my Heart Rate results from the Garmin 305 after a nice little interval workout with the KU Cycling Team. Two weeks ago we started a new interval technique with 5 sets of 4 minutes at 80-85% with 1 minute rest. Each workout following we have increased the workout 1minute while keeping the 4:1 ratio. This week we were up to 8 minutes at 80-85% with 2 minutes rest between sets.

As you can see from the data, we had about 15-20 minutes of warm up then the 5 intervals. I did a good job of staying consistent throughout the first 4 intervals and was able to recover into zone 2/3 in the 2 minutes of rest. On set five I was pretty blown and started 1 gear lower than I had been using. You can see my HR bumped up when Matt O. told everyone to bump it up a gear. You can also see where he instructed us to keep increasing gears into a sprint for the last minute of our last interval. Good work. Then 15 minutes of cool down.

Fixie Fun, Blog Update

2010-02-01T01:49:00.008-06:00

7 years ago I received a Specialized Sirrus road bike from my brother after he stopped riding. I rode the bike for 5 years and entered my first 4 road races and a criterium on the bike. Weighing in at a studly 23 pounds, this steel framed, 105 equipped bike was perfect to get me started in my cycling career. On Christmas day of my Senior year of high school, my parents blind sided me by getting me a 2006 Trek 5200. I never touched the specialized again. During my Sophomore year in college I stripped the 105 components off and put them onto my Redline Conquest Team Cyclocross Bike. Since then it has just been hanging in my parents' basement collecting dust. This winter break I had a wild hare and decided to build the old frame up into a fixie. The last two days of break I stripped the paint down with an orbital sander, sand paper, and Stripeeze. Then I spray painted the frame with black Rustoleum and let her dry. Next day I took the bike to Volker and Britton and I fitted it with some old stuff of mine and some new blue cranks and such. Looks pretty good imo. Fun as hell to ride. I've only taken it out 3 times, but I had a blast each time. Adding that to my bike collection, I now get to choose between 5 bikes when I want to go out and ride. See, decisions aren't always bad.

I also updated the blog. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but I'll try it out. I really just wanted to jazz it up a bit and change some of the colors. An hour into Photoshop and this is what I come up with I guess. Let me know if it is offending to anyone's eyes, it can be changed fairly quickly.

Xenith SL ---> New Bike!

2010-01-22T00:04:00.005-06:00

So, that's my new bike. All I'm missing are my Ksyrium SL wheels and the bike will be beautifully complete. The 900 gram Colavita edition Xenith SL frame hosts 3T bars, stem, and seatpost with Zero Gravity breaks, Sram Red drivetrain/shifters, K-Force Cranks, and a Ceramic BB. This bike is going to be fast! I have so much motivation for training, mostly so that I can put my fitness on a level that compliments my bike! That's going to take some major training. Courses this semester are going to be rough, to say the least, but hopefully I can focus in and train right.

A big THANK YOU goes out to my awesome sponsor Volker Bicycles for making this bike dream a reality. Dan O. and Joe A. are both joining the ranks and building up Xenith SL's, so our team is guaranteed to look 100% Pro. It is amazing to think how far our Colavita KC team has come in only 1 year. Also, the KU Cycling Team has come quite a long ways from the 4 racers last year. We now have almost 15 students interested in racing and at least 4 of them have already committed to racing with Colavita KC. Awesome.

A peak at my course load (16 hours and 2 labs):
ME 501 - Mechanical Engineering Design Processes
ME 455 - Mechanical Engineering Measurements and Experimentation
ME 528 - Mechanical Design I
ME 520 - Dynamics of Machinery
Coms 130 - Speaker Audience Communication (Decided to Drop Finite Elements (ME 661) to take an easy class)

Jingle Cross Weekend

2009-12-03T19:26:00.004-06:00

Day 1, Friday, Men's 2/3:
I lined up behind 50 Cat 2/3s in the below 40 degree dark. The course was extremely muddy and there were some interesting dark areas of the course. This would be my first night race, and I was racing in a group of fast guys. No one in the back knew that the race was about to start and then suddenly everyone in front of us started racing while we were chatting and trying to stay warm. Guys threw their coats to the side and the race was on. I immeadiately found a gap and made up close to 20 spots. From here I just picked off people here and there and had a couple of guys go by me. The "Mt. Krumpet" hill seemed to never end and we were forced to run up a steep slope covered in thick sloshy mud. It seemed almost faster to walk at a fast pace the entire way up. Anyway, ended up slipping in the mud once running down Mt. Krumpet but other than that ended in 23rd. Between racing in the mud and then watching the Elite race, I really learned a lot about racing in the mud that night. Good times.

Day 2, Saturday, Collegiate:
Close to noon, 10 collegiate riders lined up for the smallest cyclocross race that I have participated in. Looking around I saw two CU riders and a guy Matias (from Iowa) that I knew were going to be fast. Sure enough, we started together for the most part, and then we slowly began to separate into our own worlds. I was comfortably in 4th, and on the last lap (of 3) I thought I was going to catch a CU guy in 3rd place. Through the last barn section I was coming up fast, but he saw me and kept me away. The other CU guy easily won, with Matias following close behind. Short hard race!

Day 3, Sunday, Men's 2/3:
My body was feeling really tired after the two previous days of Mt. Krumpet, but I was signed up and the course looked to be the driest we would see this year. Once again I started in the back of the 50 man field and thought I was making up some good spots, but somehow was sitting in about 44th position after the first few minutes of racing. From here I just kept a good strong pace and passed a bunch of people. I really felt like I was higher up in the standings, but I was only mid-pack. Did most of my catching running up Mt. Krumpet and I descended really well around the curvy off camber stuff. I caught 3 people on the last little bit of the race and almost had one more on the line. Finished 25th. Fun race, and not too cold.

Overall, the Jingle Cross Rock is a very tough course! Luckily I didn't have any falls and only slipped once while running down the hill. A few times I was completely out of control going down the sketchy muddy sections, but there is something to be said about "commitment" and "big cajones." That's something I learned from the Elite guys --- No brakes! No fear!

Veterans Cross

2009-11-09T15:20:00.001-06:00

Skipped HPT due to some commitments on Saturday night, but was able to make it out to Veterans cross on Sunday at the University of St. Mary's Campus. The weather was absolutely amazing for November. Sunny and 70s. Awesome.

I had a decent starting place for the first time in my cross racing career because I decided to pre-reg. on Thursday night. I liked starting up towards the front, because all the wrecks were behind me and I had some of the big names of the race within striking distance. Eric Stull and I were working together with a group of about 4 or 5 riders for the first couple of laps. On the third lap, disaster struck. Some loose barrier tape that was blowing around over the course got wrapped up in my cassette and plugged up all my gears except for my 25 and 23 tooth. I knew I was doomed, so I hopped off in front of the barriers and and began ripping tape out. Soon, Eric came running over to help because he had just broke his chain! Damn, that's bad luck. We were on our way to our best finishes in a 3/4 race. I lost a good 8 places while monkeying with the tape, but soon we got me back on the bike on I was on my way. I basically just rode hard and would sprint past every person I came up to. I caught something like 8 people in the last 5 laps and was coming up on 2 more just before the finish. Somehow, I ended in 10th out of about 30 riders. Not bad, but I think I could have locked down top 5 without the mechanical. Hopefully all the barrier tape will stay put next week!

