The similarity to vaulting in gymnastics and sprinting in a race.

I have always thought I was a sprinter in cycling. My background in gymnastics gave me a lot of fast muscles, as well as a lot of upper body weight. I am short and I like to squeeze though places others don't think you can go. The problem with sprinting in a race is it only happens once, or at least the big sprint that everyone cares about only happens once. And that is if your team can keep the whole thing together for you. My only two wins I have ever had have been out of break aways, but as the season wears on in the Cat 3 field it get to be very hard to hold a break as most of the riders are of the same strength and ability. So being able to sprint out of a field is a big plus. Since you only get a few chances you have to really try and get them right as many times as possible, understand what you did wrong if you failed, and never make that mistake again. The great thing about bike racing however is that you will rarely get the same exact situation twice. So you are always just trying to take previous knowledge and applying it to what you have learned, and making a very quick educated guess. Or if you are just stupid crazy strong just go fast.

Vault is a very different event compared to the rest of the gymnastics events. It lasts all of 4-5 seconds. And while there can be a lot of technique involved in it, a majority of deficiencies in technique can be overcome by sheer speed and quickness. Up until last year I struggled as a coach getting athletes to learn higher level vaults. In an effort to save athletes from the severe pounding that vault I limited the numbers of vaults that we did. This really limited what I was able to do with these girls. Up until recently I was also limited by some technical problems with our vaults as my oldest athletes were really a first generation of vaulters that the gym had started brining up in a new system. We all had been working hard to iron out kinks and we are really starting to hit our strides now.

So what would happen in my old system was we would only do hard vaulting a couple times a week. If an athlete had a bad vault day or missed a day from illness or school then we were down to just one day. Also we would go from maybe a complete day off from the gym to a hard vault day. I remember as an athlete that my first vault day of the week was always my worst, I was just always off. It was similar with many of my girls. Then I had the issue of high level athletes not understanding that meaning of basics. As an athlete progresses so do their basics. An entry level athlete's basics, like running, are not the same as a level 10's, I consider a 9.7 valued vault to be a basic for my level 10s. But as young girls grow they don't always allow their ideas to grow, but that is what we are there for as coaches, and or teachers.

So this year as a sprinter I knew that to get any better I needed more chances to sprint, and I needed some advice from those who knew how to do it best. I talked with my sponsors at Mesa Cycles Russ and Adrienne Murphy about what to think about. The first thing was positioning, this was something that I knew but could never get right. The rest of what they told me was what really started to show me big improvements in placing. If you want to know that though you might have to hire them as coaches.

This got me thinking about my athletes and the fact that I was just not giving them enough opportunities to learn their vaults, or should I say enough quality opportunities. The big change came with I re-arranged the days, and number of days that we vaulted. I had the girls spend a day preparing their bodies for vault, then we had a day of very hard vaulting doing their 10.0 or better start value vaults, and then one more day of basics. The other two days of the week were spent on creating speed in their runs, landings, and drills for learning new higher difficulty vaults.

This plan has shown huge improvements in what the girls are doing already in our training. And the improved vaulting seems to be contagious as our lower levels seem less intimidated by the aspect of doing harder vaults.

To me this in extremely comparable to sprinting in bike racing. The problem for me is that unlike vaulting it is hard to replicate sprints so that it becomes more instinctual. Great sprinters like Mark Cavendish are always in there for the sprint, not only because he has a great lead-out, but because he just knows where to be. It is instinct.

Mark's pure speed is a big help, but he is also an extremely smart sprinter.

Cameron is a freshman in high school and will compete her first year of level 10 this year with this 10.0 start value vault.

Michelle is a senior in high school and her 4th year as a level 10. This vault is worth more than a 10.0 and may help her place high at national championships.

Mesa Cycle's Burnin at the Bluff

Burnin at the Bluff as an amazing race! Last year was the first time I heard of the race. The shop puts it on but for some reason I had always just missed it. So last year the guys needed help with running the race so I went out for a night to do a little camping and help the guys set up. I thought it looked so cool that I was going to stay the whole weekend the next time around. I did not think I was going to be racing it. When Chris said he was doing a relay with Bj and they needed a third, I jumped right at it. I really like camping and I liked the atmosphere at last year's Burnin, so I was down.

The pre-race feels easy and relaxed, with most people just hanging out checking out who is camping where. There is some tom foolery going on but most are there to hammer so not many get too crazy. That is unless you are Scott Peipert who is only at his best when his blood alcohol content is over 50%. I really didn't have any idea what to expect for the race. We were going for 12 hours, a time I had never participated in, and I had not raced a mountain bike in 4 years. I was going first for our team (Mustache Ride the Lightning) and really just wanted to be safe and smooth. I had no idea who we were even going against so I just got ready to have fun.

The race starts of with a Le-Mans style start where we have to run around a field, through smoke clouds, find our bikes, and then BLAST down this big hill to the trail head. I hustled but definitely did not go into the red. This was my first mistake of the day. I had forgotten how much time you lose by not being at the front in a mountain bike race. My first lap was okay, but nowhere near fast enough to be competitive with the rest of the teams and right off the bat I put my team in last by about 5 min.

I had about 2 hours before I was scheduled to go out again. I got changed and started eating and getting fluids back in. I was already really tired and I knew I had 3 laps to go (39 miles). I was really kind of disipointed in myself as I had thought I would be able to hang a little better. I thought I had a little better handling skills to keep up, but the big hitters had all the skills and a motor to boot. Chris and Bj were doing a great job, especially Bj putting us into 3rd before my second lap. Going out for that lap I was right on Rock's wheel. (The Hub) He was pushing hard and was doing a great job of flowing through the woods. When we caught up to our first rider he was able to get by without incident, while said rider decided to stop in the middle of the trail on an uphill. This cost me a little time, which made me panic, which made me push to hard in the wrong places, and I flew of the trail down a hill. Now I was even farther back! So I tried to calm down a bit and just be smooth. It didn't really help, going through a stream I washed out and hit my face on a rock, that hurt a bit. I wasn't really able to get my rhythm for the rest of that lap.

The next lap was better, I was smooth, fast, and did not hit my face on a rock. The only problem I had was my seat tube came loose and was being a problem tightening. Riders were getting more and more spread out so it was easier to keep a good line though technical areas. I was getting more tired and wasn't able to concur the climbs as well as before though. I actually felt like I was getting over some of the climbs better running than I had riding. It helped my back a bit too, which was really wearing out.

As the race was coming to the end we had time to go out for one more lap. It was totally dark so I borrowed a head light from Light in Motion who were at the race as a big sponsor. The light was awesome! Doing the race in the dark was like doing a whole new course. I kept waiting for certain aspects of the course but almost alway just went by them without even noticing. Flying through the woods made it feel like I was going through a tunnel. It was also really cool to see the other riders all over the course because of their lights.

The race was a blast even though my team came in last in the wicked fast category. One of the things that made it such a great day was the bike that I was on. I was on a 2013 aluminum Specialized Camber. This bike is a hybrid of sorts in the Specialized mountain bike line. It is a cross between an all mountain and cross country. My buddy Chris says that it can get over looked by people looking for a cross country bike, who would go for an Epic, and a more pure downhill bike. All I did to the bike was put my pedals on it and put on a -20* stem. It was perfect! I was able to put down a ton of great power on climbs, and was able to keep pedaling over rough terrain. The only downside to that was I kept hitting my pedals on crap. The bike seemed to really track well going through turns and taking turns at high speed felt solid even while both tires were sliding. The only times I couldn't stay on the bike were totally rider error. The only thing that I would change was maybe go to a 1 x 10 or 1 x 11. I did go into the small chainring a few times but I never had to. Dropping the small ring, shifter, cables, and such would drop a little weight and just simplify things. There were a couple times that I accidentally hit the front shift button, and again that could have just been my placement of the controls. The ability to lock out the front and rear shocks was great as I could easily lock them out when climbing for any extended period, which helped if I needed to stand. This is for sure a bike that I would buy if I could ride mountain bikes more often.

The after party at Burnin is legendary, and this year did not disappoint. As I was finishing the race the party was in full swing, with Bj, John, and Chris, dropping fat beats! Bj was really showing his full potential with a large black fluffy wig, sporting his QMC jersey and his famous water proof pants. Chris was sporting a mexican wrestling mask, as well as a one of a kind Pabst Blue Ribbon board shorts. Finally John was skezzing it out with his hunter orange hat and a mega mullet. These guys were whipping people up into a tizzy, drinking cold Pabst keg beer. Scott P was once again in rare form as well, and when that happens you know you have a party. Christopher was having a great time giving out all the great prizes to all the awesome competitors at the event. There was so much swag that I don't really think anyone walked away without something. Mesa Cycles was giving away beer glasses, bike equipment, wheels, and money. Pabst, and Polk audio were giving away great products like t-shirt and headphones. There was so much great stuff I can't come close to remembering but I got a great Pabst trucker hat that I was pretty pumped about.

