Knock-down-drag-out

I did the Brumby ride this morning. It was super intense.

I attacked on Bush highway and formed a break with a WebOp rider. The lead group caught us a mile into Usery Pass. The pack had gone from ~15 riders to 7 riders, and all of the remaining riders were on WebOp. Those guys were flying, and I just managed to hop onto their rotation. When I made my pull, a Reedy brother attacked. I got on his wheel, and then another Reedy brother attacked. I followed him and counterattacked. He covered me immediately, and I realized that I was blowing myself up. Another attack went, and I couldn't hang. I was sixth up the climb, but I did it in 13:18, which is definitely moving.

All in all, it was quite the ride.

BikeBoy's Apologies

I may have lead many riders to believe that Gabe Santoyo is a sandbagger. I was surprised to see him racing the 5s at San Tan, because he has won quite a few races. It turns out, however, that he already put in his upgrade request and was...denied. He hadn't completed his 10 mass starts, which seems to be a compulsory must in Arizona.
My bad, Gabe, please forgive me for judging you.

San Tan Crit: Report

Junior Race:

There were probably 30 juniors, with a wide range of abilities. Strada had a large presence, as well as Yuma and Two Wheel Jones. My teammates Austin and Garrett raced.

My mindset was to attack. My goal was to get into a break with another rider. I told Taylor Skinner that I would be attacking a lot and wanted him to join me.

Breaking away proved quite difficult, but I kept on pressuring the field. Several Yuma riders opened up gaps, but their attacks proved in vain. The race unfolded with 3/10s of a mile left. Braden Sherwood attacked hard, with Taylor glued to his wheel. I didn't react quickly enough, but I found the wheel of Nick, who was fighting hard. Nick didn't quite make the junction up to them. We hit the last corner, and I sprinted across, catching Braden but not Taylor. Taylor cruised to the victory, and I took second.

I rested up for a few hours and watched my teammates race. My dad was not feeling well after spending the entire week on the road and off the bike. He rolled in for 11th or 12th in the Masters 40+. DNA did uber well in the 4/5s, with Jake getting 7th. It was a good day for the team. Bernie came out to cheer us on. She was a great cheerleader.

Cat 3/4

In the pit of my stomach, I knew that George Cyrus was going to slip away and win the silly race. Lo and behold, he took off with 3 other riders 10 minutes into the race. Brian and I chased furiously to no avail. Webop, Watts Up, Bicycle Ranch, and another team were represented. No one wanted to catch the break. I finished 21st, with Brian 11th, I believe. Darin and Jake were middle-of-the-pack.

Cat 2/3

My legs felt fine, and the spirit seemed wiling.

I clung to the pack all race long. Fortunately a 5 man break got off halfway through, almost guaranteeing I would survive. It was super painful, but I made it, as did Brian.

I would classify it as an epic day. Much suffering was had. It was glorious.

TBC Media

Video

URide TV

Pictures

Mason Ibas

Chris Hinkle

Tucson Velo

Tucson Bicycle Classic: Report

This was a great way to wrap up my spring break. The whole family (minus Maria- she was at college) went down to Tucson, and we stayed at a super nice hotel.

Prologue

I had put in a good amount of training on the Black Widow, and I had a good grasp of what I was capable of. I had done a 3.2 mile test, putting out 288 watts for 8 minutes. This was my target power for TBC.

I wasn't able to put out that much power at TBC. The prologue started on a downhill. I essentially blew myself up spinning at a high cadence. I should have lowered my power and spent it more on the uphill. I put in 266 watts- which is super bad- and finished in 29th (out of 50) with a time of 8:41. My teammate Brian took 13th, 32 seconds off the lead. My dad smoked the course in 8:02 to finish 6th in the Masters 45 category. My teammates Marc, David, Brad, Jake, Darin, Goran, and Pete all did pretty well. I probably shouldn't post every little detail about the results, because that would massively enlarge the content of this post. Check out the results- there were some pretty dang fast times.

Road Race

60 miles on a 20 mile course. It features rollers, a sharp descent, rollers, a long descent, a flat section, then a false flat to the finish. I lined up at the back with Brian, and spent the entire race trying to get to the front. I was pretty comfortable all race long. The only hard part was on the second lap when the group really hammered. With 3 miles to go, I snagged a free ride up the front! Several attacks threatened the pack, but they eventually faded. Webop had Luke Dale in the leader's jersey, and they controlled the race for him. I think Alan Brown (pure climber- tied with Brian on GC) attacked hard and strung out the group. He faded, and I found my self in good position. The finish came up quicker than I expected. I stepped on the gas and passed as many people as I could pass to finish 7th! Cool! It was a large pack finish, but the peleton had been confined to half the road. No changes on GC. My dad had a frustrating race; despite his efforts, the pack let the breakaway slip away. The Cat 4 field was halved, but Jake, David, and Marc made the selection.

