Pre-Fitchburg Longsjo

There are rare times when I'm happier being a spectator than a racer. Cyclocross races in general, and last night at the Exeter Criterium was another. I missed the first 40 minutes, then tossed the sheep brain back in the formaldehyde, and skipped out of my lab class to catch the last 8 laps. And I watched Todd take a prime. But it's good that I wasn't racing, because my legs feel flat.

Fitchburg Longsjo starts tomorrow with a new time trial. I'm the 10th starter in the Pro-1-2 category, and had dreamed of setting an early fastest early time until I scrolled down and see that Tom Zirbel will start 1 minute behind me. If Tom rides like Tom, he'll eclipse me before I even finish. And the rest of the field is stacked, so I don't need to worry about sticking around for the podium ceremony anyway. Yup, class again, after the race tomorrow.

I did some openers today, and after a cloudy day, where the temp topped out at 61, I went out at 4PM, and 10 minutes later the sky opened up, the kind of opening up that looks yellow or red on a weather radar map. Right. I had been meaning to wash my bike.

As I rode, I started thinking about how I'm sore from five minutes of wakeboarding last weekend with Lauren and Rudy. Tons of fun to take a weekend off from racing, see friends, and get our boat out of hibernation, which involved some launch ramp car-boat jumpstarting calisthenics. I wish I had pictures, but since everyone played an integral role in the orchestration, we didn't have a photographer. Did we, Lauren?

Jump to today, and it hurts to stand and pull on the handlebars. But in anatomy, one of my million projects is learning all the muscles. Specifically, my latissimus dorsi and brachialis, along with everything else in my back and arms is ruined. I'm going to have to dig deep in my bag of tricks tomorrow.

To add a little debate point, I LOVE the idea of racing some stages of the Tour de France without radios. Racers will have to do their own thinking, pay attention to everything, race hard, and not race as automatons--cool. Sounds like genuine bike racing. I've always had a beef with radios in racing. Safety they provide is one thing, but I think too much of the outcome is in the hands of directors following the race.

Have a nice 4th of July weekend.

Housatonic Hills and other tests

Another hard day of racing hard.

I wasn't too stoked about racing in the monsoon that's parked over New England, but my IF/Lionettes teammates' enthusiasm, and offer of carpooling me to the farthest reaches of CT convinced me to race the Housatonic Hills Road Race today.

And lo and behold, it didn't rain on us at all.

The day got off to an inauspicious start, when I was too weak to tear my new socks packaging off, and get the damn socks out. So Jon Bruno did it for me with a phillips head screwdriver. And then Jon-6th-sense-for-where-a-Starbucks-is-Bruno found a Starbucks right off the exit. So my strength began returning.

It wasn't like most previous races, with a breakaway. Instead, there were many little ones, all beginning with John Hanson's bold attack early in the first lap. He's feeling great these days, and I was pleased as punch to have him up the road with two other riders.

He was out for a while, but after he was caught, I saw Jamey Driscoll go flying around a sharp uphill corner, and hoping to get into a break with him, I sprinted uphill to him, and then went by him and everyone else, and since it was a steep climb, I just kept up the pace figuring someone strong would bridge across to me. I was in luck: no one came across, and that turned out to be convenient, because around the next bend, up this steep climb, the "King of the Mountain 200 meters" sign came into view. So I went full speed ahead, took the KOM, and won a Rudy Project Helmet and shades for my troubles! After that unexpected good fortune, I decided the day would be a success even if I finished last.

The rest of the race was like this. Attack. Ride hard. Get caught. Someone else attacks. Chase. Ride hard. Repeat. Nothing stuck.

With maybe 10 miles left in the 81 mile race, there were about 15 racers left in the field. (Maybe you'd call it a breakaway, at that point?) Anyhoo, Allister from Bikereg went on a solo attack, and as a field, we mostly rode slowly for a while while he got a gap of about a minute. Then we went faster and faster, not content to race for 2nd place. I led over the KOM climb as fast as I could, and got a funny cramp doing it. Not funny ha ha. Funny terrible.

