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