Chronicles of Lexcalibur

Snow to slush and back again!

2012-01-29T11:24:00.001-08:00

The off season rides are some of my favorites! This weekend consisted of two endurance rides so to say the least I saw a lot of nature! I love these rides so much because I can just be riding by myself in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road for miles and miles! Both days the weather was okay...the wind was driving pretty hard and it was cold but I have kinda gotten used to it living in Michigan. Using Enzo’s ButtonHole Chamois Cream I was able to be comfortable for both of the multiple hour rides, well if you subtract that burning sensation from my legs the whole time...Did you know all of Enzos products are made right here in the US of A that is so cool to me!

Saturday's ride started off at a nice and easy 32 degrees which I was dressed well for but unluckily for me a couple hours in it was all sun and man was I burning up! The worst part was the roads turned to complete slush and mud! I was really hoping I wouldn't have to wash my bike today oh well! The ride ended in sun but I ended up covered in mud! During the ride I as able to eat some of the greatest riding food known to cyclist! Honey Stinger products are the bomb! Today's lunch consisted of 1 bag of pink lemonade chews which are delicious! 1 honey peanut butter bar which is without a doubt one of the best bars I have ever tasted, and I saved the best for last, a vanilla waffle! I am not quite sure I could have gotten through the day without such a great lunch! All of their products are like instant happiness in a wrapper!

Sunday's ride had no wind but no sun as well so I was in for a cold one. I got about 1.5 hours into the ride and the snow just started pelting down and truthfully it was really fun! The roads were icy as as well so the name of the game was studded tyres. Talking about studs, I passed a guy whose car was in the ditch and told him, "get some studded tyres" he laughed and told me to have some fun! People out in the middle of nowhere are so nice! The wind picked up and the snow really started hammering with about 1 hour to go... I was extremely happy to have my Oakley Radars! I am pretty sure I wouldn't have lasted very long without them! They conform very well to my face making it nearly impossible for those pesky little snowflakes to attack my eyes! They also look, well awesome!

Overall a spectacular weekend! Looking forward to getting some sun in Tucson, AZ in the coming weeks! On another note it was great finishing off the day watching the NHL all-star game as well as the Australian Open Finals, may be next year Nadal!

Stay tuned for updates and keep on riding!

Yellowstone and Cote Dame Marie

2012-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Yellowstone was a blast! I wish I had the time to sit down and write a detailed version of my whole trip, but, unfortunately, it's not working out. We were there for just about to weeks. The scenery was without a doubt the coolest thing I have ever seen! I skied arms length away from a pack of coyotes, saw a moose that was easily 3 times as big as I was, and watched boiling water shoot up out of the earth about 150 feet high! This place is a paradise! My days would consist of waking up, breakfast, going skiing for 2-3 hours, eating lunch, relaxing for a bit, going for an evening ski then dinner! It was a wonderful feeling and there were no cars in the park during the winter. The only way in or out was in a snow coach (Yellowstone vehicle on snowmobile traks.)After being in the actual park for about a week, we then left the park but had an incident on the way out... A boulder the size of a small house fell in front of us! We were stuck in the park for one more night before leaving. We then went to West Yellowstone, a town right outside the park, and Big Sky, MT which is a little further away. The flight home wasn't bad, but what a magnificent trip that it had been!

Three weeks in between Yellowstone and Cote Dame Marie.

This last weekend was very fun! Saturday started off with a 5 am wake up call to drive to the Cote Dame Marie Ski race in Grayling, Michigan. It wasn't a boring drive though; we got pulled over for speeding. The race was really fun but insanely cold! It was -13F when we arrived around 8:30 am in the morning. I raced 20 minutes faster than last year... skiing 30 kms in just over 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was very fun but also very tiring having not skiied in three weeks since Yellowstone. Sunday it was still decently cold, so we made an ice rink on the lake and Vincent and I played a good game of hockey! I miss that sport! Just fyi Redwings are leading the entire NHL!

Headed to Yellowstone Tomorrow!

2011-12-22T07:05:00.000-08:00

So I was skyping with my best friend ever Colin Joyce and guess what?! He is going to be in Yellowstone the same time we are! We didn't plan this at all! Im so pumped to see this kid! Hope everyone has a great holiday! Check back to hear about my Yellow Stone adventures!

Great Weekend - My Birthday, Rems Birthday and a Mtn. Bike ride on the ice

2011-12-19T04:59:00.000-08:00

So to start it off I had a great week of training, riding, hitting the gym, skating with my brother Vincent then the weekend came. First off was my birthday on Friday. The day started off like any other...school, but after my bike ride I took a shower and went to Vincents practice to get some skating in and he got me my present there! What a great brother. After practice we were headed back home and I was texting my girlfriend Leda who had had dance that night so we were going to go out another time next week for my birthday. So we got home and I just took my time getting downstairs just messing around texting Leda until my mom called for dinner. I knew we were having lobsters that night because my grandfather was in town and thats what he was making that night...we had had some pretty amazing meals the last 3 days as well! Leda texted me that she was having lobsters as well so of course I yell down to my mother in my fake British accent "mommy isn't it peculiar... Leda is having lobsters too". I was so tired I didn't think twice about it! When I got downstairs, my legs were just toast and rightly so but either way I sat down on the couch to take a picture with my younger brother Vincent. My mom was cracking up taking the picture i wasn't sure why but I was just trying to keep smiling so once again I didn't think about it... soon I learned why. Leda was hiding behind the couch and jumped out and covered my eyes after the picture. It was an amazing surprise... I was very happy! I couldn't believe I didn't think about it before though! Next it was time for dinner... Lobsters! It was a wonderful meal! Next was dessert...the best cake ever invented, Carrot cake I loved it! After that we all just chilled out until Leda left...in the end one of the best birthdays I have ever had!! Thank you Mama, Papa, Rem, Vincent, Grandpa (for cooking amazing lobsters) and of course Leda :)

The next day was Saturday Rems Birthday wasn't until Sunday but we were celebrating it today because my grandfather was leaving the next morning. Saturday I went for a long ride and ended the ride by riding to my friend Greg's house for a bit to hang out (I beat him in pool). Later that night was Rems Birthday we opened presents, ate dinner and had ice cream Oreo cake! It was a great night as well.

Sunday...this day was long! I awoke and did my usual core workout before going downstairs to the smell of waffles! The waffles were very yummy! Then it was off to skate with Vincents team again. I feel like I get ganged up on at his practices, its all the smaller kids vs. the bigger kid I wont lie though its pretty fun! After practice we had subs before heading home to go for a ride! My dad, me and Vincent were going on a mountain bike ride! The first dirt road we took was icy to say the least. Covered by trees this road just didn't thaw out at all. We got about half way down the road and the was a car turned on its side completely totaled, both air bags deployed, I was sure someone had died but luckily the young women AND HER BABY survived. We kept riding and eventually got to the trail...it was Vincents first time on the trail so he was feeling the learning curve. He did better then I did my first time though! He had a couple bush whacking expeditions on his bike but he got back on the trail and finished the ride out! On our way back the mixture of the road being icy and everyone being tired payed a toll...Vincent wiped out 3 times on the road while my dad wiped out once as well... You truthfully probably could have skated on this road! After we got back it was time to get ready to go to Leda's house for dinner, our whole family was going over there. Her parents are so nice! We all made pizza's and had a wonderful and very loud time. The mixture of her brothers and my brothers was quite explosive. We played sardines as well as spoons and a lot of shutting the lights off and running around yelling... the weekend turned out to be a success in the end! It was great! One more week of school before Christmas break!

Road ID

2011-12-15T12:03:00.001-08:00

The perfect little stocking stuffer! Click on the picture and keep your friends and family safe!

Team Mini Camp

2011-12-12T05:58:00.001-08:00

After spending Thursday and Friday with the Peterson's in kalamazoo, I was picked up Friday evening by Dan lam. We were then met at his house by the rest of the team from Michigan. We put all the bikes in the car and started our drive up to Indy! We arrived late that night. We 4 of us stayed at one persons house and the others stayed at someone else's house. It workout out pretty well! The next morning we were up and ready to rumble, we started the day at this wonderful breakfast shop that made the best breakfast sandwiches! After Breakfast we headed back to our host's house, Jason Fowler (Sram Rep) and hung out for a bit until we had to go to the Zipp factory for our team meeting. We watched some of this years Tour De France before heading over. Let me just start off by saying they have this place pretty well hidden. It was huge though and so cool! We walked in and the stairs had wheels built into them and the door handles were crank arms, we went into this big conference room and slowly the rest of the Indy team came in too... it was great to finally meet the whole team, I had known most of them from racing but not on a personal level... this was a chance to really get to know them! The meeting lasted a little bit over an hour, we got to see one of the team bikes built up which was sweet! We also went over a tentative race schedule, rules, dos and donts and rider contracts and sponsors. After the meeting we had a tour of the Zipp factory which was uber cool! After the tour we all got dressed for the adventure race...

The temperature was just under 30 degrees, we arrived in the middle of this park with no one but our team and these two guides. Declan, our manager split us up into 5 teams. Our goal was to get to the 15 waypoints that were planted throughout the woods. Each one was worth a certain amount of points and some were easier to find then others, we had a map with the waypoints plotted on the map as well as a compass. The gun was off and the race was on we all sprinted toward a waypoint, every team with a different strategy. The time limit was 90 minutes. My team was me, Mac Brennan, Nate Williams and Josh. We had a good plan that should work, Mac was really good with the map and Nate worked the compass, I would run to the checkpoints to stamp our paper. Checkpoint 15 was across the lake onto the peninsula, Nate and Josh paddled across while Nate and I examined the map and our strategy. We ran all the time, we got back and we had won! Partay! We did the course in 52 minutes. We most likely ran about 5-6 miles... needless to say many cyclists were going to be sore in the morning! After all of the teams were finished we headed over to a Mexican restaurant and had dinner. After dinner it was back to Jasons house for some showers and chilling. After that we went out to a restaurant called Brugge! They had some amazing Frites! After that it was back to bed for an early morning ride the next day!

Sunday started with a quick breakfast before getting ready for a 2-3 hour ride. We ended up riding only about 2 hours but it was great to get to know some of my teammates from the Indy side! Now us Michigan boys are on our way home... I am so stoked for this season!

All packed up again!

2011-12-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

Today Im headed for Kalamazoo! Ill be there riding with my friend Rudy Peterson for tonight and Friday before driving from there to Indy! Indy is where our team 'camp' is. It is more like a meet an greet because it only lasts 2 days but I am pumped for it! The weekend consists of some testing and hanging out in the Zipp factory, a team building activity which we are all scared/stoked for that is all on Saturday along with a ride. Sunday will consist of a 3 hour ride with a run and some hangout time before heading back to Kalamazoo! Stay tuned for the story of our adventure!

Back on the bike and loving it!

2011-11-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Ive been back on the bike now for a few weeks and it feels great! Don't get me wrong I love running cross country but my heart is with the bike. I get excited just thinking about how I can be 'more' ready then my competitors. The competition of the whole thing is exhilarating!

A lot of people driving by when Im riding give me that look like "why are you out in the pouring rain and mud suffering like a dog?" All I do is smile and they understand! This is fun for me! Its all for something that I really want. Something that I will push myself very hard for! Well Im not going to get to far into my training endeavors and tricks because shhhh! (my competition may be reading) ;) Thats all for now! Keep doing what you do!

Andy and Frank Schleck get interviewed

2011-11-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CofKpGRdb0

Cross Country State Championships

2011-11-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

States went ok, not as planned but it was fun. The team finished up 6th overall out of about 40 or 50 teams. The day was nice, a little windy but overall it was a fast course. It was crazy going into the state meet with less then 200 miles of running in my legs, but my goal was the same, to hit last years time of 15:44. I went out well hitting the mile and the two mile a exactly the same as last year! 5:03 and 10:13... I was running well, I was inside the all state margin but there was one problem. I was the only one of the team up here. I hit a wall at about 800 meters to go unfortunately. I just didn't have that last half mile in me and I drifted back to 46th place at the finish. I could not have run any harder though I nearly blacked out at the finish... and for that reason I am content. I finished best for dexter with Matt finishing 2nd The team just had not had the legs today. Matt and Taylor who usually run with me and ahead sometimes were to far back. Next year is that last chance for the state title I have always wanted... Hope everyone had a great weekend! Here are the results if you wanted a look! http://www.mhsaa.com/portals/0/documents/BXC/2011%20Finals%20Results/LPB1.pdf

Regional Champs!

2011-11-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the regional championships for cross country. The big fight was between Pioneer, Pinckney, and us (dexter). I got up in the morning ready to race... it was my last chance to really do something before states, portage had not gone as planned so to say. I got up early and iced/heated my ankles and knees (precautions). Breakfast consisted of about 3-4 scrambled eggs, a bowl of oatmeal with apples and nuts and honey inside and a yogurt to top it all off. I got in the car with my mom,and Rem and we headed off to the high school to carpool to the race. The race was held at Willow Metropark (willow tt for all my cycling friends)near the back of the park. When we got there it was a bit chilly and extremely wet and muddy. Some of the parents set the tent up (thank you!) so when we got there we could put our stuff down and relax. Around 11 we started our warm up... We ran some of the course including the big hill and then some of the spots that we thought were going to be muddy... they were. As we ran most of the course we learned that you had the best line going left through all of the mud pits. The course was a loop that we did twice, major features included a big hill on the back side and the 2 road crossings we had to make before the long finish straight! We finished warming up and stretched out and then went back to the tent to get our spikes on before the race. We headed to the line about 15 minutes before the start to do some drills and get ready... we had box 8 which was right about in the middle... a little to the left. There was a big dip about 100 feet out from the line that was filled with water, so our plan was that right off the line we move left. So we are moments from the race, Ive got the bugs in my stomach, I was really nervous. There is that silence before the gun is shot off and everyone starts running with their bladed feet. In that moment I just thought about what I had done to get myself to where I am from where I was at portage, I told myself I was going to run well, I had no other option. Boom! There goes the gun and we are off, it happened just as we all saw it, our team immediately moved left and took control of the field with Joe Wendorf taking it out hard. I felt so much better then I did at portage just off the sprint from the line! I was pumped! I moved up into about 4th or 5th position. We hit the mile at about 5:05... there were a ton more people there then I thought there would be! People were screaming and yelling! It was great! After going through the mile Matt and I were running together in about 4th and 5th and Joe had fallen back a bit. We started our second lap and hit the two mile a bit later (not sure of our split) Matt opened up a little gap before the hill that I closed on the way up. After the hill Matt started to pull away this was a little more then half a mile away from the finish, I really started to feel my limited training here. I pushed it in with Taylor flying by me with 300 meters to go, I jumped behind him and hung on for dear life! I finished in a time of 16:35, not great but the course was slow. (I ran 16:14 last year at the same course for regionals) When we finished, we started running over individual placings, a Plymouth runner had won, Pioneer had taken 2nd and 3rd. Matt took 6th, Taylor 8th, Me 9th, Joe 14th and Tim 16th I believe. We went back to our tent which I then realized was practically on an island, there was water surrounding the entire thing! We were starting out on our cool down when Coach told us we had won! Taylor and Tim just started jumping in the puddles, we all had celebratory hugs before actually starting our cool down. It was only later that we figured out how close it had been! We had only won by 2 points over Pioneer who had taken 2nd by 2 points over Pinckney! What a great race! We had 4 runners who went all region (top 15) (Matt, Taylor, Me and Joe) and we had 6 runners in the top 20! Next came the JV race! Many of them PR'd! On a slow course! We are going to kill next season! While the JV race was going on I hung out with Leda :) and cheered on our Dexter boys! Rem ran an 18:35! PR for him! Many others ran really well as well! Soon after the JV race came the awards, the 4 of us who were in the top 15 went up for our individual placing then came what I feel like was the best part, getting the trophy with the entire varsity team! We had done it! Now one more trophy to get this coming Saturday! States! Come watch us race! Its at MIS (Michigan International Speedway! Hope everyone is doing well!

Treadmills.

2011-10-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

For the past week (since Friday the 14th) I have been running at and going to the Running Institute Rehabilitation Center. I jumped into running at a high pace too quickly and irritated my knees and ankles. I was recommended to this store on Jackson rd. in Ann Arbor by my cross country coach. There are a lot of little things we are doing to get me back in shape and running competitively at states but the biggest advantage that I am getting while being there would have to be the Alter G. The Alter G is a treadmill with anti gravity qualities that was created by an ex astronaut. You can set yourself to run at a certain percent of your body weight, allowing you to get your legs running without the pounding. It has helped a lot!

I have done two hard workouts on it as well as many other easier runs. It is crazy because for example I have been running at 60% of my body weight so I can run at a really high mi per /min pace, so I ran at a 4:10 pace... your legs are moving so so fast! I hate running on treadmills though and this expensive machine with a price tag of 75,000 dollars is no different. Its so hot, and boring! It might be worse then the trainer on the bike! Well its all for the better of my running so ill stick to it!

Well Regionals is next weekend! The plan is to run JV there, get on varsity and run states well! Lets hope it all works out! The team is running fast and only getting faster. We have a really good chance of winning regionals and well states has always been our strong point ;). 1 more week on the Alter G! Wish me luck! Ill keep you guys posted!