It was a great weekend, and I think that everyone had a great time as well. Next year will be the 10th running of the race and they have promised to make it bigger and better than ever. I can't wait.

Chris was as excited as these ladies for their win.

Everyone lays their bikes down and then has to run to them.

Pabst brings a lot of beer for the party

Coaching into the future

Gymnastics is a sport mainly coached by people who were athletes, or people who have a great desire to be involved in the sport. It helps to have a good idea about how the human body moves and the physics it takes to perform said skills. Over time coaches learn from past experience how to do certain things. And the better we get individually and as a sport, the faster we are able to teach these skills. For the most part however there is nothing that really quantitates why an athlete can do a skill, and another cannot. Most of the time good coaches can see why, too slow, too loose, just not good enough, but like I said there are no real numbers that say you could do this if you were this much faster, or this much tighter, or hit this much harder. In baseball a big league pitcher is going to be able to throw over 90 mph for the most part, hitters swing at a certain speed as well. Golfers are similar, pro golfers can swing a club at certain speeds, as well as hit fairways a very high percentage of the time. If you play football you can run the 40 in four seconds, and if you race bikes like I do, you know that 6 watts per kilogram over 20 min is a great number to have. But how fast does a gymnast run down the vault runway, or how fast is their giant swing? How hard do they hit the floor when they punch, and how quick do they get from the board to the vault?

In the olympics this year they did something that is pretty awesome. They took two of the best vaulters in the world, McKayla Maroney and Kohei Uchimura, and they put both of their vaults on the screen, one over the other. The awesome part was that the Mckayla went higher and farther than Kohei! Women are not supposed to be able to go higher and farther than men......? Years ago I tried to argue with a woman who was supposed to "teach me something" that our elite women could be as strong as our men when it came to power/weight ratios. I don't think she really understood what I was talking about, and she didn't agree with me at all. But this video that they showed on NBC at prime time just sort of proved it for me. The elite women's vault is set at a height of 1250 mm while the men's is set at 1350 mm. So not only did McKayla go higher, she also did it from a lower starting height. So this started me to think, what was her power to weight ratio on that vault, and what was Kohei's?

Now the gymnastics people out there might be thinking, what the crap is he talking about? Well I am bringing something from my hobby cycling, where everything that I do is measured and my power to weight is studied to determine if I am going to be able to compete or not. So if there was a way that I could measure some of what my gymnasts do, I could start to determine better what I need to do to help them improve, or even say, this might not be for you.

I have an idea, but I don't really know how to make it happen. It is going to take someone with a math background, someone who knows about computers, and strain gauges, and how to make it all go together. My idea has to do with vaulting, and would take a lot of testing on gymnasts who are already great vaulters, as well as getting an idea of what it takes to do vaults all the way down to a front handspring. I am thinking I could make a chart that could tell a coach that if you do A,B, and C, this athlete should be able to do this vault. I know there are people out there that think there are too many variations that would make this impossible, but that would be wrong. I think that things could really be made quite simple and could just tell people if they are even in the ball park. So if you really like gymnastics, and you think that it would be fun to figure this stuff out with me, and are way smarter than I am, let me know. I have a plan to make something that could be what power meters have been for cycling.

Out.

Training

I had a pretty good week of training this week. I had a bad start to the week with a lot of crap going on, but I was able to put that stuff behind me and focus on work and riding. Katie was out of town so being on the bike, or being at work was way better than sitting around at home by myself.

The weekend started out with a pretty great meeting with Mesa about the end of the year and going into next. They were pretty happy with how things went and are interested in keeping things going. Great way to start off the weekend in my opinion!

I had work on Saturday morning and the girls are doing a very good job in the gym right now. We are getting close to the season so they are working hard on getting their routines put together. The kids are for the most part on track for another successful year.

After work I had a long ride scheduled. 5 hours, with a lot of different types of intervals thrown in there. I had a couple long intervals at the start of the ride and my normal location for those was full of people. I have a loop at Forest Park that I can ride pretty well, but they were launching hot air balloons from the park this weekend, and the launch brings thousands of people. So with my schedule already a bit tight I needed to find a place close, and fast, and I just happened to remember we have a velodrome in the city! I have never been to the velodrome, but it has been given a nickname of Mr. Bumpy-face, and it turned out to be a good description. Even with the bump surface, it was still very fast, and fun. After that I pretty much crisscrossed all over the city to get what I needed to get done, done.

The next day Grant and I departed on a long ride out to Hermann, MO to try and watch a few of our friends race in the Hermann Cross race. We jumped on the Katy Trail in Creve Coeur and pretty much just hammered for hours. We made one stop to get water but we made great time. When we were about 20 miles from Hermann we decided to jump on 94 to get a little feeling back into our butts and hands. The trail is a little tougher than cruising on the street for hours. I thought that we were going to have a really nice flat and easy, but we ended up hitting some pretty decent sized climbs. For a few climbs we were pretty bummed about the climbing, but really it helped with waking up our bodies after the 3 and a half hours.

About a mile from our destination I cracked. I ran out of water about 10 miles earlier, and did not do a good job of eating the whole time. But luckily we were right at the finish and we pulled right up to a restaurant and scarfed down some burgers and cokes.

After we ate we headed over to the race and watched out teammates Bj, Jose, Luke, Mark, and Chris destroy themselves racing that silly CX race. I for sure like to watch but I have yet to catch that bug.

I am feeling pretty focused right now, and am already thinking about the next season. Not only in bike racing but in gymnastics too. Everything looks good coming up.

Dreaming about the future

Over this last year I have been dreaming about where Quantum Mesa Cycles might go in the coming years. I for sure am a dreamer, I think that if you don't have big dreams then you can never accomplish big things. Over this last road season we had riders ranked high in the US for crit racing, our cat 3 team was ranked in the state of MO, and most of those riders are moving up to put together a great cat 2 team. We are hoping to go head to head with the other big teams in the area like Gateway Harley, Dog Fish, Mercy, Trade Winds, RACC, IScorp, Enzos, Rhythm Racing, and others out there racing at the top of the game. There are a lot more individuals that are racing amazingly and with the strength of our team we should be able to do well against them as well.

So where do we go? What do we do? I have never raced at the high level of the sport. I am only a cat 3 who hopes to one day move up and be a very good racer. But I have teammates who could do some pretty special things, and I would like this team to help make that happen. There is a lot that has to happen however, and I'm not really sure how long it will take to get there, but I just have to take it one step at a time.

Team guys have already started to target races like Joe Martin, Tour de Gila, Tulsa Tough, Dairyland, MoPRO, U23 Nationals, Master's Nationals, and others. These would all be big national and regional races, and a big jump from the local races we do every weekend. The great thing about racing locally in St Louis however, is the quality of the guys we have here. We have a good number of races throughout the year, and the guys here really seem to be getting really good. I heard often this last season how St Louis is considered a great crit racing scene around the midwest.

My dream for the team is to just keep getting stronger, and continue to race like we did this whole season, as a team. To move up into the higher ranks of USA cycling and start to be known on the regional level, and maybe someday the national level. At this point we are having a blast though, and the journey is the best part.

A big part of the team at the Maplewood race. The racing would never happen without our great family behind us.

Sunday Funday

Yesterday was the start of my offseason. It was the first long ride meant to start building base. I had meant to get going much sooner than we (Chris and I) did but I spent the night before out having a good time and slept till noon! I have no idea the last time I did that. I didn't really have any idea where to ride so when Chris showed up he mentioned we should ride up to Alton, IL and see if we could catch the first CX race of the year. I had never road out to Alton but I was down, and I love watching CX racing, especially when my teammates are racing in them.

My powermeter has been acting up so I didn't really know how to make sure I was hitting the zones I needed to for the ride. Then I remembered that Chis is like a motorcycles when he rides. So we road hard, and long, into a super stiff headwind for two and a half hours to get up to Alton. There were definitely a few times that I had to tuck in behind Chris to get a few seconds of rest so I could keep up with him.

Pulling into Alton we had to climb this road called Central st. It was one of the steepest roads in the area I would have to say. Not long at all, only two blocks, but that would be an awesome road to use in a crit. That would really hurt! We ended up missing all the races and pulled up with just a few guys talking about the race. Bj was still there and we found out he had won the B race and I think he said 7th in the A race, with no rest. I also heard that Keith placed 2nd in the C race. It was Keith's first time ever racing CX and he even took a hard enough header that he broke his helmet, but still kept going!

Chris and I stopped off at Subway for lunch before heading home. Our ride home was a bit nicer as we had a decent tail wind. Chris really started to have problems with his bike though. He had not been able to overhaul it for some time so we decided that we would get together later in the night and tear down our bikes. I like to take my time when I work on my bike, so Chris got done a bit faster than I did. He also has a bit more experience at that stuff than me though. It is really night though to have everything taken apart and figure out why you are having small problems. Most of the issues I was having were just from parts being too dirty, which was way better than parts needing to be replaced as I have been doing a lot of that lately.

