tidewater challenge and stuff

The 20th Annual Tidewater Challenge was this past weekend. Quite enjoyable as always! This is the forth year in a row I've done the event, although I think the 8th time I've done it? Turnout appeared to be higher than the past few editions. Despite not really training much at all, I signed up for the Pro/expert. With twelve starters and cash payouts ten deep, the odds looked alright. One guy double flatted and Dave was pooped from doing the cross race in Richmond earlier in the morning.

The first four laps I was well focused, but not blazingly fast. The fifth and sixth laps hunger got the best of me as I began slowly bonking. The aroma of carmalized worcestershire sauce wafting through the woods from the Trek/VW RV did little to satiate the hunger...

I started well, but then realized my pace would not be sustainable. After settling in, it was time to sit back and have fun. I used the iPod for the race with a diverse amalgamation of all things rock, hip hop, acoustic, jazz fusion, and alt-country rock... with the volume low enough to hear other riders and spectators, but just right in order to hear the music. Anyways, i ended up 10th, in the money, with (I think) a course PR. Dave dropped out on the forth lap after cramping.

The team had a great catered tent (thanks to Equilibrium Exercise Gallery) and cheering section.


Afterwards Katie, Gordon, Kristen, Dave and I hit up Peking in Williamsburg for some scrumptious Mongolian BBQ along with other Japanese/Chinese fare.

The weekend was also host to my 10 year high school reunion. The whole ten year thing made me feel old... especially as the last 7 years have absolutely flown by. After a family oriented lunch, we had a reserved section at McFadden's in the Hampton Power Plant. McFadden's looks like a great place to catch a game on Monday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday... a lot of BIG TV's. It was also the Halloween Ball, which featured many creative and grotesque costumes.

I was supposed to start Base 1 this week, but several variables thwarted that.

On a separate rant... where did Fall go??? It's been below freezing almost every morning this week!

picture in the paper!

Alright... even though I'm done... I'll still get out to have some fun from time to time... (note: I caught that guy at the line with a bike throw!)
(Roanoke Times 10/08/07 Virginia p. 5)

if you thought the Vuelta was boring....

Check this out... http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/13387.0.html

But seriously... 30 days and 27 stages???? Might be tough to pull off...riders have a hard enough time getting through a 21 day stage race without doping. It'd be cool though! (the race, not the doping...)

The Madone is just about ready to begin building for next year.

done for the season!

I've been done for a while now... nevertheless I'm officially done! (thanks to K. Dillard for the photo)

Chesapeake Crit

Promotional Shot!

Thanks to the K-Dogg for the pic from the start line at the Tour de 'Peake... and thanks to BikeBeat for being a sponsor! I ended up cracking hard halfway through, but enjoyed the race.

Close call at Reston #2

Here's a pic I found on the net from this year's Reston 3/4 race. This is the second crash I was caught behind. Pretty close call, at least I stayed upright! (not sure who took the pic)

wow.

Next year's race bike!

http://www2.trekbikes.com/madone/

City Center Cat 3 pics

Thanks to my Dad for the pics!

Norfolk

Here's a pic from the start of the 1/2/3 race by JB!

It was windy. That pretty much sums it up!

We had a strong team for the Cat 3 race, unfortunately we fell short of the win. I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to make it across to the winning break with Bill from CRC. We were almost there, but fell way too short. On the last lap, 4th was still up for grabs from the field. Another mistake on my part. Perhaps a two part mistake? Number one was failing to alert the guys that I was pretty well positioned in line. Mistake two came as I began my sprint (just before where Matt and I had staked out!), I came along the inside, where the inevitable squeeze play against the curb jutting out in the road began to rear it's head. With the slight tailwind and excellent teamwork from the stormin' Cat 3 JRVS/Casey Auto Group squad, I was envisioning turnin' it up to the 11(tooth)! Right as I was calling up to Matt to let him know I was coming through he jumped, and then had to cut right to avoid a popped dude. I saw the curb, I saw a rear wheel, and I had to slam on the brakes. Oh well. I guess, as Savodelli and other pros remark, "The sensations were there". Which is good... since I should be peaking very soon. Nevertheless, I'm not frustrated with anybody but myself. Great things to come from the Cat 3's of JRVS/Casey Auto Group!

As for the 1/2/3 race... the wind was even stronger! I used a top secret starting technique to get in good position early on. Eventually I found momentum allowing me to roll off the front. I took a (rather pointless) flyer off the front for a lap and a half or so.

It wasn't long before the field was shrinking smaller and smaller. Mark Connely and I were caught behind a flatted rider and forced to chase and chase... and chase. It was a futile chase, but and important one. My goal was to hang in as long as possible. I'm really trying to work on suffering. Suffering in training, and (especially) suffering in racing. After the leaders passed me, I was pulled.

