St Augustine Stage Race 9/12-9/13/09

I am a couple weeks late getting this written, but better late than never. I drove out to St. Augustine watching the looming clouds build. It was dry when I got to the course which was set up in a parking lot that was part of the St. Johns County office buildings. It was flat, but a little technical with a couple of chicanes and some tight corners. Unfortunately the rain did not hold off for the race. I was a bit tentative driving the corners with the rain for the first few minutes of the race and as to be expected there was a crash. I was caught behind the crash and had to chase back on to the main group. Thanks to Ken Sallot from Cycle Logic for closing the last bit of gap for us. We reintegrated and I quickly made my way to the front. No more getting caught out if I could help it. There was a break of two riders up the road and I started the work to try and close down the gap. Unfortunately we never made it. With 1 lap to go I took a hard pull hoping to set Eric up for the field sprint. As I pulled off Eric came by jumping just ahead of a couple lapped riders in the last corner to take the field sprint for 3rd.

The Time Trial was scheduled for 7:30 the next morning, so we headed off to dinner and then crashed at the hotel. The 5 AM came too quickly and we packed things up and headed out to the TT course. It was a short 4.5 mile flat course. It was still raining, so it was hard to get motivated to warm up. I took off and got up to speed. When I checked my computer I was a little worried as I was doing 31 mph. I knew this was too fast, so slowly dropped the speed and doing 27 coming into the turn. The way back was going to hurt after going out to fast and it did. I ended up finishing the TT in 10th place.

The road race was a combined Category 1,2,3 field and we were doing 64 miles on a flat loop. The first couple laps were pretty intense until a break formed. Things calmed down and I even tried to bridge up to the break at one point. I did not make it. The field settled in as they were happy with the break. Eric took 1st for the Cat 3s.

It was a good weekend for 352 racing with Amy, Eric, and David Monismith taking home trophies for their overall accomplishments.

Tour de Tow 9/5-9/6/09

After a crazy morning taking Sadie to the doggy hotel, and packing up the car I finally made it to Keith Ladd's place an hour latter than planned. It all worked out and we were off to Bartow to do battle in two crit races. Keith was the loan cat 4 racer from 352, Eric and I were going to represent in the Cat 3 races. Amy took part in the women's races and Marco came down on Sunday for the cat 5 race.

Keith Ladd's race was in the mid afternoon during the heat of the day. He was feeling pretty good and wanted to try for a break away win with 3-4 laps to go. It was my job to call out the time gap and let him know when to go. With 7 minutes plus 5 laps to go the announcer said there was 7 laps to go and I started counting down. I did not hear her correct herself and say there were 7 minutes plus laps. With what I thought was 3 laps to go I yelled at Ladd and he made the move. He got a gap and held the field off for 2 laps when the official brought out the lap cards and said 5 laps to go. He looked at me and all I could do was hang my head and apologize. He took it well and finished the race mid pack having used up his legs in what he thought was going to be the winning move.

The cat 3 race started that evening at 7:45. It was pretty dark and we got some rain just before the race so the pavement was a bit wet. This was going to be interesting. The official blew the whistle and we were off. The race was pretty mild with very few attacks and with a tail wind and slight down hill on the back side of the course it was easy to close down any break away attempts. It looked like this was going to come down to a field sprint. It was my job to pull Eric into position to try and take the win. As we came around corner 3 with 2 laps to go I took a bad line on the outside and found myself headed straight for the curb. I bunny hopped the curb onto the grass I thought I was going to make it and get back in the pack. Unfortunately the edge of the sidewalk had other plans. My front wheel got caught and I went head over heals. I came out of the crash with a little road rash and blew the suspension system in my helmet. My bike was fine, so I jumped back on and finished the race. Eric sprinted for a 5th place finish.

I was a bit stiff when I woke up the next morning, but nothing a nice long warm up wouldn't cure. Eric and I rode around discussing our tactics for the day. This was a different course with 8 corners, prime for a break away. Our plan was to try and blow the race apart and at least get one of us in the break.

