sos

tough day today...ouch...hopefully big payoff later start of a lot of hardwork...new years eve...time to set some goals for 2010...maybe later...rest day tomorrow...dial it back to 350 watts...jeff brandon style

good day on the mountain

good day of training today, it was in the 60's and very sunny! kevin, steven, and i headed for mt lemmon. we had an awesome climb up to mile 20, very tight and rolled straight up the mountain...looking good for a good u23 trio for next year, hopefully a good little squad for u23 natz that can a spring a big one on the teams like trek and garmin. i felt quite good today, we rolled up to mile20 then descended and i went back up to mile 10 on my own, a good 5hr day all up. Form is coming along it feels like, had a pretty bad training week while i was home for xmas but now ive been feeling stronger every day, so getting some confidecne and feeling good. even had a decent power test...but this is getting boring with all this talk of training. saw a lot of beasts on the mountain day...i think im gonna try for a pretty big effort tomorrow, we'll see how that goes...wow i thought i was gonna stop talking about training like two sentences ago...i suck. heres a picture of the three of us at mile 15. dangeruss gets here on friday and then we'll have a perfect group of four for training (had to avoid saying foursome). maybe do the shootout on saturday thats the big group ride out here lots of people, lots of watts...might be fun but might skip it as it can get kind of sketch and chaotic with sometimes over 100 people.

75th anniversary

yesterday had a pretty good 5hrs legs didnt feel incredible but getting some volume into the legs so that is good. today did a pretty easy 3hrs on mt lemmon. weather is nice, it was cloudy today but still upper 50's so very easy to do the training...no excuses out here for not doing the work. tmorrow im doing a bit of a powertest shoudl be pretty good i hope, not sure what kinda number i can do...hopefully its over 200 watts or i might be pretty devastated. upcoming weather forecast looks very nice, hoping to do the shootout on saturday should be pretty good. well not much to talk about i dont know what i started writing about on this blog when i started it i feel a lack of material right now. well heres one more thing. ill throw this out here in case anyone can help. im hoping to race redlands in march...its pro/1 but team entry and invite only...lsv is not going so i am looking for a team to ride for. if anyone has any contacts/leads let me know id be happy to send my race resume along and talk. send me an email at nate1wilson@verizon.net

tuck son

so i left yesterday for tucson az after a really nice christmas at home. i have the privilege of being here till january 10th, until i return to boulder for the spring semester. my blog hasnt been very frequent lately so im going to try and update everyday im in tucson. yesterday i landed about 11, got to the condo at sabino canyon a bit later, and was able to get out for a 2hr or so ride. im sharing a house with kevin gottlieb, steven black, and russ brown. we are very close to mt ltemmon, nice climb in thearea..very long. rode up to just mile 7 yesterday and back to the place. today im going for a longer ride, outtowards helmet peak and mission road

deep thoughts in the mountains

it was a really nice day in boulder today after having a good amount of snow for a couple weeks, this week the sun came out and a lot of snow melted. today was pretty warm, got over 50 down in boulder. it was really nice and i got to head up into the mountains. i was rolling up a nice long climb out of lyons, it was pretty windy and there wasn't anyone around. alright warning, this is gonna get a little cheesy but i love cheesy jsut ask the kendalls...so i was rolling up this climb feeling pretty good, ya know workin shit out on the side of a mountain...and im listening to my ipod, when to my embarassment this song comes on...boulevard of broken dreams by green day. the song started and i was like damn this is embarassing, i wish i could change it but its under my jacket...and then the lyrics come, the first part is:

i walk a lonely road

the only road that i have ever known

don't know where it goes

but it's only me to me and i walk alone

and then i was listening to it and i couldn't help but feel like it went along well with how everything was going for me, i was just out training in the mountains alone, lately im pretty unsure where im gonna get with cycling...as every time i think i know, my shit gets completely flipped...and for those three minutes that that weak song was playing i felt like a hard man...then the next song was some jamming 80's stuff that reminded me of this:

So that was sweet too...well thats gonna have to end the post, but if i were you i would probably

make fun of me for this if you see me in the future, so if you do so i understand

yoooooo

what uppp...we got a big dump of snow in boulder on wednesday...its melting slowly it should be good to get outside this weekend, i did do some epic trainer training though during the week...ya know nothing to crazy i did like 4hrs steady on wednesday and 3hrs with 3x20' on thursday.

offseason break is pretty much over, and about 3 weeks ago i started the first real training to start getting ready for 2010, which is exciting i guess...looking forward to next year for racing should be good...everything is nailed down now so that is nice. school is going well, it's actually really chill right now, i have a few finals in about a week, but most of my assignments, papaers, etc are all behind me now. i fly home on dec 18 which will be nice, it is a very quick period between thxgiving and xmas break...be at home till dec 26 then i fly to tucson, lucky enough to be spending two weeks there to get in some good training...renting a house with russ brown, steven black, and kevin gottlieb it should be a blast! matt cooke told me his best time up to windy point on mt lemmon was 54 minutes so im gonna at least half to halve that...also ive pretty much got the race schedule for 2010 planned out, i'll basically be racing by myself through the end of april since ill be out west, but then come back and race the rest of the year with the team...planning on some good events....rough outline of the schedule looks like this:

Feb:

-some collegiate

-maybe valley of the sun

March:

-some more collegiate

-san dimas

-redlands (if i can find a team to ride for since its team entry only and kelly isn't going)

April:

-maybe a little more collegiate

-some local CO races

-gila

May:

-finish gila

-bear mountain

-poolesville

-crits on east coast (wilm, kelly, basking ridge, maybe somerville)

June:

-some mo crits (r-mond, csc...hopefully pro race and airforce)

-elite and u23 nationals

July:

-fitchburg

-hagerstown

-cascade

-page valley

Aug:

-millersburg

-utah...maybe

Sept:

-green mtn...if i can swing it with school

and then basically over

its all in the socks

some of you may remember a post from earlier this year titled the best socks ever. i showed my american classic socks, and talked about how awesome i thought they were. everything in that post was a lie...i thought those socks made me fast but they certainly did not. the beginning of the year was decent to me i had some decent results and everything was going well. at the world qualifiers i had a bittersweet race where a one nathan brown won. i noticed he was wearing some cool socks...they were tall (obviously) and black and didnt appear to be cycling socks, just like dress socks or something. when i got home distraught about my performance in the road race i sat down to find the solution to my problems and i remembered nate's socks. immediately i went rifling through my moms sock drawer and found some tall black dress socks that fit the ticket. i wanted to see how they worked for me.

well long story short they rocked. i wore them in every big race the rest of the year and the socks never failed to deliver. everytime i wore the socks i was on a good ride, digging deeper than normal and going faster than usual. the socks are responsible for pretty much all my good results in 2009. i thought the american classic socks were lucky but these socks are truly lucky. if you see me at race and it appears im not riding well, do me one favor, look down at the socks and all questions will be answered. to nathan brown i say thank you for inspiring the birth of my lucky socks.

just kidding

alright yesterday i thought everything was set in stone for 2010 but actually things are very much still up in the air...more news later perhaps, or maybe like 10 years later...we'll see

