It is now mid-June and my form is starting to come back around. The rest of the season is nothing but crits so I guess with my new found form I will be looking to get in some breaks and drive them. I have been getting a little more active at the front end of crits the last couple weeks as well, when it comes time to sprint. I have only had a couple of opportunities to really sprint hard this season, so it has felt good to mix it up a bit.

I didn't race this weekend, byut instead trained and spent time with the family. Last night was Eldo and even though the pace was pretty fast all night, I still had some juice to attack a few times, and get off the front. As soon as I go the group goes single file and chases me down. I guess that is the price you have to pay for being known to go in breaks and make them stick. Either way it was business as usual and we rolled around in circles until it was time to sprint. I had a good wheel with about 1k to go. Some goon from another team started coming over on me, so I had to throw the elbows out and make myself as big as possible. I have earned the rigth to be up there, and hence asserted myself for that position and got he wheel. Out of the last turn it was all systems go, and I jumped WAY to early. Not a big deal, since I had out sprinter on my wheel and he got going, but still came in just in front of me. I have a week off of Eldo next week, as I will be melting out in the desert the River. The forecast for the high in Yuma....108 on Monday. Holy S*%T. This should be interesting. My forecast is for lots of complaining and whinning from teh wife, and kid.

On a happier note, I have a business thing in NYC in July, and have turned it into a family trip. Should be lots of fun. Kyle is all pumped about going there. I think he will have a blast. It may not be ther best thing for training, but I don't care, we are going to have fun.

Some nights you are just on

Some nights you are on and some you are not. Last night was an on night. Which is a little surprising as I raced fairly hard in the heat on Sunday. I went in an early break that had a bunch of goons in it. They screwed up the paceline, they sprinted for preems, they surged through the gap when it was their turn to pull, then they blew themselves up. Way to go nimrods. We went back to the peleton and I continued to attack, but nothing would stick. The saddest part about last night was guiys who are strong attacking like they were a 12 year old girl. When you attack you have to go really HARD and be fully committed. Not these buttholes. Half assed attempts with no speed and no gaps. Way to go guys.
It stayed together and there was a nice fast lead out and followed by a clean sprint. I opened the sprint super early so our sprinter could get up to speed. It worked and he was able to get 2nd. The guy who won was flying, and there was no beating him. Even after all that I was able to hold some speed and get 8th. Not bad since I didn't really sprint and the other guys were going as hard as they could.
The best part about last night was that I had good legs. I can feel my form coming back around and I think I will back it off just a touch so I can be flying in the end of July and the start of August. Hopefully some other guys form falls off a bit and I can hit a peak and get a few wins.

It's been a few weeks since I have updated my page. Lots to talk about. First off there was a State Crit Champs in Costa Mesa. With the big local Pro teams in OK for a crit series, the race was wide open. I covered a lot of breaks early and got off the front with 3 guys for a while. Then a big move went. We could see they weren't working together very well. I decided to pick up the pace to bring them back. Some a-hole left me out in front and opened a gap to me, so I decided to bridge. I got within 50 meters or so and the break sat up. I looked back and the peleton was single file. I sat up to figuring the break was coming back. They didn't and I had to chase flat out the rest of the time. Morale of the race, never give up, and when in doubt bridge over. The 14 man break stayed away and I lost the race.

Then it was time for a good old Eldo. The race stayed together and I tried to string it out at the end for our sprinter and apparently not everyone at the front can hold 36mph. I gapped two guys in the front and the train fell apart. All good though our sprinter had a good wheel, but the guys lined up behind him had a better wheel and he got smoked in the end.

Then Bakerfield came. I was/am not in form to do 80 miles (8 laps on a 10 mile course) with two climbs in it. So i opted to do my age category instead of the pro race. I lined up for the 30+ race and there were 11 other guys. ELEVEN!!! That's pathetic. Of the 11 there were 2 cat.3's and one cat.4. The rest of us were all cat.2's. We attacked like crazy on lap 2 of 5 and a 5 man group including me got away. We drilled it to the last lap and had a silly huge lead. We hit the final climb (3/4 of a mile at 6%) and a flurry of attacks started. I followed wheels and felt good. We hit the hairpin at the top and had ~500m to the line slightly uphill the whole way. We all played the watching game. There were 2 guys I was watching and 2 I knew were toast. At ~250m I was the first to jump and got a BIG gap immediately. I put my head down and slammed it. One of the guys I was worried about started to chase, and the other guys I was worried about was on his wheel. So as I went from 14mph to 34mph and had to hold it, one guy pulled the other guy up to 30mph and then died, and the guy on his wheel jumped and started to sprint after me. With about 30m to go he was coming fast and I was running out of steam. He had just enough in him to get to the line just in front of me. I took 2nd and missed getting a State RR Championships. That sucked. It made for a long drive home knowing I got beat by such a small margin. I am pissed and I want a win, NOW!!!! It's on the rest of the season. I am going to attack like mad and make everyone's life hell. No more Mr. Nice Bike. The gloves are off.