Nate Wilson

A Problem I'd Love to Have

2011-12-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

What is probably three or four years ago now, I was out on a ride with my friend and mentor Blair Berbert. We were probably about 1hr 56mins in, and I was probably already totally cracked, under fueled, and turning myself inside out to keep Blair from realizing. Blair would always take me out on these big rides, and every ride we did I would be progressively in a little less over my head. On this particular ride I remember we were talking about how awesome it would be to be professional cyclists. I said something stupid along the lines of how hard it must be for Andy Schleck to decide what races he wants to do. Blair said, "that is one of those problems I'd love to have". Over the past few years Blair and I have kept going on big rides together, and lots has changed, I don't totally crack on the rides anymore and we're both going faster. However we still do speculate about how great it'd be to be top pros.

This past weekend I flew to California at 6:30pm Friday night and flew back to Colorado at 12:20pm Sunday. The purpose of the trip was for the first little Cal Giant mini camp, to meet the new guys, get bike fits from Specialized, etc. All week I was bitching to myself about what a pain it was, and how pointless it seemed to fly to California for what was essentially a 24hr trip. Then when I was standing in the Specialized headquarters in Morgan Hill, being asked what size aero jersey I wanted and whether I wanted an SL4 or a Venge, I couldn't help but smile to myself as I realized this trip was one of those problems I'd always wanted to have.

I've still got a long ways to go towards accomplishing all the personal goals I have, but it feels good to look back and realize how far I've come.

2011-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Band is sweet.

The Legend of Bagger of Vance is also pretty sweet. I had not seen that fine film (alliteration, no big deal) since it came out. Until I watched it again yesterday. Wow! That is a sweet movie. I read some reviews of it, and apparently a lot of people didn't like it. However, I disagree with them. It's a classic underdog story, always awesome (another alliteration, maybe I should be a writer). But seriously, if you haven't seen it you should. It made me realize that golf movies are the best movies. Tin Cup and The Legend of Bagger Vance are examples enough (ok now this is just out of control).

2011-10-03T09:26:00.001-07:00

There is a band called The Avett Brothers. The band is super sweet.

There is also a band called The Wood Brothers that is also super sweet.

There is also a band called The Allman Brothers that is super sweet.

I've decided all bands that have the band name The "Last Name" Brothers are super sweet.

blogging is more fun than homework, maybe

2011-09-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a little while since I lasted smashed the keys of my keyboard in pursuit of blogging glory. I'm not sure has been the cause for this dry spell, but I do know that as I stare down a couple hundred pages of reading I should do about 4th century English history, blogging glory has sudden become a noble pursuit again.

Of course after such a brilliant set up, I really have nothing worth while to write about, so I suppose I'll just go with the cliche summary blog. I last updated on July 11th, since then life has been pretty usual, bike racing among other time wasting activities.

I did Cascade which so so, could've been better as usual, also could've been worse...which isn't always as usual, so that is a plus I suppose. After Cascade I was taken in by the Huffman family as Evan and I chased the prestigious Cal Cup all over Northern California for a few weeks. It was a fun chase, unfortunately I had to abandon the race early as school beckoned, meanwhile Evan finished off the job and won the Cal Cup overall, while I slipped to 8th after bailing on the NorCal scene. The tradeoff is that I live on my own and go to school, while Evan doesn't go to school and lives with his parents. If some confused readers think I have come out ahead in this tradeoff, they clearly do not understand the prestige of the Cal Cup racing series!

Since then it's just been books, college, and the occasional stab at maintaining some fitness by getting lit up in Boulder city limit sprints by mountain bikers and triathletes.

But, yes everything has been going pretty well, I'm actually the most fired up about school I have been since I started college. I think taking a semester off this Spring to race was good for both my racing and my school, as I'm really refreshed on school now. It might've honestly been better for my school than my racing, as I can't say my racing necessarily profited that much.

For the meantime I've got some prestigious B category collegiate mountain bike invitation only races in the cue for the next few weeks, followed by a little break. Then of course the inevitable return to an unnecessary seriousness about the mediocrity of my cycling, which will likely result in an embarrassingly large drop in social activity, academic merit, and just general well being. But maybe I'll get lucky and my FTP will increase 10 watts!

Well that is all for now, it is official I guess that my season is over now and I must say it is a bit disappointing. For the first time in a couple years, I don't feel totally burnt this time of year. I can honestly say there was another couple chances to have a stab at it, but it's ok, the Gateway ride starts up in a couple months and surely that will allow enough chances to chase the glory! Ok, I'm really done this time!

tin cup

2011-07-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

anyone who hasn't seen tin cup should probably check it out, it's pretty much the best movie ever, kevin costner is a beast...just savor this little gem until you can roll yourself down to the local blockbuster and rent it.

update

2011-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

so yea its been a while, time for a little update action I suppose. I got back from europe kind of sick and had to take it easy for a bit, but it was super nice to be back in boulder training on the climbs and stuff again. I really missed it while I was in Belgium, the roads there are pretty flat. A few weeks after I was back I did the superior morgul classic, near Boulder. It was a pretty sweet race and I was lucky enough to pull off the solo win. It felt really good to get a solid result after just getting pounded in Europe for two months. Also, it was only the second senior race I have ever won, so it felt good to! I don't know how many people know this but I actually never won a race until I was a cat. 1, so every one I can get feels like a miracle!

After morgul I headed out to Hood River, OR for Mt. Hood stage race with the team. I was hoping to do well, and my form was good, but I think my lack of stage racing this year hurt me a little I just didn't have the big enough days. But overall it was a good race, I had a solid ITT which gave me some confidence and the team did super well with Staz winning the first stage and we put two guys in the final top 10 gc!

Pretty much right after Hood I headed home to VA to train in the heat for U23 Nationals in Georgia where it was definitely going to be super hot. It was a fun time at home and I did some more racing. I did the Tour of Mt. Nebo which was brutal...it was super hot and just a lot of hills. I got 2nd which was solid, but Scott Zwizanski lit me up pretty hard. Then just last weekend I got to do Tour of Washington County which was really awesome because I haven't really gotten to race with any of those guys all year, and Joe does such a great job putting it on. Also, I somehow won the TT there so that was really good for my confidence...and a bit of a surprise. It was a fun race, Kelly and Harley were really smashing it and GPOA was riding really well also, it was a pretty tough race with no teammates but made for a great last hard two days before Nationals I think.

Yesterday was the TT here at U23 Nationals. Nate Brown did a great ride to win it, he's really flying right now. Trek had 3 in the top 4 which was very impressive, but Cal-Giant was really the only team to come close, we had 3 in the top 10 so that was pretty sweet! Eamon did a great ride in his first year u23 to go 3rd, Huffman was 6th and I was 9th.

Well thats pretty much all for now, the crit is today and I think we have a great chance at the win!

2 weeks to go!

2011-04-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

the racing trip has been going well, these races are hard. not getting any stellar results but learning a lot i think and getting good at slamming on the brakes and praying i dont crash into some crazy belgian pile up. two more weeks left to go, the last race we are doing over here is supposed to be pretty hilly so im hoping to end with a good result. but yea looking forward to coming back home and whatnot.

Probably not going to go down as my best day on a bike.

2011-04-09T09:54:00.001-07:00

Today we did Trofeo Edil a 1.2 in Italy. It wasn't good for me. Right before the race I found out we were not doing the race the next day, which was the one that had more climbing in it and I was really fired up for.

Instead of getting more fired up for today's race since it was my only shot for the weekend, I had a terrible mentality. I just was so angry I didn't even want to race, I don't know why but it was bad. I got in one move early and after that got brought back I just wasn't in it at all. I rode the rest of the race in the bottom ten riders hoping I would get a flat. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it was pathetic. I feel a lot better now that the race is over, but I just on an off day and I didn't want to fight for it.

I feel bad, because I've wanted the opportunity I have now for almost 4 years and I definitely didn't show that today. The people I've always admired are the ones that go out there and suffer and race with pure class, I was not one of those people today. Sorry to get so heavy, but it just feels better to write it down and get some of it out of my head.

Probably not going to go down as my best day on a bike.

2011-04-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

no title

2011-04-08T03:26:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to make some posts lately, but every time I get on here I can't think of a title so I just say screw it and write nothing.

The racing over here has been good, it's been hard. So far I've done three one day races in Belgium and one day in Italy. The racing in Belgium was hard, really hard. The first race we did was an all flat circuit race, that was 150k. There was no wind so it was not really a hard race sitting it, but it was very fast, we averaged 46km/hr. The next race we did was kind of crazy it was the u23 version of dwaars door vlaanderen and there were 320 guys in our field, it was insane! I felt good but ultimately wasted too much energy not being in the front and ended up not making the front selection. The next race we did was probably my best in Belgium, I was very aggressive and spent a decent amount of time solo off the front, but i ended up crashing out.

