Merced Criterium

Okay, so that race was hard!

I drove down this morning with Lucy to Merced.  A long drive, but the race made it worth it.

Here are flowers in the median. Pretty creative if you ask me.  

Racing at 1:30, it was probably the warmest part of the day, but still chilly at that!  A lot of the racers I noticed had arm and leg warmers.  Heck, Cal Giant had the whole deal going on!  I think it's more or less a promotion thing.  "Oh, it's sorta cold, I'll wear my flashy arm warmers and leg warmers!"  I sported the skin suit.  It hasn't failed me yet, and I feel as fast as ever (despite not having my aero wheels!).  I was warned ahead of time what might happen in the race.  The fact that Cal Giant had 15 riders today led to a reasonable assumption that a break would form and stick.  Sure enough, from the get go it was hammer hammer hammer for the whole race.

One by one the Cal Giant riders would go off the front HARD and people would follow.  It was amusing to watch (and painful at the same time), to see them fly by in red and white, and then see everyone else out of the saddle working as hard as ever to latch on and reel them in (or stick with that break).  For some odd reason I thought that to "make" the "winning break", I'd have to chase everything down.  And, sadly that's what I did.  As Jeff mentioned (and I think it's true), I was in the top 10 for the majority of the race!

The race hurt today, but I'm glad I stuck with it.  It turns out that one of those breaks DID stick!  All the sudden I hear people giving us numbers (like "8").. And after about 5 laps I hear a number and look up and think to myself "THERE IS NO ONE 8 SECONDS AHEAD!"  Look back and realize there's only like 10 of us! Holy cow, I made the break!  Lots of more hard riding, and getting yelled at for not doing work.  At that point my legs were fried and it's not that I didn't want to do work, it's that I was in instinct mode which told me "suck wheel!"  It was probably the webcore rider. He's pretty loud, and I heard him make a jab at one of the Cal Giant riders before the break stuck saying "I hope you've got a sprinter!" since none of their breaks were sticking (and they had like 15 guys to get the job done..).  Yea, so a hard race, and I managed 8th overall.  Enough to get me a shirt and $5!
Here are some pictures of the day..

Now for some sleep. I finished my reading for tonight, and have photos with April tomorrow morning before class! See ya!

New Update

Let's see.. what's new?

I could start off with saying this.  My phone died on me.  Maybe it was the 16 page text that I got Valentine's night.  No, not by a lover.  Anyways, my trusty razor bit the dust.  All the keys stopped working. :(  But, it's been a blessing in disguise.  I don't have anyone's number, therefore I've been a LOT more free lately.  However, it's been a tad difficult contacting some of my dear friends.  Ha ha.  Also, another hot topic.  Deleting friends from Facebook.  I, along with MANY friends have gone through our friends lists and weeded out those who clogged up the status stream, and others who were more like "acquaintances"..  Nothing personal.  I just find it interesting that once one "friend" starts removing friends, and posts something like this: "Went from 578 to 312, I feel great!" and there's 15 comments below saying "yea, well I'm at 290, hah!" and "180, beat that", and so forth.  I think the whole thing gets going and more and more people start doing the same.
As for me, I'm just staying away from the whole "friends" through the computer thing.  It's misleading, it's a joke, and most of all it's dissapointing.  I would rather have a few good friends than a bunch of people "liking" my life, and saying no when I want to have them IN my life.

Enough said..
So, this weekend (Friday), it was supposed to snow.  Did it?  Sorta.  "Snow", I wouldn't say it snowed in Oroville. Hailed/slushed in the higher areas, but nothing that I would consider "snow".  You want to see snow, I'll show you snow:

This, Oroville?  I DON'T THINK SO FOLKS.. 

Anyways, it did in Paradise, but that's a different story.  So, I am glad that the weather did go away because the weekend is starting to look great!  Clear skies, and plenty of time to hit the roads and get some miles in!

I can't believe that this coming Thursday I'll be racing a 4 day stage race!  FOUR DAYS!!! That is a lot of racing for me.  I am excited for the challenge, I'm just not sure that early March is the greatest time to have four days of hard racing back to back.  What's the term, racing into shape?  Well, it's more like a sink or swim approach in the P/1/2.  Sure I can hide, but seriously, it's a whole new world out there.   I tried to bridge up to a few riders at the last crit and half way across my legs were like "WHAT THE EFF ARE YOU DOING?? IT'S 15 MINUTES INTO THE CRIT!"  I realized that the speeds are entirely different and you've got to pick your battles.  It was at that point I decided to get back into the pack and "ride it out" till the end. Seeing that we were only fighting for 11th place at that point. (which I got 2nd in the sprint as a matter of fact!)