Times a changin

Ok nothing is really changing but i liked that title and just kinda had to use it. Well some stuff is changing...by the way i think im gonna make this an epic post cuz its been awhile and im tryin to make an epic post. soo first official change = no more juniors, this was the last year as a junior, which is cool, but at the same time sad...i had a blast racing juniors these past years it all started in 2003 when i was 12 and ive loved it since. little evidence im not a junior anymore though as im still riding on a normal 52x14, i don't have any senior gears, i think im getting some soon. having a blast out here in boulder, iwas feeling kinda shit on the bike, but these past three weeks ive been coming around and feeling pretty good, which is good cuz the training is going to start ramping up probably pretty soon. The weekend of october 17 and 18 mom, dad, avery, and pop pop came out. it was a blast! it was dad's 50th birthday which was something pretty epic, i thought he was only 34 or so?! i had a great time and got out for a ride with Avery which was sweet, we did an epic ride up left hand to lee hill, which was a total of about 8 miles of climbing, not bad for your first day at altitude, and he still was outsprinting me!!! but i guess thats not saying much. sooo 2009 is pretty much totally in the books, unless your racing cross, it was pretty ballin, but the buzz now is all about 2010. Everyone is amped on team changes and what not, ive been checking that gamjams directories and it seems like there is some shifting going around locally and what not. theres a couple new pro teams on the domestic scene which is interesting, fair amount of neo pros and fair amount of guys shifting on teams on the nrc. they released the nrc for 2010 which looks pretty badass, theres some good races, and some good local stuff. one i noticed is the richmond twilight crit, which i heard is the captech course which is supposed to be super hard, hopefully ill be able to do that race. i had a bit of decisions to make for 2010, i was looking around at some team opportunities checking it all out as everyone does. at the 13th hour i had an opportunity to sign with a uci continental team for 2010 which at first i was pretty excited about. i was stressing out trying to figure what to do, but sue hefler is a very wise lady and like she says often it all sorts itself out...at the end of the day the decision was very clear. i decided not to sign with the pro team as it just wasnt the right move. in 2010 ill be racing with the kelly amateur team again, and be fortunate enough to spend some time in europe with the u23 national team. for now this was just the best step and im super excited for 2010. kelly has a few new guys and i think its going to be the most fun and strongest team ive ever been on for sure. i hope everything is going well with people at home....ill be home nov. 21-29 so im sure ill see a lot of people out riding around. im already planning an assault on the 10am on sat. nov 28...so a ton of people shoudl come so it can be lots of fun. everyone should leave comments on my blog letting me know what they're doing and just any comments in general! now for some pictures:

Carter Lake Reservoir

very nice 4 hr ride out to carter lake, theres tons of reservoirs out here cuz its so dry, this is a cool one atop a little climb, had a great ride this day, did some good intervals and all was good.

Avery on after dominating Lee Hill Rd. with the mountains in the background, about to rip the descent...where he hit 54mph!!!!
ps--leave comments

rolling along

everything is rolling along out here just fine. im going through some frustrating bike racing stuff, trying not to worry about it too much...but im pretty bad at that. some of these past days ive been pretty pissed, but everything is rolling along just fine, hopefully i get through this stuff pretty soon, without making anyone to mad or thinking i'm crazy. where i am right now for next season is making it easy to get annoyed about some races this past year, like wish i had gone jsut a little bit harder, but cant change that now.

but school is helping keep my mind off it for the time being, all that is enjoyable. unfortunately this past friday i came down with a bit of a cold, starting to get better i think, not seriously sick or anything just congested a bit under the weather, took friday and saturday off gonna get out for an ez ride today.

third paragraph--i was thinking about maybe making this blog like an in depth record of my training, for people to read---if you would like this leave a comment. cuz i think it might be cool, but also part of me thinks it would be really stupid

back in the day (yesterday)

i used to think i was a climber, turns out i was wrong

i stepped on the scale today, and weighed in at 143 pounds and about 20,0000 percent body fat, apparently i've really taken the off season with a vengeance

i used to think i was a climber, but really im just a fat ass sprinter...with a really bad sprint, i dont know what that makes me?

if anyone wants to drop me on some climbs at like 150w, just fly out here to boulder and have your way with me in the mountains, i will get dominated guaranteed

i love bike racing

i love bike racing...what can i say its just really awesome

i dont what is prompting this but on my ride yesterday i was listening to soome jamming tunes, the son was out, i was just rolling along and i couldnt stop smiling, i jstu was thinking about the season and all the seasons since ive started, and i wouldnt change a single thing in any of them

i started racing in 2003 and its been great, i dont know what i wouldve done these past years wihtout bike racing, its just such an incredible sport

this year was really great i had a blast, i had a lot of fun at a lot of races...the thing for me about bike racing is i have fun at every single race i do, i can't even think of one race where i wish i hadn't done it, there are some races i am unhappy about at the time, but honestly they're all great.  this year i did 56 races or so, i've done over 50 each of the past 3 years, i wish i could do more, i wish i could race year round, even if it meant doing terrible because i'd be soo burnt out.  i can wait and i hope ther eis a day where i can do up to 100 days of racing in a year.  this year 18 days of my racing came in july, that was a tough month, might've been the most fun month, certainly had the most big races with, fitchburg, red river, cascade and natz...and even hagerstown squeezed in

to get through the season i always need a little extra motivation, music always helps me with this, this season the song of the year was definitely colbie caillat's bubbly.  some people may think it's girly music but it gets me in the freaking zone...put this song on loop for 45' and when i got into the start house for a tt im always ready to tear some legs off, i just love it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWfB4lurT4

and a special shout out for steven kendall, he hooked my on a new colbie song, fallin' for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgNjn9V_IKw

im crying a lot

horner crashed out of the vuelta, im pretty bummed

hes my favorite pro rider by a longshot and i was super pumped cuz he was gonna be gc leader at the vuelta for astana and probably win by like 8--0000000 minutes.  oh well cest la vie right?!

for any horner fans, or people that have any moderate taste in the arts at all i have to highly recommend the documentary pro...by far the best movie ever, it pumps me up a lot, about the philly race hopefully one day i can do this race cuz the movie makes it one of my favorite races ever...in the movie horner attacks the wall lap 10 to bottom to top, he should've won but michael barry was a jerk and ruined it, that jjerk fred rodriguez won i cant believe he denied horner victory..."horner has one almost every major race in North America, but the stars and stripes jersey has always eluded him" straight from the movie, i've watched it, being honest somewhere betweent 120-200 times.  if you want to be a beast like chris horner watch this move, thats why i watch it because i want to be a beast by chris horner

i did a fun group ride with the collegiate team today...im gonna go mtb'ing on thurs, no i wont be racing any cross...i dont have room to have my tt bike and cx bike out here and i want my tt bike so i can work on being a tt monster over the winter, we're talking sub hour for a 40k

ahhh colorado

yes it is true im in colorado, you should call me and holler we can talk!  i like college its fun, classes so far are ez im sure theyre gonna get hard but just straight chilling fo rnow.  also weathe ris nice and warm so getting some fun riding in, not much serious training now as my season is pretty much over but having fun.

i did my first colorado race yesterday the koppenburg circuit race it was pretty epic, had like 3-4 mi of dirt, i hate to break hearts but the dirt was way more hardcore than poolesville, it had a 17% dirt climb in it with only one ridable track...i crashed on the first lap, it was pretty sweet ran up the hill but then my chain was off so i put it back on but i suck at doing that so it ook like 49 minutes, then i was about to catch back on but didnt, dropped out after the first lap...solid 9$ / mile i paid, thats a good deal.