In other news, the City Center Crit 1/2 race is now open to 3's. And... Katie says "hi".

Casey Auto Group Criterium

US Open

Very cool to see such a race on national broadcast television! I hope to see the race stick around for many years to come. How appropriate were the conditions and the course with Ronde van Vlaanderen today??

I was surprised to see Toyota-United, BMC, and Health Net unable to pull McCarty and Tuft back (I didn't look at the results until after the broadcast finished... Katie on the other hand knew the whole time!). The "little guys" definitely took advantage of the course, conditions, and lack of organization by the other teams. I did a double take as Rite Aid's Barrajo took third, which is an awesome result for a local squad. KBS' Nick Waite held on to be the final finisher, as only 54 finished out of 141!

Anyways, enough jibber-jabber... I gotta go and get 3 hours in on the bike before Easter Lunch.

Happy Easter!

(the new frame rides great by the way... thanks!)

photo update!

Things have been pretty busy lately... so here's a photo recap!

This morning! (it's really cold)

the new frame finally arrived!

Conquer the Canal TT (photo credit: Trevor Weiland)

I hate pork!

It's past the point of "strongly disliking"!

http://www.examiner.com/a-640957~Senate__emergency__war_bill_has_almost__20_billion_in_domestic_spending_tacked_onto_it.html

Sneak Peak at SNowball Crit #2 (#1?)

Check out JB's Photo Blog for a preview of yesterday's crit action in Chesapeake.


The team rocked it on the last lap with Rick Flair sealing the deal!

Panoramic shot

3/4 Video Clip

Here's a clip from Sunday's Sonny Hutchins Crit.

Photo Recap: Boulder

Here's a quick photo recap of my Serotta Fit School (SICI) experience. Monday night we went to Wheat Ridge Cyclery to check out Phil and Bob. For all of my former BikeBeat and HDK colleagues, check out that POS! Lastly, you can get a glimpse of what conditions were like as we were leaving town. They must've lost the keys to the plows in Boulder!
(note... Ned's standin' on his toes!)

hmmmm... interesting...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

How long before National Geographic is labeled as a "fascist" organization? Ha!

Cole & Frank do Boulder Part 1

Ok... so part one isn't really excited. We flew out of Roanoke at 9:50am Saturday, made a quick stop in Chicago... then landed in Denver at about 1:30. We were optimistic in thinking that we could get to Boulder early enough to rent a sweet Colnago C-50 and get a couple hours in before sunset. Enter Advantage Rental cars... after waiting 20 minutes for the shuttle to pick us up, then another hour waiting in line for the car, and then 10 more minutes standing waiting for our car (until somebody finally told us our car was practically right in front of us the whole time!)... we finally arrived in Boulder shortly after 4:00, promptly finding our hotel and checking in. With no time for a ride we set out to explore town.

The Downtown Mall is pretty cool, and there are some sweet shops in t he vicinity. One in paticular (name escapes me at the moment) sells only high end stuff and was pretty cool... more on that to come. Anyways, people are waiting for the computer, so I must oblige. We ate an awesome dinner at BJ's (a microbrew/restaurant), Cole had Cajun Pasta and I had a small deep dish pizza with Chicken and Garlic... undeniably delicious. Afterwards we continued wandering, window shopped at University Bikes, then hit up Target, Barnes and Noble, and Whole Foods for supplies (i.e. Virgil's Rootbeer). Cole was unsuccessful in finding a 6 pack of beer. Afterwards, we essentially called it a night. Today begins a long 10 hour first session of Serotta Fit School. Gotta roll!

Target's watchin'

Double take?

Here's a rare (these days anyways) photo of me mountain bikin'! I'm riding a SWEET Trek Fuel EX 9.5 in this pic. Holy cow, that bike can move FAST. I'd never ridden a bike with 5" of travel, couple that with 2007 XTR, and a OCLV 110 frame this thing was meant for rolling fast over rough places. iL Gato is cruising behind me. That was the most fun I've had mountain biking in a loooooong time. Asheville has some sweet riding. Dave was riding a Fisher Supercaliber 29er... therefore he was riding fast, but lookin' slow.

33 degrees and raining

I should be be out on the bike right now! Sitting at work instead.

Trailer Park Boys

One of the things I discovered in Asheville is the Canadian TV series Trailer Park Boys. If you like Reno 911 (which I have yet to get into)... you'll love TPB. CB brought a DVD set down... Canadian humor at it's finest.

