Race updates...

Hey all, It has been a while between updates, but I've been busy racing my bicycle.

The plan at the start of the year was to step back from the bike a little bit, race less, spend more time with friends etc. As my co workers would say the goal was to let "fun Jamie" live a little more this spring and summer. Thus far I think the mission is going well, and surprisingly I'm racing as well or better than ever. I've had a handful of top-ten finishes including a 9th place dig at my first NRC crit of the year. In addition to personal exploits, the team has been killing it. We've won a few races and had been on the podium every weekend up until a week ago. Furthermore we've got a little swagger and are driving the race action.

A few weeks back I went up to Delaware to race a crit solo. I had forgotten how the dynamic changes when you are the only person from your team in the race. I liked the course, despite a spooky last corner with oncoming traffic (like the Marian crit). It actually reminded me of the winfield twilight with a less technical downhill. In any case I figured it was a day to let small groups go and use the climb to launch bridging moves. A little over halfway in a group of 4 rolled off and got a good gap. A few laps later I bridged solo. Two more came across a lap or so later and all teams were represented so we rolled away. With two to go John Minturn took a solo flyer from our group and stuck it to the line by ~10 sec. I took the sprint for second. For my efforts my teammates awarded me with the "brass balls". We've been passing these around amongst the team all season.

Race like you got a pair.

Two weekends ago several of us rolled north for the Bear Mountain spring classic in Harriman state park, NY. Our drive took us through NJ and really close to my old hood. So close that we took a detour to stop at my favorite bakery Calandra's in Fairfield. I had tried to explain how awesome this place is, but Jake was dumbstruck when he walked in. Cookies, pastries, bread, gelato, coffee, you name it. It took us 15 mins of browsing to decide what to get. I opted for the traditional Italian canolli and sfogliatelle while Jake grabbed cookies and gelato.

The course was a 21 mile "out and back" of which we did 3 3/4 laps. Each lap had a fairly steep 2-mile climb. This is where the action would go down for sure. The race never got too aggressive until the last time up the climb (which occurred with 18 or so miles to go. We hit the base of the climb and things started to heat up. I started to fade and just couldn't keep the pace. This is a strange experience as most of the races we do have short steep climbs. On those you pretty much ride all out until you pop. here I just couldn't keep the pace and slowly drifted out the back. I ended up in a chase with my teammates Jeff and Nate (who was in a break that got caught at the base of the climb). Up the road, Jake, Kevin Todd and Blair did battle. A two man group slipped away and despite our boys chasing with AXA, and Jamis the gap was never closed. They set Jake up for the sprint and he ended up taking 8th. Not his best result, but it was good enough to get him a free ride to the Nature Valley Grand Prix this summer. Super pumped for him.

This past weekend was the start of our big east coast crit season with Wilmington (NRC) and our home race, Bike Jam.

After getting shelled last year (save rick who was in the top 20) the rest of the squad was out to redeem themselves at Wilmington. The course was changed from last year to include an extra one-block square turning the course into a figure-eight. I welcomed this change as it would give a little respite from the long uphill and downhill false flat stretches that are always strung out single file.

I officially returned to bike racing by hitting the deck with ~15 laps to go. It was a low speed crash in a corner but i got run into by another rider (i think) taking a knee (?) to the head. I've never been so dazed after a crash. I made it to the pits and got pushed back in only to have it start raining a few laps later. Apparently I'm a trend setter and the entire top 20 of the field decided to fall en mass on the rain slicked downhill of the course. I was able to slip by without any trouble and stayed in the top 20 for the rest of the race. A few guys took flyers off the front a got away. It was just too hard to chase as a group with the wet turns. I ended up 5th in the sprint and 9th over all. The rest of the guys got shuffled back in the crashes and todd was just out of the money in 31st.

Sunday was our home race, Bike Jam. The team had some great results with Nima wining the masters 35+ race out of a 4-man break including Rick. Probably the most impressive win of the day was by Michael Choen in the Cat IV race. He went solo with 5-6 laps to go and stuck it by 8 seconds at the line. Alex and a few other teammates did a great job defending the break, somewhat unusual for that level of racing. It was great to see our team represent at home.

In the P/1/2 race the plan was to be aggressive and try to spring a break that we could win from. We were aggressive but the pro teams there were looking for a field sprint so despite our best efforts it just wasn't to be. We certainly animated the race with lots of attacks, and Evan and Nate were able to grab some primes along the way. We all got a bit bunched for the finish and ended up 14th (me), 15th (Jeff), 19th (Jake), and the rest of the squad back in the bunch. I'm really proud of the way we raced and think that we are going to get some great results at the upcoming big races (CSC, AirForce Classic, etc).