All in all, the course was pretty tough. It featured two big ups, two sets of barriers (one fast), and some bumpy ground.

It was great to have 4 Colavita guys on the starting line. Dan has been battling some Achilles tendon issues, so he ended up dropping back after a few laps. Eric was looking great but his chain decided to self-destruct. Andy, our newest cross racer, won the 4s and was right behind me in the 3/4 race!

I can't wait until next weekend. Kansas State Cross Champs and a get together with the whole Colavita Team. Should be a good time.

Boss Cross #3

2009-11-01T18:31:00.004-06:00

Had a good race in Platte City yesterday. It was awesome to see many of the Colavita guys make it out, and Joe Fox put on a nice event.

The course was extremely hard. The ground was rough and it felt like I was riding through mud the entire race. The ups were also pretty tough but ride-able.

Started towards the middle of the pack and did nothing but move up. I found it pretty easy to pass people on the course, and then just set my sites on the next guy. Eventually, I came upon the cow town racer Mark Cole, who has been doing really well in the 3/4 races. I had also dragged another guy up with me. At this point I was going pretty good and decided to pass Mark. Pretty soon, I had a nice gap on him and he had gapped the other rider. As we came up to the big hills, Mark must have dropped the hammer and he caught up and then passed me. I tried to stay up, but he was going hard to keep me away. We sat in the same positions for the last few laps and I ended up 6th out of 20 or so riders. Mark Cole had finished 1st last week and 2nd to Jason Knight a few weeks earlier, so I felt good with my finish. I think I'm really making my way up the field. The first two finishers, Nick Coil (road cat 1) and Luke L. (road cat 2) were in the 3/4 race and just killed everyone. They have been asked to race open in the future...Thank God!

On Sunday (day after Halloween) I didn't really feel like I had my legs so I opted to just ride up to Clinton Lake and hopefully watch my teammates in the 3/4 race. Unfortunately, there was little participation at the event and none of the Colavita guys were racing. Chatted with Adam K. who had just finished well in the 4 race, and then watched my good buddy Bob Lock race in the 3/4s. Beautiful day, and I kind of wish I would have raced. With the low numbers, I'm pretty sure I could have secured a 2nd place finish (there's only one of those guys I have yet to beat) barring no mechanicals or falls.

Here's a little pattern of my results so far:
Race 1: 24th
Race 2: 12th
Race 3: 6th

So, my 4th race I should take 3rd based on the pattern. I'll see what I can do...
I'm not sure if I'll race at Heartland Park or Leavenworth next weekend. We'll have to see if anything pressing comes up on the weekend. No matter, I will most definitely be racing at least one race.

Steve Tilford posted this video and I thought it was hilarious. The best part is he said he hoped that Cadel Evans would HTFU now that he has signed with BMC. Check it out.

Smithville CX

2009-10-26T00:17:00.008-05:00

I took last week off from racing due to a bum leg and some work that I needed to finish up, but this week I was right back in the action. Last race I had just come off of a month and a half rest period, so I was less than prepared. However, today I had two weeks of intervals and training under me. I felt ready to do some work. I'm glad to be back in the competitive racing scene!

The Smithville Cyclocross race was ridiculously awesome! tight turns, a big hill, a 50 meter muddy/sandy beach, some nice pavement runs, and, of course, a couple of walls to climb up. Only one set of barriers and they were fast, coming right off of a pavement section.

Started the race towards the back among 40 other 3/4s looking to bring the pain. It was a beautiful day and no extra clothing was needed. I still embrocated, but that's just because I'm addicted to the stuff. It's awesome. So the whistle was blown and soon 40 guys were trying to cram themselves around a bunch of very narrow corners. Many guys went down, but that's because they were being stupid, imo, by trying to squeeze into places that didn't exist. The key to this race, if you started in the back, was to wait until the hill to pounce. If you were going for the win from the back, then you were just going to have to work your ass off! The first couple of laps I hung right up with the leaders, but soon I began to fade, and others started to pass. I knew that I just needed a short break and then I'd be able to get into my own rhythm. Here I even took a dollar from the dollar tree! Sure enough, I started feeling strong again and re-passed most everyone that had taken my position. From there I just picked off a few here and there and made sure that no one else ran up on me before the finish. A GP velotek kid was hot on my wheel but I was able to hold him off and ended up crossing the line 12th out of 40.

Considering my first 3/4 race of the year I took 24th out of 32, I think I've made some huge gains, and I feel pretty confident. I'll be looking to claw my way up further in position at my next CX race. This sport brings a smile to my face, and I love being able to stay active in the "off season." It seems like most of the guys I'm racing with feel like cyclocross is "THE season" but I assure you, I'm just racing for fun.

Great job to Dan's 7th place finish, and Andy's 2nd place finish! Good job to all that came out to test themselves in the cyclocross arena!

For now, more training!!!

Roger has close to 900 awesome photos. Check 'em out.

Cross Racing?

2009-10-11T17:19:00.008-05:00

Chris Cross. So I finally found a break in my schedule and headed up to Leavenworth for my first Cross Race since Collegiate Nationals last year. Interestingly enough, this would only be my 2nd cross race ever! 2pm was the official start time for the Men's Cat 3/4 race, and by judging some of the guys lining up, this race was going to be fast. Unfortunately, too fast for me! Despite not being able to stay up front, I had a blast racing around in the 40 degree weather. This weather seems to fit me perfectly for cross racing.

Lining up at the back, I noticed some fast guys ahead of me, and knew I would not be able to keep up in my condition. So I tried, failed, and then settled into a decent rhythm around the 2nd lap. Around lap 3 or 4 I was starting to feel pretty good on the bike and was riding more aggressively. A few weeks of training and racing, and hopefully I'll be able to contend in the 3/4 race. For now, it's time to work hard on the trainer and practice outside in the cold!

To all my Colavita team, thanks for cheering me on! It was fun to have so many supporters on the sidelines. You guys are awesome! Also, kudos to Dan O. who is a beast on the CX bike! Eric, you'll be right up there with Dan next time. I'm really motivated by you guys and your ability to take control of these races. I hope to be up there soon!

KU Cycling spin session is tonight, so I should be able to get another good work out in for today. Picked up 4 new trainers (2 mag, 2 fluid) from Britton at Volker. We will be able to have some legit classes now, I can't wait.

Tour of KC #2

2009-08-12T21:15:00.003-05:00

The second weekend of the Tour of Kansas City took place this last weekend. It was hot. It was windy. And I was racing in my first weekend of Category 3 races. Overall, it was tough.

