Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Millersville Road Race

I got 6th in my race. I'm still needing upgrade points so I did the 4/5 race. If I would have gotten a top 3 finish I could have upgraded to Cat three but I decided to really try a break away instead of conserving energy. I'm now four points away from an upgrade I believe.

I almost crashed twice in the first five miles. The field was ridiculously wild to start. Some guy flew into a curve way to fast and basically forced me to push off the guard rail to stay upright and then later I got pushed into the grass and had to bunny hop back onto the course. It pissed me off early so I knew it was going to be a good day. My girlfriend was watching so I chose to break away from the field on the hill that she was at the top of. I was able to solo for about 3 miles or so. It felt grand, it wasn't that long but it was fun.

The sprint at the end was crazy. I was beat so I attacked on the hill right before the finish to open up some room for me. About 100 meters from the finish 5 guys passed went by then BAM!!! I heard like three cracks and then my back wheel got thrown out but I saved it and kept sprinting. I think I was the last guy to survive and everyone else behind me went down. All the injuries were pretty minor but there was a lot of bloody bodies.

race reports

Jon, we need a race report from your exploits this past weekend.

Anyone else racing?

(You can read about my race at Poolesville here.)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

1st Official Summer TNR Challenge

It is a sad day but I believe I will be missing the TNR tomorrow. This is a formal challenge to anyone who would like to beat me. I have not lost in a long time and I believe this would be a good week to develop some tactics to defeat me. Just don't forget, I have no weaknesses. LETS GO SHIP!!!


oops: This is wild

Monday, June 22, 2009

Cargus Criterium

Well since it was fathers day I decided to race not once but twice! I drove out to Lancaster teammate-less at 7a.m. It wasn't too early but I couldn't sleep the night before. I've been getting better at sleeping and not getting to hyper but Saturday night I tossed and turned for hours. Finally a late night game of NHL 07 at 1:00am settled me down (I lost). Now to the racing- Game plan for 3/4 race-sit in pack and maybe get in a break late
4/5 race- shut-down break aways

9:50- 3/4 race - Started nice, jockeyed up well to top 20 out of a 60+ field. Around lap five a break started to form, I hammered away and got in it, soon caught. Another break forms I hammer up to it, soon caught again. By lap 10 I was already spent, I again failed to even come close to following my plan. I'm still to immature for the 3/4 category. A nice break formed by lap 15 or so and I just sat in the group and that's where I finished.

1:30ish - 4/5 race- I sat under a tree and watched the older gentlemen race as well as all the Cat 4/5 racers warm up. I was out of it and warming up wasn't on my mind. I lined up and found the guy who chewed me out the last crit I did. I was very pleased because I love singling someone out like that. The race started and I immediatly sat on his wheel. I uttered a few words so he remembered me, it was way to much fun. Then he got in a two man break a few laps in. I bridged easily and brought the field with me. His team shot off two other men and I marked each attack. When I get super competive I seem to lose all feeling so luckily the pain from the 3/4 race went away. Anyways, last lap, I sat in on the nameless mean man. He tore off the front with one other guy. This time I made a wonderful decsision not to go with him because I was determined for a field sprint. Going into the last turn I got boxed in pretty well and I was nervous he was going to win, I pushed my way through and had a huge spring up the last straight and passed a lot of people including the mean man. I got fourth and missed second by a hair. I had a ton of fun in this race. I also won 40 bucks --- party. Now I'm looking forward to the TNR and another uphill sprint!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Fathers Day!

Want to say Happy Fathers today to all those followers of the blog who are fathers!!!

I was able to get out and ride with my dad today for about an hour, while sporting our matching Ship Cycling Kits....even though down here in Baltimore County Maryland, no one knows where the hell Shippensburg is!!

I hope all of you are having a great summer so far, and remember get out there and ride like the wind.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Hi all, in general, we have not not really been blogging very much so I figured that I would give an update.
I am proud to announce that, since January, as of today I broke 3,000 miles. My goal is to double that by the end of the year.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to do any races so far this summer. Basically, my pay checks have been barely enough to live on and between rent, bills and groceries, I have not had enough money to come up with the entry fees. I am hopeful that I will be able to race soon.
Friday I rode to my parents house in the rain and rode back again on Sunday in the sun. I thought that my arms were dark enough that I didn't need to put on any sunblock and it turns out that I was wrong. I burned pretty bad and needless to say, I learned my lesson.
Although I couldn't keep up with Jon, The Goat and Martin today I felt great and had a really good ride. After the race I went and climbed Big Flat. I hope that everyone is having a good summer and I hope to see you all at the meeting on Friday.

Chop

Monday, June 8, 2009

Race in Philly

Yesterday me and a few friends rode 30 miles down through Fairmont Park and into philly to watch the race. Floyd Landis did pretty well but got outsprinted on the last lap. While I was watching the race and noticed a guy ride by with the shippensburg shorts on but didnt recognize him! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!