It took me a few laps to get comfortable in the corners after my crash the day before, but once I was comfortable I was able to move up and watch for moves going off the front. There was a break away of 2 riders up the road and Eric attacked bridging up to them. Our main competition and the winner of last nights race, Ken Vida, was at the front trying to chase down Eric. I was on his wheel and as he pulled of another racer jumped. I grabbed his wheel and he pulled me up to the break. After the effort to pull Eric back Ken did not make the move and Eric and I were both in the break. We pushed the pace hard and opened the gap on the field. The announcer let us know we had 2 laps to go and I knew we could pull off the win. I took a long hard pull up the finishing straight. Eric took over down the back side of the course. Our break away companions were hurting and could not put out as much effort as we could. Coming into the bell lap I was on the front giving it everything. Eric was on the back recovering and waiting for the right moment to attack. It came as we rounded corner 5. He shot up the inside and cut in front of me to knock anyone off his wheel. I slowed up a bit and he quickly put a 30 meter gap on us. I think we both knew he had the win at this point. As our break away companions tried to chase him down I just followed wheels. Eric got the win, unfortunately I did not have the legs left for the final sprint and finished just off the podium in 4th. We were both really happy with the results and the tactics.

Amy had a great weekend of racing finishing 3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday. Keith Ladd had 2 top 15 finishes even with my mistake in communication on Saturday. Marco overcooked a corner at the end of his race and finished in 11th.

Video of Nocatee Road Race Win

Here's the video of my win and Eric's 3rd place finish at Nocatee. Thanks Kerry Duggan for taking this and getting me a copy.

Nocatee Stage Race 8/22-8/23/09

This was my first race as a category 3. I was a bit nervous about the race and didn't sleep all that well on Friday night. It was a fairly early departure from Gainesville to make it over to Ponte Vedra for our race at 9:35. It was still overcast which was nice as it kept the temperature down for the race.

My teammate Eric and I talked about attempting to break away part way through the race and hopefully put some time on Ken Vida who is an excellent time trialer. We tried a couple of times but were chased down by the peleton quickly. Eric is a marked man with his long list of podium finishes this year. With two laps to go Eric closed down the gap to a small break away and attacked. Vida followed but did not pull through to continue the attack. I was moving up to hopefully break up any attempt to chase them down if the did get away and when Vida sat up I blew past them and quickly put a descent gap on the field. I was mostly expecting this to turn out to be a spring board for Eric to counter attack when the peleton caught me. There was still 12 or 13 miles left in the race and I did not expect to stay away to the finish. As I came through the finish area for the bell lap and still had a good gap I started to think I could do it. I just kept my head down and put everything I had left into the effort. When I turned off the highway onto the road with a nice tailwind I knew I had it. I had about 30 seconds on the field which gave me time to enjoy the finish. I could hardly believe I won my first cat 3 road race. A huge thank to Eric for his efforts breaking up the chase. I could not have done it without him. He also managed to take second place in the field sprint for a 3rd place finish.

The time trial was scheduled to start at 5PM so I settled in and watched the racing for the afternoon. The clouds started to build and by 2:30 we could see the thunderstorm headed our way. It hit with lightning and heavy rain just before the start of the cat 4 race. They postponed this race which my teammate David was racing in until the storm passed which was almost 4:00. It was still raining, but the lightning was over. At about 4:30 they decided to postpone the time trial to the next morning starting at 7:30. I headed back to Gainesville knowing it was going to be a really early wake up call the next morning.

Up by 4:30 and on the road by 5:30 it was back to Ponte Vedra for the time trial and criterium. My start time was 8:32, but I car pooled with my friend Ryan who had an earlier start time. My legs were feeling a bit tired after the effort the day before, but I posted a descent time of 11:20 for the 6 mile course. I did loose almost a minute to Ken Vida finishing in 7th place. Eric finished 20 seconds down on Vida in 2nd place. We had our work cut out for us if we were going to beat him in the overall.

Our crit started at 2:05 in the afternoon. After the clouds burned off it was hot. The course was fairly technical with 8 corners. It was dead flat, but all the corners made a breakaway a likely scenario. We didn't think Vida would let us get away in a break without him, so our plan was to lure him into a break with both of us and then take turns attacking him in the last 4 or 5 laps of the race. This did not work for us. He attacked from the gun and quickly put 20 seconds on the field. There were a lot of people chasing, so the pace was really high for the first 15 minutes. Eric was surfing the front 5 places, but I was hurting and could not find the groove for the first little bit. I got my legs under me and started to move up. I got to the front and took a hard pull to bring down the gap to Vida. There were a couple other teams working hard to do the same, but we only got it down to around 15 seconds. Eric made the effort and bridged up to Vida solo. Shortly after a couple other small group went across the gap and the breakaway swelled to 6 or 7. It stayed away and Vida won with Eric taking 2nd right on his wheel. Unfortunately due to this break I lost my podium place in the overall finishing the weekend in 5th.