This year, the Friday Cliff Drive Criterium was canceled due to road work, so there were only 2 races. The first was in downtown KCK and consisted of a nice big 4 corner loop with two good sized hills. At 7pm, it was still 95 degrees with a decent headwind on the finishing straight. The first 10 minutes of the race I felt decent. I was passing guys going up the hills and I felt strong. At about 15 minutes, I began to fade to the back of the pack, and at 20 minutes I was extremely overheated. Going into turn three I missed my line by a fraction and was fully leaning on the guy next to me. At this point I knew I was cooked and had no business staying with the field. It was a terrible feeling to see the pack slowly ride away. From here I just kept riding solo at a decent pace. One SKC guy who had just moved to Cat 3 was with me, but was taking weak pulls. 40 minutes into the race the pack was beginning to lap me. This means it took about 20 minutes for a 50 person field to gain about a mile on me. Not terrible. I hopped on for the last 4 laps and just hung onto the back and practiced a nice sprint at the end. It felt good to out sprint a few people to end the day.

The Overland Park GP was a 6 turn course with a section through an around-about and a 120 degree, slightly off camber turn. The race was scorching. Both in speed and temperature. Again it was a hot and windy day with the sun relentlessly beating down. Today, I wanted to keep my head together and not overheat. Unfortunately, I was overheating at a few points during the race and began to fade off the back a couple of times. However, unlike yesterday, I was able to bridge back to the group each time after restoring my composure (Thanks to the technical turns!) One of the most tricky aspects of this race was avoiding the crashes. I was surprised that at least 6 crashes unfolded in front of me during this 45 min race. The two big crashes were on the first and last laps. Since I was cruising at the back of the pack, each and every crash forced me to put in a big effort just to link back to the group. I was fortunate enough to avoid all of the wrecks, but both of my teammates went down on the 120 degree turn on the last lap. People were misjudging the turn and pedal striking like crazy. On the around-about tires were getting caught in cracks and one guy, after a domino effect, almost fell into me after two guys fell into him. I was able to ride the gutter and was prepared to hop on the curb to get out of the way. Luck was on my side during this race. After the last crash I did everything I could to get back up to the main group, but everyone was pretty well spread out. Not sure how I finished, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure what my average was yesterday but today we ended with 24.8 mph.

I'm looking forward to a couple more road race weekends, and then I'll dive into Cyclocross. School will also be firing up next Thursday, so I'll have my hands full with 17 hours of Junior level Mechanical Engineering courses.

Courses - Thermodynamics: Heat Transfer, Numerical Methods, Strength of Materials, Science of Materials, Machines and Mechanisms.

RAGBRAI - Day 1

2009-07-22T22:26:00.012-05:00

The last 3 years I have made the journey across the great state of Iowa, however, this year I was only able to make it up for the first day on Sunday. It almost felt like one day was ample time. I had such a great time, and I think we accomplished almost all of our goals for the trip. It was really fun!

Friday night I drove down to Lawrence and hit a few golf balls around on Orchards golf Course with future roommate Jerry. Saturday I drove to the Plaza for our Team Colavita ride. I was expecting 40+ miles, so was a little disappointed when we only put in 20, but it was good to see some of the team that I haven't seen in awhile. After the ride I went into Volker and talked bikes with Britton. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy his Xenith SL and load it with Sram Rival parts. Should be a really light bike! I'm also wanting to build up a new training/racing wheelset and put all my Ultegra on the cross bike for cross season. That would be a nice set up, but I need to make sure I have the money to cover all the bike costs and still manage to eat for the next 8 months.

I drove from KC to St. Joe and then started packing for Iowa. We left St. Joe after 3pm with Jack, Tony, Gary, Alice and me all loaded up in Gary's van. 3 bikes on the bike rack, 2 in the back of the van, and all the luggage piled in the back seat with Jack. The ride up was pretty quick and soon enough we were in Council Bluffs Iowa with 15,000 other cyclists. We set up our tents and headed over to the Bike Expo in hopes of finding free stuff and some good eats. Unfortunately, almost all the free stuff had been given away, so we browsed through the trailer-stores and made our way over to Famous Daves for some tasty BBQ. I was ecstatic to discover that the Bare Naked Ladies were going to be playing at 9:30pm, so we decided to buy tickets (only $10!) and made our way into the concert. Standing towards the side (stage right) and front row, we had a great view of the band. They put on an awesome show and kept the crowd heavily entertained. They would break into hilarious freestyle sessions and sing about Ragbrai and the annual Ribfest that coincided with Day 1 of Ragbrai (It's cuz of them ribs).

We headed out on our bikes after 7am sometime and joined the crowd of riders beginning their ride across Iowa. The first day can always be a little sketchy due to the large amount of 1 day riders and the jittery folks who are not accustomed to riding with such a massive number of riders. Luckily, we had no accidents and made it to Mamma Raphael's fairly quickly. I ate a huge breakfast here and saw some of the other Huff 'N Puffers here. This is a great place to stop for breakfast. Full breakfast buffet with breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, grits, oatmeal, cereal, juice, milk, coffee...unlimited awesomeness. Shortly after breakfast I ran across David from KSU Cycling and we rode for a good 10-15 miles at a nice fast pace. It was great to stretch my legs and it cool to run into someone I was racing with earlier in the Collegiate season.

I waited for awhile and soon enough we were all together and riding to Beekman's ice cream. I got a nice big rootbeer float and we killed some good time there. Tony somehow became immediate friends with the owner of the house. We headed out and our next big stop was in the last town of the day. We used the facilities at a firehouse and then went back to the park to sit and waste some time listen to an old guy karaoke country ballads. Somehow Tony had become best friends with a girl from Minnesota, so we had a 5th person to converse with and tell our stories. Eventually she left and then we decided to head out. Fun times were had as we lolly gagged all the way to Red Oak. I learned many lessons from the guys (like catching signals of when a girl is coming on to you...BOOM!...haha). Once we hit Red Oak we found camp at the top of a gigantic hill and quickly made our way to a very large and chilly pool. Luckily, we had Gary's van transported to the finish, so we were able to drive around town. After cleaning off in the chlorinated water, we packed up and departed the Huff 'N Puffers until next year. Driving through the fairly uneventful downtown, we decided to get out of the car and find some eats. We settled on an all you can eat Chinese joint on the corner and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly for the car ride back home. With all the MSG and unnecessary calories crammed in my body, I slept for a good hour before we pulled over and we switched drivers. From here, we all woke up and the rest of the car ride was just plain good fun.

Overall, a great weekend. It was relaxing to have a weekend where I wasn't getting all wound up for races and then immediately trying to recover.

More pics from the trip...

Omaha Racing

2009-07-13T22:33:00.003-05:00

Coming off of a great weekend in Lawrence I wanted to continue experiencing my mild "peak" of fitness into Omaha's Cycling Weekend. I took Monday and Tuesday off, killed it on Wednesday at the Wescoe ride in Lawrence and then took an easy 30 mile recovery ride on Thursday. Feeling slightly tired, but mostly dispirited, I decided not to ride Friday night and ended up chatting with Matt for awhile on the phone before heading to bed. Waking early Saturday morning I was able to watch the end of the Tour and prepare everything I would need for another weekend of racing.

