Tall Grass Stage Race

Andy Weins & Regan’s let us stay at their town home in Manhattan, KS.  Their place was huge and I bet they have tons of slumber parties!  David picked me up from my place around 6:00pm and before we got to Andy/Regan's place we stopped at a Walgreens for some snacks, bread, cereal, and allergy med's for myself because my nose was like a waterfall.  We got decent rest and got on the road in time but we drove into Fort Riley a Military Camp, they let us go through because they said the bridge would be open... O-boy how they could be so wrong the bridge doesn't open till 8am and that’s when our race started, so now we are stuck driving around on roads that make you want to kill someone because they made no sense and what made it worse is they had so much construction that taking a route was uncertain because you might have to take another road that would lead you down a endless trail of frustration.  I think David was about to pull the car over and bail.  

 

We got the Tall Grass TT Stage with 1 minute left for registration, David and I where getting yelled at fellow teammates and wives’ and girlfriend about we need to get ready and if this was a real race or organize better we would be racing right now.  We both knew people didn’t need to make it worse by rubbing it in.  There was a moment when David and I thought about, ‘fuck it we can race with regular pants, we don’t care!’  The TT was 3.4 miles long and a nice uphill, wish I could have gotten a warm up but you can only do what you can with the cards you are dealt.  I placed 8th out of 9^th in the TT. 

 

The Crit was later on in the day; we raced in a parking lot where town homes would be built later on in the year.  Nothing would protect you from the wind at this race, fast figure -8 course, two hills, and scary corners that had drainage pipes underneath a turning-fast down hill, you couldn't just turn into this corner, you would have to turn, straighten your bike, roll over the bump, and turn again-while maintaining a 28-34+mph.  If you didn't turn properly into the corn then you could expect getting some air into and washing out your front wheel and this happened in the master and cat 4s....    

 

I got 2 primes and Justin Leopold placed 1st, Spencer Martin 2nd they stayed away while David and I covered the front with Adam Leopold.  I took off before the start/finish hill for the field sprint. I had that gut feeling that I needed to go now or never, so I jump into the headwind, place myself in the gutter, make the last turn for hill, click-click for more gears and get 3^rd place.  

 

Tall grass fucked up all the result even after we fixed everything at awards on Sunday after the road race. I am some how 4th on the Crit and Spencer got 2nd but they have him at 4th.  Doesn't matter the fields where small and they finished us with the proper times... how can you mess up peoples results when everyone had 9 or less starters in each field... It’s not that hard to mark people down...

 

The Road race the 3 had 9 riders and I think the 4s had the same maybe a few more but we started together so the 62 miles RR was a little bit easier.  Some fours where scared at how fast we where riding an especially when we kept attacking, best quote from Hart, " Can you please, tell them to stop attacking." in a soothing voice. I won 3^rd for KOM on the first lap, we already had 2 people away in a break and Spencer and Justin had agreed that I go and take it.  Long Story short lots of attacks David and I tried to get away 2 times -3^rd time he gets away with Colorado kid, later on we catch the other teammate of the Colorado kid and David followed maybe 10-15 miles later.  Justin, Spencer, David we all know we need to kill it for the KOM hill and leave everyone.  Spencer kills it and I wasn’t in position for this neither do I think Justin was and has a really good gap.  Justin almost rides off the road when he looks back, he catches Spencer and there about 2 times when I almost had 12 bike lengths in catching them, eventually two 4’s racers are working together and catch me and we end up working together.  I drop them up the hill for the finish and get 5^th.  

7hours in the Saddle

Tuesdays Ride of 137 miles...

[Ride found here on Strava]

So I wanted to ride to Lawrence, Kansas & back and do it fairly early in the morning.  I woke up around 6:45 am rolled out of bed and began boiling water.  I made steel cut oats, almonds, honey, chraisins, and vanilla flax seed powder with french press coffee.  I let everything sit in the digestion chamber for 50mins and was on the road around 8:30.  Took the usual Saturday Parisi ride out to Bonner Springs on Kaw Dr and made my way on  Linwood Rd to Lawrence.

Once I hit Lawrence I hit up the coffee shop for a quick fix of cappuccino wasn't in the mood for an expresso straight.  I had already eaten the organe flavored blockshots that cliff bar makes 6 of them 1/2 shots 2/3 ever 45 mins.  Settle for organic pumpin bread also a yummy treat.  filled up the my water bottle and hit the road out.  I kept the pase at 19.1-24mph, was what i settled on the way out to Lawrence and did the same going back to KC.  I would get 21-24 brought my average up too 21mph as my over average when I was exiting Kaw drive I got a flat at mile 80, (2:00-2:30pm), with a sliver/metal spool wire giving me a flat.  First rule when getting a flat you find shade and I found it fairly quickly also began to patch the hole and put a new tube in.  I was praying that I wasn't going to get another flat!

(off subject: Yes, I road on Tuesday but I knew I wouldn't make it to Tuesday Night Worlds (crit) because I had a meeting at 7pm that night or I would have done all this riding and race! + I really wanted to do this ride on Monday but it rained all morning so I got other things DONE!)

