Pain Session

Whoa. I think my legs still hurt from last nights race... 75 miles at 30 mph average in the pouring rain. My legs were absolute crap and after yo-yo-ing off the back for a few laps around halfway through - at 12 laps of 25 into the race, I came out for good and lost a lap. You could lose a lap and stay in the race here, so I chilled out and waited for the group to come around and tried not to fall over. I ended up losing a pretty good chunk of time, but I have all my skin where its supposed to be, I am having fun with my team mates and ready to race hard again today. I have to keep in mind that it was important that I took some time off, but I did de-train my fitness some, and that my first big race back will be kinda tough - the lesson being, stay positive and look to the future, the legs will come to life again soon and hopefully in greater force than before I rested.

We had a few guys not so lucky as I, some more crashes, and some more laps lost. Bummer. It was so wild, almost just unpredictable where the wrecks were going to be. Dirty roads, manhole covers, zebra paint on the corners and a jumpy 175 man field combined to make a war-zone in the peleton. I saw one rider (who will remain un

named :) stack it, lose his bike to the left side of the road where the wreck was, catch some air, land and slide 100 feet to the opposite side of the road where he ended up on all fours facing the opposite direction of the race! He had this look on his face of total confusion mixed with fear, we looked at eachother as I passed, his look saying "holy crap what just happened" and mine saying, "I'll be damned, you don't see that every day."

Today is a 110 mile road race with some significant climbing, s

hould be sweet!

A nice photo from the TT yesterday... check out that fog!

Fitchburg Begins

Here we go again! The 4 day stage race began with a cool time trial- rolling hills, some wind and a dense fog with only 50 feet of visibility made for an a-typical day of racing. The team was pretty solid today, with Winstead in 26th, then Jake a bit off in 42nd, and myself Andy and Ty clustered all around 50th place. Our guest rider, and good homie Adam Liebovitz posted a totally psychotic time, a full minute faster than mine! Good enough for 10th place... he couldnt find an official to roll him out -to check his gears for the proper age group - so he was given a 10 minute penalty. OUCH. The team is speaking with the officials and with promotor so hopefully this mess can be sorted out easily.

I'm having a ton of fun, and its good to be out on the road again, so my big rest block was just the thing. My effort in the TT was good, I went as hard as I could, probably could have used a better warmup and maybe not 2 days solid in the car leading up to it, but 54th was indicative of my ability against this field on the day for sure. We'll be looking to attack and roll some serious breakaways tommorow, so stay tuned, hopefully I'll have some fireworks to report in the next post!

Back in Action

So its been a little while since I've updated... some blogger.com problems! Should be sorted out so here goes -

A nice long break from training and traveling spent well - relaxing at the lake in Bloomington, on couches, sleeping, a whole lot of much deserved nothing really. I am feeling profoundly better than when I arrived wore out, exhausted and road weary. After the week totally off the bike I resumed training with some nice long easy rides with friends and a very fun night of track racing in Indianapolis with my friends where I was 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 3rd in my events, which was a great way to resume racing for the season. After the racing was the annual 'Nite Ride' that the CIBA organization puts on, where thousands of cycling enthusiasts take the the streets from about midnight to 2am and do a lap of downtown Indy with a police escort - no cars allowed! I had a blast there as well, though I was pretty blown out after racing really hard then "cooling down" for 20 miles of dodging other riders at night... then driving home.
The photo hardly does justice to the madness of this group ride..a bike light competition, 3,000+ riders of all ages and abilities, I highly recommend going, what blast.
Safety first in the Nite Ride... even with all the lights out there, we saw a few pretty gnarly pileups. Don't drink and ride guys.

We also had the good fortune of running into the riders of the Race Across America, or RAAM. These crazy fools RACE from coast to coast in some 10 days or so... whoa. Many years ago I worked as a crew member for a RAAM team, driving the RV and feeding the riders, so it was a big deal for me to have these people racing literally 2 miles from my parents house. I stayed out pretty late in the night screaming my head off with encouragement for the tired bike riders, hopefully it pumped them up to continue racing through the night --often the RAAM riders fore go the luxury of sleep and just crush the pedals ALL NIGHT LONG.

I am back at it tomorrow, heading with the team to the Fitchburg stage race. The second half of the season officially starts for me Thursday at the prologue TT, so wish me the best in my journey through the rest of 09'.

day in the office

Since the prologue things have been a bit of a rollercoaster… the stages are all finishing in field sprints which are dominated by Colavita. Things are not going super hot for me, or for my team. I had hoped to keep my legs alive for one more week of racing, but I am reaping what I sowed in a big way from traveling and racing so much this year already, my mind and body are out of synch, my legs are pretty well useless and I am trying each day to just get through and help the team where I can. It’s nothing to be bummed out about, I had planned a mid season rest after this race – I had just planned to get there fresh and hungry and have to make myself rest, rather than getting there smashed and looking forward to it!

If you’ve been keeping up with the results I am finishing a little down on the winner each day on time, basically what’s happening is on the final few laps riders who can’t hold the leadout pace open up gaps a few wheels ahead.. so either you close the gap down or you lose a little time. As I am no longer interested in the GC – and a stage result is about 500 meters up the road at 35mph- I usually just watch the gap go and sit up and avoid the carnage. Guys are so hot and heavy to make same time that they are dive bombing the corners from way back behind and throwing themselves all over the road! I guess it’s the first time I’ve spent much time at the back end of a field this season… and I am remembering how much it sucks and how dangerous it is back here, so today I am going to give it everything to get the hell outta there. We have two more races to do, a longer road race today then the Stillwater criterium Sunday, which is infamous for being possibly the toughest crit in the country (you hear that about every crit, but I’ve seen photos of this one… should be a doozy.) I’ll do everything I can for the team at this point and hopefully we can put out stamp on this event before its time to go home.