It was a great day of bike riding and hanging with buds. The hard work riding is going to show up 6 months from now, and I already can't wait.

Benton Park Classic

The Benton Park Classic is the last race of the Gateway Cup, and in our area it is the last race of the year. This race is a totally different race compared to the last three. It is almost 2 miles in length with 10 turns, two crossings over highway 55 each lap, wind, elevation, and tons of fans.

Benton Park is a neighborhood that is working on making a comeback. There is a lot of good things going on there. It is a blue collar community that really seems to embrace this yearly race. The course winds it's way through homes, businesses, even skirting the edge of Budweiser. The race brought out tons of people that not only got some great racing, but a great band that played in the large park on the front straight away of the race.

Our race was scheduled to go last today. I thought this was great! I think it gets more people to watch the Pro race, and then the Pro12 guys were cheering like crazy. Especially the Gateway Harley guys, those dude were nuts. Of course our own fans were always very loud, but that is a sure thing every weekend. We have great fans! We were also able to watch the Pro12s race and get an idea of how things might pan out for us. We had a pretty good idea, but everything helps.

We decided we were going to throw some tough stuff at everyone again today, but instead of doing it at the end of the race we lined up from the gun. We wanted to put everyone in the pain cave right off the bat. We didn't think we would get rid of all the competition, but we might weaken guys enough to get some breaks away. We were only going to do this for the first 3 laps. We figured this would be long enough, and then we would sit up and start with the attacks. I have no idea if our idea really worked, but we had fun, and put on a good show. The biggest hitch was that two of our guys got stuck behind a crash right at the starting line! They weren't allowed to take a free lap either which really screwed them and the team. I got stuck behind a few slower guys and Murphy and Finks were able to hit the front flying. I was finally able to link up with Rickey and Connolly, and we made our way to the front. As we linked up I was looking for Grant and Wulff, and could not see them anywhere. Both of these guys are super strong and would not have hung back as they knew things were going to get going. When I couldn't find them after half the first lap was over I told the guys to hit it. We rotated 4 guys with me gatekeeping. The guys were wearing out after a couple laps though so I decided I should jump in. I did it a bit wrong however, pulling up to the front going into a turn and going way too fast. I was just too excited and wanted to make up for my underperforming the day before. As we came into the last lap we were going to team time trial we were also fighting for a preem. We ended up barely losing it because of a little confusion, I think mostly on my part I think.

A few laps later Grant put in a big dig, the dude was riding pissed and he was taking it out on his bike. He got into a group of about 3 riders and they were riding well together. We started to try and work the front of the field slowing the riders down. This was the best course to get a break away on, but they were going to need help, and be lucky. After a while another group ended up forming just behind the original break. Chris made it in there and I was really hoping he would make it up to Grant. Mike and I were still trying to slow the field down, but we had not softened it up enough and people were able to pull both breaks back.

We went a few more laps without much happening and I found myself on Mike's wheel. We have been working a lot on talking while racing so I just let him know I was there. Mike looks back and asks if I am doing good, I say yeah, and he takes off! I figured he was helping me out for a preem so I should hang on for the ride. We rounded turn 9 just blasting it, and took the last turn without ever lifting off the power. Mike took me to a perfect takeoff spot and I hit go taking the preem easily.

Right after that the whole race had a big scare. A stray dog got onto the course and caused a crash involving my teammate Eric Finks. Luckily the crash wasn't too bad, and the pack handled it pretty classy asking everyone to sit up. Now Grant apparently had attacked before the dog, or didn't hear the yells to neutralize the race, as he and another rider road off the front. After a lap or so Grant was on his own and making a strong go of it. I don't know where he finds the energy, but he just wouldn't give up. He was only 2.5 laps short but he still didn't give up and was still in the race as we neared the finish.

On the last lap I was set up in a pretty sweet spot the only problem was there was a rider just up the road and no one who wanted to sprint was going to chase that down. I needed a teammate right away, and just as I was thinking that Murphy came flying up the left side of the road stretching out the field. I was a bit slow reacting and was slotted in about 15th. I wasn't really worried as long as the speed stayed high. Jason made it with almost 2 turns to go, and got us close enough for the next rider to pull the leader back. As we rounded the final turn I had to swing wide to come around the rider we caught and got back on the gas a bit late. I was still able to put in a strong sprint but only finished 10th. Guys were really fighting hard for position and riders were loosing spokes and derailleur. I really didn't want to start my off season with a crash, so I think I left a bit out there. But I did hit 39.2 miles per hour, and that is the fastest sprint I can remember myself doing.

My team did an amazing job again this weekend, and I am pretty sad that the year is over. A lot of my team are moving up to the next category so we wont race together again for some time. It was great while it lasted, and next year we will have a few new great guys on the team. I am pumped to see what is yet to come.

This was part of the pain train today!

Giro della Montagna The Hill

This is the biggest race of the Gateway Cup. It is held in the great neighborhood of The Hill just a few min southwest of downtown St Louis. The Hill could also be considered little Italy in the STL. There are great Italian shops, restaurants, and there is even a bocce ball center. The start line of the race is right in front of the St Ambrose Church at the bottom of a long steady downhill. The course is a narrow rectangle with tight roads, and corners, and has a reputation of being a bit crash prone. You really have to be on top of your game and on your toes.

Mike had been targeting this race all year and had the fitness to make it happen, no doubt. Twice in the last year he had placed in the top three, and we were going to put him on the top step.

The plan had been set weeks ago, with trial runs done to work out kinks and come up with any issues. We had successes and failures trying it out with the failures helping us more than the successes. The plan was a lead-out to put our man in a great position and weaken the rest of the field. We were going to save it all for the end, no preems, no chasing breaks, all on the line.

The race was pretty tame in my opinion. The greatest part about racing in the 3s is it is predictable. Everyone wants to win, everyone is about the same strength, and if you take those things into account a team can easily control a lot of what happens. It is never a sure thing, but having a team that is 100% behind one goal increases your chances of success. As the race progressed our guys only had to put in minor efforts to keep things under control. We were staying well organized and everyone was right where we needed to be. The toughest part about a lead-out is the timing. Too soon and you not only hurt your self, but you hurt your sprinter. Too late and maybe you let a break go too long. As none of us are pros we are still working it all out.

As we neared our take off point a lone rider jumped off the front, hard. We had seen guys going off all day and none looked this strong. This was this guys move and he knew what he was doing. In hindsight I should have kept my cool longer. I was the road captain and was the one with the final say of when to go. Three of us set up on the front and rotated to pull back the lone rider. We tried our best to keep the efforts metered so as to have enough for the finish. It took us a couple laps to bring the rider back which left us with about 3 to go. That was when we began to drill it. Eric wanted to wait a bit more, and I think he was right. My fear was that we would be swarmed and lose our organization. I should not have worried about that, as the team was on their game. We had an order to our train, but it got a little out of whack. I'm not sure if that would have made a difference in the end, like I said, we aren't pros here, just a bunch of 30 and 40 year olds who like to race bikes. So anyways, on my word go off we went, and fast. Finkszilla was on the front, first to pull as planned. This dude is one of our great diesle engines and will pull till he passes out. He went almost a full lap, taking into account that he also helped pull back the lone rider, he did more than his share. Next was our youngest rider, Grant, this guys is a super stud. He started racing last year this weekend as a 5, this kid is going to go places in this sport. Grant did a huge pull as well, once he pulled off it was my turn, and I didn't have much left to give. I don't know where it went but my pull lasted what felt like a who 3 seconds. It felt like I hit a wall and I did not do my job. As I pulled off though, Grant the Erhard-man was right back in line pulling again! As I dropped back off the race the field was in ruin, we had destroyed just about everyone. From what I was told there were only 10-12 riders left in the race. Once Grant pulled off we had Wulff, Connolly, Murphy, and then Rickey. Grant did his best to make it up the back stretch, a long steady climb that on it's own wasn't much, but after an inhuman pull it was too much for him to hold that high a speed. Wulff took over and I think made it to the start finish, which was where Connolly took over. Riding behind Chris can be like trying to ride behind a motorcycle. He can go long, and hard, and it doesn't matter that there is a draft. Holding 600 watts in a draft still hurts A LOT! When Chris pulled off it sounded like Murphy was in the same boat I had been in. He hit a wall and the rest of the riders in the pack jumped Mike. As they rounded turn 3 Mike got stuck behind a crash, and then again in turn 4. Our plan came so close, and over time it will be perfected.

We were all a little bummed, but we laid it all out there, and at least we tried. This was the purpose behind building this team. We all came together for one goal, and we all gave everything that we had. There isn't much else to ask for if you ask me. I am so proud of my team, and am excited for all the great stuff to come.

