Dromgoogle

One of my favorite events of the year is Rouge Roubaix. This would be my third time doing the race, My first was in 2010, when I did the P123, and got 9^th in the 3s and mid 40s overall. Last year I did the P1/2 race, which was my first P1/2 race ever. I got 24^th, losing the sprint to the line with the guy I caught at the 200m mark.

This year I was determined to do much better, certainly crack the top 20, and maybe the top 10. I didn’t want to peak for this race, as there are many outside factors that can influence the outcome of the race, but I wanted to be prepared. My coach had me doing some low cadence tempo intervals in the few weeks prior to the race, to acclimate for the dirt/gravel sections.

We headed down to Louisiana a day early, to break up the driving, and to spend a little time in Baton Rouge. On Saturday, we got some good riding in, and some quality teammate time.

Sunday morning showed up, we got our breakfast secured, then went to get ready for the day. I had plenty of nutrition—3 Honey Stinger energy chews, 2 waffles, 2 Gu’s, and 3 Sheets, as well as Perpetuem mixed with Crazy Water. I took one of the Sheets at the start, since I knew as a team we were going to be aggressive and try to get one or two riders into the early break. Nothing was getting away early, so we stayed towards the front, and covered moves. A group of about 8-10 separated from the group and we had 2 riders in it: Adam Koble and Michael Lalla. The lead group hit the dirt with a bit of a gap, and our group seemed less frantic than last year’s  upon the entrance to the first dirt section. It would split the peleton behind us, but by the end of the dirt section we caught the break.

The road section that followed was a lot of attacks, especially when Adam got an early flat. There was a group up the road with Corey and Lalla in it, while Adam, Jesse and I were in the peleton. Jesse dropped back with Adam, while I sat with the group as they tried to get organized and leave them behind. The moto carrying the wheels was right with us, so Adam got a spare, and caught back after about 10 minutes. The group came back together again, with the addition of Collin Davis, who had made his way back after a 50 minute solo time trial, after getting separated in the dirt section.

Now we had 5 riders back together. Heading into the second dirt section, Brian Toone and another rider from GearLink Racing got off the front somehow without one of our riders with them. They got to the second gravel section and hit it, as they knew it would be the best area to gain time, and there was the $100 dollar Royal Purple preme. The group of 20 or so split into a small group of less than 10 during this section, between the hills and the gravel. I was momentarily stuck in no man’s land between the two groups, but seeing as all my teammates were in the front group, I dug in and got back to them.

We again had our 5 riders—now we were more than half the chase group, so it was our turn to work, as the two riders still had a 40-50 second gap on us. We tried a rotating pace line, and attacking the group, to keep the pace up and try to possibly get one of our riders up the road as well. Attacking seemed futile, so we settled in and 3 of us started rotating—Lalla, Collin and myself, and sometimes Corey would get into the rotation as well. Adam was sitting 6^th wheel or so, staying fresh for what was rapidly approaching: the third dirt section.

This section is particularly tricky, as the road leading into it is full of potholes and for the most part quite uneven. Then comes the climb. It is FAIRLY steep, and I hadn’t made up without unclipping in years past. I started the climb in the back of the group as I had managed to drift back on the lead-in road, which was a mistake, but I was able to make up for it. But I knew this was my section to lay claim to once I got over the hill, so I put my head down and started trudging up the hill. On a climb like this, you really can’t stand up at all, as the traction on the gravel is quite poor, so seated climbing is how it went, otherwise you would slip your rear tire. I slowly moved my way up the hill, looking up occasionally, making sure no one was going to block my path. I saw most everyone else unclip and have to trudge up the rest of hill. Adam made it up without unclipping first, as well as a rider from MA, and I managed to not unclip as well, so once we got over the top, it was Adam with a small gap,  and then Jason Snow and myself. I stayed in the front, as I knew that picking the right line was essential, and didn’t want to follow anyone through the next section. Jason stayed with me for awhile, looking back every now and then. I told him that I wouldn’t bother looking back cause it wasn’t likely anyone would be coming up to us. Suprisingly, after a little bit, Corey proved me wrong by bridging up to us. Now that we had 3, Corey and I kept rotating to make sure we wouldn’t get caught from behind by anyone else. One of the two guys off the front had a front flat—we passed by him, but soon enough he was back up to us.

