The Off Season has been busy

So far the off season has been chalk full of cycling related stuff. I was hoping to be as relaxed as the guy in the picture at this point in the year. Working, and sleeping in between easy rides and some core work stuff, but instead I am busy trying to get my slow ass on a new team. The good news is I have narrowed it down to a couple of new scenarios. One will have me doing a lot more traveling and racing in the USA Crit Series events as well as NRC stage races, one will have me doing west coast NRC stage races and maybe some superweek, and one will have me babysitting newbies and doing local stuff. Let's all hope one of the first two teams comes through with a spot. If I have to race nothing but local stuff next year I may swerve into on coming traffic and take myself out. Alright maybe not that gnarly, but I won't be dodging any car doors opening in front of me. I will take the pain and the insurance check and call it a season.

On a happier note the French Federation is now going back and doing supplemental tests on the riders from this years Tour. They are going back and retesting samples and looking for CERA. They are finding it too. This is good. At least the riders know they can't use CERA now. Time to move on to the next wonder drug and hope WADA doesn't have a test for that yet. Thanks for trying to ruin the sport, dopers. I hope the next wonder drug these guy's find had a side effect of making their junk shrivel up and fall off.

Since it is Rocktober I have started winter training. It's not going well. This time of year is muscle building. On and off the bike. It's amazing how much muscle you loose over the course of a season when you stop doing certain excersises. It's getting better and the wattage is going up, but I still feel like a complete whimp on the bike right now.

Hopefully by the next time I write on here I will know what team I am going to be on. If not, I guess it will be a plain black kit and a solo mission next season.

Are you kidding me?!?!?!

I got an email last week from the President of my former club (yes FORMER), asking me and the other two members of the executive board if we could meet on Monday night. Sure, no problem. I was expecting to hear that my budget was going to be cut, but instead they cut the elite team entirely. They bowed to the preasure of a sponsor, and decided to put all their eggs in a master's team basket. I have no problem with that, even though I think you get very little if anything out of a master's team.

No, the only thing that really pissed me off was the timing. IT'S OCTOBER!!!! Do they have any idea how difficult it is to find a team in October, especially a good team? I am screwed. I made a few calls and got the guys who could race masters' on the new masters squad. The rest of us are screwed right now though. So now it's time to get the resume together, and try and find that magic fit on another team. A number of people called and talked to me about forming a new team, and that is possible, but I would prefer to join a team that already exists.

I am sure there will be more on this later in the off-season. Last thing: When you go to SoCalcycling.com on Monday morning after San Dimas (or any race for that matter) who do you see on the home page? The winner of the men's pro race, not the winner of the master's 35+. Good thinking guys.

It's Training Time

Today marks the day when training starts for next season. WTF!?!?!?! Really? Already? Yes.

Mid-August until yesterday was a lot of fun. Lots of surfing a little mountian biking (more on that in a moment) and very little road biking. So now it's time to start training for next season. That may sound really gnarly, but it's not. It just means starting to ride the bike again with some regularity. Rocktober will consist of pushing a HUGE gear all month, in an effort to build muscle and lay a base for next season. The entire month will be nothing but a really long base workout, which won't be too difficult. At least that's what I think. I think that every Rocktober, and then I get out there and realize, I am a whimpy little sissy, who can't turn a big gear any more. This last weekends race might have helped kick-start me though. That's right RACE.

I did it, I went to the dark side, I raced my first mountain bike race. I had a small clue of what to expect, but just a small clue. Friends and clubmates had given me some ideas of how it would go down. One things for sure, I am not in any form to be racing right now. Having said that you throw a cat.1 roadie out with the sport class mtn bikers and there won't be too much competition. Before the race one of my closest friends was there with a friend of his. Sean was racing Expert, and his buddy (Ryan) was racing in my group (sport 35-39). Having never done a mtn bike race before, the highest level I was allowed to race was sport (= cat.4 I guess). So we start off by going 100m and then a sharp left and then straight up. I was 4th going into the first descent (not my strong point). Out onto the paved climb and now I am 2nd in my group, which contained 3 different age classes. So I was in first place for my class, and sitting second in our group. The group thing doesn't matter, but none the less I like to know I am beating everyone. Lap 2 and Ryan is still there. I back it off a hair to leave a little for the end. I put Ryan in front of me to pace for a while. Once through the s/f I take over the lead and slam it on every climb. By the time I got to the finishing climb (4.5 miles into the 5 mile long course) I was up by a minute. I cruised to the finish having won my race, and beaten everyone who was in the group I started with. Ryan was next in, then third was 6 minutes back. I guess that's a lot as they made a big fuss about it at the poduim. All in all a fun race, but it confirms what I already thought, I like the road better. I will leave the dirt to the other guys.