All the cliche things that people say about racing in Belgium are pretty much true. If you're not moving up you're moving back. Cobbles are really hard. It's super aggressive. The roads are really narrow, and it makes for difficult racing since they are littered with traffic islands, round abouts, etc.

The race we did in Italy was a lot of fun. It was a hard race, it was a circuit race with a 2.5km climb each lap. 170km was the distance. It was a 1.2 u23 and is one of the bigger and tougher one days in Italy. 200 guys started but it was definitely a day of attrition, only 60 finished and only 2 USA guys. I finished, but that was about all, there was a break of 20 that stayed away and then the pack behind. I felt pretty good, but honestly it was almost everything I had to just keep making the splits to stay in the bunch. I'm hoping I'll get a decent little boost from such a hard race though. Training is going well and now that I've been able to get a little consistency for the first time in months I feel like the form is starting to creep up.

This weekend they are doing 2 more one days back to back in Italy. The courses look hard. Sunday has a tough 5k climb that tops out 10k from the finish. I'm hoping to be feeling good and give it a go, I'd really like to get a top 10 or top 20 before I leave. But otherwise all is good, Italy is beautiful. Belgium is not bad though either, the u23 house definitely does not eat one's soul the way some people might make it out to. After these races I'm in Belgium the rest of the stay.

Sounds like the weather has been crazy back home. Good luck to everyone doing Battenkill this weekend, especially HPC in the juniors and Kelly in the 1/2 race.

2011-04-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

i had a pretty good race today...but some days i just wish i was faster...something ive been thinking about lately, some guys are just so fast, it feels like the first time ive realized it even though ive been getting beat since i started racing bikes

Belgians work really hard.

2011-03-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

Our mechanic for the race yesterday was a Belgian named Peter. He works for USA Cycling as a mechanic for the National Team over in Belgium. He was at the house early in the morning and then at the race all day with us, including waiting over an hour after the race ended to collect prize money. He had to rush home though because he had work to do at the bike shop, which he owns. Although, he also wanted to get to bed as soon as possible, because he had to get up early to go to work at the steel plant. What a relaxing Sunday.

Belgium

2011-03-11T04:09:00.000-08:00

Lots of stuff to catch up on since I last wrote. I was in California for a little team camp. It was pretty good, got some good riding in on the new bike with the new guys. Everyone is super awesome and it was a good time. We did Merco stage race, which was a lot of fun and a good opener to the season. I felt decent not super awesome, but the team did well with John Bennett taking the best young rider jersey. I had a kind of rough day the last day, crashing and breaking my fork. I raced a bit longer on the spare bike but ended up getting in the car. Now I'm in Belgium for a two month long block with the US U23 team. I'm looking forward to it. Right now Belgium is pretty warm and sunny, but windy. Luckily we won't have to deal with it for too long, because in another day we're flying to Lucca, Italy to do a little training camp down there before the racing starts. I'll be having plenty of free time while I'm here so I'll do my best to keep the blog updated, in an effort to convince myself that people read this. Right now I've got a little cold but I think I'm on the upswing, so I'm pretty convinced for this camp in Italy. I've always wanted to go there and I've heard that just about everything in Lucca is awesome.

Ya gotta move up, it's getting hectic.

2011-02-08T12:31:00.001-08:00

It's been a bit of a long month and a half, but this time next week I should be back in Boulder and have my broken jaw mostly behind me. Last Wednesday I had surgery to get some plates and screws that were in my jaw removed. Then tomorrow I get the final screws taken out. I am looking forward to being done with it. However, from that point onward things aren't really settling down, really just speeding up.

Unfortunately I'm only going to be in Boulder for about 10 days. I love it in Boulder, I love my apartment, I get motivated to train harder in Boulder seeing all the fast people. But yeah, I'll be in Boulder for 10 days with nothing to do but train. It's not as much time as I would've liked, but hopefully I can finally get one good block and get some fitness going. After that I'm going to California for 9 days for a camp with Cal-Giant. It should be really good, and I'm excited to meet everybody. All the interactions have been so professional so far. I don't want to come off like a jerk, though it could be far too late, but it's really awesome just not having to worry about things. Not having to worry about having a bike to ride, and not having to worry about booking flights. I should mention though that I would not have even been able to train for the past month and a half if it hadn't been for November Bicycles. They gave me a bike to ride and while I'm looking forward to getting my Specialized it has truly been a joy riding the November. There is something special about those grass roots companies that I think sometimes do a lot more for the sport than the big corporate engines. Check them out at www.novemberbicycles.com

After California I've got a lot of travel. I'm flying from California to Denver, then from Denver to DC. Then I'm at home at DC for one day to see a doctor. The next day, March 10, I fly from DC to Brussels, Belgium. I'll be in Belgium from March 11-May 9 racing with the National Team. My feelings about it are interesting I would say. For the past couple of years I wanted it so bad, and imagined how great it would feel once it happened. However, now that I am going in just a month I'm not sure how I feel about it. I wish I hadn't crashed and broken my jaw before going, most of all I am just unsure. I am excited, but at the same time I am nervous. But I have my schedule and it looks like a lot of good races, some hilly races so hopefully I can go fast in those. For anyone interested the schedule of races over there is:

March 20- GP Wilfried Pieters

March 27- Aalst-St. Truiden

April 8-10- Circuit des Ardennes

April 13- Cote Picarde

April 16- ZLM Tour

April 18- Zellik

April 24- Affligem

May 1- Hoboken

May 8- Circuit Wallonie

It should be good, and hopefully I'll return with some form rather than shattered to pieces.

new best song ever

2011-01-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

I discovered a new sweet song. It helps me get pumped to slam it. I heard the grapevine that Andrew Talansky listens to it. So I figure that listening to this song is pretty much guaranteed to make me fast.

We are all a bunch of wimps.

2011-01-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

I was driving last night down Military Rd. in Arlington, on my way to pick up my mom at the metro. It was dark and really cold out. I was complaining to myself how cold it was even just inside the car, when I saw coming the other way in the dark someone on their bike. Not someone out training just commuting home. When I thought about it I realized I see this stuff all the time, but just at that moment it really stuck with me. Maybe it was because the day before I had been out in the cold for three and half hours and seen a dozen recreational riders, that racers usually rip on, but not a single bike racer out training.

At this moment that I saw the rider coming towards coasting down a hill in the twenty degrees and dark I realized that most of us bike riders really are a bunch of wimps. Any time we do a cold ride we chalk it up as epic and talk for weeks about how funny it is that there were no "freds" out when we were doing our epic two hour ride in a partly overcast 35 degrees, with some super high wattage spin ups. All I can say is that these commuters are way more legit. They ride through rain and shine in the truest sense. Also, I am guessing that when they get home they do not brag to their girlfriend how hard core their commute was and how if they can just get 1 more watt per kilogram they really have a chance at winning tradezone next weekend.

Maybe it is time that us bike racers toughened up.

trainer trainer trainer

2011-01-11T13:16:00.001-08:00

That is pretty much all that has been going on with me. It's not the most fun, but it actually has been surprisingly bearable. Most people that know me, in cycling, know I severely struggle with trainer riding. However, somehow the trainer has not been bothering me too much lately. It probably helps that it is 30 degrees and grey outside and the mountains are not calling my name.

It has been a rough couple of weeks. It is difficult going from living full time on my own to back at home with nothing to do and get out of the house. I think the recovery is going well though and I should be back to the normal routine soon enough. On January 21st I am headed out to Watsonville, California for the first little Cal Giant camp. I am looking forward to it, for anything just for a change of scenery. It should be fun though. I'm not sure I'm going to be riding with the team as the jaw will still be wired. I might just keep sticking to the trainer. There is not really any reason I can not ride outside. I guess I am just nervous that if I fall and hurt it I'll be stuck with these wires till mid-March, whereas by just riding the trainer for a few more weeks I can guarantee being back to normal by early February.

The team is having a second camp in February, which I will be back in normal condition for, so I am looking forward to that. Otherwise it has been great to be home with my family, and a pretty good couple of weeks so far. It's good to see Avery getting so fit! Except for that by the time my jaw is healed, he'll probably be shelling me.

It is weird to be at home doing not much, when everyone I know back in Boulder is starting up the spring semester. I was supposed to be in Tucson right now still training, but that changed. For the time being though, it is nice to not worry about school and focus on racing a little. I'm looking forward to getting the jaw behind me and getting back to making watts full time!

2010 in review

2011-01-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

Some picture highlights from 2010.

In the spring I started racing collegiate, and it only seemed fitting that all the way out in Colorado, in my first collegiate race, I would get up the road with a friend from years past...and of course get dominated in the sprint by that friend. Like I said, only fitting.

CU at collegiate national championships in Madison, WI.

Making the news at Tour of Gila for stopping for a nature break on the side of the road. I certainly wasn't making headlines for my results, so might as well have had an impact somehow.

Making the winning break with Ben King at U23 nationals and riding like an idiot.