but yea im having a blast most of the pros are out of town cuz of utah recently and uspro just this past weekend, but ive some fast guys riding around.  the climbing out here is epic...also moderately exciting is the following news i shall share:

im leaving 9/4 this friday to go to colorado springs for a bit over a week, for a track (specifically the madison) camp at the OTC for the national team...am i excited, mildly, its track and everyone else going is actually a track racer and im just going for doing well on the road...but its free and im pumped...and maybe lead to good things down the road

soooooo yeah!  i miss mabra, this will be my first time in 6 years (since 2003) not doing the classic season enders turkey day and juniors day out, oh well maybe next year, time to check out some new jams

by the way congrats to chuck hutcheson for his "triple kingdom jersey" or whatever its called, pretty cool for him hes had a good season, but seriously people, hes not chuck norris or anything, just another decent racer, theres lots of them...i like him a lot, nice guy very fast, but its getting a little over the top with the puppy love

millersburg

i did the tour of millersburg this past weekend, it was a good race, i guess it is still relatively new, but it was a fun, and we had a big team for it.  the first stage was a 9.5 mi tt, i felt alright, did a mediocre ride i guess...didnt score points...time gap didnt really matter cuz it was a points based gc.  the crit was fun, it was a very hard course i thought, with a hard hill and fairly technical.  on i think the first lap chuck hutcheson attacked, i bridged up then sean barrie and my teammate jacob came up and a few later two more came up.  we were able to work together well and stay away.  i tried to split it up but everyone in the break was quite strong.  in the end i was 4th, jacob was 6th cuz he was cramping up.  the rr, ended up being fun, but most of the time sucked.  it was 90mi and pretty hot, for some reason i felt pretty bad all day i was covering attacks and stuff but my legs were just like not feeling super good...and i was hot, i was having my jersey unzipped and stuff.  there was a lot attacking but nothing really got much gap, i guess though by the last lap people were tired enough to let something go, bcs i got off the front with sean barrie, a PA guy, and pete whitlock.  we worked well and were able to get the gap up to ~1min which ended up being enough. with a few k left sean attacked and him and i got rid of the other two, then luckily/surprisingly i was able to beat him in the sprint for the win.  i was pretty pumped, especially since ive had a decent amount of 2nds and 3rds this year.  i finished the race 2nd gc, we also had jacob in 7th and todd in 9th, not bad for 3 in the top 10!

glad i did tour of millersburg, as it is my last race with the team for the year as im leaving for colorado on wedensda.y.  its been a great year, and great riding with the team, everyone is really awesome and i've had a blast!  it is weird feeling that racing season is probably pretty much over now, maybe a few in co, but i am used to racing through mid september with turkey day, etc.  so i guess just more recovery or something like that this off season.

this video defines me

page valley was decent...i got 2nd, adding to the tally...it was super hot, i drank a lot of bottles, but was still having some cramping problems, i only had one bad one where i actually had to stop for a minute, but the last two laps i was constantly on the verge

this weekend im doing tour of millersburg with the team, should be fun, i didnt do it last year but everyone says its awesome, that will be my last race in the area as i'm leaving for college in boulder, co on wedensday the 19th.  i think there a couple races i might do out there before the season ends, but nothing really serious...unless i can figure out a way to get a start at the end of season vegas crit....but i havent done any usa crits so i dont really know if i can do it, since i don't qualify from points, etc...but if anyone knows a way i'd be interested, i figure it would be kinda cool

nationals re-cap

so the other two events i did were the tt and the crit.  the time trial was the same course we did at cascade, it was 24k's mostly up on the way out and mostly down on the way back.  luckily i was able to borrow a trainer to warm-up on from matt spinks...this was pretty important for me, cuz for tt's i do way better i think if i get a good warm up on a trainer then riding on the roads.  i felt pretty good in the tt, i think i didn't go as fast as i should've on the way back...i was having trouble deciding when to just spin really fast vs. tucking...with the jr gears it was fairly spun out coming back.  i crossed the leader board 6th, but with the bottom 3 still to come, i knew i would probaby finish 9th...which i did.  my time was i think 36:41.  i was pretty happy...would've been nice to be on the podium, but i feel like tt's are one of my weaker points...definitely want to improve it for next year...th eonly thing that sucked is that i was only 1s out of 8th and 3s out of 7th...it always sux getting beat by less than 5s.  a really impressive ride i thought by a mabra guy was in the 15-16 with michael reidenbach, getting on to the podium in 5th...on his road bike, he converted it kind of with clip on bars, but everyone ahead of him and full tt setup with disk wheel etc...and most behind him, talk about a tt monster.   i myselft with my fancy disk wheel, trispoke, etc only beat him by like 1s and hes only 16 ! nice ride michael!

the crit....uhh i felt bad, finshed in the bunch, tried to be in some breaks early on but my legs were cracked, i had the jersey unzipped about 1.5 laps into it i knew it was gonna be rough.  i felt kinda light headed and thought about dropping out, but decided to hang in and finish, i ended up finishing dead last person to get same time as the pack...51st i think.  steven black got 3rd again! nice, with an impressive bridge to a break in the closing laps.

rr nationals

hard race i got 2nd, attacked on the 3rd lap bridged up to a hammer ride max durtschi, we stayed away the rest of the time (4laps of the same course we did as the last day of cascade), steven black solo bridged just as max attacked and dropped me, super impressiver ride by steven, I think he may have been the strongest guy today.  so durtschi jumped me, with ~4k to go, steven caught me with ~1k to go.  I was able to beat steven in the sprint for 2nd, and him 3rd...awesome for two d20 guys on the podium.  pretty happy with 2nd, but i thnk there must have been some things i could do to win.  oh well, still the tt and the crit, if i can podium in the tt i'll be ecstatic.  thanks to all the support from everyone this year...sue hefler=best coach ever.

cascade st. 6

the last stage of cascade was suuper brutal...i would definitley say the hardest all week.  it was 5 laps of a 17mi course.  no super long climbs, butu plenty of climbing, hardest stretch was second half of the loop, almost no rest, you go up a pretty hard 1k climb up to the feedzone where it just false flats for a while, then after a bit you hit the kom climb which is maybe 1mi total, stairstep witha  wall at the bottom and a wall at the top.  The main thing is that the race just never slows down, so real hard to recover.  Legs were definitely a bit cracked starting the race, but once we got rolling i didnt feel to bad, first lap went by fairly smooth, except for a big crash which ithankfully avoided, we went up the hills hard but it wasn't too bad.  The second lap was a lot harder, over the top of the climb up the feedzone we were really strung out on the false flat...we hit the kom climb and i think there were some attacks going and stuff...i felt alright but i was a little too far back, a few guys up a gap opened and i couldn't really close it...i chased hard for awhile, but once i was out of the cars i just took it ez and finished the day in a little group.  it ended up being pretty brutal for the rest of the field as well, like 45 or so people dropped out, i guess just cu it was the last day...but yea i ended up being the very last finisher...i dont think thats happened since my first year racing.  but with all teh people dropping out i moved up to 92nd gc, yes!!!! just kidding, it was nice to finish that race...super hard but definitely an experience.  I want to be a lot more competitive at races like that next year so i am very motivated for this winter and to keep improving.  now on to the junior nationals...my rr is first that is on thursday, the course is the same one we used for this stageo f cascade...so yes it willb e brutal.  friday is my TT and sunday my crit.  My hope is to podium (top 5 at natz) in at least one of the events, if luck goes well for me and i am riding well.  so should be good i will keep this updated.  now im giong to head out for a ride

cascade stage 5

last night was the crit---it was 90' in downtown bend, pretty straight forward course, 4 corners flat, with long straightaways.

I got decent staging in the middle...not much to say i basically just sat in the whole time, i would've liked to go in the front and be more active but i couldn't really move up i was just sitting in line the whole time.  didnt feel too bad, i felt pretty comfortable, but at such high speed and it was lined out the whole time it was tough for me to move up...in the last 30' more little gaps started to form, eventually i was caught behind this one guy who kept opening a gap everytime out of the last corner, so finally with like 8 to go i went hard on the outside of the last corner...too hard i was a little out of focus i guess, and hit my pedal at too much of an angle and crashed.  it was kind of embarassing to cause a big crash probably like 15 guys went to the pit...to all the people who crashed sorry to all the people who were already dropped and got to free lap because of it, you're welcome.  got back in and the legs were hurting after freelapping, the last few laps i was in the back and gaps kept forming, but i was able to keep jumping around them, eventually with like 1.5 laps to go i cracked a bit and just had to roll in off the back.  it was pretty fun...good to get the first nrc crit under the belt i guess...hopefully i can find the front next time.

today is the final stage, an 83mile circuit race, im not sure what the course is like, should be fun.

cascade stage 4

yesss!!!!!!!! today was pretty solid!  surprisingly today was the best my legs have felt since ive been out here...maybe cuz just jet lag since we flew in the day before or whatever but i had a good day of racing today.  it was a tough day 84 mi with a hard long climb out of the blocks and finishing on a 4mi or so climb.  