Other team results from the weekend:

Amy took 4th in the Cat 4 women's road race, 2nd in the time trial and 2nd in the criterium. This put her in 1st place for the overall Cat 4 women. David had consistent finishes in all 3 races even braving the rain and lightning for the Cat 4 road race. Marco came over for the Cat 5 crit on Sunday and took home 7th place. Ryan who I rode with on Sunday, but is not on our team, took 1st in the Masters 35+ time trial winning by less than a 1/4 of a second.

One of the other Gainesville racers got my win on video. I will post it as soon as I get a copy from him.

PAL Omnium 8/1-8/2/09

I forgot my camera so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures this weekend. I carpooled down to the race with Eric and Amy, so there may not have been room for it anyway. My Subaru was overflowing with wheels, helmets, and bags of race gear and food. Amy did not race so she could get one more weekend of recovery on a sore knee. Eric was alone in the combined category 1/2/3 field. I was joined for the road race on Sunday by Ben and Keith Ladd. Keith Ladd also raced the time trial.

I was looking forward to this being an omnium weekend. The winner of the weekend would be determined by points awarded for placing rather than time. I have been placing consistently in the the top 5 or 6 so this could be my weekend to get a small trophy for the overall.

The criterium course was again on a development that has not had any houses built yet. This meant great road surfaces, but no shade. It was really hot with the sun beating down on the pavement, sand and weeds. The course had 4 major corners and a small hill with some slight bends. It was prime for a break away group. This is exactly what happened. The attacks came right from the start and I saw a group of strong riders develop off the front. I jumped across the gap and the four of us rode together for 3/4 of the forty minute race. I was hurting in the heat and was gaped off by two of the riders. They went it alone to take the first two places on the podium. My other break away companion and I were swallowed up by the pack with about 6 laps to go. This gave me a chance to sit in a recover a bit for the sprint. I positioned myself in a good place a few back from the front and waited for the last corner onto the finishing stretch. I made my move early hoping to get the jump on the group, but they were watching for this and I was caught by two others at the line for a 5th place finish. Eric finished in 3rd of the category 3s.

The time trial course was 6 miles on some nice Florida rolling hills. Nothing really big, but hilly especially for Florida. The hills were spread out enough to not allow you to carry much speed from the descents to the next climb. I managed to catch my 30 second man just after the turn around and another racer about a mile later. I came in with a time of 18:32 which got me on the podium in 3rd place. This also put me in 2nd place overall for the weekend. Eric place 4th in the category 3s and Keith Ladd posted the 6th best time for the category 4s.

The road race also had some nice hills in it and it was definitely going to be important to stay attentive at the front of the race to make sure a break didn't go without one of out team in it. Ben did a great job the first couple of laps keeping everything under control at the front. My legs were hurting after the efforts yesterday and I did not feel good until the last couple of laps of the 4 mile course. A solo rider went off the front early and stayed away until two laps to go. There were a couple of hard attacks on the last lap and I covered one of them about a mile from the finish. Keith Ladd came up next to me and offered a lead out for the sprint. I took his wheel and he put the petal down. Unfortunately he ran out of gas at the bottom of the last hill a bit too far out to sprint and I was sitting at the front of the race with the main contenders on my wheel. I did my best to shed them, but did not and they swarmed me at the finish. I came across in 6th place within less than a second of the winner. The worst part was I lost my overall podium position tied in 3rd place. I was ruled 4th because my competitor finished ahead of me on the last stage. Keith Ladd finished just off the lead group in 14th and Ben came in next a couple minutes behind in 15th. Eric had a great race bringing across to a breakaway group of mostly category 1/2 riders so he easily took 1st for the category 3 race and had a great 5th place overall finish in a strong field.

This was a great weekend of racing on some of the best courses so far this year. My new bike was flawless. It handled racing just as I expected it to. Thank again to Spooky Bikes and Bikes and More.