The road from cycling to cross country

2011-10-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Beyond popular belief. Cycling and running really do not benefit each other in the least as I have learned painfully in the past 2 weeks. I started the season off by going to watch the team run a a meet in Adrian. After that my climb back to the varsity line up began. I started running the next day and man was it bad. I was running 9 minute miles and that was tough. The next morning was the worst though. I could barely walk! I practically slid down the stairs before trying to walk and looking like a tin man. It may sound funny to you but trust me it wasn't very funny. The next day wasn't much better aside from the fact that I got to go get a massage. My masseuse and long time friend Jeff Barnett told me to do 3, 3 mile runs for the next three days to get my legs back under me. Man did I suffer through that long weekend but my legs came out feeling better and better each day. This previous Monday I went out and ran 6 hills with the boys... ouch. Tuesday was an easy run with my mom. Wednesday would be the workout to find out if I had done enough. It was a Michigan. 1 mile, 1200 meters, half a mile, 400 meters. I ran at about 80% trying to make sure I didn't hurt anything. I was 5th on the team during the workout. The next day I was named onto the Varsity team along with Zack, Taylor, Matt, Tim, Joe and Blake. Brad and Hauke were both contending for the varsity spot which I sat in. It was hard and I still dont feel 100%... my ankles really hurt because they are not used to the pounding but, I have been icing them and I am looking forward to the race this weekend at portage! I cannot wait to see Brad and Hauke win the JV meet too! Lets go boys!

Day Fifty - Back in the US.

2011-10-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

So after many hours of travel, traveling over/through many countries and states, I am back in the United States! I managed to almost get stuck at customs by losing my decelerations form but I found it in time. The flight from Copenhagen to Newark was about 9.5 hours long. From there I flew back to Detroit, about a 2 hour flight. Neither flight was bad, I had good seats on both! Well sorry for a short post Ill have a new one up soon! Stay tuned!

Day forty Nine in Copenhagen, Denmark - Junior World Championships!

2011-09-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

The biggest race of my life. The junior world championships. The race was set to begin at 9 am. We awoke early at 5:45 so as to get to breakfast at 6. We finished breakfast and went back to the room to get dressed for the race and pack up a bag for after. We headed down to the bus at 7:45 to ride over. We took a quick team picture before riding to the course. When we got there we went to sign in... it was really cool because it was like the pros. We walked up on stage while being announced and signed a big board with our number on it! We then stood for team pictures then walked off. We then rode to the USA tent to relax until we went to the start. While in the tent we talked over our plan once more as well as put warming oil on our legs because it was chilly! We headed over to the line eventually... I saw Thierry (my uncle) as well as Max (my cousin) on the way over. I did roll out then got called to the line. We got called 7th as a team because we are 7th in nation cup points. When I was sitting on the line I saw my parents and Morgane (my cousin)! We were off right at 9... it was fast and hard from the get go. I got pushed to back a little bit and was fighting to move up. It was a 126 km race. We did 9, 14 km laps. The course was basically flat... a little elevation but not very much. There was 170 starters.

We finished the first lap in 18 minutes... so we were movin! The race was intense it was the best juniors in the world. There was a lot of breaking because people were nervous... some of the breaking was so crazy that people were skidding side ways sometimes blowing out their tyres because they were wearing all of the rubber away. People were also taking all kinds of risks because it is the biggest race! I was pretty much using all of my energy to move up and try to hold position. It was really hard to hold position in the field because it was constantly circulating. During the last 3 laps there were multiple big crashes the worst coming on the last lap where there was a big pile up on a turn coming off a decent. The last was inside of 5 kms to go and it took out our sprinter. The race was very chaotic but you also had the best riders in the world so there was a lot of crashes that should have happened that didnt. A break got away with about 20 kms to go that looked like it was going to stick it had French and Belgians in it. It was caught on the climb to the finish! France won with a guy from the field while 2nd and 3rd were from the break away. I finished 56th... first for the US. We could have done better without those crashes but thats racing. After the race it was great to see all of my cousins and parents and coach! We looked at my computer and we had averaged over 43 kph (about 28 mph) for the entire 126 kms. I had also burned 4000 calories and we had raced 2 hours and 50 minutes! I had also hit a top speed of 75 kph... on a semi flat course! After the race we rode back to the hotel to shower off and get lunch. Then some of the boys headed off to go to the bakery I went to watch the pro womens race with Addy and Alexis. It was pretty cool to finally be able to relax and watch a world championships race in person. We walked around a bit and also hand crafted an american flag... well we had the flag and put it on a big stick! After the race was over it was back to the hotel to get dinner. Dinner was great and after Alex, Colby and I went and got a mini pizza to share... it was so good! Well now for the big boys race... 160 miles for them. Most of the big names are here! Its going to be exciting! Also good luck to my mama! Shes running in the Berlin marathon today! Im watching you on TV mama! Well thats all for now! Stay tunned for a run down of the pros race! Thank you for all of the support!

Day Forty Eight in Copenhagen, Denmark - eve of the world championships!

2011-09-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up to wonderful bright, blue skies! It was pretty chilly in the morning but it was OK because it was not raining as it had the past few days. We got breakfast at the normal time of 8 before heading out for a ride at 10. We rode with the elite women. We rode along the beautiful coast while doing our openers. Small efforts to get our legs ready for the next days race. After doing the efforts we kept the ride short getting back to the hotel within 90 minutes. When we got back it was straight off to lunch before getting back and turning on the TV to watch the junior Women's race! The US girls were doing pretty well until a crash on the finishing straight of the first lap took two of them out! One, Addy made it back into the field but, Grace was not so lucky. At the world championships there is no caravan of team cars behind the peloton for service so when you flat or crash only neutral helps you, so it can sometimes be very hard to get back on. The race finished with Addy and Alexis (US Junior women) both coming in top 50! Congrats girls! Next was the U23 race. It started at 1 and was 168 km's long. As I was watching it my parents arrived! It was wonderful to see them after almost 2 months away from home! I gave them some presents and we got to hang out for about 2 hours before I had to get a massage and take a power nap.

Around 6, we had a team meeting about the plans for the race. We talked over strategy, what we wanted to do, what other teams might do. We talked about who was dangerous on what terrain. After the meeting it was off to dinner! Dinner was a wonderful, pasta and chicken, and fish and salad and much much more! Now its time for bed! A very big day tomorrow! I am so excited yet anxious! Im so ready! Lets see if I can get that big result! Thank you so much to all of the people who have been so supportive! Stay tuned for results of tomorrows race!

Day Forty seven in Copenhagen, Denmark - Official training day!

2011-09-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today was crazy! Everyone was out on the road course training. Pros, juniors, U 23's it was great! We got breakfast at 8 and got out to the course about 10:30. Today was to be easy, keep the pace reasonable. We rode to the course and did a lap easy. After that i did one more lap with a couple small efforts before heading back to the hotel. Next came a great lunch followed by a massage. It was also cool when all of the pro US riders showed up today. Ben King, Matthew Buche, Jeff Louder, Andrew Talansky and more. We now have over 55 US people here! It is great! The place is hoppin'! Later in the day we went to a junior UCI meeting/program it was long but sorta cool. There was a lot of talk about doping as well as the future of cycling. Some of the speakers included the Tour De France Organizer, Philip Gilbert, Eddy Merckx and team Sky's sport director. It was cool when they ended the presentation with a quiz!

Tomorrow is the junior women's race as well as the U23's! Should be a great day!

Day Forty Six in Copenhagen, Denmark - Worlds course.

2011-09-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

Today we got to ride the world championships road race circuit. It is a 14 km lap that is mostly flat with a couple little hills. We had a great breakfast around 8 and headed out for a ride at 11. It was really cool to be treated like a pro team... we got down to the BMC mechanic truck where we picked up our bike, we got to pick what we wanted in our bottles, there was mix, Gatorade and water. We also had a wide variety of ride food! It was great! We rode over to the course and did a lap together as a whole, the U23's and the juniors. After that Ian, Joe, both U'23's and I did a "hammer lap" where we went tempo for a whole lap to open up the legs. It hurts a little but helps in the long run. After that Gavin, Ian, Joe and I did one last lap before heading back to the hotel and getting some lunch. After lunch I got a massage from our souginer Viggo then went back to the room and did some stretching and core. After that we relaxed in our rooms watching the Elite world championships time trial on tv. It was cool watching it and knowing we are right there! Dinner was at 7. It was really cool when I got a call from Steve Blick of Oakley during dinner! Now to rest up for tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Day Forty Five in Copenhagen, Denmark - Long day of travel!

2011-09-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

Twas a tiring day of travel... it really wasnt that bad. We awoke around 8 for a regularly timed breakfast. At 10:30 it was off to the Brussels airport for our flight at 1:25. We got to the airport at about 12 and got checked in. We then went past security and got some very overpriced airport lunch. Once on the flight it was about 1 hour and thirty minutes long. I sat next to this nice old danish women who was very interested to say the least in the bunch of US cyclists who had just walked on the plane...I was asked lots and lots of questions. After the flight we made our way out into the open where we waited, not really knowing who was picking us up or where to meet. We eventually were found by Aaron one of the mechanic's and driven to the hotel which was about 30 minutes away. When we got to the hotel it was about 4:30. We quickly got our rooms and got ready for a ride. We did a quick ride on the road course before heading back to the hotel for dinner at 7. Dinner was cool because I got to eat with Taylor Phinney! Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventures!

Day Forty Four in Belgium - Rest Day.

2011-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

An easy rest day, a day of relaxation... its been a long time. It felt good to relax and just spin the legs out for an easy 30 minutes. After the ride I finished packing my bags and cleaned up the room. We head out tomorrow morning on a flight to Copenhagen! Its been a great experience here in Belgium but I cannot wait to race worlds! We were all alone today, no adult supervision and we didn't break anything! After dinner we relaxed and made sure everything was ready to go.

Later in the evening Christ (a staff member of USACYCLING) who lives in Belgium came by to check on the U23's because many of them crashed yesterday... it was cool when he told me that all of the newspapers in and around Belgium had been talking about me... he said they all had no idea who I was. Its a good feeling... thanks OPA for the European heritage! Well thats all for now... I write from Copenhagen tomorrow! Check back!

P.S. If you ever need a website made built or you want to register a dot com domain use Internet Solutions! (http://www.internetsolutions.com/) Great personal service!

Day Forty Three in Belgium - Rain, Wind and cow poo.

2011-09-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

The day started easy... a later wake up followed by a hearty breakfast. The race today was a little bit later starting at 3:15... it was also a little bit closer (17 kms) so we planned to ride to the race. We were all racing today, Matt, me, Paul and Alex. We left the house around 1:15 so as to get to the race in time to register and ride the course. We had lunch around 12 so as to get out of the house on time. We got out of the house a tad bit late but not too bad. We got to the race to find Billy had a prime parking spot right by inscription! We got registered or inscribed before going to pin our numbers in the truck. Once pinned and suited up we headed out to find the course... we got completely lost... we somehow managed to start the right direction then go backward's on the course... it all turned out well though we got back to the car and chilled out until the start time. The course was a 6.3 km long lap that we did 15 times. It was very bumpy and had a ton of potholes as well as road furniture.

It was very cold outside and dark... it looked like the clouds were about to start crying. There were a little over 100 riders taking to the line. When the gun was shot and we started off... it started to rain just a little at first but it just kept getting harder until it finally quit after about 45 minutes. After that the sun came out a little bit and dried us off which was nice. I was still freezing and sitting at the back of the pack debating dropping out or not... I didnt want to risk getting sick before worlds but then I decided to race... I went to the front and rode off the front. There was a 12 man group up the road that contained Matt and Paul. I bridged the gap with two other riders. After we made it there was about 5 laps to go. In a group that big it is hard to get everyone to work and that was the problem... it is very angering because it seems like such an easy concept to just keep the paceline rolling but everyone here wants to skip that turn on the front to conserve energy and it just ends up slowing the whole break down. With 2 togo I dropped the hammer on what was a decent little kicker of a climb. I brought Matt and Paul with me as well as 3 others. We rode this to the line and got 3 in the top 5! A great race! Matt took third, Paul 4th and me 5th! After the race we had the adventure of trying to find the new bar to collect prize money... it was way back down some alley way... it was fun playing find the bar for the last time this season. Its sad that was our last kermesse in Belgium for the season! Next up the World Championships! Stay tuned!

Day Forty Two in Belgium - 2nd Kermesse win!

2011-09-17T11:23:00.001-07:00

What a great day! A sigh of relief and boost of morale before the junior world championships in less then a week! Colby and Kristo headed out to the airport early this morning on their way to Copenhagen... We leave Monday... so soon! After a good heart breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast it was off to relax. I did some packing before lunch time. We had a kermesse race in Sint Dinijs at 3 that afternoon so the morning was pretty chillaxed. At about 12 it was decided that only Matt Lipscomb and I were going to race because Alex and Paul felt a tad bit sick. It is very wierd/cool how relaxed there races feel to me now after racing interclubs and UCI stage races. Matt and I rode the course before the race... it was about an 8 kilometer long lap and we were racing 11 laps (about 85 kms). The race had about 70-80 riders... a lot for this late in the season. The course was very windy... lots of cross wind meaning the field would split apart early. I told Billy I was going to sit in and stay out of the wind for the first few laps.... I was in a break away on the first lap. I got into a 3 man break that stayed away at about 25 seconds for 5 laps of the 8 km course. When we got caught we got caught by about a 7 man chase group that contained Matt... and the field was behind that. I worked with that group for about 2 laps before going off the front again with two other riders at three laps to go...one of which had been with me in the first break. We quickly gained time and it became a three man race. With one to go I started faking that I was crazy tired... This made the rider who I hadn't been in a break with attack like crazy! He attacked so many times and I always just sat on his wheel he was so confused! It was great! The rider who had been in the first break with me was really tired so I let him sit on. With about 1 kilometer to go the rider who kept attacking attacked again... this time when he sat up I counter attacked... I was gone... the other rider did not help him at all and took second. I kept up a good pace and was able to sit up and raise my arms in a victory salute for about 200 meters! It was a great end to the day! Matt got 5th! Both of us in the top 5... it was a great showing to the Belgians! It is really cool how much respect you get for them after you start to beat them... until then well... watch yourself. Another Kermesse tomorrow... we will see how it goes! Check back soon!

Day Forty one in Belgium - Pro Race!

2011-09-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

I had a great start to the day with some oatmeal! Im not quite sure why but, it may have been the best bowl of oat meal ever...! After breakfast we decided that we were going to ride a little later around 1 pm so that we could ride to the pro race going on in Ardooie! This meant our day shifted around a little... chores were done in the morning followed by a later ride. My morning was spent writing emails, packing, and doing some laundry. Around 12:30 I got some lunch before getting dressed for the ride at 12:45. It was a tad chilly outside so I dressed in bibs, jersey, wind jacket and leg warmers... I picked well! The ride was about 40 km's long give or take while watching some of the pro race. When we got to the race we soon found out it was legit! A ton of pro tour teams were there including: BMC, Omega Pharma Lotto, Radio Shack, Katusha, Quick Step and more! There were also big riders such as Andre Griepel, Taylor Phinney and Robbie Mcewen! We left before the race ended so as to get home in time for dinner! As we were riding back we got sprinkled on but it was all good. Dinner was a wonderful Pasta and meat sauce with salad! It was great!

Colby, Kristo, Lawson (U23) and Carter (U23) (the time trialists) all head over to Denmark tomorrow! The rest of us stay here for another two days... we will race kermesses both Saturday and Sunday!

Make sure to check out photo's from my trip on my facebook!

I can't wait for the world championships! Keep tuned! Thanks for following!

Day Forty in Belgium - Starting to pack!

2011-09-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today a couple of us (Alex, Me and Paul) headed out for an easy hour- hour and a half. We started out riding down our side of the canal before going to the other side to ride some of the dirt roads! After riding those we crossed back over and started riding towards Rumbeke where the velodrome resides because Paul had never seen it. When we got there we were in shock to find they had locked it up with a gate! So sad! So we left without Paul getting able to ride the track! As we got back to town we made a detour to avoid construction and got to ride through some parts of Izegem that we had never been too! Izegem is bigger then we think! When we get back we get some lunch and a quick shower. Dinner consisted of potatoes, fish, some veggies and a great salad! After dinner I went to my room and started to pack up my bags while watching the movie "102 minutes that changed America"... great documentary of the events that too place on September 11 2001. Well Im half packed, I race this weekend and fly out on Monday for the world championships! Less then ten days! Keep tuned!

Day Thirty Nine in Belgium - Intervals!

2011-09-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

Today was like any other in the morning, breakfast followed by some down time. Today though was different then the past few days this week in that my workout was going to be hard. The group was heading out with Billy to do a 2 hour ride but my workout regimen was very detailed... so today I rode by myself. The ride consisted of 5 sets of intervals for varying lengths... in all it was a pretty tough ride. What made it more tiring was there was a very strong wind blowing today .... about 35 kph! The ride consisted of many fun times, I almost got hit by a truck because people here bearly move over for cyclists. I rode some sweet dirt and gravel roads and saw some beautiful landscapes!