The highlight of the weekend has to be racing at home in front of friends. I have to give big shouts out to my Housemates Laura, and Stacy who showed up with signs.

I love my girls.

Stacy was also bold enough to bring her Father (visiting from out of town) and her Beau, Chuck to the race; they all had a good time. Lastly the crew from Team That's What She Said was there in force. While they are mostly runners they always have a good time watching us ride in circles.

Spring Break days 1 & 2...

As some of you know I took a little vacation this past week. I headed to the mountains of North Carolina for a little bike riding with the U of Wisconsin cycling team. One the front end of the trip I swung through Charlottesville, VA for the beginning of the racing season: the Jeff Cup Road Race.

I had a relaxing saturday morning which consisted of an easy spin and packing my shit for a week long bike vacation. Lots of spandex and a few t-shirts was all I really needed. Tank on the other hand brought a full suitcase and a laundry basket full of clothing. I got on the road in the late afternoon as I was to arrive in C-Ville a little before 8PM, where I would rendezvous with Sophia for some dinner.

It had been about 2 years since we had last seen each other (bike and build?), and it was nice to catch up. Sadly, she was in the middle of a big mid-term review for one of her arch classes so her time was limited. This may sound strange but this is one of the first times I've noticed the one of my friends is growing up. I think mostly this has to do with our age difference and the long gap between seeing each other. In any case Sophia is not the same girl I remember from our days in C-U or at bike and build. A lot can change in a few years. It is not even a level of maturity (she has always been mature), it is more her perspective in life; a little more far sighted. Though the time spent was brief, it was good to catch up, and I'm glad to say that one of my friends is on her way to a good life.

After spending the night on Sophia's floor I stumbled out into a cold rainy morning in search of a proper bike race breakfast, while she ran off to the Gym and then back to the studio. I located the nearest diner and ordered the largest breakfast plate they had to offer. After eating I headed over to the race course to do some last min bike maintenance and suit up for the race.

The weather was chilly with light showers coming and going, the day had potential to be brutal, but only time would tell. We had a solid crew of 8 in the 1/2/3 race and planned on playing it cool for the first few laps and then trying to get a few of our strong guys into a good break. I was on escort duty, with R, to shepherd our two protected riders (Evan and Blair).

For the most part things went as planned, We covered early moves, and then started to animate the race. About halfway through the 77 mile race the skies opened up. A cool day quickly turned into a downright frigid one. Low 40's with cold pouring rain are not the ideal race conditions. Shortly after the rain started we put the right guys up the road with Blair, Evan and R making the winning break. Back in the field we did our best to shut things down and let the gap get out to a comfortable margin. Up front things got interesting with the main break fragmenting into several smaller groups. Blair ended up in the lead break with two others and finished 3rd. A little ways back, Evan and R took 5th and 7th, while Jeff Took the bunch sprint on my group for 9th. I was 17th and pretty well destroyed I tried to sprint, but my legs just struggled to turn the pedals over. To sum it up I think we raced really well. We put the right guys in the right move(s), and while getting 3rd out of a 3 man break is a little disappointing, it is a bike race,and sometimes doing things right is not enough. For sure the weather conditions played a factor in the outcome.

In typical L@13MPH fashion I'll drop some lyrics:

"Charmed but the weather broke me sober. I've never been colder"

--sneaker pimps, flowers and silence

I can honestly say that I've never been colder on the bike, even in all of my days of winter riding in Illinois. I'm also fairly certain I was not the only one experiencing problems. On the last lap I had to use my right hand to shift my front derailleur because my left hand was too cold to move my wrist and fingers. After the finish I rode back to the cars (~2 miles) with Blair who apparently developed a nasty case of cold induced Tourette syndrome. We're rolling along when he starts blurting out guttural noises and shaking uncontrollably for a second or two, then back to normal. This continued about once per minute on the way back to the car. He was in a pretty bad way. We also passed a NCVC rider that was shaking so badly that he fell off of his bike (well it looked like he was trying to stop and dismount), but the end result was him on the ground.

After changing and warming up a bit I hit the road to Bryson City, NC and the Nantahala Outdoor Center; cycling home base for the next week. I'll post some recaps of my week down south in the next few days. For the most part is was a pretty typical spring break trip: booze, nudity, fights, toothbrushes, condoms, mustaches, people shitting themselves, and some pretty killer bike riding. Stay tuned.

Updates...

Sorry for the lack of updates at Fitchburg. Internet access was sparse, and I was pretty worn out from the race action.

