Day three of the Cup

Well...... I had high expectations coming into this race. I did well hear last year so of course I should do well again. Last year I was a 4. This year I'm a 3. It was WAY faster this year. I made it about 15 minutes, maybe 20. It doesn't really matter how long I made it because ultimately, I got dropped. I was pretty bummed out when it happened. I am very nervous about tomorrow now. If I get dropped three days in a row my confidence will be smashed. Oh well Fuck it.... CROSS IS HERE.

First two days of the Cup.

Friday night went decent for me I guess. It was sketchy to say the least out on the course. It was very dark in some spots and people were all over the brakes in the corners. The shadows really messed with me. The pace was high, I averaged 27.2. Out of 147 riders I finished 40th.

Saturday went terrible. The course was awesome but the winds were brutal. Head winds on the down hills and tail winds on the up hills. So, it was pretty much up hill the entire time. No where rest. Super high heart rate. I was riding near the back and caught a glimpse of the peleton up the road.............wait.... what?? I'm in the peleton!! No your not dumb ass! Turns out I was riding with a group of dropped riders and had no idea. PAY ATTENTION!! DNF. The field was blown apart by the end of the race. Hope the days get better.

Preperations...

The Gateway Cup is this weekend and I have not had much seat time since my trip to Durango. I know rest is good but too much can have you playing catch up at the last minute. Thats me. I have tried to put in some good miles this week making sure the legs would still turn. Monday I went out for a easy 15 mile spin just trying to get the blood to flow. Tuesday I went to the crits early and warmed up for about an hour just riding in circles. I did the A race and all but the last 3 laps of the B race. Never went for a sprint or anything, JRA. When the night was over I had ridden 54.01 miles doing lap after lap on the Tuesday Worlds course with a average of 20.1. Wednesday I did about 23 miles of spinning with the Wild Trak group ride. My legs feel like they are made of wood at this moment. Thursday is a rest and prepare day for the first race of the series which is held at Lafayette square on Friday night. I hope to give a small race recap from each day. Hope the legs feel better by then.....





Holla atcha boy...

Cape Cyclewerx Race

Sunday morning I got up way to dam early after a night at my friends wedding. I got up at 4:30 to be exact and drove to Chris Conneley's house to pick him up as well as Drew. We set sail about 6 in the A.M. to head south to check out this venue. We were all in the sport class today even thought I was rockin the SS. My geared bike is still hammered from Durango.

We rode a little bit of the course to warm up and get a feel for it. Very SIUEish which was awesome. It was also a tad on the rough side.... or maybe that was my rigid fork.

The start of the race is a long uphill grass field. They blew the horn and off we went. I think I entered the woods 4th. After the 1st lap I found my self off the back of the lead group which consisted of Drew and two others. I was still in 4th and feeling like lightning had stuck my legs.... not in a good way either. I started the second lap with a Cyclewerx guy battling for 4th\5th. There was a section were the course was close together going opposite directions. In that section I saw Drew (ahead of me of course just like he always is) and he yelled at me like a red headed step child to pedal or die. It was magical or something because my legs suddenly had some snap in them.

I started to pedal hard and drop the dude behind me. I was railing some single track and caught onto Drew's wheel. I don't think Drew was feeling well because I passed him with out much fight(not normal) and rode away from him. I was back in 3rd place and felt amazing. I finished the 3rd lap and started my last.

I started the last lap with no one in site. I was riding hard but cautious. I was about half way done with the lap and came out onto the side walk we had to ride down and hammered it. When I got to the other side I looked over my shoulder and saw somebody about a 100 yards back. Not knowing who it was I pinned it trying to make sure I ended up on the podium. I was flying. Something was tickling my throat so I hacked trying to get it out and keep rolling. When I hacked it came out half way. Some nasty shit was sitting in the back of my throat and I started to gag, then dry heaving. I almost came to a complete stop while purging up nothing. I knew I had a little time and tried to get going again. BLAH BLAH!!! More of the same.

Its a very weird feeling to be going through the motions of dry heaving. Lots of pain, mean faces, and agony for nothing to happen. Anyway, I realized that I could not pedal hard with getting sick. I just putted along and watched riders begin to pass me. By By first podium of the year. I went from 3rd to 6th with about a 1/4 mile to go. Drew finished one spot ahead of me which was awesome. If anyone is going to beat me..... It might as well be people I know and like. Chris's fork was cashed so he pulled the plug early and actually did the expert race later on Drew's bike and finished 10th out of 21 riders. Way to man up dude, nice ride. He actually has me thinking expert now.

On top of that....... CX is almost here and my bike is almost built.






Holla atcha boy.....

After Durango

The GORC crew and myself headed west Thursday night and landed in CO springs on Friday morning. We were all very tired and thought a ride would wake us up. We went and did a ride a round a lake similar to C. Bluff. I cant remember the name of it to save my life right now but it was sweet.

My seat post didn't like the trail that much thought and popped like a zit with about 7 miles to go.
Had to ride standing up the rest of the ride. It was still an awesome ride to say the least. The next day we headed to the bike shop and I replaced the carbon post with a Thompson.

From there we headed south to Durango. The first trail we rode was Hermosa Creek. The trail was awesome and the ride was going great. We were going mach 5 shredding some tech ass single track. I blasted around a corner and found Twist laying on the ground. I slammed on my breaks. He looked up at me and said he thought his leg was broke. A little team effort and a fly fisherman on a quad carted him out of there and to Urgent Care center at the bottom of the ski resort. A couple of us finished the ride in the rain. When we got back to the resort they were still waiting to find out about Twist. Turns out it was a broken ankle and leg. Get well soon. The next day we did some adventure race type trail. Way to steep up and down. Very hard and probably my least favorite ride of the trip. Lots of hike a bike. The down hill at the end of this ride was worth it thought. It was about 10 miles and screaming fast. We rode to the top of the world the following day on the Colorado trail. Not sure which section but wow, what a view.

The video below was taken with my digital camera when we reached our highest point a hair over 12,000 feet. It gives you an idea of the wind and magnitude of the mountain. It was awesome. Matt Hayes and myself sat up there and watched the clouds roll over the top for about 15. It's just one of those things....

This is just to pretty of the picture to not post. No story to go with it.... just look at it.

I'm still very tired and will post at little more later this week. I will also put a few more random pics.

Holla..