Now we were a group of 4, and Brian Toone, the fellow we had just passed, was riding strong. With Adam up the road, neither Corey or I were about to work anymore. Jason was sitting on the back cramping, so it was all up to Brian to pull. Corey and I put in a few attacks, enough to shed Jason, but Brian was able to cover each one. We passed the other rider who was up the road, with a flat, so now Koble was on his own. I had confidence he could hold Brian off, but Brian was riding really strong, especially this close to the end. With less than 10 miles to go, Brian got another front flat. Now PACC was 1,2,3 on the road. I started to pull as to distance ourselves from Brian, and possibly to get closer to Koble.

We continued for a mile or two, and made it across the low water crossing, which had been cleared from the day before, but still had a little soupy mud on it. On our way up the final incline, Mahoney Hill, I could see Brian coming with the GearLink rider who had been off the front with him. At that point we sat up and waited for Brian to reach us towards the top of the hill, anticipating his attack. He attacked trying to blow past us, but only managed to shed the rider he was with. We now sat on, and let Brian bring us to the finish.

We got to 1k and I made sure Corey had just a little bit left, enough for the final sprint. We hit the final turn with 500 meters to go, and I attacked up the hill. I got a good gap on the other two on the top and Corey was on Brian’s wheel. Once at the top I realized there was still a long way to go, and I was in my little chainring. I didn’t bother to upshift to the 53, but I probably should have just to give myself a little bit more power. I realized I didn’t have too far to go, so I just buried my head and dug in. One more push and a quick look back and saw Corey to my left and crossed the line. We had done it. Watt Posse had gone 1, 2, 3! Lalla came in soon after in 6^th and Collin not too far back in 10^th. Not too bad—5 riders in the top 10. We had raced our bikes, and come away the victors.   

Picture from The Great Brewers GP Gloucester Cx  by cyclingcaptured.com

Mineral Wells Stage Race

We were hoping the rain wouldnt be bad, maybe it would even hold off. It was supposed to rain hard on Friday and it had just sprinkled, maybe Saturday would be the same. We awoke to wet ground and a slight rain. By the time we were headed out to the course it hadn’t changed too much. Shawn and I were riding to the course to get a decent warm up in our legs. We arrived the course to find Corey Ray off the front of the P1 crit. Not too bad. He would stay off for the remainder of the race for the win, with Adam taking third.

The rain seemed to picked up towards the end of their crit and during the 15 minutes between races. We lined up for the start, I was on Lallas wheel, and maybe third row. The whistle blew and it was on. I knew with the rain, and water on the course the gaps were going to open up quickly. There were maybe 15-20 in the front group which formed quickly. The Garmin-Slipstream riders, and an Alchemy rider, and PACC keeping the pace with attacks the rest of the group had little chance of catching back on. A few riders would slide out in corners, usually by themselves, but for the most part everyone kept it upright, least that I saw. None of the attacks were sticking though. 

About 30 minutes in we heard the bell when we were on the backside of the course. We came through and saw a 1 to go sign. A few people thought this meant we were at the end of the race. The rain had picked up signifigantly at this point, so maybe they thought that the race was being called because of the rain. Next time through they sprinted for position, but the bell had been for the racers we were about to lap. One less match in their book, and Ricky Randall, of MSU, attacked soon after. They let him creep off the front and dangle. Some slow cornering allowed him to get a decent gap. I knew I could hit the corners faster at the front or by myself, so I attacked on the back straight away. It took me a few laps to bridge up to Ricky, but once I did we settled into a pretty good rhythm. 