My New Bike

I have been wanting a new bike for awhile now and finally took the plunge. There is a lot of talk about carbon this and carbon that as far as high end bikes go. I have known too many people who have cracked, smashed, or otherwise destroyed their carbon frames when they have crashed in races or training. I had decided to get something either Aluminum or Titanium. Luck for me my bike team is sponsored by a great little frame builder up in Massachusetts, Spooky Bikes. http://www.spookybikes.com/

I had it built up with Dura-Ace 7900 drive train, Feather brake calipers, 3T handle bars and stem, and the Edge 2.0 fork. I used the Fizik Aliante saddle I had and with my race wheels the weight came in at 15 lbs 13 oz. I am not a big weight weenie, but I very pleased with the build.

I have been riding it for just over a week and I am very happy with its performance. The most noticeable difference is its stiffness. I get out of the saddle to sprint or accelerate up a climb it seems to just jump from underneath me and all I have to do is hang on. It is probably a little more harsh over long distances, but I did a 90 mile ride this weekend and did not feel too beat up. It is definitely a race bike, so I was not expecting it to be the most comfortable ride out there. The next test will be racing this weekend with a crit, time trial and road race on tap.

Thank you Spooky Bikes for sponsoring our team, and thank you Bikes and More for building up the bike.

St. Augustine July 17-18 2009

I have been slacking on my blog duties, so I am trying to catch up this week. Theresa and I took off for the weekend on July 17 and 18 to visit the city of St. Augustine. We dropped off Sadie in the morning at a really great little puppy hotel just out of town and headed to the beach.

Our plan was to dip out toes in the Atlantic in the afternoon, but as is typical down here this time of year we were thwarted by a thunder storm. We checked into the hotel and watched the Tour de France stage. The rain had passed by dinner and we headed out to explore. I took this picture as we were headed back to the hotel. It is actually looking East and the thunder heads were picking up the reflection of the sunset to the West. Notice the rainbow cutting across the clouds.

Sunday we spent the day walking down St George St in the downtown area.

We stopped by the Spanish Quarter Museum in the morning before the crowds and spent a bit of time talking to the interpreters. We got our name written by the calligrapher and he kept giving us a hard time about it being a British name.

We also visited the oldest wooden school house. It is amazing to me that these old wooden building are still standing, and great to see how they have been preserved.

After lunch we decided to head down to the Lightner Museum. It is housed in an old hotel from the turn of the century. I didn't catch when it was actually built. They allowed as much photography as desired so I took advantage of the opportunity to capture some beautiful examples of furniture and stained glass.

After the museum we saw another thunder storm headed our way so we decided to head back to pick up Sadie. It was a fun weekend and we definitely want to go back to explore more of the area. There is an old Spanish fort, a light house, and lots more art galleries to see. We also need to get a chance to dip our toes in the ocean.

For the rest of the pictures I took, mostly of St George Street and the Museum, check out my album on Picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/ksr321/StAugustineJuly2009#

Lake County Stage Race 6/20-6/21/09

This is the last weekend in the first half of the season. It was ridiculously hot. My cycling computer logged 97 deg both days, but with the humidity I think the heat index was well over 100. It was a typical stage race format with a criterium and time trial on Saturday and a circuit race on Sunday.

After placing well last weekend I was hoping to get on the podium this weekend. I did not have the team support of last week, but Ben did upgrade to Cat 4 and joined in the fun. Eric and Amy also raced the full schedule this weekend. Marco came down and represented at the Cat 5 crit on Saturday and Andrea came down to help Eric in the epic 80 mile road race on Sunday. I wish I was able to upgrade to Cat 3 just to participate in this road race. It was an 80 mile loop with a race caravan and everything. This is the first time they have tried this in Florida in a long time. I am hoping they are able to do this again next year when I have hopefully upgraded.

As I said it was really hot on Saturday and the crit course was in a new development with no houses, trees or anything taller than grass to provide shade. Our race was scheduled for 1:45 and even drinking water all morning and popping some salt pills did nothing to ward off the dehydration. Other than the heat the race was awesome. The roads were perfect and there was a nice little hill at the finish to really make things burn. Towards the end of the race I moved up to position myself for the sprint. We came around the corner and I uncorked a vicious sprint up the hill to the line. I put a good gap on the field and came across pumping my fist in victory. As I let up and rolled down the other side of the hill the field came by me and I heard a guy say "You still have a lap to go." Oops! In my dehydrated delirium I lost track of the laps. I managed to roll across the line just on the tail end of the pack. I felt really stupid, but I guess it can happen to anyone. It took the better part of an hour for me to cool down and get enough water back in so I didn't feel like passing out. I don't think I have ever felt that bad after a race.

