On the 6th day God started Le Tour De France

Enough said. Catch it on Versus via west coast starting July 2nd. Hallelujah !

The 2011 Tour De France is upon us. Spain's Alberto Contador will set out to win his third consecutive Tour on 8 a.m. EST on July 2nd. Once the action starts, it is going to come fast and furious. Below is a listing of the Tour's schedule and TV coverage.

All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time. The Versus network will be airing every stage live. Check local listings for rebroadcasts on NBC and Versus.
Stage 1: 8 a.m. Saturday, July 2nd
Stage 2: 8 a.m. Sunday, July 3rd
Stage 3: 8 a.m. Monday, July 4th
Stage 4: 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 5th
Stage 5: 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 6th
Stage 6: 8 a.m. Thursday, July 7th
Stage 7: 8 a.m. Friday, July 8th
Stage 8: 8 a.m. Saturday, July 9th
Stage 9: 8 a.m. Sunday, July 10th
Rest Day, Monday, July 11th
Stage 10: 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 12th
Stage 11: 8 a.m. Wednesday, July 13th
Stage 12: 6:30 a.m. Thursday, July 14th
Stage 13: 8 a.m. Friday, July 15th
Stage 14: 8 a.m. Saturday, July 16th
Stage 15: 8 a.m. Sunday, July 17th
Rest Day, Monday, July 18th
Stage 16: 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 19th
Stage 17: 8 a.m. Wednesday, July 20th
Stage 18: 7 a.m. Thursday, July 21st
Stage 19: 8 a.m. Friday. July 22nd
Stage 20: 8 a.m. Saturday, July 23rd
Stage 21: 8 a.m. Sunday, July 24th

WILL BE MISSED

RIP :
WEYLANDT
TONDO !

28.7 MILE ride this a.m., got away from the house about 5:40 A.M. beautiful ride, beautiful morning in Southern California. Got in 18 miles of intervals. I still feel like Ive been on vacation, a little soft a little too much pain. But I just say "SHUT UP LEGS" ! Thank you Thor for the words. My back is still tender and I may only be at 80 % where I thought I was a little further along in healing. But in no way should I not HTFU ( said just for Patrick).


Train hard, train smart, be active. 

Time flys when your having fun

And I did take a flight, and I did have fun !
Took a brief hiatus from it all and headed down the coast of central Mexico. Weather was hot and even had some down pours but I really didn't care. I swam everyday and it was awesome. I jacked my back up the very first morning I was there by nothing more than bending over to move a chair.
If I was one to have a prone back issue, I guess this would be acceptable. But I'm not that guy and I was very pissed. It still is aggravated to this day and I'm hoping it passes completely very soon.

We returned from 5 days gone and I have only been able to get out on the bike 1 day for 40 miles. It was great to just head out with no agenda and ride for 40 miles at whatever pace I wanted.
Tonight will be my first time back to racing and I'm going in with no real expectations. Still hurt, with only 40 miles of training in 9 days. I just hope my lungs hold out, lol !

I certainly hope this doesn't happen.   

Either way I'm looking forward to getting back into the mix. I was very disappointed that I couldn't get in a couple of runs on my vacation. I was lucky I was able to swim, and fortunate that it actually relieved the pressure on my back when I did.

With that said, it's good to be home. I'm kind of a schedule person, and I like to stay on that schedule.

But it is that time of year where I get my son for a couple of months straight. Although he lives close and we have the weekly and every other weekend arrangement, there is something to be said about him being there at our house everyday. This summer he has chose to focus on Kempo and he had hist first class last night. He did great and as usually he is naturally agile and adapted and picked up very quickly. The difference is this is the first activity/sport of many that he is exited about. That alone makes me exited.

I like the discipline they teach, I also like that they are graded and rewarded on there individual progression and without badges,trophies and medals. Now don't get me wrong I have always been a hardware whore, but he'll have plenty of time to grow into that.

Train hard,train smart, and be active.  

Your hesitations could cost you

I have spoke of this before. And I even had a brief conversation with http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ about this while riding side by side last Saturday.

