Shake and Bake

Here we are, boys and girls- It's already mid August, and the road season is almost over. This year's season ran a bit long in the tooth and by July I felt about as burnt out as a stoner at Burning Man... I guess going full-bore starting with training camp in Feb until now takes its toll (and i don't think I'm the only one...) The ennui of late summer bike racing was taking its toll, but now three things have happened that have set the fire in my loins once again:

1. Cyclocross season's around the corner!!!! If I have any hope of finishing in the middle of the pack as a newly minted cat 3 in CX, I better start training more...
2. The team has been absolutely kicking ASS lately. 2 wins in the park by Zak, Alvin winning Tokeneke (and finally getting his cat 3 upgrade), and the little stunt Zak and I pulled at Lou Maltese (more on that below)
3. For some god-forsaken reason, I'm pre-reg'ed to do the Green Mountain Stage race. After last year's spectacle* you think i would have learned my lesson, but no.

So in order to not embarrass myself too much at GMSR or in the 09 CX season, I've ramped up my training again. I know, coach roger must be so proud. It's easy to let yourself go for a few weeks after racing pretty much nonstop since march, but I've toned down my normal diet (not really) and started putting some real miles in again.

So onto Last Sunday:

I'd never actually raced Lou Maltese before, but it's widely known as the Ultimate-mega-Excitable-cat-4-world-championships. Needless to say, this race was in our sights. The race started out in a similar fashion to CRCA races, with the addition of some non-CRCA jokers from Bklyn and Queens (Kissena, etc). It was pretty much guaranteed that it was going to be a sprint finish, what with the entire excitable cat 4's in the bunch. There were numerous half-assed attempts at breaks, but the field never let anything stick for more than 1/3rd of a lap. I played my usual be-lazy-and-don’t-do-any-work,-you-fat-sprinter card. The rest of our team did a few leg openers, with Zak, Beckerman, Tim, and Chad attacking a few times. Nothing special. The non-sprinters did a good job of helping to rein in whatever did go.

Coming into the last lap, Reggie and Zak stuck near the front. I waited till the west side/tavern to get into position- looking for my leadout of destiny- AKA TIM ROGERS.

Tim's surgical precision in the leadout is remarkable- he’s steady, finds great lines, and guides you to victory with perfect timing. I stuck onto Tim’s wheel like Britney Spears at an all-you-can-eat-buffet. Zak was on my wheel, waiting to do his thing. I had been anticipating giant leadout trains from Setanta and NYVelocity, but nothing came around. I kept an eye on "Union" Steve Marmo, who I had been talking sh!t to all week. I was praying he wouldn't whip out a tire iron and take a swipe at me mid sprint (kidding!)- he's been racing strong and i made sure i knew where he was. With 1 or 2 K to go, Beckerman goes off on a flyer. The field freaks out, knowing he's a TT monster, and the whole pack sped up and got strung out trying to chase him. I think this was extremely beneficial to our finish, as we had a great position when it got strung out.

As we got to the boathouse, Tim was chugging along. The Sprinter on Organic tried to go early and we followed. Tim rammed us about 1/3rd of the way up

Cats paw and then Zak and I went. Zak came around me and I started to sprint. Our timing was perfect and no one was getting around us. It's a great feeling when you know you're golden before you cross the line- it’s almost surreal; it goes in slow motion. I vaguely remember hearing Steve curse my name.

The minute we crossed the line 1-and-2, we did a Guido Fistpump and screamed in victory. We showed up to the Cat 4 World series and dominated on our home turf. Everyone played their part- we won because everyone raced well and for the team. Reggie, Chad, Tim, Zak- I'm so glad that we get to race together! my "oh" face even made an appearance:

This month has by far been the best month for the team so far. We're finally coming into our own, and done with the growing pains of a new team. Everyone’s racing their strengths, and we're taking advantage of those strengths with our solid, selfless teamwork. I'm so proud of our guys!