Sitting on logs can be fun when done with the right people.

I moved into my own apartment in Boulder, CO. It is pretty sweet except for that if I don't take out the trash no one does...except for Sam.

I thought my season was going to be over at Univest and that it was time to party! I guess I was wrong.

Camping in Crested Butte, CO.

Racing in Guatemala at the end of October, I've never suffered so much so late in the year.

Back on the bike, one week after getting hit by a truck in Tucson, AZ and breaking my jaw.

All in all 2010 was a pretty good year. It was a tough close of the year for me with getting hit by a truck and whatnot, but I'm doing ok now. Also, I'm thinking to try and improve the grammar on this site for 2011. Meaning I will be using things such as capitalization and maybe even some moderate punctuation, we'll see.

watts up?

2010-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

first id like to just take a moment to appreciate the awesomeness of this title, it took about one whole week to think up, and i thoroughly enjoy it. also as a bit of a psa everybody should try to use the word "watts" as often as possible in every day conversation outside of biking, for example, when talking about my chemistry final i might say: "i was really putting out some watts during that test last night".

now onto some boring stuff, not everything can be as awesome as talking about watts...i finished up the semester yesterday, done with finals! feels good to be done, im not gonna lie, it was tough semester for me what with missing two weeks to race in guatemala and whatnot. its ok im taking refuge for the time being in tucson trying to shake off the stress of the semester and one day in i think its already working! should be a good training block here as im going to be here for awhile, from now until at least january 9th. i might end up staying a little bit longer.

i am not taking classes semester...i got the opportunity to go race in europe with the national team for a big block in the spring and i wanted to take it. hopefully it will go well and justify taking the semester off from school...of course thats why im in tucson making watts right now. im very excited for it...even more excited for racing stateside with cal giant, the program looks great and looking forward to doing some of the races i havent done yet like mt. hood and tour de nez. of course the most exciting race all year is gonna have to be u23 nationals, going to be awesome going 1-2 with the one and only dangeruss brown....shizzle. as for tucson, weather is looking good, and most importantly im getting lean for the shootout, the only real day of bike riding tha tmatters! i also just got some valuable intel that some ballers are in town, so the shootout is going to be awesome! in case anyone had any doubt...I LIVE FOR THE SHOOTOUT!

now go out and make some watts!

updates

2010-11-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

well its been a little while...i guess i was waiting for enough interesting stuff to happen to have something to write about. since i last wrote ive gone through the pursuit of a couple different sports. i ended my very non-lucrative career as a mtb'er, mainly due to a surplus of suckage. after that i thought i was a triathlete for a little bit. not wanting to end my season in mid september i decided to do a triathlon in mid october. so i trained for that for a bit, only to find out i was a road bike racer once again, that ended my career as a triathlete before it even started...too bad, it could've been great. like i said i had been kind of transitioning into the offseason when i got the opportunity to go race a 12 day stage race in guatemala, tour of guatemala, with the us national team. at the time my form was definitely not quite grand tour winning, and my daily ice cream consumption was bordering on dangerous...however i couldnt afford to pass the opportunity up. i got my train on pretty hard for two weeks then i headed south on an airplane. the race was hard. it was a lot of fun. doing a 12 day stage race at the end of october was definitely an experience. there was a lot of climbing, i had some good days some bad days, i was pretty sick most of the time down there with a cold but it wasn't bothering me too much. my teammate robbie was going pretty well and got a real solid 12th overall. the colombian teams were super good, the guy that one the overall is riding for geox pro tour team next year i think. now im back in boulder at school, im pretty behind in school but im trying to get back on terms with the work and taking a little break at the same time. im getting antsy though, i feel so lazy not riding. yesterday i did like a 6mile walk and that made me feel a little better about my lack of exertion, plus it's better than studying! im eager to get training again as it feels like most guys out here are starting to ramp it up and are getting underway getting fast for next year.

with regards for next year i'll be riding for a new team. i'll be riding for cal-giant cycling, calgiantcycling.com the two years with kelly has been awesome, but part of the transition i want to make is to living more out in boulder and getting more support to do bigger stage races. that is something cal giant provides. theres a lot of great guys onthe team and im really looking forward to learning from them. ill be leaving out in boulder through the summer, i'll be home for sure to do some east coast races and go to u23 nationals in augusta. also there seems to be some confusion on the internet, im not sure how me riding for cal giant got on gamjams as i really hadnt told many people...but to clear up any confusion they are an amateur team. they have a lot of support, and it is the most professionally run program i have been a part of, but they are not a uci team. hopefully though between them and hopefully racing with the national team in europe i can get to a lot of hard races, and maybe even be fast at one of them!

pro mountain biker

2010-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

actually pretty far from pro mountain biker, more like maximum amateur hour mountain biker. but i did a couple mtb races recently, they were pretty fun, my technical skills were way worse than i figured they would be who would've guessed?! it was pretty easy to get into the mtb races, i stole my friend jesse's bike and my roomate sam who is a big timer mountain biker hooked me up with all the sweet mtber lingo. here is a picture of me getting dominated at a collegiate race.

my mtbing career has been pretty shortlived thus far, i found out pretty quick that im not the next julien absalon when i got girled pretty hard...the last mtb race we did, after the race i jumped on the road bike...which i caught major flack for from all these hard core downhillers who only cross train by gunning pbr's...and road to crested butte, which is pretty awesome. sam deidre and i (a.k.a team gold run minus anna) camped there for the night. here is a pretty sweet picture sam and i took at the campsite, to show how sweet crested butte is.
as for road biking, not much to report there...im contemplating a serious switch to the mtb for next year, thoughts? i think im done with road biking...not done with ice cream though, that i have just started.

rough patches and smooth patches

2010-08-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

feels like its been mostly rough patches this year but i dont thinks thats really true, i guess i just mean to say it feels like that from where im looking right now as i write this...pretty melodramatic i suppose.

the season has been rolling along and its not that far from being over as i head back to school on august seventeenth. it feels like the season has gone by very fast, i guess it always does. since nationals ive done several races...fitchburg, hagerstown, capital crit, cascade, and most recently the tour of the catskills. nothings been great...i feel like ive used that term--wasn't great--a lot to describe my races this year, what does it take for me to describe a race as bad? can a bike race be bad?...knock on wood.

cascade was maybe the worst...purely in terms of frustration...worst because i think my form was the best...however perhaps all the cosmos were not aligned...but to all the spirits listening out there know that i accept it! when i showed up in oregon my bike was broken, with a pretty serious crack on the seatstay...not a great way to start the trip. i rode the whole race on my old trek which my mom overnighted out, it worked but wasnt great. the first real day of racing was perhaps the worst luck of the trip when my seat clamp broke a few miles in and i was in the cars trying to get it fixed pretty much from mile 0. later on in the stage after a big selection had been made i broke a spoke 5km from the base of the final climb. by the time i got back on i had no legs left to do a good ride. i lost a bunch of time that day and ended all hopes of doing well in the gc at all. the rest of the race was fine, nothing brilliant, some decent results and took some big gambles, especially on the last day coming up a bit short. however the results sheets dont have asterisks explaining what happened between the start and the finish...i gues thats what people have blogs for.

this past weekend i went up to ny for tour of the catskills it was pretty cool race with a biggish field. pretty hard climbing on the two road race days. some french guy won that i guess rode the tour de france in 08, but he only did the first five stages i think...so really hes no big deal. i felt decent, it was really nice being up in that part of ny, ive never been there and it was gorgeous also the weather was super refreshing not so hot as it has been down here this summer. couple good races on the calendar, ill be back in colorado soon but back soon after for univest i hope.

after writing this actually it doesnt seem so rough after all, perhaps bike racing will go on for myself, but who realy knows.

nationals

2010-06-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

nationals is a very special event...there is really no other event i do all year where nearly everyone there is trying to be on their best form of the year. nationals also seems very odd...it seems very odd that you work so hard toward one day for nearly a whole year and that it is over so fast. two weeks ago the anticipation for nationals was high and expectations were huge, now it is all over so fast and everyone has to wait another twelve months for another crack at the champions jersey. some people leave happy some dissappointed and some indifferent, the way one day of racing seems to hold so much power is very special i think. with that said heres a quick rundown of how it went for me.

nothing really to say about the time trial, 21st, not good not bad i guess, i was 4th placed first year u23 i guess you could say thats decent...but i wouldnt. time trialing is a weird even, it puzzles me sometimes how someone i can outclimb can beat me in time trials...i feel like it should be the same thing...but i guess it is not, still a lot of area to improve. the guys who really rock the time trials always impress me, theyre so dialed in on the details.

