June Update

It's been a while since I've last blogged. So much for my "I'm going to blog every night" plan for the summer.

It's the lack of a schedule that's derailed my consistent blogging..

To go back in time, I'd like to quickly touch upon the highlights of this month.
June 2nd -5th, I raced in Hood River, Oregon.  The stage race was wicked hard, full of ridiculous hills.  Not only were the hills difficult, it was the fast pace of the Pro/1/2 race that made the race challenging.  Most of the stages I lasted like less than ten miles with the pack before falling off the back, completely fried.. spending the rest of the stage riding in solo trying to make the time cut.  As for the racing, it was a great great experience.  I gained a lot, and it was an intense four days of racing.  At the least, it was a great chunk of training with the team.   Racing with the best climbers in the nation was a great experience, however my performance was not tip-top, showing me that I've got a bit of work to do.  I finished in last place overall, 106th of the initial 150 riders.  Getting the "lantern rouge" was harder than you'd think, and I think it says a lot to have finished a four day stage race, despite being quite literally one of the worst climbers in the P/1/2 field.   The fourth stage was insane.  It was 90 miles, full of hills.  I got dropped on the first roller because I spent so much time chasing the pack from the downhill start.  The hills were hard, and we had to do 4 KOM's.  I even managed to take a wrong turn, doing extra mileage!! On the descent of the third KOM I got a flat tire.  That was just about it.  I was ready to call it quits since at that point I had gotten passed by quite literally every category.. I got a spare wheel and managed to ride up the last 10km of hills to the finish with the P/1/2 women's field.  The KOM's were high up in the snow.  That was a cool experience because the weather was perfect and the snow and runoff was a great contrast with the cool air and breeze around me in the hills at the base of Mt. Hood.

On to other cyclings news.. Nevada City Classic.
I dreaded doing this race because I knew exactly what was coming.. Fast racing, painful hills and getting dropped.. and lapped..
Sure enough (not that I was "sticking to the plan"), I started in the front.  Right behind Ian, we rolled out and had great positioning for the neutral lap.  I managed to hang with the top group for a total of about five laps before I got shelled off the back.  The gaps that started out as 2 ft and 3 ft gaps turned into 5 and 10 ft. gaps.. I got dropped, finding myself in no man's land.  The rest of the field was way off the back, and I managed to ride by myself (having blown up from those initial five laps) and found some other riders off the back.  I had blown up so bad that I couldn't hang with anyone, getting dropped one by one by each group that passed by. The hill was brutal and I kept plugging away, despite getting lapped numerous times.  I figured they'd pull me but they never did. All in all, after about an hour I was beginning to lose hope.  I asked the Chico crowd how long I'd been riding and someone (Jeff O.) shouted "Not long enough!"  That irritated me a bit, so I kicked it in gear with what little energy I had left, zipping up the jersey and grabbing extra water bottles in an attempt to dig deep for the remaining time left.  The next lap I found out I'd been going for over an hour.  A few laps later I saw 5 laps to go.  That's when I knew the end was near.  I finished the race, practically dead last.  I am beginning to see a pattern.. Sign up for big "classic" races and get dead last.  Hmm.. my form isn't here yet.  Probably because I don't spend enough time on the bike..

Speaking of time spent off the bike, the rest of my summer has been quite enjoyable.. Lots of time spend with friends, making the most of things with the given opportunities to hangout.  Juan had been our (Ashley and My) main focus since he was leaving for the Air Force Mid June.  We spent quite a number of days and nights together, it was awesome. We swam a lot, went to Fosters a lot, watched a lot of movies and stayed out late a lot.  Between the three houses, we spent a lot of time together.  I am so glad we had the chance to do that.  After Juan left, I have been spending time with Ashley and Patrick, since with Patrick's help I've been fixing up my car.  I replaced my CV Axles, that was quite a project!

At the moment, that's all that's really been going on.  Lots of fun, and this summer has been quite productive so far!

Perspective

It gives me chills when I found out about a death, especially from a kid from this town.  Pretty scary to think about how short life can be.. It's sure an eye opener when it's someone who's not even as old as I am.  Fortunately I have not lost any close friends of my own, I cannot imagine what it's like to lose someone dear to me..  It really puts things in perspective.  I come home and see a "C" on the O, almost shrugging it off since the O has been changed numerous times over the years.  Then I find out that the C is related to the initial of a young boy who went missing in a fatal car accident Saturday.

I try not to think about this topic much, but I've wondered what it is that intrigues us about death.. It seems as if we take interest in seeing headlines like "Two dead, one missing in Highway 70 crash", just as we might be drawn towards a lightning storm, but then too terrified when it hits uncomfortably close.  As if it's "them, not me", as long as it's at a distance we're fine.  I don't want to think too much and put myself in their position, saying "it could be this or that", I could be riding my bike on HWY 70 and anything could happen.  Regardless of age, death is not a pleasant topic.