I didn't remember this right away, but before the race i had called that we would finish 1st and 2nd. As Andy Shen was photographing that day, and apparently I made sure to remind him of my prediction mid-race:

If you think that's a shocker symbol I'm throwing up, well then you don't know me very well. I'm a polite, meek person who isn't fond of the spotlight at all. I'm also 6 feet tall and have a full head of hair. Ladies?

This latest result puts me within earshot of a cat 3 upgrade. No, really- stop laughing. that wasn't supposed to be a joke!

Note- due to the lack of an actual "podium" for the podium shot, it looks like I came in 3rd if you go by height order. next time I'll wear risers in my Sidis.

*Last year's GMSR incident involved a hilarious road race stage, where i took a wrong turn, did 15 extra miles, bonked, got severe GI distress and had to poop my brains out at a pizzeria at 11:30 AM right before hitting the final climb. I proceeded to get passed by Evie Stevens, who had probably started about 1 hr after me.

3-UP

If i was any more lacksadaisical about updating, I'd be the Terry Schiavo of the blogosphere....

The racing season's is here in full force, and there was no easing into it- When your first race of the season is a 103 mile death march in the middle of nowhere, Louisiana- your racing season gets a swift kick-in-the-pants hello.

Rouge Roubaix

Photo courtesy of Tim Mueller

I could go into long, long explicit detail about this race, but i'll keep it short: It was the hardest race I've ever done, and probably one of the hardest races a cat four (and definitely a cat 5) can do. 103 miles, 3 dirt sections (mile 20, 60, 84, respectively) totaling 30 miles, with multiple 10-15% grade unpaved climbs in the later sections. aside from the un-pave, there's also 30 miles of really bad chip-seal to contend with. Not a course for Zipp 404's by any means. I slapped on a pair of Vittoria Open Corsa tires to keep from flatting like last year. Tim and i rode pretty well- Tim took 11th, which was a great result for him. I ended up coming in 18th- two spots better than last year. I had hoped to do better than that but the remnants of a stomach bug had killed my appetite the morning of the race, and i was bonking by the end. I've never been so happy to finish a race before. every part of me was cooked- my arms and hands could barely hold onto the bars after being accosted with over 5 hrs of shitty gravel and chip seal. anyone who's interested in learning more about this race should check out the excellent article in the times two weeks ago . Sure, its a bit odd for a mediocre cat 4 to be mentioned in the new york times twice in 6 months (and lets not forget the bicycling magazine spread), but my publicist says its perfectly natural. Once I'm done with my book tour things should calm down...

Photo Courtesy of Tim Mueller

Grant's Tomb



to be honest, i almost didn't do this race. on paper, cold, early season cat 4 crits are generally a bigger disaster than a Sham Wow encounter with a hooker (zing!). Peer pressure got the best of me, however, and I signed up for the 4 race. I'm glad i did! i was able to get my first podium in an open cat 4 race! aside from a gym workout that wrecked my legs, i hadn't done much that prior week- as i was recovering from the roubaix. I made sure to embrocate everything (even the naughty bits) and warm up for a good, long time. As our kits hadn't arrived yet and I didn't want to confuse any NYVelocity team members, I donned the oldschool CRCA logo and raced incognito.

when i did this race last year, I remember being in pain. it was early in the season and I hadn't done much intensity. I struggled in the middle of the pack, and accelerations made me want to have a good cry. This year, all the volume from Arizona and the roubaix seemed to pay off- my legs felt good, and i could stay near the front without much problem. sure, my HR was in the 190's for most of the race, but the legs felt good.

The race had its sketchy moments (As all cat 4 crits/nascar races do) i dodged a few crashes and survived someone bumping into me (unlike your mom, i don't go down that easily- DAMN!). As we got to the final lap, i positioned myself somewhere in the top 15. we zoomed through the sweeping 180 and into the final stretch. the final leg of the course is deceptively long. many people sprint too early, and they become other people's leadouts. i waited long enough and was able to accelerate past a good deal of people. i looked to my right and was sprinting against an NYVC member- i threw my bike and barely cinched 3rd. ahead of me was an MIT rider and a Rutgers guy.



