Weathering the Storm

So I took a little detox break from this, to really clear my head after having to get in the car in the Vuelta Independencia. It was a very hard thing for me to do, and even if I had two broken legs, I would sign in and try to finish and make it to the next day. Quitting is never an option in my brain, but sometimes the body just does not respond to damage the way the mind does.

After some thought and reflection, the stage to Bani was a mental fight from the get go, trying to sit with no skin on one cheek and having two flats even prior to starting hammered those nails into the coffin.  As we started, the legs were not responding and I just told myself to make it through the first hour.

I did. Even despite the Mega-Team throwing down a 52km average speed for the first hour. Coming into 50km to go, my rear began to go flat, and I motioned for the car and as soon as I got off the bike, my leg locked up. I got in the car. Got to the finish line, called my fiancé and got a flight home the next morning. Emotionally torn from quitting, I packed my bike and clothes eagerly awaiting sterile rinse and Tegaderm to help grow the skin back.

Getting to airport went smoothly, as well as getting my bike home for free despite having to showcase my Spanish skills and full on sell the idea of an “insurance display,” sitting was another ordeal. Thankfully the flights were short and customs was a breeze, despite their inquiry into bicycle tubes.  Having my fiancé at the security gate was another great surprise and made quitting the race not seem so horrid.

After six days off the bike, it was time to get back on. The skin was slowly coming back, but the overall soreness from hitting the deck at 60km/h was still lingering. Coming into the weekend, I felt like racing would either be a complete success or epic failure. So I registered for the Chain of Lakes Classic, figuring I have always done pretty well in the races.

Finishing both days was a success despite fighting through some discomfort and residual bleeding. But I was far from 100%. Thankfully my teammate Jake Hill was able to make the split on Saturday and allowed me to follow wheels. After they were established, I figured it was on my shoulders then to ride my race. Putting the discomfort aside, I waited for a cross wind section and guttered it. I rode flat out for the next 15 miles turning the 60 rider field into 4 riders. With 18 riders up the road, it was futile but made great training. Jake finished 8^th and I rounded out the top 20 in one of the windier races I have done in Florida.

Sunday proved to be a very technical crit and was single file from the gun. After 40 minutes of racing, three riders were able to get a gap and the field seemed uninterested in any sort of chase, other than short bursts and long “man” pulls showcasing strength. Coming into the last laps things split and became a little hectic and I felt best to play things safe and take zero risk in this healing process.  Thankfully Jake rode well was able to finish strong amongst the chaos.

Personally, I am looking back to getting the legs back under me and getting 100% for the first USA Crits race next weekend in Del Ray Beach.  Hopefully it will prove to be a fast bunch sprint and will give the opportunity for some big results. Until then!

Stage 3: Three Amigos

After our excursions post race yesterday, we figured that we would be better off trying to eat some local fare in leiu of slamming 8 of us in car and driving to the UCI dinner. Thankfully the dinner was right across from our hotel and was amazing. Also they provided an excellent breakfast to fuel the beast. We had no issues making it to the start and enjoyed a nice neutral start of the days’ stage.

Eventually someone was going to attack and as the break started to form, I figured why not. My legs are good, and Im not a GC threat now, I can go for broke. So I start going across and took 3 riders with me and the Mega-Kazak team decided we were not going across. So A for effort, we stayed at the front and avoided any dangerous roads and tried our utmost to not crash. Prior to hitting the 100km mark in the stage, I noticed my rear tire was getting soft and had a good spot for a wheel change, no issues other than the wheel not shifting great. So I began making my way up the caravan and BOOM. I am on the ground at 60km/h.

What the hell just happened? Well after taking a minute, hit a hole in the road as I was coming beside a car, and my wheel touched the car. No chance on that one. So I slid into the grass off the road, really couldn’t say anything to the race medical, because I racked myself super hard and really couldn’t think. After a few minutes, I got some makeshift gauze and solution put on and hit the road. I thought maybe for a second I could get back to the group, but realized it was probably not going to happen. At worst with a 10% time cut, the worst I could lose was 40 minutes.

So this made it into an 80km time trial. Thankfully it was mainly a cross and tail wind because I rode a massive gear trying to not lose time. The race official on the scooter was also somewhat motivating me telling me that if I didn’t ride harder, I would come in outside the time limit.