So now its time to get to work on the road. The goal for next season will be to help a few of our guys get their cat.1 status early on, and for me to try and get some GC results at stage races. Not an easy thing to do, but it's something to strive for. I have a meeting with the team big wigs tonight, and after that we will get bikes, and clothes and all that good stuff ordered up. Looking forward to next season. It was good to get that mtn bike race in though. I was already feeling that itch to race. That will hold me over until Roger's Cup. By Feb. I will be frothing to get out and race for real.

Rest time is almost over

The work travel is done for a while, and that's a good thing. If I had to do one more trade show, I would have to go to detox before returning to my office. Having said that, I got a disturbing email this morning. I sat down at my computer, and there it was, looking back at me, with a menacing snarl. The invite to the Vegas Crit. Not sure how I pulled this one off, but it happened. The first thought to go through my head was, HELL NO!!! And as I type this, I am on the phone seeing if I can get my sponsor to pay for hotel. What is wrong with me? Time to call the wife and see if she wants to do a weekend in Vegas.

Ok, It's really over now

Now it's over. I prematurely called the road season done a week or so ago, but there was one more Eldo to go. I showed up for this last "race" hopeing to stay upright and collect my free Mexican dinner afterward courtesy of CBR. The race was its usual boring event, same as all the rest this season. There are just enough guys out there to chase, but those same guys are not strong enough to get in a break. Defensive racing sucks. So I stayed true to my word and didn't let the competitive juices over-power my brain, and I sat on the back in the safety zone. Also true to my word, which was to be on the back or off the front all night, I went to the front and tried my hand at a few attacks. Got some daylight on one of them, but the two Fred's with me were cooked from sitting on my wheel and couldn't pull threw. Thanks guys.

Once back in the group I found my way to the lantern rouge position, and readied myself for a nice easy spin to the finish. Tommy was in the running for 2nd place overall so he pulls up next to me and asks me if I have anything left. Do I have anything left? Let's see I have launched two boring attacks that went no where, and the rest of the time I was tacked on to the very back of the group, yeah I think there is some gas in the tank still, what do you need? Time for a lead-out. I moved my way up to about the 15th or so position and settled in for the last 2 laps. The front guys didn't understand how a last lap is supposed to work and started to slow and bunch. Some yelling from me got them sorted out and we were rolling again. I talked the front 4 or 5 through the last half lap, then with about 600m to go I took over. At that point we were at about 30mph...way to slow. I came through and picked it up. Not to quick to gap guys though. I gave a look and we were back to single file at about 32. Then I picked it up some more, then some more, then I hit the final turn at 35 and holding. Out of the turn, and out of the saddle for one last kick and then I pulled off. No one came through. They were in their drops and sprinting and still not coming around. Pathetic. Turns out the lead-out was a little to fast for some and guys opened huge gaps. Oh well. My boys were not in position (nice work a-holes), so they only managed to crack the top5 by sheer determination.

The season was over. Done. Time to relax, have a beer, and a burriot. Only thing is CBR "forgot their checkbook" and there would be no free food. That was the only reason I came up for the last one. Damn it. I had dinner with Drama, Bones and Pops anyway. Time to start thinking about next year. Lots of guys calling to get on the team, but not too many that I want. At this point there are only a few guys I would take on, and the rest I would pass on and ride with 6 next season.

I am looking forward to NOT riding my road bike for a while too. I have been out on the mountain bike a lot the last 2 weeks, and that has been fun. I am going to do a mountain bike race at the end of September in Santa Barbara, which should be a blast. I have never done one of these races before, so it should be interesting.

So what does winter hold in store for me, not a lot. Training, some Como St. rides, some travel, and maybe some time on the snow (Mammoth). I'll keep you posted.

I don't want to CRASH!!!