I forgot to mention that le TSK graced us with his presence during the 40-44 RR on his way to visit his fams on Hilton Head. It has been a while since we'd seen each other and it was nice to catch up. I think we are both nearing a point in our lives when bike racing is going to take a back seat for a while. John starts medical school in the fall and he's thinking that he'll be transitioning from face smasher/axe murderer to med student that can still win bike races.

On Wed morning Todd Raced the Masters Nats Time Trial while I chilled in the parking lot in preparation for a marathon session of driving to Fitchburg, MA via my parents place near Bling-Blinghamton, NY. Oh yeah the TT starts were delayed by 2 hours because the course was not able to be secured. Obviously someone (promoter?) screwed up bigtime with the traffic control.

Todd in the start house.

We got to my 'rents by 11:00PM, grabbed some grub and hit the rack. We had to be on the road by 7:30 or so to make our TT start times. The drive went well despite some crazy rain. Along the way we saw this van.

WTF???

Apparently the scooter store thought that having a picture of a WWII vet dressed in his bomber jacket, leather cap and goggles "tearing ass" at 5mph on a scooter through a forrest of cartoon cacti was a good marketing move. That or it is just a medicare racket and they painted the van this way to give the finger to the government. Neither option leaves me with a good feeling.

The TT at Fitch was interesting as the fog was pretty thick, reducing visibility to a few hundred meters at best. The road surface was good, and we al kept the rubber-side down.

Todd and I were pretty exhausted so I went into max recovery mode; I was in bed by 8:30 that night.

Friday was the fitchburg Circuit race. This race was insane in so many ways. 24 laps of a 3 mile loop with a super steep climb, and wicked fast downhill. 175 guys getting argy bargy trying to stay in good position. Oh yeah, about half way through the race the skies opened up. Lots of people fell down and I think I picked up 4 pounds of sand from the road spray. I felt like crap and ended up losing a lap to the field, fortunately we were allowed to reintegrate with the field so the time loss was minimal. Jake, and Jeff finished with the main bunch, while Todd and Blair had some mechanical issues and lost a little time.

Saturday was a 110 mile RR on an 11 mile loop with a pretty serious climb to and after the finish. There was also a stupid fast downhill. I set a new record for speed on two wheels, this was on the first lap while surrounded by 170 other racers.

58.7 MPH, silly fast.

I often comment on motorcycle riders that don't wear helmets and leathers, but I guess that I'm just as dumb. Spandex is not gonna help much if you come off at ~60MPH.

The pace was ballistic from the gun and I got spat out of the bunch the second time up the climb. Fortunately a good number of guys got shelled the first time up the climb so I was able to ride easy and ended up in the autobus for a 25 person group ride. Blair and Jake hung tough and finished with the main group.

Sunday was a 55 mile crit with a slight uphill drag to the finish. The pace was pretty chill for the first six laps. After that some attacks animated the race, and a small group got away. It was still pretty easy to sit and move in the bunch, but with 15 or so laps to go the the chase heated up with Bissell and Kelly vying for the overall. I was tail gunning and had to close some gaps, but I managed to finish in the bunch, as did the rest of our boys.

All in all it was a good week of racing. A bit too much time in the car and being ill before we left lead to some crap legs, but it was good training if nothing else.

Geriatric nationals day 1: Travel and the assisted living races...

Todd and I (not "the Todd") packed up and left for our tour of the eastern half of the U.S.A. We are going to the old peoples bicycle racing national championships, and then to New England to race Fitchburg against the youngsters.

I'm excited to be going to nationals, but more excited to not be peeing out of my butt every hour on the hour like old faithful. Last weekend goes down in history of the worst weekend of racing...ever. Two mechanicals, riding 55 of 65 miles of a RR solo with two gears was a bad start. Then my TT bike "ate" my rear derailleur while warming up 5 miles from the start. Needless to say I got my second DNS ever. At this point I didn't think it could get much worse, but tuesday I came down with a 102F fever and the runs. I didn't eat a "normal" meal until saturday night. Just about everyone in our race picked up an intestinal bug from the cow poo laden run-off water that resulted from the massive downpour during the first hour of our race. But enough whining, I could have swine flu like Bloomer.

Anyhoo, on to the task at hand. We're at masters nats chasing jerseys, not like the the "jersey chasers" at superweek, rather we are actually trying to win a bike race or six, and get a fancy red white and blue jersey (or six) for our hard work.

Todd pulled the long haul and drove the ~10 hour leg from B-more to L-ville.


