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.

Back to it

Holy Crap, the racing season's been going on for a month now! Time's really been flying, and I've been slacking off in writing about my triumphant mediocrity in the for of big, bad cat 4 racing...

the Rouge Roubaix was exactly what i needed to kick start the season- it was a bit of a shock to the system to do a race that long, but i think that doing a crazy, big race early in the season is a great way to set the tone for future races and the rest of the year. Sure, it might be a little stupid to have your first race be a 100 mile suffer-fest in a place you've never ridden before, but hey, it was fun. Go big or go home .

Including the roubaix, I'm about 4 races into the season. Here's a quick rundown of how they've gone so far:



Grant's tomb was a week after I got back from Lousiana so I figured why not. For yours truly, Grant's tomb was a "try not to die while riding in an early season cat 4 crit" sort of race. I've had the fantastic luck of crashing in about half the crits I've done- apparently i really love riding right behind that one guy who thinks taking a normal, 90 degree turn involves making out with the pavement.

That being said, Grant's tomb turned out to be a fun, intense race. The weather was infinitely better than last year (which was canceled), and it was about 50 degrees outside when we started the race. By the way, racing at 2 pm? Fantastic. races are that much more fun when you can see outside and you aren't freezing your huevos off...

my goals for grants tomb were to um, not crash, to stay in the pack, and to get my picture taken as much as possible- here's a great shot of myself and fellow blogger Brian Gatens (pre-shattered collarbone- more on that later)



The race was definitely tough, and i think everyone was quickly reminded how painful and intense crits are. my HR didn't go below 185 the whole time. I finished with the pack- happy that i hadn't been dropped. It definitely pays to stay near the front of the pack in a crit, and i'll definitely remember that for next time. staying in the middle means you deal with the yo-yo effect every time you come up to a turn. Anyway, the 4 race was fun, and minus a few close calls, it was relatively safe (minus the finish line debacle involving one guy and a whole set of guard rails...

After GT, the two following races have been CRCA races, which have been a ton of fun. I really enjoy the park races because you start to learn who everyone is and what they tend to do in race situations. We've definitely been trying to be more active from a strategy perspective, and I think it's made for more fun and more dynamic racing.



The race on March 29th was interesting, to say the least. People started attacking, and eventually i goaded one of our newer teammates, Zack, into attacking. It ended up sticking and eventually a 12 man break (including Mr. Gatens), was about 45 seconds ahead of the field. because we had a guy up there, we did our best to control the field. except for the Metro guys and some unattached racers, everyone had someone in the break, so that discouraged the field from attacking too much. That being said, the Metro guys wanted in and were attacking fairly constantly. I was going to sit my ass in the back until the end but decided to help out in chasing those guys down. not sure if that was the smart move, but i figured I'd mix it up and have a little fun.


By the end of the race, the break started falling apart, because we caught sight of them with less than a mile to go at the finish- the field sprint pretty much overtook the break right before the finish, which made for quite the cluster fuck... I had a decent position going in, and as i started sprinting, i saw bunch of guys (Gatens was one of them) go down right in front of me, and had to swerve around them. I snuck into top 10 with an 8th place finish, and that was that. unfortunately Brian ended up breaking his collarbone in 4 places and breaking a rib or two. Brian, I hope you're feeling ok and healing quickly!

photo courtest of andy shen

Last week's race was pretty fun- the weather was 50 degrees and wet- it made for a pretty dirty race experience. I really like racing in crappy conditions, by the way. it makes it all the more satisfying on some level

during the race, people tried to make moves, and we were making an effort to attack and set up counters- but non of the breaks seemed to stick.. The end was a pretty standard field sprint finish, and I had a good position going in. It was a cat's paw finish, and I started my sprint too early. I ended up getting 6th, but i think i could have done better if i had tacked on someone's wheel for a little longer and waited to unleash the fury from my buttery thighs....



Ah well, At least Bill showed up to take awesome pictures and fuel my unfounded narcissism....



Saturday is a Points race- I'm looking forward to it- it's a fun race format and it'll be fun to see how it plays out. All I know is that I'm a month into my Bacon Strike, and i'm really in need of some delicious, crispy, applewood smoked pork product, asap. The minute i win one of these races, I'm running to a deli and ordering an obscene amount of bacon. I'll stuff it in my back jersey pocket and just eat it on the way up to Piermont. I'll dip it in my coffee, wrap my bunbury muffin in it, and use it as a boot in my tire if i rip my sidewall... why is bacon so delicious??


After the weekend I'll be tapering for Battenkill. This is one of my favorite races and I'm hoping to really push it and do well- it's going to be a big, talented field up there, and it's going to be an epic race. What's going to happen? who will win? will adler ride a smart race? will some anonymous Upstate hardman win? Will CJIA every get to eat bacon again? I'm also hoping for nasty weather so that the course favors people who know how to climb up muddy crap (cyclocrossers). I'm also lookin forward to chugging some chimay blue at the end of that.

Oh, and we just got our new team bikes. They're pretty hot.


Cyfac and cadence did a bang up job of getting these together, and Ostroy, Matt richards, and David Trumph did a really nice job with the design. so pro! (if by pro you mean being mediocre but owning all the equipment that someone who gets paid to race uses)