The time trial was to go over Sugarloaf Mountain. This is the highest point in the Florida peninsula at 312ft. I don't know where they get off calling it a mountain, but it was steep and made for a hard time trial. The climb up the South side was not too bad with a few rollers and stair step ascents. There were a couple of 90 deg corners that would make the descent back down fairly technical. After topping out it is a straight shot down the other side with speeds topping 50 mph. The turn around was almost right at the bottom of the hill so I was not able to build up much momentum for the climb back up. This is the steep part at probably 15% grade. It tops out with a false flat that seems to go on forever then it is back down the other side as hard as you can go. The finish was just up a short hill and I made it about 10 ft past the line before deciding I was done. I finished 5th with time of 21:29 over the 7 miles. The winner put almost a minute on me.

Sundays circuit race was scheduled for 10:15, but they were running late with the start. Most of the delays were because of the start of the Pro 1/2/3 road race getting going. I was really unmotivated to warm up. It was already well into the 90s. I spun around easy for about 45 minutes and lined up to start. My plan was to sit in and follow the wheel of yesterdays winner for the sprint. The pace was fairly easy probably due to the heat. In lap 3 there was a big crash that took out about 10 guys. I just missed it as I was moving up the left side of the field. With just over 2 laps to go there was absolutely no motivation in the field. We were rolling along at a mere 19mph. I was feeling good so I attacked and put a good gap on the field. This was going to be my move, so I gave it everything I had. I was happy to get some help with 1-1/2 laps to go as another rider bridged up to me. He took a couple of strong pulls, but I could tell he did not have as much gas in the tank as I did. It was nice to have him there to give me a chance to catch my breath before the final push. with half a lap to go he was done and could not pull through. He managed to stay on my wheel to the last corner where I found another gear and gaped him. I came across the line in 1st with a 5 second gap on the field. A huge thank you to Ben who seeing me attack went to the front and broke up the chase.

I was really happy to get my first top finish and redeem myself after my mistake on Saturday. I am a couple points shy of the upgrade, but hopefully they will consider my high TT finishes and move me up to Cat 3 for the fall races.

Ocala Stage Race 6/13-6/14/09

I have been looking forward to this race for a while. The course is fairly close to Gainesville and we often go down to the road race course and time trial course on our weekend rides. I have been riding pretty strong and the team was willing to help me in an effort to get a podium spot. There were seven of us ready to go for the Cat 4/5 races. I think we had one of the largest groups out there which was awesome for one of the smaller teams in Florida.

The first race of the weekend was the Marion County Road Race. This was the course we have ridden a number of times. Our plan was to push the pace and cover any breaks that tried to go away early. My team mates would challenge for the King of the Mountains time bonus and Intermediate Sprint time bonus. The final part of the plan was to get me in a break on the last lap to try and get some time on the field.

It all went fairly well. Ben challenged the sprint, and came up just short of a bonus in 4th. He was also very active at the front of the race chasing breaks. Justin went for the KOM bonus, but again was just short in 4th. All the breaks were getting chased down quickly by the field. I think the heat had something to do with this. It was easily 95+ and it was hard to get enough fluid down. I started to get chills on the last lap a sure sign of dehydration. Talking to others after the race I found out I was not the only one. So a small change of plans we tried to line things up for the final sprint. Ben, Justin, Marco and Keith Lad all moved to the front, but I got boxed in and pushed back to about 20th place. There was one final small hill just before the finish. I was able to come around guys over the top of the hill and sprinted hard for the line about 500m from the top. It was a bit clogged up and I had to go around a guy on the grass, but I managed to finish 5th. This was only 1 place out of the money for the road race, but I was still happy with the result.

I was going to have to do a good time trial to keep my position and hopefully set myself up for a podium spot in the general classification. They used the same start finish line and ran us backwards on the road race course. The time trial was short at just under 5 miles, but there were a few hills to really make it hurt. As usual I forgot to reset my computer at the start, so I had no idea what my time was until the next morning. I chose not to use aero bars. With the hills I thought they would do more harm than good as I would have to get in and out of them when I shifted. We were happy to see a thunderstorm coming in from the North. It cooled the temperature down a bit. The only downside was the chance of rain and the wind. Luckily it moved to the East of the course and we did not get wet. I managed a good time of 11:13 which was a 7th place finish for the time trial.