We kept the gap at about 10 seconds, He would take the front side of the course, and I would take the hill and back section. I knew that to win I had to go through the last two corners first, especially in the rain. I pulled up the final hill, and through the downhill corner, keeping the speed up on the back straight to discourage Ricky from coming around. We went through the final corners and I buried it to the line. I looked through my legs once, and didn’t see Ricky’s wheels so I knew I had it. 

Post race, we had to get Lalla out of the rain, as his racers build didn’t allow him to retain much body heat. We drove back to the hotel and started getting bikes ready for the TT. There was just enough time between the races, to go back, dry off, eat a little food, and prep the time trial bikes. We got everything loaded into the Merry Miler and headed out. There was limited parking at the TT course, and with the Miler being reverse challenged, we need to choose our parking spot smartly. They wanted to park us in the field, but I didn’t want to risk it. We saw a spot on Hwy180 and parked there. Not much warm up time, due to trying to keep warm in the van, and it was time to be at the starting block

I was 8^th to start, and my 30 second man didn’t look to enthused to be out in the cold and rain. I caught him before the top of the first rise out of the gate. Probably a minute or so in. Now my chase guy was at least a minute up. So I didn’t have much to focus on, no carrot to draw me in. I would eventually pass another guy at the top of a hill, but had issues getting back into my big chainring, so I lost some time there. I got it figured out and got back on it heading down the hill. The next guy I was going for was a ways off, but I knew I could catch him. I had him in my sights on the final hill, I put it into the small chainring and started to spin as smooth and fast as I could. He kept getting closer and closer, and I knew I was almost to the finish. I caught him at about the 200m marker and finished strong, with a 21:06 in 8^th place. Somewhat disappointing for me but I haven’t really had time to work on threshold this year, so my results should improve by the time Fayetteville Stage Race arrives. 

We checked the results and I was in 1^st in the GC, by 3 points and the team was in 2^nd in that points competition. Think Cash Racing had surged infront of us with 3 riders in the top 6 in the time trial. We needed to watch them in the road race, and make sure their rider in second place didn’t get to far away up the road. There were also KOM points and Sprint points to be had. We had a plan for the road race, trying for the KOM points, but we new we weren’t likely to get them, and to make sure we got the sprint points to retain the 1^st place in the General Classification.

The road race started fast and furious, as they moved the KOM points to the first lap instead of the second, so it was a race to the top of the hill that was 13 miles away.  There were multiple atacks and they were all brought back. We were all together at the bottom of the climb but that didn’t last long. Caleb Fuchs was the first to the top and gained himself 5 points putting him 2 points ahead of me. We needed to get the sprint points on the first lap through. We were set up perfectly, but I was not positioned well and got boxed in. Shawn did manage to get 2^nd and gained 3 points for his effort, but Imari Miller got first, and that moved him within 3 points behind me. The next lap was mostly calm, attacks, but they would be neutralized. The climb up the hill was a little more manageable but I would still get dropped a little bit and had to chase back on.

When we came to the sprint point/finish line on the final lap there was a group of 5 or so off the front, so the peleton didn’t get any points out of it, all of the GC contenders were with us, so it was a wash. The last lap there were more attacks before the hill, with some small groups staying off the front for a bit. One of the groups had a Think Cash rider in it(leader of the team competition), so Lalla was at front putting in a hard hard effort to try to bring them back. We couldn’t manage bringing them back, and I was making sure I was fresh for when we got to the hill. We hit the hill pretty hard and the group split pretty quickly. 

Shawn and I started mid group and Lalla a few spots infront of us. Lalla had given it all he had leading up to the climb and was done for the day. Shawn and I made it to the top, got our senses back together, and started to get back to the field. We were about 20 seconds down according to a spectator, so we had our work cut out for us. We took turns pulling each other, with not much time for recovery.

We would pass Caleb Fuchs as he flatted and was was switching bikes with his teammate. We knew that the field was gonna hit it at this point as both race leaders were off the back. We made it back into the group and tried to move up into the middle to avoid being dropped again, and to get a better draft. 

