Cat 1 Baby

I just got my Cat 1 upgrade approved this week and I am stoked. it only took me 8 years of training my but off to get it. Now I will be able to race Fitchburg and downers grove and other races too. This week of training was pretty good. I did a 4 hour ride with Greg and Joey and cody on Wednesday afternoon. We hit up some awesome dirt roads and did a 1 mile dirt road descent that greg almost wiped out on. I love exploring new roads. that is what really gets me excited about riding so I love doing long rides to get out and see more of the area around Lafayette. This weekend we are racing the winfield crits and tonight we are gonna play some sweet lazer tag. if you are ever in Naperville definitley check out Cyberspace lazer tag. (cyberspacelazertag.com). Hopefully this weekend we wil post up some more good finishes.

memorial day report

Well as seems to be a trend with me the first few races of a series didn't go so great but the last one went great and saved my weekend! I started off OK in snake alley for about 5 laps until I totally blew up. I really need to get a smaller gear than a 39-23 next time on that one. I have never had good luck at that one not even as a junior. Melon city felt a bit better our team covered every major move but again I blew up when I had great position going into the last time up the hill. My plan was to go for teh sprint points in Rock island but I missed points ont eh second sprint cuz i missed the break so I ended up 4th while the top 3 got money. but I knew I felt good and heading into the last 5 laps our sprinter ben renkema found his way up to near the front too. so I worked to try and keep him out of the wind and move him up into the top 10 going into the last long strait. It worked out pretty well with him landing 5th and my in 8th. we made a bunch of money and I think if we practice a bit I can definitley get comfortable taking him right to the front of the race at the end. Tomorrow is gonna be a nice long ride in some great sunshine to help get some miles in before tour ohio and possibley the indiana state road race.

back to training

So my 3 days off for the week ended up being 5 because of le tour de west lafayette which I helped promote. I got to ride in the rain on Thursday and Monday though!!! My one month long statistics class is proving to be a little more work than i thought with class 2 hours per day but I am handling it OK. I got out for a 3 hour ride today and I am gonna do a little more riding tomorrow after I finish my first stat test. Basically I have been really busy with the race and trying to work and enter my data and do the stat class and biking I haven't had much time for riding or entering the data it seems like. I am getting pumped up for snake alley, melon city and rock island this weekend though. Team Turin is gonna rock it!!

3 days off!

well I am done with my little mid season break and it feels like it never even started!! I took monday tuesday and wednesday off with no biking and tomorrow I guess i had better start riding again. Also Greg Christian is living at my house for the summer so it is gonna be a big party every day sort of. It will be fun to have a new guy to bike with and travel to races with. My job for the summer of entering the data I collected during the semester is really boring too!!! I am taking a statistics class during the month of may too which is 2 hours a day and shouldn't be too difficult. I guess riding tomorrow should be pretty fun my next race is the quad cities weekend so hopefully my good form from nationals sticks around for that.

8th Place!!!

I got 8th in the Men's Division 1 Criterium at Nationals yesterday!!! I am stoked. I accomplished my first big goal for the year which was a top 10 finish at college nationals. I placed 19th in the road race and 9th in the omnium. So I got 2 top 10 finishes sort of. The races went well. The road race was tough and I managed not to get dropped on the climbs I sort of messed up the sprint though and ended up in the wind for the last kilometer of the race. That motivated me even more for the criterium which was really fast and furious and there were a bunch of crashes. I stayed in the front half of the pack for the whole race to try to avoid crashes and I moved into the top 10 with 3 laps to go. I was following behind the Colorado State lead out train and kept hearing crashes behind me. With about half a lap to go I was pretty sure I was gonna get my goal of top 10. It feels good to accomplish my first big goal. This is my first top 10 in a nationals race since the Junior expert short track in Durango CO when I was 16!!! It has been 5 years! Great job to all of the other midwest guys who came out and raced we definitely had a good showing in he crit with 4 top 15 placings!! Also Chris Ubertiy did well too with a 14th in the Road race and 27 in the crit. This helped our Purdue team to finish 20th overall which is great! Next up for me is 3 days of no biking and no race this weekend except helping with Le tour de West Lafayette which every Cat 3-5 rider should be coming to race this weekend!!!

Nationals Update

We previewed the Road race course yesterday and man it is gonna be tough. The hardest climb is less than 1 mile after the start. It is has a bunch of 1-2 mile long climbs and the altitude definitely makes them tougher than they would be in Indiana. I think it is gonna be a tough race but a great finish is still defnitely possible. Today we went sight seeing at Rocky mountain national park. we did a short hike through about 3 feet of snow too!!! We saw some great views of awesome snow capped mountains. Colorado is definitely an awesome state. Tomorrow is the TTT which we aren't doing but we are gonna be there scouting out the competition and doing some cheering. I am gonna put up another update on Saturday after the RR.

Warsaw race and Colorado

I got 8th in the Fat and Skinny tire festival road race on Saturday. I was sick with a cold and felt like crap the whole race. It was super windy probably the second windiest race I have ever done. The first was a men’s 4/5 road race in Minnesota when I was 15 that had 30 mile an hour steady winds and we averaged less than 20 mph for a 30 mile race. Basically the race was down to less than 15 people after 2 laps of 7 because of the wind. I just wanted to get some good training in for nationals and I definitely accomplished this but I didn’t really help make myself less sick. Now I am riding in the car on the way to Fort Collins for nationals. A top 10 finish is my goal but I really want the podium. The road race looks like a pretty tough course with some good hard climbs and the crit is a figure 8 loop that should be pretty fast.

Schools over for the summer

I just finished my last final about 20 minutes ago. I am ready to relax for a day or 2 and then get back to workin on my research project but at least I don't have to take any more tests for a while. Excepte I am taking on class during May!!! Oh well I guess I will get my real summer break in June. Prep for natz has been going pretty well except a mysterious pain in the middle of my right patella(knee cap). I have never had this problem before but I am sure I can get it resolved before nationals! This weekend is a road race on Saturday and a training ride sunday then next Tuesday we drive to Colorado. I am getting pretty pumped up! Well I am gonna go celebrate school being out.