Tuesday Night Worlds

I raced Opus for the first time last night, but since my cat.4 upgrade hadn't gone through yet (it got processed while I was there) I had to race 5s.

The course is okay. The climb toward the end is just long enough that some of the 5s got strung out on it if you big-ringed it. I sat in 2nd for a few laps to see what was up, and soon discovered that they sprinted hard for a preem and then took it very easy for a few laps til they sprinted again.

This guy named Rob and I got to the top of the climb after preem 2, and Billy was screaming at me to go hard. I looked back and we had a gap, so I told Rob to punch it and we rode on our own for most of the race. He gave me a preem win, and we traded pulls.

The last time up the hill some guy in a slick Twin-6 jersey smoked past us and a few other guys were winding it up trying to catch up. I jumped and beat one of them, but one guy beat me.

I won points-wise. It was fun. Time for something faster.

MN home road race, ITT, Crit

Ooooooh, buddy. The phrase "hardest day on the bike ever" isn't an understatement. Saturday at our home road race in Plainview SUCKED for me. I bonked big time. I'm going to chalk it up to not enough food, not enough sleep, and not enough riding, as I solod it in in the Cs RR for like 12th. I spun my legs out in the ITT and had a bacon cheeseburger at Friday's. The thought that maybe I wasn't worthy of racing C's popped into my head. Yeah, bad day.

Then came the crit. It was in a parking lot on MSU Mankato's campus, but the course rocked, none the less. There were good corners, and plenty of bitching cornering. Kari and Steph raced with the men's Cs, but Steph wasn't feelin it. Kari was, and she was a rockstar today.

I got the first preem lap, and then sat in, hoping to have another go for a preem lap. I knew I couldn't outsprint the fast kids for the finish, and fully expected Nebraska to just solo away (which he did). All in all, I felt way better in the crit, and I think it's going to be a good season once I can get on a regular riding schedule.

Big ups to Deidre for kickin ass in the crit (even though she crashed) and to Megan for owning the women's RR.

We have a young team at the U right now, but in a year I think we'll be back on top of the conference. Mitch and Caleb are really picking it up, and next year Megan and Deidre will be ridin with Steph and Kari.

Jameson is a rocket. He's gonna be an A next year. A few of us had a chat about "wanting to win" today. I want it now. Now that I'm just a mid-pack punk, I want to win big time.

Tink out

Yeah for mountain bikes!

On Friday some of us drove to a trail system an hour northeast of Fayetteville. The trails were surprisingly dry, with some loose large gravel on a few of the corners. Obviously a bit of it was washout, but it was a good day to ride.

Caleb's bike hates him, and we had to stop after a few miles to fix his cleat, which had dropped a bolt. Once we pulled him out and wrenched down the remaining bolt, we discovered Duncan was missing his headset topcap. Yeah, bummer. So we tightened down the stem bolts and let er rip.

There was a sweet stream crossing thanks to all the rain from Tuesday, and Billy didn't quite have the right tires on for the loose stuff, so I was fastest on the day. Scurvy was on me on the climbs, and Stewbot would catch up on the descents, but I kept it quick and had a good time hosing Duncan in some of the corners. Mitch's legs were totally fried from the day before, but he stuck it out and had fun.

After the main loop, there's an out and back with two lollipop trails, and we got split into two groups somehow. Scurvy, Billy, Duncan and I kept going, and Stewbot, Mitch, and Caleb went back to the van. We didn't know they had gone back, so Duncan and I rode one of the loops backward to look for them. It was way fun trying to drop Duncan. He's really starting to get the hang of mountain biking, but he still rides on the bike instead of controlling the bike in its entirety. He will be fast once he figures out some handling things, though. Scurvy and I think he needs a singlespeed.

I'm feeling really strong this year, which is odd. I only went to indoor two days a week, didn't lift, and the only other big changes I've made are dietary. Granted, I eat a lot better than in years past, and I pretty much don't drink, but even I'm amazed at how strong I felt on the climbs Thursday and on the trails Friday. I won't be racing collegiate road much, so hopefully I can stay on form til summer when I can get to some WORS events.

Big climbing day

Yesterday was rough one. Probably top 3 hardest days on the bike in my time riding. We did 27 miles from Kingston to Jasper, and then came back. The route out included two category 2 climbs and some wide-open, fast descents. It was going to be an epic day.