Eric and Matt picked me up aroud 1pm in St. Joe and after loading up all my junk and swinging by Subway, we took off North to the greater Omaha metro area. Being "backseated," I spent most of the trip attempting to sleep. Upon arrival to the Pappillion Criterium, I wanted nothing more than to get on the bike and rid myself of energy. I warmed up with Eric for quite awhile and was able to get some fast laps in on the tight 8 corner course. After previewing the course I knew that it would be essential to fly to the front from the gun. This is exactly what I did. Using more aggression than I ever have, I made my way to the front of the pack within 3 laps and stayed 2nd or 3rd wheel for the entire race. I tried to stretch the pack out by attacking on the last hill of the loop a few times and I think it was a success. Most of the race was spent keeping position and trying to stay off the front. Coming up to the last turn a pack of 3 soon to be lapped riders were racing as if they were on their last lap. Refusing to get out of the way and riding much slower than our finishing pack we all were jammed up in the corner. The smell of burning rubber was in the air and we all were pressed against each other. Somehow no one went down and it was a 200 meter race for the finish from almost a dead stop. We ended the race in a close pack. Each of our sprints were fairly parrallel and no one could overtake the other with no momentum to work with or drafts to swing out of. Dissapointing finish, but 4th will work. I really wish I would have put myself out on the line more and worked for a better position in the last lap, but I'm pretty happy considering the amount of work I shelled out to keep the other racers in check.

After a stressful night and morning it was time for my first road race since the MO State Champs. I felt strong but not strong willed. I had my work cut out for me after seeing some of the local competition that I was soon to face. Hitting the "Hill" for the first time, I passed the entire field and sat in the top 5. I stayed here for the majority of the race. A couple of times I desperately tried to make a break that didn't include Ashton (previous days winner), but never could stay away. With one lap of the 7 mile rolling course to go, Ashton took off. I was quick on his wheel and we raced away from the field and had a really nice gap. Passing to take my 2nd turn up front I turned to Ashton and said "you know we have one lap to go, right?" He was 100% sure we were ready to exit the loop and head straight towards the finish. We sat up from our attack and a lone chaser came up and confirmed that we had one more lap to go, also letting us know that we had just blown a huge gap. All three of us reunited with the pack and rode directly into dark clouds that were sure to dump rain on us. Flying down the largest downhill at over 50mph, I was making a gap, I took the turn grabbing a bunch of break and hoped I could swing the turn and not wipe out. The stretched out pack caught up, but as soon as the stinging rain hit we all slowed and tried not to get blown over by the intense wind. The pack seemed to stay together for the rest of the race, and luckily the rain stopped and the streets began drying quickly. Hitting the last rolling hill, I was standing and cranking a huge gear ready to take off. This wore my sprinting legs down and going down to the finish I found I had nothing left to stand. I cranked as hard as I could in the saddle and saw that a local from the area was in the same boat I was. Neither of us had a sprint left and we powered through the last few meters. I ended up taking 3rd. Stull was on my wheel and ended 5th. Ashton took off with an excellent sprint taking 1st.

In the next few weeks I hope I can lift my spirits and train hard now that I have upgraded to Category 3.

Tour of Lawrence Recap

2009-07-06T19:29:00.015-05:00

Street Sprint - Friday Night

I spectated and was extremely glad that I didn't try my luck with these. The qualifier looked tough enough and even powerful Dan Hughes didn't make the bracket. The competition was off the charts. If was fun seeing Matt P. race a few times in the sprints, but wish he could have made it farther. Rain threatened us most of the night and I was happy to get in a good 20 miles with a preview of the KU Circuit race before the sprints started. Upon previewing the course, I was barely able to make it around the course twice (apparently there's a reason that I was supposed to be resting.)

Downtown Criterium on Mass. Street - Saturday Evening

I rolled around Lawrence on my bike from around noon up until my race started. Rode over to Matt's, watched some Tour, rode to watch the 5s, rode home and changed from KU kit to Colavita kit, rode back downtown for a short interview and registration, and finally a lap around the course before the gun. I felt adequately warmed up and was excited by the huge field size and the promise for a fast, flat course. The start of the race went flawlessly. Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee dominated the front end of the field as the pace began to settle in. Staying up front was very tricky and after going to the middle of the pack a few times, I found that it took nearly half a lap to move up to the top 10 riders. Coming around towards the Start/Finish, I heard the bell ring. This was the second prime being called out. Setting myself up towards the front I saw an attack and made sure to catch it

immediately. Coming around the last couple turns I was in 3rd position and I made my move on the last turn (picture thanks to my dad captures the move.) I stayed to the outside of the two riders in front of me and then swung around them with all my momentum as soon as I hit the straight away. Standing and crushing the pedals for about 20 revolutions I was away from everyone, I sat up and listened as the announcer called my name as winner of the prime lap. Victory. Here I felt as though I had a chance to win the race. If I could set myself up in the same way for the final sprint I could really open up on the final straight away and hopefully out power the other riders. Unfortunately

I wandered towards the back of the pack near the end of the race and could not get around the massive build up of riders that were taking corners 8 abreast.

The tempo needed to be about 2 mph faster so that the field would spread out, but no one was taking the initiative to take a hard pull. So I made it as far up in the field as possible and sprinted

against the barriers, passing a chunk of the main pack. Results show that I DNP, which isn't correct. The officials this weekend were not on top of their game, but they also had a bunch of people to hassle with. Congrats to Eric Stull who finished 3rd! He managed to stay up front almost the entire race and pulled off a nice sprint finish.

KU Campus Circuit Race - Noon Sunday

Once again I had a decent amount of time to warm up before the race after setting up the KU Cycling tent and banner. I chose to wear my KU Cycling kit today since I was racing on my home turf and right on my very own campus. From the gun, Colavita once again dominated the front end of the field. Our power is awesome and our racing is deadly. Teams are beginning to fear the Colavita Cat 4s. Each lap the main feild shrunk in size. The two giant hills we rode up were brutal and proved to cook most of the riders. Unfortunately I was the only one left from Colavita once we started the 4th lap. At this point I decided to lead the pack and keep the pace high so that there was little time for the others to rest. Since most of the pack was taking corners slower than I wanted, I was able to put distance on the field with each turn, making

them work even harder to stay at pace. Once we came to the hills I let one of the obvious hill climbers take the lead and pace us. I had no complaints with the speeds we were going up the hills which gave me the feeling that I could do really well in this race. I sat in for the 5th and final lap and hoped that I would be able to stick with the top climbers and then maybe, just maybe, out sprint them from the top of the hill. Going up the Chancellor's drive, I was running low on power and did everything I could to get up the hill in 4th position. I immeadiately

passed one guy in front of me and then Kent W. from Bicycle Shack came around to sprint for the finish. I knew the 1st guy up the hill was gone, it was now a race for 2nd. Kent started sprinting from nearly 300 meters out, and I hung right on his wheel. At this point my legs were close to popping, and I knew that I didn't have much left. Because of this, I wanted to stay in the draft for as long as possible and then attempt to take it on the line. The line came much quicker than I had anticipated. I heard Matt yelling for me to sprint, but my mind was telling me to hang on one more second. When I swung off his wheel, I immeadiately saw the line and was shocked. I thought I had at least 100 more meters to play with. Poor timing and bad legs = 4th place by inches. The 2nd guy up the hill ended up finishing between Kent and myself and we all were side by side crossing the line. Pretty exciting race, but some careless tactical errors at the end for me. I'm still learning, and these races are excellent for teaching.