Training is training. It is what gets you to where you want to go and who you aspire to be. It is not always pretty. It is unfortunately not always effective. Sometimes it's life changing to forward progress. Sometimes it creates set backs.
There are times when it's a blast. And there are times when it is nothing more than a pain in the ass.

Everyone at any level of training has encounter these thoughts and feelings.
I for one am a morning person. I love to train in the morning. I love to get out there sleepy eyed and wake up to life and my day on the road. Weather it be running or riding. I like to get it done early and bask in the accomplishment the rest of the day. Even when it's a hard,drained out session It still makes me smile that I got it done.

Even with all that being said, there are many mornings when I literally have to convince myself that getting dressed, fueled and going is the right thing to do that day.
It is so easy to talk any one's self out of training and getting out there. Let alone follow a hardcore or even a simple discipline plan.

The one thing that I have to tell myself @ dark o clock. Is that somewhere today, at sometime, the very people I compete against are asking themselves the same question I am. And if I hesitate,for more than a few minutes, it's going to cost me.
It's easy to say I'll do it later and get it done.But in reality if that happens in my life there is a 75 % chance that work out is gone. The hard part it to push in and through. To persevere and and get it done. Even if it seems like day's go by where it becomes a test of attrition. The end results are so much sweeter.
I have had a few of those day's lately, including this morning in which it prompted me to spit this all out.
Between training and racing in the last 75 days I have put in roughly 1500 miles on the bike and raced 13 times. I have thrown in some random run days but it equates to less the 25 miles and doesn't really warrant too much mention.
My point is this. I have a much needed vacation coming in 72 hours and really have no reason other than staying on point of fitness to train. The weather this morning was full on California June gloom with a stiff wind and so much mist it might has well been sleet.
My coffee was tasting perfect and my furry slippers felt awesome. But I still had to tell myself, if I don't go it will cost me.
I hesitated no more. Put out the effort to gear up and push out.
Max speed for the first 10 miles out was 16.2 mph in an all out effort. And drenched with fog and sleet to the bone in minutes. I had to laugh. I kept telling myself are you for real ? you can ride at 19 mph with your hands off the bars without effort, and this is the best you can do?
But it was really that ugly. It took everything I had in me to keep it together and tell myself I was right on track. And everything I was doing now, like it or not was how you make things change. This is how we create a presence. This isn't easy. This is why such a small percentage of people ever follow through and achieve goals. Get over yourself and off of your pity party.
It was just about this time that I had finally made it to my turn around point.
My easy,flat out and back recovery ride ? was 1/2 over and I could turn around and grind back the other way. But by the grace of mother nature that nasty head wind was now at my back and within seconds I was cruising, and I mean effortlessly cruising at 27 mph. I chased down a local club, La Habra cycles. They always has some group on the road with 6-30 riders. I hitched on, sat in and was back to my house in almost 1/2 the time it took me to get out. Fully recovered and once again happy that I persevered. I had banged out 22 miles in 1:01:36.
Don't let your mind get in the way of your progress. Don't let that hesitation cost you your dreams and goals.
Just know there is someone else across the street, across the town, or even across the country that is making it happen today. And they could care less how you feel.
I don't often re read my blogs, I just put thought down that come out of my head. I hope this comes off the way I meant it and not a hey look at me. Because it's meant to be quite the opposite. It's meant to say hey look at you ! How awesome are you !

thanks for reading.

Train hard,train smart, and be active.             

It felt like a summer evening

Tuesday night racing wasn't even suppose to happen for me this week. I have my grand kids in town (that's right I said grand kids) hard to believe, but it is so.
And my grandson who races BMX in Las Vegas wanted to see me race. He is 10 and still has my last motocross sponsor collage on his wall from 2006. That was the last year I raced motocross on any level. I was still pretty heavily sponsored, and they always put together a racer profile and stats 30"x22" poster for there riders.
Anyways, I am the cool grandpa to him. And it is nice to have him look up to me as a mini super hero.
So I wasn't suppose to race, but he wanted to check it and I am all for racing. So this put the green light back on. I had spoke to Patrick via text and knew he wouldn't make it tonight as he is very close to a TRI race coming up and doesn't want to counter act his pre set training. No worries, I heard the wonder kid last week say he would be out for sure this Tuesday after he finally got his feet wet last week. Of course I couldn't get him to commit to a weekend race though on Sunday.
Not to my surprise he no showed. Then comments how he can't get over this cold, but neglects to realize he has made comments about going surfing and playing beach volley ball until sunset.
Now if I sound like I'm bitching, YOUR F-ING RIGHT. I over this one. My only comment from this time forward will be "NEXT". I'll try and find some other young bucks that want to learn the sport.
I can't make anyone motivate themselves, especially when there not even trying to test themselves.
It's easy to hide and quit when you get your ass handed to you. I tell everyone in the beginning, "you will likely fail at first, don't get discouraged, learn from what went wrong and don't do that again".
O.k. my rant on that is over (sorry).