it wasn't too bad the first few miles, just false flat then when the grade started going up the pace was ON.  i felt actually quite good and i was going forward as guys were getting shelled, with a few k left to the kom i got tailed off, but there were probably only like 50 guys left at that point.  i got tailed off with a good little group and we kept the leaders in sight the whole way up--danny summerhill was just on the front the whole time pullling us up the mountain...damn he is a strong dude!  Once we got tailed off i was pretty freaking cross eyed the whole way just hanging on summerhills wheel we got over the top and there was a big descent, our group swelled and luckily we caught back on.  the whole rest of the time was pretty chill, after the final feed ~mi 65 there was a crash i was behind, luckily i got back on pretty easily though.  But will duggan and taylor phinney went down hard, both went to the hospital.  On the final climb, i was farther back then i wish i had been, but the legs were good i spent the first few minutes just passing guys and settled into a pretty good group, made it up the climb with a good hard effort, i was right on the tail of the front group but it split and i wasnt far forward enough, i was basically in the 4th group on the road coming for the finish.  Final result for the day was 72...sounds weird, but i've never been soo pumped with such a low result.  But this race has been a real eye opener of how big a step it is--and today i had really good, maybe one of my best days of racing all year.  moved up to like 117gc, which was pretty crucial, because after today they are only letting the top 125 gc start the crit for safety, etc.  So im pumped/nervous for tomorrow, i think its gonna be blazing fast, 90' so should be good.  Pretty happy now--legs not so great first 3 days but coming around now, hopefully awesome at natz!

cascade stage 3

today was the tt, 16miles, mostly up going out mostly down going out, i didnt really do a great ride, actually fairly bad...but yeah, tomorrow is a real tough road race looking forward to it

otherwise just chilling, bend is a really nice place really liking it as the venue for natz and def want to come back and do cascade next year, much better than LA last year in my opinion

cascade stage 2

today was a tough 80 mile stage with a long climb to the finish like 10mi counting the false flat lead in

one thing im learning quickly is that these races are real fast...it started very fast, i got up into the front where the attacks were going for awhile, but unless you want to go with the attacks it is hard to stay in the very front cuz there is a lot of shuffling going on

legs today felt alright, kinda had some tough spots...soo ill get whiny here for a second

in the feedzone i was ok position probably like midpack but the field split, thankfully like 50 other guys were caught out and after some hard chasing in the gutter we caught back on, but that softened the legs pretty good

the second feedzone was 23mi later, i was planning on my dad being there, but unfortunately he got stuck at the first feed for too long and didnt make it to the second feed in time...so unfortunately i didnt get a feed and was out of water...thankfully russ langley had an exra bottle with some water in it that he gave me, which helped get me to the climb--thanks russ

at mile 70 or so we went through the town of sisters then the climb started on the same oen road to the finish, the first 5mi were kinda false flat and bissell had it pretty pinned, i was sitting decent position and feeling not bad, but then there was a crash right in front of me, i was able to catch back on after some hard chasing, but unfortunately it was right as the steep part of the climb was starting and i was pretty much blown, i started going hard but  didnt have much left..i ended up just rolling it in with a little gruppeto--ryan trebon was in it he is really tall, id seen pictures, but in real life he is just massive, we lost a decent chunk of time, but it was a nice climb decently fun stage

tomorrow is a 14 mi or so TT, its the same course that we do for jr natz so should be a good preview

cascade stage 1

today was the first stage of cascade...it was a 70mi rr, the smithrock rr.  it was pretty fun, it was mostly flat with a 2k or so climb in the middle before the feedzone.  i felt pretty good, it was very fast lots of time in the 14 with the junior gears.  i tried to hold pretty good position while it was hard, the climb was nice we didnt go too hard but definitely not ez up it.  the feedzone was the only part that sucked i got my musette but it was going really fast through their and bmc split the field i think some came back but like 15 guys stayed away.  i just finished same time in the bunch...so solid, first nrc in the books (or first day).  tomrrow looks pretty tight, 80mi with a 10mi climb to the finish, hopefully good legs tomorrow.  i think ben jacues maynes won the stage today.

red river gorge

Soo this past week I was in lexington, KY for a pretty big junior stage race, it was the Tour of Red River Gorge UCI 2.1, unfortunately no int'l teams though so pretty much was just the US Nat'l Champs Stage race for jrs. Good competition though, I rode on a composite team HPC U23, including myself, steven black (NCVC), Kevin gottlieb (coppi), Ben Salibra (some ny team), Robin Eckmann (sliipstream jrs), and Andrew Barker (slipstream jrs).  It was 4days/5stages.  Field of 102.

St. 1- 1mi prologue, flat with a turnaround...not soo fun.  We had Robin in 8th, and Andrew in 12th...I rocked it for 59th! Charlie Avis on Team Specialized won.

St. 2- much more fun, 60mi RR with some hard climbing but mostly all big ring.  Pretty fast and aggressive, we were fairly attentive at the front, on the KOM climb steven bk, slipped into a breakaway.  A few miles later going into the feedzone I bridged up when I saw Hot Tubes' Ian Boswell going across.  Drilled it hard in the town we went through where I won the intermediate sprint (apparently I'm a sprinter now).  Two more hot tubes and a handfull of other guys bridged up.  Turned into the move we went really hard shelled some guys...I felt pretty good, much of the break was sitting on but I stupidly wasn't, me and the hot tubes were only guys that didn't miss a turn.   Our car didn't come up behind us and I couldn't get a bottle, I got a bit dehydrated and got dropped with 5k to go.  Held the pack off for 8th, steve bk got 7th.  Moved me to 9th gc.  Rest of the team in the bunch except ben who broke a spoke.

St. 3- 14.3 mi TT...felt pretty good, decent ride for me 30:42 for 11th.  Hot tubes lawson craddock crushed everybody, 2nd place over 30s back, he rode 29 flat.  We also had Barker in 5th and Eckmann in 6th.  Gc shakeout, I dropped to 13th gc, barker 9th, eckmann 10th.

St. 4- Serious rr, 70mi with some real legit climbing.  We really wanted to crush it, maybe a bit too much, put the team on the front at k1 and lined it out.  Unfortunately after a few miles only eckmann, me and barker came through anymore, told barker to sit in while eckmann and I controlled it.  Good think it was hard for the field and we stayed safe.  Over the 2nd KOM climb the major selection was made down to ~20guys, just me and Barker for HPC>  Barker took some good gos, but all stayed together.  We hit the final climb at like mile 58 or so.  Immediately some guys dropped, me and Barker had a bad 30s at the same time and both dropped, we got over together and started chasing, a lot of tough rollers over the top, unfortunately andrew didn't feel soo good and I had to go on with out him.  Just kept Tting passing people...rollled in with 2others for 9th on stage...moved me to 8th GC.  Barker came in with Eckmann and like 15 others for 12th, now 10th GC for him.  We unfortunately dropped from 2nd to 3rd in team GC.