Jamey Driscoll (Rock Racing) killed it, and did the work of eight people chasing him down, with me, (someone I just met and am impressed with his gritty style) Matt Purty, and Anders Newbury, one of the future of cycling Hot Tubes riders lending some help.

As you can count, that's four out of the 15 doing any work...and mostly just Jamey. Although the remaining Bikereg guys had a free pass, with Allister up the road. We caught Allister about 1.5 miles before the finish, and then it was some cat and mouse all the way in. I timed my finish sprint well, but should've chosen to finish on the leeward side of the line, because rounding the bend up the hill to the line, I opened up a lane for a mysterious rider, Peter Hurst, who used my draft, and took the win by almost a bike length. I need to watch out for this guy.

He hadn't helped chase Allister, so it's irritating that he takes the win after a lengthy free ride, but that's racing. Most people weren't chasing, but if I didn't, then either Jamey would have rolled away, or the best I could've hoped for is 2nd place anyway, so I'd say it was worth the effort.

Then Jon Bruno drove me back to NH, while I studied the whole way for my next big test tomorrow on bone and muscle function. I think I did really well on my lab exam last Thursday. It was largely identifying parts, places, regions of the skeleton, tissues in microscopes, stuff like that. Feeling successful, I B-lined from that test to the NH state liquor store to get tequila for celebration margaritas.

We celebrated Fathers Day early. Inspired by TV Diner on New England Cable News, we went to the Gold plate winning Blue Latitudes in Dover on Friday. Lots of food makes me happy. Honestly, given the choice of really good, or really big food, I often go with big. And I went big. (Good, too). After I was already stuffed to the gills, we split a chocolate chip calzone. Just like it sounds--INSANELY GOOD! I don't know why this idea hasn't been duplicated all across the nation, although the fact that it hasn't is better for the national waistline.

Besides helping dad break in his new laptop last week, there isn't much news, since I don't have time for anything else. Even email has been curtailed.

So until next time...keep the rubber side down. "Unless you're wearing a rubber hat", as the ever-witty Bike Snob NYC said.

Whaling City Cyclone

I'm copying and pasting a race report I just wrote for the team website. I had a bunch of fun racing at the Whaling City Cyclone, and was really psyched to repeat a win there. What I didn't say in the race report was that I was studying Anatomy all morning while Bruno cooked a gourmet breakfast, and continued studying all the way to and from the race. And here's the report:

On Saturday, we got our eat on at Emerson's house. Emerson's dad built a huge wood-fired pizza oven in their back yard. So after working up an appetite doing some openers on a ride through scenic Cohasset, MA, we headed back to the Oronte ranch and ate two tons of pizza. Here's chef Bruno hauling one out of the oven. They cook in about 90 seconds! I need one of these ovens.

The next day, Jon Bruno, Kevin Wolfson, John Hanson, Emerson Oronte, Jerome Townsend, and I raced the Whaling City Cyclone, a crit in New London, CT. The race is very technical, with 6 corners, and a big horseshoe bend on a 1-kilometer loop. Bill Humphreys, the promoter, has created one of the most fun criterium courses in New England.

It started fast, and with Kevin representing us in the first breakaway of 3 riders, I chilled and sat on anyone's wheel who was trying to get across the gap, which lasted for the first six or so laps. When the next break went, I rolled with it. What formed was a group of two guys I ride with a lot in Exeter, Ryan Kelly (Noreast) and Dylan Hercules McNicholas (CCB), plus Amos Brumble (CCB) and Ron Larose (CCNS). Unfortunately, Ryan was dropped, and Will Dugan, (another CCB rider, who lately never ceases to amaze me) bridged across to our break.

So with three CCB riders against me, the outlook was grim. But as luck would have it, I won the next four primes, and then the race!

With two laps to go, Will smartly attacked immediately after my uphill, into-the-wind pull. So I chased him down. Then Amos countered, and I chased him down. Then Dylan attacked with what he had left, but I was like glue on him. With what I had left, I led through the final corner, and across the finish line, holding my lead on Dugan by about a quarter wheel.