The season is over....except for a few mid-week crits. There is money for the overall points leaders, of which I am not one, but a few teammates are. The races are competative and can be pretty fast. There are always about 70 or so, and it is a 1-3 race. This time of year is when we get the 4's who have just upgraded and sometimes they get in a bit over their heads especially near the front, so I made sure they knew their place early on. Plus, as I stated earlier, I am not in the points race, as I use this race as a training tool, not a "real" race.
Most Tuesday's out there I do intervals basically by attacking over and over. This week was no different. I attacked and attacked. I used to think it was the older "masters" out there that caused the race to be so defensive, and they are certainly part of that racing strategy. They race so they can win, and for them that means a group sprint and defensive racing. But it's not JUST them as I used to think. It's the 3's. They don't have the engine to go in a break and hold it, but 6 of them can chase for a period of time and not let the break get away. Throw one or two of those 3s in the break of 6 and you have a recipe for a bunch sprint.
On my second attack I had two good cat.2 riders on my wheel. Yet when I pulled off at 33mph, they couldn't comne through. THEN WHY DID YOU GO IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!?!?!? DAMN IT!!! Same old story as the rest of the year out there, attack, get brought back, attack again.....field sprint.
So we get down to 1 to go, and for some reason things got really aggressive. Guys were slamming into each other like it was a NASCAR race. I saw one guy stuff himself into a tiny little hole 20 guys back. Why? It didn't help him at all, all he did was make a dangerous move. I crashed on Aug. 29, 2006 out there, really hard. We were at about 30mph and some idiot in front of me overlapped and went down, taking 20 or so others with him. I suffered a broken hand and some really gnarly road rash (but the bike was fine). It really put a dent in my winter training and I started the season way out of optimal shape. As we hit 1/2 a lap to go this week I was getting banged around something fierce, which wouldn't faze me usually, but then I remembered, there was no money and no points for me on the line, so I sat up and went to the back. If that was a weekend race for money, I am hitting right back and holding my spot, but out there on a Tuesday....No thanks. I have one more of these races to go, and then I am truley done racing road until Boulevard in Feb. 09.

I did get on the dirt yesterday for a mountain bike ride. That was a blast. Haven't ridden dirt in a long time (8 months or so). Climbing wise I was good, but coming down was not so good. I was all over the trails, and my cornering sucked something fierce. I will ride some more dirt over the next month or so, and the cornering will come back.

So, one more mid-week to go and lots of surfing and mountain bike riding over the next 6 weeks. Should be a fun break before winter training begins. Not looking forward to those training blocks of intervals at all.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

It's over. My season has finally ended, and not a race too soon. My right leg is screwed up, not to mention I am just plain tired. The season started with Boulevard on Feb. 3 and has not stopped. All told more than 50 race days in the legs, and for a guy with a job, that is a lot. Riding my bike is not my job, just fun, so to get that many race days in the legs is really good. Some good results this season too. I got on 4 podiums and won a great road race in NorCal. To win a road race was a major goal of mine this season. I can check that one off. I did lay a giant terd at SDSR, and that annoys me, but you can't be good at every race.

There are still a few El Dorado crits left I will do, but that is a pretty brainless activity. I don't plan on getting hurt at this point in the season because some Fred who is new to our ranks decides he is the biggest and baddest, and crashes half of the field out at 30+mph. It happened to me a few years ago, and it isn't going to happen again.

Yesterday was Nationals. I am no expert, but I am pretty sure I should have trained for that. The last time I did a 100 mile race was the beginning of June. So the legs were not quite prepared for a race that fast and that long (120 miles). The Strawberries brought about 37 guys to the race including about 4 of the top 5 picks to win it all. We went really fast and I got popped at the half way mark. Not too surprising really. I hung out in the feed and watched some racing. It was really fun to actually watch racing again. The break went but it was too big, and the attacks from that group started on lap 4. Two Strawberries and Thurlow finally got away, and the berries played Thurlow pretty well and took first and second. Well done to them. They had a great day and rode the race perfectly. Congratulations to them, now go back to NorCal and leave us to our Industrial Park Crits.

So here are some random things that happened this season that made it really interesting:

- Saw a guy crash in a feedzone, by himself, no one around him for a 10m diameter. Tried to put a bottle away and hit a bottle on the ground and crashed. Lift your head up in the feedzone pal.

- Missed the winning break at SDSR. Thought I had a man in the break. I suck.

- Got dropped badly at Redlands. That was a bad day.

- Saw a guy slide out next to me in the last turn at Manhattan, almost in slow motion, but I stayed up and got 6th.

- Upgraded to a cat.1 (nice)

- Finished Boulevard and I wasn't dead last.

- There are WAY TOO MANY pros living in SoCal now. They all need to move back to Boulder.

- There are a lot of really gorgeous female bike racers now. Both pro and amateur. It's a good thing.

- Speaking of women, saw a woman crash in a sprint, by herself, by simply throwing her bike side to side too hard.

It's time to get in the ocean and surf a little more, and hit the mountain bike a little more too.