Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
More Pain and Agony
Feels like one third.
Pain and Agony
When the dust had settled, we realised that at sometime, before or during the crash, my front tire rolled off. After I crashed, the tube blew.
I'm gonna need a new helmet, a new water bottle cage, a repaired spoke, and a good excuse for my mom. Got both my elboes, my knees my back, and the right side of my rear end.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Kind of Funny
READ THIS POST!
So if you show up on June 3, you might be able to get some pizza, or something, but you won't be able to race.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Tour of Frankenmuth Recap
Cat 1/2s started off at 7:30, then Cat 3s, Masters, Cat 4s, Cat 5s, women, and Juniors. It was just me and the Vermeulen Bros. It's a lot different with just your team, it seemed like it was our Junior team practice, doing pace lines. I had no bike computer, so I had no idea when to try to go. I decided to take a shot at it when I realised that I was gapping Rem a lot and Alexey was behind Rem. The next time I was at the front, and I saw a gap, I stepped up the pace and rode away from Rem. Alexey had to go around Rem, and by that time, I had about a 5 second gap on him. I pushed myself more, riding a time trial, hoping that we were near the finish. I extended the gap to maybe 10 seconds and held it there for about one minute or two. I accidentally rode off the shoulder and into the gravel, but made it back onto the road, but that doomed my breakaway. Slowly, Alexey pulled himself back, and we regrouped. Our lead car took forever to go past the Womens' car, and we ended up soft pedaling behind our car as it tried to go past for about five minutes. Then Alexey accelerated away from me. By then, rain was pouring like there was no tommorow. The gap was about ten seconds for what seemed forever, then Alexey seemed to slowly gain more time. He won by about fifteen seconds.
In cat 3s, on the last lap, Rune Duke, Dad and the infamous CHRIS BRINKMAN made their escape, with dad pulling them all the way to the line, where Brinkman took a shivering Rune in the sprint. Joey Schaard took 5th in the field sprint.
Mr. Lovejoy had one of his best races in the Masters' category, sticking with the main group for 62 miles and taking fourth or so in the field sprint.
After the race, we hung out with the Vermeulens at Splash Village Waterpark (indoors) for about 3 hours.
Us with Mr. Alman
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednsday/Regarding Kensington/Frankenmuth
Coach Lovejoy says I've been rocking back and forth a bit, especially on hills. I guess it's because I'm usually to lazy to go to my small ring on the hills (I'll work on it).
About ten or so miles into the ride, we split up and Caleb went with dad. We went into the preserve and rode back to Barton Park.
At the moment, in the pre-registerees for Frankenmuth, the only juniors are Alexey, Rem and me, but I think Caleb and [or] Colton will show.
Regarding Kensington, we are working to put the video of the race up on you-tube, so we can eventually put on the blog.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tour of Kensington Road Race Recap
The race started down hill, with all of us together. Alexey and I were trying to keep it together and not go all out until the last lap and try to keep Rem and Pieter on. Well that didn't work, as Rem and Pieter started accelerating a bit on each other, wasting themselves, and dropping themselves. We slowed a little bit, and after a minute of chasing, Rem was back on. Alexey and I started doing the pulling ourselves to give Rem a break.Unfortunately, Caleb Bromley's day in the 15-18 category ended prematurely with flats in both tires.
We flew across the flat part and safely turned into the neutral (crash) zone, going on the inside. Rem regained strength and started pulling. We finished the first lap and chugged through the rollers with me leading. We reached the hill leading us to the start line. This hill in my point of view is one of the hardest hills on the course. We dropped Rem on it but slowed on the downhill, and Rem was back on. Through the neutral zone and up the hill leading out of it, Rem was in serious trouble, and fell off the back. Back on the flat, we looked back to see Rem's form in the distance, struggling to catch us. We let up, but not too much, Rem wasn't getting a free ride to the finish. To my astonishment, Rem was back on. Reaching the hill before the turn to the finishing straight, I was thinking, now Rem's done. Well, Rem wasn't. Rem wasn't done until we had reached the finishing straight. This time, I played it perfectly. I stayed on Alexey's wheel, determined not to lose. I accelerated. He accelerated. I grabbed his wheel, and then sprinted ahead of him. Alexey looked like he was fading, but I wasn't taking chances. He surged forward and we both threw our bikes to the line. It was so close, they needed a photo finish. My chip apparently wasn't working, but this time I didn't get DQed. When the dust settled, I was the winner of the road race. Rem held on, riding an inspiring race. Just think; a two years younger than the guys he was riding with, first year racing, on a steel bike!
And, in the 15-18 category, you have one guess who won. Chris Brinkman, took home the the yellow jersey along with a win in every race. Mack Wilkins got second again, but, like me, he didn't get points for the time trial (rollout) and ended up sixth. Colton Liberacki (aavc) took a strong second overall and Myles Davis, a fifteen year old, couragously road all stages.
The overall 10-14 was Alexey, Rem, Pieter, Me, and Jakob.
The DQ cost not only the race, but the lead in the Michigan Points Challenge Series. Ah well, there's always next year, or the next year, or the next.
Fallen Wings
I guess they deserved it, they were one of the stronger teams in the Western Conference. The Wings were down 3-0 in the first period, scored, then let another one in then scored another, then another one on a Power Play but failed to get the fourth goal. It's also a disapointment that the Western Conference is Going to lose again in the Stanley Cup Finals, this time to David Morrissey's Ottawa Senators!