In a big race of attrition, we had two more riders finish in the pack, Jerome and Kevin, 21^st and 33^rd places, respectively.

We ate Sbarro on the way home. It was a far cry from the Oronte pizza.

Housatonic hills next weekend. Stay tuned.

But I'll add to this. Exam Thursday and next Monday, so I've got my work cut out for me. I'm hoping to ride an hour before work tomorrow, but lately riding is mostly weekends and Wednesday nights. And in June, who wants to ride in a 50 degree rain at7AM anyway?!

I'm bummed Teddy left today, possibly for the rest of the season. It's been nice having him here, inspiring us all to ride harder, and also cooking something good and new every day. Another loaf of pumpkin bread today.

bye now.

T's home, races, class, sailing

A lot of times I'll get a song or something catchy stuck in my head when I'm racing, but last weekend, it was just anatomy and physiology terms.  Proteoglycan.  Stratified cuboidal epithelium.  RNA polymerase.   

And that's because in my off hours, I was studying for my Human Anatomy and Physiology class.  The Connecticut Stage Race was fun, with a TT and circuit race Saturday, and big road race Sunday.   TT went well, so I was in 5th, and nothing changed for me in the circuit race, which at 24 miles wasn't really enough to make any real time gaps.  If there had been time bonuses at the finish of each stage, that would have mixed it up.

Sunday, as John Hanson, my teammate put it, I was in a breakaway before he clipped in.  I thought that was pretty funny.  The first break didn't last long, but another did, with some GC leaders.  Like Eneas Freyre, who took the lamest pulls, and skipped every 3rd one all day.  Late in the race I boiled over and yelled at him, but he was just doing what he had to to win, sticking with the leaders.  No one made it at all hard for him until the end and he won it.  I shoulda raced a little more balls out, but I got tired and when Josh Dillon and another couple riders caught us at the end of the race, I sort of thought, screw it.  I can't move up any more on GC.  But my brain was too fried to worry about Dan Bowman passing me on GC, as he rode in solo, and jumped ahead of me.  So I just sat on, then sprinted in as a 4th place hero, thinking...well not thinking much at all.  But thinking I'm just holding status quo.  I should've worked with the rest to pull in Bowman's gap.

Whatever.  

Highlights of the past few weeks are:

Teddy survived the Giro!   And came home  He looks the same as when he left.  Not skinnier.  Hardly tanner.  Not very tired.  He doesn't seem to sleep.

My dad and I went sailing in the Boston harbor, which is step one in his ambitious bid to be on the 2012 US Disabled Olympic sailing team.  

Here's Maureen, who actually won the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold for the US Diabled Sailing team!  She runs the sailing program at Piers Park in Boston.
It was pretty cool tacking back and forth in front of the Boston skyline, with the Volvo Ocean Race boats around, plus a cool little hydrofoil boat.  I want one!  

Here, you can see what makes it go.
And here are the racing boats at the dock across the harbor.  We sailed by for a closer look, and were told to beat it by a patrol-woman in a Whaler.

I did my first NRC crits of the year, and waaaay surpassed my hopes.  I was looking for top 30, and got 8th and 13th at Bank of America Wilmington GP and Kelly Cup!  Sweet.

And even better, I won a big race, the Hills of Somerset road race on Memorial Day weekend.  I last did it, and won it in 2005, so it was a sweet homecoming to NJ.  My team and I stayed with some awesome hosts, the Federico's, for a slice of NJ Americana.  Thanks Will, Erika, Hope and Andie!

I started my anatomy and physiology class the day after Tour of Somerville.  Lots of material to cover, most of which I've covered in highschool and college classes before, then put out of my mind to save space.

Jesse Porter-Henry, my college roommate is getting married!  That's huge.  We talk about once every 18 months, so it was good to catch up.  If I'm not in Oregon for racing, I'll be at his wedding.  I think I can do both.