St. 5-80min crit in downtown Lexington, started at 730pm, so fun little scene there.  It was FAST lots of fun, 1mi course fairly technical, not too hard to stay up front because it was pretty lined out, missed the break but we couldn't get a guy up there.  Ben had a great ride, 2nd in the field sprint for 6th, rest of us in the bunch of only 40 finishers with same time.  Held 8th on GC, Barker 10th, Eckmann 11th.  We stayed 3rd team GC though...Hot Tubes won team gc, and individual, ahh!

off to cascade tomorrow, should be lots of fun, try and keep the blog updated

also i have a video from team pres. at red river, gonna try and figure how to load it!

hagerstown

im writing from bridgeport, wv as we're spending the night here on our way to kentucky.

today i did the hagerstown crit, it was the crit chmaps.  it was fun, the new course was a lot more fun i thought than the old course, I really like it.  the team rode verywell, very agressive really stacking the brakes and definitely wouldn't have missed a break if it stucked.  there were a lot of good breaks ithought something might stick eventually but ended up a field sprint, we set up jeff and he came up with a solid 3rd.

the big bad news, is that blair went down really hard in one of the corners and unfortunately took the impact primarily with his face.  he had to go to the hospital, got some stitches and a broken jaw.  i feel really bad for him...unfortunately hes going to have to miss cascade now, which is a big shame because he is really coming on now and with two nrc stage races at fitchburg and gila under his belt i think he was going to go really well, but i guess he'll just have to win green mountain instead.

calling junior 17-18 racers

sooo the race imdoing in kentucky next is pretty sweet.  we had a full roster of 6 riders, in the past 48 hours, definitely one possibly two of our riders have said they can't go due to illness.  Soo we're trying to pick up one more rider if possible.  Rider must be 17-18, have strong race experience prolly at least cat. 3...soo if interested please contact me asap:

email- nate1wilson@verizon.net

phone- 703-338-9622

fitchburg pictures

Here is my picture summary of Fitchburg...I don't have really any pictures of the tt, or rr.

Call-ups at the Circuit Race

The break in the circuit, this is right at the top of the climb, as you  make a right

Podium from the RR

In the crit attempting to defend the points jersey, to no avail 

Final GC podium

crit it up

i went into the crit 2nd on gc, gc was pretty much locked up as it was like 1' from me to 1st and over 1' from me to 3rd...however i did have the points jersey with a narrow lead and  a lot of points up for grab

i hoped to keep the jersey but the crit ended up being a bit of an exercise in frustration for me...i was under constant attack by hot tubes, i tried to cover every single move as i didnt have too much other choice, eventually i cracked a bit and they got a move off sweeping up the points...it got up to about 20s then i took like 3 laps at the front and got the break to like 5s but couldnt finish it off and no one else really came forward, i was getting pretty annoyed...so basically i lost the points jersey but held onto 2nd gc...im happy about the gc, but wish i couldve kept the points...because hot tubes won every single stage and every jersey, but they are really dialed in definitely deserve it

up next hagerstown mabra crit champs, we have a lot of guys probably so hopefully a win

after that tour of red river gorge, 4day/5stage in ky, uci juniors only...have good confidence after f-burg so hopefully maybe top 10 gc.  after that cascade classic, 6 day nrc stage race, exercise in pain im sure...after that junior nationals! shooting for podium, might be riding on coat tails by then though, we'll see!

im gonna post some pictures from fitchburg later, my daad took a bunch just gotta edit them i think

fitchburg stage 3

today was the rr for the jrs, unfortunately kinda weak we only do 4 laps a whopping 41miles.  i was going into this 4th gc...the first lap going up the climbs through the feedzone nate brown went quite hard and there was immediately a selection...after some more attacking, the major selection of the day was made, and it was a rather funny one...me, and 3 hot tubes...nate brown, gavin mannion, and lawson craddock.  the 2nd lap we were really rolling, luckily for me gavin had a mechanical and didnt get back on...then it was 2v1 instead of 3v1.  the next two laps we just rolled it nice and smooth, i knew with the two of them...and nate brown being super strong my best shot was to just work and make time for gc...and hope i could do well in the finale.  in the end they gave me the ole 1-2 punch with 2k to go and i rolled across 3rd, but the good news is we had like 3' on the rest of the field...this moved into 2nd on gc!

the best/funniest part is after being in the break yesterday and today i am now in the leaad in the points/sprinters competition....so i get to wear the jersery tomorrow.  there are 5 sprints in the crit tomorrow, so i will try and defend the jersey but i only have a slim lead and im not too confident at this point, but we'll see...if i get to keep the jersey expect to see me training in it everyday...as i want everyone to remember i am a sprinter at heart

rollin dat circuit

yeaaa boiiii today was the second stage of the fitchburg jr race, circuit race...fun course 3mi circuit big hill...jrs do an epic 7 laps, straight baller!1!!1111111!!!!!1!!11!!1!!!1!111!1!

i figured it was probabl gonna be a field sprint as it usually is, but decided to give the breaks a go anyway.  first lap was crazy, the course was slippery and in poor condition as usual...i think there were like 3 crashes just on the first lap, then second lap was much more calm, there was a big break the 2nd lap, i bridged up but then it got caught...after the hill onthe third lap, hot tubes had a guy off the front...i bridged up in the woods and another hot tubes guy came with, we got a little gap and just started rolling it...eventually one other kid came up...i felt rpetty good and hot tubes shut the field down behind and we got a pretty solid gap....luckily we stayed away to the finish.  in the finish i got stuck on the front going into the hill and tried to take the sprint all the way from the corner...one hot tubes kid came around me, so i took 2nd on the stage, and was able to move into 4th on gc...pretty pleased with that, but i wouldve really liked to win the stage...also i'm 2nd on points, thats funny. so now im like 7s from 2nd but 36 from first, i really wanna make a good stab at taking the jersery tomorrow but the hot tubes kids are looking tough to beat, interested to see how it goes

fitchburg stage 1

ohhhhh yeaaaaa tt today...it was a pretty quick one, 14.3 k's, my time was 19:35.  I felt good...i was nervous cuz i'd been kinda sick since sunday and wasn't sure how i was going to feel, but i felt quite good...im doing the jr race up here in fitchburg...it was quite a fast course...some rises, but nothing steep, all big ring in the bars.

pretty big field, 67 i think, a lot of good riders, so ive been looking forward to it as a test pre-nationals and just a big race as well.  in the end i placed 7th on the stage, fairly pleased with that, would've liked top 5, but it's very close...im only 5s out of the top 5, and 15s or so out of top 4.  

tomorrow is the circuit race, which is one of my favorite race courses period...it is 3mi with a tough hill in it, we do only 7 laps in the jr race, which makes our race look like a joke but it is fun...there are time bonuses on the line, so maybe try and pick up a time bonus and move into the top 5, but the real shuffle will probably come in the rr...soo im excited to see how it goes.  

from hazleton

im in hazleton pa right now, we drove up to here last night and were driving the reest of the way to fitchburg tomorrow

i got my cat 1 upgrade so that is sweeeeetttt!!!  im pretty happy cuz this was my one overarching goal for the whole season, so now that thats done im probably just gonna take the rest of the seasosn off and train for next season....good luck to everyone at fitchburg, see you soon!

reston

fun race!  i was nervous cuz it was raining while me and blair were riding out and i really didnt wanna do it in the rain, but by the time we raced dit was all dry

blair and i were the only lsv guys there, so it was kinda exciting, normally this race seems to split more or win in a breakaway so we were very aggressive covering moves...nothing really got too much ground tho, ended in a field sprint which we didnt fare too well in...dave fuentes won, the picture looks like he dominated everyonee as well, thats a tough sprint...but then agiain i think every sprint is tough

im leaving tomorrow for fitchburg, very excited for the jrs race...hopefully good legs, they took out mt wachuset so im interested to see how the race plays out now, definitely be riding for a break in the rr...also toying with softpedaling the tt to stay fresh and just go for the points jersey....thoughts?

washingotn county stage 2 and 3

stage 2 was the boonsboro 20k tt...not much to say...jacob had a great ride 4th on the stage (26:29 I think) to move into 1st overall in GC.  Pete cannell won...25:02 IT hink, hes pretty fast ive decided...i figured i would be able to hold 2.5min gap on him, but i was wrong...i rode 27:36 and dropped into 4th GC, but held off frick, etc.  I wasnt thrilled with my tt wasnt bummed, still top 5 on gc so that most important, thats nice part to time GC vs. points.

stage 3, williamsport crit...ive raced this crit 3 times now i think, turning into one of my favorite courses...i really llike courses like this, reston, etc.  Tough, technical, fun!  we went in to protect jacob's lead since he had only 11s over chuck.  It came out well, Ryan Mckinney and Nick Bax rode away from the field to secure 1-2 it was good for us because it ate up the time bonuses.  Cannell didnt start the crit, so I moved up into 3rd to finish the stage race, I was a little bummed cuz I only would've been like 10-15s behind him going in, so I would've liked to battle for it, but this was easier I suppose.  I finished 11th on the stage.

