Words cant describe how happy I am right now

so my picture will have to do

Thats right folks I buried that fucker.

GEIGER GRADE HILL CLIMB:
Duration: 38:48
Work: 691 kJ
TSS: 76.2 (intensity factor 1.085)
Norm Power: 304
VI: 1.02
Distance: 7.75 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 87 613 297 watts
Heart rate: 63 227 181 bpm
Cadence: 31 126 80 rpm
Speed: 0 26.2 11.9 mph
Pace 2:18 0:00 5:03 min/mi
Hub Torque: 23 545 169 lb-in
Crank Torque: 85 913 317 lb-in

Geiger hill climb

Tomorrow is Geiger hill climb. Little birdies tell me bobby j is going to be there going for the record…..other birdies place him last night at a little ol’tavern knocking back 8-12 beers. Should be interesting……I don’t think the record will be broken. As for me I think my new personal best will be achieved. Looking back at the results in 2003 when I first started I managed a 45:17 and then in 2004 I got a 44:21 and in 2007 3?:?? I would be super happy if I got under 40mins.

I have inherited a new training toy. A friend of mind just got a set of powercranks from a guy on the UNR team who made these torturous contraptions himself. For some odd reason he gave them to me to use…..I think he’s using me as the guinea pig, which is fine by me.

With a flip of the wrist the cranks were on by 10pm. Its too bad there’s no light out to test theses bad boys. I feel like an anxious kid the night before Christmas. So what do I do……I take them for a spin a few times around the block.

Absolutely amazing, I must have looked like a freak show (more then usual). My pedaling was off the mark by a lot. I am persistent and soldier on. I eventually can get a rhythm going for a bout 20seconds and then the wheels fall off.

I have been researching physiology journals on the powercranks as well as googeling them. The people were definitely not kidding about only being able to ride for 5mins before complete muscle (non-existent muscle) failure sets in. I know it’s going to take some time to get use to the technique as well as time to build the muscles to ride long distance. My plan is to use the cranks on my cross bike and just commute to school and work. I plan on continuing to do my intervals on my normal set of cranks “BURYING IT” if you will. If your reading this mike, this is the phrase I say in my mind as I am doing hill repeats.

Santa Rosa Corporate Crit

This weekend is an off weekend due to the drunken debauchery known as sea otter. We actually have guys going down there on the team to partake in the drinking games. I on the other hand will be off to Santa Rosa by my lonesome (bike inside car). There will be a 4/5 and a 3/4 crit. I hope to have another stellar performance like last week. I really want the finish to be a breakaway, so I am going to be very aggressive in both races trying to establish a break. And if it comes down to it I will believe in myself to be able to solo towards the end if nobody ends up following an attack by me, unlike last weekend.

I am one to not waste money. By that I mean if I prereg for a race I will be damned if I don’t race. I drove down and everything was fine, no rain or traffic for that matter. As soon as I hit the davis area the clouds start to dump on me.
I get to the race early enough to watch the juniors and then the 5’s race, I am just hoping that the rain lets up…Ive signed up for two races.
Its now my turn to race, ive raced in the rain before but never during a crit. What an experience. Maybe its just me and my lack of that killer instinct right now but those guys were fearless or stupid. I think the latter. This one guy with a webcor jersey on would swing wide and zip through the bot dots, which about fifty percent of the time would lead to him fishtailing his back tire. I must say this made me uneasy during the race. I made one solid attack and had a group to work with for a few laps but the pack brought us back in. I figured this was going to be one big nasty field sprint in the rain…….as the race continues on so does the standing water from the rain. For the final sprint I was sitting about 14th or 16th. I don’t know for sure what happened as it was tough to see with all the rain but three guys went down in front of me. I ended up sliding out of the way and managed to keep my bike upright. I hung out a little bit after the race to see if it was going to clear up. After the 3’s race I ended up bailing, to risky to race in.

My TT bike = Romanian gymnast??????

Whoosssh….I feel my car slide to the left in the grandma lane on 395. I look in the rearview mirror a second later and start to see what appears to be a bicycle. It hits the ground and bounces up like a pogo stick. The gears in my brain start to turn, “blue….white…wait a minute those are the same colors as my TT bike.” One more flip with a spiral one eighty full tuck. “Oh shyte that is my bike. No Mr. car don’t run it over….its too pretty.” Miraculously a fellow UNR rider, the one and only Mr. Scott Leland comes to my aid and parks his car behind my baby to shelter it from the onslaught of evil gas guzzling cars. All and all it could have been a lot worse.
BDA
Powertap wheel destroyed……powertap hub “a ok”
One pedal eating alive………...Brightside pedals kept the frame from getting scratched.
Fork is gone……………………such a pretty fork
Small ding in the frame………..so sorry sweetie

Lesson learned car racks suck ass. My bikes will never see a rack again, unless it’s a girls rack then its ok.