Alright. Shifting gears.. photos.. lets, see.  My "Ferretti Photography" business has been going well. Photo taking and editing is at full steam right now! I've got over 200,000 views! (here's proof)

And, the other cool thing is, you can search for it on Google and it will come up!! I've never had that happen before, and it's pretty exciting to me!

It would be cool if people bought some prints, I've been taking all the pictures, now people need to buy them! I'm not even charging that much, only a dollar a print for the 4x6.  There are some people who charge $20 for the digital print! I am basically giving that for FREE, and then only asking money for the labor of making the prints!  Seriously.. haha, but yea, now that the seasons are over, maybe more people will pick out some phoots. Maybe even get a poster or two!  

Well, today I went outside to take a few shots.  I like these pictures.  

Good night! And have a great weekend.

Update

Let's see, what's new? Well, nothing too exciting I suppose.  The rainy weather is back for this week and our outerwear clothing order came in a while ago for Chico Corsa.  I like my jacket a lot!

 I like all the new clothing as a matter of fact.  I had a race last weekend in Folsom, that was fun.  The race was fast and I found myself going after all these breaks early in the race.  That gassed me pretty quick and I soon realized that I need to hide in the pack a bit and quit "burning matches".  Also, it took a while to get the feel for the race.  There is always so much movement, I haven't figured out yet the timing on things.  Like, this race the break did stick, it just happened to be the one I wasn't in or chasing down.  After the riders were off the front, we all sprinted for a pack finish.  Dave and Josh were at the front doing all the work and I was third wheel and gave it a shot for the sprint.  I took 2nd there, placing me 11th overall.  Not a bad race and I'm looking forward to more experience.  We ate at Dos Coyotes afterwards and the burritos there are AMAZING.
This week I've been taking photos, editing photos, and also I've been doing a new thing called time lapse photography.  I made a video Monday night with Andrew and Danielle down by AMPM.  It's an hours worth of photos shot at 5 second intervals.. I think it looks pretty cool if you ask me!
Here is a link to my video. It's only 30 seconds long, fun stuff..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureprocyclist/5450469872/lightbox/

See ya!
-Anthony

Paskenta recap

Well, that race was interesting.. I had been looking forward to it for quite some time.  It seemed to be getting a lot of hype, and naturally I was gaining excitement for the race.  Riding in the cold, thinking about that race coming soon where all the long cold mornings of riding would pay off.  Well, that day came.  It was a great weather day, a bit windy, but that was expected.  Everything went great, I had great positioning, raced smart, enjoyed everything about the race right until the gravel.  At that point all heck broke loose and the race went down the hill.  Well, for those that flatted.. Let me back up a bit.  Right before the gravel we (the group) managed to let another group of riders off the front.  Why? I have no clue, but after a while, Paul Mach and other strong riders (including Ian) took off and I joined in.  After taking a pull or two, I literally sat on their wheel and they pulled us all the way through the rollers back to the lead group.  Man that hurt!  THEN we came to the gravel, all united.  I went into the gravel maybe 8th or 10th wheel (near Jeff) and we rode single file through the dry, deep and wicked gravel.  One by one everyone flatted and pulled off the road.  I looked back and there were like six or seven of us left and other stragglers riding through the gravel.  I went from 5th wheel to 4th, to 3rd, then it was just one dude in front of me!  Then, he too flatted.  I thought to myself, "Dude, I'm next.. ah dangit.." and at the sametime I was like "Dude!! I made it this far, AND I'm leading the race on the gravel. This is unreal!"  Then, after riding for a while on what seemed like a low tire, I asked the Team Chico guys behind me if I was out, and they said they thought so.  Sure enough I too had a flat on my rear tire.  The thing is, I thought my tubular would hold up, not my front tire. I had only brought a spare front tire.  With that dilemma, I was done for.  Alex picked me up and I watched the rest of the race from there.
The worst part? Not only not getting to finish the race (or be in any of those lead/chase groups) I saw that the gravel had destroyed my carbon wheel.  YAY!

Anyways, I am a bit frustrated with the overwhelming maintenance costs of wheels.  I literally got that tire glued on days ago, and I had just sent the front one into Ritchey for a fix so I'd have a set for the season.  Not anymore!

Well, the race was fun and exciting, but frustrating at the same time.
More races to come, hopefully most of them on pavement that won't jack up my wheels.

Paskenta!

It's tomorrow!