Great weekend! I can't wait for the Tour of Lawrence next year!

My dad caught the finish on his camera...

Wednesday

2009-07-01T23:29:00.003-05:00

Rode the Wescoe ride tonight and was pretty spent after 35 miles. Spent quite a bit of time up front and participated in all the sprints I could get my hands on. I felt pretty strong, but my fitness seems to have dropped after a week of rest and a week of short interval work. Death to Crits. I spent the last 15 miles riding with Matt and suffering cramps in my calves. We averaged something like 21 mph totoal which isn't extremely fast for a wed. ride, but I was hurting. I hope to have enough fitness to do well in the Tour of Lawrence. Hopefully the fitness comes together by then...

Overall, a well needed day of pain.

On a brighter note, I seem to be Ranked #1 in USA Cycling's National Cat 4 Road Rankings. They finally updated all my points from the State races, and with 3 races I'm in the lead! haha, pretty cool.
I also checked my other rankings.

The break down:
National Cat 4 Road Ranking: 1st out of almost 1000 racers.
National Cat 4 Crit Ranking: 34th (as of now without T of KC) out of 1100+ racers.
National Cat 4 Time Trial Ranking: 100th out of 400+ racers.
National Cat 4 Stage Race Ranking: 19th out of 130+ racers.

Tour of KC #1

2009-06-29T16:51:00.006-05:00

I had a great weekend of racing. Although my results were not stellar, I can't really say I expected them to be. I trained hard the week before the races and felt sore going into the weekend of Crits.

Friday Night was brutal. The heat was intense and the pack was huge. Technical corners kept the race spread out and slower riders made the race tear to shreds for the first 15 min. I started at the extreme back end of the pack and slowly made my way up towards the lead group. After bridging at least 2 huge gaps throughout the first 3 laps (and holding a 195 bpm Heart Rate for 10 min. straight), I found myself hanging onto the lead group. At this point, I was cross eyed and completely shot. Still feeling a severe slinky effect, guys were getting shelled left and right. I fought to stay connected and then realized there were 3 bike shack guys off the front. Here, I realized the race was over for me and decided to just ride. I worked my way up to the front and helped pull. The pack was broken and unorganized. The gap was too big at this point to bring back, so we all just sat in and waited to pounce on attacks. With a lap to go, I had nothing left. I watched as most of the lead pack came around me and I ended up taking 10th. Not bad, but I didn't even have a sprint to show off at the end. The race holds my highest Crit race heart rate yet. I averaged 183 bpm for the 40+ minute race. That's about my TT HR zone. Pretty high up there.

Saturday Night was a rainy one. It's been a couple of months since I've raced in the rain, so I was a little nervous, but knew I could hack it. I started towards the front, but immeadiately was sucked to the middle of the pack. The race was consistently fast and I only jumped out front once to lead a lap. I felt pretty weak and knew I was no good for a downhill sprint. I sat at the back of the pack for the most part and took something like 17th.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in downtown KC for the Power and Light Crit. I didn't really warm up very well, and paid for it for the first 20 minutes of the race. Just keeping up with the pack was extremely painful. I contemplated dropping off a couple of times, but I kept seeing my teammates hanging on, and decided to keep at it. Eventually my legs warmed up a bit and I started to feel a little power going up the finishing hill. The hill after turn 1 was still eating me up, but I was able to fight through it. With what I thought was 4 laps to go, the pace began to slow to a crawl. I took off the front to make some of the top competitors work to catch me. The idea was to keep Dan O and Eric Stull in good finishing position, but also make sure they still had a wheel to ride. The move worked well, and when I came around after my attack, they called 1 lap to go. What!? I thought that I was going crazy at this point. I looked back and saw the pack was hammering up the hill after they heard there was one lap to go. Here I knew I was gone. The group started to come around me up the big hill around turn 1 and I sat in the middle of the pack. Coming around turn 3 I saw Eric was in great position. I decided to put myself up a couple of places in case I still had something left in my legs. I took both turns 3 and 4 as hard as I could on the inside. I passed close to 10 people and put myself in about 8th position. As we hit the hill, I stood up and had absolutely nothing left. I passed maybe one guy and then 6 or so blew by me. Not a great finish at 13th place, but I'm glad I hung on. This course had some fast and fun corners which always makes a Crit more interesting.

After racing, the team headed over to Eric Stull's place for a little post Tour of KC Celebration. I stuffed myself silly on the wide variety of Papa Johns pizza. It was awesome getting to know more of the team (Dan O, Nate) this weekend, and sharing more experiences with the rest of the team. Colavita/Parisi rocks.

I'll be resting until the Tour of Lawrence. My legs should be explosive by then.

MO State Champs

2009-06-15T23:25:00.004-05:00

The week leading into the Missouri State Road Race Championships, I had no desire or thought of racing. The Kansas State Championships had left my legs dead, and my body tired. My mind was starting to weaken as well, and it had seemed that I was losing my edge. After an awesome result in Kansas, I was content with resting. Training was limited. I rode an easy ride Monday, killed it with my buddies from the SJBC on Wednesday, and then rode some nice short and steep hills on Saturday. Friday night I received a few emails from my Colavita/Parisi teammates asking if I was going to travel with them down to St. Genevieve. Until that point, I hadn't even considered racing an hour south of St. Louis. I quickly decided late Friday night that I would tag along and see what I had in the tank. We left in Britton's minivan around 6pm Saturday night for the long drive to the Ramada Inn just South of St. Louis. After I unsuccessfully attempted to sleep, we began to throw our things together and scarf down whatever we could find on the limited continental breakfast. I didn't care what I was eating as long as I had some decent calorie intake. It is important to have plenty of nutrition before entering a 67 mile road race.