Island View Crit Collegiate Mens A

After the morning 4/5 race I was ready to see what I could do in the Mens A race. I knew going into it that this was going to be the fastest crit I had partaken in. I certainly wasn’t wrong. I spent most of the race holding on to dear life at the back. Not the ideal spot to be, but that’s where I was. I was able to see when a rider in front of me was getting ready to crack, and move up past him. In this race we did 45 laps. Stanford and Cal Poly kept hitting attacks after attacks. For most of the race I was next to a Cal Poly guy who would signal an attack by whistling. I wanted to duct tape his mouth shut towards the end of the race. “shhhtttt”…..were strung out individually…..catch the attack group…..rest……shhhtttt another attack over and over again. I questioned whether or not I could stay in any longer. Fortunately for me I had a good group of teammates cheering me on along the race course. I managed to stay in and kept moving up as the race proceeded. I think it was 5 or 6 laps to go the Cal Tech guy I was following broke to the left….and for some odd reason my body reacted immediately to it. We both get out of the saddle and have at it. We did it we broke free of the group. Cal tech guy pulls to the side, I figure its my turn to take a pull….so I pull, 15-20secs goes by and I pull off for him to take over and sure as shit he sat up after he attacked. What a predicament I am now in. I have 4-5 laps left and I am off the front with a good size gap over the field. I figure the pack thought to themselves no worries he’s just a no-named Nevada guy. This is the moment that I lost my chances at this race. I am strong and I need to get that through my thick skull. I end up sitting up letting the pack catch me. In hindsight I should have TT’ed it to the end and let them learn what this Nevada guys name is! C’est la vie……there will be plenty more bike races for me to throw down in. All in all Nevada had a great weekend of racing in Santa Barbara.

Island Vista Crit

Started the morning off with a 4/5 race. The confidence was up extremely high for this race, nothing could take that away from me today. After that romp around cold springs last week nothing could stop me this weekend. I was all by my lonesome in the land of surfer dudes and chicks in ugg boots. I felt like I did the morning I raced cherry pie and won….honestly. I got to try out a teammates tubular wheels for this race. What a difference 180psi makes. When I would get out of the saddle I didn’t feel the tires rolling over on them. Usually my tires feel squishy, not today!
The field was made up of 73 riders on a course that is in the shape of a D. The course is by far the best criterium course I have ever had the pleasure to race on. It was as flat as a pancake with next to perfect pavement. I’ve been racing with guys that are either pros ones or twos for most of the season now, and let me tell you it is definitely a wake up call to race a 4/5, with 73 people in it.
I pre-rode the course early in the morning looking for my lines, which direction the wind was blowing, what line would shelter me from it. I selected the outside line for the corners. During the race everyone would cut to the inside as much as possible, slowing the group down in to a slinky type of movement. I would dive into the outside of the corner, never letting up on my pedaling and would fly by about 12-15 people. I think I scared a few because I would ride through that corner past people just inches from tapping bars with them. If there was room to fit a bike, I was there. For the most part I found it easy to move in the pack.
About 10 laps to go I decide to see if I cant start a break. I am sitting about 20 back coming into the last corner before the straight away. I punch it into the corner yelling “left attack” I was hoping a group would follow with me. I am now off the front with the accelerator pegged. I look down to see which guy is going to take the next pull, and much to my surprise nobody followed me. I look back and see that the group is content on having me off the front. I then get out of the saddle and hit it again. The group then decided to chase me. I spent four laps off the front trying to stay away but the pack wasn’t going to have their race spoiled by some redneck from Nevada. I was caught with six laps to go.
I decided to sit in towards the front and rest up for the pack sprint. Sounds scary. I moved myself back to the outside to wind up the legs for my final burst of power. I ended up getting bumped to the side where the curb protrudes out into the course. I let off the pedals for a sec to avoid going into the curb. In the process I got stuck behind the guy who pushed me out. Kind of sucks getting stuck behind a guy who has no shot at the sprint but needs to be in the front.
I ended up being boxed in for the final sprint. I cam in about 15-20th. I was disappointed with this race at first but then looking at it I did really well. Chalk another race into the experience book. Now I was ready to see what would happen in the Collegiate Men’s A race.