What I want to take away from such sad news is the fact that I am still here, living life to the fullest, glorifying God in every way I can.  It's important to keep things in perspective, and tragedies such as this are a painful reminder that we are quite literally only human.  With that in mind, I will cherish every waking moment, realizing that I'm blessed to be alive.

R.I.P Cody and your brother and father, my sincere condolences go out to the families.

Update!

Alright folks.   I'm in Hood River, Oregon. The weather is fabulous (for Oregon), not a drop of rain yet!  I'm stoked about that, plus we have this wicked view of Mt. Hood from our house.  The last few days we've been chilling here at the house, enjoying some down time before the real racing begins.  Tonight we start the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic with a three mile prologue to panorama point.  It's going to be fast, despite the brutal headwind.  I just ate lunch and found a computer in the Best Western luxurious complex here at registration.  There's no wifi at the house, but I like it actually, having the chance to chill out and now worry about other things aside from eating sleeping and riding bikes!

Tonight's race will be fast.  Tomorrow's race is going to be brutal.  I found out that most all of the racing involves hills, so that's going to be pretty dang brutal if you ask me.  I'll sure let you know how bad it really was.  I couldn't switch my cassettes to my race wheels, so for the mountain stages I'll be running the non-race wheelset which has my 11x27 cassette compared to my 12x25 cassette. 

I've been picking up on a lot of cycling related stuff, as well as food related stuff.  They like to pick on me here since I'm the youngest.  But Jeff said if they weren't picking on me that means they don't like me, so it's a good thing I guess to get picked on a bit.  Just wait till the Cat 4 riders show up tonight, then we can pick on them!  So tomorrow's course has some small hills in them along with a fatty hill that we have to do twice.  Real fatty.  Not looking forward to that.

As for now, I chill till my start time at 6:19:30 tonight. 
Lots of fun up here, I'm having a blast!!

Peace out folks!

Oregon Road Trip!

Today six of us Corsa riders piled into Jeff's Dodge 3500 and drove up to Oregon!  We managed to fit all the bikes, wheels, bags and food in the back (not to mention the six of us in the front).

The drive was great.  Long, but great.  It rained off and on, fortunately not raining in Portland for our Tuesday night criterium on the local Portland International Speedway.  

Entering Oregon, greeted by fog. 

Very beautiful roads here. 

They have triples here! Insane!!

Scott getting fresh air. 

Portland

We left early just to make it to this race, which turned out a huge success!  Jeff met up with his old college instructor who had introduced him to cycling.  Jeff was also pumped about the race because it's on the Portland International Speedway which is as smooth as butter!  I soon realized that this wasn't a NASCAR type of race, it was the race track that was weavy and had lots of sweet turns (with the red and white cautionary bumps on the insides).  I ran my carbon wheels, not daring to pass up the opportunity to ride my tubulars on this wicked course!  Sure enough, we had a game plan and the race was on its way.  Dave, Jeff and Mike C. got in a sizeable break (10 riders) and the rest of us (Scott Mike P. and I) did what we could to block.  Blocking was somewhat difficult because all the riders wanted to go really fast on the speedway so they'd just cruise right around us since the raceway was so wide!  It was windy, giving us sweet tailwinds on the backside and brutal headwinds on the straight finish/start runway.

Scoping out the course.

Wheels galore! 

Lots of riding, lots of laps. (24 total?) On a 1.9 mile course, we did about 45 miles.  That was a lot more than I was expecting!  I decided to "take it easy" by coasting to the back in the last 5 laps since we were not in the points range (thus not needing to sprint for anything).  This was a bad idea because sure enough, someone's wheel got taken out in the headwind and down he went right in front of me.  I was hoping he'd roll towards the wall but it was an unlucky roll and I ran right over him.  I never thought I'd be in this situation.. but when your bike gets stopped (when your wheels hits someone), your momentum sure carries you with or without the bike! I hit the deck pretty hard but didn't bust anything up.  Skinsuit in tact, elbows hands and knees all good to go.  The wheels, THE wheels got untrued, but I think that's fixable.  Just my luck with those wheels.  Good thing I brought the backup pair just in case.

The PIR, such a smooth course.  Quite an experience to ride on the speedway!

Food was great today.  We ate at a nice Diner in Ashland for breakfast, then finished the day with some good food at Shari's.  Now time to sleep. It's 12, but this day feels like it's just started! Our race didn't even get over till sunset!  I'm off to bed, see ya later!