After my heart rate came back down from 204, i took my victory lap, kissed a baby, signed some autographs, grabbed my hefty 3rd place race winnings ($40! i could buy TWO sham-wows and a slap chop with that!) and headed to Dinosaur BBQ for some celebratory pork. again, I'm a master at undo-ing any benefits i reap from training.




CRCA Race

Yesterday's CRCA race was like the first day of high school- everyone's got their new outfits and wants to show off what they'd been doing since last year. Our kits had come in the week before, and they look FREAKING AWESOME.



Whats nice about being the guy who places the kit order is that you get the kit delivered to your place. all 150 Lbs of spandex. Me= Kid in a candy store.




David really did an awesome job at designing these, and the folks at Hincapie did an awesome job making them and getting the order through with a minimum of fuss (Thanks Angela!) I definitely recommend them if you're looking for new kits for your team. I also made sure to check for sizing discrepancies before handing them out- I personally tried on EVERY single pair of Bibs to make sure they were true to size (Alvin, sorry if i stretched yours out a bit). Sometimes I wonder if being this good a teammate goes unnoticed...




That being said, our very awesome, very white kits got broken in really really quickly after yesterdays Belgian shitfest of a race. My legs felt good, but when a break developed with two of our guys in it, we let it go. a few more people bridged up to the break and it became a bit unwieldy, but the weather seemed to deter people from chasing. at that point i wanted our guys in the break to have a chance of doing something so i sat back and twiddled my figurative thumbs. i didn't even realized we were in the final sprint when it happened. Note to teammates: please let me know when we're on our final lap- I'm not very good with numbers...

So the race was was wet, grimy, cold, and awesome. We all finished the race in drenched spandex, and looking like we just finished filming a German porno.




Next week is the CRCA Points race. I'm pumped. hopefully we can pull something off- it's going to take teamwork and some cojones.

Also- on Sunday Jed and i are throwing a little party. Maybe you've heard of it? The Tour of Flanders Viewing party is Happening on Sunday, April 5th- 5PM @ BXL Cafe on 43rd between 6th and b-way. We've got beer money (you can thank sponsors Visitflanders.us and rapha for that), and an awesome raffle with tons of prizes. all of the money from the raffle goes to the CRCA junior dev program, so come drink beer and (potentially) win some awesome prizes such as a Schwinn fastback CX bike, delicious Sportique Chamois Cream, Wafel Gift certificates from Wafels & Dinges, Schwag from NYC Velo, and Many more! plus, we have a pretty freakin' sweet flyer. how can you say no??




Till then, its training, and being miserable at work for yours truly. It's good to be back.

Out with the road and in with the Cross

I've been going full throttle with racing since late march, and started to relax and taper a week or two ago. I was starting to feel constantly tired and burnt out, and ready for the road season to end. All those hours in the saddle had been starting to wear on me after training and racing for so long. Hence why I'm so looking forward to cyclocross season. I'm ready to relax. I'm ready to get out of the city every weekend, and get back into a scene thats a bit more relaxed and a bit more fun than the at-times tense and elitist road scene can be. It's fun as hell to go all out for 45 minutes, get extremely dirty, and then drink a beer and ring some cowbell. I'm so pumped i could poop myself. I'm in much better shape than last year, and my cross bike is just a bit more obnoxious than before. you might think the gold Chris king headset and carbon bars are ostentatious, but how else am i ever going to win a cross race?!?!?!?.