I hit up Broadway Caffee filled both water bottles this time with another cappuccino and my all time favor apple cake with walnuts - so freakin good! This time I was eating 2 shot blocks ever 45mins that are cherry flavored making it 2 shots of express this time around.  I made sure I was on top of my ish because I was on the fence of riding to Longview to get another 40-50 miles in.  Lawrence from my house or you can say Union Station is 85 miles! thats 4 hours at best... I also ate a stinger waffle has no protein but I brought a packet of shot rocks and they sure rock with cookie dough! I hit up Longview and I must saw it was enjoyable ride out and back, I went Thai Place in Westport after the ride Tuesdays special of buy one get 1 plates.  I ordered Thai noodle combo with shrimp/chick- spicy HOT, and took the second plate home.  I finished right at 7hours and 1 minute with 137miles.  In all felt good the entire time never felt like I was going to bonk.  Took a shower and took a quick nap before I had to be at a meeting about art work for the up coming show at Spray Booth.

what i took on my ride for food and drink stuff?

• 2 waffle stingers
• 1 shot rock pack has lots of protein 
• 1 cliff bar
• 2 blockshots, (one had 1/2 shots of expresso the other 1 shot in each block, they come in a page of 6   blocks)
• Hammer Gel Fizz, was used on the way back from Longview
• 2 bottles on the bike of 24oz of water
• 1 bottle of 20oz of Hydro solution 2 scoops of powder - started drinking this when 3 hours hit finished around the Swope Park on the way from Longview.

How do I feel today-Wednesday? Feel fine, right leg is a bit sore or how ever you want to call it when you apply pressure to your thigh... I road my bike to work and home to try out my new Bar Fly! Road again for 1hour to spin the legs out of any acid build up.  Will do another easy spin tomorrow 1.5 hours and get ready for Tour Da Grove in Saint Louis! 2/3 field Friday-Sat-Sunday!  Plan on seeing Laura on Friday to get a message, should be good!

(yes, i know I am not the greatest writer when its on the fly but at least im writing something...)

Joe Martin - Stage Races!

Joe Martin (JM), took two cars 5 bikes with Spencer, Joe, Brian, David, & myself. Davis booked us at Quality Inn, a first time for the hotel-hosting Cyclist for the JM – the entire staff wore JM t-shirts, maids & innkeepers. Free breakfast, with waffle batter, apples/bananas, tons of toast/bagel selections, a juice machine, and don't forget we had a coffee machine that made Starbucks coffee in 40 seconds. The coffee machine could make regular and dark roast blend or do a half and half of each blend - really good! 

Joe Martin requires you to do all three races you can't come to the race wanting to skip the TT or Crit, must do all three courses to participate. You did the races in the following order TT-RR-Crit.  The TT was my first time doing a TT and it was hard couldn't shut the voices out of my head, but next year I'll kill that fricken hill! Before TT, Spencer and I warmed up by riding out Devils Den, pretty steep switch backs of 8-10 hills pretty fun going down if cars didn’t come up the hill.  Spencer was happy with my form and expect a lot from me heading into the TT, but I fell apart, ill be working on my TT seeing that it’s very important and plays a crucial role in getting good results!

RR, road race - I really wanted to do the road race and was excited. Spencer got GC for our team and we all agreed to ride for him, made scene because if he got first that's a lot of money he could share with his us his teammates. Duh.  The field seemed like it didn’t want to hammer because of the early morning TT suffer fest, our race started at 3:00 for the Road Race.  People where on the brakes a lot felt like Tour of Herman again…  A few attacks people let them go into the wind not really letting them get to far but letting them hurt themselves in the wind.  Everyone was feeling each other out, had some Jr’s thinking they where the stuff and maybe next time a few of us thought about giving them the elbow because they where all over the place, touching you – to tell you that they where on this side or don’t move… sick of that shit use your freakin voice!  Cat III we always made sure no one was riding on the double yellow line rule or passing on the outside – you will get yelled at and reminded about the rule!  I chose to ride in the back even though I fought to stay in the middle of the pack, just seemed to be a day when people wanted to sit in for a bunch sprint and we did.  David was at the front with Spencer and Briand and I hung out together in the back. David drifts off the front for a TT solo no one chases and he is out there for a good 5-8 miles maybe less but it seemed like forever.  Keep the pressure off Spencer. We sweep up David but everyone in front slows down just to ride behind him, no attacks.  Last few meters of the race David is off the front again telling Spencer to get his butt in gear because he drifted to the mid-back and boxed in, by this time I am behind Spencer and he drifts behind me.  David says, “GO ANDREW!” I punch it trying to see if I can latch onto the left hand side of the train, (picture example: the train was like this on the left handside of the road a lot longer and I make a train on the right),

of the peloton but it wasn’t worth it, so I ride all the way over to the right not guttering Spencer, put the hammer down to pull ahead of the other train people panic and yell on the right, people want to hop on lead out I am creating and I couldn’t get into the last 2 gears of my bike and spin out at 38mph with a 178bpm and I can get my heart up to 210 and hold if for 30 seconds could have done more and Spencer sprints 300meters and gets 3^rd. I am happy that Spencer got 3^rd  but he wishes he would have won.  I wish I could have placed top 10 or 15 for that opener but I sat up and didn’t want to cause a crash and let everyone pass me. Kyle Skinner gets 4^th Eric P 5^th they aren’t on TC/PC but they are friends and they where surprised and happy about the lead-out for Spencer. Think I made some alliances by doing the lead-out, showed that I was stronger than the field but ended up working for a teammate that’s fine in my book can kill it another day to get results top 3!  I really want a win a race hopefully soon; I can feel it and will be working hard to get it. 