Once finished I rewarded myself with a quick coke at the glass house (de brassiere) before getting back to the house for lunch! At the glass house I talked with one of the waitresses who wants to go live near DC for a couple months! At lunch I ate a ton... Salad, grilled cheese, and spaghetti! The rest of the day was spent doing daily chores. Dinner was a spectacular pasta and meat sauce and a wonderful salad! Well sorry for the delay... Check back soon!

Day Thirty Eight in Belgium - Pro Kermesse!

2011-09-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Today was an easy day.. a normal breakfast before starting to plan out my day. The first part was spent working on school related stuff, schedules and such. After lunch It was time for a ride... we rode to the pro kermesse that the U23's were racing in Desselhem. It was 165 kms long and some very well known riders were racing there. Such as Thomas Dekker. It was very windy today so the race was pretty tough even though it was flat. Nate Brown got into a two up break with a quick-step rider about 3/4's into the race. Nate fell back to the second group on the road but his breakaway companion had offered him 1500 euro to give him the win... thats how much the kermesse wins mean to the Belgians! The quick step rider ended up staying away after one of his teammates bridged up... Lawson, Nate, Gavin and Jacob Rathe all finished! After the race we rode back to the Izegem house and had a great lasagna dinner! Time for some sleep! Check back tomorrow!

Day Thirty Seven in Belgium - Back in Izegem!

2011-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

The drive was rough but we got back in decent time only about an hour past midnight. We quickly unpacked the car and got inside. Then without much hesitation we were out... stone cold sleep. Everyone was so tired after racing and driving that we were gone. We slept in a tad this morning till about 9-9:30. When we got up we kind of stumbled down stairs in a zombie like trace one by one and made our own food... it had been almost a week since we had, had to do anything of that sort! After breakfast I got down and busy with laundry and stretching... as well as a quick glass house run! After that it was very chill the rest of the day. Dinner was at six and im pretty sure Nicole (our cook) made enough pasta to feed the 20 of us for at least 3 days... and thats saying something. Now time for some more sleep! Today off the bike was nice but im right back at it tomorrow! Check back soon!

Day Thirty Six in Germany - 4th and final stage of the Regio Tour!

2011-09-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

This was the last stage of the Regio Tour. We awoke around 7:45 to have breakfast at 8. I have not explained the food at the hotel yet so I will now. It was amazing! Everything was homemade, the pasta (noodles, penne) the sauce, fresh grown veggies, bread. It was delicious! It was a hotel called Bierhausle... if your ever in frieburg Germany and want a great hotel... this is it! After having a great breakfast of fresh made croissants, scrambled eggs, oatmeal and other delicious food we made our way back to the room to get everything packed up. We checked the room over and then headed down to lunch around 11. Lunch was amazing but we had to race...we left around 11:45 and got to the race just after 12. We unpacked and relaxed while Julien and Billy readied our bikes. The race started at 2. The day was nice but, a little overcast and very humid! There were 99 of the 107 starters left so the field was a little smaller. The race started fast with the first sprint coming just 15 kms in! We averaged about 55-60 kph for the first 30 kms. A big group got off the front but was brought back as we crested the first king of the mountains. The day was 97 kms long... a course that had one long climb and 2 shorter ones... nothing as hard as the previous day but still tough after 3 days of racing. As we were climbing up the second climb... about 3 kms in there was a touch of wheels and everyone just started to topple over. I didn't fall but I was stuck with someone laying on my wheel for about 30 seconds. After I finally got going again a break with some of my competitors had flown the coup. The chase was taken all the way to the line but they won by a little over a minute. In the end I lost one place but stayed in 10th. I also moved up to 6th in young riders. The race did not turn out how I had hoped but, it was a good learning experience and I had a blast! Now for a long drive home! It was good but we got home late around 1am. Time for a day off tomorrow!

Day Thirty Five in Germany - Regio Tour Stage 3!

2011-09-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the 2 hard days to come... the stages that would separate the boys from the men. It was hot... about 35 degrees Celsius! The stage started at 11 so a normal breakfast was in store around 8. We then had lunch on the road after because we had a bit of a longer drive to the race today (50 minutes). It was cool today even with the drive because we were racing in France! We left around 11 and go to the race just early enough to relax and get prime parking! We did the same as yesterday changing about 1 hour before and getting a little warm up in although it wasn't really needed with such heat. Todays stage was a long 130 kms. It was flat for about the first 60 kms before going up a 10 km climb. Next came a shorter steeper climb of about 6 kms that was also the finish except we did 2 laps. The field was mostly together over the longer climb but when we came to the short climb with one to go it started to split. I made sure to stay with the leaders because the decent was tricky... (there were some bad crashes!) We went over the big climb again as a smaller group and then with about 15 kms to go the Dutch and an Australian attacked a the perfect time. Australia quickly shut down the front of the field and rode easy. I saw this and attacked. One dutch rider got on my wheel. I knew he wasn't going to work until we got a decent gap so I pulled at about 50 kph for 2 kms. I got about 25 seconds then 3 others bridged up and we were gone. A Frenchman, a danish rider and another Australian bridged up to us. Making it the two up the road then our group of 5 then the field. We had about 7 kms to go when I attacked including the short steep finishing climb. We worked well other then the Australian all the way to the finish when we all sprinted for the line... I was tired from pulling that 2 kms but still managed 6th as well as gained some major time on the field. I am now sitting in 9th overall and 7th in young rider. It was crazy because every single one of the riders in the breaks today were 17! Matt Lipscomb was the next best across the line for us in 37th. Our team is now in 5th overall!

At the end of the day we had averaged 41 kph with the big climbs. Hit a max speed of 85 kph and burned over 4000 calories... I drank 6 bottles and a ton of food on the bike! Twas a bike race! Now time to see who can recover for the hard last stage... some big and steep climbs tomorrow! Lets see if I can get into the top five! Check back tomorrow!

Day Thirty Four in Belgium - Regio Tour stage 2!

2011-09-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

The morning was beautiful. It was sunny and the perfect temperature. We had a wonderful breakfast at 8 before relaxing and getting ready for the stage to come. We left around 11:45 and go to the race right around 12. We hung out in chairs and prepped for the race before getting changed around 1 hour before. Next we headed over to the stage to sign in as a team! There is sign in for the riders every day so the officials know that everyone is there. We got a team picture taken before heading off the stage. We went back to the car for a quick bottle fill up and team talk before starting to warm up. We got to the line about 15 minutes before the start so as to get a decent starting position. The course was very technical with one 5 km long hill and a tricky decent. The course also had a section of cobbles! We raced 5 laps of the 20 km loop totaling to just under 100 kms. The weather was overcast at the start, pouring rain during and sunny afterward... (it was backwards of what it should have been.) The race started fast, most of the field got over the climb the first lap and we came over the start-finish with 4 to go as a peloton. The next lap over the hill I got in a break on the decent with 6 others and we worked up to a minute gap before France went to the front and pulled us back on the last lap. On the run into the finish there was a couple of crashes but it was pretty fast and safe. I came in 37th and Darville came in third! A great result! I moved into 16th overall and 7th in best young rider! Now for tomorrow... the long stage (130 kms!) Check back soon!

Day Thirty Three in Germany - UPHILL TIME TRIAL!

2011-09-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Today started off with a wonderful German breakfast around 8. Next we spun out the legs for about 45 minutes after the long drive yesterday. We had a bit of excitement when Kristo was looking backward and almost crashed into Alex Darville... Kristo indoed for about 10 seconds before finally saving it. The rest of the ride went smoothly. Next came a perfect pasta lunch before our 1:30 departure to the race. We got there around 2 and got unpacked got start times and pinned numbers. We then reconed the course before going to Team Presentations. The course started shallow and slowly got steeper until the top which was a power section of about 5%.

Next came the waiting and focus time. We all had different start times so people were warming up at different times. I went off at 5:57 or 17:57 here. Riders went in 1 min intervals. Alex Darville was first to go followed by Paul Lynch, Matt Lipscomb and Colby. The last two were me then Kristo. During the recon ride I had felt really good climbing wise I felt that I could do really well today. The warm up also went well as I warmed up on the rollers, it started to rain but I shut it out and focused on the warm up. When I got of it was significantly colder... I bundled up and headed to the start line. All of a sudden I didn't start to feel the mojo I had before. My legs felt frozen and cold. I was focused but, my legs were not there. I started the TT fast to try to warm up but I couldn't. I pushed it hard but my legs wouldn't let me stand up... they just didn't want to spin. I finished hard and came in with a time of 23:16... 18th place over all and 7th in the young riders. A disappointing day but these are the days that make you stronger. The winning time was 21:26... smoking fast averaging 26 kph uphill! Tomorrow is a new day! Lets see if I can find my legs and win the white jersey (best young rider)! Tune in tomorrow!

Day Thirty Two in Belgium - Long Drive!

2011-09-08T12:05:00.001-07:00

We woke up and headed out for a ride to open up the legs. We then had a quick shower and jumped in the car for the drive to Germany. The drive was long but seemed to go pretty quick. We got through it without much trouble other then one little indecent. It was when we passed the team car without them knowing which resulted in them pulling over because they thought we crashed and or had a problem but in the end all was resolved with a phone call. We got to Germany at about 6 and got everything unpacked before eating an amazing dinner around 7. The dinner was long but very very tasty. It started out with bread and salads. Next came homemade noodles with a chicken and mushroom sauce...followed by in house ice cream on top of fresh fruit! The night was then finished off with a couple massages and we got ready for the uphill time trial the next day! Keep posted!

Day Thirty One in Belgium - Adventure time!

2011-09-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

Today was easy. Alex, Colby and I headed out for an easy ride for about 1.5 hours. Kristo headed out another way... he said he wanted to head into the wind until he found who was making it and fight him... We got about 40 minutes into our ride when we came to a dirt road... Alex and I continued on but, Colby decided he didn't want to and he headed back. Alex and I road down the gravel/dirt road until it turned back to asphalt. The Asphalt road was sweet because there were no cars on it at all! We did a couple of sprints on there to open up the legs. We then continued onto another gravel road that popped us out on to the big roads! We had been riding on the other side of the canal! No one ever does that! We then headed over to Rosalare to ride on the track for a bit but it started to rain. We stopped at this little coffee shop and got drinks and snacks! It was great! We also saw George Bennett there (A Radio Shack Rider) We made our way home and got back making it about a 2 hour ride. When we got back we got lunch and got our bikes cleaned up. We also got packed for the 7 hour drive to Germany for the Regio tour tomorrow! Stay tuned and I keep you updated on all the action! It starts off with an uphill TT on Thursday!

Day Thirty in Belgium - Relaxation!

2011-09-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today was an easy day so this is going to be short. I woke up ate breakfast and rode my bike. The rest of the day was sent doing chores, getting a massage and school :/. I also read a tad bit. Now for some sleep and a longer ride tomorrow! The house is getting to be more full we now have 4 other U 23 racers (Lawson, Gavin, Jacob and Joe!) as well as a new junior Kristo...the rest of the worlds team comes in tomorrow! Should be fun! ON Wednesday we leave for Germany for a race that starts on the 8th and goes until the 11th! Keep tuned!

Day Twenty Nine in Switzerland - Last Stage!

2011-09-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

A tough day in the saddle... high speeds, long mountains, and a bunch of teenage riders. The goal of the day was to make sure Danny stayed in the pack and did not lose any places so he would stay in top ten GC. The course went on for 30kms before hitting the major climb of the day... a 10 km long climb with multiple switchbacks and some very steep grades. The race started at 9... we packed up, checked out of the hotel and headed over to the race. The race started fast and hard with everyone wanting to make it to the bottom of the big climb first. Belgium held the front of the pack for about the first 15 kms before the French came in and ruled the rest of the day. The course looked kind of like a dumb bell. We started at the start finish and made our way out one way to do a large loop hen went back the other way to do 3 smaller loops. The large loop had one major climb (10 km) while the short loops had 1, 6 km climb. About 40 kms into the race Tyler along with three others broke away. Their gap stayed around 50 seconds until they were reeled back in by the frenchman on the first lap of the small loop. On the decent down the climb on the short loop the first time I broke a spoke on my front wheel. I quickly was thrown to the right but luckily stayed upright. I came to a stop as fast as I could and took the wheel out waiting for the car. Neutral showed up first but the mechanic was sub par taking at least 30seconds to tighten a skewer. After the race I looked at the wheel I was running from neutral... it was really nice! A krisurium SL tubular with a Continental competition tyre!

After the second to last time up the hill Danny told me he was hurting and to make sure he was at the front for the next time up it. SO the next lap I paced him up and made sure he stayed up in the peloton. Going into the last 1km there as a crash I quickly slowed to make sure Danny was not in it before riding to the finish... I lost 6 seconds but I was making sure that Danny was alright. Alex sprinted to 2nd on the day. Tyler, Darrell and Colby all popped but came in after the peloton. In the end it was a good race, two podiums and a top ten GC wasnt bad. We quickly packed the truck and car and started on the road home to Belgium.

The 8 hour drive seemed to go quickly as I finished my Apolo Ohno - No regrets book (Amazing book)and finished the Belgian hammer! Highlights of the drive included a farrari passing us at easily over 200 kph then a minute later you see a little mini cooper like cop car trying to chase it down... yeah sorry its not going to happen. (the cop stopped a couple kms later) When we got back to Belgium around 9:30 we unpacked the car and got a quick snack before showering at getting to bed for the night... the next day was easy and not very structured. Well thats all for now!! Check back soon!

Day Twenty Eight in Switzerland - Double Day!

2011-09-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today was an early one... we woke up around 6 am and went down to breakfast. The plan was to leave the hotel around 7:30 so as to get to the race about 1.5 hours early. We arrived at the race and set up camp USA! We warmed up and got to the line a tad early.The race started hard... it went straight uphill from the gun. The course was a 27.5 km loop that we completed 3 times... a short total of 81 kms. The race was shorter today because we had the TT later in the evening. The course started out and went over a open, windy climb. It then rolled down through a couple of roundabouts into the main climb of the day... a 6km long climb that was steep for 1 km at the bottom and the top. The middle part was still riding but it was very shallow. We flew over the course a couple times and on the second lap on the decent of the big hill I got away with 3 other riders. A frenchman, a swiss rider and a belgian. I was not allowed to help pull until about 30 second gap because Danny Eaton is high up in GC and the frenchman is beating him. Once the gap grew I started pulling through but not very hard. With about 5 kms togo we started playing games in the break and lost all of our lead... we ended up beating the pack by only about 4 seconds. I managed to get 3rd in the sprint which got me on the podium and got me some flowers... the Swiss podium girls were nice too! Also getting third in this race because it is a UCI 2.1 is an automatic nomination to worlds... I already had one from winning nationals but this was a good morale booster! After the race ended we jumped in the truck and drove to lunch at the hall... we had lunch then got back. While we were gone Billy and our mechanic Julian got our time trial bikes ready for the TT later in the day. When we got back we got our TT start times and relaxed.

Around 2:30 we got on our bikes to go ride the TT course. It was very technical and with some punchy hills. The course was 9.63 kms long and started straight uphill. The winning time ended up being 12:01 I was 35th with 12:59. We as a team moved into 3rd overall! It was great day... now for the queen stage tomorrow... a huge climb followed by 3 smaller ones!

I would like to do an interview with some of the riders on the team but I don't want all of the questions to be from me! If you have a question or an interest ask! These are some of the best juniors in the US! Ask us some questions!

Day Twenty Seven in Switzerland - Real Racing!

2011-09-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today was fun... I felt like a real pro. We awoke around 6:30 and just chilled out for a bit in our beds, I read, check my email and stuff like that. Around 7:30 we headed down to breakfast... it was a Switzerland breakfast... with brie! There was also cereal, croissants, oatmeal and fruit. There was bowls of fresh made jam... just about every fruit you could think of. After breakfast we went back up stairs to get our bags ready. We left the hotel at about 10:45 which meant that bags had to be downstairs around 10:30. We left and headed to lunch at the grand hall. After lunch it was time to relax a little bit before heading off to the race. We sat around, read, watched a local fly a remote control airplane around and talked about the race. We left the hall around 11:45 and got to the race around 12. We got dressed and then relaxed until team presentations at 1:45. The team presentations were cool we all walked up and they announced us each by name. The race started at 3 on the dot. Before the race little spurts of rain would come and go but, once on the line it stopped. While we were waiting on the line one of the Belgian national team riders tyres blew! It was so loud! The day was hot so drinking was going to be essential. The race started fast and soon started uphill. I took the uphill as a chance to move up and move up I did. The course was very hilly with some cool/sketchy decants. The course was one of the first ever that I felt like a pro... the climbs were legit!

A break got away on the decent of one of the climbs... Danny Eaton made it in so that was good for us. We all want to win but a teammate doing well is nice. HIs break had about 9 riders and quickly got a large gap... the gap never again came below a minute because no one wanted to take up the work and chase it down. About half way through the race a rider slipped off the road and caused a major pile up... people were yanking on their breaks but it was all for nothing... I piled on top un hurt. I grabed my bike and did my quick check up. I put the chain back on and adjusted my breaks and I was off. A quick TT and I was back in the peloton. Going into the finale I had given a couple breaks a go but nothing had worked for me. On the last major climb I went to the front and attacked, I was soon caught but I started to lift the pace and put a lot of people in pain before the peak of the climb came too soon. The decent into town was crazy! I lost a few seconds when a rider let go of another riders wheel in the final 500 meters. I ened up coming in 40th, 3 minutes and 29 seconds down on the winner. Danny was 1:04 down and Alex 3:22. Tomorrow is the big day! A short road stage in the morning at 9:45 my time followed by 10 km time trial through town later in the evening. Results are at (http://www.gp-ruebliland.ch/Res2011.htm) Check them out!