I'm excited.  My mustache is ready to go too, I've been working on that since the beginning of this year.  I think mustache growing is harder than I anticipated!  Too funny, but on a serious note, I'm really excited to see how the race turns out, and this time around I hope not to get dropped off the back on the way back from Orland.
Fun fun!
Oh, and Go PACKERS!!

Why I take photos.

Every once and a while I get asked the question, "Why do you take photos?" (in a why are you here tone). 

Let me answer that question. 

I take photos because of a few reasons. Let me touch upon a few of the many reasons I have invested much of my time taking photos for others for the past four months. 

The following is a response to a personal statement prompt asking about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to me. It also asks, what about this quality or accomplishment makes me proud, and how does it relate to the person I am. 

I have been involved in sports my whole life and also have a great appreciation for photography.  As an athlete, I appreciate photos that capture me in my element, whether it's cycling, running, wrestling or any other sport.  Having recently purchased a quality camera, I decided to combine my love of  sports with photography by taking photos of local sporting events.  

Since starting with my sister's high school cross country team, I have branched out to every high school and college sport, as well as community events.  Wanting to reach out to the public as much as possible, I created business cards that directed them to my profile on Flickr (a public photo sharing site) as well as a Facebook page where I can interact with the community.  As a result of utilizing the social networking, my profile views increased drastically.  I am proud of having accomplished such feats in such a small amount of time, receiving over 131,000 views within the initial three months of operation. (Now up to 186,813 views to date).

This contribution to the community relates to me since I have been very well organized, and have worked efficiently by getting the photos available to the public.  I have received numerous requests for me to photograph even more sporting events, as well as weddings and senior portraits.  My work has been at the highest level, which expresses the fact that I do everything to it's fullest. This has been the end result of putting countless hours into the organization and visual qualities of my photos, as well as committing to the wide extent of sporting events by going to a different event almost every day of the week.  

I enjoy taking the photos because it allows me to meet new people in the community, while enjoying being involved in the activities first hand.  I can witness each and every event close up, giving me unique opportunities to see life from new angles.  To many, it would be a dream to watch the action from under the hoop, or stand on the field among the coaches and players rather than watching from the distant bleachers.  Also, with a camera I can step past social barriers and put myself into new situations that I would have never felt comfortable doing before.  Photography has given me a lot of confidence when working with people in general.

My photography reflects who I am as a person, and I appreciate the community support and how it has recognized my talent and hard work through photography.  Many who know me personally know that I do everything to the max, always finding a way to specialize it and make it better than everyone else's.  I feel that I have an entrepreneurial spirit within me that always searches for new opportunities to try new things and make a name for myself, as well as benefiting others.  My photos speak for themselves, showing the detail and creativity, as well as dedication that I put into this passion. 

That is why I take photos.  I do it for the those athletes out on the court who are working hard, so that they have the chance to say to their friends and family "Hey look, that's me. I am working hard, I have accomplished something in my athletic career.  This is proof! Let me hang this photo on my wall as a reminder of what I've accomplished and allow that to inspire me to go on to do greater things."  I get a great feeling when I've taken that picture perfect photo that captures the moment.  It could be compared to hunting, that the photo is proof that one has the talent to perform such a task at such a skilled level. (I'm sure hunting is hard!, and so is getting that photo at the exact right moment so it captures all the memories, all the emotions that took place).  Sure I'd like to make a buck here and there, I could always use money, but that's not the reason I show up day in and day out to sporting events to take photos.  I am glad to have received positive feedback about my photo efforts, and I plan to continue taking photos until I am worn out or have found a new interest in something aside from photography. (That's unlikely, because to me photos are a way of expressing life. I can't stop doing that!)

Cal Aggie Criterium

A few days late, so I'll be brief.  I had a great time at the first race on my 2011 scheduled season.  I had been looking forward to that race for a while now!  The weather turned out to be cold, I was expecting it to warm up. (It never did).  I ended up taking photos of the other races, starting with CAT 5.  I got to know some Davis riders as well as some of the photographers there as well.
My race went well, it was chilly, and I wore my new skinsuit!  It looks so awesome!  It started misting on us about halfway through my race, and I was legitimately concerned that my vision was going to be affected by the water on my glasses.  No crashes aside from a few in the S turn, and the race felt really smooth! I enjoyed that part of the race, the fact that it was go go go from the start!  All in all a great day, and I took 17th in end.  I was able to move around the pack quite well and I didn't get spit out the back!  I'm looking forward to Paskenta this Sunday.  The photos I took can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureprocyclist/collections/72157625811093917/

Anyways, the new kits look awesome!