Anyway, we had Crit Practice At Runway Plaza. It's, a practice, at Runway Plaza, the spot of the Spring Training Series, and we, practice, crits. I convinced Alexey and his dad to come and race.
It's hard to say what level of hardness it is, there are so many categories. Because it's an AAVC thing, we brought release forms for non members, so they could sign the release forms, so they could race, unless if they didn't want to race, in that case, they wouldn't have to, unless if it gave them a good feeling.
Quite a lot of riders showed, and it was tough. In the first race, a three lapper, Alexey and I stayed with the group until after the second lap, and then we got dropped. The five lapper was almst the same, except I was dropped before Alexey was dropped, and he had a good gap on me. The seven lapper, Alexey took it to me and beat me by a huge chunk of time. But a new wind was about to blow. In the ten lapper, I beat Alexey by about 15, or so, seconds.
After that, we did another seven lapper, in which Steve Lininger stayed back with me and paced me all the way to the finish, thanks Steve! Another five lapper and this time Alexey and I were together. He attacked, I caught him pretty quickly, I attacked, and I felt I was putting the hurt to him. He caught me, and then went around me. I followed his wheel, and we turned up the last bend going onto the uphill. We both didn't want the other to jump first, so naturaly, we both went way early. Alexey figured the white line (used for the STSs) was the finish line, but it wasn't, so I ended taking it in the end , but Alexey was soft-pedaling. I think dad won at least one race. Rune Duke was freaking out, my dad told him he needed to recover, so Rune couldn't race. Dmo (David Morrissey) rode to it , and marshalled, as did Mr. Vermeulen. We rode a little bit of recovery, and practiced some paceline tactics. As we were packing up the truck/suv, dad got into an interesting conversation with Doug Gatto about old skool rap as opposed to gangster/hip-hop rap. That turned into a conversation about our truck/suv/thing, and Doug taking a spin in our truck/suv/ thing, which turned into a conversation about gas, which merged into a political discussion. Then I went in the truck.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tour of Kensington Crit Recap
At the start line, the yellow (leader's) jerseys were awarded. Chris Brinkman and my teammate Alexey put on the first Mallot Jaunes of the Tour of Kensington Stage Race, ever.
The 10-14 age category was all AAVC, so there wasn't much pressure. We started off, riding like a team, in a straight paceline. At the end of the first lap, Rem (when he got to the front) accelerated and Pieter followed him, dropping Jakob.
"Okay, forget that whole plan" Alexey and I were thinking. The next casualty was Pieter, who slowly faded off the back. It was just me, Alexey and Rem. We had Rem just stay at the back and just let
In the 15-18s, you have one guess who won. It was...not my dad. Chris Brinkman won in style, by at least 20 seconds.
Steve McGregor won the Masters' 35+ on a heroic breakaway, making fools of the peloton.
Frodo Baggins, I mean Graham Howard took the Mens' 1/2 by a few seconds, taking the lead in the General Classification.
Cat 5s involved an EPIC crash, involving the U35 leader, and an EPIC crash avoidal by Mike Birmann, who was right behind the crash, which happened in the field sprint.
Cat 4 men also had an EPIC crash, involving eighth place Zach Maino (I said it once, and I'll say it twice, HE'S ON AAVC FOR THE LOVE OF PIZZA, don't ask me again).
Eric Hinderager lost the lead by a close margin, and David Morissey lost a few seconds.
After that, it was a Catastrophe. Due to the crash, ambulances and whatnot came and needed to fix everyone up (aka, road rash, band-aids, missing limbs, stubbed toes), and that took around half an hour. Tony Wieczorek, who was in two really bad crashes a few weeks ago continued with the Cat 3s.
As for dad and his team, their goal was to set Joey up for the sprint. To put it nicely, THEY DIDN'T DO THEIR JOB! Joey took third, but his stint in the Mallot Jaune was over.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Tour of Kensington Time Trial Recap
Rem with something of questionable ethics up his sleeve
It went by relatively quickly but the hills were harder than I expected. I past Rem and caught Pieter down the finishing straight and ended up second for Juniors 10-14, eight seconds behind Alexey only to fail rollout. I failed rollout because while my dad [and I] was [were] building up my new bike, he [and/or I] didn’t put my old cassette on, resulting in a huge bummer. Mack Wilkins was another casualty of rollout, only he didn’t know about rollout. He would have had a second place finish behind Chris Brinkman.
Oddly, Tony Wieczorek was one of only four junior racers in the Mens’ Cat 3 race. Taylor Birmann would have raced, but he sprained his ankle earlier on this week (I’m guessing).
As for Cat 3 results, you have one guess who won. The winner of the Cat 3 Prologue was...not my dad. Joey Schaard took the win by 6 seconds. Eric Hinderager (Ann Arbor Velo Club) to the mens’ Cat 4 Prologue, David Morrissey (same team) took fourth and Zach Maino (still the same darn team) took eighth. Left: Me. Right: Alexey. Bottom left: Pieter. Bottom Right: Rem.
Friday, May 18, 2007
New Bike
I'm looking forward to using my new bike to inflict pain and agony on those not on my team at tommorow's Tour of Kensington Valley Stage race, day one.
*I might need to start mowing the lawn a little bit more