crit...um yeah, its kind of a boring crit course, all flat four corners gave it a couple goes to get away but didnt want to burn too much gas with the road race the next day, had a decent go with 3 to go and made it about halfway across to bk but the a-train brought me back after a little more than a lap and bk went onto victory

the road race was ok. i felt pretty good but it didnt exactly play out how i had hoped. it was very tense the whole time as most people seemed nervous about a big early move going like it had the previous year. however that said the big teams never took control and the race did not get as hard as i wish it had as there was never a major selection taking place. early on i bridged to a 6 man move on the second lap thinking it might get established as the early move which the final selection would ride up to, however with the field still antsy we got brought back after about half a lap. after that time the race started heating up, i made sure to mark all the favorites over the top of the most selective climb every lap, a few times i thought we had the break established. the most promising was when i got away with summerhill and howes (both garmin), bk and kyer (both trek), and talansky...however i guess it was maybe just too many strong guys up the road because co operation was weak and it came back together quickly. shortly after that in the beginning of the fourth lap kevin started one of the best moves of the day. him and three others quickly got two minutes up the road, however with neither of majore teams represented it was back after a lap. shortly after it was brought back i started following a flurry of attacks until all of a sudden the field shut down and i was off with bk, a bissell guy, and jerome. we opened up a minute fairly quick, soon jerome was gone, then a while after the feedzone it was down to just me and bk as the bissell guy cracked. i guess this is where i lost the race...i hate to be the guy that sits on even if it means im going to get dropped...so i got dropped, pure stupidity, i insisted on forcing my body to working as much as bk and ended up getting dropped...that was the race i got brought back shortly after and rolled it in with the 35 or so guys left, getting popped with 5k to go. i was so close if i had been more willing to ride in a more conservative manner i surely could have gotten 2nd, but i guess thats what i get for pretending im better than i am. so all in all nationals was decent, but not exactly the results i was hoping for.

next up is onto fitchburg, i like this race and am hoping for a good ride, we'll see...i need to start getting some results if im going to consider this a successful season.

post #92

2010-06-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

all packed up getting ready to head out to oregon this afternoon for the u23 nationals, kevin is the only teammate coming with but thats okay you only need two guys for a wrecking crew anyway!

tour of washington county was this weekend and it was a blast, i thought the prologue was real cool, once again nice job joe jefferson. i cant think of anything good to write so ill do a quick summary of the weekend....

prologue was solid, it was short just a bit over 10 minutes, all the teims were pretty close so didnt seem to have a huge role on gc, i did a decent ride so i was pretty pleased with that as i was looking at this weekend as a final check up on the form pre nationals. the road race and the next days tt i guess were the main gc deciders. the road race was pretty ballin, it was super hot which wasnt that ballin but it was what it was. pretty earlly there were a bunch of moves and eventually as one was kinda coming back and another going a group of 9 shuffled off the front and started to get a gap. in it was me, nortonian war machine, todd, and russ for kelly, then langley, joe d, barrie, and andy...ok turns out thats 8. with 4 of us in teh move none of the other guys wanted to do much which was fair. thankfully todd held back some to stay fresh from the tt, and russ helped out when he could but for most of the day it was me and rick just full gas on the front...i was suffering hard but it was worth it in the end...plus you can't give up so easily to getting beat up by an old man. eventually andy came out of the break and i think langley flatted out, so it was down to just us, joe d, and barrie. towards the end joe started coming thorugh some more and russ, and todd...todd got away on the last lap and joe dragged rick across while me and russ sat on barrie, barrie was kinda gassed so i jumped him and rode hte last lap alone. up front joe took the win, and rick and todd went 2, 3. i was 4th, russ 5th, then i think tim rugg, and barrie, then evan, jamie and kevin...not a bad day for us, except for getting nearly every place except 1st! tt was the next morning, thankfully todd did a great ride and moved into 1st also blair did an awesome ride for 3rd on the day, i was okay, nothing spectacular did i mention time trials shouldn't count as bike racing.... the crit was kind stressful since joe d was only 4sec back from todd but todd was riding pro tour and was never in trouble a biggish break got up the road with rick and kevin in it for us, rick and russ lapped up russ won the day, but important for us todd won the gc! also we had a bunch of guys top 10 and top 20 in the final gc!

it was a blast this weekend, the team rode great and it was a real fun to be apart of, but more importantly the level of racing all around was really good, it was really hard racing and not easy for any one to win any of the days, the level around here is really good which makes it a lot better for everyone!

post #91

2010-06-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

this is my 91st post...i guess i havent written anything since tour of gila, so a quick little update

after gila i was back in boulder for a couple days before i went to wisconsin for collegiate nationals, the first day was the road race, then the crit, then the ttt. i was hoping for some nice weather but that didnt happen...in fact the road race had pretty nasty conditions, at least for a soft man like me! it was 40 and rainy, it was a good course though and i wanted to give it a go. i felt good for 75% of the race...but not the 25% that mattered. oh well, maybe i got too cold and didnt eat enough, or maybe i just was still hurting from crashing at gila and still being on anti-biotics, i was pretty dissapointed at the time but im past it now. the crit was a lot of fun, i was very aggressive but nothing stayed away, i guess i shouldve gone harder...the bittersweet part is i used up most of my energy trying to get away that i didnt have much left to set up our sprinter and i think he could've podiumed for sure if i had saved a little more gas, i felt pretty guilty about that, as he is one of my best friends. the ttt was okay, everyone gave it their best shot, but unfortunately the guys' legs were pretty empty and the best just wasnt good enough.

onto the next thing, came back home to arlington! and was finally feeling recoverd from gila, did poolesville...flatted...did bear mountain and had a good ride, in a good move for 25 miles or so but unfortunately the big axa team missed the move and brought it back on the last lap, jacob saved the day with 8th, and earned himself a trip to nature valley on the composite team!

since that weekend its been crits crits crits...did wilm and bike jam, they were ok, nothing noteworthy...except jamie getting 9th at wilmington, ballin pretty hard...did ricola twilight on that wednesday, aside from getting to the race 30' before the start and no warm up it was fun, started really fast and i was jumping gaps for awhile but then it cooled down...i pretty much tail gunned it the whole time which was embarassing, but unfortunately there wasn't much i could do about it, i was pretty on the rivet

didnt race at all memorial day weekend, had a really nice training block...next weekend was church creek, that sunday did a good ride in PA with blair, todd, jacob, kevin, and russ...it was nice lots of nice climbs...then this weekend did clarendon and crystal city, we did the 123 at clarendon, it was nothing special for me but evan won so that was sweet, also jamie got 3rd! at crystal city we did the big race, it was pretty good nothing too special, i was way in the front with 3 to go but was way too much of a pushover and gave up all the spots when people started fighting...eh, at least now "crit season" is over for a little while, doing washington county this weekend, should be fun...joe puts on such great races, we're lucky to have him, then right after that heading to oregon for u23

the form is good so im hoping all goes well, season has been a bit frustrating so far in terms of results, but im hoping from hear on out things will start looking up

2010-05-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

cant think of a title for this post...i dont have much to say...theres nothing really to say

gila definitely did not go as well as i was hoping for...put it in the books and start thinking about the next thing. quick summary i guess...first day i blew hard very hard day in the cross winds and i had no legs, throw that one out...second day again very windy this time i was ready to go for it, first climb bissell puts the whole field in the gutter after jumping 20 guys blowing up in front of me i made the front group, only 40 guys at the top of the climb and less than 10 amateurs all i could think was thank god i was on a good day, the next climb we went a lot easier and a lot of guys got back on, halfway through the stage i hit the ground took a few minutes to get up, once i got going i still had good legs and got back on after ten minutes on the rivet behind the sram car, i stayed in the front group until i came off with 5k to go when the whole bunch started to split apart, glad for the good legs but pissed that i threw it away with a shitty crash, ended up having to go to the hospital get 15 stitches in the elbow and get on a serious course of antibiotics...rest of the race was pretty much crap, not a great tt lot of pain from the elbow, got through the crit wihtout too much trouble, blair rode like a champ, last day no legs pulled out in the first feed. spent a lot of time complaining to myself, i dont think anyone else would want to hear it, over now. well thats the wrap pretty much. a lot more racing to come, i think the form is their i just need to utilize it.

new jersey on friday...thats cryptic

some vids ive been watching to get pumped for gila

2010-04-20T09:31:00.001-07:00

First off...gotta kick it off with some party in the usa, cant say no to that...

Next...a classic to get nice and focused in the zone...

then...this is relatively throwback, but what can i say it gets me in the zone and real serious feeling...

finally to ensure complete domination gotta get a song with some nice feel to it and get a nice tempo going

last and probably least i like to watch this versus commercial...its so cheesy and cliched but i dunno it still makes me feel ready to race the big stuff...the whole underdog sentiment

motivated

2010-04-10T21:43:00.001-07:00

Its been a few years in the making but one thing has never changed, those fresh black socks, i had that one figured out from the beginning.

everything has been going well, im feeling good and motivated now and it is really starting to feel like the season is underway even though i havent race yet...i guess it is because the fitness is starting to come around a little. its only 18 days till gila and i really feel like i can target this one...i am really looking forward to it, its a good opportunity...well just have to see what happens. but the training has been going well i think, ive ramped up the volume to just under 35hrs per week so im feeling good about that...hopefully pays big dividends. this next month is going to be very stressful though, two more weeks of class where i need to buckle down and not screw up, then i go to gila come back and do finals then go to college nationals and then finally go home, its been awhile! since december 26th! looking forward to seeing everybody.

