Snowball Crit

Sooooo (btw I think I start every post with "sooo" bad habit i guess...or maybe a good habit?), but reall...last sunday (2/22) I went down with the kendall beasts to virginia beach to do the snowball crit #1.  It is on the virginia beach course at the sportsplex which they hold multiple races on through the ytear.  its pretty much my favorite course...all flat, with basically no turns, just a big oval, you turn left...i can dig it.  the field in my race wasnt huge i thnk like 30people...it was raining most of the day but it actually got sunny for our race...i guess the weather gods heard i was getting ready to race and got scared.  it was fairly windy.  it started off pretty typical not too fast someguys attacking...oh yeah we were doing 36laps/25miles.  on the 5th lap (I think..about then?) there was a break of two a little off the front and they rang the bell for a prime.  i attacked on the backside of the course in a crosswind...i wanted to weave through these poles to possibly take out anyone following me but i thought thatd be a bad idea.  So i got a gap i caught the break and jumped past them i was coming into 200m to go when all of a sudden i got totally pwnd there was a guy on my wheel and he massacred me as usually happens to me with 200m to go.  I sat up when he crushed me cuz i wasnt gonna sprint another 100m for nothing...then past the line he kept going and he was on the gas.  The result of the small field was that his team (natures path) had 7guys and the field proceeded to go SLOW...in like 5 laps someone said he had a 40s gap...some guys started attacking and i was just kinda following the wheels, soon he had a minute and i was like i really dont feel like getting lapped (cuz theyre pretty short laps).  So i started attacking, guys were coming up in my moves and pulling through hard, but then thered be a natures path guy and they would just sit up...i tried telling the non np guys that natures path was just gonna be there so just ride around them...but everyone was noobing out....so I did what i usually do when I get nervous races.  I just kept attacking...eventually i shook all the pretenders and it was just me and one natures path guy...i asked if he wanted to pull through and he said no, i expected that so i was fine with it...i had a strat.  I basically drilled it for ~5-6 laps (forgot to say that when i finally broke it open was ~20 laps to go).  Then we had a pretty good gap and i basically begged him to come through, even for just five seconds.  He started coming through, just for a little bit at first.  The guy up the road was basically gone but i just wanted to stay off myself.  He was helping, but wasnt too comfy so i had to do most of the work.  At one point a group of 5 got pretty close, and it seemed like he was gonna give up so i had to hit a real hard 3 laps to blow it open again.  once we got to 6 laps to go we started seeing the back of the field...this is where my strat was completely gone.  I just kept going and lapped the field with him, with 4 to go.  Then all of a sudden insted of 1vs1 it was 1vs6 cuz of all the natures path guys.  I couldnt go anywhere and he wouldnt move from my wheel.  So i had to wait for the field sprint I actually felt pretty good i waited till ~100m to go to jump...i know sprinting is my weakness so i did everything i could to keep it in my advantage....i jumped through a tight hole between two guys hoping he would get scared and back off, but he made it or went around i had the jump on him and him till about 20m to go but then he passed me and won the sprint for 2nd.  I was kinda annoyed, but oh well...i got 3rd it was fun.  In terms of tactics I think what I shoulda done is once we got within ~10-15s of the field put him on the front and jumped him in the headwind gone straight across to the field and just driven it to keep him away...oh well.

Pretty long post...i think i should make it longer.  Soo, I wanna talk about burnout.  I was riding with a good friend of mine today, and he expressed the same concern a lot of people had expressed to me.  Everyone is afraid im going to burnout...not that i really train that much, but i am always really pumped to race, from february to october, and for a lot of people that tells them im gonna burnout i guess.  Now im not disagreeing with them...well i am, i dont think this im going to burnout.  However i wanna adress it head on.  If I do burnout thats fine by me.  The way I look at it, I've been racing for 7 years now and its not getting any worse, or boring.  I wanna be the best I can right now, and im having the most fun possible racing my bike, more enjoyable then anything else i can think of doing.  So if i do burnout in two years (tomorrow even) thats fine by me, cuz i had the most fun i could these years...if i burnout thats fine, ill get into something else...and maybe 20 years down the road ill get back into it and be a mediocre masters racer.  Thats just my take...id rather not burn out, but if i do at least i gave it my best shot.

Wolfpack Crit

Alright...i meant to write about the wolfpack crit this past sunday down in nc earlier this week but i didnt.  the race was pretty fun, decent field i think about 40guys...with some guys from dlp, time, and ben king there.  our race was supposed to be 60min but it was cut to 45...it was a fun course, had a small little hill...the turn into the hill was awesome cuz it was downhill and open and you could just bomb it...it was a short course they said a k but it felt shorter it felt like we were doing like 40s laps.  on the start line the ref asked if there were any juniors i raised my hand she told me to roll out after the race...i asked if my 55x11 would pass...she didnt like that, but i thought it was kinda funny...i feel kinda bad about it now though.  So the race...it wasnt super fast but it was pretty aggressive...the kelly boys were in the front (me, ryan and curtis again)...we all took our turns in some moves, but nothing was really sticking one move looked promising with about 6 guys and both ryan and curtis got in it, then i countered and was off a short while when they came back...but nothing the whole race was really away longer than 3 or 4 laps.  With 3 to go Ben King was off the front and no one was really chasing...I attacked and went across we got caught soon I countered with two to go into the hill but it came back fast...ryan rode the finishing wave well and finished 3rd!  It was a pretty fun race...it was decently warm too, like low 50's probably.  