The starting times were delayed as usual, so I stood around waiting in line with 44 of my competitors. First the 1/2's took off then the 3's, the masters, and then the Cat 4s. Having the masters before the 4s was a terrible idea. We caught those old guys within 20 miles, and then yo-yo'd with them the second half of the race. The first lap was a fairly easy tempo. No one was too excited to blow themselves up before the massive hills. Once the hills started, the pace began to change. Two juniors from Mesa were at the front and bringing the pain up the hills. I was felling okay, but I had yet to warm up. Going through the feed zone, a Renassanice guy took off and I was quick on his heels. Personally, I won't make an attack in a feed zone, but I definitely won't sit around and let one get away. A little while later I found myself along with two other guys in an alternating pace line riding at a pretty good clip. Soon almost the entire pack had bridged back so I sat up and decided to spend a little more time chilling in the pack. Once the hills started back up, I rode past the entire pack on the outside and began to push the pace a little on some of the shorter hills. Once the large hills came I did everything I could to keep my cool, but not lose to much distance on 3 of the guys who were going all out on the climbs. I could have kept up, but I know that I would have sacrificed myself too much, and would have been in a tremendous amount of pain later on. Coming up to the KOM hill I knew the pack was going to explode and unfortunately this is where I lost teammate Eric Stull. Most of the guys were in obvious pain and were sure to get gaped on the long hill quickly followed by little hills with no time to recover. Three were away and Masters riders were all sorts of in the way. They would race down the hills and then granny gear it up the hills. Ridiculous. Just get out of the way. Coming into the final turn, 10 or so of us were stuck together and plotting our final miles. Two of the kids in the group were Juniors from Mesa Cycles. They had taken their share of pace setting at the front and looked to be in pretty good shape at this point. Pretty much everyone in front of me looked spent and I felt like I still had pretty good legs under me. I was able to move into 3rd position going up one of the final hills pretty easily and felt perfect. Suddenly, a guy behind me swung wide to the left shoulder of the wide Parkway Road and took off. He looked strong. The pack shifted up a couple of gears, but no one attacked. Stupid. I was feeling good and had the chance to bridge the gap and go, but I didn't. I regret my decision, and have learned from my experience. This guy was gone. Coming up to the final 4oo meters, the two guys in front of me jumped. I was right on their wheel. No gaps were forming between them and me. I was set and ready. I jumped around the second wheel, then powered past the Mesa kid leading the attack for second place. Finally with about 20 meters to go I stood on the pedals gave it literally all I had. I was spent when I crossed the line and took a commanding win in the sprint, but placing second.

The results seemed to take an hour to post. I knew that I was 2nd in the race, but I needed to hang around to get my medal and my prize money. I saw some of the Cat. 4 guys crowding around the results and decided to get up and check them out. If there are any discrepancies in race results, there is only a 15 minute window to protest. I glanced at the results. It showed that I was in 2nd. Good deal. I looked at first place. Under "State" it read "IL." I turned around and as I walked towards my teammates I raised my fists into the air and said "First place is from Illinois, looks like I'm the Missouri State Champ!" So that is the story of how I became the Missouri State Road Race Category 4 Champion by default. The jersey that I won is pretty sweet. I'll have pics of the finish and of my jersey soon. Thanks to teammate Phillip who took these really cool shots.

And as for the drive back...It was long. It was great to see Steve V. just as we pulled up to Volker. After Steve gave us all a nice cool 1554 brew, Philip, Steve, Matt, and I walked down to demolish two Large Minsky's Pizzas. Great times, and great company. I'm extremely lucky to have a team stocked full of awesome guys. This weekend turned out really well.

Now it's time to rest.

Congrats to Matt P. for pulling out a 2nd place victory in the 3s after a hard breakaway!

Kansas State Champs

2009-06-08T21:38:00.003-05:00

The Drive.
St. Joe to Olathe. Olathe to First Fridays back to Olathe. Olathe to Volker. Volker to Pittsburg. Pittsburg to Indpendence, KS. Independence to Pittsburg. Pittsburg to Volker. Volker to Olathe. Olathe to St. Joe. Now that's a weekend of driving.

The Ride.
Feeling decently rested after sleeping on my thermarest air mattress in Matt P's "Sitting Room" of his mom's house, we headed out for a weekend of racing. A little sleep on the way down to Southeastern Kansas was in order and a pit stop at a grocery gave me some much needed rest and nutrients for the 57 mile road race that was soon to come. Unlike most races, I felt completely prepared for this race. I was rested, I had plenty of breakfast, I had food in my pocket for the race, I was hydrated, and my bike was in perfect race condition. It couldn't have been better, not to mention I was lining up with 4 other guys from my team. Perfect. I was ready to ride.

The race began at a painfully slow pace as we tore through the wind. I was towards the back, and wanted nothing more than to move up past the wall of people crammed between the white and yellow lines. At the time it wasn't possible, so I waited. I knew once we turned left a hard acceleration would occur and the pack would stretch out into an echelon with most of the pack guttered into the yellow line. Here I began to make my way up along side my other teammates. Eric Stull always seemed to be right there the entire race. Excellent. When teams stick together there is more protection and more communication. This allowed us to be a threat to the pack. Long Story short, there were about 3 solo guys who constantly attacked off the front and effectively destroyed themselves and much of the pack leaving half of the starting riders for the last 2 laps. Attacks continued and the pace was heavy, but nothing worth gritting my teeth about. Coming up to the final hill 1 km from the finish I was able to follow Eric right through the middle of the pack. We went from back of the pack to leading the hill side by side. At this point I was ecstatic. We killed the hill and were bringing pain to the old guys in the pack. Soon, a couple of guys came around us and the race to the finish was on. With a big guy off the front, the pace increased. Hitting the final corner Jeff Lively pedal struck and nearly soared into the ditch, but his racing experience shoan as he quickly caught himself and immeadiately jumped back into his sprint. While everyone's hearts were just starting to beat again, Jeff was already sprinting. I caught Eric's wheel for a short period and then shot around his right. At this point I was sitting and hammering the pedals. The big guy off the front was cooked and I was closing in on Jeff now. He was still strong and he knew he had an adequate lead on me and the rest of the field. Dammit! I felt like I was so close, but I know that Jeff in a head to head sprint would have edged me out. He is very experienced and very strong. Cat 3s will suit him well after he cats up in the next week or so. Being a Lawrence "resident" I was able to take the silver medal in the Kansas State Road Race Championship. Pretty cool. Eric also made some nice cash with a 5th place finish.

Britton gave us an awesome place to stay in Independence and Mellisa's mom made an amazing waffle breakfast. I couldn't have asked for more. I have had nothing but great experiences so far with Team Colavita/Parissi Coffee.

I wasn't looking forward to Sunday's Crit. I felt zapped of my energy and the thought of a flat crit was terrifying to me. Before the race I told Eric that I didn't think I was really feeling "it" today. He agreed. Regardless of our worries, we fueled up and warmed our legs by riding around nearby streets. The day was warming up quickly, but I seem to function well under high heat. The race was on from the gun. Somehow a gap formed within the first lap and three, including Jeff Lively, were off the front. My legs felt tight, but I no one was putting in the effort to chase these guys. Eric took a good hard pull and then I made sure to bridge back to the three through the chicanes. From here on out, the same guys from the road race would launch off the front at odd times and attack the hill to get rid of people. Supposedly there were 4 primes, but I only heard the 2 $20 dollar primes called. The last prime, 7 laps from the finish, I was sitting second wheel behind Eric going up the hill. About 3/4s the way up the hill I attacked and never looked back. I flew around the corner and hammered the pedals while keeping my head down. Once I crossed the line, I looked back and saw that I had made a huge gap. I ended up using way too much energy for that $20 but it was pretty bad ass in my mind. The pack finally caught back up to me on the next lap, and I sat in until the finish. The pack was small now, and GP Velotek was cooking something up. They were a major threat because they had a couple of guys who hadn't touched the wind yet. Sure enough, a fresh pair of legs was able to take the victory, with Jeff hammering down more than I could handle. Eric caught my wheel and we finished 3rd and 4th for the Kansas State Criterium Championship. Good money and good times.\

The Drive.
On the way back to KC, the guys kept referencing "The Gray Wolf" and "Attack the Pack, Don't hold back." So, I investigated. Here's the video:

My favorite line (end of part 2): "There's no rhyme or reason to training, when you feel like it you go, you just go."