Two Weeks ago Bear Mountain was supposed to happen. I'm not going to say that i was praying for it to be canceled, but it really did make my weekend all the more pleasant... Any weekend where I'm not getting dropped on Tiorati is a good weekend to me...
Our team got together for an epic ride up to Cold Spring- north of Bear mountain. the weather was perfect, and after our normal combination of crashes/sprints/shit talking, we all ended up at a restaurant in Cold Spring, totally Bonked out. Bacon cheeseburgers never tasted so good. I couldn't remember the last "fun" ride i had been on- a ride without a training goal or mileage to prep for a race- it was great. everyone had a great time (including Ethan, who apparently has an asphalt fetish and loves to make out with it whenever he can)

This weekend was a weekend of transition- Friday was my 24th Birthday, and instead of getting wasted, i went to Le Bernardin for dinner and then rode in a cross race the next morning. Classy!

Chad and I headed over to Augusta (cyclocross capital of NJ) to hop some barriers and get dirty. They were giving away a Van Dessel to the person who won the hole shot, so the C field was quite a talented one. it was pretty funny seeing cat 2 and 3 roadies show up for a C race. Fun times nonetheless. The course was full of turns that went from grass to loose gravel in the middle of the turn, and they were particularly treacherous. as i was practicing, i completely slid out on one of the turns due to my tire pressure being too hi. I must've bent my derailleur hanger as well, because after five minutes my chain ended up in my spokes and i had a snapped spoke to deal with. fifteen minutes before the start.

i ripped the bad spoke out and got a crash course in re-truing wheels. given that i had never re-trued a wheel before i think i did a pretty good job...



The cross race started faaaaast. the Adler guys went off to do whatever adler guys do at the front of races (i haven't had the pleasure of being up there yet, but i hear the occasional act of man love happens during the sprint). I did my thing and focused on staying fluid and finding a good rhythm . I passed a few people during the race, and learned how to better deal with long off-camber sections (keep pedaling) the run up was fine and the course was sort of technical and tons of fun. Came in 13th out of about 44 starters. fine by me. I'm so ready for cross.




That being said, I rode this morning's CRCA race- it was the team finale- 2.5X team points. as our team was ahead, we wanted to keep the race aggressive and solidify our first place standing. The first lap alone was stupid fast, and people kept being aggressive. while our team didn't manage any solid results, kyle and i did mix it up in the sprint- i believe we were both top 15. Next time I'll try to avoid the guy that decides to stop sprinting in the middle of the field sprint (not naming names). Nevertheless I thought the race was really fun and I'm 90% sure we've retained our 1st place standing in the team cup.



This week is a great time to reflect on the past road season. Today's race marked the 1 yr anniversary of me bike racing. I still remember being terrified at the idea of being dropped during that first CRCA race, and was so proud of myself to not get dropped during that first race. over the year, I hooked up with a great team that really had alot to do with why i enjoyed racing so much this past year. the very fact that they put up with my obnoxious ramblings every time we ride is amazing in and of itself I love riding with them, and They're a big reason why i have so much fun doing all this.



I've ridden god-knows-how-many miles and spent too many hrs on the trainer at 5 am in the middle of the winter. I've lost 14 lbs since i started in January and upgraded to a cat 4. I'm looking forward to the next road season to see how i can improve and be a better racer. While we all sacrifice quite a bit of time (and money) to do this sport, i think its one of the best things in our lives. but then again i can only speak for myself.


Time to start training for cross. I'm going to start running stairs and also might take up this new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it's jogging or yogging. it might be a soft J. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild.



Peace out homies- time go to eat sausage and drink wayyyy too much beer.

Surviving Owasco

I love out of town races. To be honest, it's one of my favorite parts of this whole racing thing. I think bike racers living in our lovely but crowded city take a little more from it than the average suburban dude. It's a change to get out of whatever borough you live in, see a little greenery, and enjoy some competition. Out of town races also seem to be more challenging since there's no telling who's going to show up.


I'm no climber, so why in the hell did i even think about doing Owasco??

Well, i think a big part of bike racing is challenging yourself. As a newly upgraded cat 4 with minimal climbing ability (ie: not skinny), I had no illusions of how I would do at Owasco. My goals were to survive the road race, not get a DNF, and do whatever I could in the crit.