2010-04-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

“You must keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man.”

-Ernest Hemingway

I read this quite on a buddy's blog...i like it. its simple and makes sense, seems like a good thing to keep in mind in cycling. the next few weeks of training are hopefully going to be a big push into the next big race at gila...im hoping to be riding for a lot more than survival at gila, we'll see...just try to keep this quote in mind and it should help

redlands in the books

2010-03-31T17:38:00.001-07:00

monday morning i flew back from redlands back to a sunny boulder which was a nice welcome. redlands was good....kind of...its always to pop a result but that didnt happen this trip, but overall i was pleased with how it went. i got through it and didnt feel like i was in over my head which was a big change from the only other nrc stage race ive done at cascade last summer. the prologue was ok, i felt very good, but the resutl was nothing notable, i think i definitely should've brought my tt bike, instead of just riding the road bike with training wheels...but i guess i just wasnt sure where the form was going to be and didnt want to pay for two bikes. the next day was the first road stage...a 106mi circuit type race with 6 hard climbs. i felt awesome all day and was thrilled with how it was going, cresting the koms top 30 and feeling like i was barely pedaling, then with 20 miles left, the 2nd to last time up the kom i just completely shut down, i just went from feeling great to having nothing...got dropped from a groupetto with a bunch of fat sprinters...that was the lowpoint of the day, i finished alone and lsot 16 minutes on the day, deifnitely not thrilled with that...but i guess i took what i could from it, first road race of the year, tough being an nrc, i just didnt eat enough which totally screwed me...don't want to sound like a jerk but at home i can get away with these mistakes when its just a 3hr race, but when its a 4.5 hr nrc race one slip up and next thing you know you lose sixteen minutes, i'd rather learn that lesson in march and not at nationals.

this photo is from the first kom on the day, its hard to see but maybe if you click it, the photo will enlarge, im in the center of the frame, white helmet, wearing blue and white bikereg.com clothes.

the next afternoon was the crit, it was a lot of fun...it was a mile with 9 corners but they all had good flow to them and it was just really fun. my legs felt good and it didnt seem that hard...i got one flat but free lapped back in, there were a lot crashes a lot of them seemed due to tire blowouts, i was surfing the top 15 for a few laps and when the gas came off i almost jumped but i guess i was just nervous, not feeling quite confident enough to attack in these nrc's yet...maybe soon. the last 10 laps were pretty tough, the results in cycling news are messed up, i finished in the bunch...but it wsa good.

the last day was the infamous sunset loop. that hardest part of the day i think was the two crit laps we did downtown to start the race, i was hoping they would be parade laps but it was just as hard as the last two laps from the night before. after the crit laps we rolled up a 4mile climb out of town, then got onto the sunset loop. you do 12 laps of the sunset loop then come back to town for 5 laps of a finishing circuit. historically a very small group completes all the loops without getting a pro rated time and is allowed onto the finishing circuits. fly v had it pinned going up to the loop, luckily with about a mile to go a hole opened up and i made a late surge, entering the loop top 15 which was my best move of the day. the first part of the loop is some crazy descending on dark narrow roads, then you start a very tough kom that lasts for only ~5 minutes, but it false flats after the kom line for seemingly ever. the first time up the kom lap was insane, i had to stand for nearly 2k just to stay in the wheels but crested top 20, almost half the field got shelled just the first time up the kom. after that, i got a little too content and didn't fight for the wheels enough, i felt good all day but it just wears on you, on the 9th lap i got popped from the lead group, rolling in for 85th on the day...they give you a pro-rated time. it may not sound like much but for this time of the year i was definitely happy with it, and i hope getting through this when i got to gila in may i can pull out a real result.

for now im back in boulder for the last month of the semester, ill being doing some collegiate racing in between now and gila, and hopefully training hard, looking forward to see what the rest of the season will bring...it's weird to just be starting the season and already have such a hard race in the legs...hopefully it is only beneficial.

it always shows up

2010-03-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

a wise man once told me that it is always hard to that the form will come when it is missing...but then somehow it always shows up

3 weeks i wasnt too excited about redlands, well i was but i was super nervous i had a very rough february training wise and was not feeling ready for a super hard race three weeks out, but somehow hefler worked her magic once again and i came out on the other side of these three weeks in a way better spot...im not sure ive ever said it enough but sue is an incredible coach, ive been with her since 2005 and do not think i could ever work with anyone else...im not sure anyone else could put up with my shit anyway...also equally as important as the coaching is the family avery mom dad all of them helped me keep my head straight as i had some rough patches this winter...i know i need the help i have an easy time getting my head all wrapped into a pretzel.

well the good news is in 3 weeks im feeling much better than when i last thought seriously about redlands, ive been slowly feeling better every week and this week had an awesome training week. i dont want to get too excited since the race hasnt even started yet but i will just go ahead and say i am looking forward a lot to this race, when i first found out i was going the instant plan was survival but now i think i can shoot for a little different

san dimas starts tomorrow, i wish i had been able to get into that. the first day is a 3.8mi hill climb prologue that is supposed to be a pretty tough climb, i think that wouldve been a lot of fun, hopefully i will do it next year. tomorrow is my last day of classes which is very exciting...im very lucky that redlands is over my spring break so i will only be missing one day of school...monday travelling back. also, i think this time last year i did jeff cup predictions, even though i will not be there here are my 2010 jeff cup winner predictions by category:

Cat. 4: Avery Wilson

Cat. 5: Eduardo S. Maeyama

Cat. 5 35+: Fritz Mehler

Wm. 4: Rebecca Wilson

Cat. 1/2/3: Mike Stearns

45+: Rick Tucker

55+: Pete Swan

Jr. 15-18: Samuel James

Wm. 12: Christine Fuentes

Wm. 3: Katherine Klausing

35+ 1/2: Ramon Benitez

35+ 3/4: Andreas Gutzeit

Thats all for now i suppose, the weather here in boulder is supposed to take a hard turn for the snow starting tomorrow, hopefully it melts up quick

