Season Gone!

Mtn Bike Race in Boone Saturday and Sunday, then I am off to school, hopefully be able to do some mtn. biking and road riding for a month or so. But 6AM captains practices will start and lifting/pool time will be the priority.

IF you live around Cedar Rapids or want to come over. Trek will be at Beverly Park in Cedar Rapids with loads of the new 2009 Trek Mountain Bikes/Road Bikes and other stuff. The demo day starts at 2PM and goes to 7PM. Bring your shoes and stuff and ride a new Fuel9.9 or Session Downhill bike on the newest Mtn. Bike Trails in Eastern Iowa.

Roadies, the trailer will also have some of the new Trek Road Bikes, which are looking very nice!

Watch OUT!

Went out for 2 Hour Tempo Ride today, and I look down at my arm for some reason and what do I see, but a little clump of bird poo. Some bird must have thought I was threatening it, and instead of dive bombing my helmet, decided to take a poop on my arm. Hmm! New style of war-fare from them.

Here are some pictures from Mr. Moritz from yesterday at Pella. Thanks for the great pics. Others can be located at www.bryan.moritzcycling.com. 

State Criterium Championship

Drove down to Pella this morning with a total of 9 other guys from HBA for the State Crit Championships.

The course is run in a park, is .6 miles long and has a block long climb. Doug Klausen and Iowa Ortho do a great job with this venue and race. Very well organized. I am glad to get to race in Pella, a nice little town.

To the race, 40 laps which equated to 24 miles or so for the race. We completed the race in 56 minutes, so I'm figuring 25-26mph average for the race? Chris Reed, Ian Robinson, Kelly Steele, Karl Rosenburg and myself started the race. B2U had 5 guns to throw off, All9 with a contingent, Mercy with a few guys and the Deathsquad with some killers.

Right from the gun, Hansen went to the front and drove the pace. After a few laps and some small attacks the first of the breaks went. 4 guys went up the road including Karl Rosenburg. This was nice, no B2U guy was present. Moritz went to the front and drilled it for about 4 laps by himself to bring it back, while I bided my time just blocking on his wheel. I figured this was a great position, with no B2U guy in the break.  All9 had Jerome, DeathSquad with Kris K, and Brian West from Colorbiotics off the front.   But this wasn't good enough, Andrew F. put in a big acceleration which I wasn't able to get onto and he and Adam Price were able to get to the front of the break. This break soon disappeared up the road as all our teams were blocking other teams.    With about 7 laps to go, it showed that the break was going to lap us. Not wanting Andrew to have Will and Bryan to help lead him out, I punched the gas a couple times and took Pig with me, but we weren't going anywhere. The break soon caught us and the leaders went to the front. I got up there and tried to lay down a fast pace so none of them would attack, and tried to keep Karl in good position. Moritz took a leadout role with 2 to go and I wasn't thinking enough to go up beside him to take Karl with me, but Karl was heads up and was already up there.   Last lap, I was able to be Top 8 or so on the hill, and sprinted to 6th place I think in the sprint. I got 8th overall as Steve Robo sprinted in ahead of me, plus the 6 a lap up on us.   Karl ended up with 3rd place, just getting nipped by Price, while Andrew won the race.

I had a great time in this race today. Everyone did a great job to make it a good/high paced race. I believe I am done riding on the road for the year. Have to get back up to school and start swimming. Thanks to B2U, All9, Mercy, ColorBiotics, and all other teams who I was able to race with for a great season! I look forward to seeing you all in the spring. 

Next week is the 24 hours of Boone, which I am doing in a 4 man team. Should be a fun race, for my first mtb race ever! HA!

Other notable results today.    Mack Sheldrup, 2nd in Juniors

      Chris Eastburn, 2nd in 50+ and 3rd in 40+

Awesome job to all.

Downers Grove National Championship Crit

Went over to Chi Town with Chris Eastburn for the weekend.

Saturday-  Mens Cat 3/4 Elite

     45 Min + 1 lap for my first ever race at Downers Grove. It was a great course, I really enjoyed it as it flowed very well. Right at the start of the 3/4 race, 4 guys in front of me couldn't clip in so I was track standing behind them before I could get going. Mark Guthart tells me later he was laughing on the officials stand because of this, haha thanks Mark!  Now back to the race, its amazing how people fight to be first or 2nd line in the crit, even with 100+ riders, it only took me 4 laps of being at the back and not trying to hard to get to the front. Stayed near the front for the race, lost both of my contacts with 5 laps to go, so I was a little nervous about cornering and moving about the field. Last lap, I was still doing ok but wasn't as high as I should have been towards the end and came across 30th out of 100+ starters. 