This was a big race for us as a team I think, obviously big winning the GC, but also stacking the GC, we had 1st, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 10th, not too bad! 

I'm in boulder, co right now for college orientation and it is sweet, killing me tho seeing the mountains and not having my bike, think were going to go hike tomorrow tho, even tho i hate walking...but it'll be nice to be in the mountains.  I fly back Saturday, will miss poolesville, but ill be at reston and I am pumped I like that race and last one before fitchburg!

washington county stage 1

today was the first stage of tour of washington county, it was pretty fun...we did 10 laps of the smithsburg rr.  the field was pretty big with all the normal local guys...except for only 3 harley guys so that was kinda different.  it was absolutely pouring when our race started...the first lap i couldnt see anything i had to take off my glasses cuz they were getting fogged up, and it was really freaking me out.  there was a fair amount of attacking...blair was going at it alot, i kept trying to get in a move...moslty just cuz i was super scared in the pack with all the rain and jsut wanted to get off the front...at the end of the first lap my teammate jacob was off the front, chuck on harley attacked and i got on his wheel and we went across very quickly, the three of us started rotating, and i think in all the chaos the field shut down a bit, we got a pretty big gap pretty quick.  for a while there was a group of 3 ~30s back but they never made it up...we just kept rotating the whole time and eventually the gap went out pretty big to like 3'.  i felt pretty good, but it was tough...jacob was riding really good.  we let it come down to a sprint among the three of us, chuck beat jacob and i got 3rd gapped off like 10s the field came through i think another 2:30 or soo.  So it was a good day for kelly and good day for myself...jacob is an excelllent tter so hopefully he can move into the lead and hopefully i can hold off the firepower behind me.  on maybe the 5th lap or so i saw chris kelley out on the course in her car and she cheered that was cool!  i think jeff b finished pretty high up in the field sprint, so its looking good for gc.

20k tt tomorrow and then crit inthe afternoon...the crit has a lot of time bonuses so that should be interesting.

sweet ride

got out for a little spin this morning...and decided to ride somewhere i dont normally ride...the toepath next to the canal.  Its pretty sweet cuz you can ride on it for who knows how long without

any interruptions, and its nice and flat perfect for recovery rides.  i got on the path at chainbridge

and rode it out to great falls, it was pretty sweet once you get a few miles away from dc, you start getting some really nice views of the river, and past carter rock the canal kinda ends or something and theres this big nice lake thing with rocks, i took a picture of the river from a little bridge, there was this awesome ragin rapid...it got me pretty pumped so i took a picture, yeah!

then i just rode on the roads back in, but it was a nice little 1.5 hr ride...now i wanna do more training on the toepath...it seems perfect for endurance miles.

its kinda nasty out today....it seems soo rainy lately, like 80% of the past 3 weeks its been rain im guessing it feels so rainy, very annoying...but its been nice on the weekends, hopefully it doesnt rain this weekend for tour of washington county

idkmybffjill

pretty fun weekend of racing, this past saturday/sunday..kind of

saturday i did the church creek tt...did the jr race 20k, pretty nice course...very flat.  i felt pretty good, feeling solid on the tt bike...did the 20k to keep prepping for natz where for jrs its always 20k.  would've preferred to have gone and done the rr in pa that day, but i wanna keep improving my tting to hopefully have a good ride in the next few tts...ive got the washington county this weekend, then after that fitchburg, then the red river gorge, then nationals...had a solid ride in tn and felt good on saturday so hopefully it keeps improving and i win nationals by 18 minutes in the tt.

sunday was murad rr.  wasnt that thrilled with how i rode, but it was a fun race, blair was in that break that went right away with i guess dave fuentes and a richmond guy.  once it came back it was just a lot of attacking till the end...i had a good time being pretty agressive but nothing really got any ground in the last few laps, i had a good go the last time up partnership and had a decent gap but then got brought back on river, luckily the nortonian war machine pulled it all together and got 4th in the downhill field sprint...his specialty.

i havent seen resutls any where from murad yet...doesn anyone know where they are i kinda wanna know what place i got, even tho it doesnt really matter, since i was just in the bunch not top 10 but id like to see.

if i havent mentioned it yet...im going to kentuky about a week after fitchburg for a sweet jr stage race down there, it is 4 days 5 stages i think it is uci so a lot of good teams from US and abroad.  i am on a composite team...4 mabra guys then 2 guys from colorado, we have a pretty good team i think, and will hopefully crush some fools..team is:

-me

-steven black

-kevin gottlieb

-stephen koelbl

-robin eckmann

-andrew barker

i think one of the stages for sure has a lot of climbing in it...hopefully i can go well...the winner of the gc gets an auto bid for the worlds team so def gonna have to do that

be going

thats right things be going

this week has been kinda annoying with the rain...is it just me or has it been really rainy lately

past few weeks in review....did the junior world qualifying trials in franklin, tn

--TT on saturday--was 12th, i was pretty pleased by that, think i could've gone a bit faster in some places but pretty solid

--RR on sunday--i still don't really want to talk about it...i dnf, maybe race report coming later

last weekend stayed local, ride sally ride, that was fun, i tried to be up in the sprint but gave too many spots in the last lap...i def need to work on this cuz i suck!

trainings been pretty good...relegated to the trainer last night after going to greenbelt then the sky opened and it got cancelled, right after a payed, damn.

tonight was nice tho got out on the tt bike...church creek/murad this weekend

also i graduate on thursday...done high school whoo!  i got a laptop today from my parents as a graduation present its really nice and silver, i think it has a camera so maybe i can figure out how to post some videos of maself talking on here, i figure thatd be awesome

by the way steven kendall is the next lance armstrong...spread the word...oh and hes my 30s man for church creek...its on...spread the word again

mini race reports

sooooo...i wanted to keep my blog updated with reports from all my races, but i kinda let it get away from me, so im gonna pick up where i left off and do super brief reports:

gila stage 4--- this was a pretty fun 30 mi crit...i got away about 1/3 into the race and was in a break the rest of it, we got caught in the home straight and i sprinted as well as i could finished 8th...still 13th GC

gila stage 5--- "queen stage" 103mi with a lot of climbing...sat in in the beginning while the attrition happened, attacked on the flat in the middle, about 50mi left...caught some guys from the early move but not all, had 4 guys with me, move exploded on the final climb, as the race did behind apparently as well, came in alone for 9th on the day, but made a lot of time on GC...finished the tour 9th GC as well...good things come in 9's??

bear mountain--- i was looking forward to this race, 7 laps of a 14mi course, with one pretty tough ~10min climb per lap, and some other hard rollers.  i forgot my jersey so i had to race in a long sleeve plain black jersey luckily it wasnt too hot though.  I ended up sitting in most of the day as my teammate R started the move of the day, i just followed moves, and splits on the climb.  i felt good wish i had followed a group across to the break, unfortunately R ran out of gas on the last lap after driving it for like 60mi, i tried to get away at the top of the climb but it came back together...attacked again by the lake solo, couldn't make it to the break got caught ~5k from the line, dropped then caught the bunch ~2k from the line, nothing in the sprint got 32nd I think.