first weekend of racing

2010-03-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

THIS PAST WEEKEND WAS THE FIRST WEEKEND OF RACING. SATURDAY WAS A CRIT IN DENVER IT WAS IN CITY PARK...THAT IS THE NAME OF THE PARK IT IS NOT JUST SOME RANDOM CITY PARK, IT IS ON THE EAST SIDE OF DENVER RIGHT BY EAST HIGH SCHOOL NEAR THE DENVER ZOO. IM NOT GONNA LIE I WAS NOT A BIG FAN OF THE COURSE AT ALL. IT WAS .8 MILES BUT DIDNT REALLY HAVE ANY REAL TURNS IT JUST HAD 3 ROUNDABOUTS. I USUALLY LIKE TECHNICAL CRITS BUT THIS COURSE WASNT VERY FUN YOU HAD TO COAST LIKE TWO THIRDS OF THE WAY AROUND EACH ROUNDABOUT AND THEY SUCKED A LOT OF SPEED I DIDNT THINK IT WASNT THAT MUCH FUN...BUT IT WAS EXCITING TO BE OUT RACING. THE FIRST RACE OF THE DAY WAS THE COLLEGIATE RACE RACING FOR MY COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO...THE CU BUFFS. I DIDNT HAVE A TEAM JERSEY BUT THANKFULLY NORA OLSON HAD ONE I COULD USE, THANKS NORA! THEY ARE REALLY STRICT ABOUT NOT WEARING SHORTS FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOUR COLLEGE SO I JUST HAD TO ROCK BLACK SHORTS, IT WAS OK. SO THE COLLEGIATE RACE WAS PRETTY FUN IT HAD A PRETTY BIG FIELD 40+ PEOPLE SO IT WAS GOOD. IT WASNT TOO FAST BUT KINDA CRAZY WITH ALL THE ROUNADABOUTS SO I JUST STAYED TOWARDS THE FRONT AND WENT WITH ALL THE ATTACKS CUZ THAT IS REEL FUN BIKERACIN! EVENTUALLY ALISTER ON FORT LEWIS ATTACKED IT TOOK ME A MINUTE TO GET THROUGH A HOLE BUT THEN I TRIED TO BRIDGE BUT HE WAS MOTORING, ZACK WAS ON MY WHEEL WE COULDNT MAKE IT UP TO AISTER AND HE LAPPED UP BUT I STAYED ON THE GAS AND ZACK AND I STAYED AWAY BUILDING UP A DECENT GAP ON THE FIELD I TRIED TO DROP HIM BUT TO NO AVAIL AND GOT WHIPPED IN THE SPRINT BUT I FELT LIKE I ATLEAST GAVE HIM A CHALLENGE FOR IT. GOOD NEWS IS LEGS FELT REALLY GOOD AND SPENT 45' OFF THE FRONT SO GOOD WORKOUT. IT WAS WILD IN MY FIRST COLLEGE RACE OUT IN CO I GOT IN A BREAK WITH SOMEONE FROM BACK HOME ESPECIALLY SPECIAL WITH ZACK AS WE PRETTY MUCH CAME UP RACING TOGETHER AND HAVE A LOT OF HISTORY IT WAS COOL...BUT NOW THAT HE GOES TO CSU AND I GO TO CU WE ARE NEMESES! LATER IN THE DAY I LINED UP FOR P12 CRIT...IT WAS JUST A LOCAL CRIT BUT THE LOCAL FIELDS OUT HERE ARE FREAKING STAR STUDDED...DISCLAIMER...THIS IS WHERE THE EXCUSES BEGIN. YEA SO THE FIELDS HERE ARE PRETTY KILLER IT WAS ONLY 40 GUYS OR SO BUT SOMETIMES THAT MAKES IT HARDER ESPECIALLY WHEN 15' IN IT IS ONLY DOWN TO 20 GUYS, NOWHERE TO HIDE. BUT YEA IT STARTED I WAS FEELING DECENT STARTED THROWING DOWN SOME ATTACKS RIDING AS PER USUAL...SOON GUYS STARTED GETTING SHELLED AND IT WAS GETTING WINDY, ABOUT 30' IN MIKE FRIEDMAN...YES THE OLYMPIAN...THO THATS NO EXCUSE AND I DONT PLAN ON USING IT ANY RACES THIS YEAR SINCE HE IS JUST ANOTHER GUY TO BEAT...BUT IM GUESS IM USING IT RIGHT NOW...WELL HE WENT TO THE FRONT FOR 4-5 LAPS AND WAS JUST GOING CRAZY IT SPLIT THE FIELD AND I WAS IN THE FRONT BUT I BUSTED MY ASS TO GET THERE AND THEN JUST BLEW SKY HIGH AFTER TRYING TO PULL IT BACK TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER 10' OR SO IT WASNT COMING BACK TOGETHER AND I DROPPED OUT DISGUSTED WITH MYSELF...BUT CEST LA VIE, ONLY MARCH, GOOD FIRST DAY OF RACING. OKAY SUNDAY...SUNDAY WAS A GOOD DAY THERE WAS A 9 MI TT IN MORRISON, CO. TRYING TO GET THE LEGS READY FOR REDLANDS...ITS ABOUT 30 MILES AWAY SO I GOT SOMEONE TO DRIVE MY TT BIKE AND I RODE THERE, DID THE THE TT AND RODE BACK. GOOD NEWS IS I FELT REALLY GOOD ON THE TT BIKE, FELT PRETTY STRONG STILL NEED TO GAIN SOME MORE POWER TO GET READY FOR THE BIG STUFF BUT IM CONFIDENT ILL BE THERE IN GIVEN TIME, BUT FELT GOOD ON THE TT, TOOK 2ND IN THE COLLEGE RACE SO I WAS PRETY PLEASED WITH THAT, TIME 19:52, LOST TO ALISTER THOUGH, HE SMOKED IT 19:21. BUT I WAS DECENTLY HAPPY, NOT AS BIG FIELD IN THE TT AS THE CRIT ONLY 30. RODE BACK THERE WAS A TAILWIND WHICH WAS SWEET SLAMMED IT HOME AT 400 WATTS. TODAY IM SICK BUT JUST A LITTLE THING TOOK OFF THE BIKE TO TRY AND GET BACK ON NORMAL SCHEDULE BY TOMORROW, TODAY IS THE 9TH SO REDLANDS STARTS IN 16 DAYS...DAMN THATS CLOSE! PLAYING A TRICKY GAME BALANCING GETTING READY AND NOT SHOWING SICK OR HURT.

the big ring on the triple was too big....

2010-03-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

i had to get a mountain bike crankset. its been gorgeous in boulder this week, absolutely loving it...feeling lucky that the weather gods have blessed us. training has been going pretty well, nyothing new really just going out and smashing it at 500 watts...had a good weekend of riding last weekend, really nice day on saturday for the gateway which is the big groupride out here, its about a 3hr ride, pretty fun mostly flat, one 5' climb that has some bite to it. usually its pretty fast which is fun, this was the last weekend before racing starts so guys were revving pretty hard. then had a good ride on sunday for the most part until it snowed the last hour but it was a wet snow more like rain so wasnt too much of a problem. this week has been good...i had gotten all registered for jeff cup to come home and do it over my spring break with the team, then monday night i got some great news...we got into redlands! i will be guest riding on the bikereg-cannondale team, so bad news is im out 38 bucks for registering for jeff cup but i will be doing redlands classic instead so its pretty exciting. im lucky to have the chance from the bikereg guys to get to do this race. its supposed to be really hard ive heard nothing but horror stories about the last day on the sunset loop, but im training hard to be ready so it should be good. the most important about doing redlands is that it marks a good transition out of the junior ranks and into full time senior where theres going to be a lot of nrc races on the plate. im excited to get a good nrc stage race into the legs early in the season so that i can go to tour of gila this year ready to go and rip some legs off hopefully...we'll see, that would be nice. other exciting news is that racing starts for me this weekend...i feel like all across the country people have already been racing a good bit, even at home where they've been pounded by snow, but im excited to get my season started. on saturday im doing a crit in denver, i will do the collegiate race which should be a blast, getting to race against a lot of good buddies from d20 that we're all just happening to be going to school out here. then ill do the 1/2 race later in the day, even out here in colorado ill have a kelly teammate, with russ brown. then sunday is a 8 mile tt, its only like 25mi from boulder so im planning to ride there race and ride back, trying to get in some good hours. redlands is a thursday-sunday race. thursday is a short 10' or so prologue, its a mostly hill climb prologue whihch is exciting, but it looks like most people still use the tt bike and since im flying im gonna save some dime by just using the road bike so not sure how that will play out. friday is a 106 mile road race with some pretty hard climbing in it and apparently last year got shattered by some brutal cross winds. saturday is a 90' crit that doesnt start till 6:15...ughhh not a fan of the whole night crits, i knwo some guys are but im a wuss. sunday is the brutal sunset circuit road race, 95 miles that apparently just blows to bits, this is the day that im most excited for and should be a really good test...or a really good heartbreaker, we will just have to wait and find out........

yea im pretty excited i guess you can tell by how much i just typed...though i doubt many are still reading far enough to read this sentence...except for you dad and mom, thanks guys

colorado weather can be weird

2010-02-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

my training has really gotten back on track since being sick, its been good and very reassuring as i was starting to get worried. i had a good weekend of training, this past saturday i rode up to estes park which is a pretty long climb out of lyons, and is about 2000 feet higher than boulder. the weather was super nice, it was close to 50 down in boulder...im sorry for the shitty weather back home...when i got up to estes park it was nice and sunny and pretty warm...for 8000feet. i rolled into the gas station convenience store to fuel up on 1000 calories or so of little debbie and hostess treats in order to lay down some mega watts on the way back to boulder. well much to my surprise when i came out of the store the sky had turned gray and it was snowing. i slammed down my twinkies and danishes, threw on my jacket and jumped on my bike and got the hell out of estes park. its a climb out of estes then you start descending back towards boulder. i slammed it out of estes and within 5 minutes of climbing the snow was behind and me and it was warm and sunny again...so weird. otherwise nothing notable to share, the volume has been coming back up and ive been getting some good efforts back in my legs so starting to feel better about this whole bike racing sport once again. i wish i had something funny to write, i feel like this blog was way funnier when i started it and now its taken more of a serious turn...thats unfortunate somewhat, or not. still dont know if we're into redlands or not, im pretty excited to come back and do jeff cup and race withthe guys if i dont get in, so either option would be sweet...id actually kinda rather do jeff cup...but then again id rather do redlands...just one will make me bleed through my eyeballs way more than the other.