I would like to send a good luck out to all of the guys racing Green Mountain Stage Race this weekend! Its an amazing race and I hope you have a blast! I also want to say thank you and sorry to my Aunt Bitsy! She has taken me to that race 2 years and a row now and I skipped out on here this year! I miss it! May be next year... I am still watching the US open Bitsy! Well thats all for now! Ill put in a good post tomorrow! stay tuned!

Day Twenty Six in Belgium - Switzerland!

2011-09-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Twas an early morning. We awoke around 6:30 and made sure everything was ready for the road trip to Switzerland! The 8 hour drive started around 8:15 in the morning. We packed the car and truck up and were off. The team roaster is as follows:

Team Manager: Billy Innes
Soigner: Viggo Christenson
Mechanic: Julien
Rider: Colby Wait - Molyneux
Rider: Alex Darville
Rider: Tyler Williams
Rider: Alexey Vermeulen
Rider: Daniel Eaton
Rider: Darrell Kohli

The drive was long but wasn't bad. We stopped about 3 hours in to get snacks and fill up on oil. We then stopped for lunch around 1, at this point we had about 3 hours of driving left. The drive was spent in many different ways for each of us... I think we all napped at some point but the rest of the drive was filled with listening to music, playing games, movies, reading, and looking over the race. I am reading this great book called 'Zero Regrets' a book by Apolo Ohno the most decorated winter olympian in history. It is very intriuging, a page turner and really shows you what it takes to get to that top level... its not just about training physical but also the mental aspect of your life.

We finished off the drive and came to a 'hall' a huge building that lunch and dinner will be held at each day. We then drove to our hotel which was about 5 km's away. The hotel is small but nice... it has Wifi which allows me to keep my posts up! Switzerland is beautiful! The mountains, the houses and everything is so green!! Well thats all for now Stage race starts tomorrow at 3! There will be some rider interviews during the race! If you have any questions that you want to ask add a comment! Should be fun! Check back tomorrow!

Day Twenty Five in Belgium - Packing up!

2011-08-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

The day started off at 8 and some breakfast. Next we got dressed and headed out for an easy ride on the time trial bikes. We wanted to get a good feel for the bikes before racing them on Sunday. During the ride we stopped in Kortrijk to have a cappuccino. The rest of the day was spent doing many different things. My day was spent making sure my TT bike felt good as well as working with the mechanic to fix my road bike shifter. After I headed over to the Glass House for Pannekoken with Alex Darville, Tyler Williams and Darrell Kohli. Dinner was on the table around six... scalloped potatoes, meat loaf and salad!

Tomorrow we leave for Switzerland. We race there Friday, Saturday and Sunday... three days four stages. We are leaving at 8 AM and have about a 8 hour drive. The race is going to be very hard but it should also be fun! There are a couple of long climbs reaching 10 kms as well as a very technical 9.8 km time trial. Check the race website (http://www.gp-ruebliland.ch/) out if you get a chance! Im all packed and chilling out with the team! Check back tomorrow for a look into Switzerland!

Day Twenty Four in Belgium - Last Kermesse!

2011-08-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the last kermesse of this trip. Many of us were tired/hurting from the weekend's events so only three of us raced. The race was only 4 kms away so we rode o the race, raced and rode back. We got to the race around 2. We raced at 4 on a 4.55 km course for 23 laps to total 104 kms. The course was very windy with a sketchy back alley way on the course... it was about the width of a mini cooper. no joke. Inscription was at 2:30 in a smoke filled bar, we registered and got our numbers pinned. We went and rode the course with about an hour until race time. Before chilling out before the race. The race was not huge about 60 riders but had a decent amount of talent. The race started fast and started to splinter and split early because of the wind. With about 10 laps to go there was three groups on the road all containing about 15-20 riders. With 5 to go I tried a solo attack thinking we had 2 to go. A rider went with 1 to go to win the race and I took 7th I believe a decent placing after the weekend... I was pretty tired. Well thats all for today! Tomorrow is a ride on the time trial bikes before we leave for Switzerland on Thursday for a stage race! Should be fun!

Day Twenty Three in Belgium - Relaxation!

2011-08-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Today seemed very short. We woke at our usual hour of 8 and went to the bakery (pastries are best in the morning). I got a chocolate croissant which was very good but the main reason we went is that we got our mechanic and our soigner's treats to show our thanks for what they do! It really means a lot! Next we had some breakfast and then set out for an easy hour ride. We rode down the canal then took a side street go lost and found our way back to the canal... I love it here! After the ride we went to the store to get a couple things. I got some notebooks for school as well as some shampoo, I was running out and I like to have clean hair. Then we got our massages! Its a great time of the day. Next we watched the Tour of Spain on TV then got some dinner... thats a view into a day a the Izegem Junior national cycling team house! Well sorry for a short post but I've got to get to bed! Race tomorrow! Last kermesse! We are headed to Switzerland on Thursday! Check back tomorrow for a race report! Thanks for reading!

Day Twenty Two in Belgium - Flats!

2011-08-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe I have been in Europe for over twenty days now! Today was the last UCI one day race of our trip. It was a 120 km race, 10, 12.5 km laps. Flat as a pancake and windy as can be the course was bound to be a tough one. The streets were like extremely narrow meaning there would be almost no chance of hiding from the wind. We awoke bright and early at 7 am and ate breakfast. We quickly got our bags down and left around 8:30. It was a long hour and forty minute drive to Wuusterzele a town in Belgium but also very close to Holland! We got to the race around 11 and just relaxed for a bit before we started to get ready. We got dressed and got on our bikes to go pre ride the course. The course was very windy about 30-35 mph... so it was blowing pretty good. The race started with 600 meters neutral although as you learn pretty quickly in junior racing, neutral never really means neutral... when you start riding your racing. So the race started with 180 some riders. It was a huge and very competitive field. We started racing and it started raining. The sky was dark, the roads were wet, it was windy and we had over 180 teenagers going 60 kph on 1.5 inches of rubber.... thats bike racing for ya! We got about 3 km into the first lap and there was a bad crash near a couple islands in the road. I indo'ed and had my back wheel come down on someones handlebars and did not go down... scariest moment on the bike so far. I quickly regained my composure and started racing again. We crossed over the start/finish with no problems and I moved on to the next lap. About 3/4 of the way through the lap I flatted my front wheel. I quickly pulled over and took my wheel out. unfortunately our team car was minutes back helping Danny after his crash. I waited about 2 minutes before getting a wheel from a rival team (doesn't happen very often.) I chased for awhile, moving through the caravan of cars but it was all for not. The race was over for me, I raced until the officials pulled me out. When I got pulled I went back to the team van to find Tyler, Danny and Colby already there. Colby had slid out on a wet corner taking out Tyler and 6 others on the way. Tyler hit a car but ended up without a scratch somehow, colby had some good roar ash but he did not need to go the the hospital. Danny had crashed into the back of someone and come down on their wheel. They, without knowing started trying to pedal with his arm over their back wheel. He had some major rubber burn on the inside of his arm! Darrell came back tot he car soon after with a broken rear wheel and that left Alex. He was killing it in the front group. With one to go though he says he started to feel his crash from yesterday;s race. He managed a very good 8th! Congrats Alex! Well thats all for now! Check back soon!

Day Twenty One in Belgium - Crash.

2011-08-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

The race was a big one. Massive field, hard course, talented riders. We got to the line first, we had the perfect position but then we were moved to the back for not signing in on time. There was 180 riders on the start line including the Danes, Swiss, and many other good Belgian teams. The weather was in and out it would rain for a bit then stop so everything was wet. Most of the first 10-20 kms were spent trying to get to the front of the pack. At about km 25 a rider in front of me dropped his bottle and I went down faster then you could blink. I quickly got up and assessed the damage, it was not horrible but I needed a bike change. Our team car came up behind me I dropped my bike and got my spare and was off. I time trial all the way back to the field just in time to hit the oude kwaremont, a steep cobbled climb from the tour of Flanders. It was so steep people were stoping and walking up so the problem for me was getting passed them so I could keep going... I had the legs but I needed to be positioned better. This was the climb that would start to decide the race and unfortunatly I wasn't there to battle it out wiht the big guns. The field blew to shreds. The climb was so fun though, the 1600 meters of cobbles were hard to tame. After we got over that climb there came the Patterburg, a 20% climb... it litteraly looked like a wall from afar and let me tell you as we got closer it only got bigger. We raced over this climb although there wasn't so much as a peloton anymore. The rest of the race was spent in the groupetto with Tyler and Colby, a group off the back. Unfortunately we could not just ride in at tempo... no the Belgians had to attack attack attack even though we were racing for 60th place... We were pulling and the Belgians started talking shit to us, telling us that we are weak because we are from america and stuff like that so we made sure to win the sprint. We did a 3 man lead out and did although it didn't matter that much. In the end we had two guys in the winning move although bad luck befell both as the both crashed but finished a respectful 16th and 19th. Well that was the race! Now to get rested and recovered for another big one tomorrow! 120 km with some crazy winds... should be fun!

Day Twenty in Belgium - USA CLOTHES!!!

2011-08-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thunder storms again! We hit the rollers for an easy hour spin with openers this morning around 10. The ride on the usually boring rollers was made fun by singing and karaoke with the team! After the ride we got in some stretching and then lunch! The rest of the day was filled with relaxing, not energy exerting activities such as playing cards or doing school on the computer! Dinner was wonderful, it consisted of peas and carrots, fish, salad, rolls and potatoes! After dinner we got our USA kits! It was so cool! I got bibs, jerseys, thermal jacket, vests, gloves and warm ups! Ill try to take some pictures when I get a chance! For now im focused on the big race tomorrow! It is a UCI race, a 140 km race! It races over 4 of the climbs from the Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders)! The race has multiple cobble sections and some major climbs and will have about 180 racers! This race is very big, in 1998 Tom Boonen won it! Well ive got to get some sleep for the race tomorrow! Ill give a detailed race report tomorrow! We race at 1 pm my time! Check back tomorrow!

Day Nineteen in Belgium - Crystal Cranks!

2011-08-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

An easy day in the books. The morning was hard. I was very tired along with the rest of the team but we got up on time so as to not screw up our internal time clocks! The morning started with a breakfast of 5 scrambled eggs, 2 yogurts, a big bowl of Oatmeal and an Apple. Next in store was an hour and a half ride starting around 10. The ride was to be "crystal cranked" as Billy Innes says. Meaning we should try not to break our crystal cranks :)! The ride started left on the canal...we never go left, so it was quite the adventure! We soon rode through Rosalare and back into Izegem before ending the ride. We had a quick lunch before heading off to the Ronde Van Vlaanderen museum! It was so cool! Previous winners bikes and jerseys! Eddy Merckx's riding gloves, Freddy Maertens helmet! We also got to ride a bike that simulated the cobble stones...damn! The museum tour ended with a cool gift shop. I got a couple souvenirs and presents including a very cool Eddy Merckx book, old Greg Lemond massage balm and some limited edition Campagnolo stickers! The day ended with a wonderful dinner of Lasagna and skyping with friends and family. I got to talk to my Mom, Dad, Brothers, Grandparents, Team manager and Curtis Zimmerman today! Another easy day tomorrow with some openers to get the legs going! Check Facebook out for some cool photos from the museum soon! Check back tomorrow!

Day eighteen in Belgium - more flowers!

2011-08-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Woke up to a thunderstorm once again. It was dark, rainy and the sky was making loud noises. We had just cleaned the bikes the night before so we decided to get our spin in on the rollers/ trainer so our bikes did not get dirty. Three of us (Alex, me and Colby got on the rollers while the other three rode trainers. we got a quick 45 minutes in while talking to each other and spinning out. We planned to leave for the race around 2:50. This meant bags down stairs around 2:40. We all got our stuff packed, including our rain gear because it was looking like an ugly one. We hopped in the van on time and were off! The drive was about an hour in a town called Mere. We got there and found no where to park. There were cars everywhere! We ended up parking on an island about 800 meters away from the cafe for registration. We all got registered and went to ride the course... it was tricky! It was an 8 km lap with 12 laps adding up to 96 km. I can barely explain it after racing on it for 12 laps! The lap went over some sketchy cobbles, down a speeding decent into a tight corner and bricks! Luckily there was no rain in Mere, if there had been it would have been carnage! The race started fast and hard, Danny got in a quick break with 3 other guys but it was pulled back. The course was very hard due to strong winds and many inclines and rough road. About 25 km's into the race I attacked and brought 4 others with me. We worked although not smoothly to catch a group of two up the road. The Belgians did not want an American in their break and tried to make me do huge amounts of work but I had already learned from previous kermesses. We caught the group of two and road for about 40 kms with 7 people in the break. Many riders were sitting on or giving little pulls so with 20 kms to go I attacked bringing 2 others with me. We worked together with he field at our heels (about 15 seconds). With about 2 km's to go I attacked again and dropped the third rider making it just two of us. Stupidly I led out the sprint and the Belgian took it from me. I ended in second which was still a decent result but, I feel that I could have won that one. The field came across the line a little bit later. Alex took 5th and Colby to sixth and Danny in 11th! 4 guys in the top 15, not bad! After the race I still got a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a wonderful interview from the announcer! It was a great time! Now time to rest up and recover for the big races this weekend! 140 km's and 120km's respectfully. They are also UCI races meaning I will be racing in a USA Kit and there will be a caravan and a much bigger field!

Tomorrow bares a trip to the Flanders museum which should be a blast! Ill tell you all about it! Check back!

Day Seventeen in Belgium - Relax!

2011-08-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

An easy day before our kermesse tomorrow. Our ride was planned to begin at 10 for about 2 hours +/-. Things changed though when we opened the shutters this morning. It was pouring rain, lightening, thundering and still looked like night time, this was not the weather we had begun to get used to. We held off the ride for about 45 minutes before heading out. It had cleared up a tad but everything was still wet. We started off on our ride and the Eamon (a U23 rider) pulled up in the car and said he was going to go riding with us. So we went to his house so he could get changed and were on our way in no time. We rode around for about and hour before riding to Rumbeke to find the new velodrome that was built! Today was the grand opening! For those of you who don't know a velodrome is a banked track that is made of wood or concrete that people bike in circles on. We looked around for it for about 15 minutes before we were about to give up... and we saw it! We followed the cobble stone pathway up to the track and jumped on! Most velodrome's in the US and for that matter around the world are closed and you can only get on them with permission, but this one was open for use and no one was there! All seven of us quickly piled on to the track an did our openers for the race tomorrow before heading home after a nice ride! It was so much fun! Well gotta catch so Z's!! Check back soon!

Day Sixteen in Belgium - Rest Day!

2011-08-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

After two hard weeks of racing in Euroland we got a day really easy today. We were litteraly told to do so little that we were bored. The day started out on time with an 8 am breakfast. This was followed by free time I guess you could call it where everyone was doing their own things. Some were doing laundry, some were reading others were cleaning their room or playing games may be watching TV the point was to just chill and relax. This went on for most of the day until we had a quick lunch and then headed out for an easy ride over to the 15-16 year old race. They cleaned up! Taking the yellow and Green Jersey in the race overall! We finished the night off right with a stop by the glass house! Well I should probably finish this up! My roommate Colby aka C dawg is staying up for me to finish this with the light on! What a cool dude! Check back in tomorrow! Race on Wednesday!

Day Fifteen in Belgium - Toast!

2011-08-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday was another kermesse race. The race was about 45 minutes a away in a town called Petegem. The morning was like many others. We arose around 8:00 o'clock had breakfast and got an easy spin in to wake up the legs before the days suffering. This morning was about a 45 minute ride to Lendelede, another town near our house in Izegem. The days next events included a quick lunch before being down at the truck at 1:00 to leave. We arrived at the race with no troubles an got inscribed. The day was hot and humid compared to all of the others we had raced in... the air felt thick. We were kitted up and ready to go with about an hour to spare. Billy then showed us the treats he had made! They were delicious! Almost better then the pastries around here. It was a waffle sandwich with bananas and peanut butter inside! The perfect pre-race snack! WE then headed out to ride the course. The race was a shorter one, maxing out at 81 kilometers (12, 5.3 km laps). The lap we soon found out was nothing but hard. It started out going up and over a quick 150 meters of cobbles before heading down a fast decent into a quick 180 degree corner with gravel. It then sprinted up on to a wide open road with a shallow but long climb with a cross wind. This you could tell was going to blow the field apart! The race started fast and with a crash only about 500 meters in. This caused a little separation in the field that was quickly closed down. After about 2 laps most our team found each other up front and put the hammer down. We blew the 80 man field to bits in a matter of about 5 kms. Right away though I could tell that I was hurting from yesterdays race. I was unable to find a gear that felt good. Our effort created a group of 16 and the rest were stragglers, 2's and 4's thought the back of the race. With about 3 laps to go. Alex, and Tyler went off with 4 other guys. Colby, Danny and I countered what the rest of the group had in store for us. We were confident in Alex and Tylers ability. The finish was a close one with Alex taking 2nd by no more then the width of a tyre and Tyler taking third after leading Alex out. Colby Sprinted in for 9th while I took 13th and Danny 15th. The race was a hard one but we were in control the whole time. I now have a little bit of understanding what 50 kilometers of cobbles would feel like...ouch! Well thats all for now! Tomorrow is a rest day!