Lafayette Square and Francis Park

Lafayette Square is a great way to start off the Gateway Cup weekend. The environment and atmosphere of the race is normally like a party. This weekend however was a bit different. With the remnants of Isaac sweeping though St Louis over the weekend the crowds were significantly smaller, as well as the amateur fields.

The cat 3 race did not get as bad of rain as other races before us. But with plenty of water already on the roads, and the 50+ riders we couldn't tell what was from mother nature, and what was just getting thrown up from our tires. The race was decently fast despite the rain, and some of the hard men tried to get moves to go off the front from the gun. Our own Chris Connolly was off the front with a good lead quickly. And with Chris' power, left alone he could ride away. But with the size and strength of the pack Chis was eventually pulled back into the bunch. Over the course of the race other moves tried but went nowhere.

I was able to go for one of the preems, but had to put in a double jump after I foolishly thought I had it won, only to see a rider flying up behind me. I was just barely able to hold him off, but it hurt. With about 8 or 9 laps to go, the stronger diesels started to make their moves. This pulled my team to the front in order to hold them close. We lined up and were working okay with a pace-line and Mike doing the gate keeping. I was starting to get pretty worn out as my strengths are not so much in long pulls but short bursts. Chris came up to help but over shot me and pulled ahead with another rider. I had to pull out of the line to allow the rest of my team to ride up to him which cause me to drop back in the field.

Then I had a pretty bad crash. With about 6 or 7 to go, coming into the last corner I bumped into one rider, causing my rear wheel to slide a bit. When my rear tire caught again I was pointing in a totally wrong angle and tried to correct again. My rear tire this time his some paint, I counter steered and over the bars I went. Now this is where my time as an elite gymnast really comes into it's own. Flying through the air I just remember being very high and thinking this is really going to hurt. Then I was on the ground sliding on my butt towards the barriers when another rider ran into the back of me, launching him into the barriers as well. I was much more fortunate than he was and tried to get back into the race, only to find I was past the free lap time. My race was over. As I watched the rest of the race my team was looking pretty tired. We had had to work pretty hard to bring back an attack and then with two to go a very strong rider launched off the front. This rider had thought this was the last lap, only to find he had one to go. He put his head back down and made another lap in the lead to stick the win however. It was a pretty amazing feet considering all the fire power in the field.

This is my crash taken by a rider in the field. You can see how hard it was to see, in the dark, with the rain. But that is racing.

We went into the second day of Gateway Cup at Francis Park with Mike Rickey in 3rd overall in the standings. So we decided to try and help him get another good finish and put him into the leader's jersey. The rain was still on and off all day and I was feeling a bit nervous about racing. We had a plan of trying to go for preems and then line up to help me sprint, Mike would latch onto the back and sprint for a good finish. My legs didn't feel as good as the day before. I just didn't have the snap I thought I should have had, and had the day before. I blamed that on my crash and moved on.

I went for two preems during the race. One I think I jumped out of the slip stream too soon and that cost me the money. The second I was pushed to the edge of the road and was cut off. Luckily my teammate Jason was on my wheel and made the rider who blocked me pay. We took another preem with Grant fighting a group of 4 or 5 and besting them from the front. Kid is a BOSS! In the end the preems hurt us though, as well as flats. We didn't have the guns at the end to get into position. I gave up my goal of the win to try and help Mike, but wasn't able to do much when it counted. Fear of what happened the day before and my legs kept me from the sharp end. I ended up rolling in after the pack, pretty depressed.

The Hill will be another day, and we will put it all on the line.

Gateway Cup

If you race bikes in the Midwest there are a few race weekends that you HAVE TO GO TO. First is Memorial Day weekend in the Quad Cities area. Then there is Tulsa Tough (I have not been yet, I'm going next year) Tour of America's Dariyland, and Gateway Cup. You might think differently, but this is my list, and if you want to find some of the best racing in the area this is where you have to be. There are some more great weekend races that are up and coming but I will talk about those later.

The only new race I listed was ToAD, and that is because it is actually longer than a week, and it is super awesome!

Other than that these races are classics! They have been around a long time, and in the case of Gateway Cup some of the races were on their own before Mike Weiss, promoter and owner of Big Shark, started the series. The biggest race of the weekend is the Giro Della Montagna, a race that has been going on for about 27 years in the historic St Louis community The Hill. It is a long rectangle crit course with a slight uphill on the backside and a slight downhill into the finish line. Winning the Giro is a huge deal in these parts.

Racing at the Cup is the world series and something that anyone in St Louis who considers themselves a bike racer must do. It is also a tough race in that it is fast, and crashes happen, a lot. I feel like sometime people should show up kitted up with roller derby pads.

The first night starts things off right with the Tour de Lafayette in Lafayette square. A box shaped crit course that the big races take place at night. The streets in Lafayette square are wide and lined with tons of people who live on the course. The whole time you are racing around people are living it up and people are cheering at every corner.

The next day is Tour De Francis Park in the St Louis Hills community, not the same as The Hill. The course is very similar to the pervious day except it is durning the day. The racing is very much the same, fast and hard. With roads so wide it is hard to control the pack and you have to be on your toes.

The toughest days come on Sunday and Monday, with Sunday being the famous Giro Della Montagna. The start line is at the door of the neighborhood Catholic Church and is blessed by the father before the race starts. The roads are narrow, and with the fields always full it can get a bit hairy. Last year we lost a few of our riders in a big crash on the slowest turn on the course. With the long downhill on the front stretch speeds will normally reach 45+ mph and the winning sprint will get higher than that.

The last race of the weekend and the newest race in the series is the Benton Park Classic. This is the only race of the weekend that is not 4 corners, instead it has 10 turns! It is amazing! I have done 3 editions of this weekend, and all the editions of this race. It is one of my favorites of the entire year. And being the last race of my racing season is a great way to end. The course has elevation change, wind, turns, goofy local bands playing on the backside, and historic neighborhoods. It also goes right next to the Budweiser factory, pretty much perfect.

Winning just one of these races would be a great accomplishment for a season, but I am not the only one who thinks this, so it is easier said than done. And with the storm down in the Gulf happening, and that weather coming this way in time for the weekend, things are going to be hairier than ever.

See y'all there.

Sedalia Crit/Otterville RR

The team and I headed out to Sedailia, MO yesterday to race this weekend. Sedailia is a great little town in Western MO, that hosts an amazing critirium in the middle of their downtown. The cat 3/4 and the Pro123 are held later in the day with the later taking place in the dark. The course is very straight forward in crit terms. .75 miles long, with 4 corners and almost no elevation change. It is a very fast course, and with good bike skills you can really enjoy yourself in the race.

We lined up Brian Smith, Eric Finks, Jason Wulff, Jason Murphy, myself, Keith Vogl, and Grant Erhard. We have been very successful this year in crits and have done some great things as a team. We came to this race though to work on some weak spots, and get things tuned in for  Gateway Cup. If we didn't do so well that would teach us something that we could try to fix before the big race. But succeeding would be nice too.

The race was pretty easy in my opinion for most of the ride. We all started in the back of the pack and had to work our way to the front of the race. We all agreed that was the worst part of the race. Most of us had not gotten a great warm up after driving long hours to the race. So jumping hard early in the race sort of sucks. Once the legs have stretched out though things were pretty straight forward.

We did a great job in the race of hitting working points we had targeted. Hitting those targets made it easier to make small changes to our plan when we were short one rider near the end of the race. With 5 laps to go we lined it up on the front of the pack and started our lead-out train. This is the longest, and biggest lead-out we have ever done. We tried it once before but did not get it quite right. With some small tweaking though we were flying! I set myself in second position. I was supposed to be 4th, but like I said we needed to make some changes. We have been riding so great together though that everyone was able to make the change without too much trouble. Our first rider, Keith, in my opinion had the hardest part of the job. He took us up to speed and had to hold it for 2 laps. That doesn't seem like much compared to PRO's but we are just getting started here so 2 laps for our first guy was a lot. He did an amazing job, even accelerating for a second spirt when I thought he might be losing power. As we were coming around with 3 to go it was my turn. The rest of us were just supposed to keep the speed high enough that no one would want to try and move up. This would give our sprinter the best chance to win. As I fought with my bike trying to put out as much power as I could I kept waiting for the pack to surge around me, but they never came. And with Grant behind me barking to keep going I was able to make about 3/4 of a lap and dropped Grant with 2 turns till 2 laps to go.  Grant and Murphy had the last two laps to pull to put our man in the right spot. Looking back on myself I should have gone farther and dug deeper. I think I got scared of dropping too much speed and called it too soon. Practice makes perfect though right? After I pulled off I don't really know what happened first hand. What I saw however was the field was shattered! There were only a few riders holding onto Fink's (our sprinter) wheel. I was blown away! From what I am told our lead-out dropped Eric at the perfect spot and he took the win by a bike length. It was really great to get him the win in what he considers his home town race.

Between the 3/4 and PRO 123 race we were able to meet one of our sponsors, David Garnett, the president of Hawthorn Bank in Clinton, MO. He is trying to help his own town try and bring a race like Sedalia to Clinton. It is always great to meet the people that make our racing possible.

