Back in Phoenix

Holliday is over. We got back from San Diego last Saturday and what can I say? It was great. It felt good to get off the bike for a little bit and relax. But it wasn’t all fun and games. As promised, we tried surfing… well, kind of. I actually managed to stand on the board a couple of times but, man, it was quite a workout. The pros make it look so easy but it is hard work… which translates into a lot of sore muscles. Never the less, it was a lot of fun.

Today I was back on the bike and put in some solid hours. Next race for me is the Tucson Bicycle Classics and I’m really looking forward to it.

Where did my Luck go?

As I am typing this I’m sitting on the plane back home to Phoenix. It feels good to know that I have an easy week in front of me and that I am going to get to spend some time with my girlfriend. As a matter of fact, I will be sitting in the plane later today again, heading out to San Diego: Oh yeah, it’s beach time!

Anyways, I finished my first racing block yesterday with the Rouge Roubaix race in Louisiana and what can I say: even though the outcome wasn’t as I had hoped for, I still had a blast. For those of you who never heard of this race: It is a 100 miles over rather bad roads with 3 gravel road sections (adding up to about 30 miles of dirt overall) and some decent climbing. This in itself would have made for a fun race but we finally were able to work as a team this weekend too. The Metro Volkswagen Cycling Team pretty much controlled the whole race, from the start to about mile 80. It was a beautiful thing to watch: 3 to 4 guys setting the tempo at the front, keeping a nice tempo, sheltering the others. Everyone did their job exceptionally well. Gordon, Anuthee and Parker set the pace leading up to the first dirt section; Will, Peter, Mike and Joe pulled us to the second one before Peter joined in to lead me and Nathan right to the bottom of the steepest climb of the day, right at the start of the last dirt section. From there on it was up to me to establish a break and go for it. This all worked out perfectly well for a couple of miles: I pulled away on the climb and had a solid gap to the next guy, who himself had a good lead over the first bigger chase group. I was feeling really good and was going strong. By the time I was about halfway through the last dirt section, I started to ease up and pick my line a bit more carefully. This, apparently, was not the best idea: just as I was starting to play it safe, I must have hit something, even though I didn’t feel anything. All I know is that my rear tire blew and was flat within a second with a dime-sized gash in the sidewall… Mike was the first of our guys to reach me and immediately sacrificed his rear wheel, but by this time about three groups and 5 minutes or so had gone by. With Nathan and Peter’s help, I managed to get back into the second chase group but that was about it. The guy that had been chasing me alone before I got my flat managed to stay away, even though the group chased hard. I am pretty sure that I could have finished right there with him, had I been able to avoid the flat. But that’s racing, I guess.

So we had a somewhat disappointing finish to a great day. On a positive note, the girls had a very good race too with Shannon finishing third. Also, as mentioned earlier, the team worked really well. So I guess with a little more luck next time we might finally start winning some races soon ;-)

For now, I’ll have a little break from racing. This week will be an off week for me. That’ll be nice, only some easy training and some time off the bike. And if the weather holds up, I might even be able to try my luck at surfing in San Diego! That should be fun…

Never Trust the Weather Forecast

Ok, so the forecast was wrong... again. I wouldn’t mind so much if it erred on the good side (say, 80 degrees today instead of the predicted 35) but that’s not what happened today. Anyways, after fighting through rain, hail, sleet, snow, rain again, snow again… earlier today for two hours, I finally had to call it quits as the roads just got a little too slippery. I managed to make it back to the shop (Mad Duck) and, by that time, I was just happy to be out of that sludge. I hopped on the trainer for a little (just to warm back up and, honestly, I planned on getting back out there and at least ride home as soon as the roads cleared a bit). Well, everyone who knows me knows that I’d rather ride outside in the nastiest weather than spin on the trainer but, needless to say, the roads never cleared and I ended up finishing my ride on the trainer (woo-hoo: 3 hours of fun!!!). After that, Debby picked me up (in a WARM car) and we made it home safely.

All in all, I managed to get the hours in I had planned for but it wasn’t as much fun today. At least one thing went the way I had planned: I got my hot chocolate as soon as I got back!

Tomorrow will be a travel day, as the team will be leaving for Rouge. It will be a rather long drive but I bet it will be a lot of fun as a lot of guys are going down, so the trip should be entertaining. Also, the weather is supposed to be nice down there this weekend. At least, that’s what the forecast says…

Back to Work

Yeah, I must say I wish I had more time riding my mountain bike. I really had a blast this weekend in BarH. But now it is back to “work”, i.e. putting in hours on the road bike; or rather on my TT bike. After playing around with seat position and height as well as bar setup all afternoon, I think I finally found an agreeable position. I’ll have Clarence at Mad Duck double check it tomorrow before I take it out for my 5 hour training ride… no, wait: a short spin… well, we’ll see how it goes. Looking at the forecast (rain, low 30s, 20+ mph winds), I’ll probably be home sipping hot coco in no time; but then again you got to do what you got to do! I just hope I don’t get any frostbite ;-)

Playing in the Dirt

Yesterday I got the opportunity to race at the Bar H Bash, a mountain bike race of the Texas State Championship Series at Saint Jo. As in the last couple of years, the event was a lot of fun and very well organized, thanks to Cap and Tobin’s tireless efforts. Well, as the team had a weekend “off” (i.e. no racing) and the event was sponsored by Mad Duck Cyclery and Yeti Cycles, I got a chance to get back on a mountain bike for a change and see how far my skills had already degenerated after riding on the road that much ;-). As it turned out, it wasn’t too bad and I managed to finish the race in third place. This was not quite the result I had hoped for, but I still had a great time. The fact that I got to ride the new Yeti ASR Carbon only added to the fun! Rachel also raced and came in second in her class.

All in all, everyone had a blast, no crashes and got a great workout. I had forgotten how different mountain bike races were from the rather steady efforts of road racing. There’s no sitting in and rolling with the pack; you have to red-line it from the get-go and never look back. But then again, this is just part of what makes riding your mountain bike so much fun. And if nothing else, this weekend was a perfect preparation for Rouge-Roubaix, the next “road” race the team will tackle this coming weekend. With plenty of dirt roads, this race should hopefully be just as much fun as it was yesterday!

Thank you, Ladies!

Last weekend was the first hot race of the season and I guess the team went through at least 1 million (or more) bottles during the road race at Pace Bend. Given the chaotic conditions in the feed zone, you might wonder we managed to get all those bottles on board during the race: Thanks to our phenomenal feed zone crew, of cause.

As every single one of them can tell you, it is not an easy thing to feed a team during a race. For one, there is the battle for position in the feed zone; then you need to find your riders and make sure, none of the competition grabs a bottle. In between laps, you need to find and collect the tossed bottles, refill them and, of cause, wrangle your way back to a good spot to do it all over again the next lap.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped out this weekend. We couldn’t do it without you and I hope, you guys and girls had a little bit of a fun at the race anyhow.

The Sun is HOT!

One little piece of advice here: even if it is still cold outside (and might not even be that sunny at times): PUT ON SUNSCREEN. I was sitting on my trainer outside on the deck yesterday and, the weather being finally nice, was only wearing a sleeveless jersey and shorts. I was only doing some intervals for two hours and it was earlier in the day, too, but guess what: it was enough to earn me a slight sun burn on the shoulders… So, I guess winter is finally on the retreat, even if the temperatures aren’t that high yet. But the sun sure is strong already.