We had a larger group finally show up again, plus 20 riders on a Tuesday night, hell yes! Several new riders from teams I see at the larger races were there. It was cool and at first a little intimidating. Knowing that it would be a faster pace than usual with some people you are not all to familiar with racing. Also the what has become regular crowd showed up.
I didn't even attempt to contend for the first prime sprint as I was still trying to figure out how my fitness and legs were going to be for the night. Being this would be my 4th race in 7 days plus training rides, I was kind of skeptical. With that said I road hard to the sprint line letting anyone jump that wanted to and then just regrouped and recovered. I was stoked, literally no fatigue, and I recovered in less than 1/2 a lap.
So when the bell was rung for the 2nd and final prime, I told myself you are fine, strong and have a good shot tonight. I stayed about 6-7 wheel through the last turn, popped out of the right side at about 25 meters and ended up photo finish for 3rd.
I'll take it, and it was damn close on the line.
The group stayed focused and fairly fast all night.
This had to be mid to the end of the race and everyone looked pretty fresh still.

The guy in the yellow and I have got to know each other pretty well. He races cat 4/5 and 30+ 4/5. He is strong, fast and always contends for top spots. He about lost himself after Sunday's first race when he found out I am on the down side to 46 years old.
We had made a plan to take a flyer off the front with 1.5 laps to go, but he ended up rotating to the back and got boxed in.
It was to be myself, him, the guy in blue to the right and two Long Beach State guys. Unfortunately it got very disorganized towards the end, and some other little stupid attacks came.

 To the point where I was in constant over the shoulder look out mode for seeing when the next attack would come. These guys actually did a lot of work out there tonight, but in the end I don't know where they finished.
I stayed focused and just kept on the look out. I let whoever wanted to lead out, lead out. I had a super strong pull to the line behind ? I don't know ? But I ended up coming to the line again very wheel to wheel and finished 4th I think but they have me as 5th, so I'll except the 5th.
All said it was a great race. I was stoke how good I felt and that my recovery was a non issue, It was warm out and we had a great showing of racers. My grandson was happy he went and I'm still on top of his list !
Thanks for reading.

Train hard,train smart, be active.
      

A sure fire plan of how to empty ones tank

Had I not opted for a 2 day break from training, that in reality ended up being 3 I think I would have just had to park it and be done.
Ive yet to have to do that, but I'm sure that day is coming.