Circuit Race

Two words: painful. The circuit race was 39 miles over a 5.5 mile course. This course is WAY harder than the road race. The course turns right onto a series of rollers (heavily eroded road), goes through a significant climb (feed zone), heads downhill, makes a right turn onto more rolling roads (better pavement), and turns right heading towards an uphill finish. There was a crosswind after the first right turn.

Again, I got a poopy starting position. The race was very very fast. Webop was drilling us the entire race. A selection occurred on lap 3, which featured a sprint bonus. Several guys in front of me were popped; I suffered big time. Thankfully, Brian and I survived. The pain was crazy; I got that thing that I think is called tunnel vision. 6 riders broke off and stayed away. I finished 9th in the field sprint, just behind Brian. We took 16th and 15th. Brian was 13th overall, and I was 20th. We were just happy to survive that circuit race.

My dad had a great race. He took third and took sixth overall! Those were the highs of Sunday for DNA; there were a lot of lows. Our Cat 4s had a rough time of it- especially Jake, who flatted 100meters in and lost his powertap monitor. The field was flying.

Goran got 10th out of 20 in the 15-16s. He is improving every race.

There's so much stuff that happened this weekend. All can say is it was great for my confidence. I enjoyed it a lot. I am thankful to God and my family that I was able to race it!

Milan-San Remo

It's 298 kilometers long and incredibly hard. This year, I believe, will be even harder.

It's always a question of "Will the climbers attack?", "Will the sprinters hang on", and "How hard will the last few climbs be?"In 2008 the peleton was exposed to a late

Fabian Cancellara attack that won the race.

In 2009 the sprinters were put in little danger on the climb of the Poggio, and Mark Cavendish sealed the deal.

2010 Gilbert, Rogers, and Pozzatto attacked hard on the Poggio, but their efforts were in vain.

Oscar Freire took the win.The usual suspects will be attacking on the hills, plus more. I don't think Petacchi will be Lampre's sprinter; I suspect they will set Scarponi and Cunego loose. I anticipate the peleton narrowing down to 20 riders.

1. Gilbert

2. Visconti

3. Haussler

4. Goss

5. Freire

That's a pretty bold prediction. It probably won't stand. If Cavendish hangs on, he will win, but I don't think he'll make it. The climbers haven't succeeded in a long time, and statistically, their odds get better every year.

The Scoop

I'm going to Nationals this year! It's scheduled for the third week of June, right after Camp. The venue is Augusta Georgia. Check it out here.

TBC

Due to a wonderful change of plans, we will be racing the Tucson Bicycle Classic. There's a short prologue, a road race with about 3,000' of climbing (not that hilly though), then a circuit race that is pretty punchy. It should be killer fun.

5 hours

Until Spring Break.

Tirreno Adriatico

The Race of the Two Seas is upon us (I learned in Geography class about the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas). This race will be interesting. The race isn't super mountainous; the hills seem to favor the puncheurs. The TTT and the 9km ITT will affect the race drastically.

1. T Machado

2. S Garzelli

3. C Evans

4. M Scarponi

5. G Visconti

6. T Lokvist

7. J Rodriguez

8. F Cancellara

9. R Gesink

10. D Cunego

Paris-Nice Prediction

1. J Brajkovic
2. S Chavanel
3. LL Sanchez

Long Ride

Sorry for my lack of posting in the last 3 days. I rode 107 miles on Saturday. My dad and Phil accompanied me to Scottsdale and back. It was pretty epic.

I'm feeling a little down in the dumps today. We were all signed up to do the Dana Point Grand Prix in California on May 1, then I realized that I made a commitment to the school play on that weekend. I only signed up to be an extra in it, but even a minimal role takes up Friday and Saturday. I have a massive problem with people using me. I only joined the play out of compassion, but people have a way of guilting me to do many things. That's something I need to work on.

Tuesday Night Worlds: Report

We had Tuesday Night Worlds on Thursday night: revolutionary.

I raced the Bs (which are category 3 and 4) and the As (cats 1-4). There were probably 25 riders in the Bs, and I had my teammates Jake and Marc. Web-Op had a very large presence. They got one of their boys in an early break with a Bike Ranch rider. They built up a large lead on the .3 mile course. I attempted to bridge up to them and actually got some separation. I couldn't close the distance, and the field swept me up. The break lapped the field. I didn't feel like sprinting in for 13th again, so I give attacking a try. I put in a nice dig. Even though it failed and I finished at the back of the pack, I am quite happy about it. Jake and Marc got something around 1oth place.

Shaving My Legs

I don't know why I was so afraid of shaving my legs at first. As a freshman, I was tired of being ridiculed for it. It took some will power to start shaving, but now it's all too natural. I think my smooth legs make me an asset to my school community. The diversity is nice.

A couple months back, I gave a speech on leg-shaving (in my speech class). My time constraints were very short, so I did a very poor job of leg shaving. My leg was kind of bloody, and I missed a good deal of hair. Any way, that's my story.