Day Fourteen in Belgium - First Kermesse Win!

2011-08-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

What a day! It started off with an easy ride down the canal spinning out our legs before the race later in the day. We finished off the 45 minute ride and quickly got cleaned up and ate lunch because we were set to leave the house around 12:30. Bags were downstairs a little before 12 and we left right on time. The race was in osterzele, a city under Gent on a map. It was about an hour and a bit away from the house. We arrived around 1:30, inscribed (registered) and got ready to race. The course was about 9.8 kms long and we did 9 laps. So the race was set to be about 88 kms long in total. The course was a tough one consisting of some of the narrowest streets I have ever seen. Also there was cobbles on many of the corners as well as a strong wind! The course was also fairly hilly. Lastly the 90-100 man field made the race hard to say the least. The race started on an uphill and had a 500 meter neutral start. As the first few laps rolled around I did not feel good. I would move my way all the way to the front then find myself at the back again. With about 6 laps to go I found my legs and started trying a couple moves. There was one move that consisted of Tyler, Me, Danny and Alex as well as one Belgian, but unfortunately it was pulled back. With 4 laps to go I kind of rolled doff the front in a windy section and was followed by another american. Soon a Belgian and Danny (my teammate) bridged up so now it was a group of four. With about 1 lap to go 2 others joined us to make a group of six. Our break had about a minute on the field but we were not going all that fast we were just keeping the tempo very smooth and high. With about 800 meters to go Danny shoved the pace with me on his wheel. The other american was on my wheel and we got a gap on the three Belgians with about 500 meters to go the other american pulled through. I jumped on his wheel and then jumped around him on the corner with 250 meters to go and never looked back. I ended up winning by about 5 or more meters! It was a great race! With me winning and Danny taking 4th! For winning I got a bouquet of flowers as well as a bottle of wine! Unfortunately the trophy went to the first Belgian (2nd place) oh well! Thats all for now! Another kermesse tomorrow so more fun to come! Check Back!

Day thirteen in Belgium -

2011-08-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

What a day! Today started out with an amazing ride through many parts of Belgium. As usual we got lost, but as I have said in previous posts this is not the kind of freak out lost. Its the kind of lost where your having a blast and you just keep taking turns until you decide you want to try to start going home! It makes some of the more boring rides fun! We also sprinted for town signs as well to open up our legs for the kermesse tomorrow! We finished the ride in good time and got some lunch! The 15-16 racers were soon to be heading for their race a 5.3 km time trial. After lunch our team played a quick game of BS that was not won by anyone... The rest of the day was filled with personal needs and relaxing. I cleaned my bike, did my laundry and tidyed up my room. As well as chatted with my parents and friends.

Tomorrows kermesse is about an hour drive away again. The race is 88km long and we are fielding a 6 man team instead of 4! Be ready to hear of a W!

Just now the 15-16 racers came in, they won! They took 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th. All six of them were in the top 8! They killed! Well thats all for now! Check back tomorrow!

Day Twelve in Belgium - Beautiful Day

2011-08-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

The day was very relaxing... not much happening. An easy ride was followed by a run to the glass house was in turn. We ate our pannenkoeken and finished and it was not until 30 minutes after we finished that we got the bill. To American's this could be considered a rude waiter or waitress but to the Europeans that is a thoughtful waiter or waitress... a respectful one. It is very interesting the difference in our lifestyles... the Europeans like to sit and chat after almost every meal where as we are almost always in a hurry. The thought of eating in your car is outrageous to them. So as we learned today we have to ask for the bill if we do not want to wait a while. We ate a wonderful dinner made by our cook Nicole and soon hit the bed! Thats all for now! Read back soon!

Day Eleven in Belgium - Lost

2011-08-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the longest kermesse we had raced yet. It was also the furthest away and it started the latest. So in short it was going to be a long day. The day started with an easy spin down the canal... we did a short hour spin before relaxing until race time. The plan was bags downstairs at 3:00 and leaving at 3:15. We left on time and got to beveren where we raced exactly an hour later. We quickly piled out of the car and went to inscribe (register) We were the first to get out numbers so I was 2, Tyler was 3, Danny was 4 and Darrell was 5. They save the number one incase the Belgian national champion shows up. The race was set to go off at 6:00. We ate our sandwhichs that we had packed then got dressed and ready to go. With about 30 minutes until race time we set off to ride the 5.3 km course quickly... unfortunately we somehow got lost and got back with no more then 2 minutes until start... that is to say we started last. When the race started it took off. It was blistering fast and we had trouble moving to the front. It had 15 corners in 5.3 km... I think that says it all. We finally got to the front and the American assault began. Tyler, Danny and I did a huge amount of work to pull back a major break with about 10 riders. We all went many times I tryed to bridge to a lone rider but got caught and then the major break went away with me, Tyler, and Danny in it. We shoved the pace although the gap never got to more then 35 seconds. With about 800 meters to go a Belgian tryed to go... I quickly jumped after him but he had more I pulled my way up but, I had burned my match... I was hoping Danny and Tyler were ready to sprint but they were also both toast... We ended respectfully with Danny taking 5th, Tyler 7th and me 8th. Very good out of a 100 man field. Todays rest day adventure to come!

Day ten in Belgium - Close calls

2011-08-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

The day started like any other, Breakfast and a ride. The ride was a planned 65 km loop that Billy Innes (our coach) had found for us. The ride was beautiful, it was all on farm roads so there was very few cars and the scenery was sweet! There was a couple of close calls though. I have told you that cars here dont slow down or move very much but they usually do more then this guy did. We were riding down some back farm 'path' and we turned a corner and there was a huge tractor coming towards us I mean his wheels were larger then all of us. He was not going very fast he just gave us no room to pass. We all went into the grass to avoid being hit. Then only about 30 seconds later this semi truck starts coming down the road. This driver was more courteous because he moved over but he never slowed down. It was really just eye opening to us that you could get such a big truck down a road so small. We got back and went to go get a pannekoken at the glass house. It was a very relaxing day, with not much to do other then the basics, Laundry, fill out training logs, clean bikes, eat, sleep. I posted more pictures on facebook for all to see! Ill update you more after the race tonight! Its gonna be a tough one! It is about 100km away from the house and its a 100km long race. So we will be getting home late but ill make sure to get a quick race report in before I hit the sack! Keep reading!

Day Nine - Taylor Phinney!

2011-08-16T07:14:00.001-07:00

Today was a great day. I could just leave it at that but I want to explain. It was just a normal day, we were going to go out and do an easy hour and a half ride. Breakfast was at 8 then we had a bit of down time before our ride at 10. Then about 30 minutes until 10 Billy Ines (Our Coach) comes into our room and tells us we should wait and go riding at 11... although confused we trusted him and waited it out. When we headed downstairs to head out for the ride we walked into the kitchen to find the 6 foot some figure of Taylor Phinney filling his water bottles. It was a great yet suprising sight. We then headed out for a ride with Taylor. He was really cool! we rode to kortrijk, got a cappuccino and rode back. While we set having a cappuccino with one of the best known up and coming US riders I started to understand what it took to be a pro... he had poise, he was mature yet still acted like a teenager. It is really cool because Taylor is now headed to the Vuelta next week! Can you believe that! It was a tad bitter sweet though because my boy Colin Joyce left earlier this morning so Im missing him but I know he is enjoying Russia...

When we finished our ride we headed over to the famous 'Square' (centre of Izegem) where we watched the Belgian National Triathlon Championships take place. It was the most people I have ever seen in Izegem and I think probably ever will. Thats all for yesterday! Ill posts today's adventure soon!

Belgium Day Eight- Bumps!

2011-08-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

They day started out wet... once again but soon started to dry up. we went out for a quick spin in the morning before getting prepped for the kermesse. When we got done with our ride we cleaned our bikes and made sure they were ready to rock and roll. We were once again riding over to the race because it was only 6km out of Izegem in a city called Rumbeke! We got to the race with a bit of time to spare so that we could recon the course as well as get registered and pin numbers. We got registered, pinned up and set out to figure the course out... It wasn't easy with no corner guards out yet! The course was 17, 5.3 km laps totaling to about 90 kms. IT was pretty technical with a bunch of speed bump like plateau's that really drained your speed.

While reconing the course there was a women walking on the cobbled sidewalk next to us. Like all the Europeans she was interested in us and wasn't looking where she was going and fell flat on her face!!! We were all in shock but quickly went to check that she was alright, she was fine and quickly got up hoping we had not seen...we had :)! The cobbles are dangerous when walking too! Not only when biking! Next as we were approaching the finish on our recon we saw two donkey's humping each other... once in a lifetime experience I tell you! The race started with many less riders then the previous races. We had about 60 guys lined up with a couple of really good teams but no Belgian national champion. The race was fast, I quickly positioned myself so that I would not get cycled to the back and began for the suffering. The attacks came fast and furious but nothing stuck... no break got away. I did three or four major moves but everything came back together. With about 3 laps to go There was a field split... I made it in but Danny and Tyler missed it. It contained about 15-18 riders. After this got away the peloton was no more and blew to shreds. I was very tired but fought hard and came up with a 12th place finish. Thats all for now! I'm really tired! I don't race again until Wednesday but Ill write about tomorrow's adventures!

Day seven in Belgium- Hot Cream

2011-08-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

The day started out cold, wet and rainy. We went out for an easy spin in the morning to open up the legs... our plan was to ride to the start to get a feel for it before we raced... we got way of track and ended up in Ardooie instead of Inglemunster... all set aside it was a fun ride in the rain. We headed out for the race about a quarter to two. The race was only 5km away so we rode to it raced and rode back. We got to the race and got registered... the air was filled with the smell of beer, bratwursts and hot cream. We got our numbers and started to pin outside... not allowed we were quickly told to go inside and pin. The race was big with a lot of depth. There was about 120 racers including the Belgian national champion again. The race was 96 km long consisting of 16 6km laps. The lap was very technical and hard with 6 90 degree corners, a shakane and 2 long straights that were head wind and cross wind respectfully. The race was hard and fast, I quickly found myself around 60th place... aka the back in a kermesse. I made sure I put in the work to move to the front during the long windy straights and race forward as Billy Ines likes to say. I got there about 2 laps in. By that time the Belgian national champion was already up the road with one other racer. Danny Eaton and I quickly started attacking after about attack 4 we got a gap on the field. We caught a rider up the road then two riders bridged to us. We worked to catch the Belgian national champion and we were off. In a kermesse there is the breakaway then a bunch of small groups by the end. The field is shattered... there is no such thing as a peloton by 40 km in. Our lead quickly grew with all 12 riders working hard. With 1 lap to go (6km) the racing got very tough... guys wanted to win solo. I went with about 1.5 km to go... I tried to take Danny with me but he was in the pain cave. I got caught by two others with about 500 meters to go and held onto fourth. I was happy but, I could have done better. The Belgian national champion came up with the win on a hard day. A cool fact about racing here. Before races parents and spectators come and bet on riders they think will do well. The betting boards are only at some races and I was bet on for 15:1 at the kermesse on Wednesday... anyway I think thats all for now! More fun at the race tomorrow! Check back!

Day six in Belgium- The Smell of Diesel

2011-08-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

As we started off on todays ride it was wet and overcast. The day was not as beautiful as yesterday but I was still excited for another day of cool roads and fun riding. I won the first town sign sprint on the wet roads with our back tyres slipping around. After that our ride got a little jumbled... we were never really lost but, we were never able to find some of the cooler back roads we had found previously which left us on city roads with the smell of what all the cars run here... diesel. The Ride was still a great time with multiple eye catchers including a skate park that was right in this intersection! We watched a rider do a couple tricks on a BMX bike then headed off to finish our ride. (Check out pictures on my facebook) We finished up our ride in good time and got home to watch the Tour of Eneco on TV... it is really cool that cycling is played so much on the TV and know that it raced by you a couple days ago!! Tomorrow boasts the kermesse Ingelmunster for us! We will get in an early spin to wake the legs up then race later in the afternoon! This blog will have the updates and results!

Day five in Belgium- Pannenkoeken!

2011-08-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a great day. I did a ride with some of the coolest guys, Colin Joyce, Tyler Williams, Darell Koholi, and Danny Eaton. We rode by ourselves without a coach and did not get too lost! The weather could not have been any better and the ride was great. We rode on mostly farm roads that were narrow with nearly no traffic other then the occasional car! We did town signs sprints (Town Sign Sprints are when you sprint to the town limit sign) as well which added to the fun. Tyler Williams ended up taking the overall win by winning 5 out of the 14 sprints. On our way back to the house we stopped at the glass house for a pannenkoeken! Unfortunately they didn't start serving them until around two so we all had to be satisfied with a cappuccino but don't worry we went back for our snack. We went over to get pannenkoeken around three and got our pannenkoeken! It was delicious! Although I think my Oma's beats it! Well thats all for yesterday! Ill post today's events soon!

Belgium Day Four- Kermesse Racing!

2011-08-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today was my first kermesse race ever! It was so much fun and it also hurt a lot! The race was 86.5 Km long that was made up of 6km laps. The lap started with a couple small cobble sections and then took a two rights, before proceeding to a round-about. Next the road narrowed down to about 6 feet wide and we climbed a hill that maxed about at about 4% gradient and was about 1km long... the most difficult part of the climb was that about 1/4 of the way up it is just wide open so we had a ripping cross wind. After climbing that hill there was a fast decent with some tight corners before the race took another climbed another little climb and then finished with a roundabout about 750 meters out. We had about 90 guys a the start of the race with a good amount of depth. A couple riders from the Quick Step Feeder team were prsent as well as the Belgian National Champion. The wind was killer and it blew the race apart on the first lap. The racing style is way different than american racing in that the field never really sits up. Its just attack after attack after attack and NO ONE WORKS TOGETHER... its always use this guy then attack. I got in a break that lasted about 1.5 laps (bad idea) I got to about 30 km to go and I really started hurting. The race by now is blown to pieces... There was a group of 4 then a group of 2 then a group of 6 then the peloton (a group of 8). The Belgian National Champion ended up winning. I came in 20th and one of my teammates in 25th. I was the best placed american on the day. One of the cool things about the race was that our numbers were cloth and you had to turn them back in after the race... so much better then what we do in the US. Well thats all for now. I am really tired to ill get rested and recovered before racing again on Saturday! Also we are hitting up the glass house after our ride tomorrow... pannenkoeken!

Day three in Belgium- Firsts

2011-08-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the day for firsts... I had my first flat in Belgium which was not bad... it wasn't raining and I was able to change it quickly. The funny part was that a couple Europeans watched as we changed it... they are all very interested in what we US people do. I also had my first Belgium pastry which was wonderful! I am going to have trouble staying away from those while im here! Our ride was a leisurely hour and a half... we rode from the house in Izegem to Kortrijk and back, it was a good ride with nice weather for once! Tomorrow is my first race here in Belgium... It should be a real eye opener. Can you believe they have some 40 races on a given weekend! Thats crazy!!!! Anyway all is good over here... Check back tomorrow!

Day two in Belgium- Belgium Toothpaste

2011-08-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

I truly learned the meaning of Belgium toothpaste today. After waking up and eating breakfast we headed out for a ride... it was pouring and about 45-50 degrees. It was freezing no matter how you like to say it. After about 45 minutes of rain it finally started to let up a bit. Eventually the sun cam out for the last hour and a half of our ride. We rode through many towns including Wevelgem and moorslede. Some of the roads are about 6 feet wide and two way traffic as well as cyclists ride on it. The drivers are used to us... they come flying past about a foot away. Also there are cows everywhere... the land scape is cool... its a change from the big american way of life. After a cold ride showers felt amazing... I did my first load of wash in Belgium and then we walked down to a cafe called the la boulangerie aka the glass house. I had my first cappuccino ever! Either way the day went well and ill update again tomorrow! Ta Ta for now!

First day in Belgium!

2011-08-07T04:52:00.001-07:00

So after many hours of traveling I have finally arrived in Izegem, Belgium. It is about 100km out of Brussels and so far seems like farm country...lots of cows. The cars here are all stick shift which I find really cool. The USA Cycling house that I am staying at is awesome to say the least. The house is about 2 stories tall containing 5 bedrooms with bunks I think, multiple bathrooms, a kitchen and a bike service course. When I arrived earlier this morning we built our bikes and got unpacked. The time change is 6 hours so Im going on 25 hours of no sleep just about now. We are headed out for a ride to stretch out the legs and watch some of the other riders who have been here race their kermesse races. Well thats it for now, come back for more Im going o keep this updated as can be!