Recapping- Tuesday nights race was by all means the fastest pace Tuesday night criterium I had raced. I feel fortunate to had placed 9th and now looking back I feel I'm selling myself short. Yes it was tough but I'm strong and fast enough to have at the very least contended for the finish sprint. I'm still growing confidence.
I opted to take Wednesday and Thursday off all together and ride Friday. Friday = fail. I was still tired from the previous weeks schedule and I just got lazy (period).
 Saturday was set up as a semi neutral tempo ride of 2.5 to 3 hours with    http://www.theroadmultisport.com/. He is doing some crit racing but definitely focused on upcoming tri's including a 70.3, so I get it.
With that said I should also mention, the guy is stand up, and always shows up when at all possible. I struggle with peoples commitments and lack there of. It's easy to say you'll do something. But following up and actually doing it is where life is born.
Read his blog on our Saturday ride. It turned out to be way more fun than I have had on a training ride in at least a month. I was fresh legged on all climbs, and had the pistons moving near effortless for the whole ride.
I literally felt dehydration take over my body at mile 38 and yet my mind would not let the pain win the battle until mile 42. It was the first time I had ever accepted a water bottle from another rider on a ride. I would usually take my lumps and gimp it home. But even with only 2 miles left to my doorstep at mile 44 I set my pride aside and took Patricks bottle before my right quad seized all together. Half his bottle later and by the time I reached my garage, all was good.
I went on to immediately throw down a protein shake and drank 30 oz of G2. Yes straight up Gatorade, so much sodium, but oh so necessary.
Crazy, I was so dehydrated that the veins in my calves where protruding. This is usually reserved for the mid to low body fat percentage people. But I had completely depleted myself of fluids and now quite obvious to me didn't hydrate well the day before.
No worries, my quick reaction to replenishment went fine and I spent the afternoon just hanging out doing small projects.
Sunday was up at 4:45 for breakfast and the trip to Dominguez Hills for the CBR Baileys Bikes race. This is race # 8 of 11. And all though I missed out on some early series races, I have committed to show up and try and be a force, earn some points and make some noise.
This weekend I opted to race two different categories,to not only get some extra exposure, but to hopefully gain some points. I'm quite a ways off to finish the series in high standings, but if I can put some numbers on the board at least I will have been a presence.
So my first race went off at 7:00 a.m. which means be there at about 6, check in and get some warm up laps in. There was a lighter field of 34 racers. We are about mid season now and I would have expected more line 45 +. With that said, it was what it was. It was fast as hell and fairly uneventful. I was racing with the straight Cat 4's most but not all under the age of 30. They still have huge ego's and no mortgage.
So will just say reckless abandonment shows up loud and clear.
No worries, stick the game plan, stay in the front 1/2 do a little work and don't get caught in the wind even for a minute or you will get dropped in a heart beat.
In a nut shell, 7 a.m. for me is early as hell to be racing at 27-31 mph. I sat in the group and helped keep the pace fast, never worrying about mid race prime sprints and finished strong in the top 20 at 13th spot.
Post race I drank the remainder of my sport drink, ate a PBJ, sucked down a honey stinger and waited for 35 minutes. Next race was at 8:45 with the 40 + 4/5 masters.
It turned out being a bigger race with 44 racers and several teams with 3-4 riders. I still dream of this type of team turn out.
None the less, I would stick to my plan. Race hard, be alert and think about the finish. Be up front and use your strength to sprint.
Now an even faster pace race than the first. With more engines working together the speed is flat out amazing and yet you have no idea that you are cranking along at 33-35 mph. FIRST hint of drama was early on lap 3, got flats literally in the middle of the pack. No hand raised in the air, so there is a bunch of loud chatters for the person to show themselves. I get it, you want to know who has the potential to take you out in a second. He loudly rebuttals the mob and pulls out. (side note) He had a spare set of wheels on course with him, and by the next lap he was jumping back in. Good for him. This is another thing I would love to someday have the ability to do. Spair wheels for race day and the quick swap !
With 5 laps to go, the race was in a mad frenzy with every lap picking up another mile per minute. We the field are now starting to lap dropped off riders about every 300 yards. There was no shame in getting cracked off this race, it was fast and no nonsense from the gun start.
Coming along the back straight section I glance to my right and about 20 feet ahead and hear brake squeal, cracking and then quite literally 2 bikes end over end, then 3,4, and 5.  It was nasty, as I watched one guy shoulder ram the asphalt. All in all it was a total of 6 guys involved, Thankfully I was in the right place at the right time and made it past the carnage unscathed. This is why you want to be up front.
Coming into the last lap I felt tired but had fresh legs. I stayed in the front 12 sweeping into the 2nd to last corner. A huge group of riders followed a lead out up the left side and it boxed me in the middle for a moment. I down shifted to a lower gear and clawed my way up and out the left side. I found what looked like was going to be a solid lead out wheel going to the line, but I had to be 20 + deep in the pack now.
With about 75 meters left and feeling a bit desperate I moved slightly inside and decided to power up the middle. I don't usually do this, I'm more of a jump out and sprint up the inside or outside line, but I had no choice as I got boxed in a bit. This would be my first shot at really digging in and muscling my way up the middle. I had a bit more motivation too, as I knew I had played this race perfectly and I had let myself get sucked in to the middle.
With about 40 meters left I down shifted to my last gear and got out of the saddle just throwing my bike side to side to gain speed. I ended up passing several people very quickly and crossed the line near even with 4 wide.
To my surprise and shock I got 13th again. Yes it was a bigger, and what ended up being a faster field. But I felt stronger, and more confident that I had road that race to a "T" of how I wanted to.
I know I couldn't and wouldn't plan two 13th's but may 13 is my lucky number ? At the very least it was this Sunday.
I was totally spent of energy, and I know I left it all out there today. With the exception of a couple of minor mistakes I think I did everything I had trained to do.
No cramping, no depletion, no worries. Just emptied the tank and recovered for a repeat.
My bike was phenomenal, my body reacted great and I was well pleased with my recovery.
Thanks for reading, thanks for your comments and support.