As the km’s ticked down I was more than happy to see 2km left and I caught a few riders who were rolling in, I continued my death feared pacing trying to not lose any more time. I come in, teams in and I don’t see the car. Not usually a good sign, after trying to find the race medic, I see Victor Ayala riding in with is handle bars in pieces and looking as if he was thrown out of a moving vehicle. At the car, I see Christian Parrett, who only came in a minute before me with 4 flats on the stage.

After seeing official results, I only lost 15 minutes to the group and my teammates wondering how I rode that hard solo. Finally after an extra 20km spin to the hotel, I had a less than pleasant shower and also a wonderful Betadine session from our Mechanic Joel since the majority of my buttcheek had road rash.

Tomorrow is another fight and hopefully a turn of luck for our team. A night of lots of advil and a massage should make it doable

Day Two: Dreaded Double Day Day Two: Dreaded Double Day

So let’s list a few things we know about cycling

1. 1)      It is dangerous and you can crash
2. 2)      Its mentally and physically draining

Lets list some things we know about international racing

1. 1)      Road obstacles and damage are unknown
2. 2)      Typically host nations are allowed to start teams (with riders in varying skill levels and experience)

When you combine these items you can end up with unlimited catastrophies which no one is immune to. That being said today was one of those days. After a rough night of sleep the day prior’s early start, I felt like today was going to be a day of feeling things out. On the way to the start, the teams all got lost which included some cyclo-cross maneuvers through a freeway and weaving through a traffic jam.

Upon getting to the start, we were informed that we couldn’t sign in because our licenses were not verified. No big deal, our director has the licenses in the car. Well, the car was stuck in the freeway jam. Three minutes to start, we were able to remedy the issue, as he appeared through the slew of stopped cars.

Getting rolling was ok, seemed that we enjoyed about 2km of neutral riding and then it was on and off into the wind. The peloton seemed to snake over the road, with riders jumping wheel to wheel. This made it impending doom. In the first 30km, I avoided 4 crashes and had to pogo around one downed rider. Everything was very nervous and the swarm of local riders jumping wheels made things more than dangerous.

Coming into the final sprint at 72km after going over a bridge, a rider in front of me tried to bunny hop something and landing completely wrong causing him to taco right over beside me. I swore that I was in the clear but then the rider’s head came right into my front wheel.  Going down wasn’t too bad, until I got ran over. I was very uncertain on how my arm felt after getting run over, but I was not going to end this fight yet. I got up, got the bike sorted and got back into the caravan making it back to the group. Unfortunately 5km later I double flatted and our team car was already back. I was left for dead 30km to the finish, figuring out how to get to the line in the time cut.

As I continued to roll it seemed that the bigger gear was the best method, I came in 33min down after getting a scooter escort through town to insure I didn’t die since there was no BROOM WAGON! Thankfully because they put a 15% time cut on day, the lack of the broom wagon kept me in the race, the officials made the right call and allowed a small group of riders to continue.

Despite being sore, I was ready to ride as hard as I could on the afternoon stage. With 47km listed for the stage, this was going to be gas from the gun and also there was a cat three climb 10km into the stage. The nervous energy continued with two crashes in the first 8km. The roads also played a factor with multiple riders getting flats along the way. Coming into the climb was a very sketchy descent that made it hard to carry speed into the climb. The Colombian team absolutely flexed their muscle over the top, making sure that everyone knew we would be in trouble for any hilly days to come.

As moves seemed to come and go, the Kazak Mega Team decided we would be doing a bunch sprint. I was sitting pretty coming down to 5km to go and it was looking to be a good chance to sprint. As we came down the speed went up, I started to crack and I’m sure my body was a little stressed after crashing and I got dropped out of the front split and into the second group at 30 seconds back.

The team placed Christian Parrett in the front group, Colton Hartech at 12 seconds and myself, Victor Alaya and Shane Braley at 30 seconds. In the final 10km our bad luck continued, as Leo Frayre was involved in one of the many crashes.  Thankfully he was not too banged up and we avoided damages to the bikes.

Tomorrow will be the longest stage, and one that will be very difficult with lots of wind and km’s to beat up the legs. Hopefully we can push for our guys to break into the top 15 for the General Classification and avoid any pending death!

