Month of April.

This month I made the decision to not to race due to feeling that I was lacking the time, mindset, and overall capacity to race. Recently, I have taken the position as the manager of Velox cycles located out of Fort Collins, Colorado. A lot of my time has been directed to getting the team headed in the right direction, finishing strong with my classes and just getting quality time on my bike.

The plan is to get Team Velox race ready by mid-May, get my college career organized, and get the mental and physical aspects of my riding fine tuned for the main part of my race season starting in May.

In the future, hopefully my hard work pays off and can get some good results. In the mean time enjoy.

J.

Short comings.

This past weekend I decided to skip the collegiate race for Koppenberg which was canceled due to weather. Due to certain circumstances I am most likely not going to be able to race to many more races till this summer. Who knows what will happen but at this moment my season seems to be put on hold.

I guess priorities have their way.

J.

Past Two weeks...

Two weekends ago was the DU Crit. The race started out fast on a course that contained three round-abouts and overall sketchy turns. I instantly got to the top 5 of the race and tried to play it smart. I wasn't supposed to attack till the last 1/3 of the race. We hit the longest, fastest straight away before hitting the last turn before the finish where I decided to make my attack. I step on my pedal and find myself slamming hip first into the pavement at 35mhp instantly getting run over. My teammate swerved into me forcing me into the rear derailler of my other teammate instantly shredding my front wheel. I am not sure what my teammate was doing(he is known for his sketchy handling skills). This crash took myself and teammate out of the race(one that I had a great chance of winning) as well as a rough week plus trying to recover.

It took me about 4 days before being able to get my leg over my bike and another 5 days to be able to pedal semi-balanced.

Last weekend, the Durango, FLC race. Starting with the TTT was my first actual physical test on my leg. With a 4 man team we popped two riders and were forced to take 1min. pulls for the last 8 miles ultimately over stressing my injury. The Crit was the same day 3 hrs later. The start was fast and I felt strong. I soft pedaled away from the group gaining a big gap early. 2nd lap I hit the steep short climb and I instantly cramp/nott my injured hip forcing me to drop out of the race.

Sunday, the FLC road race I was given the job of not letting any breaks go. It was a pain-fest. I sat top 3 the whole race pulling every break back solo. With 6 miles to go I drop my chain after pulling a long break back resutling with me shooting out the back and soft pedaling to the finish.

Overall, it has been a stressful two weeks. Due to a teammates mistake I have been set back over a month with my overall physical fitness. This weekend there are 2 crits that hopefully will be a turning point.

New Meixco Race Weekend

So it was sunny, warm and I got a tan. The end! Seriously, it was a seven hour drive from Fort Collins to our race destination in New Mexico. We were lucky enough to have host housing for the weekend and really good weather (till we had to leave).

Saturday, the ITT and TTT were officially my first races ever on a road bike. I pre-drove the course and thought it was tougher then it actually was. I did the ITT first placing 12th (wasn't how I wanted it to go). I had and still am fighting a cold that has me coughing up a lung (literally) which made it hard to go hard. I started out by not being able to clip in and then just not pushing myself due to the fact that I thought the course was harder then it actually was.

The TTT! So, we started out fast and didn't slow down till we hit the climbs(basically majority of the race was climbing) which lead to our 2nd place finish. I was the strongest of the three in climbing so I went at their pace and then pulled them while they recovered (it was a really long pull). Overall it was better the second time around and if I had done the ITT second I think I easily could have been top 5.

Sunday, the Crit. I started out just riding mid pack till a break went which I was given the signal to bridge the gap and try to keep it to the finish. We quickly got a half a lap lead and then the guys suddenly sat up (I was in shock and slightly annoyed) so the group caught us. As soon as we were caught another attack went (at this point I had to go with every single attack because my only other teammate popped off the back) and I had to instantly bridge another gap. This was the story of the race. Being the only CSU rider in the race I had a tuff race. After about 8 attacks and me being in every single one of them things seemed to mellow out so I sat about the 10th guy back and suddenly two CU riders sit up and I am boxed in (not very happy). a group of 5 riders instantly get half a lap on the field. I am face with the choice of waiting for another team to come and try to pull them back (wasn't going to happen) or try and solo to them. I choose to go solo and basically rode the rest of the race solo finishing in 8th (I was shot at the finish or else I would have beaten the three guys that I left go by.

Overall, It was a really good weekend for me never racing road before. I learned a lot and plan on doing better this weekend which will be in Denver, Colorado.

Almost time...

This week was full of intervals, and more intensity. With the season coming up quickly I am just trying to do some fin tunning to make the first race less painful. Since I am not going to be peaking till July I have some time. Road season is more of a step in my training for MTB Nationals this summer.

I purchased two of the licenses that I will be using this summer, and when I got my collegic license every category was wrong which lead to "almost stressful" issue of trying to mend the situation. With the Help of T.G. Taylor everything got worked out and now I am ready for the race year to get underway.

This weekend I have planned: the oval ride(should be good pending on the weather), and then either heading to the mountains snowshoeing/winter camping with some friends before not having any weekends free due to racing. A couple of weekends ago when I did cross training in the mountains I got an incredible workout and mentally relaxed. Should be good fun. If this falls through I shall partake in another Rio Group ride.

In May I will be officially racing for Veloxcycles and for the month I will be back out East I will be riding for Bliss racing.

The run down

So this past week was basically an off week due to bad weather (winds that made it impossible to ride) as well as a ton of school work. I think I totaled 2hrs on the bike maybe three all of which were on rollers(no fun).

This weekend I did TT practice with the Colorado State University cycling team. Basically, the group will be racing with has a ton of experience, and all we did was got a feeling for riding together, technique, etc. After that I didn't want to ride with the team(just felt out of rhythm) so I rode with my teammates Megan, and Caley.

I got a new MTB, which is sick. The frame is a full carbon HT(weighing in at 1300g) so I had to ride it. Hit Blue sky trail and then turned around within 500 yards(sank my bike in mud).

So I went and got back on the road bike and did sprints for an hour.

Sunday, it was supposed to be warm so myself as well as numerous people on the RIO group ride dressed according, the only problem was that it actually was cold. Sad day. We headed up to Masonville, CO. The start was slow. Felt strong on the climbs( it was a big ring day). Tempo picked up mainly due to myself and a couple other riders pulling the whole day. Near the end Caley, Erick and myself attacked and believe it or not people chased. We hit the climbs hard and basically rode away from everyone. From the Hoorsetooth Mountain Park back into Fort Collins we rolled turns near 30mph.

About a week and a half ago I started ramping up the training intensity and have felt strong sense. Part of My plan is to have a good base and finish the rest of my training with the start of the road season. I am going surprisingly fast for the amount of training.

Starting in May I will be racing for Velox Cycles, newly formed team. Should be good. Hopefully starting strong this season should make for a good overall race year. I have some good races lined up and reachable goals.

J.

CSU Group ride

Today I woke up ate a really good breakfast and stretched for about 40 minutes before heading out to partake in the CSU group ride. We headed south towards "Windsor Wall" and then beyond. Not completely sure where it was that we had all gone but it was a good ride. Averaged around 21 mhp for about 3.5 hours, then split off from the group and headed to to the Masonville loop. Three of us were rolling turns at around 28mhp with a wicked head wind. Then, did some uphill sprints that pretty much hurt oh so good. Ended the ride with a total time of 4.5 hrs and 80 miles...not too bad. easily could have done 100 miles if we weren't planning on riding for another 5 hrs tomorrow.

Joining the Rio ride to warm up and then possibly going our own way to get some more intensity built in.