The PRO 123 race in Sedalia is held under the street lights and car head lights of the town. In my opinion it is AWESOME! Last year I jumped in this race and made it all the way to 15 min, out of an hour......
So this year I was really hoping for a better ride, and to try and help our new team member Luke Bligh with whatever I could. The team lined up better in this race so as to not have such a hard start. It really didn't matter though, it was hard, and fast, and hard. There were two really good teams that I could see really mixing it up. Dog Fish, the juggernaut of St Louis Cat 12 racing, and Gateway Harley Davidson. Other teams with regular strong dudes were The Hub, with Devin Clark, and Off the Front with Hayden Warner. For the most part the regulars made their way into a break and they duked it out while the rest of us battled for best of the rest (9th). I was pretty smoked by the time the break was out of sight. I had made attempts to pull the pack back up to them as we had a good sprinter in the bunch. But I am quite on par with these guys, hence I am still a cat 3. My fitness must really be coming around though as I was able to recover very quickly and an uncountable amount of times. I was pretty much bouncing back and forth in the pack, jumping, or pulling, and then hanging on the back.

As we neared the end of the race Eric, Luke, Grant, and I were still in the race. As we started to line up for Luke we couldn't find Grant who was hanging on for the finish at the back. That was okay though as it was his first cat 123 race and he was going to finish great! Luke did a great job of steering Eric and I around the course in order to get him in a good spot to sprint. I actually felt bad for Luke being behind me, as Luke towers over me on the bike and I have no idea how he was getting a draft off me. So as we were starting our lead-out, and keying off Dog Fish, we got a big unlucky and ran into some traffic. Eric when one way and I went another. I had a chance to pull off the move and keep Luke going but I over cooked a turn scraping my pedal on a curb and barely keeping my bike upright. Luke made it around me and through the traffic though, a great skill he has honed over the years, and finished 3rd in our group and 11th overall.

We were all pretty pumped about the race. Everyone really seemed to have had a good time and the city of Sedalia put on a great race. I hope that they keep it going in the years to come, and the people of the community continue to embrace it as they have.

Grant, Keith, and I, were all planning on staying with Finkszilla's place in Clinton. We stayed there last year, but it is kind of a drive. This year we decided we would get a room at a hotel on the town square. Hotel Bothwell is a great old hotel that has not lost it's charm. I really like places like that, and someday I hope I get a little more time there to really check it out.

This morning the team headed over to Otterville, MO. It was only 15 min away, another small Missouri town that welcomed us cyclists to their town. The Otterville road race is a 24 mile rolling loop through the country side. There are really no real hill climbs to speak of, but the road is also rarely flat. The wind was also pretty strong. We didn't really go into the race with much of a plan. Most of us had planned to do the 123 race, but chickened out when we thought that the weather was going to get rough. So we just went in looking to get some more work done.

We were all pretty tired from the previous night's racing so we were happy to see that no one was really organized and never attacked us. There were plenty of guys who tried to get off but we felt there wasn't much use in tracking them down. We felt most of the time the race was going to just naturally bring them back. During the frist lap we actually had a little fun when Eric had a chain problem. A few of us pulled off the back to bring him back up once he had it fixed. We started to get a little nervous when Grant ended up also having a mechanical problem as well while we waited for Eric. Everything ended up fine though and we made a quick pace line back to the pack.

In the second lap we tried a few moves to see if anything would stay away, but nothing did, kind of like we had expected. So we wanted to do some more practice with our lead-out.  Sometimes you learn more when you fail than when you succeed, and I think this was one of those times. Our train didn't work this time, and there were things we did not take into account for.  It was close, and a good try, but like I said, we learned things, and wont make that mistake again.

In the end Grant was our best placed rider, even after having to deal with a not so good situation at the end of the race. It all turned out okay, and like I said Grant didn't give up and finished strong. For a young guy only racing about a year he looks mighty strong. All the guys look like we are going to be flying next weekend, and thats a good thing.

Lance Armstrong

So I am pretty sad about Lance's decision to not fight anymore. I understand, and I know that he said before the charges were brought that he would no longer fight. I am a big LA fan, but that doesn't mean I have my doubts about what he did when he was racing. Everyone was doping so does it really count as cheating?

Now taking into account that you know I am a Lance fan, I agreed that the USADA prosecution seemed quite zealous and counter to what we feel is fair in the USA. Lance is that the first rider or athlete taken down by the USADA, and just about every time it seems very one sided and if you are caught in their net you are pretty F*&ked. It raises questions in my mind of oversight, and checks and balances.

I have read some blogs saying that Lance has again done a great job of spinning the outcome in his favor. At this point people not very familiar with what is going on will look at this as an admission of guilt. And WADA, and the USADA are saying that it is. But the more you look at it the more it seams like a settlement similar to what you see when a corporation settles with a plaintif. Lance has more to do in life than re-win what he had already won, and I feel he feels no one can take away what he had won. So what is the point fo fighting the past, just move forward and do more with his foundation and race in non WADA races. (there are plenty out there)

I don't think this will change anyone's mind about LA. I think us Lance lovers will still be with him, and the haters will still hate him. I was even thinking the other day, what would I do if Lance lost, or gave up? Turns out other than being bummed he gave up, it doesn't change my life.

I am heading out to western Missouri tomorrow for the Sedalia Crit and Otterville road race this weekend. This will be the last tune up before the Gateway Cup next weekend. For us road guys this is the end of the season in Missouri, and there are a lot of guys looking really good right now. We are going to use this weekend to have our stuff dialed in and ready to win.

Hi

So I know it has been a while. I feel like I have been really busy and always tired when I had time to write. There has been a lot since the Great Egyptian Omnium.

First was my team gymnastics camp. Every year I host a camp at my gym. Since I have started it is really only my team kids that come, but maybe some day other kids will want to come too. So what I do is a hire visiting coaches to come in, work with the kids, and have a lot of fun. I have had college coaches, college gymnasts, and this year I brought in a Men's national team member, and a team member of the U of I men's gymnastics team. Now I do only coach girls, but these guys are great gymnasts and the way men's gymnastics works, most guys can coach pretty well. Paul Ruggeri and Vincent Smurro came down from the U of I and we all had a great time with them. They guys were really nice and helped the girls a lot. I tried to take them out and show them how great St Louis is and they seemed to really like it. Every year I am a bit nervous that camp wont be fun enough, but I am always pleasantly surprised that the kids love it.

After camp my bike racing team was hosting our first ever critirium in Maplewood, MO. We had been mulling over putting this race on for months, but as none of us really knew what we were doing there was not a lot of discussion until a couple weeks before the event. This made those few weeks after the great Egyptian even more stressful for me. The city of Maplewood was really very helpful and went out of their way to help. There was a point when I thought we weren't going to be able to pull things off and they talked me back into it. The race was supposed to take place in downtown Maplewood to help showcase their great town. Our first set back was the streets, which were in great need of repair were going to be repaired and it would run into our event. Our next location looked very fun but when we realized it wasn't going to work the city planners pointed out an industrial park and sent me to look. Know I now what you are thinking, borring! But this is the nicest industrial park I had ever seen. The race would go past two round-abouts through a parking lot that twisted and turned, down a wide false flat uphill neighborhood street, out onto Big Bend and back to the start. It was a HUGE success and the whole St Louis cycling community really enjoyed it. We only charged $20 for the first race and $10 for every extra race, so it was cheap! Our payout wasn't great, but the goal was to have great racing for a low price, and we accomplished that. We had a few heats with over 45 riders and that is a good number in my opinion for a race that wasn't for sure up until a week to go, almost no payout, and was local. Not that our local scene isn't amazing, it just seems like more local riders could show up to other races to help support these events. It was great to see everyone out at our event and I am so pumped to do it again next year.

The icing on the cake was I won my own race! I didn't think I would get a chance to race but I made it in, and things just worked out great. My team worked awesome and put me on the front for a great sprint. I had a grin from ear to ear!

The next week we had the MO state TT and crit championships. I had wanted to do the TT all year as I would like to get a bit better at it, and if I am ever in the hunt for MOBRA (our local race series) I will need to do well in TT's. The number one reason to go however was to get my friend and teammate Chris Connolly to go. Chris is one of the biggest diesel engines I have ever ridden with. We do have a few guys in our area that are faster than him right now, but they had better watch out. I have never done a 40k TT and I did pretty bad. But Chris won and had the 5th fastest time in the STATE out of all categories! This was on a borrowed bike, and a dude that road it maybe 5 or 6 times. Guess who needs to get a new bike?