Junior national championships

2011-07-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

After a successful couple of weeks of racing I have now been invited to Europe for two months! First off I recently raced in Augusta, GA for junior nationals. My goal going into the race was to win the time trial to qualify for worlds. The time trial was 30km long (same distance as worlds) and was fairly flat with a couple of rollers through t. I unfortunately didn't have the best race and ended up 8th, respectable but I had not fulfilled my goal. Going into the criterium the next day I was anxious to get a good result. The 17-18 category didn't race until 4:30... it was going to be one sweltering hot race. The heat index ended up being 107, that is to say many people dropped out. Our race was to start with 143 racers. It was a rectangular 4 corner crit that was about .7 of a mile long. Riders started lining up for the race about 45 minutes early... all of the parents and grandparents were there giving their kids ice and holding umbrellas. Once the race started I had bad luck from the beginning when I hit a hole and lost a bottle. I was down to 16oz of water with 50km to go. The race was very fast paced with attacks going fast and hard. I ran out of water with about 21 kilometers to go. I didn't start to feel the affects of dehydration until about 12 kilometers to go. I ended up finishing 39th. Not where I wanted to be, I felt great before running out of water as well. The next day was a day off where I reconed the road race course for the next day the road race. Our road race was a fairly hilly 15 mile loop on the Ft. Gordon military base. The finish was up a climb witht he last 200 meters flattened out. The 17-18's did the loop 4 times. The race started off at 8 in the morning. The race was crash filled. Many people were tired from days before and the heat was wearing on everyone. As the 3rd lap came around the field was starting to get tired. The race came all back together with about 12 miles to go. A lone rider went for a break and the field let him sit out for about 2 miles. As soon as he came back at about 10 miles to go I attacked up a hill. Colin Joyce from hottubes came with me. We instantly got a 15 second gap on the field. Soon a specialized rider came across to our group. We gained time but not very much. With about 7 miles to go Colin and I dropped the Specialized rider. Colin and I worked seamlessly until about 3 miles to go when he stopped working with me. I thought to myself that I would rather get 2nd then 5oth... so I drilled it. With 1 kilometer to go I railed it up the last climb. At the top I gave it a huge push and gained about 5 yards on Colin. Both of us were too tired to sprint, it was a seated sprint to the end. With about 100 meters to go Colin attempted to come around me, but know one was going to take that national championship away from me. I crossed the line, too tired to celebrate the victory. I had done it, won the nationals road race. I was going to worlds! I couldn't have done it without my teammate Drew Dillman who countered every move that went while I was off the front. Drew ended up taking 6th. It was a great end to nationals for the whole team.

Speedplay Pedals are the best!

2011-04-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Speedplay Dynamic Wind Tunnel Pedal Test

In recent wind tunnel testing, Speedplay has discovered the aerodynamic importance of clipless pedal choice. Our goal in the wind tunnel was to determine the extent to which pedals affect the aerodynamic drag of a racing cyclist and to convert the raw data so it could be easily understood. The first known wind tunnel test of clipless pedals, conducted at the San Diego Air & Space Low Speed Wind Tunnel, www.lswt.com , established a notable difference in the coefficient of drag when comparing Speedplay pedals to other brands.

Cycling component manufacturers have increasingly used wind tunnel test data to evaluate and improve their products. However, a major challenge has been to accurately simulate real-world racing conditions in the wind tunnel. This is because the testing of a single component by itself raises questions as to whether or not the component will perform in the same way when installed on a bicycle and used outside of the tunnel.

With this in mind, we mechanized a life-size, lower-half of a mannequin so the mannequin, rather than a person, would pedal the bike. A mannequin was used to ensure repeatability of the tests by eliminating human variance. We purposely used only the lower half of the mannequin in an effort to also eliminate as much “extraneous hardware” as possible from the test. By mechanizing the mannequin’s legs, we were able to test the pedals in a life-like setting with the headwind and wind turbulence a cyclist would typically encounter duringcompetition. In each five minute test, the robotic cyclist pedaled the bike at a cadence of 100 rpm and at a normalized wind velocity of 30 miles per hour.

Speedplay Zero pedals bested the other two pedal brands by posting lower coefficient of drag scores on both 3-hole and 4-hole shoe sole mountings. While the two other brands posted the same coefficient-of-drag score of .243, Speedplay pedals produced a score of .242 (with a 3-hole standard mounted cleat) and a significantly lower drag score of .237 (with a 4-hole standard mounted cleat). The reduction in wind drag of Speedplay pedals on a 3-hole sole, when converted to time saved, results in an appreciable advantage of 5.5 seconds per hour. By contrast, the reduction in wind drag of Speedplay pedals on a 4-hole shoe, when converted into time saved, results in an incredible time advantage of 33 seconds per hour. We suspected that Speedplay pedals would prove to be more aerodynamic than the other pedals because of their visibly smaller frontal area, but even we were surprised by the difference when the pedals were aerodynamically optimized by a 4-hole mounting pattern shoe sole.

By using available data to put this speed advantage into perspective, the 33 seconds of speed gained when using Speedplay pedals is equivalent to the speed gained when switching from a standard front wheel to a deep-profile, aerodynamic front wheel. It is also double the roughly 15 second per hour advantage gained by switching from a standard front fork to a bladed aerodynamic front fork.

This aerodynamic advantage is of importance to a cyclist because it is easier to gain speed by reducing drag than by increasing power. The result is also good news for speed seekers who appreciate good value, since a change to Speedplay pedals is an inexpensive way for a cyclist to gain a considerable increase in speed.

` Go check out the speedplay site! Also take a look at the video that goes along with this article!

Brutally Beautiful.

2011-04-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

The Tour of the Battenkill. America's Queen of the Classics. It is a monster of a race, it is a 64 mile loop consisting of ten gravel roads and 5 climbs over 450 feet. The junior race was set to take off at 9:40 with a decent size field of 110 riders with both the 15-16 and 17-18 age groups. The race started off with a neutral start for about 3 miles. As most racers will tell you a neutral start is not what it sounds like, to a cyclist a neutral start is jockeying for position at slow speeds. No sooner after the neutral flag was dropped and the pace car pulled away Turner/ Prochain's rider, Sam Dobrozsi attacks to string the field out going into the covered bridge at mile 5. With all the fresh legs the race hit the first gravel section on Roberson Rd at 32 mph. Everyone is pumped up and ready to race. As you look around you can see all of the contenders staying at the front, out of trouble, waiting for the split. The team is covering attacks right and left making sure a break does not happen without us. Around mile 11 we hit the first major climb on Juniper swamp rd. immediatly the team drops back a bit and you start to see a couple riders already starting to falter. Drew Dillman and I start to move up as riders are dropping back due to the high pace. We crest the top of the hill and shoot down a fast decent hitting speeds of over 50 mph. We were taking corners insane fast, some guys were having to stop pedaling so that they didnt clip their pedals but thanks to speedplay's unmatched cornering clearance I could pedal through every corner! The field sits up a bit after that climb and chills out, we aren't moving very fast but everything that tries to go gets pulled back immediately. The next major climb that we hit is Joe Bean Rd. It is a dirt climb that hits percentages of 18. Thomas Wrona (Hot-Tubes) is putting the hammer down on the front. I start to climb up the left side and just keep my rhythm. Before I know it I have a gap. I push it over the top and decided to go for it. I'm solo with 30 miles to go. I'm pushing it weighing out the choices. My gap climbs to 20 seconds. I hit the 5th section of gravel, the rough stuff, Michigan gravel as I like to call it. Big rocks, loose gravel and a whole lot of dust. On the climbs you can't get out of your saddle because your wheel spins. My gaps opens a little more to 25 seconds. The chase has started now, I hit the flat open roads. Next I approach the 6th dirt section. I make the left on to the gravel and look back. I can see the field... and I see Drew Dillman my teammate trying to time trial across the gap. Unfortunately he hits the wall and a group catches me at the end of the dirt section. When the field catches me it is blown to bits. I am caught by a 2 man group who is only about 3 seconds ahead of a 10 man group who is only about 10 seconds ahead of a 15 man group. The race sits up as soon as I am caught. I made it about 17miles alone. We ride steadily through the 2nd feed zone and hit meeting house road. Another major climb on the course. Our 30 man field is blown to pieces again, guys are dropping off like flys. We hit the top with about 10 guys. The pace lets off a bit and two Canadians attack. They were not 'known' so no one really chased. With about 10 km to go we get a time check... they have 50 seconds on us! Now we get our butts in gear. We start to rotate through everyone working or get off. We are averaging about 30mph. We hit the last final climb on stage road. A four tier climb on dirt with grades over 15%. It is a full out dog fight up this climb, man vs man just throwing it all down. By the top we have the break in sight with about 5km to go. They sit up and the pace slows up getting ready for the finale. With about 4 km to go I look back and who do I see, Drew Dillman, he turned himself inside out to claw his way back. He got in late so he was unable to see the course the day before. I try to explain it to him because it is a technical finish. With 2km to go someone attacks it is quickly caught and the field sits up again. With 1km to go Drew attacks the field pursues then sits up and Ben Wolfe (CL Noonen) and Thomas Wrona attack. I go to follow but my legs seize. I sit down and push through it. I grab someones wheel and am forced to do a seated sprint for 4th. All in all it was a good race. A bit disappointing knowing that if I had done my break 10 miles later or on the last climb I could have won. A tactical error and a learning lesson to go with it. I was able to pick apart the race and see where I went wrong. Turner-Prochain, although we did not get our ultimate goal of winning we showed we were the strongest team there with 2 men in the 10 man break. Me taking 4th and Drew Dillman taking 8th. A strong showing by our whole team with Brian Lark taking 21st and Luke Haley taking 24th. I would like to thank the team for all the support I was given during the race, it was well worth the trip to New York. Speedplay pedals held me in the race, the greatest pedal on the planet. The low stack height positions your foot closer to the spindle for great power transmission!. Thank you for your support! I would also like to thank Pedro's tools, you keep my bike going!

2nd in the Nation!!!!

2011-04-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Dexter Cross country team... Second in the nation!

http://www.xcnation.com/xcnationpowerpoll.html

www.xcnation.com

From Tucson Arizona to Ann Arbor, Michigan

2011-04-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

The past month in half have been some of the greatest times of my life. I have been able to get out and live my dream, racing my bike. It started out with about 2 weeks in Tucson, AZ with my new team Turner-Prochain. We met in Tucson for our team training camp, our first real time to train/ride together and get to know each other better. I flew into Tucson on February 26th a day before the team go there to get a bike fit with the well known Dr. Peterson. I was lucky enough to stay the night with Curtis Zimmerman and his family. I quickly bonded with his two sons Oscar and Sebastian, and hung out with them while Curtis and his wife went out to dinner. The next week and a half was great. The week consisted of a lot of riding, about 4 hours a day! The first couple of days were just some easy long flat-ish endurance rides but, soon after came some major climbing including Mt. Lemon and Madera Canyon. The following day consisted of some lactate testing and we finished off the week with a long 105 mile ride and some beautiful tan lines. The next week (March 7th-13th) I was off to Memphis, Tennessee (my grandparents) with my teammate Luke Haley for some more training. This was more of our down week. We did some easier rides 2-3 hours and kept the intensity low after our crazy team camp. I was shown some routes by Clark Butcher a really cool Local bike shop owner who raced very competitively as a junior. He is one of the coolest bike shop owners that I have met, my grandma went into his shop when it first opened and he was really nice to her and has since been open and helpful with many situations including finding me a campagnolo record chain (that he didn't have) in a matter of hours so that I could do the group ride with him. Clark was like a best friend to Luke and I while we were there, his shop is top of the line, he and his partner only carry the best. If you need anything I would recommend them in a heartbeat! (Look below to mind shop Info) While we were in Memphis we had a great time, we fed giraffes, ate at one of the most famous rib restaurants in the world and watched to Peabody ducks walk on the red carpet. It was great, memories never forgotten! The next week (March 14th-20th) I was at Luke's house in Louisville, Kentucky. The training week at Luke's was great we did some fun rides with his younger brother Gavin as well as some major efforts up a group of hills called the knobs. The end of my trip ended with a race called the cold water circuit race in Lexington KY. Our whole team was set to be there as our first team race. We raced the 1-2-3 race which included some major competition. The field of fifty contained, Rob Bush (Garmin -Cervelo U23), David Williams (Bissell Pro), as well as the whole of Texas road house, needless to say it was not an easy race. The course was about a 1 miles long oval shaped course with the sides being a bit of a decent on one side and a rise on the other. The start/finish line was on the uphill along with a cross/head wind. The race started with many breaks trying to go but none succeeding. Then with about 30 minutes to go Rob Bush and a road house guy a long with two other riders escape off the front and gain major time on the field. A few laps later David Williams tapped me on the hip and we were off like a rocket ship, I am not sure I have ever spun so fast in my life. A lap or two later my teammate and a roadhouse rider bridged up to David and I. We soon caught the break with Rob and took it to the finish with me placing 5th and Brian Lark (teammate) in 6th. The Race was a great start to the year! Now after a great month of training I was on my way home. The next week of training was brutal in the fact that I had been riding in the 70's and now it was 30-45 back home (MI). My mama was very happy to see me after only being able to skype for a month. It was a great trip and one that I will never forget. Let's kill it this year Turner! I would like to thank Curtis and Stella for allowing me to stay with them for a night as well as my grandparents and Mr. and Mrs. Haley. THANK YOU!

Clark Butcher's Shop- Victory Bicycle Studio

Address: 2294 young ave, Memphis TN 38104

Phone #: 1.901.746.8466

Email: Clark@victorybicyclestudio.com

Michigan Cross Country Dream Team

2010-11-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

Every year after the cross country season has come to a close the Ann Arbor News creates what they think is the best cross country team that could possibly be put together with the runners in Michigan (a dream team). They also create a Class A team, Class b-c-d team, Class A honorable mention, Class b-c-d honorable mention and lastly Coach of the year. To recap my cross country season, it was mixed with leaving for various cycling camps, and races which resulted in a couple of mediocre races because of fitness. The season was going well, although I had not hit 15:55 which I was aiming for the whole season. Going into regionals I was coming down with a cold and did not have the race I had wanted, I still placed third and the team won...but I wasn't happy with my time of 16:14 and it had not been a walk in the park to get that time that should of been easily run by this point in the season. I walked away from regionals knowing what I would have to do. I looked ahead, one week away was states, and I was going to break 16. When we showed up at states one week later I was ready, I was pumped and I had gone over my splits 1000 times. The gun went off and it was all race from there, I hit the first mile right about 4:58, that was the easy part. I knew the next part of the race was crucial because that's when everyone slows down, during the middle of the race. I shoved the pace a little and was able to hit the second mile at 9:59, so I knew I had not lost any time. I had 1.1 miles to go and I was not dying yet.I reached the 800 to go sign and saw the finish, although I knew from past experiences... it's further then it looks. With about 400 to go I put in a surge hoping to drop some people from the pack I was in, It didn't happen instead I got surged on right after. With about 200 meters to go I told myself "this is what you trained for!" I gave everything and picked off a ton of people and was able to stop the clock at 15:44! Good enough for 15Th place, All-State honors and fastest sophomore in the state of Michigan. I had done it... it was a great feeling something us runners like to call "runners high". The team had placed 2Nd, beating teams we were not supposed to beat. We had been the underdogs for a second year in a row. A few weeks later Ann Arbor News printed its dream team I had to double take, I had been named to the dream team! Only five high school runners in the state of Michigan are named. It was a very good cap to a great season. Also my coach, Coach Dave Testa had been named the coach of the year, for the second year running! The spirts were sky high all the way back to Dexter where we had a great banquet to celebrate the season.

Thank you, DXC
Below is a link to the Ann Arbor News Column on the Dream Team
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/high-school/2010-all-washtenaw-county-boys-cross-country-team/

Olympic Training Center

2010-10-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from the USAC National talent I.D. camp in Colorado. I was fortunate to be invited to attend. The athletes

stayed in the domestic dorms at the Olympic Training Center (OTC).

We all had two roommates, but the rooms were decently sized. The OTC was great! The food was delicious along with great chefs who could make you anything you wanted. There were also other athletes from different sports there. There were some athletes who had been to the Olympics and some like us… who were training to go .

The

national basketball team was there while we were along with some young speed skaters and triathletes. On the last day the cyclists played the basketball team… They were so tall; they could line three of us up behind the other standing up and jump over us and dunk on a ten foot rim!

The first day of the camp (OCT 7^th): We unpacked our bikes and went on 2 hour ride to look at the testing spots for the next day. Both Time Trials were on Cheyenne Canyon, a steep climb that gets up to 18 or 20%. The first Time Trial was the 5 Min test, 1.5 km up the climb.

The second of the two Time Trials was the 20 Min test, 3.1 km all the way up Cheyenne Canyon. The tests were the next day, and I tried to go to sleep early because there’s a two hour time change between Michigan and Colorado which isn’t exactly in my

favor.

When we got back from the ride, I got a shower and headed down to dinner. I had some pasta, my favorite meal before a bike race, and chatted with some of the guys. Unfortunately after dinner we had lessons, and I was not able to get to bed until 10…12 my time. The lessons for the first night were, USADA and race day prep. The lessons taught me a good amount, but I was tired. After the lesson had ended and we had been released I went back to my dorm and hit the sack ready for the next big day.

Day two (Oct 8^th): We woke up at 6:30 (this is where time change is in my favor… its 8:30 my time) and got dressed and headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast at 7:00. After breakfast, we went back to the dorm to get our riding clothes then headed down to the room where our bikes were kept to weigh in.