Day One Jitters

Racing internationally is never an easy thing, especially with all the logistics of travel hiccups are bound to come up. Our team was definitely not immune to these, as we had one rider unable to get on his first flight due to a baggage issue and unfortunately upon arriving at 12am, they ended up losing both his bags (including bike). On the team side, we did not make it to the hotel in time to attend the directors meeting since we were amid transportation from the airport. So coming in to day one we had no race guide, no car, no transponders, no numbers and one rider sans any equipment.

This made the morning a little hectic; thankfully we had a 3pm start time to sort some of the mishaps out. After spending some time on the phone with American Airlines, Leo found out that his equipment was not going to be here until 2:30pm, making it logistically impossible for him to have anything prior to race start. After running around like mad, he was able to get a bike (one the start line) from the US National U-23 team and also had some borrowed shoes from a local store. Before the lunch we had numbers and everything was looking to not be so bad. Eventually after signing in and prior to our team presentation, the timing official provided our transponders. So 10 minutes to start and we are good to go!

Right from the gun things became aggressive and on lap two, I was able to be a part of a large split that looked very promising. Eventually as riders came across, it looked like every team was represented, sans the Kazak-Astana mega team. We had three riders in the split, so we were very well represented. Two laps later, we got brought back and a small move of three riders went away, with their team slowing the front of the group to insure their gap.

Coming into four laps to go the gap grew to 2:15 forcing Astana to the front. As the laps counted down, it seemed that they were cutting it very close as the gap was not coming down fast enough. Thankfully we caught the three riders starting the last lap and looked to be a bunch gallop. 4km to go teams were jockeying for the front and creating surge lines that made it hard to stay on the right wheels. As we hit the last corner, a bit of rough road shot my chain off, but I was able to get it on without losing too many spots.

With an uphill sprint it was very hard for any team to establish dominance and it looked to be laid on the shoulders of the Kazaks. At 1km to go, riders from La Vega had serged hard starting their lead out and it came to be too hard for the US team riders in front of me. After Navigating around and staying out of danger, I figured it was better to stay towards the front rather than risk it for a 14^th or 15^th place finish.

It was amazing that all our guys raced so well together, especially for the first race together. Thankfully everyone kept it upright, no one flatted and no major mishaps other than some lost bottles. Everyone is looking forward to tomorrow’s double stage day and hopefully we can put some results on the board!

One Year: One Post

After a long hiatus from blogging, I have decided to come back. The end of 2010 and all of 2011 was more than a roller coaster ride for me. Shortly after becoming the state road race champion, I had the worst news of my life. My father passed away in his sleep. Not only was this terrible news, but finding out while training in the middle of nowhere was possibly even worse. I remember vividly riding back to my car in tears and fighting a cold December rain. Nothing seemed real at this point.

As the days and weeks progressed, my priorities in life shifted. I had to now fill in my father's shoes at our family insurance agency and become a business owner. This meant putting cycling on hold. It also allowed me to become closer with my girlfriend, Emily Hirschman, building a bond that couldn't be broken. On another positive note, it really pushed my family to become more health conscious and make some better decisions in terms of eating right and making exercise part of their daily routine.

Despite taking a back seat, my cycling turned some early results and I was able to have a great showing at Valley of the Sun and then win the Savannah Pro-Am Omnium in early March. Finding a new balance in work and training seemed to be difficult, but it wasn't impossible. I continued the season racing hard with many top 10 finishes and was able to finish 5th in the State Road Race Championships.

At the end of the year, I decided that the local team who I was a sponsor for, was not a great fit and it would be better to part ways and go from there. This release really allowed me to get back to my roots and make riding fun again.

Personally I continued to grow my relationship with Emily and proposed in November. To be unique, I sent her on treasure hunt through all her favorite spots in Orlando. It was refreshing to work with all of the managers for these establishments and the hard work they put in to make this a great day for both of us. We also adopted two golden doodle puppies, who are becoming our children! Dexter and Google can be a handful but they definitely make things a lot more interesting after work!

Moving to 2012, I was able to slow my training down to not have such an early season peak. Despite the efforts, I was able to win the first FPS race of the year, coming off the break with 5 laps to go. After a few strong weekends of consistent racing, I was leading the Points Series until some stellar riding from Kenda's Phil Gaimon.

As the season progresses I will be riding for the Firefighter's Elite UCI team and returning to the UCI 2.2 Vuelta Independencia Nacional in the Dominican Republic this weekend. Expect some photos, good stories and podiums from our strong team of riders! Until Then!