After that win I was ready for some more QMC victories at state. Our first crit win for QMC came from Julianna Crang in the Juniors race. After that the biggest number of our team to ever race together lined up for the 30+/35+ masters race. Our rider was Bj and the plan we to get him away in a break. It took quite a while before we were able to get the field wore out enough to get it done. But Mark put in a dig and got a pretty good gap off the front. He was the first Quantum rider to get off the front without anyone going after him. I wondered at the time if it was because they knew he was not from Illinois. Mark is pretty well know so that was my assumption. After a couple laps though Bj made a big dig and made it up to Mark without anyone else on his wheel. That was all she wrote for the 30+ race. We shut the race down big time with 6 of us riding 3 wide at the front of the race at close to parade speed. With a couple laps to go we started trying to get Eric lined up for a possible 35+ win. Eric was in a great position but with all the work he had done earlier in the day he wasn't able to match the sprint of a couple other guys in the race.

We were super pumped about Bj's win we were equally excited about racing for Eric in the 3s race. The race was a little better populated than the master's race was, but we still had the biggest team in the field and we felt we could dictate what was going to happen. There were a few riders we were looking out for and had a plan to try and put them into the pain box. The cat 3 field in MO is on the rise though and many riders were ready for the punishment we dished out to the field. Every time one of our riders hit the field with an attack we were marked by a number of riders all hoping to get away with them. I made a mistake at one point trying to bridge to a break that looked good to help one of my teammates. I thought I made a very big hard jump and no one was going to be on my wheel but I was wrong and had brought 2 Mercy riders. This in turn caused the rest of the field to jump and the good looking break was brought back. With only a few laps to go I was hurting bad. I had done a lot of work in the previous race and this one. So when a strong Big Shark rider made a big attack with only a few laps to go I dug down for whatever matches I had left and buried myself. I wasn't able to finish with my teammates but they kept Eric in position and gave him a great shot at the win. Unfortunately Eric wasn't the best sprinter in the bunch sprint and couldn't hold of futur QMC rider Luke Bligh.

This last weekend was one of the biggest payout races in the area at the Edwardsville Rotary Criterium. The total payout was $10,000 with a big party happening around the race, as well as taking place at night. The course was short with 7 turns. Twice on the course the road narrows down to one lane and there is a very fast technical chicane you must navigate. Our race went off at 8:15pm, the latest race I had ever taken part in. I really liked the course and was pretty pumped to put our team plan into effect and see what happens. Less than one minute into the race I crashed washing out in the first half of the chicane. Luckily I didn't take anyone else down with me, and other than a hole in my skin suit, torn grips, and a dropped chain, everything was ok. I pulled myself together and headed back to the pit. I made it there as the pack was going through the start finish so I waited for them to come by again.

Once back in the race I started to get to work with the rest of my team. The first part of the plan was to keep the speed high and get rid of anyone not strong enough to really be there. We kept taking turns jumping off the front or pulling stretching the field out. Twice I went for preems in the race but was beaten by Korte Hammer Down's Sam Moore. He has really been getting stronger over the last few weeks and we will have to keep an eye on him for Gateway. We all tried to keep in touch with each other as we road as we tried to get organized for the finish. With something like 9 laps to go Finkszilla got on the front and started hammering. He lead the race for what seemed like 4 or 5 laps and when he finally looked like he was starting to get tired I pulled around him to try and keep the pace hot. I tried to keep it smooth through the technical parts of the course and fast everywhere else. With 2 laps to go a strong Big Shark rider decided to start pulling. I was a little confused by this but that was fine with me. I hung to the back of the pack for the last 2 laps and just tried to see what was happening at the front. In the dark it was hard to see though. I didn't know till later that we had taken 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 10th, and I took 20th, the last money spot! In all it was a great day and we all had a ton of fun. We didn't get it quite right with our plan but it is a weak spot that we know we have and we are going to work it out. I am so proud of the guys and the team. We are going to have a very strong team going into Gateway Cup and we will be looking for some good results. 

Great Egyptian Omnium

This was the first weekend in a while that I had raced. After a few less than steller performances in my opinion I needed something to get me on track. I decided to start paying a coach. I have had one of my very good friends helping me for the last few years. He is a very successful businessman with a big family and he just didn't have as much time as he used to to help me. He started to use this coach earlier in the year and gave him some great reviews. I thought if this coach is good enough for my old coach then he has to be good enough for me.

So three weeks ago we started working together. It has been a lot of hard work but I think I am already seeing a lot of improvements. This weekend really helped me to see that.

The Great Egyptian Omnium is a 3 stage race over 2 days in Ciro, IL. It is an amazing race that is completely embraced by the local community. Stage one was an 80 mile road race and us lowly cat 3 racers were thrown in with the cat 1s and 2s. At first I thought this was going to suck, but it was actually pretty fun, hard, but fun. I enjoyed it because there was a lot to think about while racing for four + hours. Most of the race was just surviving. The 1s and 2s were beating up on each other, one of our guys was off the front, the rest of our team just road the waves of guys trying to take off.

The course was pretty great. It was hard enough to keep things interesting, but not hard enough that it was what was going to kick everyone's ass. There were only a couple climbs, and none were too long, nor were they too steep. The roads were great, and those people we met on the roads were so friendly.

For most of the race I tried to stay near our protected rider Keith. Early in the race we were both feeling pretty shitty. But Keith has been working so hard for so long to get ready for this weekend that I tried hard to keep his spirits up and him in the race. I kept telling him that we just had to survive the race. As long as we were there at the end we were going to do well. Keith's wife Emily came and did us both a solid with handing up our food, water, and ice during the race. Doing hand ups is not an easy thing for new people, I consider myself new at this so I was about as nervous as Emily was I think. The last time I did hand ups with a musette bag I crashed. But she was flawless, the bags were always there, full of water and ice. We also got a great spot in the feed zone so it was easy to get to her.

As the race wore on there were only 3s and a couple 2s left in the pack. Jeremy Bock from cat 2 from Dog Fish lead us around the course after his teammate went on the break with one of our cat 2s. Our cat 2 Mark was just chilling in the pack getting a few miles in his legs. Towards the last lap a couple guys in our race started to try and break away. The problem was these guys always tried at the worst times. They were always pretty easy to bring back but just kind of annoying. The one rider from Athlete Forward tried maybe 20 times to get away. I have to give it to the kid, he had heart. I heard he was from a mountain bike background and just doesn't have the feel for the road yet. He will be a guy we watch out for though as he gets a hang of it. With the miles ticking down the cramps in my legs started to multiply. It was hard to eat enough without overdoing it with the heat. I decided to error on the side of too little food, this might have lead to me not having enough minerals in my muscles but I never cramped too bad at the wrong time. As long as I was able to stay in the saddle I could work certain muscles and stay way from the tired ones. Getting closer to the finish I took a spot in the lead of the group and tried to hold a steady tempo and slowly bring up the speed. The problem was we probably didn't finish quite to Keith's strengths and he was having cramping problems like me and could not stand to sprint. He went a farther out than I thought he was going to and didn't go hard enough As we hit the final climb to the finish with 200 meters Keith blew up. I tried to hold my speed and finish as strong as I could. I ended up passing Keith getting 5th and Keith getting 7th. This wasn't the best finish we really had hoped for but Keith was still in striking distance and his strength the TT was up next.

All of us cleaned up our team stuff and Mark, Bj, and I went to get some food. Keith and his wife enjoyed the fine food in Creal, IL. They had a pretty neat set-up for the race with a bunch of people selling stuff, and even a dunk tank. I again was pretty behind not really thinking out how long it took to change over parts on my road and TT bikes. Bj was awesome and did a lot of work to help me get ready. He got my ice, filled my water, and even fixed my helmet with I ripped the straps out. I rolled up to the start with about 2 min to go which was awesome! I hate standing in line for a TT and I hate standing in the heat even more. I did't really look at the course profile nor did I drive it before hand. So I had no idea what to expect. I was surprised that we started on and uphill! Note to self, check that crap out next time! So there was some pretty good climbing for a TT in my opinion. Nothing like a pro race or anything, but I think it was more than maybe the hilly Hermann TT? I thought that doing a 7 mile TT was going to be easy, but after a hard 80 doing 7 more all out sucked A$$! Talking with my new coach before the race he gave me a target to shoot for wattage wise. This made things a bit easier when hitting the uphills allowing me to meter out my effort a bit more. When I began to catch my 2 minute man I decided that I would just try to get a bit closer by the finish and not worry about beating him. I wasn't racing for the win more of just training. It helped me to keep my speed up though as I was really hurting for some motivation. I finished the little over 7 mile course in 18:33 min with a dropped chain. This was good enough to put me in 5th place again. Keith did much better even after having to make a quick wheel change only minutes before he went off due to a flat. He came in with an 18:12 putting him into second for the TT. This also brought him up into a tie for 3rd in the GC.