Asheville is a very cool town... a little on the hippy side for yours truly... but the riding is AMAZING. We stayed at the Bent Creek trail head near the NC Arboretum; the Blue Ridge Parkway was less than a mile away. Sunday morning, Cole, Ben and I conquered Mt. Pisgah before mountain biking for a couple of hours. The Parkway was "closed"... meaning we had free reign of the pavement; the only obstacles being some ice in the tunnels (just about pitch black!) and some leaves/rocks/limbs. It's a shame we don't have mountains like that in Virginia. Granted I won't trade Virginia for anything else... but we did a solid 18 miles on continuous climbing! I was hoping to get past 6000'; but the next climb was too far away for the time we had. Nevertheless... it was a lot of fun.

3 a.m.

3 a.m. and can't sleep... not cool.

Headin' to Asheville

I'm headn' to Asheville for a couple days. I FINALLY crawled back on the bike today for the first time since Sunday... even if it was only the rollers... it's better than nothing. My little bug must've been the full blown flu, as I was knocked out for the week! Hopefully I haven't lost too much on the bike... as soon as my lungs fully clear, I'll find out. Anyways... gotta roll!

for the Dogg:

For the Dogg... Too bad it's only a Demo wheel...

it did indeed snow.

Here's a pic of Target and Katie from this morning. The pic of Walker looking prissy is from last week.

feeling better?

Am I feeling better? Yes and no. I only say no because as the day is coming to a close... I'm beginning to deteriorate a bit. Last night the fever finally set in, pushing into triple digits. It was almost normal this morning. I tossed and turned for much of the night before settling on Adult Swim and The Cosby Show between 2:30 and 5:30 this morning. Oh well... enough complaining... I'm hoping to awaken completely revived in the morning.

The JRVS/Casey Auto Group Training Camp looks to be losing it's training wheels and becoming a real thing! Originally we talked about a 3 day weekend... but a 2 day Saturday/Sunday shindig is much more doable right now. Day 1 may be the infamous Montebello Loop. What will Day 2 bring? Perhaps an out 'n back on Skyline Drive? Or will we conquer Vesuvius? Will Todd come out to play? Will I find my climbing legs? Regardless I'm stoked... I hope to be riding well.

It's currently snowing out... will the meteorologists redeem themselves by accurately predicting this one?

Here yesterday... gone today.

il Gato and I had a killer ride yesterday (sorry if I almost killed you Dave). I felt great! Kept it steady with the killer headwind and brutal windchill for the ride out to (almost) Blacksburg and back yesterday. Once out past Elliston it began blow quite a bit of snow from time to time. From US-460/US-11 we turned onto Seneca Hollows/Friendship Rd. Wow. After a nice steady 3-4% grade for a couple miles, the road went up... almost straight up! After crossing I-81 we encountered and even steeper hill covered with gravel (read steady pressure to the pedals while climbing out of the saddle) coupled with a killer kicker after a false flat gave use a false sense of being done with the climb. From there it was almost all downhill back to 460. Once back on 460, and with a steady tailwind/helpful cross wind, it was time to test the hammer.

So what about here yesterday and gone today? I felt GREAT yesterday, really motivated, and the hip flexor was a non-issure (thanks to the Body Glide WarmFX). I got back to find Katie with a fever... throughout the evening I began to feel worse; a lot of drainage and a cough. Felt pretty trashed when I awoke this morning... got to t he Y only to cut the workout short. Ugh...

So once again the "Superbowl Bug" struck again; I've missed 7 of the last 8 or so Super Bowls from a bad cold or flu (usually sleeping through it)... I at least watched a good part of the game... although the Super Bowl isn't much my thing.

Still cold...

It's definitely cold outside! The forecast for next week calls for highs in the upper 20's! Ouch! We'll see what happens; as the 100% chance of snow Thursday never developed at all! Funny how "climatologist" can predict global catastrophe 10 years from now, but can't get tomorrow's weather right! Oh well...

Not too much going on, I've been nursing an irritated right hip felxor; as I overdid my range of motion on the leg press last Monday... so that's been hampering the training a bit.

What else? Got up real early to sign of for Jeff Cup t his morning; no cat 3 field means I've gotta do the 1,2,3 race... I'm sure the officials will enjoy picking the Cat 3 RR champion out of a field of 100+.

I'll be travelling a bit the next few weeks. Next weekend I'll be in Asheville for a staff retreat... weather.com is calling for it to be nice! (but... please refer to earlier complaint in post). The 24th I'm headin' to Boulder, CO for Serotta Fit School. That's right, I'll be fully trained and equipped to provide the best fits in cycling. Awesome.

MoM 2005

here to stay?