Sunday's road race was in Ocala National Forest. It was on a flat loop course of about 11 miles. There was a short spur road that we started and finished on. The tricky part was going to be getting into position before the spur road and holding it. There was a 90 degree corner at 200m to the finish and I was going to have to be in the top 5 to 10 to get a good finish. Our plan was to push the pace and line up a good lead out on the spur road to keep things fast and safe. The race was fairly uneventful. Unfortunately there was a lot of acceleration and then breaking which really clogged things up. We managed to get 4 or 5 of us towards the front on the spur road, but a couple guys got caught behind a crash and were gaped off the back. The spur road was really scary an you had to fight to keep any position you had. I managed to move up and then got swarmed and was sitting back at about 25th with 1k to go. This was not going to work, so I took a chance and tried to squeeze up the right side through a small opening. I got bumped a bit and almost went into the ditch. I managed to keep the rubber down and got by the guy. I went around the corner in about 10th place and hammered it. I turns out I was a bit too far back and came across the line in 6th.

With my good time trial performance and consistent results in the road races I managed to finish 4th place overall for the weekend. My teammate Keith Lad finished 5th. It was a bit disappointing to not get on the podium, but overall I was really happy with my result. I really appreciate all the work my teammates did this weekend to help me out. I would not have finished where I did without their work.

Next weekend is the Lake County Stage Race. It is the last race before a month off racing. It is going to be a fun race. The time trial goes over Sugarloaf Mountain, the highest point on the Florida peninsula at 312ft. Hopefully I will be able to bring home some hardware.

Trip to the Dog Park

Theresa and I took Sadie to the dog park on Sunday. This was our first trip to the dog park here, so we were excited to see what they had to offer. I think Sadie was pretty excited too. Sadie in the car ready to get her play on.

She does like to run.

and run.

She even made a new friend.

I think everyone had a good time.

Florida State Time Trial Championships 5/30/09

I am not usually a big fan of time trials, but this race is the state championships and it was fairly close. This was going to be my first 40km time trial. It was located just West of Jacksonville. I met Dave and David and we headed out around 7:30.
We arrived to find the main parking lot full, but we double parked and registered before finding the overflow lot. The overflow lot turned out to be a muddy field. With the beautiful Florida sun already hitting the wet ground I think the humidity was 99%. No warming up on the trainer luckily their was a paved trail to warm up on. Ben arrived just after us and we all headed to the trail to warm up.
David was first to hit the course at 9:55, Dave was up at 10:14, Ben was off at 10:27 and I was the last of the Cat 4s from our team at 10:28. None of us had any fancy time trial bikes or disc wheels, so it was a bit intimidating watching people roll around on really fast looking bikes.
All I can say about time trials is when it hurts you have to go harder. My goal for the race was to finish in the top 10 and hopefully post a time under 1 hour for the 40 km (24.85 mile) course. I caught Ben about 5 miles out and could see the next guy ahead. He was wearing a bright yellow skin suit so was kind of hard to miss. Maybe I could catch him by the turn around. My legs burned and I pushed a little harder slowly reeling him in. I managed to catch him just before the turn around. The best part about catching this guys is he was rolling on a Cervelo P3 with Zipp 404 front wheel and a Zipp disc wheel in the rear. I bet the whole set up cost him upwards of $10K.
Unfortunately as I made the turn I could not see anyone to chase down ahead of me. This return trip was going to be tough with nothing to take my mind off my burning quads. I got the speed back up and the finish line came into sight faster than I expected. You could see the finish from probably 3 miles out and this helped the morale. Shift down let the pain come I knew I was almost done.
I finished in 9th place with a time of 59:45. David finished in 14th and Dave in 20th. Ben was in the Cat 5 group and finished in 17th. Our other team mates who raced in the Cat 3 race also finished well Andrea took 1st and Eric was in the top 15. Amy represented the women and finished in 8th. I am really happy with my results and am looking forward to the Ocala stage race in a couple of weeks.

Florida State Championship Crit 5/17/09

I woke up after a decent nights sleep in the hotel Eric found us in Lakeland. I was definitely happy I did not have to drive back after the race the night before. I was pretty dead, and I don't think the gut bomb pizza for dinner helped much.

My race was not until almost 3:00, but we headed to the course to watch Amy and Eric race in the morning. Unfortunately the coffee shop didn't open until 11:00, so I had to survive on Accelerade and Clif Bars until they opened.