The next day Mike was going to come down to help out in the cat 3 crit. As we were waiting for the race to start Bj and I watched our cat 4 teammate Rob race in the cat 4 race. He looked super strong and  never in trouble. The bad thing was he never looked like he was in the correct spot of the peleton either. When he finished he was telling us how easy the race was and that he was just too far back for the sprint. After further discusion we talked him into racing the Masters race later in the day and worked out a plan for him to race with. Instead of worrying about about racing other people's weaknesses, we told him about racing to his strengths. He was able to take his considerable strength and solo'd away to a victory. It was awesome seeing him go and see that no one in the pack even had a chance!

After Rob's race the 3s were up. I said something about Keith doing something similar to what Rob did, and we talked about taking points from other riders and trying to get Keith as many points as we could. There were preem points that were being offered on 3 separate laps going out 3 places. The first preem seemed to come pretty quickly and Keith was not ready. Luckily Mike and I were at the front so Mike lead me out and I took first adding 3 points to my tally but more important taking away 3 from the guys beating Keith. Mike also stuck in there and took 3rd steeling 1 point. As we came up to the 2nd preem lap I actually made a mistake and lead it out a lap too early. But it turned out to be a happy accident as Guitar Lab also thought we were going for points and sent all 3 of their guys sprinting for nothing. Keith was paying attention this time though and yelled that it was the next lap as he flew by me. At first I thought crap I blew it, but then I though, shoot I can do that again, no problem. This time I got it right leading Keith out, again he went earlier than I thought he was going to go but after he went we never caught him again.

Mike and I started working to block the rest of the pack from chasing Keith down. For the most part it was really easy. I think most of the attempts were fake attempts to try and get others to chase Keith down. We would simply just sit on the front and ride slow. Anyone at any time could have ridden around us, but when everyone is tired no one wants to chase. While Keith was off we still raced for preems to keep his competitors from getting more points on him. Then as we neared the end of the race we actually got a little help from the Guitar Lab guys as one went to the front and tried to keep the speed up. I think he was a little tired though because we didn't quite make it all the way. This caused me to get a swamped and lose Mike's wheel. I was really mad at myself for that. I was sitting in a perfect spot 3rd wheel and now I was more than 10 guys back! I tried to keep looking for an opening to  shoot to the front and it opened about 300 yards from the line. The gutter on the inside of the road all of a sudden opened and I took off. As I hit the front of the field everyone else was jumping. I had a slight stutter when I rider jumped into my line, but I was back on the gas quickly. I had a pretty good gap but I started to wain and two riders on my left started gaining on me. When we threw our bikes at the line I knew I had missed it. At first I was bummed until I saw one of the other riders was my teammate Mike! Now I was pumped! We ended up Keith 1st, Mike in 3rd, and me in 4th. So close to a podium sweep, but we were all still really happy. Keith's win ended up catapulting him into 1st place in GC. We were really looking good for the day. With such a good thing going I decided to sign up for the final race of the day, the cat 123.

Mark and Bj wanted Mike and I to just try and go with anything that tried to get off the front of the race. We were also supposed to make sure to watch for guys going for preems that they didn't keep on rolling. As we went through for our first preem we just made sure to keep the race together. A few turns later a rider from Off the Front jumped off the front. I was close so I jumped on his wheel. My job was to just sit on his wheel and get dragged around the course. He made one really long pull and then asked me to come around. I shook my head and told him I wasn't going to pull. He wasn't very happy but he kept on going. After more than a lap we were gaining time, and I started to pull through. We quickly got into a pattern of when to trade off pulls. As the laps counted off it seemed to get hotter and hotter. For a long time we were pulling away and I thought for a little bit that maybe we were gonna make it. With about 8 laps to go I started to see Gateway Harley pulling on the front. I tried to put in some hard pulls but I was hurting. I was out of water and the heat was really getting to me. With 5 laps to go we rolled through for a preem, I wasn't even trying for the preems during the race as I was not in the 1,2 GC at all. When we went through however I heard cheering quite close behind us. Then the pack was there and what little gas I had left in the tank went fast. I tried to hang on the back for a short bit but I was empty. I rolled back around to our tent and dunked my head in the ice cooler. With my break having been brought back a few other strong attacks went but were not successful. With 2 to go though a strong flyer went off the front and Mike and Bj had to put it all out there to pull the break back enough for Mark to sprint. He had a very strong go of it and came out of the bunch in 2nd place. Another great race for the team.

I had so much fun this last weekend and really look forward to going back next year. The people down in Cairo, IL were so nice and the organization putting on the race did a great job. I hope they grow over the next few years to have a huge even that brings in riders from all over.

I'm getting close! I was #370 Mike is #380.

Team Sky has made a mistake

Watching the Tour this week I think the the British team Sky has made a huge mistake with their team. The goal of the team was to alway be a mostly British team that won the Tour de France with a British rider within 5 years. They found that rider in Bradley Wiggins, who at the time of the team's creation was contracted with Garmin. Bradley is an amazing rider and I think will be a Tour winner at some point. I don't think this is the year though. The mistake I think they made was to have too many big goals, too many amazing riders, and no one with the balls to say "we can't do it all". There was a time when a team could dominate the Tour and win multiple jerseys. I think that time has past. There are so many good teams, and each one has one goal when they come. Some are to win the GC, some to win the green jersey, some want to win stages, and others just want to get into break aways every day. Each one is dedicated to one goal though, and all nine riders work towards that goal. Sky started the year saying they were going to race for both the Yellow and Green jerseys. These are the most prestiges jersey in the race, so there are multipel teams going for the same thing. The catch is the entire team is going for one or the other. Then as the race neared, Sky's world champion Mark Cavendish and "best sprinter in the world" said he no longer was going to target the green jersey. A jersey he had won the year before after chasing it for at least 3 years. Why would he do that? I believe that his directors realized the same thing I was saying, and they could only win one jersey. So Cav was going to be hunting stage wins, and have to do it on his own. WHAAAA!???

So now a team, who I would be large amounts of money, had promised Cav a go at the green jersey again. Was not going to allow him to do that, and if he wanted to win stages he was going to have to do it without a lead-out train. Basically they just spit in the eye of the World Champion. This is all my opinion and speculation, but this is what I think happened. Cav only came to Sky because his former team, the best team in the world, HTC Highroad/Columbia, folded last year when it's sponsors pulled out just because. While at HTC he was given all the tools needed to do nothing short of dominate the pro ranks winning no less than 20 stages in the Tour de France in the last four years. He road the greatest bike in the world, a Specialized McLaren Venge, had a lead-out train second to non, and a management team that wasn't afraid to lay it all on the line. The great thing about Cav as well, was if you took him to the line he would win 99 time out of 100. I am sure his teammates were always willing to turn themselves inside out to get him there.

So now team Sky has gone to the biggest, most important race of the year with 9 riders, 8 of which are riding to get Bradley to the race win, and Cav is on his own. Already they are at a disadvantage. Cav cannot climb well enough to help Brad in the mountains. I don't think I have ever seen Cav do much work on the front to pull a break back, I am sure he can but I have just never seen him.

Now Sky has lost a rider already due to injury, they have allowed Cav to get caught up in big crashes because he has to fight his way through the bunch, and I am guessing Cav is wondering what the hell he is doing with Sky if they don't give a shit enough to give the best sprinter in the world and world champ a lead-out.

Today Sky did try and take Cav to the line but they did not have the fire power to get him all the way and were swamped. They were built to climb, not power on the front for 25 kilometers. I know these guys are all super strong but when they are going up against a team like Loto who was built to take Greipel to the line and maybe into the green jersey, they have no chance.

I think Sky didn't think things through when they went after Cav, and maybe Cav was a little nieve to think a team could do both. But I don't see him being there for another year if things don't look like they are going to change. To me it has always seemed strange. I know that is sort of a strange thing to say when I don't personally know any of these people. But sometimes things just don't seem right. And even though Cav is a Brit, and grew up with most of these guys, he just doesn't seem to fit. What do I know though?

Dream team, or too many cooks?

ToAD Schlitz Park Milwaukee WI

Schlitz park is located on the northern park of Milwaukee just south of Brewer's hill. The area is a mix of old and new as it was once the location of the Schlitz brewing company, and is now owned by a group who develops and manages the property. It has an amazing view of downtown and there are some really nice new homes mixed in with some great historic buildings.

The course is less than one mile with a steep climb every lap and a steep technical downhill to follow. The uphill section is two blocks long with the first block being the steeper section at 9 percent. The downhill section was just a bit tricky with the first left turn of course having a manhole cover in the middle of the turn as well as some choppy pavement. After that was a quick right hand turn that continued sweeping right and then a chicane of left than right, also horrible pavement, into a short 150 meter sprint to the line. The line was also only about 200 meters from the right hand turn to the uphill.

I started at the front again for this race as I knew the hill would hurt those too far back, and the downhill section would create gaps that would have to be crossed if too far back. The first time up the hill was the only time I used my small chain ring in the race. After that we were sprinting up the climb in the big ring every time. Most of the time up the hill I made sure I wasn't following anyone to make sure I didn't get stuck behind a slow rider. This also allowed me to move up in the pack at first and then sag back into a good spot on the second half of the climb.