wilmington--- not much here, pretty fun, harder than i thought it would be, tried some moves, missed the winning move tried to lead out curtis and bloom they finished 8th and 12th...jr race tried to get away couldnt get away from luke keo and some other good guys repeated attax, ended up leading out the sprint, finished 8th i think, not sure

bike jam--- jr race...pretty much the same as wilmington, steven kendall won, yes!...i finished not sure maybe 9th nothing special...2/3 also pretty much the same as wilmington got in one move i thought might get away but didnt, race ended quickly, felt much shorter than wilmington much ezer, last 3 laps i didnt fight hard enough to be in the sprint, pathetic finish

and now im sick, unfortunate coughing pretty hard...i thought it was allergies, but i think full blown cold now, trying to rest and be good for this weekend, murad, rfk, somerville

contemplating doing ricola on wednesday, sounds like fun, not sure about driving up there---then next weekend to tennessee for the edgar soto---junior world championship qualifying trials, sweet!  hopefully i can have some good legs...nothing funny in my head for awhile now, gotta brainstorm some good blog material

gila stage 3 and bear mountain

so stage 3 was the tt it is a 16.5mi out and back course...i didnt have a great ride 22nd on the day, but moved up to 13th on gc.  I was very surprised to move up yet finish so low, but i think a lot of guys ahead of me didnt have tt bike, so i felt kinda bad about that.

tomorrow is  bear mountain...yes!!!! that race is sweet, looks like a full field, gonna be tough, contemplating how many times to lap the field

gila stage 2

the second stage was a 78 mile road race, it was one big loop, starting and ending in fort bayard just about 6mi outside of town.  the course started climbing pretty immediately...well actually it  was mostly just rolling till the first bonus sprint at mile 6 then it stair stepped for a while up to the town of pinos altos, then descended a few minutes, until the hard climb up to meadow creek and the feedzone.  At the top of that climb it rolled along for a few miles until a vicious descent down to sapillo creek.  

once we passed the first sprint, i started going pretty ahrd attacking a lot trying to get a break off, i was hoping to get in an early break and make up some time from the day before.  Over the top of that first climb to pinos altos it split a bit but came back on the descent mostly.  on the next big climb it was pretty hard, immediately robin eckmann ( junior on slipstream) attacked and i was just sitting there weak.   As it got steeper the guy 2nd on gc, the guy with the jersey, and myself got some separation from the group, but eventually it just caused a split, and probably the front 20 guys got up to us.  Through the feed zone the guy 2nd attacked, and everyone just let him go.  It was pretty tame the rerst of the climb and the rollers.  There was a long straight section into the big descent and i got swarmed, a lot of guys couldnt ride the corners well, and soon the front 10 guys split off, i had to take a lot of risks going around guys to get back to the front, but alot of the guys that got gapped on the descent never made it back, so i guess it was the right call.  at the base of the descent i followed wheels and was soon in a move within 30s of eckmann and the other guy.  but soon guys started to shut down, and i backed off then as well.  We kinda regrouped and there were 20 so guys.  at this point we were climbing up to the continental divide and my legs were feeeling not so  hot.  When several more guys rolled off, i just was sitting towards the back, and didnt go with it.  These guys got a decent gap and stayed till the line.  On the final climb topping out about 10mi to the line, we shed more guys and came to the line with probably like 15 in our group.  I finished 21 on the stage, and moved to 16th on GC, but tied for same time with 15th on GC, so no real change there.  Eckmann won the stage

gila stage 1

i meant to write each day while i was in new mexico, but the host house we were staying at didnt have internet, and everytime we went to the coffee shop to use wireless there were so many people that the internet was reaaly slow.  but everything was pretty good, i figure ill make separate entries for each stage...forgot to add gila was a cat. 2 only race...and we started with a field of 62, but i think a few people pulled out every day

first stage was a 95mi point to point road race.  We went 30mi out of town on us 180 then did two laps of an 11mi circuit then kept going out 180 till we turned right and climbed up to the town of mogollon.  The ride out to the climb was flattish to rolling, a lot of long drags, but nothing selective, very straight.  a break got off early and everyone was pretty content to let it go, the first hr was pretty slow until we hit the circuits and it picked up a bit.  right after the first feedzone at mile 30 my rear skewer came undone, so i had to stop and make it better, then get back on.  Other than that the circuits were fairly uneventful, it got pretty hard on one stair step hill, but not too bad.  Once we left the circuits there was a lot of crosswind on us 180 the pack started going hard and it was in the far gutter for a while, it actually split a fair bit, but once it came off i think a lot of guys got back to the front group.  About 10mi later, people started telling my rear wheel was really messed up, it felt weird, but all i could tell was that it seemed out of true, but guys were telling me to get it changed so i went back and got a wheel change then had to get back on

as inspected later, the wheel (which was and old handbuilt tubular) was starting to come basically unbuilt, spokes were coming loose and it just wasnt holding toghether...bummer

once i got back on the gap to the break was low, a group of 8 went off the front and i didnt really have the legs to go with it...i tried to bridge about 10' later in t;he crosswind but i couldnt make it up.  the pack kinda shut down then, we hit the base of the climb, and it just blew apart, i went up as best i could...for 15th, it was alright, wasnt thrilled wasnt devastated, only part that was annoying was robin eckmann, another junior in the race passed me with ~1mi to go and put time into me

pre gila

sooo been a while...sorry...did carl dolan, that was fine, got rick and jeff brandon away early in a break and they crushed everyone...a little outclassed by josh frick at the end, congrats to him on winning the 2 on 1, but took 2 and 3.  

tomorrow is the first stage of gila, and im pretty pumped.  its ~95mi for the 2 race finishing on top of a big climb...legs are feeling decent i hope, so we'll see how it goes.  flight was awesome!!!!!!!!! other wise not much to write...ima bout to go to subway...kinda bummed i didnt do ephrata sounded sweet, TTT would've been fun, but kelly guys had a good ride without me, 3rd in TTT and 3rd on team GC pretty solid...sux what happened to the harley guys...uhh nothing else

philly elkton morgantown

sooo its been busy the past week or so, last weekend when most people were doing tysons and walkersville i headed up to philly to do a little omnium...2 day cycling classic.  my teammates ryan, and jamie came up with me, and jacob joined us for day 2 along with shane kline of the pro team.  originailly it looked like a pretty small race but it was actualy a big field, with over 70 guys each day...jon chodroff and bobby lea from ouch, full team from empire, and a lottta pa teams.  the first day was a 2.? mile circuit race basically all flat, some undulations but all big ring, it was lotta cross winds which was pretty exciting.  Pretty fun race, we did however many laps equalled 50mi.  A got in a decent break midway thru for a few laps and got a prime.  Empire was goign pretty hard, and I was hoping there was going to be a big split and really get a hard race, but it never formulated.  Eventually the winning move went with bobby lea and two empire guys (kincaid and minturn i think) ryan was in a move going across but it never made it, they got a big gap fast, I gave a couple goes at going across but it was too late, gpoa rode on the front a lot but werent really bringing it back.  we set up ryan for the sprint and he got 4th in the field sprint so 7th.  Jamie was 13th and I got 21st!!!!!!!!  bobby lea won

Sunday was a pretty fun crit lemon hill crit, we went up the lemon hill they have in hte philly race, it was a really fun course .8 miles pretty twisty, we did 45 laps.  It was pretty fast and single file most of the race.  Empire was going really hard trying to put bobby lea in trouble, but he was totally in control.  We all took turns going in good moves, jamie got several primes.  In the middle jacob was in a good move that i thought might roll away with two empire guys.  With about 15 to go an empire guy attacked and i was on bobby lea's wheel, he went after him pretty hard, when I looked back there was a good gap, me and bobby were working but the empire guy wouldnt, eventually more people bridged up till there was ~8, then the break kinda lost the impetus, as the break was about to get swallowed, with 10 to go I attacked drawing out an empire guy (mike margarite) and a hman zoom.  with bobby not being there the empire guy worked really hard and we were riding well, evenutally greg battista on metra bridged up.  the gap was never huge but ~15s, with 1 to go mike margarite attacked and we got a little gap but the other guys were on us, the human zoom guy led out the sprint, i was on mike's wheel, greg jumped first and then mike jumped, i came around greg but not mike, the field was charging on us and lanell rockmore from the field beat me so i was 3rd.  jamie finished 9th on the day and 9th in the omnium, i finished up 11th in the omnium, and ryan 15th...so it was pretty solid.