They ended up using the same location as the twilight crit the day before and just ran the race in the opposite direction. This was a little disappointing because the other course looked more challenging with a short hill each lap coming up off the lake. I heard there was some sort of issue with the promoters insurance, and I guess we were lucky to even have a race.

I got on the trainer to warm up and it was pretty hot and humid after yesterdays rain, but at lease the skies were still clear. I was having a hard time getting my heart rate up. Usually a sign on not being completely recovered. Not unexpected after the hard efforts yesterday.

Remember those clear skies, well I spoke too soon and just as we were lining up for the race the rain came again. It was even harder than the day before and there were quickly puddles in the corners. David and I had both already paid, so we decided to race despite the conditions. If we felt unsafe we could always pull out. Our teammate Keith decided it was too risky and didn't line up.

The race started and everyone was taking it really easy around the corners the first few laps and then sprinting down the straights. I got gaped with a small group that did not really want to work and had to time trial to catch back on to the lead group. I managed to catch the end of the group, but I knew I had used up most of my reserves just doing this. I tried to move up the last few laps, but the legs did not want to cooperate. I didn't challenge the sprint and rolled across the finish in 13th place. Even with the heavier rain the race seemed safer than yesterday. I was still happy to finish and keep the rubber side down.

No races next weekend, but I am looking forward the State Championship Time Trial in a couple weeks. It should be painful.

Lakeland Twilight Crit 5/16/09

This was going to be my first race after almost a month off of racing. Lots of training on the legs, so I was excited to see how I would stack up against the competition. I picked my teammate, David up at 11:30 and we were on our way to Lakeland. My goal for the race was to finish in the top 20 so I would qualify for the Amateur Finals race in the evening. David said he was feeling good and wanted to get the win today, so I offered to lead him out for the sprint. Our plan was in place now all we had to do is execute.

I got my usual poor starting position on the line and was going to have to work hard to move up and avoid getting gaped off the back. As expected the first few laps were fast and I had to work hard to move up and close gaps as people started to drop off. As I moved up into the top 15 places I started looking around for David. He was not there, so it was time to figure out what the new plan of attack was. I was feeling good so I opted to make people suffer and moved to the front and pushed the pace for a couple laps before dropping back into the group to recover for the sprint.

About half way through the race the heavens opened up. I usually avoid racing crits in the rain as I like to keep my skin and bones in one piece, but I really wanted to make the finals, so I stayed in. It was a very weird feeling to have the cold rain hitting you from above and warm water splashing up off the pavement. I was sitting in the top 10 to 15 guys, and was glad I was there. The last five laps were insane and I heard guys going down in the corners behind me. I came around the last corner in about 15th and hit the gas and was able to pass a few guys to finish in 8th. I was not in the money, but was still happy with the result considering the conditions.


The rain was letting up as I got back to the car and changed into dry clothes. I had a few hours to relax before the amateur finals at 8:00. We watched the Cat 3 race were my team mate Eric qualified for the finals as well finishing in the top 15.

I was nervous about the finals race and my whole goal for the race was to finish with the main group and if possible give Eric a lead out in the sprint. The field was made up of the top 20 Cat 4, top 5 women, top 15 masters 45+, top 20 masters 35+ and top 25 Cat 3. Most of the masters were Cat 1 and 2. I knew this was going to be hard, but at least the road had dried out.


After a weird neutral lap the pace was quickly pushed and we averaged 26+ mph for the whole 40 minutes. I hung in and made a move to the front with 3 laps to go, but could not hold my position and dropped through the pack to finish just off the back. Eric finished in the top 15 again with a good sprint out of the last corner.

It was a fun day of racing and I definitely gained some confidence racing in the rain. This was also my first twilight crit which was fun. We stayed to watch the Pro race which started after the amateur finals. I am always amazed at how fast these guys can go.

To Blog or Not To Blog

Theresa made fun of me for deciding to blog. Apparently she said she wanted to start a blog and I made some comments about people who blog. "What makes them so important that they think everyone will want to read about their life." I don't remember this, or maybe I just think I am that important now.

Anyway, I intend to write about what we are up to here in Florida and any other fun and exciting things we do. This will mostly include my bicycle racing, hiking, camping and other outdoor activities we do together. I also intend to write about any other trips we take.

I hope you enjoy it and won't be offended if you don't read it. Not everyone realizes how important I am.