looking for something

2010-02-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

stuff has been going pretty well, after tucson i had about one week of going pretty easy then it was straight back into the training grind, and for 3-4 weeks training was going awesome. i had some really good rides. i had an awesome ride in the mountains with matt cooke, that really helped my confidence going into this season. i was doing more volume then ive ever done and having some really good workouts. then about two weeks ago my roommate was pretty sick and a few other friends in the dorms were sick, it was only a matter of time guess, i got pretty sick. i was pretty shitty feeling for awhile and it took a while to get over it. ive been back on the bike for about a week now but have seriously been struggling to get through a single ride without wanting to throw my bike and many other things against a wall. its been rough ive been pretty bummed about where my riding is right now. today i finally had a decent ride for the first time in a bit. nothing special just 2hrs but i did one good effort and actually felt some semblance of myself on the bike so it was very reassuring, as i was beginning to think i might never be able to break 300 watts again. so it feels like training is heading back up and hopefully in another week or so ill be feeling some confidence again because serious racing is just around the corner. collegiate races start in a few weeks on march 6, and i will do some of those for sure. also, i will hopefully be racing at redlands and san dimas. i have the chance to race redlands on bikereg-cannondale, as its team entry only. right now i am just waiting if the team gets in or not, if we do i will be doing san dimas for kelly which is a cool so cal 3 day stage race and redlands for bikereg which is a 4 day nrc stage race. if not i will be home for jeff cup with the team, either option would be fine with me, it'd be nice to be home and race with the team but to race redlands would be good prep heading into the season to get ready for gila and onward. otherwise everything is going well in boulder, we had some snow, im not sure i can even call it that though compared to what yall have been getting in dc, crazy stuff. the garmin u23 team is having their training camp in boulder this week which is kinda cool, they seem to be the premier u23 team in the country right now, i guess along with trek-livestrong i'd throw down some serious watts to be on either one of those teams at least thats the plan...come june hopefully. ive been thinking about it lately and to win at u23 nationals and pull a big upset over those two teams would be the ultimate, that was sort of the situation i was in at fitchburg with no teammates and going against 7 of the best guys in the country on hottubes, but its a whole different level in the u23. we have a strong little squad of us on kelly though, three of us first years, me, kevin gottlieb, and steven black. then one more u23 in russ brown. it should be exciting to go to u23 nationals, i think we can ride for a jersey in the road race at least thats my plan, it should be good. well thats what on my mind recently, if i cant feel fast at least i can think about it right? well hopefully in another week i will be back on my game. school has been going very well, im taking only 12 credit hours which is minimum full time student, but id rather do this and be able to do my best in training and school rather than mediocre in both and take a tougher load. im taking calc whihc is going well, ive had two tests calc, and bio its going well which is very good. i guess this is a pretty long blog post, its been a while so i guess it is kidna fitting, i just had some stuff i wanted to write down i guess. to everyone back home i guess keep training even though it sucks, this kind of weather can let you get way ahead of a lot of people that wont train inside, or at least wont train seriously. one of my best friends is living in dc, and doing 4+ hour rides on the trainer, and serious work, if people wanna hang with him you better put your nose to the grind stone.

playing for keeps

2010-01-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

im not sure what that means exactly, maybe it can mean different things, whatever it means im doing it in 2010...5hrs with lots of climbing today, good ride with a damn good rider, hoping for big things...playing for keeps

ive got some big goals in mind for this year, but i dont want to say them out loud quite yet, feels like i might jinx them, or maybe i just dont have full confidence in myself to get there yet but i think its coming, either way in 2010 we're playing for keeps

wrapping up tucson, going to boulder

2010-01-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

where did i leave off, lets see i want to cover the rest of tucson till now, today im leaving heading back to boulder...actually im sitting in the tucson airport right now...they have free wifi pretty sweet...denver has free wifi but it doesnt work very well...im going to take a writing pause to look back at my last post and see where i left off............................

ok so inspection shows i last wrote about last weekends riding...quick summary:

monday did a 2.5hr recovery day (i know long for a recovery day, but good to get some xtra volume in the sun before heading backk to cold)....we rode out to the saguaro national park which has this really fun 8 mile loop, one way traffic only, its really cool all up and down and twisty

tuesday...well i didnt have that good a day on tuesday...did some work on mt lemmon but didnt go that well...onto wednesday

wednesday was a sweet ride, 6hrs with kevin, steven, russ, and COACH SUE! We rode all the way out to a tiny town sonoita which is not far from the mexico border...sue rode tough and made it all the way with us, close to 120miles total...if she ever decides she wants to race masters natinoals those ladies better watch out

thursday, rode on mt lemmon again, lots of work done on mt lemmon this trip, very convenient and very good place to train

friday, rest day 1.5hrs rode with some cool people

saturday, was my last day riding, did the shootout which is a lot of fun. again 6hrs including madera canyon, lotta fast peple, more than last week, legs felt really good, i had an awesome climb going up madera canyon, except i got beat by a fat kid...i wish i was staying in tucson just to do this ride...a lot different from most group rides in that you can ride 6hrs with some of th best guys in the country learn a lot, and ive gotten some good contacts and attention just from doign this ride twice this break

well thats my finish to tucson, today im flying back...its been great, had an awesome block of training, close to 60hrs for the 15 days i was here...including not riding today. i wish i was staying down in tucson to march, like a lot of the guys down there...just livin the dream...but for now i need to focus on school, maybe next sppring will be something a little different

the weather forecast actually looks pretty good for boulder right now, highs over 40 every day...for the next 10 days at least...and two days over 50, so prob taking a pretty ez training week, but then keeping it going and get steam rolling for this season

still looking for a team for redlands...if not ill be home for jeff cup

good weekend

2010-01-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

had a good weekend of training here in the tucson sun. everything is going pretty well, im in my 2nd week of hte lbock here heading back to boulder on sunday. this past saturday me, kevin, and steven did the infamous shootout. its a fun group ride that starts from the university, usually prety fast and a lot of people, this week was no different. i was on a good day and had a great ride, it was one of my best days here, 6hrs total, with some good people, me and kevin took a longer route to add in a sweet climb...madera canyon. gord fraser was on the ride, he may be retired and "only" a director, but he is a beast, he won the sprint at the end and was dusting everyone the whole ride. ive always wanted to meet him and when i was riding next to him at one point i had to confess to him that pro which hes in is my favorite movie for cycling ever. it was pretty sweet moment for me. sunday we rode on mt lemmon. im having a blast out here its great. tomorrow doing quite a hard day...going to be doing a bit of a test of sorts, should be interesting well see how it goes.

sos

2009-12-31T15:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-30T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T19:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-09-22T18:42:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-01T20:26:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T09:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-30T15:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T21:11:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-22T20:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T18:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T12:02:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-20T11:31:00.002-07:00

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

2009-06-17T11:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T03:56:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-07T04:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

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

Snowball Crit

2009-02-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-20T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-03T18:41:00.001-08:00

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!

Chillin...tooo chill

2009-01-26T15:04:00.001-08:00

HAHAHA...I thought my post title was funny, just kidding pretty weak if you ask me. But yesterady was cold...I got out for 3hrs just steady on the TT bike, it was enjoyable. I met up with some of my mates to do this loop thats about 2hrs out in Great Falls, VA area, it was fun. Steven was freezing so I had to give him a pair of gloves...Bradley was also freezing but instead I just laughed...because he didnt sell me his quark. On Saturday I went up to Baltimore to do a ride with my team for this year...the Kelly amateur team, it was fun, it was snowing for a while but then subsided into just cold and wind, and rather sunny. We got some hard stuff in and everyone is sooo beast it was awesome...i wish I could've been part of the beastliness, but I was mostly just crying at the back, under the wrath of everyone's massive power. I should get my clothes by the end of feb. so then I can put up some sick cell phone pix of the 2009 kit...holla! Heres a picture of me and some of my best mates after the ride yesterday...from l to r:

-Steven Kendall...2nd biggest beast for 2009 for sure

-Me...winner of 2009 Tradezone #1...dropped every race the rest of the season

-B-rad Kendall...biggest beast for 2009 for sure

-Chris Abbey...2nd freshest looking race in 2009 (sorry but I always look the freshest)

I'm gonna go get on the rollers now...cuz its cold and dark...i met take a sick video on my cell phone and post it in a few hours...just sit at your computer hitting the refresh button until it shows up.

Rolling

2009-01-20T17:01:00.001-08:00

Sooo...yesterday I did something cool. On mondays I usually do the gym plus 1-1.5 hrs on the rollers. I've been wanting to try riding my TT bike on the rollers, but I'd seen other guys do it and it looked hard so I didn't try. But yesterday I decided to try and it was actually really ez...score! So I got a nice ez hour on the TT bike on the rollers, in the bars, and it is nice cuz you can ride in the bars for a long uninteruppted time cuz theres no stop lights etc. I had Avery take some pictures so I could post them on the blog to show my TT position. I think it looks pretty decent, let me know what you think...I think if I could get a little lower that'd be optimal, but i have the stem slammed right now and my back is pretty flat already, plus I'm comfortable in it and making the power pretty well.

Back

Side

Front

Race season is coming!!!!! I'm pretty pumped...I plan on being the person that crushes all the training races and sucks the rest of the season. So when I lap the field at tradezone dont cry tooo much I'll probably get lapped a few times at Jeff Cup, but I have no problem with that!