Forty miles outside of Louisville. I call Rick for a status update on the tandem RR. call goes as follows (sorta):
Rick: Hello?
Jamie: Rick, It's Jamie.
R: We got our first national championship jerseys.
J: Sweet.
Todd: Awesome.
RN: Gotta go mack on podium bitches.
(Click).

Here is the photographic evidence:



Rick is the on the left, and note that this is the first time I've ever seen him smile after a race.

Updates: Cali pt. 1...

It has been a while and I'll probably split some updates up over the next few days.  As you may know I went to Cali to visit my sister and brother in-law Adam.  My Parents came out for Christmass too and a good time was had by all.  Adam and my sister are always great hosts, and It was nice to get out of the cold weather on the right coast.

Travel was uneventful, for a change, other than the fact that I had the aisle seat next to the shitter on the 6 hour flight out. The most interesting moment had to be whie sitting in Newark airport hearing one of the airline workers ask for "Dylan" to come to the ticketing desk.  Upon hearing this I started to laugh and I noticed several others starting to break up.  I even saw one guy count the five best  rappers of all time on his fingers.

Once in Cali, all was pretty chill. I took the Ibis out for a spin down the coast.

The rest of the week was nice, with Adam and I getting out for some good miles. Here is a nice shot of Adam and I at the top of PID, a bugger of a climb but worth it for the view.

The Pacific Ocean is behind us and there were some nice views of the mountains inland to our left.

Stay tuned for a deep-fried christmas, ice cold NYE, and rocks form space.

Bike and Build...

I took a few vacation days to meet up with Sophia and thirty of her new friends that are riding from Providence, RI to Seattle, WA with the Habitat for Humanity Bike and Build program. They travel about 70 miles a day, stopping few days in a community that has a active Habitat for Humanity project to assist with the build. It just happened that the route that they are traveling had them passing within three miles of my parents house.

On Thursday morning I met up with Sophia in lovely Roscoe, NY and prepared for the 70 mile ride through the southern tier of NY with the final destination being my old college town Binghamton, NY. The ride was a lot of fun as the scenery in the area is amazing; lots of steep hills rising from the Delaware river valley and dense deciduous forests. About 20 miles into the ride we hit our first SNAFU. The road we were to travel was closed. We had two options for a detour: 1) take the long way around adding 10-15 miles to the trip. 2) ride on Route 17 which is pretty much an interstate (in fact it is in the process of becoming interstate 86), and it is illegal to ride a bicycle on it. To make a long story short, we got a police escort form a very kind state trooper.

You can just see the squad car in this photo of the group getting off route 17. This guy saved our asses big time.

After another little detour that took us on some nice dirt roads along the river we got to Hale Eddy which is a few mile from my parent's house.  A few of the group decided to take a break and cool off in/by the river.

From there it was a few miles to Deposit, NY where we stopped and snacked some eats.  After lunch we had about 30 more miles to Binghamton which included a few long steady climbs.

Once in Bling-Blinghamton, I met up with my old roommate Doug who lives in the area.  He and his wife, Jimae, are expecting their first (and only from what she says) child in a few weeks.  It was nice to catch up as It has been at least a year since I saw either of them.

On Friday morning I met up with the Bike and Build peeps for a few hours of landscaping fun at a build site on the south side of Binghamton.  This was one of the more interesting parts of the trip as i got to speak with many, but regrettably not all, of the people on the trip. I must say that these people have some serious motivation and direction in their lives.  I takes a certain type of person to up and leave their comfort zone and ride across the country helping out the disadvantaged. What is even mare amazing is that 90% of the people on the trip are not avid cyclists.

After the build day, Sophia and I stumbled around Binghamton for a few hours taking in some of the bizarre architecture of the area.  We even went to Beethoven (recreation) park and took a carousel ride, which is a bit of Binghamton area history/culture.

Best wishes to all those on the Providence–Seattle route and all the others that are out there making this world a better place.

God: The rainmaker and the provider of blind dates...

So I'm at a conference this week and that means I have some free time in the hotel to update this here bloggy. The past few days have been pretty hectic with travel and all, but I've got some good stories.

1. I put in a nice 2.5 hours in the rain on Saturday. I really like riding in the rain. This probably has to do with the novelty of it all, but in some respects it reduces the bike ride to simply a bike ride. Often times we get caught up in the training rut and forget what it is like to just go out and ride. Rainy rides allow me to just go out and slog away with no motive other than it is better then sitting in my house getting pudgy.