I’m keeping positive about things, the body is a machine like any other and you need to take it to the shop every now and then for repairs and a tune-up and mine is a few thousand miles overdue. I’ll be heading home and maybe on a short non-bike vacation before beginning training again to ramp up for another stab at the NRC circuit in July. As always thanks for your comments, emails and calls of support.
Scotty in his new 'super-man' time trial position on my TT bike.

I'll have to go at least a little faster today... we have a new team policy, lowest rider on the GC from the team - or Kenda Kup - has to wear the JUICY shorts to sign in!!! Here is Jaime looking amazing in them.

NVGP Stage 1 -Time Trial

Check out THIS link to the restults page for the time trial that opens up the battle for the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

I was pleased with my ride for 49th, losing 1'07" to the winner Zirbel. I rode 100%, building into the effort and finishing with nothing on the top of the hill, so as much as I would like to crack the top 20 I am happy with how I went. Tonight is a criterium then 4 more days of racing to decide the winner. The field is very strong, with 'A' teams from a lot of the domestic powerhouses, so I'm anticipating the field to destroy itself old school Dutchy style in the crosswinds, which is kinda my bag! So I have big hopes for the rest of the week and am ready to go to work.

Keep an eye on KPC's twitter page for to the minute updates in the races - HERE.

just keep going...

Philly is finally over... what a long race, 6.5 hours! I need to start doing longer training rides... I suffered like a dog all day unfortunately, just didnt really have the mojo, I think a little out of sorts physically still after my flu virus, but as the post says... its Philly man, its the biggest race in the country, you gotta keep going till they tell ya to stop! I kept eating a ton and drinking loads of motor tabs, eventually my legs came around a little, got through the cramps and the mental fatigue and stayed focused over the Manyunk wall and kept in contact over every ascension of that hill but the last two, the first time I came off I made it back on with a chase group easily, the second time... that was it. I had seen the writing on the wall and took a final effort and brough team mate Matt Winstead up to the front on the flat stuff leading up to it, then rolled it in as long as I could (this took place at miles 135-145 or so.)



The race did 10 laps of the manyunk wall, a really steep hill that is absolutely packed with really pumped racing fans, then 3 little laps of lemon hill to the finish. The wall was an expirience that I will never forget. Those people were awesome, cheering, screaming, spraying us with water, ten deep the whole way up. It felt like the racing videos of the Tour de France I grew up watching, sitting next to riders from the teams that compete in the Tour too... I was pumped up to 11 for sure. Not to mention my friends from Basking Ridge NJ were there screaming bloody murder for me!!! Paul and his buddies came down and were up near the final stretch of the climb, and once I realized who was screaming my name it was so cool to hear it... thanks Paul and Co.!

On the final ascent of the wall I came out of the group, I was one of the last guys to be dropped, but there it was.. I came off. I rode it out as hard as I could and on the finishing circuits the officials stopped my group and pro-rated us to being 9:35 down on the leaders, but as finishing the race all the same.. I wanted very much to finish with the lead group, but at least my three least favorite words in the English language, DNF, are not next to my name someplace! I'll take it :)



The team is wrecked, what a hard core day, we all just ate Philly cheese steaks and are sitting around having some laughs in the hotel room by the airport where we fly to the Nature Valley GP tommorow. Wednesday is the prologue TT... I am wasted now, and ready for a sleep, but I am very satisfied with my ride, I went as hard as I possibly could, dug down inside myself real bad and fought through one of the toughest physical tests of my life. I know what I need to do to get ready for next year now, lots and lots more miles.



I dont have any photos of the race yet, I'll try to rustle a few up... but I dont like posting without any picutres so here is one Birdman took at the gas station the night before the race, "Mom! Wheres the protein!! I told you I need more protein!!!!"

And finally thanks to all my friends who emailed, called or texted me their love and support around this race, it means a lot to me to know you believe in me and hope for my success, I can't wait to call ya'll back with some good news or good luck one of these days!

lucky bike riders

My team mate and I Jon Parrish are staying in the most amazing house this week which is nestled amongst the vignole grape vines of Clover Hill Winery. Jon took a pretty impressive fall and destroyed his bike and some nice swaths of skin, and until about mid week I was still in full recovery mode from my fever so we've spent most of our time napping and strolling around the vines, and even going on a short tasting and tour of the winery (we did take it easy on the tasting part, coach!)

My body is 100% again so I have been back on the bike and getting my sea legs back underneath me. A little extra rest will more than likely do me good somewhere around mile 140 of 156... Staying out in the countryside away from cars and the hustle of the city has been super relaxing too, especially with all the excitement of an event like Philly its probably for the best to stay out of the city until the last minute to stay calm and rested, (Apparently this is not lost on the rest of the bunch, we saw Ouch and Colavita out on Hawk Mt. this week too.) I'm off for my final tune-up ride, then its down to Philly tommorow morning, see you on the Manyunk wall!