To Hurt

2009-01-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

So the other day in government class I was kinda bored so I wrote. That was kinda weird, I not really into writing, I don't really like it or consider myself I good writer...I actually think I'm a pretty bad writer. But for some reason I just felt like writing, I had all these random sentences popping into my head so I just decided to write it down on a piece of paper. I think what I wrote is not very good and rather sporadic...and is pretty standard of every bike racer, it's pretty cheesy I guess, but I figured since I wrote it out already I might as well type it up and put on the blog:

To Hurt

To win is to hurt...that is something I learned this summer. A victory is glory and joy, but it is also pain and suffering and dedication. Of course everybody knows that, it gets pounded into your head as soon as you enter the sport and think your something. But to really know it is something else. Everyone says "Man I went deep!", but did you? I think I know now. This past season was hard, I did alright, truthfully if I think back on the season carefully I get pretty dissappointed. There were a lot of missed opportunities I think, a lot of times I was right there and just choked...but if I took away one thing it's a new understanding. They guys at the top...of some of the races I was doing...it seems like they're at another level, but i dont think they are. Yeah if you're faster you're faster, but thats not always it. The guys at the top can turn it on...and thats what you have to be able to do. It doesnt matter, and no DS really cares if you can do 500 w for 20 min while holding a position that has a 1.687 CdA...I mean I dont even know what the hell that means. But if you can't turn it on when it's time to go you're screwed, pretty simple. I getting stronger, Im getting better, but most importantly I think Im hurting better...its what the sports about, I think. Theres some tact and wit involved as well, but you gotta hurt. I love the movie PRO. I think when Chris Horner says "you gotta wanna go...it's in the blood", that pretty much is the bomb. When I got the chance to go up to a big jr race in Canada this summer (basically just to get whooped up on) I saw a lot. I saw the kids on the French nat'l team getting up at the front and just stringing it out in the gutter, for like 15 min...one kid! The thing is there up though and they're going for it, one goal, one focus, and thats what its gotta be. I hope this season is good for me...I hope I can hurt, I think if I can hurt as well in the races I do in my training, I'll be in the top.

Quick Post

2009-01-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

So I kinda failed at blogging in Tucson, I was gonna try and update everyday but then I just didnt.

I'm gonna do a real quick post cuz I was about to leave for my ride but then an awesome song came on Pandora so I have to stay till the end so I'm doing something to occupy the time. In summation Tucson, was great got a good block of training in, and the legs are coming around well I think. Im pumped cuz Tradezone starts in just like 6 weeks or something...sweet!

Alright, songs over gotta go...oh yeah check out susanhefe.blogspot.com !!!!

Tucson Day 2

2008-12-28T19:52:00.001-08:00

Good day of riding today, it was sunny in Tucson. I got a good 5hours in with a bit of intensity. I did a pretty good FTP TT effort about 1.5 hrs in. I'm thinking about talking more in depth about that, but it's really nothing special so I'm just gonna leave at that (cough cough...385w...cough). Oh yeah it was so cool, today for a bit of the ride we rode with this guy that rode for Toyota United this past season...his name's Fred, and he can trackstand!

Once we got back to the house I headed out for a little more, did a quick run up Gates Pass and down the backside (steep side), I then came back up and did it hard up the steep side, got a good little effort in right der. This picture is from like halfway down Gates looking out at the valley, pretty different from the epic Best Buy I pass everytime I do my favorite ride back home!
Tomorrow I'm doing a little shorter, but going to do some hill repeats on Gates cuz on Tuesday we're gonna do a big one out to Kitt Peak. But otherwise all is good, just wanna give a quick shout out to my mom C-Wizzle, I miss you mommy!

Tucson Day 1

2008-12-27T16:52:00.001-08:00

So we got to Tucson at about 1am this morning, luckily I was able to sleep some on the plane there, which is weird because I usually can never sleep on planes. After some extra sleep at the house, we headed out for a ride. Today would've been our only day to do the shootout since we're only here for a week, but with the late flight it wasn't really feasible. Steven Black who got here last night went to do it. The ride today was pretty solid, we just rode pretty steady I got a good ~4hrs in, not really too hard, at the end I did a trip over Gate's Pass, just pretty ez which was nice, it always makes me happy to climb!...probably because I get to see people cry when I climb! It was nice and sunny today but not to warm, it was in the 40's but the next week it's supposed to get up into the 70's. Later in the week we're going to hit Kitt Peak and Madera Canyon and Mount Lemmon. Also beast from the east and west Russ Brown is coming out to Tucson tomorrow so I'm gonna throw down withhim. If anyone is out in Tucson or knows people that are in Tucson that want to do some good climbing and long rides then holla!...for realy cuz Kitt Peak and Madera Canyon are some pretty big rides and it wouldn't hurt to have a few more motors, about 5 Lances for example equal one me!

Also, I took some cell phone pics on the ride today of just stuff...here is just a random peak, the scenery around here is such a nice change for the eyes from the DC suburbs:

This picture is of this long straight flat road with just desert around, it was pretty beast, made me feel hard:
So yeah should be a good little block of training this week, see how it goes. I'm starting to get pretty pumped for next season, Tradezone starts in like 6 weeks or something, hopefully by then I'll be on peak form. I'm gonna come out all guns a flying and just lap the field like two or three times at the first Tradezone then just go into hibernation the rest of the season, satisfied with a good early season haul. If you want to form a composite team to ride support for me at Tradezone #1 then email me at: nate1wilson@verizon.net

Alright...I was kidding

2008-12-24T18:03:00.000-08:00

Soooooooo...on my last post when I said my training schedule and asked for advice, I made that up. I tried to make it as crazy as possible while still being believable. I was dissappointed I only got two people to take the bait, but Chip and Kyle's responses were entertaining to me. Sorry fellas to trick you!

In other news I did some real training today...my buddy zack is back from college at CSU and we rode out to Great Falls and rocked some hill repeats, or more truthfully I rocked some hill repeats while he sat on my wheel and cried. While out there we saw the venerable Nick Bax, presumably home on his christmas break from college. He was towing some guys around that seemed to b riding on his wheel in a similar manner Zack was on mine...ahh tis the life of crushing people! But no really I cried every time up great falls, it was worth it though, because maybe I'll be stronger now.

Whenever I'm coming back home from that direction I usually go over chain bridge up to Arlington, the main road after chain bridge has a lot of traffic on it so I go up this little side road that is like mad steep so today I took a picture of it, dissappointingly the picture doesn't accurately portray how steep it is. Next time I go up it I'll try and get a better picture...I cried going up that hill too...c'est la vie!

Training

2008-12-21T16:27:00.001-08:00

Sooooooo...everything has been good, training is pretty solid I THINK? Yesterday I got a nice 4 and a half hours in the WV mountains with some beast bikers. My cannondale is currently in a box on the way to Tucson, AZ as it is much cheaper to ship fed-ex then to pay the rediculous bike fee on the plane. So Sue let me borrow her back-up bike to ride until I go out to Tucson, it is the first road bike in 6 years of riding I have ever ridden besides my cannondale...except for turkey day a few years ago where my bike was broken and I rode my mom's women's specific ruby in the junior and then sue's ruby in the 1/2/3. But here's the bike it's pretty sweet, its a 54 instead of a 56 but i just jacked up the post and it is sweet, so stiff and supple a ride, the ceramic seat post bearings are exquisite!

The ride was good we did an epic 30min climbing test at the end with some vicious switch backs, but before we could get down to bussiness Blair had to get a flat 7.5min into our ride...exciting!
Today I got out on the bike for about 2.5 hours I took this shot becuz it is g...and I don't have my powertap cuz the wheel is on the way to Tucson, not worries, I jsut rode steady today anyway so not missing much...woulda been just a strait line at 320w on the file anyway.

You may recall the title to this post was "training?". Well that is because I've been thinking about my training schedule a lot. I've come up with it mostly on my own and some of Sue's input, I'm worried I'm not training enough for next year, I really want to be on good form. There are a lot of people out there that are much more knowledgable and have a lot more experience than me. So I'm putting my schedule for this week Mon-Sun below and would really appreciate any feedback I can get:

Mon- 2hr on the bike (outside) zone 2, power=250w @ 110 rpm...then full body gym 3x20, 45min on bike (rollers) after power=220

Tues- 3.5hr with 3 sets of 10x 30s HARD/10s off rest between sets 6min @ power=280

Wed- 4.5-5 hr with 2sets of 5x5min tempo efforts power=360, rest 5min between efforts @ power=200 rest between sets 10min @ power=250

Thurs- 5-6hrs all zone 2, power=250-260...remember your competition is taking off so every mile counts!!!!

Fri- Rest day...3hr on rollers power=230, core work

Sat- ~7hrs ride to Charlottesville, down skyline drive starting in The Plains power=250

Sun- ~7hrs ride back from Charlottesville, this time go thru Batesville, Wintergreen, Front Royal...Sue picks me up in Gainesville power=250 but hit Wintergreen and 211 climbs HARD

So this week is fairly big since I only have school Monday and Tuesday. But I want to know am I doing enough volume (not enough/too much?) enough intensity, the right intensity whatever. There's a lot of smart guys out there so give me some feedback, just post in the comments. Thanks! and have a good holiday!