Crit on Sunday,

Had a decent warm up, we had a 45 min race but was cut shot to 40 minutes and later we are told that the Master had some crashes and they where getting there sorry skins of the road.  The wait another 15 minutes before the officials tell us to go.  Sucked standing around 25 minutes also a lot of us wanted to go to the bathroom again by all the waiting.  The races gets on the way get caught be hind people that cant clip in there pedals and I’m on the inside where you cant turn because the side walk has a curb that juts into the hole shot, I am in the back… (The corner more or less is weird to describe becomes more of a hazard in the road! Surprised no one crashed just a lot of breaking at this corner…) where you don’t want to be for a crit, do my best not having to touch my brakes because you want as much speed going into corners because you will usually have to sprint or accelerate out of corners drawing out the process of you becoming really tired.  Crits are like CX races always on your limit or rather your threshold if your not careful.  Get caught behind people that are opening gaps and its already to hard to pedal behind them to close a gap because you feel like your on your limit to pop, it happening to be 5 to-go? When did that happen we are having a 30 minute race!!!!!!!  I get dropped ride hard by myself because I don’t want to get pulled out of the race, I look back and see a guy from Georgia kit waves be down, we work together he gets dropped a few times from not holding my wheel but he soon pulls in front of me, yes I need it only for a few seconds and I take over, he could ride the hill as much as he thought he could So I always road the hill and he did most of the easy work for going down the hills and I pulled on the flats and hill, we catch a guy and he says Thank you and that he owes me one and pulls us to the other guy and I hammer it up the hill.

We get back to KC, buy beer and have a fire at my place. 

FIN

Tour of Hermann

Tour ofHermann, first time ever doing this race, wasn’t scared of hills because I can ride them pretty well, last time I will ever due this race because it’s the last time it will be held.  Sad because it was a wonderful race, checking in-out was fast and easy-PAINLESS!  Hopefully someone will pick up the slack and put the race on them selves – can only hope!  

The race gets on the way, didn’t for see one of my main-hand-man David N pop so fast on the hills also Kenny got popped but I am guessing they road together.  David has been having some issues with his leg and stuff but we can save that for later.  Still had Brian L (blood brother), Spencer M, & Chris H.  The field was stacked with equal rider ability to just hammer and keep mph very high even on the hills.  We did something like 3.300ft of climbing in 2 laps 58miles.  So lets fast forward we make it to the start/finish with 1 lap to go after this, we see Gutenberg Wall a.k.a. THE WALL hardest part to the wall is the 15%grade that changes very quickly to 23% grade as Strave says(I also get the KOM on Strave for THE WALL with 13.9pmh and 169BPM)… it was awesome to see the 2 Jr’s battle it out with yelling and tossing of the bikes for the KOM but I had nothing to worry about because I was not in contention for KOM’s because you had to do the crit and TT to get KOM’s.  Back too the race, I was sitting mid pack and made sure I was on the outside for this climb and Spencer made sure he did the same we both watch the kids and ride up the hill after the wall there is a feed zone that flatten out but still on a hard grade Brian sling shots around me and we are in a semi brake 2-3 other rides come with us with the Jr’s to do more climbing!   We are in a break of 8 and 3-4 more dudes join us and after we get over the next hill we follow up with big ringing it’s and hammer time, we try and get a rotation going but nothing really gets to working out smoothly and more people join us 6 more or so and we get more and more riders tacking on… failed brake at dropping the weak.  We where on the brake so much I think I might need new pads after this race… Final 12 miles things speed up and 1-2-3 rows stretching the field out a few people attack nothing sticks.  Spencer and I ride at the front not taking pulls in the wind and Spencer attacks I go with we pick an extra guy 2s that have nothing.. But its not worth it so we sit up and Eric Sphinx and a teammate attack, I latch on with Spencer on my wheel but his teammate kills himself before he waves for a pull through and I take a pull a good one and Eric say’s sorry man…. Spencer comes and he attacks but nothing again.  The peloton settles in for the straight way into town, I was pretty far back when this happened did my best to work my way up was a little sketchy when a Jr. cut me off on the inside and opened the gap on the inside again also in front of him. So I punch it and by this time, people have already punched it before the turn into start/finish I make up a lot of spaces, turn, whined of the gears some more and sprint to get 10^th place.  Spencer gets 3^rd Eric gets 1^st.  Not the result I wanted but only so much you can do.