The hill was of course the spot most of the attacks came. I think I made it easier on myself accelerating early on the hill so that I was already at a good speed when the group began chasing. I never had enough power to go with any of the attacks and was always happy to be able to hang with the group. I was mostly lucky that not much ever happened at the top of the course this year. It allowed me to get my heart rate down, sometimes move up to a better postion, and get ready for the downhill section. The downhill was where I was able to make some good passes. I am a small guy and corner very well. I know I scare some people with how I can turn, but this is just a tool in my bag that not many other people have. The best place to make up some spots was going around the long right hand turn going into the chicane before the start finish line. Most guys didn't take good lines thought the first part of the turn and then began setting up for the chicane far too early. This made it easy on most laps to pick up some spots.

With somewhere around 15 laps to go the big attack happened and we were full gas, times 10, for 3 or 4 laps and I was barely hanging on for dear life. A couple times up the hill I didn't know if I would be able hang on and once I had to use the downhill section to get back in contact. That last time when I needed the downhill the break was caught and we slowed to a more manageable speed for me. For a few laps however I was on the back of the pack, now down to maybe 20 guys.

I was getting ready for the last lap now. I knew it was going to be a huge dig up the hill and those who survived would get a chance to sprint for the finish. As we turned into the hill I hit the gas, pedal to the medal, and was able to hold my position. As we hit the second part of the climb I sagged a lot however and had to sprint again to hold the tail of the pack. I am sure most of the guys were tired at this point so we slowed a bit on top and I was able to recover, and as we hit the downhill section I was feeling stronger again. Everyone was taking to corners pretty fast now so there was no way to move up until we exited the chicane and I hit the afterburners only making up one spot though. It was still a good result for me. 17th overall and 2nd out of the cat 3s. I was really happy with the sprint too hitting around 37 miles per hour after such a hard race.

Going into the next day I was pretty pumped and feeling strong. Turns out it sucked! I crashed 3 miles into a 50 mile road race and that was it for me, day over, nothing to see here, move on. O well, that is racing.

ToAD Greenbush RR

All I figured on Greenbush was it was going to be hard. I had never raced a road race against category 2 riders, but I assumed it was going to be faster than I had done before. The course was on a 10 mile loop that from the course bible said there was no real climbing on the course. Unless you read the written description. This was my saving grace as I decided to change my gearing choice and that almost  saved my race.

The course ended up having a lot of obstacles that would test just about every different type of rider. There were short climbs that taken at "normal" pace would have been fine, but taken at mach 10 like we did, they were very hard. Rolling hills, wind, rough road that seemed to act like Roubaix road. There were long sweeping downhill sections, and fast flats where we road flat out.

Most of the time I like to ride up near the front to lessen the accelerations and changes that happen in the race. But I thought I would try to ride near the back this time and try to use more draft. Boy this was a mistake! There were 80 riders in the race, the most I have ever been in a road race with. This caused the accelerations and decelerations hurt. Instead of being able to roll up rollers and take momentum into hills I would almost have to stop halfway up because of riders in front of me and then sprint to the top. Very quickly I determined my first thought of hanging at the back was not going to work so I started to move to the front. There are a few good ways to move to the front. You want to do it while using as little energy as possible. Moving up the gutters in road races is pretty normal. Guys try to do it when the pack slows for some reason or following another rider who wants to move up in as well. I have also been working on a skill that I had seen a very good sprinter do once in a youtube video. He was able to time gaps in the group and move up without ever hitting the wind. There were a few places in the race that I was able to do this. It was pretty fun but I wanted to make sure I was really careful and not too aggressive. I really didn't want to overlap someones wheel and take people down. The last way that I move up effectively is on downhill sections. Like turning, people get a little timid going down hill, and even more so going downhill with turns.

About halfway around the first lap I was able to get to the front of the group and this was a big help to me in saving some energy. As the race went on we got into a pretty predictable routine. Sprint up any uphill section, attack, attack, attack, rest a min, attack, another hill, and repeat. Being near the front helped a bit but it didn't save me from still having to do a lot of work to get up the hills, and I was never able to hold my position going up the hills. I would sag pretty well and then have to work my way back up again. On lap 4 things changed and the routine was thrown out. Riders started attacking where we had previously been resting and I was getting stretched off the back. I had to burn a big match to hold on and this was not a good thing. As we neared the part of the course where most of the climbing happened I was in a bad spot, position wise, and physically. I needed to be more towards the front so that I could sag a bit as we climbed, but I didn't have much energy left to get up the climbs let alone sprint up the side to get to the front of the group. As we flew up the first climb I dug deep to hold my position. On the way down I took a line on the side of the road and made it up to the front of the pack. That was good, the bad was we were hitting the hardest climb on the course. A two tier climb which like I said before, wasn't very long, we just hit it so fast it hurt bad. I made it up the first part of the climb okay, but as we hit the second part I was just about empty. My only hope was I stay close enough to catch on the downhill. It was long and winding, both could help me. But as I crested the top of the climb the group only got faster. My only hope was that I could get in a good tuck and catch them by the bottom. I didn't think about it quick enough but at the bottom of the hill we took a left onto a very rough road with a hard cross wind. It was like a mile of Paris-Roubaix. If I wasn't in the pack before this I could kiss the race good bye. When I finally caught I didn't realize that a rider from another race was mixed into the group and this allowed a gap to open. Once I noticed it was too late and my last match was burnt trying to grab the back of the pack. It was not to be. The race was just too fast for me, and my day was done. I rolled around to the start line and pulled the plug.

I was pretty bummed about my performance in this race. I think it was more a mental mistake and mental weakness rather than physical. I allowed myself to get too far back and instead of pushing it just a bit harder I relaxed and was dropped. With Shlitz Park coming up the next day I wasn't feeling great about how I was going to do.

ToAD Waukesha Carl Zach Classic

Day three of the Tour of America's Dairyland was going to be tough with the most technical of the series so far. The roads were the worst so far with cracks, bumps, and man hole covers everywhere. The road were also very narrow for a couple of stretches and just a few hundred yards from the start line there was a turn that was very close to 180 degrees. After that we flew up a narrow side street that was very bumpy and in the middle of the next turn was a crack going parallel to our direction. This ended up causing quite a few accidents though out the race. After that right hand turn was a nice wide open road on nice pavement but that seemed to be the windiest spot on the course so most of the time we were lined out and sprinting to stay in contact if you were too far back. Then it was a left and a two rights with the second to last right being downhill, wide, and decent pavement. After this you flew through a long sweeping right turn but it was some of the worst pavement on the course.

Every lap the race was to the first turn. We sprinted through the finish line and everyone was working hard to get a good spot to go through the turn. Most times we went through 3 or 4 wide and then it was a sprint again to try and stretch the field out. If you were too far back you were going to be hurting bad very quickly!

I finally got smart and got a start position on front line of the field. I knew I was still going to have to fight hard to stay on the front but getting a good start would at least help me save a little energy for later. Like every other day we started fast, this time though there was a team on the front blocking most of the field and two of their team members were riding off the front. After only two turns I found myself between those two riders and the rest of the field so I decided I would try to go for the break. I made it up to the two riders and quickly we were joined by another very strong rider, Hogan Sills. I actually thought this might work, I also thought that if it did this was going to be a hard race. After 2 or 3 laps off the front though we were realed back in. Almost as soon as we were back in the pack more riders were trying to go off. The speed never slowed and this hurt. I wanted a chance to catch my breath but in these races you either had the fitness and the speed and accelerations didn't bother you, or you were me and they did.

I had planned on not going for any preems during any more of the races, instead focusing on placing high in the finish. But for one preem I was placed just too high in the field, and I had a great shot at the line to not go for it. I took a small $20 preem and man did I pay for it. For the rest of the race I was trying to get back on terms with the rhythm of the race. As the race neared the end the speed kept increasing, attacks kept launching, and crashes started happening. For the most part I think the crashes at this race happened because of the course conditions, and what appeared to be riders with too high of air pressure in their tires. I saw a few examples of guys who slid out but saved it in turns that were not that fast or hard. That is why I think they had their tires pumped up too much. There were only two crashes that effected me however. The first was with 2 laps to go. A rider went down on turn two right in front of me from hitting the parallel crack in the road at the wrong angle. I was able to get by him but had to scrub speed and take a wide turn. This caused me to have to chase very hard to try and get back in touch with the rest of the field. Then with one lap to go a large crash happened in turn one taking out most of the leaders of the race. I actually was far enough back that I had a very easy time getting though the crash. The way this crash effected me though was it moved me way up in the standings. I am not sure where I would have finished but it looked like there were about 10 guys on the ground when I went by. It is hard to tell though when you are deprived of oxygen and just wanting to make it to the end.

I ended up 17th overall and 4th in cat 3. Not a bad day over all. I was really excited that my family was able to come and watch. They brought a grill and we cooked fish and burgers. Good day.