Three highlights of the Wednesday World's Exeter Cycles Ride: First, a Giro rider was there.  Second, Josh Lehmann was riding stronger than I've ever seen, and stronger than any junior should go.  Golly!  I started getting worried mid-ride about the world of hurt he's going to put me in, in, oh, about 2 years.  But best of all, was when I dropped him, Teddy, Dylan McNicholas, and Ryan Fleming, who was showing some serious form, on the second hump of route 4, without attacking.

Unfortunately, three of them showed me a clean set of wheels on the finish of the ride, but I did the leadout for them all.

Yesterday at the Lake Auburn 81 mile road race, we had a rematch.

I followed moves for most of two laps, and had one quick failed break, but after 2 laps Mahk the Shahk McCormack said something like, "Robbie, I'm following you".  I attacked pretty quick after that, but he didn't follow.  Nor did anyone, because everyone was waiting for Teddy.  Which is a good thing, because Mark knows how to race.  At about the time I made it to the breakaway, Teddy did too.  We rolled with it for a while, then sensing tiredness in our friend's legs, attacked the break, and rode the last 2 laps together, where on the final climb, Teddy went faster than me, and eeked out a win.  Or as the Auburn Sun-Journal put it, King won "virtually unchallenged" at 32 mph.  That's not quite the way I saw it.  

Nor the way Ryan Kelly predicted it.  

T said he was feeling his oats, because he had them for breakfast.  My pancakes got eaten by Tom's dog, Greta, while I was loading his gear in my car.  So I was not feeling my oats, nor my pancakes.  Mostly just my Clif shot.

Exam tomorrow night at class is why I didn't do the Great Falls crit today.

New Job

I do more than just race my bike.  I train on it a fair bit too.  But behind the scenes, I'm also working my first bike shop job, which I mentioned in my last post.  Wheel Power.  Good times.  It seems like a  lot of guys work in shops when they're young because buying at shop prices is a good way to afford expensive gear.  I'm making up for lost time in the industry, even though I'm amazingly well equipped thanks to my IF/Lionette's team.

Today I rode with my new, um, colleague, Lee, his friend Curt, plus local legend, Dylan.  Lee and Curt surged up every little climb there was, so when we got to Mount A, I returned the favor, and took off.  Dylan did a wicked sprint, and caught me at the last switchback, so I had to turn it up to 11 to dust him for max king of the mountain points.  That was the highlight of my 4 hour, windy-as-hell ride today.  It was blowing about 20 and gusting to 40MPH.  

It's absolutely crazy to have Teddy racing in the Giro, so I'm trying to do the King name proud in the US of A.  This time at the Sterling road race yesterday.  10x8 mile laps.  Kevin was in an early move, Bruno went with the next, Greg got into the next attack.  When Justin Spinelli, Dan Vaillancourt, Charles McCarthy, and an Embrocation rider charged off the front, I knew it was my turn, so I jumped across, pedaled really hard, and that was the race.  That, plus 68 miles of steady pulls, in which we worked pretty hard, but never got much of a gap on the field or chase group.  The reason was just was exactly what I imagined: Dan Cassidy and Dylan McNicholas chasing!  It was a brisk race.  80 miles in 3:08.

In the finish, I opened up a good sprint for the first 150 yards, but then ran out of steam approaching the line, and Dan Vaillancourt cruised by me for the win, with Spinelli taking a respectable 3rd place.  Dan's fresh back from the Tour of the Gila, in Silver City, NM.  So he's supposed to win, even though I thought I had it for a moment.  Here's the footage.  Plus a post race interview.

But the exciting news is that I was just offered and accepted a job with Ora.  Just being hired feels like a huge achievement, since two months ago I was wondering where the heck my life was headed.  