Then i got back late sunday night...on Monday the shop up in baltimore called and said my new team bike was ready...i was so pumped...i went up there and picked it up.  It is a Trek with sram force...i have never used the sram before but i think it is really nice...ive only ridden it once outside so far..im going to race it this weekend...im pumped!

Wolfpack RR

Today was the wolfpack rr, down in north carolina...i went down with my dad friday night.  For Kelly we had three guys...me, curtis winsor, and ryan bloom....all straight beasts so we were aiming for nothing short of a solo win with a 10min gap to the field.  The pre-reg was weak, like 5 guys, but it ended up being a pretty big field with a lot of southeast guys showing up.  DLP Pro and Time Pro (I guess now Team Mtn Khakis?) fielded full teams, also Ben King...on the new trek u23 team was there, also some team type 1 pro...dont know his name, but he was like 8ft tall.  WE were doing 4laps of an 18mile course....it was basicaly rolling nothing too exciting.  The race started out kinda slow some breaks went, we all took turns going in some small moves, but nothing was too exciting so we didn't really kill it.  Ryan stayed most attentive up front. On the 2nd lap there was a bit of a split at the beginning, going up a hill thru the feedzone.  Me, Ryan, and Curtis were all in it...there were about 10-12 guys in it.  Ben King, Time, DLP, and the team type 1 guy were all there.  We all rolled thru but some guys were sitting on and the gap never really opened up, eventually it came back.  On the 3rd lap, beginning, Ben King attacked...Curtis got across with 3 other guys I think.  They were off for probabaly about 20min and eventually it got caught.  Later that lap I was off the front for a bit with Mike Githens from Artemis...but we got brought back.   Coming into the 4th and final lap it was all together.  I was feeling pretty good and was planning to start the fireworks going through the feedzone.  I hit the feedzone about 3rd and opened it up on the hill...I was off the front alone for about 5min then some more guys came across to me.  There were 6 of us total...me, two guys on canadian teams (wondering why they wree down here), a dlp guy, and two guys from local teams.  I felt pretty good, but we still had 18mi to go.  We got in a pretty good rotation...one of the local guys was just sitting on the whole time...the dlp guys sat on a bit, but it was pretty good  We opened the gap up to a maximum of 1:20 i think, but it never got huge.  I was feeling pretty good, with about 5mi to go we still had about 40s...I was starting to unravel but thought we were going to stay away...we were really killing it, and with a mile to go we still were off.  With a k to go up a small hill the canadians took off and the break split I was on my own in third...unfortunately with about 300m to go I was swallowed up as were the other guys.  Apparently sometime in the last 10mi or so Ben King went to the front and was just killing and helped bring the gap down.  With a k to go the team type 1 guy went and completely shut it down.  I was pretty pissed afterward...to have attacked and spent the last 45min of the race off the front and to be caught in sight of the finish...but so it goes I guess.  When they passed us Curtis was opening up his sprint and looked good to come in in the top 5, unfortunately a time pro guy thought it would be cool if he swerved right.  Curtis had to go off into the grass...when Curtis yelled at him about it the time guy said chill out its only a training race...even though it wasnt, there was 500 dollars...and it still doesnt change him swerving over...not very professional if you ask me.  And the bad luck continued when ryan flatted on the last lap.  So we came up kinda empty handed but you cant say we didnt try.  Theres a crit tomorrow and were gonna be out there just taking laps on the field.  

Also...Steve Kendall won the cat 3 race...just straight dropped everyone with a k to go, what a beast! 

Best Socks Ever!

As you can probably tell, I struggle with thinking up post titles.  I want something that's funny and catchy, yet not too cliche...but I feel like I always fail...so I shall persevere as I do.  But no really these are the best socks ever!  Let me fill you in a bit.  At the bunny hop this year I won them as a prime in the junior race and immediately after the race I used my scissors to cut the cuff to make them fresh (as seen in the picture) and as all socks should be.  Later in the day I sported them in the 3 race and got away in a break securing my final upgrade points.  But that's not just why they rock...they are mad fresh, and comfortable, and every time I wear them I have a pretty good race, so they beast!

Otherwise stuff is chill.  On this past Sunday I got down to Front Royal to do a day in the mountains...it was warm down there got up to 68 according to Blair's srm.  i felt pretty good...this is the part of the blog where I was contemplating about whether to talk about the sick/weak numbers I threw down up the climbs as evidenced by my P-Tap.  However i feel that might just ruin anyting this blog has going for it...which I realize is not much...so I must keep any smalll flame alive, therefore I'll leave it at that, but the mountains were fun!