Weighing in is where we are weighed; we are weighted alone then holding our bike. This allows them to calculate our average power without having to give out power taps to all of us. After weighing in we rode over to the testing spots, about a 45 minute ride. This is where you really had to focus, because you didn’t have a trainer or time to warm-up. You had to think ahead and spin your legs on the way over, go to the front and do a little interval.

I was the 7^th rider to start out of 20 so not the best spot, but I knew what I had to do. The first Time Trial, I rode in 3:45. This was good,

but I was riding for a 3:40. When I had been pushing it up the mountain, the altitude had really kicked in. My heart rate had skyrocketed because of it and my mind was telling my things. So after everyone had

finished their short Time Trial we all descended back down to start the Long course. I had shut my heart rate off of my computer and replaced it with time so I didn’t let my mind scare me. I wanted to watch the time

tick by. The long course started out a little bit shallow but near the top quickly shot up toward the sky. At mile 2 of 3.1 I was breathing like I had respiratory problems; I was huffing and puffing. I told myself to get up to the top of that dang mountain, then I could rest. I gave everything from then on and got to the top in 16:30. This was 30 sec off what I was aiming for.

When I had finished I was kind of disappointed with my time because I feel I could have knocked 15 sec off of my time if I had not slowed in the middle. All in all it had been a good ride but, once again altitudes made me feel like I had just been hit by a semi especially while doing hard intervals. When we got

back to the dorms we took showers and then headed to lunch, I am not sure lunch

ever tasted so well. After lunch we were off to the discussion room for two more lessons. The first was on collegiate cycling opportunities, and the second was on nutrition. The nutrition lesson really taught me a lot, things that I knew got reinforced, and it made me think about my choices in what I eat and how it can hinder or help me…my choice. After the lessons were over, we went back to the dorms and got our riding clothes on again for skills! Today’s skills were riding with your hand on the person to your right’s shoulder. It started with just two riders then it became four, then eight and finally all forty riders at the camp were in a line riding shoulder on shoulder. It took a lot of communication, and I feel that it really helped a lot of people feel more comfortable on the bike whether they admit it or not. After skills had finished we rode back to the dorms again and had a lesson about cleaning our bikes by the mechanic. Then we hit the showers and went to dinner. After dinner there were three more lessons, and all three were very intriguing. The first was by Billy Innes the coach of the specialized junior squad. His lesson was on professionalism; it really helped you realize how much your appearance, clothes-wise as well as

posture, can mean contract or no contract. He showed us riders he thought were classy and others who didn’t show that kind of professionalism. One of his examples was Roger Federer. Federer walks onto the tennis court with a $10,000 suit! The next lesson was on pace lines and echelons. I thought I knew a lot about pace lines; the truth is that I don’t. The way they taught it made you think about it from different angles, how to save energy, when to use energy. It was really helpful. Then was the USAC pipeline… what more is there to say. We learned about what it actually takes to get onto the world’s team. That’s the goal for sure.

Day 3 (OCT 9^th): This was a very fun ride, a 3.5 hour ride practicing the pace lines and echelons we had learned about from the day before. The ride was a very fun endurance ride, and we were chatting the whole time and just having a blast on our bikes like we ought to be. When we got to the end of the road, the follow car was there, and we refilled our bottles and got a few bars. Then Ben Sharp split us up into three groups. Each group had 12 riders. The goal was to race back to where we had started. It was obvious the

last group was the strongest; it contained me, Colin Joyce, Phil O’Donnell and many others. The first group left after a min and 30 sec the second group left, then after another min and 30 sec we were off chasing them. Our goal was to catch the first group before they finished. We were averaging 35 MPH after about 5 minutes we started to lose a couple of riders, then we caught the group in front of us, with one more group to catch we only had about 8 riders left. In the end we caught the front group with only 5 of our original 12. We then rode back to the OTC where we showered and had lunch. Then we got right back on the bike and went to skills. This time at skills we did the usual wheel touching elbow bumping and head butting. Then we played bike corral, I won one! Thanks AAVC Junior team for teaching me! Then we played garbage ball, a game where you throw a nerf ball around while you are on your bikes and try to score in the garbage can. It was so fun! Then we went back to the OTC, showered, ate dinner and got ready for three hours of lessons. The first was about feeding from a caravan; the second was about race tactics. Both were very interesting, race tactics for the obvious reason, everyone wants to be smarter in a race and feeding because I have never fed from a car in a race. After the lesson had finished up I went to the cafeteria grabbed a snack and it was off to bed.

Day 4 (OCT 10^th): Last full dayL. Today started off with skills. We did feed zone skills where we picked up bottles and food. It was a great learning skill, not as fun as garbage ball but needed to be learned. Next we had a quick lesson about packing your bike on the airplane; it was educational and taught us some tips for the way back. Next we had lunch and then we suited up again, and we went on a long endurance ride, 3.5 hours was the plan. When we got out, the wind picked up significantly. Soon we had huge gusts that would almost blow you over. It was crazy so we turned around early because it was obvious we had a long ride home in the wind. We got back and had a little bit of down time, this is where we played the US national high school basketball team. Next we had dinner then down to the discussion room. There were no lessons on the last night; we were just told when our individual meeting would be. Each individual meeting was 10 minutes long, each was with different coaches. I was scheduled at 9:50 with Ben Sharp and Barney King.

I went back to the dorm and got ready. I got my “classy” on and headed back down to the athlete center to chill out until it was my turn. My time finally arrived, and it was actually fun. We talked about goals for next season, and they told me how I had done compared to the rest of the riders. It was the first time this detail was shared. It was a great end to the week. I then went back to the dorm and got to bed early.

Day 5 (Oct 11^th): We woke up, ate breakfast and went for a quick two hour ride. We rode through the garden of the gods (1989 junior world road race). 1989 was also the last time an American won junior worlds. Then we got back and packed our bikes. We ate lunch, said good bye to the OTC, and we were on our way back to the airport. The trip was too short.

Potowatami Trail and some Beethoven

2010-09-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Got my first single speed ride of the year in yesterday. It was a three hour ride, that was totally fun. I dont think I have gotten that dirty in a long time. There was also the "Three Trail Challenge" going on so I kept seeing tons of mountian bikers, I bet I saw at least 120 riders. I was almost finished with my ride when I saw the Poto. It was my first ride on it this season and dang was it fast...muddy but fast. I was on a single speed with no shocks, but I had a blast on the trail. I had my Beethoven playing and just kept riding until I felt like turning around and heading home. winter trainning is going to be fun this year, may be get a few 4-5 hour rides in there?? I cant wait!

The count down has begun...

2010-08-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Green Mountain Stage Race is less 7 days away. I am very much looking forward to the race, as well as finishing off my season at a high. I have not had the season I was looking for this year and this race could change a little bit of that. I fly out to Vermont on the 1st of September I get in and have 1 day to relax in Vermont before racing the next morning. Well I don't really think people who aren't cyclists would call it relaxing, but that's beside the point. I'm looking on improving from my last years third place overall, that means same as last year every race has to go well and as planed. I am going there to win the event and that is my final answer! I recently put a pause on Cross Country after securing my varsity running spot. I will pick it up again after the race. All that I have been dreaming about and thinking about during the day is making sure after every race I was happy with not only my performance, but also my placing. I wasn't in the right mindset for Nationals or Fitchburg and I paid the price for it. We will see if I have learned my lesson.

I would also like to give a big thanks to my Aunt Bitsy and my grandma Deeda, without them I would not have raced at Nationals or even be thinking about the race next week. Thank you

Lucas Wall a little down

2010-08-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

After beating us all up in the sprints at Crit practice and registering for Gaslight village. Lucas was sidetracked late Saturday night with left sided chest pains. At first he didn't think they were that bad so he went back to sleep, but at 6:00 he woke up and they were so severe he had Juliann check on him. Her diagnosis was to go to the hospital, well not really it was some medical term and I'm not up to date with all of them. When Lucas got to the Hospital was about the time I was getting to my race. I texted him to ask him where he was... I got back a text I thought was a joke. It said, "in the ER No racing for me today." He didn't know what was wrong yet so he didn't tell me, but the text seemed like a joke. When I had finished my race I looked at my phone and there was no joke anymore. Lucas had been told he had a pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lung) He said he was doing fine but, a lot of tests were being done. The doctors told him it was under control but that they were going to keep him here until around Thursday. I talked to Javier before leaving the race and we decided to go visit Lucas the next day...Monday. When we got to the hospital there was no directional trouble because Juliann had made us the best directions...they were great! Once we got to his room we set down and just started talking. He was out of his bed...in a chair beside it but was feeling a lot better then the previous day. He was on blood thinner and was told he is going to be on it for the next 6 months. I got to meet Lucas's mother, she was very sweet. We set there and talked for about and hour and a half and then headed out. we are all gonna miss lucas on the racing scene. Hope you have a fast recovery Lucas.

You have been great to all of us, tell me if there is anything you need don't hesitate to ask.

Alexey

Missed it by that much!

2010-08-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hines Park Time Trial was a blast this year. The course was a little bit rough over the first mile but, then got pretty good aside from the little speed bumps in the road from Michigan winters. I was also told that the course is to be repaved before next year. Imagine how fast we could go then! I got to the race about 2hours early which ended up being smart because my start time had been moved forward 20 min. I went off at 8:59:30, I started my warm up at 8 so I had time to get to the line. After my warm up I was feeling ready but, the legs were still a little bit tired. My goal for this TT was to do sub 26 which would be averaging 27.7 MPH. I headed out toward the start line just to see how many riders there were before me. I had about six riders so I went and did a couple sprints. When I pulled up to the start line I was chasing Alex Vanias my teammate, he was thought to be a contender for the podium. Chasing me was Adam York, poor racer was on a road bike with clip-ons, and dang he could still time trial fast. I was sitting on the start line watching Alex ride away all I was thinking was 27.7. I took my last deep breath and was off. Once out on the course I relized that there was a major tailwind on the way out so I picked the pace up to an Average of 30 mph. When I got to the turnaround I got a look at how Alex was doing and where he was in comparison to me. when we hit the head wind on the way back I could see that Alex's 30 sec gap was coming down. I was Pushing to hold 25, but I knew I had to give it everything with about 1 mile to go I got to where Kroske was sitting taking pictures. He got my picture and then gave me some much needed inspiration. I knew I was close so I picked the pace up to 28 which I knew I couldn't hold for long. My dad was 800 meters out and I gotta tell you 800 meters felt like forever. Once I came across the line I was told I was in second which meant I had beat Alex, but what I really wanted to know was did I succeed my goal of sub 26. I went to cool down and when I got back it was confirmed I had gone 26:15... a good time but it wasn't what I wanted it to be. I needed to Average .2 mph more each mile. Now for next year I have to work on getting the 80 sec I lost to Nate Williams the winner who also set the course record this year. Congrats Nate and Alex great rides. I was happy to be in second place on my first pro 1-2 time trial but, I also know there were a lot of big guns missing from that race. Hopefully we can get a bigger turnout next year. Overall a very fun race. Thank you all :0)

Mont Pleasant

2010-06-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

One of Michigan's best races all year! The race was run perfectly, there was no waiting for podium, registratration was easy I was very impressed. There was a tent set up just for racers with water and bike bottles and powerade and some very yummy homemade food. Then there were the podium girls... I was racing Cat 3's our field wasn't huge but we had 35 riders. The Crit course is .8 of a mile long with wide corners and long stretches. Rudy Peterson, Alex Vanias and I (cat 3 priority health team) talked before the race and decided Alex would go and Rudy and I would tag. Alex got a good gap and Rudy and I started to block and tag. Very soon Alex had a 45 sec gap and Rudy and I were playing the perfect teammates. Now... from the beginning our plan was to go 1,2. So after 50 minutes of the 60 minute race was gone, I jumped... I shoved the pace and started to bridge to Alex. I looked back once to make sure I was not pulling the field up to Alex then I never looked back. In four laps I cut the gap down to 10 secs and the field was no where to be seen. Priority Health had gone one two as planned, Rudy wasn't the happiest after getting boxed in in the sprint but, He knew he had made a big contribution to the win. The next day was the Road Race, after having such a great day on saturday we failed as a team to communicate causing a breakdown. I went for a break and dropped my two break away leaders. I was solo with about 20 seconds on the field. Right when I came back Rudy went and got a gap but was brought back. I went again right when Rudy was back in the fold and Rudy thought I was gone, but we were inside 2k so all the teams we not letting anything go. Overall a good weekend I would of liked a better outcome the second day but, I was happy with my performance.

Girl Scout Cookies!

2010-05-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I did a bike safety presentation for a girl scout troop at Angel Elementary School in Ann Arbor. At the school I met Mrs. Beaton, the mother of one of the girls in the troop and coordinator of the 4th grade troop. Apparently, I had gone to preschool with her older daughter, after the children’s play space alumni reunion we finally discussed the agenda.
I Had brought my road bike, time trial bike, helmet, jersey and an extra wheel. A representative of the Ann Arbor Triathlon club handed the kids flyer’s about the upcoming Ann Arbor Kids Triathlon. I started by talking about bike safety, like which side of the road you should ride on and what you should wear. I had to keep inserting questions in the middle of your presentation to keep their attention. For example, I would ask them who had helmets?… who used their helmet all the time? also where should you store your bike? Does anyone know what you should pump your tires up to before riding? These questions just kept them in the game and listening to what I had to say. Next, I explained hand signals and how bikes don’t have blinkers like cars so they need to be the blinker and tell cars and buses what thy are doing. After bike safety I started to talk about the maintenance of a bike… just the basics. I told them about tire pressure, tubes and tire wear. How to clean and oil a chain. Then I passed around my spare wheel and showed them how to change a tube. They really liked seeing the tube when I took it out of the tire. They had never seen what kept your tire inflated, Magic! I talked to them about how bikes work and that thy should try to take their bikes into a shop for a tune up at least every year.
Throughout the whole presentation, classes kept coming through, it was really cool some of the looks I got. The TT bike was probably one of the hardest things to explain. There were so any questions about the TT machine since it looks so different than a typical bicycle. I had to keep reminding myself that they are fourth graders and I need to explain things on a more basic level. Aerodynamics is a little too much for the fourthgrade. Many of the questions were about why my back wheel and why it was solid. The best comment of the day was by one girl asking me to tell her mom that she could do tricks on her bike. She ended up telling me that she had done it a million times and she wasn’t gonna hurt herself. I showed her my arm cast and told her I fell on a road that I had ridden a thousand times. She looked satisfied with my answer.
Everyone should ride a bike, I hope I was able to inspire the girls to ride theirs safety. Who knows, maybe one might even try a bike race instead of ballet!

Beautiful Day For a Ride

2010-04-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

I went on a recovery ride with my dad yesterday. It was great we did our "Hadley route" its about 30 miles. The day was so nice I just wanted to ride forever. You could just feel the sun on your back as you flew down the road. I ended up getting a slow leak in my rear tubular tyre. Thats the second tubular I have flated on in the few months I have used the wheel. Tubulars are not cheap so I am looking into learning how to patch them. Anybody have any tips? School is going well can not wait until chools out and the racing season is offical. Then and only then I can just ride... I can only imagine right now. 32 days left!!!!

Willow TT

2010-04-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Below is my dad and I after the TT

Vincent and Rem warming up->

The day turned out better then expected. (then again weathermen always pin down the wrong weather) I was number 301. All the numbers ive gotten this year have been an o'one. Anyway I went off at 10:34:30 ... the second to last cat 3 to go. All I had behind me was Pro 1/2's. I warmed up for around an hour, at the beginning of my warmup ... my front derailleur broke so we removed it, I was mad but thanks to zach who let me borrow his bike to warm up while the derailleur was being removed from mine. My goal on the day was to go sub 30. which meant I would have to hold around 27 Mph. I was without the trusting lapcards of the Andersons but I fought my way through. The First two laps went steady holding a good avg of 27 mph and really moving the legs around at a cadence of 115. The next lap the wind really picked up on the back side. I was holding 25 mph going all out. It was a lot of pain but every time I reachd the front side of the course the wind was at my back so I was able hold 29-30 to make up for the backside. Going into the last lap Larry Warbasse passed me. I was determined to keep him in my sight and did so throwing it all down that next lap. I ended with a time of 29:11:55 averaging 27.5 MPH. Good enough for a win in the 3's by 30 seconds over Mark Bush and 8th overall. Suffering like a dog but... its fun->

Rudy Peterson the winner of the 15-16 age group put up a great time also with 30:38 averaging 26 MPH. Also Vincent won the 10-12 age group with a time of 41:21 and Rem got second in the 13-14 age group with a time of 36:26. Tony Wieczorek put down a time of 29:44 good enough for a 6th place in the Pro 1-2. Great job guys. Below on the left I push for the Line and on the right Rudy and I after at awards.