In March, I decided that I do indeed want to be a physician assistant after a day of shadowing Chris Wheeler at Access Sports Med.  I attended an information session for the University of New England's medical programs, where I heard, again, that clinical experience is critical for gaining admission.  As a cyclist, I don't have much, but Ryan Kelly told me that his girlfriend, Amanda's company, Ora, was hiring.  With Amanda and Ryan's guidance, I whipped together my resume and cover letter, fired it off, and was invited in for an interview.  Which was actually 3 interviews with two VP's and a director!  Yikes, I thought, but I enjoyed all of those, as well as another that I was asked back for, with a department manager.  

So that finally brings me to this week, where I was offered and accepted the job of Clinical Research Associate!  I think that will start in August, give or take.

Until then, I'll stay with Wheel Power for as long as they'll have me.  On May 26th I start a community college class, Anatomy and Physiology, which is another pre-req for PA school.  That lasts until mid July, 3 nights per week.  I got my fat textbook online for 1/2 the price of the class itself, so I'll start studying.

Mother's Day ice cream?  No, she didn't seem to have read my blog.  And instead of accepting my offer, mom wanted me to do yard work today after my ride. I chain sawed a lot of trees, dragged them away, then marinated and cooked her and dad a pork tenderloin, rice, edamame, and an amazing salad with blue cheese, strawberries and avocadoes, then blasted back to Tom and Katie's where I'm watching their dog (my god-daughter), Greta be psycho.  Yesterday she unleashed her fury on the chair I was sitting in.  When I saw her draw two kinds of styrofoam, I drew the line.  

Mothers day plan

Corey asked me yesterday what I'm doing for Mother's Day.  That alarmed me, because I figured he meant today, and I thought, 'shoot, I didn't even get her a card.'  Did I scare you, too?  Don't worry, we still have a week.

So what does mom want?  To move into a condo.  I cannot afford that, so I think I'll take her out to my favorite ice cream joint, which is now open for the season.  So now this has become a test of whether she reads my blog.  She and I share a fondness for ice cream.  

I remembered how much I like it, when Jerome squealed his tires pulling a 2G u-turn to satisfy my icecream need last night, as we were doing recon on the Sterling road course, after racing Jiminy peak.  He has a knack for ripping corners so hard in his Jetta that my GPS goes flying off the dashboard.  

Jiminy Peak road race was good and bad.  It was good because Jerome raced smart and well, and that was gratifying to see.  And I think Kevin would have, if not for a GI issue.

Bad because I only got about 4 hours of sleep, and this:  I was lazy as heck, and sat in the pack until the winning break succeeded in breaking away.  Because it was so windy, I was watching attempt after attempt go about 5 seconds up the road and fail, and I didn't want that to be my fate.  After missing the one breakaway that finally worked mid race, and Jerome got caught in a fender bender, I said to myself, it's now or never, and I chased.  Futile-ly; I got close, but no closer.  When that failed, I sat back in the peleton.  A lap later I rode hard into the wind, then rested some more, then sprinted up the hill to the finish, and was bested by Nick Keough.  

Oh, the drama of the sprint.  Jerome led us out at the base of the climb.  Towards the end of the finish climb, I bridged a little gap to Nick and an Empire rider, maybe Jake?  Then tried sprinting by, but it became a drag race, and I was losing.  So I eased up.  Then his sprint petered out, and I still felt good, so re-doubled my effort, and was passing him fast, but the finish line came up too early and I lost by 1/2 a wheel.  Those Keoughs are not to be underestimated!

11th place.  Next time I'll try to do something smarter, earlier.  Some thing smart like Jamey Driscoll, who either was in, or bridged to the break, then went solo and won.  

Heroic, like Amanda Lawrence, who ran a 3:11 marathon today, and qualified for Boston.  Why she or anyone would want to torture themself like that, I don't know.  Kudos.

Today I rode a fun group ride with the Exeter boys.  The home base is Exeter Cycles, my favorite bike shop east of the mighty Exeter River.  And my favorite shop on the west side of the river is Wheel Power, my new source of employment, and entertainment.  I'm really enjoying my new part-time gig there, and the guys I work with.

Happy birthday to Kat Carr, if she's reading this.  Had a fun lunch with her and all the crazy bikers yesterday.  