2. Traveling is always a good time. I usually manage to come away with a few good nuggets. On my flight from Jackson MS to Houston, TX I sat next to a nice couple about my parents age. Conversation was pretty mundane, the usual what do you do for a living etc. That was until the topic of religion came up. The woman, Cathy, politely asked for my view on evolution/creationism seeing as I'm a man of science. My Number one rule is that I don't discuss religion with people. There is really no point to it all as faith is based on... well faith. The Hitchhikers Guide has an interesting take on this.

Anyway, I deflected the question by stating that IF you have faith you don't need an explanation and that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs blah blah blah... Apparently I made a good impression as she proceeded to set me up on a blind date with her niece. Fucking bizarre. Well there is no date set per-se, but she has my phone number.

3. Lastly I hung out with some Brown people tonight. That is, people from Brown University, and not the brown people of the Indian/Pakistani persuasion. A new colleague of mine that works on the same project is a recent graduate from Brown and invited me along for dinner with her former group. To make a long story short it was a good time. One dude was just like Patchett (for those who know him). Completely inappropriate and a great time to hang with. It has been a while since I've had a good laugh (since leaving C-U) and I felt very much at home.

Snow Blower...

So I used to think that the best part of racing was getting to travel with your teammates. Hours logged in the car/hotel room certainly lead to some fond memories, but the events that transpired this weekend make me think that it is just not the same without the racing. Perhaps the fact that I was not in my typical post-race nutter phase —when I have no blood sugar and everything seems really odd to me—has skewed my view a bit, but here goes.

This weekend the Illini Cycling kiddies spent several hours in the car driving to and from races at nearby DePauw University and got in zero mins. of racing. Well, that is except for the TSK busting a hot lap (and later his nutsack) on the snow/ice covered crit course.


The RR on Saturday was canceled due to snow, but we thought the crtit might be held so we drove back the next morning. Overnight snow covered the course, but the promoter seemed determined to have the race.They even had guys with shovels, leaf blowers, and push brooms trying to get the course in a race worthy condition.

With the chance of racing looking slim we packed up and headed home in search of better weather.

Now I'm not saying that the trips were not fun. Lots of dead baby jokes etc kept the ride entertaining. Hell, Skeeter even made me spit water all over my dashboard at one point, but not racing left a void in my soul. Fortunately, my teammates helped me fill that void with pain and suffering on the afternoon group ride. Joy.

Next week we travel to Mizzou, and hopefully it will be a touch warmer there. We have an ITT on sunday, and frankly I'm gonna get my butt handed to me. There is nowhere to hide in the "race of truth" and any lack of fitness will be exposed.

Did I mention I hate flying...

So I had another early flight this morning, leaving Orange County, CA at 6:45 heading to Chi-Town. The weather was clear from coast-to-coast, smooth sailing for sure. Not so. All my flights went well except for my bike is A.W.O.L. Being told that it was "last seen at gate F2 at 2:35PM CST" is not all that comforting. The nice lady at the United counter in Bloomington said that 97% of the time delayed baggage shows up on the next flight. Thinking that those were pretty good odds i decided to stick in bloomington for a few hours to spend some of my christmas loot.

Returning to the airport after spending $1.59 on a nice new memo pad did not yield the results I had hoped for; my bike is still missing. Looks like i'll be rolling on either the long bus (my bright yellow fixie) or the Ibis that has been collecting dust for the past year. If you are reading this, please say a prayer to the bike gods for the safe return of my trusty steed.

I'm off to The Pig for some tasty libations in an attempt to sooth my separation anxiety.

Peas.

Great Circles my ass...

They tell me that the shortest distance from two points on a sphere (Earth) is along a Great Circle. Apparently the circle connecting central Illinois to San Clemente, CA passes through Atlanta, GA. WIth the Shit Storm that hit Denver, Flights were all screwed up across the nation. This is why Flying is my least favorite mode of travel. I hate being at the mercy of the weather.

Here is a little recap of my travel:

I left my pad in Champaign at 3:30 AM and headed to bloomington-Normal airport. After some work, I book a flight from Bloomington to Atlanta, GA to Los Angels, CA. Things actually went smoothly, My parents got my Voicemail and met me at LAX, and the bike arrived in as many pieces as when i packed it.

The hi-lite of the trip was while waiting form my connection in Atlanta:

A southern boy of about ten years of age calls out to his tow headed younger brother, "Bubba!, Bubba!...Get yo potato lookin self ova here!" And proceeded to drag his brother across the terminal. This was one of those moments that I had to look around to see if anyone else heard the same thing I did. I'm sure that i looked like a crazy man with an ear to ear smile.

In the end I arrived with enough time to get in a quick ride down to the coast and out to Dana Point Harbor for a nice view of the sun dipping into the Pacific. I'd attach a picture, but I don't own a camera (Luddite again).