Papas Perfect Gluing Job

2010-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

My dads perfect tubular gluing job was really cool... until I flatted today. This would be my first tubular flat. My dad had just past on his way into Chelsea so he was able to turn around and take me home to grab a new wheel and head back out. The tubular tyre was on the rim so well that it took some time to work it off at home, but I'm glad that it was I don't want it coming off. After the flatting I was riding again in about 20 Min's. I was without my power tap and the computer would work without it. I had to do Intervals so the only thing I had was my I pod I did the first one with my I pod but it was a struggle. About half way through my rest between efforts an old man pulled up in his car and offered to time me for me two remaining intervals. I thought this was very cool and it made things much much easier. The remainder of my ride went as planned I arrived in Chelsea around 12:15. I went into Aberdeen just as a stopping spot and finished my ride. Overall a great day, the snow and rain held out so I wouldn't get cold on my ride. I cant wait for racing to commence.

Toronto International Bike Show

2010-03-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Peter Currie one of my dads friends I got to go see the Toronto bike show with him and my dad. It was a long drive up about 4 and a half hours including border crossing. I fell asleep most of the way but woke up in Toronto. It was my first time ever having been in Toronto and what a beautiful sight. We got to Peter's around 11 o'clock we ate some food and were soon asleep prepping for the busy day ahead. I woke up around 7 after having slept in the car for 2 hrs on the ride up and read some of my book till the house started to awake. We ate a yummy breakfast and then headed out to the bike show. On the way there Peter showed us some of the great riding roads they had in Toronto, I hope to make a trip up there to ride sometime. Once at the Bike show we started our journey around the gigantic place. in some ways it was more of a flea market kind of with low prices on a lot of the 2009 bike parts. In some ways this would have been good especially if I would have gone with a list. For example My dad just bought me a Tipple X lite Bontrager stem Which retail costs about $300. The people at the show had no idea what is costs so they would of sold it for $100! There were also some sweet shows though. Including Shimano, Pinarello, Parlee, Bont and Scott all had some very cool bikes or pieces of bikes on display. We walked around the show for hours and I would of stayed there longer had I not gotten hungry. There show also consisted of some BMX tracks which was cool but I think I'm going to stick with Road. I bought a couple of minor things like compression socks and a 16tooth cog for my single speed ( hard to find). I took a lot of pictures of some cool bikes and components like DI2 on a TT bike and some sweet frames. Most of the bikes being shown were decked out with top of the line components and limited edition frames. After spending our morning at the bike show we headed out to eat lunch at Saving Grace (907 Dundas st. w Toronto, ON M6J 1V9 416-703-7368). A restaurant owned by Monica Miller one of my dads really good long time friends. She made us the very good dish with tofu and pasta and carrots and vegetables it was very good. I had to eat with chop sticks which is not my specialty but I'm learning. After a great Lunch Monica, me, papa and peter headed to kensington market so that we could pick up some food for dinner. we got cheese and wine and bread and fruits it was a great dinner. During dinner we got to see some really cool pictures of life in India. Monica goes to India for some of the year so we got to see cool pictures of "royal" cows and what life was like in India. I heard stories about how The kids in India always want their pictures taken when tourist come so you usually take a lot of pictures and if you have sunglasses, they love to wear your sunglasses. Another interesting fact Monica told us about India was the how if you stopped to eat dinner and you made a fire and started cooking. even if you were in the middle of the desert people showed up out of no where to eat some of your dinner... just popping out of bushes and such. I also learned what not to do... I heard a story from Peter who was telling me about how when he was in India he was clipping his nails and when one of the kids saw him, he wanted his nails trimmed too even if he didn't have any nails. So eventually peter had cut the whole villages nails by nights end. Overall Hanging out with Monica was a great time I learned about different Gods in India and about some of their cultures. Life is so different there. After saying good bye to Monica we headed back to Peters for the night where he has a home theatre!! I stayed up late watching Constantine. It was really fun. We headed back to Michigan the next morning and got there around 12. It had been a great weekend in all entirety. I can not wait to witness another Bike show it was really cool.

Toronto International Bike Show: http://www.bicycleshowtoronto.com/index.html

15k of snow and pain.

2010-02-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first 15k Cross Country ski race. The race was at Hanson hills in Grayling. My dad drove me to the sunoco station at North T and 23 where we met with Lucas Wall at about 6 am in the morning. Lucas and I headed out on our 3 hr drive to get to the race. After breaking my pole last weekend, I had bought new poles form one of the shops in Grayling. I ordered them over the phone and the shop was nice enough to bring them to the race because the race started before the shop opened. The drive up is always fun... Dane Cook and Mitch Hedberg make some good times. After making great time and getting there around 8:30, we went inside to get changed and registered. When getting registered the poles arrived! They were love at first sight... no that's a little far but I really liked them. The biggest improvement by far that I saw was the new grips and hand straps. The straps were much more snug and the grips are made of cork so they are really nice. The poles are insanely light compared to my old poles. After getting dressed, learning how to put the bib number on (my first bib ski number) and setting the straps on the new poles we were ready to rock and roll. We went straight to the start line not really needing to warm up for a longer race and within 10 min both of us were on the trails. I felt ok my hips were tight and trust me that is one muscles that you use a lot in XC skiing. I loved the new poles they worked so well and were so much stiffer. I was second as I passed the 5k mark and feeling ok once again my heart rate was way higher then normal ... hence I'm xc skiing. I was passed at the 8k mark and went into 3rd I stayed with the man for a little bit but fell off his pace a few K later. From the 9k mark to the 11k mark I couldn't see anyone either way. I felt this was where I lost most of my time. I need to work on the inner K's of the race. At kilometer number 12 I was passed once more, I held on the last few K to finish 4Th overall and get 1st in my age group. I finished with a time of 50:01 I am definatley not pleased with that time by any means, I need to work on my flat land skiing so I can actually start competing in these races. I ate some and waited for Lucas to finish, he was racing the 30k race. He finished with a time of 1:29 mins and finished 6Th in his age group. When he finished I grabbed my ski stuff and we headed out to ski for 45 mins more. After we were done skiing we headed over to go eat the free lunch which the race had provided which was at the Ramada hotel down the street. The Lunch was great one of the best I've had at a race. When awards were over we went to the Grayling ski shop and bought a few ski things, Lucas has a big ski race coming up next weekend. I felt I had done well overall considering it was only my 6Th time on skate skis. I can't wait to get on um again! Tomorrow morning brings Zach Maino to my house for a 2 hr gravel road ride stay tuned.

Fast... Slim... and almost ready to rumble.

2010-02-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a long ride with Rudy, 3.5 hours... but for a purpose. The ride ended at Mark Olsons Barn/ Studio. Rudy and I were being sized and picking up our matching Pinarello Montello time trial bikes. On the drive up to Kalamazoo, we were about 30 minutes out and we were looking for somewhere to grab a burger. Houston gave my parents directions to the Texas burger house.... and it ended up being their house. It was very funny at the time driving up to the house and him saying no really there's a restaurant right around the corner.The burgers they had made were very tasty. The ride was a long one mostly on asphalt but Houston ( Rudy's dad) said " I couldn't let you guys go that long without some gravel road." I rode my single speed, spinning most of the way . (33x18) Rudy was nice though to stay in his easiest gear for "some" of the ride. The ride started sunny with blue clouds but moved onto snowing and gray skies by the closing of our ride.

<- Rudy's TT Bike

Houston was following in the car for most of the ride, he was very motivational... always telling us there was only a couple miles to go when really we had about 7 miles. The Barn was placed on top of a hill which was probably the easiest hill to climb knowing our TT bikes stood at the top. Once inside and changed into dry riding clothes to be sized Rudy and I climbed up onto our beautiful bikes, both the same year, model and color. (they were so close in size Rudy mistaked mine for his.) The bikes came with everything but wheels but Olson assured us that wheels would be ready when a TT came. Rudy got his Sub 9 disk on Monday and put that sick bio hazard sticker on it, and I have had a disk so it all worked out.

<- My TT Bike

We took about 45 minutes to size up then started to figure out how we were going to put all four bikes in the car to go home. We finally fit them in mine in my lap and headed of to eat at the rhino tavern. After eating we were on our way back to Rudy's. Once home Houston did a little more sizing for me until my dad arrived to pick me up. What a great weekend but that bike only means something if I can perform with it.

I would like to thank my papa and mama for picking and dropping me off even though it was not easy. ( 2hr drive both ways times 2) I would also like to thanks Mark Olson for getting Rudy and me such sweet bikes. Lastly I want to thank Rudy and his family for having me over and making great meals.

THANK YOU !

A pole to forget

2010-02-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

XC skiing with the family.We went skiing at Huron Meadows on Saturday with most of the family. (Me, Vincent, Mama, Papa) I was skate skiing and my parents and Vincent were classic skiing. As I headed off on a trail I was skiing easy just getting warmed up. About 10 minutes into my ski I started to two pole and all of a sudden my right pole started to have a good amount of flex. I was thinking to myself wow I must have gotten strong since my last ski, seconds later the pole just goes out from under me. I had snapped the pole the bottom 7 inches hanging on by threads of carbon. I went back to the car and my dad was there and he was kind enough to lend me his poles to use for the time being. I skied for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, working on technique and learning to go fast. I may be racing 15k next weekend with Lucas Wall but we will see. I am not quite sure I'm ready for that distance yet. I am really getting into this sport of skiing it makes you work so hard even when your going easy... I like that. After skiing The family headed off toward Kalamazoo so that I could go riding with Rudy and also so he and I could go pick up our TT Bikes which Priority Health has Kindly provided. I will keep ya updated with Pictures soon.

Was pretty.... Now smokin!

2010-02-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today started off with 2 hours of pure pain. I was on the trainer doing 3*15 min intervals with 5 min in between each. So the new bike is together and has now been outfitted with campy, thanks to Mike Casey for getting her together so quickly that I didn't even miss a beat in my training plan.
I loved my old Scott but there is such a difference in stiffness between The 6.5 Madone and the Scott CR1 from 2005. Even as I did intervals on the trainer the other day you could easily feel how much stiffer the new bike is then the old one. Another thing that I'm really liking about the new frame is the integrated cables there are no cables on my down tube or my top tube. I love it! I am still tuning the bike in but I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable, I cant wait to take her out on the open road.
She unfortunately does not fit in the kinetic trainer. ( I guess shes just not into that kinda guy.) My dad picked up a trainer to borrow while we order a new one. I burned myself on the borowed trainer this morning, it is fluid so it got really hot after intervals and I got my leg a little to close I guess. Talk to you all later!

From MTB Expo to XC Skiing 1-30-10

2010-02-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

The expo was great! I showed up to the mountain bike expo around 10am with coach Lucas. As I walked in the door were the expo was at there was a sign that said " No rabbits through these doors!" Lucas and I found that funny. We spent about an hour there looking around and listening to a great presentation over at the MBRA tent where Joe Lekovish had Frankie Andreu, Kacey Manerfield, David Williams and Jake Rytlewski talk about life in Europe. It was great there were many people there listening to them speak. Frankie is the new Kenda Pro cycling director this 2010 season I look forward to watching them race. Their first race is the tour of Taiwan. Be There! After browsing around and watching the guys and girls speak Lucas and I headed out of there to go ski in grayling about 2 hrs away from where the expo was held. After I left one of my new teammates Zoe Reeves recieved an award for Michigan Youth Cyclist of the year for 2009! Heres a video of her recieving the award.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMZtiLsr7Wk

As we drove up to grayling we hit a point where there was just all of a sudden snow. It was really odd, but good for why we were going up north. I skied for 2 and a half hours around 40 k. As we were out there skiing the snow started falling so heavily that I could bearly see where the trails were let alone if someone was coming at me. The conditions weren't great but they were skiable. It was a great ski trip overall I got in a great workout and I cant wait for the next one.

Comment if you have an opinion on the following statement: As Lucas and I were leaving we were talking about how we thought the Mountain bike expo should include road. There was so many great deals and chances for shops and company's to show off their bling. We thought it would be great to have a big expo with both kinds of bikes so that roadies can benefit as well. Don't get me wrong it was a great event but we think having both styles would just make it superb. There could be more bike shops there and there would definitely be more people we believe. Anyway that's all I got for today.

Good and Bad

2010-01-31T05:24:00.000-08:00

Happy and sad, all at once. The Madone 6.5 has arrived. It came in black and silver with red stripes. It is a beautiful frame, and very light. The downside is...it came in with a 53/11...in Dura Ace. The problem I am facing is that I just got used to Campy this last season. As I rode around on the bike in Aberdeen, I had to stop and think to myself, how do I shift down using Dura Ace?! Another problem is, the Campy I have now has standard threads and my new Madone is not threaded. So my choices are: buy a new Campy crank (not threaded) or buy a new chainring (48) in Dura Ace and three new cassettes in Dura Ace. At this point I am in love with Campy, and I do not see myself being taken over by Dura Ace. Dura Ace only shifts up 2 at a time and down only 1 when Campy has the ability to shift down all 10 gears at once...voom...and up 3 at a time! At this point, I am leaning toward Campy. If anyone rides Dura Ace or has an opinion on the gruppo, good or bad, please comment. Comments on Campy would be good too.

Belgium Toothpaste

2010-01-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

A day for sweat, dirt, and many laughs. The Peterson's drove down from Kalamazoo for an early morning 'sweat fest'. We met up at Aberdeen Bike in Chelsea for the 2ND indoor Time Trial of Marc Mueller's power cycling winter training series.

http://www.aberdeenbike.com/ This is an awesome way to check your winter fitness if you live in frosty Michigan. The Power meter doesn't lie!http://www.powercyclingusa.com/calendarofevents/events.html It was a great location and even the Chelsea cross country coach aka 'Swagger' signed up to test his strength. It started fine, I was holding 300 watts the first 5 minutes but my heart rate told me I was not fully recovered after the week of training. I averaged 193 bpm and a started feeling crapy. I was .15 watts per kilo under my first effort in November, but it will be a good baseline for the third indoor time trial and I will be rested!

We came back home, my mama set-out a great pasta lunch. Had a few laughs and got dressed for our ride. We jumped on our bikes, me on my single speed and Rudy on his cyclocross bike (spikey tires). We headed out two abreast and a red jeep goes flying by nicking Rudy with his mirror. It was single file until we got to the gravel sections. We hit stinchfield woods road and it was pure ice. Rudy and my papa hit the deck early on. Then we headed North towards hell Michigan. The gravel roads were very muddy, we got a good taste of dirt 'Belgium Toothpaste' and a few soakers. After a quick photo opp in Hell Michigan, we headed toward cedar lake with all of us having more dirt freckles then skin. We lost sight of Houston and papa :) so we waited for them at Darwin and Cedar Lake Road. We decided to take Mike Casey's scenic route up the Silver Hill 'hill' and cut through the Potawatami which was a snowy challenge but we all made it out alive! It was a great trail ride but not much of a short cut. The total ride time was around three hours give or take by the time we rolled in the drive way muddy. Overall a great 'dirty' ride.

Dedication to Laurence Carolin.

2010-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

Laurence Carolin. Born September 5 1994. Passed on January 15 2010.

Playing soccer with him, he was no different then any one of us out on the field, but when he returned home that was where his wisdom was known. Laurence was diagnosed with a brain tumor on December 27 2007. Laurence still played soccer with the team but we all knew this was gonna be a hard time for him, but Laurence surprised us all by caring more about other problems of the world then what he was going through. If you walked into Laurences room before you could get a word out he had already asked how you were... and this is while he was battiling this horrible illness; he is such an inspiration. Once Laurence was diagnosed with a brain tumor he began focusing on ending extreme poverty. Laurence was a brilliant cook. At one of the soccer team parties laurence cooked one of his Korean dishes Bi Bim Bop; it tasted so good. Laurence inspired all of us by raising over 25,000 dollars toward ending poverty and also donated his body to the University of Michigan for testing so they could help other cancer patients with the same illness. I will miss you Laurence. You had a positive impact on me and everyone you spoke to. You will always be remembered.

Thank you for everything.

http://www.one.org/us/ Laurence wants us to help in his goal to end poverty if you have the eruge to help or just want to learn what Laurence did check out this site.

Waiting for the grade...

2010-01-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

Tests have always been a little bit nerve racking, and getting them back is always a blast. I took two tests today, one in math on quadratic equations and the other in French on grammar. The math test was first (second hour) the test was long but I had been reviewing for a couple of days now. I believe I did fairly well on it. The French test was on how to conjugate the word faire. And how to use the question words such as Qui and Quand. I am glad the tests are through with but I am very anxious for the grades.

J'aime fais du velo! et toi?

1.16.10

2010-01-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

What a day it has been. With its ups and downs and its great moments and not so good moments we made it through. It began with my second xc ski race. We raced around 10:30 and I did a 5k Race the conditions were not prime but I had planned for that luckily. I did well I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter after winning the race, asking about how I felt and did. I still have much to learn about poleing, but I feel I have improved. Rem did a magnificent job also, double poling it practically the whole way he also competed in the 5k race. After having awards and talking with people the gang headed off to Livonia Franklin High school where my S+E was being held (Competition for violin). When we got back home we relaxed for a bit ... that is well some of us. My mother and I did an upper body workout which was fun I haven't been able to workout with my mama in a while so it was nice. Later we went to the Quality 16 to watch spy next door. It was OK there were some stupid parts but overall pretty Good. To end a good day with pasta is the right thing to do.

I want to thank Nordic Ski Racer for putting on such a great race.
http://www.nordicskiracer.com/

Results: http://www.nordicskiracer.com/cgi-bin/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=4459

Press:http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20100117/SPORTS/1170302