Turtle pond race

I haven't been this sore in my legs since tryouts for Squirts youth hocket at age 10, thanks to riding through the worst leg cramps I've ever had on Saturday at the Turtle Pond race, followed by a ravaging day in the white mountains of NH, yesterday, where I sprinted for every town line, and every KOM climb (by myself) and there were plenty of them.  And I spent the rest of my waking hours doing yard work.

But the highlight was visiting my Holderness Coach, Jeff Nielson, who started me, and indirectly Teddy on our wild rides of competitive cycling.  It can all be traced back to a early morning ride in the Fall of 1996.  As always, it was fun catching up with him and Janice.

Here's the bruiser loop I rode.  http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Whittemore+Point+Rd+S,+Bristol,+NH+03222&daddr=Yeaton+Rd+to:N+Holderness+Rd%2FNH-175+to:NH-175%2FNH+Route+175+to:NH-175%2FNH+Route+175+to:Eastside+Rd%2FNH-175+to:44.031086,-71.691456+to:Warren,+New+Hampshire+to:n+groton,+nh+to:Whittemore+Point+Rd+S,+Bristol,+NH+03222&hl=en&geocode=%3BFarDmwIdJyu5-w%3BFay1mwId8F66-w%3BFR_9nAIdP-O6-w%3BFTtIngId7WG6-w%3BFXRinwIdsE66-w%3B%3B%3B%3B&mra=dme&mrcr=0,1&mrsp=6&sz=13&via=1,2,3,4,5&sll=43.979352,-71.668453&sspn=0.11772,0.209427&ie=UTF8&ll=43.85285,-71.773682&spn=0.47188,0.837708&t=p&z=11

I'm pasting in my race report from Turtle Pond that is on our IF/Lionette's team website news column.  Turtle Pond was what racing should be: fun.  Our team ran like clockwork, and the warmth was nice, if not oppressive.

So, here's the deal:

If you can't win a race, you might as well take 2nd and 3rd places.  That's what IF/Lionettes did at the New England classic, Turtle Pond this weekend.

Aggressive racing from the gun meant that there was always an IF rider off the front.  First Kevin Wolfson had a flurry of attacks in the first 6 miles.  Then in the longest solo breakaway of the day, Jon Bruno dangled 15 seconds off the front, with no other teams eager to chase.  But when we reconnected, Kevin, countered, and moments later, Robbie King followed into a large breakaway of about 12 riders.  

In a lull during the 2nd lap of the 6 lap/69 mile race, Robbie rolled off the front of that breakaway, and with no one immediately marking him, he hit it hard.  Entering the 3rd lap, he waited momentarily for some company which came in the form of the only professional in the days race, Toby Marzot, who bridged across.

Then Robbie put the pedal back to the metal, towing Toby for most of the next lap, gaining a sizeable lead on the chase.  In the last two laps of the race, with a gap established, Robbie and Toby pulled closer to evenly, as Robbie nursed some crippling leg craps, which he blames on the heat (this being the first 90 degree day of the year, and a new record, according to weather.com).  But in tenacious fashion, Robbie continued his ferocious pulls, and let Toby know what's up.

...That is, until the finish.  Toby started to sprint with 150 meters to go.  And as Robbie began pulling around Toby (with alacrity) he was seized by catastrophic quadriceps cramps, and nearly endo-ed off his sweet IF.  But not before he served notice to Toby that next time, he's toast.

Then after a cordial handshake, since they're still friends, and since Toby's win was impressive, they watched Kevin filet the competition, taking 3rd place after an attack miles from the finish line, for the most bad-ass 3rd place finish ever.  Todd Yezefski added a very fine 8th place.  Yes, teamwork carried the day, and made the race a lot of fun.

Special thanks goes out to mom and dad, and my teammates in the feedzone, who prevented this from becoming a race to the ER with heatstroke.  Thank you!

3rd person writing is like a fun way to brag about the outcome, even if Toby made me look slow in the finish.  Well, thanks for checking in, ladies and germs.  Have a good week.