Stage races are tough, especially with the Owasco format. a Time trial Sat morning followed by a 30 km crit a few hours later. you've got just enough time in between to eat something and maybe shut your eyes for a few. If that weren't bad enough, you've got a 55 mi road race the next day with 5000 ft of climbing, 3 KOM's and a few sprints in the middle. nasty.

I broke my time trialing Cherry that weekend, but did it cannibal style (curse you, FSA K-wing handlebars)- i didn't expect to do anything spectacular. Chad and I took some time to warm up, which I've been told is probably the most important part of doing well in a TT. does anyone have any good TT warm up routines?

I used the just-don't-come-in-last mentality (while i used alot when i started racing 'cross) and concentrated on keeping my cadence high and the HR up. note: dropping your chain 15 sec before starting is less than ideal. I probably shouldn't have sprinted in a panic to get up to speed.

I'm toying with the idea of building up a TT bike. Question for all 8 of my readers in internet land: When is it appropriate to get one? It seems like a ton of money to spend on something you dont use that often. I figure i can build one up for under 1500 bucks (keeping in mind that i have to use campy)



The crit was probably one of the most interesting ones i've seen (out of all three of them)- there was a sharper-than-90-degree turn just a few hundred feet from the finish line. the rest of the 1 km course was pretty smooth, with a rise on the back end followed by a sweeping descent right before the final turn. After waiting at the start for thirty minutes (can you say cold start?) I found the crit to be pretty fast and just tried to stay close to the front of the pack and not get dropped. I didn't want a three-peat of crit crashes after Harlem and New Britain. as much as i like Campagnolo, i didn't' want to further add to their earning by buying a 3rd set of chorus shifters in a month. noooo thanks. interesting fact: While the internals of campy shifters are rebuildable and repairable, the housing that encases them isnt. if you crack the part that holds the brake lever pivots, you're screwed.

The race went without a hitch- I finished in the pack with a few of my teammates (big ups to Chris Price for nabbing one of the preems), and was happy to not crash for once in a crit. Also a great time for a very pro team shot.



after the crit, I chugged down some chocolate milk and we went to drive the road race course. I was glad we did that- it allowed me to take in the great scenery, cause there wasn't a chance in hell i would be appreciating it while trying not to die the next day.


As the road race began, the peloton stuck together pretty well. the first ten miles of the race were rollers and not too tough. I found the road to be a bit narrow, which made it hard to move around with a full group. no matter. This was going to get ugly in just a few miles.

I must have said the phrase "Son of a bitch..." about 25 times during that whole race. Those hills sucked pretty hard. I came off the back about halfway up the first KOM. I regrouped at the top with a few teammates and some CRBC guys, and off we went with our little chase group. Working well in a chase group is one of my favorite parts of a long bike race. It's great to work together like that with guys from different teams that also have the same affliction of sucking at climbs.

The craziest part of this race had to be the weather. It went from cloudy to sunny to pouring to hailing to sunny, and kept going back and forth. The temperature was all over the place as well. It was a bit of a trip.

Murray Hill was so steep it that it seemed like a joke. I distinctly remember reading the following phrase in the race bible that ht organizers had put together:

"The race IS NOT designed to beat you
into submission. Given the hills we’ve selected along with the distances for each race category, everyone
will enjoy this year’s road stage which allows for adequate recovery between climbs."



Riiiight.


To be honest, I'm glad it was such a hard race event. I was a hell of a challenge, and I had a great time in the process. Definitely one of my favorite race events this season. I'll be back next year for more punishment, and maybe a higher GC spot than 56th place.

Props to my Teammate Rob, Who did well in the road race, sticking with the 1'st chase group and doing well enough to hit up 26th in the GC, even with going cannibal on the TT.

Looking ahead, I'm pretty damn excited about cyclocross season being around the corner. My obnoxious green bike and I are ready to go, and what better place to kick off 'cross season than at the New Jersey State fair?!

Saturday night Fever
a 'cross race.
on saturday night.
in a demolition derby arena.