Not to long afterwards up came Caleb, and he went straight through the peleton and headed to the break up the road. I don’t know why no one followed him, but someone sure should have. He rode to the break and eventually through the break, to get the win 8 seconds off the front. Not that we didn’t try to chase him down. Tommy Rushing, another few riders, and I started a rotation at the front, because we knew it was going to take a few efforts to pull them back in. We would catch them eventually and I tried to recover as much as possible from the effort, as well as position myself well for the sprint. Shawn had helped pull the breakaway back with us, but I hadn’t seen him since, so I knew I only had myself to rely on. The finish was pretty fast and furious, with lots of teams taking a turn at the front keeping the pace high. The sprint would make its first kick just inside the 1K flag, and I knew this was too early for me, so I waited patiently. Imari went at 200meters, and it was on, I couldnt catch him, or one other rider, but held my position for 4^th in the road race.

Heres a video from the last 4 minutes of the road race.

http://youtu.be/ZSFnDehHaG8

Once all the points were shaken out I got 2^nd place, with Imari one point behind me in the GC. 

All photos property of Lee McDaniel Photography

Bryan Fawley and I headed up to the Showdown at Sundown in Broken Arrow, OK arriving an hour or so before our race started. We got our numbers, had a look at the course, and proceeded to get dressed. We had surveyed the course from the highway when we were coming in, and it didn’t look like there was going to be a lot to offer, it was a driving range so from afar it seemed really flat and really stretched out. Once we were dressed and on the course for a few warm up laps, we were showed it had a bit more to offer. There was a steep climb with a set of barriers at the top, some good connecting corners on the backside. Add in the wind from the highway across the treeless driving range in we were in for a long cold race. We got call ups based on USAC points, Steve Tilford, Fawley, a few others, and then I heard my name. I got the second to last spot on the front line.

We got the whistle and it was on, tearing down the straight to the hill and run up, it split immediately down the back side of the hill, the first few laps were game on, but soon the wind began to beat us down. We would separate and come back together on the backside, 7 of us would ride together for the most of race, occasionally yo-yoing apart. The last few laps it started to get going again, it split with two to go, but slowed on the backside with the headwind and we all got back together. Heading into one to go, there was some attacks heading to the hill, some separation, and everyone was chasing as hard as they could to catch back on. Fawley would make it back up to Tilford and Laskey and take the win. While Matt Ankey and Chris Drummond would stay away from me and I would finish 6^th, catching one other rider in the last lap.

Podium Pic from Showdown at Sundown 

Saturday was the Ruts and Guts event, Fawley had raced it the year previous and knew it had potential to be really hard. We were not disappointed. There was about 125 feet of climbing per lap. Each lap being about 5 minutes long we would do over 1500 feet of climbing in a little over an hour. The race started up a steep incline and onto a a downhill right handed sweeper then down to the bottom of the stair-ed run up. I was feeling good and was in the front group, but would get gapped off by the time we hit the climb on the backside, and would ride with Stefan Rothe and Andrew Coe for a few laps until I dropped my chain going up the stairs. I would catch back on before we went through the start finish but Stefan attacked and I went with him, but was riding too close to his wheel when we hit one of the hills and had to un-clip and run the hill.

This would be the last time I would have contact with them. I was keeping them at a sustainable distance for a few laps, but then I could see Fawley around the next bend from them and they must have tried to chase him down because they disappeared. Now I was riding in no mans land, as I would look back every now and then and would see no one anywhere close. I got the 4 laps to go sign, and checked my clock. 50 minutes. There was no way I was going to do 4 laps in 10 minutes, so as I knew I wasn’t catching Stefan or Andrew I let up a little, not so much to let anyone catch, but enough that I was burning less matches, as I knew I was racing Sunday in Fort Worth as well.

I’d finish at almost 1:10, in 9^th place. I’m happy with the result as there were some really strong riders in front of me, some of who had fresh legs, having not raced Friday night. We headed over to the awards party, got our money, grabbed some Marble-slab Creamery for recovery and started the trek back to DFW.