DK Clip

2009-06-04T22:08:00.002-05:00

I made it into a Dirty Kanza clip that Corry "cornbread", from Lincoln shot. The intent of the video was to show the free roaming cattle. It was pretty cool to see the herds running across the road as we were riding. Also, the winner of this year's 2009 DK is sitting right in front of me. He flatted, bridged back, and then proceeded to win by something like an hour! Second place is right beside me. I was obviously biting off a little more than I could chew at the beginning. Shortly after this video, I decided to take my own pace, and let the veterens speed away.

Dirty Kanza 200 from Cornbread on Vimeo.

Dirty Kanza Attempt #1

2009-05-31T20:46:00.002-05:00

Early into the year I started hearing about a 200 mile gravel race called the Dirty Kanza. Josh and Andrew both told me about how epic and awesome this ride was, so I decided that I would try it out. After sniping a spot on the 100 rider limit list from Lelan Dains, I was in. Apparently there were two things that I failed to take into consideration as I made my decision.

#1: The race is 200 miles long, and I failed to do any long base-miles training. (nothing over 55 miles, outside of a 100 mile road ride 5 days before the race).
#2: The race is gravel, and I have never ridden the ridiculousness of which Kansas calls roads. Attn: Little Egypt Road (more on that later).

I am in the best shape of my life, no doubt, but I was still very nervous as the race came closer and closer. I spent two weeks preparing my bike and body and acquiring every small item that I would need on the bike. I thought about the race daily to get my mind set on the step by step processes that I would have to go through to finish the race (which was my main goal).

Suddenly, like a scare in the night, the race was on. After a few brief warnings and announcements at 6am, I was cruising down the road half asleep. The Bad Goat guys were to my right and some of the Cycle City guys were right in front of me. I had no idea what was going to happen or what to do. So I did what any new person does...I followed the leaders. The race began as soon as we hit gravel, and everyone immeadiately fought for wheels to draft. I was no different because I wanted to save my energy and also set myself up in an appropriate position in the race. After about 10 miles, the lead pack had dwindled to about 10 riders. I was sitting on Dan Hugh's wheel, and thinking to myself - "I'm probably going way to fast, but that headwind is going to be brutal if I drop off". At mile 17, I finally decided to drop off the pack and ride alone. Up the road I ran into Michael from Cycle City. He had just suffered from a broken chain so I gave him my chain tool which also happened to have all my tools on it. I figured I'd see him later in the race, but that was not the case. Just a short time later, I ran across Joe Fox who had suffered a split sidewall on his Marathon Extremes. He seemed to have everything so I continued on. Then my chain broke... Luckily, it was just a powerlink that had expolded, so I slapped on my spare link and wished for the best. That seemed to be the end of the mechanicals as far as I saw.

Joe caught up to me just before the first Checkpoint, and we both flew into the gas station to get some much needed supplies. After 60 miles and almost 4 hours of harsh winds and hills, I was beaten. I scarfed down a pop tart, a payday, and replenished all my fluids. From there I headed out alone and continued towards the half way mark. Eventually I found myself riding in a nice little pack of guys and we took turns pushing against the wind. Before I knew it, we were on pavement heading into the 106 mile Checkpoint 2.

Upon arrival I saw the Bad Goat boys had been thrashed by the conditions of this year's Dirty Kanza. I had a checklist of things that I wanted to do and I managed to complete all of them except for drinking water and eating food. I have no idea how I forgot to do this, but 3 miles up the road I realized that I ate and drank nothing while I was at the stop. How foolish. My mind was not working properly, and I can only wonder how my performance would have changed if I would have fueled up properly.

When I realized this I tried to stuff more powerbars down my throat, and the roads began to take a turn for the worse. Finally, I turned onto a road call Little Egypt. This was the road that broke me. I was already weak from malnutrition, and now I was faced with a deadly road that was nearly impossible to ride. I was forced to stop after my water bottle rattled out of my cage on a very steep, technical downhill. I managed to stop without falling to pick up the bottle and was forced to walk up the hill. At this point I was weak and had just lost contact with the guys I was riding with. They were in pain also, but I was demoralized by walking the hills and the complete loss of energy. Here I called up Andrew and begged for a ride. I was done. Sitting under a shade tree I told him I was 15 miles from Alma, and that I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back.

Eventually, after several calls, and me getting lost on Volland road (questionable marking where several riders got lost), I came across one of the race organizers Joel. Joel was riding rather slowly when I came upon him and when I reached him all he said was "I'm cooked." He was beat from the wind, hills, and heat like most of the riders were. From here we started thinking of ways we could get back to Emporia. We ended up taking a short cut so that we could quickly reach civilization in Alma, and came across a very nice lady with a two person bike rack on the back of her car. This was our ride. She was waiting on her husband, a brevet veteran and long time ultra endurance athelete. We agreed that if he didn't need help, she would give us a ride back. So we rode on to Alma to wait for the ride.

Joe Fox was just starting to stir after a nap and was ready to head out of Checkpoint 3 when I arrived. I gave him my light, because he was sure to need it at this point if he wanted to finish. I applauded his efforts and felt terrible that I was too weak to continue. My body had quit and my mind was furious. Comfort was impossible for the next few hours, and my head throbbed with pain.

The hour long ride seemed to take forever in the car, and I was so glad that I wasn't making the trek on the bike. Joel was kind enough to let me stow my things in his hotel room and he even let me use his shower to wash up. Super kind guy and very inciteful. The Bad Goat guys had all left for home, so I was fortunate enough to be able to crash with Joe Fox and the Cycle City gang. Both Joe and Peter finished the race while Michael and I called it quits in Alma after getting lost on the Volland road detour and nearly dying on Little Egypt Road.

In conclusion, the Dirty Kanza kicked almost everyone's ass, including mine. Out of 85 starters, less than 30 people made it to Alma, and less than 15 actually finished the entire route. The conditions were brutal with a 95 degree high and constant winds in the face. It was still an awesome adventure and I would like to try the DK again. Next time, with a little more preperation and a more concious effort to keep my nutrition up during the ride.

I'm not sure if this means much, but I calculated my calorie intake (not including the small amount of pasta I had for breakfast) and I have a rough number on calories burned from my HR monitor for the 11 hours that I was on the bike and in the race.

Total Intake (including sport drinks): about 3000 calories
Total Burned: about 6000 calories

Something seems wrong there.

Averages for the race:
Average HR: about 150 bpm
Average Speed: 15 mph before I bonked (mile 125), 14.4 mph by the time I got to Alma (mile 140)...