Train hard,train smart, be active. 

tell me what youre doing ?

First off, I have tried repeatedly to respond to post and blogs and I'm having issues I haven't figured out yet. So I'm not rude or insensitive to followers or people I follow. I'm just not capable yet.

It's been a busy week and getting ready to get busier.

Tuesday we raced at Tuesday night worlds with our small but growing road race team. There was a better turn out for the 4/5 race and a return of the collegiate trio that put a beating on the group. They ride well together and it appears they still ride often. But it did make for a fast pace and significant suffering. Patrick had a mishap but since I have not seen anything on that, I'll leave that alone. Our newest Junior rider finally came out, but got dropped at the first sprint. And then eventually lapped. But I'll hand it to him, he stayed out there in the wind and put some miles in. He's an avid fixed gear rider and apparently racer too, so I'm sure he will come around. He has size and fitness and it appears he just needs some experience. I will tell you first hand there is no simulation for criterium racing. You just have to do it and learn the tempo and grind as you go.

This was taken somewhere around lap 3 of the 3 of us together

     I didn't have a very impressive night either. I contended for the 1st prime sprint and gave in 25 meters from the line running 2nd. THIS WAS A HUGE MISTAKE AND I GOT PASSED BY TWO OTHERS BEFORE CROSSING THE LINE. What the hell was I thinking? It took me a full lap to recover and we had now split the field in half.
Another two laps later and I and 2 more would crack from the pace. Fortunately I kept my head in the race and focused on trying to bridge back up.
This can be a futile effort on your own, but I had enough wits about me to latch on to the fast freight train of the masters in a group of about 35 or more and work with them for the duration. They are fast and almost always catch and pass the 4/5 group due to group size and speed they create.
I didn't just take a free ride in there, I worked

   And apparently I was getting worked by the look on my face.
But I did manage to stay in and take some short turns up front and try and bridge back to the fast few ahead. Amazingly enough they never caught that group and I can say that is a first for me. But these young guns are fast and very up and coming and will jump directly over Cat 4 to Cat 3 no question about it. So that was kind of shitty for them to beat up on the fat old guy but it is what it is.
As I said I tried to bridge back up with the next group of racers which was the masters class. Fortunate for me my efforts paid off and I was able to still pass a couple of riders that got cracked off our group and didn't have the strength in them to bridge on to us. I ended up 9th for a couple of points and really though and still do think I was 7th, but whatever. I'll take the lesson and the points.

I'll get a 25 mile ride in Friday morning and then an easy 35-50 on Saturday to keep loose and fresh.
Sunday is another CBR     Bai ley Bikes Cri terium! ( B AR Se r i e s # 8)

in

Dominguez Hi l ls, Cal i forniaupdated

June 12, 2011 [Sun]-$5,000+ in cash & prizes!

It will be race # 8 of 11 in the series.
Ive opted to race 2 classes to get extra time and work. Wish me luck I'll need it.  And hopefully we'll get this all together before the season ends here in 10 weeks.

FYI- I was told to go buy some t-shirts this weekend for an upcoming trip, and basically because I need some. I'm kind of a freak about not wearing your everyday off the shelf shirts. SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE HAS SOMETHING LIFE RELATED TO WHAT IT IS WE DO, I WOULD APPRECIATE THE HEADS UP. I will gladly pay you for them as necessary. I just hate to buy your typical Hurley,Volcom, Quicksilver etc.. shirts.