Sunday- Mens Elite 3

  45 Min + 1 Lap again. Chris Reed came over and did the race, it was nice to have a team mate. Started at the back again today to avoid the pushing and shoving at the front. Again, up at the front after about 5 laps. Dom got the 1st prime of the day, good for an Iowa guy. The 2nd Prime, I found myself in good position, but jumped a little to early and came across 2nd at the line, just getting nipped by a XXX guy. Almost got some food/gas money as it was 50$. Stayed near the front again during the race, again not where I needed to be at the end. Passed some guys in the sprint to end up with a 22nd out of 100+ riders again.

It was a great weekend, I feel like I learned a lot of lessons. I need to be where I ended up in the sprint, with 2-3 laps to go instead of 1. Knowing when to jump for sprints/primes by waiting a little longer. 

Weren't as many Iowa guys as I thought would be there.  Chris and I, Chris Reed came over for Sunday. Bryan Moritz and Dom. were there. Amanda Miller had a great ride in the 2 races she competed in. 

Back from Vacaction

Got back last night from Door County. One of the best trips of my life. I had so much fun with my little "group" of 5 from school.  Kat and Tyler, Doug, Beth and I. We did so many different things. A couple homestyle bar and grills, a very nice classy restaurant, a drive in and a couple beaches. 

 

We saw The Dark Night at the drive in, first experience there, it was fun!

Ate at this restaurant, where there were goats on top of the roof!! Awesome.

Went to Washington Island, and rented bikes and rode to the beaches and had some great fun. Took some videos on the single speed cruiser bikes that Ill upload later, pretty fun.

Here is a picture of Beth and I. She is so cute :)

Now that I'm back its time to work and get ready for Downers and State Crit. 4 days off the bike I thought was going to kill me, I went out for 2 hours with teammate Chris Reed tonight and we were cruising. I think 4 days is exactly what I needed! Im pumped. 

Thanks for reading! 

Peace

A little bit of R and R

So my legs have started feeling really heavy on the bike. Think my form is going after about a month.

Did some tempo riding this week, Night at the Oval and some Mtn. Biking last night out at Beverly Park. Check these trails out at some point if your in Eastern Iowa.
www.lambaonline.com

Now I'm just getting ready to leave to Door County with Bethany.

Good luck with State Time Trial.

Nice Job Jimmy on your Time Trial at Nationals!!! Placed in top half of juniors in the nation!!!! Good luck with the Road Race and Criterium.

Peace

SUCKKKKKKKKKKKK

So today, I got up and was just ecstatic about the race. I met some of the HBA dudes downtown and we made our way to West Branch. Everything was going good, had a good breakfast, got my pre-race Mt. Dew and Pretzels in, bottles full and everything was going great!

Start the race with about 50 riders. It was fun. A 27.5 mile loop with a couple stretches for crosswind action, a couple long climbs and a 5 mile tailwind stretch to the end. Feed zone was ballistic today. We had to set up two feeds throughout the course. (Thanks Lawrence Reed, Vern, Larry, Kevin, Ken for all the help you offered today). A group would always punch it through the finishing feed zone towards the finish, so people who had to take on bottles had to work their tails off to get back on. 

Our plan today was to take 2 bottles per lap. One from one feed, and drop it off and pick up another at the other feed. We stayed hydrated, I don't think Chris, Ian or I ever felt dehydrated. Had some food with as well for some good grub. Cliff Bars are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So start of the 3rd lap, and I am still feeling awesome. We are heading north out of West Branch, and all of  a sudden I hit a huge crack in the road. This crack was not marked with paint, and someone was right in front of me, never managed to hit it. I did, and all of a sudden I felt myself riding on a rim. I put my hand up and went to the back, kept upright and ready for a wheel change. The truck came, and I was able to get my spare wheel, but by this time, I couldn't get back on to the group. Bryan Moritz had come off after getting a plastic bag caught in his rear derailleur and never got back on. We tried to get back on, but couldn't. We decided to turn around and head back to West Branch. So I ended up with only about 60 Miles out of the 108 planned. 

Sat at the feed zone and saw as Ian Robinson, placed a great 4th in the race. Chris Reed stuck it out and finished. It was a good showing, I was mad I couldn't stay in, I was feeling awesome today and know I could have stuck it out for a while.

Good day for HBA. Cat 5 and Masters 50+ Wins, a 3rd in the 4's and a 4th in 3's. 

Im now on for 4 days of training, then 4 days off so I can go to Door County with the girlfriend to hang out for the weekend! Im so pumped. 

Next up is Downers Grove, and then State Crit!!!

Good job to all who raced in the heat today, it was fun while it "I" lasted!!!

P.S - I tried Chamois Butter for the first time today, and it seemed to work pretty well. Good Investment!