Back in St. Joe

2009-05-23T10:29:00.002-05:00

So, I'm back in St. Joe working from 7am to 4pm at a low stress job and riding as much as possible after work. Since school let out, I've had a bit of a dry/wet cough with no other symptoms of being sick (outside of a being a little tired). I'm not really sure what's wrong with my body, so I've been trying to hold back on my training and have started a low intensity build period, in preparation for the Dirty Kanza 200 gravel race coming up next Saturday. I'm not sure If I'll survive, but the money has been paid and I'll try even if I still have this dang cough.

Wednesday I decided to go out for a 50 mile or so bike ride after skipping out on driving down to Lawrence for the Wescoe Ride. I went out to Dekalb and came back via 116 and V Hwy's. Very fun ride with lots of roller coaster hills. At the half way point I figured I could make it back to St. Joe in time for the Ride of Silence that was being held by the SJBC. I'm really glad I made it to the ride, because I had the chance to see all my buddies that I had ridden with for awhile. Although the ride was supposed to be silent, I was still managed to catch up with most of the guys and then rode home with my dad who was on his single recumbent.

Took Thursday and Friday off to rest and relax. Saturday I drug myself out of bed to go ride with the St. Joe guys. We rode out to agency and I noticed that my back wheel was pretty far out of true. When we were almost finished with the ride I heard a ticking sound coming from my rear wheel. I decided to investigate and found that I had a broken spoke on my Rolf Vector Pro. Sad news. I guess the wheels are fairly old. I hope they can re-lace the spokes. Right now Trek doesn't claim the wheels and Rolf refuses to service the wheels because they were under Trek at the time. Right now I'm looking for a good set of training wheels or racing wheels if my Rolfs can't be fixed. I've got my eyes set on the Easton EA90 SLs for training. They look really strong, they are light, and the price is right.

As for race wheels, I like the ksyrium SLs and Premiums. I loved my Rolfs so much that I'm tempted to go with the Rolf Prima Vigor SLs, they are so light, aero, and have a great price. I don't know that I want the hassle of such a low spoke/high tension wheel. Check out this 10 spoke wheel that they make! I need to figure something out.

Welcome to my blog!

2009-05-22T15:38:00.016-05:00

Over the past month or so I have been reading many of my cycling comrades regularly updated personal blogs and have become fond of this world of blogging. I feel like I'm behind the times, but I'm still young and have much to learn yet. One of the biggest influences on my decision to actually start a blog came from my buddy Matt who said that our entire Colavita/Parisi Coffee Team had blogs. I figured this blogging world was going to be equivalent to the time that he tried to influence me to twitter (which he later regretted doing and I never started), but soon found that I enjoy reading about what's going on inside these bright people's minds.
So to start my stories, ideas, and insights that are sure to change the world one reader at a time, I would like to introduce the theme of this blog and encourage all to follow if they wish to see the inner workings of my brain. The theme of my life, and appropriately my blog, has been centered around cycling. I have been riding bicycles consistently since age 10 and I'm now almost 21. These past 11 years have been mostly "touring" miles and for the longest time "training" meant riding lots of miles (always at the same leisurely to intense speed). I was introduced to cycling after my father had a roller blading accident at the park, and my mom told him that we needed to find a new family sport that was less dangerous. The next year we were riding our Sears and Walmart bikes on the Katy Trail. We quickly upgraded our machines and our riding after becoming associated with the St. Joseph Bicycle Club.
Within a couple of years my parents were practically running the club and they still are in charge of the website and newsletter. I owe my cycling prowess and desire solely to the entire St. Joseph Bicycle Club, as they brought me up and taught me the ins and the outs of cycling from a very young age. They even introduced me to the 102 Valley Road Race in Hopkins, MO hosted by Maurice Peve. This fun little non-USAC race is open to all riders and has become quite competitive between the St. Joseph riders and the Iowa riders. After winning this race one year I felt like I had a chance to make myself a bike racer after all.

My family and I would always spend our vacations riding our bikes across different states on the cross state tours. We would ride 50 to 100 miles each day for 7 or 8 days and sleep in gyms or tents each night. Some of the places I visited were absolutely amazing and I am blessed to be able to see all that contryside via my own will, ambition, and wheels.

(some pics from my touring days...ha)

Just to get a feel for all the biking trips I've been on, here's my resume of Cycling Adventures:
1996-1997: Travels across the Katy Trail and Wabash Trail
1998: George S. Mickelson Trail in South Dakota
1999: Elroy-Sparta rail-trail in Wisconsin
2000: Santana Tour in Niagara Falls
2001: Santana Tour in Durango, CO
2002: Bike Across Kansas (BAK)
2003: Shoreline Tour along Lake Michigan
2004: GRABAAWR (GReat Annual Bicycle Adventure Along the Wisconsin River)
2005: Nova Scotia Lighthouse Tour
2006: RAGBRAI XXXIV (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa)
2006: SAGBRAW (Schramm's Great Bicycle Ride Across Wisconsin)
2007: RAGBRAI XXXV
2008: RAGBRAI XXXVI

It was a really fun time, I met tons of really cool people, and I felt like I was actually doing something with the time that I was away from home. I will probably pick up tour riding someday in the future, but for now, I'm using my resources (time from work and money) to race on the weekends. Within the last 6 months I have begun a new "training" that consists of intervals, hill training, speed work, and most importantly racing. This new training, I owe solely to KU Cycling and the experienced riders around Lawrence. Although, I feel that I have not gained much respect in the racing community for being so new to this type of riding, I know that I will.

Now for my last bit on racers: Now that you have an idea of my background, I would like to dig into an issue that has grinded my gears for the past year. Coming from the cross state tour scene, every cyclist I met on a bike acted as though they were my best friend. I swear they would each have given me the shirt off of their backs in a heartbeat. (I was a little fellow, and gained respect that way, but my parents also felt this sense of family and community amoung fellow cyclists.) I feel comfortable talking about these racers because I'm fairly confident that the ones I'm most afflicted by will not read this anyway. So to begin, racers will not give you the time of day unless they feel threatened by or equal to you. By this, I mean, that if you are able to ride strong at the front of the pack or contend in a sprint then you may have "permission" to talk to these Pro or Cat 1 riders on a weekly Wednesday ride. They want absolutely nothing to do with anyone that may not "stick" to the sport or have far less passion for the sport. For a young seed like myself, I was extremely discouraged by this, because I was the freshman kid in college that was hanging onto the pack for dear life and pulling for a minimum time period. Even now, after I have been working my tail off, I still feel as though these guys are just trying to shut me out. I have received little input or help on how to improve or better my cycling abilities. I can remember a time that I would ride with the St. Joe Bike Club guys, and they would even drop back to help me out. This sort of difference was a major shock to my system, but I think I have figured it all out. These racers are completely "booked" with their schedules and feel as though they need to commit their time to themselves in order to hold a job and train to reach their maximum potential. Especially during their training seasons, if you are not an avid cycling fellow that can relate on a 1 to 1 level with these top notch athletes then you are not worth their limited amount of time. This may sound harsh, but at the same time, would you expect Tiger Woods to come over and give little Joey and all his friends a lesson just because you happen to golf at the same course?

Finally, I hope you enjoy all my ramblings and continue to follow my thoughts!