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!