Train hard,train smart and be active.

The

I like body wash

And this guy is freaking me out http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ with today's blog. But this too shall pass.
I took some training days off last week of the bike because of all the training leading up to Memorial day weekend race. And then a race the following day.
I reset the meter on Saturday as previously posted and headed down to Out-Spoke-n http://rideoutspoken.com/ for my first glimpse at what there shop ride was like. Having already spoken to the metro sexual above, I had an idea.
We really want this team concept to work for this store and we will succeed weather it be a slow upload of people or people committing early on.
Thus far I haven't been impressed with the level of want to vs. commitment. I know there are some newbies that show interest and it is possible that there may be some underlying talent there as well. But as Patrick so gracefully pointed out if you don't show up to practice the coach don't play you.
Unfortunately it may not work at this level in this sport. Oh how I wish it would though.
To date the one young gun that was served up early on when I approached Derick the owner about this has not been present for much of anything. He claims he'll be there tonight and I hope there is just a crap load of raw talent and he dominates the hell out of the pelaton for an hour. He is lean and in very good physical shape,we've yet to see how he goes at 25-26 mph hour for an hour with unlimited surges thrown in.
Saturdays ride with the store was fairly unorganized even with efforts of trying to keep it together. At there normal turn around point I had 1 taker in the group to head further south/east with me to add on another 25 miles and several hill profiles to train on.
Again he is 6 months into road bike riding and comes from a mountain bike back ground. Great for conditioning,horrible for road tactics and knowledge
I tried to explain how we would hit no less than 3 significant hill climbs that would range from a couple miles of climbing to several. I was personally going to be doing the entire set of climbs in my large ring to build leg strength and there is no race up the hills or anywhere else on the ride.
He didn't quite grasp that conversation and kept pulling forward and having to wait at the bottom of hills because he no idea of the route. I'm sure there were intentions of trying to impress me of hills cycling skills, but honestly it got more annoying as we went on.You want to impress me / pay attention and freakin learn a thing or two, and by the way Contador, what goes up must come down and back to shop some 18 miles away.
Well finally up the last climb, as frustrated as I had become, I stuck to my word with myself and continued to climb in my large ring at roughly 7-11 mph depending on the stretch and pitch.
He got totally confused on the exit route of the last long climb. I made the right turn and he went straight. ( LOL ) His little mistake cost him extra efforts and miles. Now normally I would say, who cares whats a couple of extra miles he obviously has the energy to do it. But the thing was, exactly as I knew it would be. We are now 39 miles into this ride and have climbed about 2300 feet total.  He put out all that solo effort as hard as he could with 1 bottle of Gatorade and I never saw him eat food once.
So he happens to hook up with me at about the 16 mile mark on PCH heading back in. I say whats up and at this point I don't really have much else to chat about. I could go int a long story about drafting and lack of knowledge there of but I won't. I'll just say I shortly here after got in front with a tailwind and averaged about 28 mph all the way back to the store vicinity. I would normally make sure he or anyone else was on board but I figured what's the use. Paybacks a bitch. It was 56 miles for me with some great hill work and then speed work at the end. I don't know what the other guy gained out of it.
Come to find out shortly there after he meet back up with Patrick at the shop and he went on to tell him some story about how he did,can and will ride ?
I don't know, I only talked briefly to P about said conversation and then me moved quickly on to his brick results and our roll in this whole thing.
We've come to the conclusion that we will come across people that want to, have the mental desire to and probably just won't do it. Or that they will want to and do it until to find out it is a crap load of work and quit.
Either way we will keep plugging away and take our best shots at growing a successful grass roots team and helping a very cool store owner grow his business while helping support us in the mean while.

Close moc up up team kit, coming to a race neer you !

 Monday was a mild 24 mile recovery ride. And tonight is a new series starting at El Dorado park.
I hear rumor we will have some people showing up tonight. I hope people pull it together for what it's worth.

Train hard,train smart and be active.   

