Whats happening?

Hey friends/family/followers!

Not to much to report on, as no racing has really occurred since Clear Lake. Just been working at Peppers and just finished a very successful rest week on the bike last week. I have never been much for rest weeks, as I feel like I can't eat stuff I want and when on the bike, always wanna go harder than I should. It was a good week though as I said, with the whole ride style of "go out, do your work and go home". Each day I still had a purpose to be on the road, either with some shorter LT or VO2 stuff, but as soon as I was done, it was home and off the legs or work. This made for a great week of watching the TDF.
Now this week, I start my final couple weeks of preparation for the State RR/ State TT. For the first time today, I tried motor pacing. From minute one, I am hooked and hope to do it quite a bit. I was nervous for myself and my motorpacer (girlfriend Bethany) as we had never done anything like this. I could tell she was very scared, as she didn't wanna crash herself or me, but man did she do an incredible job! We have some kinks to work out with accelerations/hills/decents and stuff but had a great time at 28-30mph! It was fun cruising down the road at these speeds, when usually a race type situation is the only time such speeds would happen. Coming from behind the scooter, and sprinting was the best part, seeing 30+ mph sprints into headwinds.

I tell ya, this TDF has been fun to watch and tomorrows stage up the Tourmelet is gonna be epic! Go ANDY! I think Alberto was very thoughtful with his apology and its good to see that they are friends!
On the other hand, how about Ivan Stevic at the Tour of Quingi Lake. Wasn't this guy banned for doping for 2 years, now he comes back and shows the bird when winning? Or how about Floyd Landis wearing a Hanes T-Shirt for his TT at Cascade! Now ABC is thinking of doing a story on Floyd, I think they should tell him to get a life and move on.
This weekend is Nordic Fest in Decorah. I have been involved with this every year of my life, with family and friends living there, and having grown up in Decorah. It is a great time with food and activities. My grandpa has run the "Rock Throw" for 20+ years. A cool event, Women thrown a 50lb rock, (sub) 150 men thrown 50, 150-200lb men throw 75lb and 200+ throw a 100lb rock! Looking forward to reacquainting with friends from Luther and getting some good food!

Clear Lake Road Race

Well Saturday was Megan and Eric Thorsen's wedding in Des Moines. I went down on Thursday night and did the Elkhart TT series presented by Zealous Racing. A greatly run event, and it put back in my mind how hard a TT felt. I hadn't done one in 2 years or so.

Friday and Saturday I did rides with Lou Waugaman, as he showed me the routes around Des Moines. Friday was nice as we had Reed R, and a couple other guys I forgot names (sorry!) join us on their TT bikes. Did a loop around Saylorville Lake. Friday night, Bethany, Doug and I stayed at the Staybridge Suites in WDM, went to Olive Garden and enjoyed the evening. Saturday, Lou and I rode downtown to the farmers market, which is huge! I couldn't believe it, and I had a great breakfast burrito and coffee. Rode back to my hotel and then got ready for the wedding. A great wedding and reception at Des Moines CC.

Sunday, I was up bright and early for the drive to Clear Lake. Arrived with plenty of time to get number pinned, coffee and bagel down for the 80 mile RR. Mercy had a great showing for the race and overall, the race was great sized!

Started off neutral for the first 3 miles then the speed kicked up as attack were thrown off. Unfortunately we missed the break that contained Zealous, Velosport and Clark Preibe. This was a dangerous break, and can't believe we missed it. Adam Price and I decided to try and keep the break in check and went right to the front to ride tempo. We rode a two man rotation for about 10 miles, before being joined by Lee Venticher(B2U). We then spent the next 10 miles rotating before Speedfix came to help. After a while, we got help from more B2U guys and single riders and the break never got more than 2 minutes. Even though 2 minutes doesn't seem like that much, we didn't bring the gap down fast at all, and a 20-25mile all out chase in the tailwind section by Duey/Rock/Moritz only neutralized the break with about 8 miles to go. I paid for my 40 miles of tempo riding on the front when I was dispatched from the lead group in the crosswind section with 6 laps to go. Rolled in off the back, disappointing....but what can I expect from working and expending energy.

Zealous did a very smart race, by having a guy in the break and took a back seat, having Lane Anderson win in the finale.

One thing I am finding this year, is the large jump from a Cat 3- Cat 2. I never had a problem being off the bike from Sept-Feb for swimming and then being competitive, but this year, I am about 2 months behind many of the regional pro riders. Even though I have trained harder/longer volume than I ever had before. I am not eligible to swim collegiate anymore, so will start riding in the fall/winter and come out stronger next spring. Next up is probably a couple Superweek races and then State RR in August.