WARNING: This is an epic post. Be prepared for a good 20 minutes of reading. There are pictures!
So many of you are probably wondering, where the hell have I been for the last month? Well ive been all over the east coast pursuing my dream of racing for the rest of my life. Heres the rundown of what I've been doing. I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
Ok, so last blog about a month ago, I was leaving for my epic jaunt down south. Above is my new haircut. Looks good, the ladies like it.
As soon as school got out on June 12th, I headed out to Stanton, Kentucky for the Junior worlds qualifier. It was the most boring drive Ive ever experienced. 14 hours of nothing but trees and coal mines. So the team stayed at this bad ass cabin in the Kentucky Wilderness for the weekend. It was cool to get away from all the other teams. Only 3 of us were doing the tt on Saturday (Nick, Carpenter, and I), and we had to leave at 5:30 to get there for the 8am starts. I was sleep deprived because of the guys who werent racing in the morning. I ended up 16th in the tt with only 2.5 hrs sleep.
RR went alot better. Rolled a solid break with Nick Bax for a while, then got back to the field to protect Ty. Ended up giving Ty my wheel halfway through. I chased back on but got popped on the next climb. Pulled out at the feed.
After Kentucky, I headed down to Greenville for a week of solid training with my teammate Dave Hutton. Our days consisted of waking up, going to the coffee shop for a few hours, riding, eating a bunch, and watching movies. Pro huh?
At the end of the week, I headed to Chattanooga for a week with my coach. We headed up to Cookeville Tenn for the Avery Trace Classic. ended up 7th in the cat 3 rr, and blew up hard in the tt. Okay weekend. After Avery Trace, I decided to shack up at AJ's house where it is little kid free! (Sorry Carp) We went up to his cabin for some killer climbing on the Tour of Georgia roads. The rest of the week was spent at AJ's house playing Rock Band.
We did the Georgia Cup Rome Event with Ty at the end of the week. Team time trial with 3 guys, on junior gears. We ended up 4th in the 2/3, only 10 seconds off the podium. The top 3 teams had 7 guys or more.
Now for the Good stuff, FITCHBURG. (This is where the pics start)
We drove the bus up from Chattanooga. Man that was a fun ride. We are now decked out with a new sound system, and a 40 inch plasma TV, with Satelite radio and DVD player.
We got to the college on Wednesday night, and pre rode the tt course for Thursday. We stayed at the dorms in the Fitchburg State College. They were on the front stretch of the circuit race, half a mile from the tt, and 2 miles from the crit. They also had killer food.
Stage 1: 6.5 mile TT.
Got a decent warmup in. The course is basically a stair step, with a killer finishing decent that your spun out of your 52x14. I started off conservative, determined not to blow up like usual. I rode smooth, and caught my 30 second and 1 minute man. I ended up 32nd. Not bad, but not great. After that, we headed back to the dorm for some rest and food.
Stage 2: 46 mile RR.
Before the RR.
Ben and I at the start line
I love decending in the rain.
With our top tt finisher being AJ, sitting in 11th place, we werent concerned for GC anymore. Our goal was to ride the early break, pick up sprint points and get a stage win. We woke up to the sight of pooring rain and 50 degree weather. Not fun. We got to the rr course and just sat in the bus. I finally dragged myself over to sign in. We then got our bikes and headed to the start line. The course was 4x11 mile loops, with a 3 k finishing climb. The laps were rolling, with a hard climb in the feed zone. Within the first mile, AJ and Alder were gone. A few miles later, Rob Bush, our guest rider, bridged with Gavin from Hot Tubes and a Mesa Kid. This was followed by another Mesa Kid and Simon from Hot Tubes. This set a legit break. AJ ended up scooping up some points, but Simon bested him by 5 points on the day. I stayed in the field with TY, Ben, and Evan. Ty and I rolled in just outside the top 20 while AJ and rob went 3rd and 4th. Not a bad day. Then we headed down the shivering mountain and rode back to the bus.
Since this was 4th of July, we shot of some fireworks in Celebration. This was quickly ended by the cops, but it was fun while it lasted.
Stage 3: 25 mile circuit race.
With two guys in the top 10, and 5 points back in the sprint competition, we were going for the win. The course was fun. It went through the college, followed a winding road out to the main road, with a fast decent, into a wall of a climb where the finish was at. The race started out fast, and never let up. A few breaks went, but nothing stuck. We were setting up our leadout with 3 to go, when a break went consisting of Nick Bax, Larry Warbasse, and Luke Keough. The field panicked and sat up. I got on the front and hammered it trying to bring the break back. They snuck away by about 10 seconds. Ty ended up 5th on the stage.
AJ beating the Giant Canadian Simon for some sprint points.
Rolling in
Stage 4: 15 mile Crit.
This was our stage. The course was perfect for TY and AJ. AJ had won here the year before. It was a fast 3 turn crit, with a lot of messed up pavement. The race started out with alot of attacks, but nothing sticking. It was too fast to really do anything, considering we avg'd 29 mph. The race started winding down, and we started another leadout. It was good until Nate Brown snuck away with a few kids. I drilled it on the front again trying to bring them back, but to no avail. We set it up and Ty ended up 5th. Not bad.
Drilling it on the front.
So it was fun. The racing was good. The best part was all the people I met. Staying in the dorms with us was the Australian National team, and the Mesa Cycles Junior team. Every night was spent in the common room talking it up with them. The Aussies were the coolest people I've ever met. They had awsome accents, and great stories to tell. It was great to hear what its like down under! We did a bunch of trading and I scored myself an Aussie jersey and some kick ass basketball shorts. Heres me cheering for them in the circuit race.
The coolest person I met on the trip was Lara from the Aussie squad. She was soo cool and we spent hours talking about all kinds of stuff. She taught me a bunch of aussie sayings too. I wish Fitchburg could have lasted longer so I could have spent more time with her. I definately rate spending time with her, hah!
Do you notice anything different? Those socks and gloves are sweet ass!