Short week and looking for some training time

I took the last 2 days off of any training at all. I had 4 straight days then a day off, then back to back races. I wasn't damaged goods, but I didn't want to be either.
So with that said I'm anxious to get back on the road.
Saturday will be with this guy for a couple of hours.

Along with http://rideoutspoken.com/ and then I think he's off to a brick run. I'll sit that out and vow to do a morning run Sunday though. I may follow that up with a recovery ride of 25-35 miles though, we'll see.
I have very little structure on that type of training right now. It's good and bad. Good because I don't have to sweat it. Bad because I don't have to sweat it.
I am getting plenty of training miles in, strung out with some races, but it's 95% all riding right now. I really am looking forward to a solid 5-7 miles run.

Tonight will consist of me BBQing some carne asada and a beer. Jacuzzi. And an empty house with my wife. That is not often the case and I'm looking forward to it as I type.

Cheers.

Train Hard, train smart, be active. 

afternoon wind and cycling = pain and suffering

Tuesday night worlds at El Dorado park was what was on tap.
After a big southern California weekend of racing the Tuesday night hammer fest was sure to suffer.
Saturday was   http://socalcycling.com/RaceAnn/2011/StateChampsTT.pdf
Sunday was http://socalcycling.com/RaceAnn/2011/BWGP.pdf
Monday was http://socalcycling.com/RaceAnn/2011/05.30.11.bike.race.pdf and of course the Tuesday night shoot out. I personally spoke with two cat 1 pros that went hard at all 4. That is crazy ! but if I got paid to ride and I was 15 to 20 years younger I would be all for it too.
So there it was, the phone call to Patrick   http://www.theroadmultisport.com/  and the conversation that we hoped it wouldn't be scarce. You would think, the less people, the better odds. That is only partly true though. The reality is the less people the more hard work in the wind. The more people, is less work in the wind and your skills will pay dividends in tactics and leg power.
This was lean at 9 (ugh!) and the lead out lap was by none other than yours truly. Not because I wanted to, but because no one else did.

I figured do some work right off the bat and see where the chips fell. I took a full lap pull and then just pulled hard right to go back and sit in. This gave me a turn up front and on a low pace neutral lap to boot. And it also gave me a chance to see everyone competing.
This was lap two or three where Patrick did the work and decided to pull out and come to his senses.
I'm joking of course but look at the guy that is now going to be first wheel, Patrick was making that dude work.

  It was shortly there after maybe another 2-3 laps in where we got the first prime sprint bell. We set it up good and I was shadowing for cover only waiting to jump at about 75 meters to sprint.

Patrick is just left right behind the main lead out. This was perfect and I was just leaning in to gain all the draft I could. Then this guy jumped up from no where behind me for the 2nd spot.
But by the picture he was doing it right and hanging on for all he was worth.

The small field got splintered bad after that and we would ride the remainder of the race with 6 guys and only 3 working with the other 3 hanging on and wondering if they could finish it out.
Me and this guy attacked 5-6 times each in that last 30 minutes but it was too tough to stay away alone and we wouldn't work together after we went 1-2 on the 2nd sprint.

Ironically we ended up attacking the last couple of laps the same way and finished 1-2 in the final sprint at the end. This was corner 2 of the last lap as we whipped it up to about 31 mph. I took my pulls early and in the wind, so I could get in position to draft and set up in a tailwind to the finish.

All said and done he past the finish line a full bike ahead of me. I finished 1/2 a bike ahead of the next and I'm pretty sure no one else contended the final sprint. It was warm, windy and a character builder for sure.

on the night I was 3rd on sprint 1, 2nd on sprint 2,and  2nd o/all. I felt strong with or with out a big field and I was stoked to see Patrick there. It was also cool to see the owner of Out-Spoke-N bikes show up with one of our new,young race team hopefuls.Oh and another customer that likens Peter Fonda straight up doppelganger.
GO OUT-SPOKE-N !!!!
 
http://rideoutspoken.com/

Back to back race days was sick. I would like to someday do that again. As for now we have a new series starting next Tuesday, and the next large CBR race on June 12th. Stay tuned.


Train Hard, train smart, be active.