This site needs some serious love, I know. I have had so many great things to blog about lately but no internet access. Now I seem to have forgotten all of my stories so here is a brief recap of the past week or two.
Rude and I went back east after the Colorado Springs PRO XCT to do some sea level training. Now you might be thinking, who goes to sea level for training. Well if you've been following the three Astana guys training and racing schedule you know they have been spending a few weeks at altitude here and there to get ready for the Giro and the Tour. They probably logged in a total of 4 or 5 weeks at altitude all year. Since I live at 6,500 ft year round the challenge isn't to ride in thin air and boost blood cells but to ride in thick air and boost power. Doing intervals at sea level I can produce at least 50 to 60 more watts per interval which translates into much stronger muscles wether working at sea level or even at altitude.
O.K., that's enough training philosophy. I rode in the rain for almost the entire week we were back in N.Y./N.J.. The climbs around my family's house like Overlook mountain in Woodstock, N.Y. haven't seemed to get any easier. They might seem shorter after riding and racing on some of the biggest climbs in the world but they are so steep in some sections you can't ride them in the saddle. After two days hanging out at the family's house we drove down to Princeton, N.J. for the Giro Di Jersey. Now I'll give you a brief recap of the race but let me just say this, I will never do that race again. It was great training and that is exactly what I was looking for but I feel bad for the people who were racing it for a result because it was the most unorganized race I have ever done and I've done some doozies.
Day 1: 90 person field, 800 meter, 4 corner crit with 2 off camber corners and no straight longer then 200 meters. The start/finish straight went from 4 lanes wide to a 90 degree right hand corner framed by 2 telephone poles. There were crashes from the start even before a car pulled into the course on the 1 downhill narrow street. They were giving everyone free laps but the finish line was only 50 meters from the 1st corner and they would let everyone in right as the front of the field went by which would result a flying field and a much slower moving group all trying to squeeze into a 90 degree single lane corner. You guessed it, more crashes. Only about 30 to 40 people finished on the lead lap but somehow they gave over 60 people the same time and people that did get lapped even in the middle of the race only lost a minute or 2. Never seen anything like it. Luckily it didn't rain even though it was threatening.
Day 2: Pouring rain. Lined the riders up at 9am to start and the cops had a flat tire or something so everyone stood in the 65 degree pouring rain until 9:40 when we finally started the circuit. They decided we would do a neutral 1st out of 8 laps b/c the course was very dangerous and then everyone would have a chance to see it before going full blast at it. Halfway through the 12 mile loop half the field crashed on a slick downhill. I grabbed my brakes to stop before it but my front wheel went out and I went sliding for about 100 feet on my hip before popping up. I ripped my shorts but the road was so slippery I didn't get any road rash. Have you ever slid 100 feet on anything with out getting road rash? Me neither. After the crash they decided to cancel the race because of safety. Rude and I spent the next 2 or 3 hours riding in the rain to get some training in.
Day 3: Sunny and 14 mile TT. Rude and I didn't bring TT bikes so we weren't expecting too much. THe course was out and back with no instructions about the turn around, signs, anything on the line or in the race bible. There was a sign that said 60 meters to go after 5 miles. Some people turned around after the sign even though no one was there to direct them to. When I went I saw the 60 meter sign but knew I had only ridden 5 miles so far. I kept going and eventually there was a small cone with a person standing by it that only motioned for me to turn there after I was right on top of him. I didn't ride a fast TT but some of the people that turned around early only got small penalties and some people went past the cone and regardless of how far past they went they got a 2 minute time bonus. Like I said, never seen anything like that.
Day 4: Pouring rain road race circuit race with 2 wooden planked bridges, 1, 300 meters before the finish after a 40 mph downhill. Best day of the race, good 3 minute climb with lots of rollers and plenty of attacking. Rude got off in a break with Guptil on the second to last lap with two other guys. They stayed away to the finish but Rude got chain suck after bouncing over the bridge before the finish line and had to walk it across the line for 4th. Classic Rude. The SRAM neutral support guy had to break the chain to get it unwrapped from his crank arm.
Day 5: Light rain short 1 hour, 2 mile circuit. Had one short climb, one off camber painted turn with open roads and the yellow line rule. Almost like a crit open to traffic. They also couldn't put down a start/finish line b/c the tape wouldn't stick to the road in the rain. There were time bonus sprints and the race finished in a field sprint. I would think a finish line is pretty important in a road race. The rain stopped towards the end of the race and the only crazy thing happened on the last lap when a van was parked in the apex of the corner less then 1 mile from the finish. Luckily no one crashed but it was hairy. A great day of training.
The race was great for training even if I did hurt my hip a little bit in the crash the one day. There weren't any big name riders there but with no real dominate team everyone was attacking and it made for a fast, hard exciting race. Not just a big team controlling the race by riding tempo all day. Will Duggen the CX racer was there and he was looking really strong, he will be one to look out for in the U23 CX races this year. My best result was 9th in the two sprints in the circuit races which wasn't so much about sprinting but positioning.
I am so excited to be back in Durango after my dreary east coast trip. It was sunny and 85 degrees when I got home yesterday. I rode some bitch'n single track, went to the river with Meg and Winston and had dinner with Meg, Snoodle, Rude and Powers at Burger Night and then went to pint night and hung out with Chris Herting for a little while. The day doesn't get much better then that.
Now I have some serious weed pulling to do in the backyard and not like the kind the Missle is doing.
I wonder if I'm going to go camping this weekend.......