It's pretty fitting that this is taking place during a new jersey state fair, and I'm thinking it'll be even more fun after a few brewskis

Are performance -detracting drugs prohibited by WADA?

I kid!

look back- Harlem and CRCA race

The last two weeks were a whirlwind- Last Sunday was the Harlem crit, and today was a CRCA race.

Harlem:

I was so stoked for Harlem. I was finally going to try out a crit and give it a shot. it was a combined 4/5 field. it was a beautiful day, hot and sunny.


Our team lined our trainers together for the warm up for the pro effect, and we started spinning- our warm up was cut short since we thought our race was started before it actually did, but no worries.



As the race starts, we go into our first turn. Already someone doesn't hold their line and the go into me. I held my line and didn't give an inch- the guy went down and we kept going. first lesson- hold your line.



There were alot of short accelerations in the race, after pretty much every turn, but I enjoy that sort of effort profile- quick effort, quick recovery. it gets brutal but it keeps the race exciting.



With two laps to go, the crap hit the fan. coming out of turn 4, some guy in front of me (don't know who) just fell. we were going straight, why'd he fall!??!!?

took me and 2 of my teammates down. with two laps to go. ugh.

I guess that's the name of the game in crits- they're aggressive and they're tough. people get tired near the end and they get sloppy. Luckily, I was barely scratched. I didnt let go of the drops when I fell, and my shifters took the blow. Unluckily for me, both of my chorus shifters where totalled, and i snapped a front spoke. ah well. I walked back to the start and watched the rest of the races.



Big ups to my boy Bill$$ for taking such awesome Pictures. especially of me. way to encourage a narcissist, bro. I didn't even care that I crashed since he had gotten some great shots of me!

Since I refuse to pay $340 for a new set of shifters, I ordered them for $200 new @ totalcycling.com; downside is I have to wait for them to get here. I've been on my 'cross bike all week (although it was a rest week, and a much appreciated one).

Today was a long CRCA race. I realized it was my 10th cat 5/C race, so i figured I'd have some fun with it- try some tactics I'd never tried, be a little crazy. It was a 6 lap race- I rolled up with my obnoxiously green cross bike and off we went.

Our team kept it aggressive at the beginning to thin out the herd. there were a couple of sketchy riders out there, and I wanted to avoid them. two and a half laps into the race, I see one of my teammates and on of the Juniors, Liam, break off. I followed suite, along with a few other guys. we kept the pace up, and once we got into a good rotating paceline, it was just the three of us.

I was worried about staying in a 3 man break for 3 and a half laps- I've never pulled something like that before (Especially not on a cross bike). I'm usually more of a hang-in-the-peloton-and-do-no-work-until-the-sprint sort of guy, but I figured why not.

It was a hard, hard effort. we kept the pulls short and sweet, and Kyle and Liam were strong and smooth (much like the drinks i'll be having tonight). I was losing track of the laps again -

"is this the last lap?!?"
"2 to go!"
"shit...."

we stayed away and built a pretty good lap- about 1 minutes 30 from what I was told.



As we came around horseshit alley, I heard two dogs on the road- unleashed. I screamed and let out a fury of expletives and the dogs and the owner- mostly to scare the dogs off the road, but also cause I was LIVID. this new leash rule in central park is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It's a liability to both dogs and cyclists to let them run free like that with an active roadway right in the park! I'm all for dogs running and having a good time, but it needs to be a fenced in area. I heard that one of the female racers had an accident this morning because of a dog as well. Dog owners- please. If you care about your dog, leash them when near the road.

As we got to the boathouse, kyle asked for a lead-out for the win. why the hell not- he had been super strong all day. I pushed up the hill and off he went. I saw Liam ahead of me- we lined up side by side, I shook his hand, and we sprinted for second.



I nipped him at the line, but it was close. He's a strong kid, a class act, and only 16- I scared to see what he'll be riding like in 3 or 4 yrs...

We had a great break and it stuck- I'd be lying if i said it wasn't the most exciting (and painful) experience I've had in a while. Awesome.

ok, time to drink!