Tales of Pain - Continued

So, fast forward a year from where we left off. We were no longer in Kansas (right Toto?) and instead, we found ourselves in a place that does not suit us flatlandish Midwesterners - Ft. Collins, Colorado. There were real, legit climbs in the vicinity. We had to go up a few, and while to me they were real, hardcore climbs, to climbers they were just mole hills. I'm such a pansy. The road race went fine. As always, I missed the split. It was more of a who could climb and who couldn't. I popped about 100 meters too early, right before the end of a gradual two mile climb without much of decent afterwards. I never caught back on - it was hardcore lame, I was probably the 2nd to last guy to get popped from the lead group. I brought it home in the laughing group, except none of us were laughing as there was a huge crash on the decent back into town. Mike (R2G) was in that crash, and I honestly thought he might have died. He looked dead as I rode by and as it turns out, he just had some hardcore road rash. When he was on the road, though, he just decided that it would be cool to take a nap while the EMT's tended to everyone else, specifically Sean Noonan who was really, really messed up.

While that all really sucked, the heartbreak comes the next day at the nationals crit in downtown Ft. Collins. We weren't too far away from the New Belgium Brewery - I still kick myself in the ass for not stopping by. Anyway, after a solid performance by Jenn in her race (an awesome 8th place at nationals...I have no doubt in my mind that she had the sprint to win the race, just had some crappy positioning coming in...8th aint bad though), I took the line with Mike, who was a badass and raced after a hardcore crash. He ended up crashing on the very last corner of the race because some dude ran into him and overlapped handlebars. He walked his dead cannondale synapse over the line. I was having a good race from the get go. I had some left in the tank from the day before and the powersticks were jumpy. I was a part of a few early moves that got reeled in. Of course, the move I wasn't in was the one that was going to stick. It was just really weird, though, as people kept leaving the peleton to make it up to the break. At first it was 5, then 6, then 7, then 8. After a lap or two of that, I was like screw this, Im going because no one is going to chase me. I went, and no one chased me. I chased for a lap full gas and was just about to make contact onto the back of the group. I knew this was the group that would take the win, and I was getting gassed trying to catch them. I took a few risks around some corners to make up time and it was paying off. Then, this one corner - well, it sucked. The sidewalk melted into the road and the road narrowed some. I took it going 30-some and hit the little bump from the sidewalk. It threw off my line and before I knew it, I had to bunny hop the curb and then a pile of 5 bikes. Having cleared BOTH and still being on two wheels, I slipped and ate it in the grass. I got back in the race with the pack but could only manage to yo-yo off the back. I think I bounced my head pretty hard when I hit the deck. Of course, the group that I almost made it up to sprinted it out for the win (&$%#) and I managed to flat on the last lap, not finishing.

Yay Nationals!!

So, I have one more tale that makes me want to punch myself in the face. Tune in, well, sometime and Ill throw down and let you know. Maybe this is entertaining? No? Fine, well, this is probably entertaining....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7IESL-R6WE

it's the band of Jason Ellis - a skater and a dude that has a radio program on satellite radio...if you act like a 12 year old like I do (only if you ACT like 12 year olds, not date them) youll probably find him funny

My Career...In a nutshell

So, as the season creeps ever closer, I started talking about goals and races past with my super hot way better bike racer than me girlfriend. Jenn succeeded in reminding me about how painful my results at big races have been. Yeah, I have had some good results and I have had some good results in some big races, but lets take another trip down memory lane and look at some of these heartbreaks...perhaps youll be able to read the emotion as my heart break again while I write these devastating tales....I'll hit them up one by one over the next couple of days so everyone has a reason to keep checking in. First up is Collegiate Nationals 2007. This is the first really big race that I was hardcore gunning for. The best collegiate bike racers in the nation were there, and I was amongst them, even though I was in the lowly small school division. Anyway, major flooding in Kansas caused our race to be rerouted onto 1.5 mile of gravel which worked out well in our favor because we had been used to riding gravel. We had a road race earlier in the season with some gravel, and we just rode our crappy bikes on gravel for fun. The first 29 mile loop was fine. Sure, it sounded like a warzone with all the tubies popping, but I made it through fine. The 2nd time through I wasn't so lucky. Above is a picture of how unlucky I was (It was on the home page of Velonews...sweet, Graham Watson took a picture of me!). The guy in the read circle? Yeah, thats me attempting to put my head underground after I ran over a pile of people behind me. It was awesome. I ended up getting up and regaining contact with the peleton before the next gravel section, which was pleased with. There was a big hill right before the gravel section and I followed an attack going up the hill only to look back and see that the race had been blown apart. I was so stoked. We hit the gravel section and I was maybe 300 or 400 yards behind the lead group of 6 with my Maddog and R2G (Matt and Mike, my teammates) and some other randos on my wheel. I threw down to get them up to the group and I got them up there with only a little ways left to go on the gravel. This was it, this was the move. I was for sure going to be in the top 15 in the nation. I had me sweet euroburns and was strong as hell, even after wrecking once before. Check out the dirt still on my jersey, check out the extra bottle in my jersey for domestique duties. This is as e were making contact, miliseconds before some dude blew a tire and skidded right in front of me. POWWWW!!! That was it, game over. That was the day the De Rosa sustained her life ending injury. That was the day I trashed a wheel. That was the day a dream was crushed. Maddog ended up getting 8th, and Mike was off the front of the group for 8 or 9 miles. He even got to drop back to the car to get a coke. So euro. Me? It looked like a bear mauled and when a USCF official asked me what happend, I told her "What do you think happened? You rerouted 150 amatuer ROAD cyclists onto 1.5 miles of gravel when most have never seen a gravel road before. You then graded it to make sure there were no good lines through it, and then everyone with super thin racing tubies and no bike handling abilities had to ride through it. How great of an idea was that lady?"

Actually, I may not have told her that...I probably just thought it, but I gave her a dirty look....fo sho.

Check in again to hear another tale of hearbreak. Yay!

Collegiate race season starts in almost a week! yay for 8 hour drive to kentucky!

So, I failed miserably

The calorie attempt did not go to plan. I put on my spandex and went to Rolfs to hit up the precor. I brought the gigabeat and my "battered and fried stick of butter energy bars" that pound on these record attempts. The first 30 minutes went according to plan and I was on pace, but after that It all went downhill. I still burned 1650 calories, but nowhere near the 2100 that is the record. It was wicked hard, too, I felt like I wanted to die afterwards. Perhaps I was on a crazy machine last time? Perhaps in the pat 3 years I've gotten weaker? Perhaps the recalibrated the machines? Who knows? What I do know is that I need to stop playing on my computer and do some work. I think once it gets cold out again Ill go at 'er again.

Yeah, this is a lame update, but I felt bad that it has been almost 3 months since Ive updated this piece...ill do a better job again soon