After the starters pistol went off I went from the back to the front half of the group.  I managed to stay there for a little bit, basically until the first steeper hill when the fast guys decided to punch it.  I was disappointed that I couldn’t hold on to that group, oh well.  After that I managed to get into a group of Warren, me and 2 other guys I never met before.  We rode together for a little bit and then one of the guys looked like he was hurting so I decided to try and push it for a little bit and see who would come with me.  I managed to get rid of the guy that was dying and then the group was down to 3.  Then the three of us managed to reel in one guy that tried to bridge to the lead group and we rode pretty well together for a while.  At that point every time I would look back I seen that there was a chase group not far behind us and I wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to get caught.  So once half way through the race there was a section of road that had a bunch of rollers in it, every time we got to the uphill I would go to the front and make sure to set a tempo to make sure the chase wouldn’t catch.  On the second or third uphill Warren got popped off of the group.  Then the rest of the race our group of three managed to catch and pass a whole bunch of the duathlon people.

Once we got within a couple of miles of town the course started to go uphill quite a bit.  I managed to get rid of one more rider by setting a good tempo up the climb.  Then after a little bit of the both of us riding a sudden right and then an “awesome” climb decided to show up and then I tried to drop the last guy but he wanted to stay with me and then he thought I was going to slow up the hill.  After that I made sure he was going to pull me in to the finish.  The ride through town wasn’t bad, it reminded me of a crit go fast, turn and repeat.  We hit the final straight and I nail it, and I didn’t know that I had to be on the opposite side of the road to go across the timing pad.  So, on paper it looks like the guy in 10th beat me but that isn’t the case.

A good place to start is this weekend, the road race in Kewaunee and then the 100k Titletown Tour.  Nothing like a awesome weekend of riding my bicycle.  I will hopefully have some pictures in the near future for your viewing pleasure.

Later

Later.

Subaru Cup Photos

This last week after the race has been quite boring and nothing else new to say.

Later

This week in riding has been GREAT.  Sunday night involved me riding for 61 miles, Tuesday was a night ride (first of the year) and last night was 70 miles.  Last night was a bitch because of the rain storms that were closing down on us.  As soon as we turned south I pegged it trying to out-run the pending storm, that wasn’t happening.  I was doing one gigantic interval and I looked down to see how fast I was traveling.  I was amazed to see that I was doing 33 on the flat trying to fly.  I could only hold that pace for just a little while then I had to slow down for a little bit to try and recover.  The winds were so strong that I got blown across one lane of traffic, that is a freaky feeling to have that happen.

So now it is time to recover and get ready for an 8 am start on Saturday.  That is going to suck.  Hopefully the rain holds off till after my race.

Later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quj7ZUU3SfY

The race went ok, no major problems.  I finished 5 out of 13, should have been 4 but I couldn’t hold the guys wheel up the final climb.  This race made me put the granny gear back on my bike because of the greasy climb which should have been rideable but I couldn’t do it with the gear that I had.

Photos

Last night was the first ever crash on the road, it only took about 4 years to do it.  I am grateful it was only a minor one.  The Bike Hub ride on Thursday night is where it took place.  It was raining and somewhat miserable for a ride to be taking place but I thought that I would tough it out.  The rain really started to make a difference as soon as we got to the top of the hill before the roundabout in Greenleaf.  I was on the front of the line and was just taking my time going through the town.  I get to the entrance to the roundabout and thought that I had scrubbed enough speed that I could make it through the roundabout safely, but no such deal.  I made the gradual turn to the right to get into the roundabout and as soon as I made a left to go around the front tire decided to let go.  I landed on my fat ass and slid about 30′ across the roundabout.  All I can say is that it sucked landing on the road is a lot less forgiving than dirt.  After I laid down for a little bit to make sure nothing was seriously wrong I get back on the bike and start to ride.  I had a hard time keeping up because every time I went to peddle with my left leg it hurt.  So at 22 which shouldn’t be that hard I had to put everything I had into just keeping up with the group.

Wednesday, I had to sub for high school P.E.  That wasn’t to bad except for the last hour of the day because certain kids are just pains in the ass.  Then it was off to the camp for the customary 2 laps.  It was nice to get out on the mountain bike, it had been a week since I touched it.

Thursday, I didn’t have all the fitness that I wanted for this ride.  I could hang on but didn’t have anything when it was my turn at the front, so I just sat in except for the two sprints.  The first one I broke one of the rules that I don’t like breaking, crossing the center line.  We were going for the sprint in Little Rapids and I took off so I could get a jump on the rest of the riders, then Rebecca turns to the left and wanted to join the foray.  I had a big speed difference on her already and it was to late for me to jump on the brakes to stay behind her and then I made the decision to jump over.  No accidents, which is a great thing.  Thursday also involved a first for me, teaching Kindergarten.  Kindergarten takes a different person, they need to have all the energy in the world.  I couldn’t do that job full-time.

Now I was told that I need more pictures, here you go Becker:

Before picture

After

To me my bike looks more bad ass with the Zipp’s on it.

The ride on Saturday was pretty fun.  We started out a little slow because of my lack of climbing skills.  Once the ride started to get going I started to ramp up the speed to try out the effectiveness of the wheels.  All I can say is, “WOW!”  Once I pushed the pace to about 22 I could feel the wheels just wanting to pull me along.  At the half way point Steve was starting to feel it a little bit so I told him just to let me do most of the work.  From Kaukauna to Wrightstown I was averaging about 24 without dying.  Needless to say I was thoroughly surprised.  I don’t know if I would spend the 2300 for the set just for that since there are so many alternatives out there.

Fast Steve

Non-Fast me

Later