Pic from the off camber climb at Ruts and Guts

Sunday would bring myself and Michael Wilder down to Fort Worth for the Escalera Loco at Trinity Park. Michael had raced the day before, and as we drove up said the course was very similar looking to the previous days course. We got our numbers and headed over to the course to warm up. It was nice having an open hour between races to get ready. We took a few leisurely laps and did some leg openers on the start/finish straight. The course was wide open, had a few connecting corners, but they were wide enough to be sweepers. There was a set of barriers, a short sand pit, a few rides up the levee, and one run up the levee. They had extended the course from the day before, adding in some more sweepers on the far side of the course. This was a definite power course, which was good news for me.

Cross Insanity, what with the yelling.

We lined up for the start, by registration order. Usually they separate the categories, but they decided to put us all together, so there were cat 3’s on the front line with myself, Wilder, Paul Bonds, and Ian Moore. The start seemed long enough to space things out, but there wasn’t. I hit the levee first, but a cat 3 rider was surging right next to me. He hit the turn first and went back up the levee. There was an off camber section, right away and I knew I had to be in front of him before we got to it, so I made my move and got the hole shot. Through the barriers, and back up the levee, and it had sorted it self out a bit. We hit the barrier before the run up, and Paul and I hit it first. Wiley, Stefan and Austin Stewart were right behind. I knew Paul wasn’t going anywhere so I tried to make a gap between us and the next three. We did a lap like that and on the second lap Stefan came rolling through on the road section like a freight train. I hoped on Pauls wheel as he came around and settled in. I ended up back on the front and had a small gap on Paul and Stefan with a group of four chasing hard. I was feeling good settling into a nice pace, but on the back side of the course I went into the corner heading back towards the course and took it a little too hot and washed it out. I rolled out of it, and remember seeing Paul’s wheel on top of me almost immediately. Him and Stefan passed me, as I tried to evaluate the situation, the group of four with Wiley, Steven Williams, Austin, and Scot Minard came by me. Moved my shifter back into place and put my chain back on, and started chasing. I was probably 15-20 seconds down at this point. I turned myself inside out for 3 laps trying to chase those guys down, making a little bit of headway each lap. I caught Wiley first, then the other three. Austin was attacking the group as I was coming up so I bridged to him after another half lap or so.

Getting back on the bike after the run up as I catch Austin. 

I was looking for two things when I caught Austin, I wanted to catch Stefan, and if that was not possible I wanted to insure that I got third place. We rode together for a lap, and I was leading, but Austin wasn’t going anywhere. So I started attacking out of the corners, which there were plenty of. After two laps of this we weren’t getting any close to Stefan, so I knew I needed to separate myself from Austin. I let him pull up the road straightaway to take a drink of water and we got three laps to go. Once we got back to the dirt, I could tell he was fading a little bit, so I hit it back up the levee and put a gap between us. By the time I hit the barriers I had a sizable(5-8 seconds or so), so I knew I could concentrate on Stefan. He was a little too far up the road with only two laps left, but I kept it on, incase of a incident on his part of mine. I would get close, but not close enough before we crossed the finish line.

Paul Bonds got the win in first, Stefan came in second, and I rounded out the podium in third. 

All in all a very productive weekend of 3 hard races, after a hard week of training. My first full weekend on the Zipp 303 CX wheels, and I was very happy with the way they felt, and performed. The Vittoria Xgs were a perfect tire, even on the grassy course on Friday night, they hooked up plenty in the corners and I knew I could take them with a little more speed. This week is a recovery week, perfect timing too as my mother is in town for thanksgiving. My wife and I are headed to the Fort Worth Turkey Trot 5K tomorrow, so that should be a fun time for sure. Not much else planned for the weekend, rest and relaxation mostly. A whole bunch of book reading most likely.

Click through for a video from Tulsa as well. 

Rut N Guts 2011 from Design Your Ideas on Vimeo.

4th today and 5th yesterday. Pretty good weekend for training hard all week. Next week is recovery and I have a new set of wheels coming in. So next week should be pretty good as well.