I rode out with the fast kids and got dropped half way up the first climb. I caught them on the descent as we regrouped at the only turn of the route. We waited for some of the other kids to show up, and pacelined it across the valley flats to the bottom of the second big climb on the outward route.

The second climb wasn't bad until my bars came loose in my stem. I pulled up along Sherve, borrowed his multi-tool and kept riding while fixing the loose bolts. After I got it fixed, I attacked and dropped my group, chasing Jorgen Devon and Pat.

Once on top of the hill, we rode along the ridge and I got closer and closer to Devon on the descents, but he'd drop me on the flats. We were pretty evenly matched on the climbs. I pulled him within 15 feet on some of the big corners of the descent into Jasper. The Madone descends so well, and I got some good practice accelerating out of corners.

We refueled in Jasper and waited for some of the other kids to show up before heading back. On the climb out of Jasper I stuck with Scurvy and Rambo (a.k.a. Stovetop) for a while and then we dropped Scurvy. Stovetop and I caught Billy a little later and I won the sprint for the town at the top of the climb out of Jasper. We soon came on Burban and The Todd working on Todd's tire. It was shredded, so we kept riding and told the van to pick him up.


On the descent we dropped Stovetop, and I saw Pat sitting on one of the tight switchbacks taking pictures of people descending. He blew a tire and taco'd his wheel, so the day was finished for him. On the flats after the descent, I sat in behind Burban and we passed Kari and Megan before approaching the 2.3-mile category 1 climb.

This was the big climb of the day. I dropped Burban immediately and Stovetop quickly caught up. We rode together and found Sam (who was pretty bonked) and then my food kicked in.
I attacked and stayed away until arriving at Kingston again. The rolling hills on top of the big climb were brutal, but I descended as fast as I could and kept it in the big ring the entire time atop the mountain. With enough food, I was feeling good. I knew there was one more small climb into Kingston, so I used my Gu and stayed ahead of Stovetop. It was a good day.

I was fried last night and we returned to Wes's BBQ for dinner. I had a double bacon cheeseburger and some fries. Then I had a BBQ chicken sandwich. And two sodas. Awesome!

Today we're going mountain biking all day. Metal.

75 miles in 5 hours

Today we split into two groups for an LSD (long, slow, distance) ride. The rout turned out to be under heavy construction, so some of it sucked big time. However, the rest of it was pretty nice as we came through the Wedington recreation area. My legs felt good, but my neck and shoulders were pretty sore by the end of it. There were some small hills and some great fun descents, but the traffic was too heavy until we got onto hwy 16. Then the roads were smooth, the traffic was low, and the scenery was beautiful.


Eastern Buffet for dinner. Brilliant.

Tomorrow is supposed to include some brutal hills. I'm looking forward to it.

Rain and a haircut, no ride

The rain started before the sun came up and it hasn't stopped since. First we drove around and hit up the grocery store, bike shop, and movie theatre to check times.

Then we came back to the hotel for some lunch and while others did homework, the rest of us headed off to see Horton Hears a Who. It was a good movie, which I probably would have appreciated a little more were I between three and eight years old. Our group had the highest average age. Probably the oldest median and mode ages as well.


Then I cut my hair. No joke. Duncan had a clippers but forgot the extensions, so it was all or nothing. I couldn't figure out how to get a mohawk going, so this was the result:



Tomorrow we're driving to some big nasty hills. Now that the shampoo budget just got smaller, I won't mind the heat under my helmet as much. Keep the rubber side down.

Recovery day

Needless to say, I slept pretty well last night. Breakfast included Waffles and OJ. Today we woke up at eight and were on the road at nine. The rain that was forecast never arrived. Neither did the turn onto highway 264, so we asked the Shell station about directions. We were already about 20 miles out, and they told us if we followed the route they gave us, it would be 14 miles back.

After another 10 miles we found ourselves at the start/finish of the Hell's Kitchen road race in Hogeye. It was another 15 miles into town.

54 miles with the fast(er) group made me want to take a nap, so I did. I woke up with Jameson offering a chance to get some dinner. Billy, Steph, Devon, Duncan and I went to Wes's BBQ. Double bacon cheeseburgers with fries and a drink were $6. Best deal of the trip? I think so.

Tomorrow is still supposed to be a bust, so we're gonna take it easy and get some rest and homework in.