monday morning i left for elkton, va i had spring break this past week and was doing some riding down there for the week.  it was pretty nice, a tonna nice roads it was fun.

then yesterday i went to morgantown, wv for the morgantown rr.  It was fun only 12 were pre-regd but ther ewere over 50 in my race.  it was 47 miles with some solid climbs.  my only teammate was curtis.  Curtis went right from the gun and two guys went with him...they got a huge gap soon they dropped one guy.  We were going pretty slow int he bunch, on the first steep climb brian fouche (latitude) attacked and we went pretty hard over the climb and it shatttered the field, over the top in the front chasing the break was me, meidhof (dc velo), jeremiah bishop (riding for harley), and a few other guys.  On the next climb it was really steep at the bottom and bishop attacked really hard, i wasn't really ready and was slow to react i rode my own pace up and over the top it was me and meidhof chasing bishop.  We spent the next 20mi or so just trying to get him, it was sooo hard we got to within 10s behind him and just couldn't close the gap, he was right in front of us for like 20mi, meidhof was relaly motoring on the flats, i wish i could've helped more.  On the last big climb meidhof gapped me and i couldnt get back up to him.  Over the top it was ~7mi to the finish and i just put my head down and tt'd it in.  I couldn't clos on meidhof but was afraid others would catch me, luckily i had a pretty big gap.  Up front bishop caught the break and attacked straight through it...curtis dropped mckeegan from the break and soloed in for 2nd...meidhof caught mckeegan and got him for 3rd and i rode across alone for 5th.  The rest of the field came in shattered behind.  It was a fun race, hard and good workout, as me and meidhof were basically full gas the whole latter 30mi.

whole season ruined

well i was banking the whole season on sunday and i failed

i felt pretty good but fourth lap the gods struck me down i hit a big pothole, cracking my rear wheel and the faceplate of my stem had it just been the wheel i mightve been able to get a change and get back on, but witht the stem i could no longer ride

i cried for hours...contemplating not racing the rest of the season, we'll see, pictures possibly later

sooooo pumped!

nice!!!! jeff cup is reall soon its about to get awesome up in dat joint!

but really i am pumped for the cup, plus it looks like its gonna be pretty nice weather, especially compared to last year...only bad thing i did something to jack up my back last week so it starts hurting like 30min into every ride...sooo for anyone in the 123 field wondering why im sitting up straight and stretching like every 5 seconds its cuz ma back hurts ! and im trying ta make it feel good!  alright to more important matters gamjams did that contenders thing, personally thought it was kinda week, but whatever im now going to predict the winner for every category in the jeff cup bicycling race:

Women 123: Jen Rasmusson

Women 35+: Chris Kelley

Cat 5: Jon Hicks

Women 4: Robin Schroyer

Jr. 10-14: Andy Mount

Cat 123: Steven Grant

35+: Rick Norton

Cat 4: Avery Wilson

50+: Steve Hetherington

60+: Ron Sutherland

Jr. 15-18: Steven Kendall

I'm pretty confident in all these predictions...I do have to admit I was not familiar with the cat 5, women 4, and 50+ fields so had to make educated guesses based on name quality, but I am still confident there superior names will carry them to outright victory!

I hope everyone has been training like crazy and is ready to throw down because in my mind nothing after sunday really matters, at least to me...so lets go out there and have some fun, my whole season is sunday basically so if you see me struggling just feel free to give a little push or ease off a fraction have fun

weekend and other stuff

Pretty good weekend...saturday me and blair drove down to richmond to race the cullops import crit in bryan park with jeff brandon...and jonny sundt from the pro team.  It was a pretty big field, i think 50.  The course was pertty fun but mad bumpy.  I felt pretty good but suffered viciously from a mechanical.  I've been very pleased with my new bike but the clamp where thte seatpost grabs the saddle rails isn't designed that well, in mmy opinion.  On the bumpy course...and the combo of me having my saddle slid pretty forward, about 5 laps in the bolt slipped and my saddle slipped, nose down, not the seatpost tslipping down.  I took a free lap and fixed it.  A lap or two later it happened again so I freelapped and fixed it again.  when it happened agian I was really pissed and decided to just ride the rest of the race with it that way...like 15 more laps.  It wasnt that bad my quads just got really sore and I had to stand up a lot.  The race went pretty well for us...I felt pretty good, we were all pretty aggressive, I got off the front with 5 to go but came back pretty quick, the next move that went blair was in.  It looked pretty good, with 1 to go they still had a solid gap, but harley missed the move and keck baker went to the front and killed it, the pack kind of exploded into different groups or we just broke off the front of the pack, not sure exactly what happened.  Well the break got caught in the closing meters...jeff powered through the traffic for fifth, blair held on for 7th i think, and I was in there i think 13th...didnt check results but I counted on a video.  It was decent but I was pretty annoyed about my seat...when I got home I greased the bolt and tightened it way down it seems a lot better now.

Sunday me and blair went to the mountains...parked in sperryville and did a nice big climbing loop.  I felt pretty good and the weather was nice...we were planning on coming back on skyline but there was a shooting and the shooter fled into the park so they had the whole thing shutdown.  There was helicopters and I think every police car in front royal there.

Training has been goingn pretty well, not that exciting to talk about though, right now its about 7 weeks to tour of the gila, which is basically my first big objective for the season...i mean i want to crush every race, but this one i really want to crush!

Also, this weekend..friday saturday sunday were doing a little training camp down in lexington, va im pretty exicted for there especialy since i get to miss school on friday...tho rick is a teacher maybe he'll just make up for the missed day of school by teaching me a bunch of latin.  Otherwiise not much to talk about, I'm pumped for jeff cup! hope you are!

The Wheels I've Got

I'm pretty lucky in that I have a pretty good collection of wheels to race on, mostly cuz of people doing me favors and hooking me up with some good deals.

I do about 75% of my races on my dt swiss rr 1.1 powertap rear wheel with a mavic ksyrium sl front thats pretty old ( i thinlk 2002) i also do all my training on these wheels.  main reason I use these wheels is because...they're decent, and i dont really like using my carbon wheels in crits cuz they're not that strong, and crack easily with a good pothole, plus i like looking at the powerfile after.

Ok so my other set of wheels for racing is a pair of American classic carbon 38, which i think is just an  old (not dimpled) zipp 303 rim.  I got these for a steal from a friedn, I like them they're really light, I just use them for road races though, and some crits in stage races cuz I'm too lazy to change the brake pads.  They're not that strong though, I cracked my front rim at green mountain last year, and had to get a new one thi swinter.

Also, I recently collected a new set of wheels, my new bike came with some bontrager race lite clinchers.  Admittedly i havent ridden them yet.  They look nice, they're very shiny, I'm sure I will ride them soon!

for TT's I got a pretty good wheel too.  At the beginning of last year I was able to score a bontrager disk for a good deal off of a time trial loathing evan fader...just kidding, but he was able to give me a good deal on it.

Then this past winter when i bought my new TT bike from lengermann he sent it along to me with a hed 3 front.

So really I have no excuses for not crushing people in every race ever this year...and I plan on it!

picture post

I wanted to make a post, but i didnt want to really write anything, so i found some pictures from the past few races.

This is at the wolfpack rr less than 30s from the start going up the hill with the feedzone.
This is going up that same hill on the 2nd lap, the time guy is jon hamblen i think, my teammate ryan is on his wheel, the guy behind me ( i have the blue helmet) is the guy on team type1 who won the race.
This is from the wolfpack crit note my freshness:

-blue helmet

-fresh kelly jersey

-black shorts

-bike belonging blatantly to another team

dont you all wish you could be fresh like me!

At the start of the snowball crit, surrounded by team natures path

During my breakaway