Yeah... so Winter has definitely set in. No relief in sight! Thanks Dave, for letting me borrow your rollers.

more TTx

I finally took the TTx out for a real ride. That bike is fast! The frame is stiff! It was pretty dag-on windy out; but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I guess all I need now is a supercharger for the engine! Tomorrow looks to be a nice day in the upper 50's... but alas, it'll be in the 30's when I'm out before work. Hopefully tomorrow night's rain will wash the salt off the roads. ($1.87 now)

$1.88!!!

Alright.... gas is well below $2/gallon here; all the flatlanders have no more excuses... get out here and ride!

Todd... I've got plenty of hilly routes for you here (although, I'm not sure if I'd wish that much punishment upon myself!).

stolen from Danbo...

frrrrreezing rain!

It was sleeting when I left the house yesterday morning... and then it turned to freezing rain. It's hard to stay warm when a shell of ice encases your arms and shoecovers! Doh! In the end, I did cut the ride short... while the roads were only wet; I did not want to ride 4 hours with an exoskeleton of ice! Woohoo! The rain bike is alive an kickin' again with some big ol' fenders and weighs about 27 pounds!

homecoming.

Got to cruise the "flatlands" this weekend with many of my friends and teammates. It was definitely a huge treat! Katie and I departed eastward early Saturday morning with the intention of arriving at my parents' house with enough time for me to squeeze in a solid 2.5 hours before an officers meeting at Shackleford's that evening. Plus, it allowed my family to see all 300+ pictures of Italy we printed.

Saturday afternoon, I was able to squeeze in the BikeBeat @ Kiln Creek shop ride (minus the Wormley Creek Tour Rd. Section) to get just a hair over two hours in. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees with only a light wind (very rare for Yorktown!)... plus no real hills (other than coming up the bluff in Yorktown). For dinner, Katie went with my parents and the Wallace's to Andrea's, our favorite Italian restaurant... while I headed up to meet KJ, Jen, Roger, Eli, Chad, Tim, Steve-O, and (eventually) Big Daddy DW at Shackleford's for a delicious dinner meeting. Got home. Went to bed. Tossed and turned all night.

Big Daddy DW's email calling for the resurrection of the Sunday morning Waller Mill ride resulted in a huge turnout! I think when everybody grouped up, we had at least 30 show up... almost entirely of JRVS, which is extremely exciting. To get time on the bike, and get a steady aerobic workout beforehand, I rode up from the house. The ride from Grafton to Waller Mill is almost a perfectly flat 25 miles or so that only has a few shallow rises on Rt. 143.

Leaving the parking lot, the normal casual warmup pace ensued with plenty of conversation. The normal cast of heavy hitters were there (sans ToddXXX), so suffering was definitely in store. Right around the autographed Roubaix sign things began heating up. The pace ebbed and flowed, until finally the knob was turned to attrition. I knew I was tired from the week's workouts... but I wanted to be a survivor, and kept the poker face on as long as possible. We hit the ascent of Col' de Stonehouse hard... which is usually the beginning of the end for me. I arrived at the top welin good position and feeling pretty good. I think it was Mt. Laurel Rd. when the cramps showed up; which is strange because I hardly ever cramp!

After meandering back to the parking lot, it was time to head over to my aunt and uncle's to grab a ride back to the parents' place. It was a great ride! The training stress score was pretty high; but I at least had fun ridin' hard. "Angel Wings" Simet was out rippin' it on his new Bontrager Aeolus 6.5 clinchers. I want some too.

"Are you a pro biker?"

That was the question asked while buzzing into the local Starbucks (which is inside the nearest Kroger) by one of the bag boys. While very flattered, I hope he wasn't disappointed by my answer. The other day, a cyclist from the William & Mary cycling team noticed the JRVS kit and promptly asked if I ride for JRVS...

"Yup."
"What are you doing out here????"
"I live here!"

I can't remember his name; but I remember riding with him a couple years ago during their "team training camp"... he did just pick up a sweet Cannondale System Six bike.

I'm steadily progressing in the gym these days... beginning to move into higher weight/lower reps. I'm not sure if I'll be surpassing some of the numbers I put up last year; but my hamstrings are definitely much much stronger than last year!

Recently, one of the local gyms has closed... which has led to a completely new composition of 6am regulars at the Y; entertaining to say the least.

That's all for now... might see some of you at the Waller Mill ride Sunday.

Updated weather forecast...

Looks like I'll be puttin' the fenders on the steel clunker tonight! Riding in the snow can be sublime... I may run an extra blinky.

new weather forecast:

Winter is back.

Winter is back! It was feezing cold this morning... with a windchill down into the 20's. Parts of Bradshaw Rd. were completely covered in a sheet of ice; and it snowed today! It was just a flurry, but some of the higher elevations nearby had a short-lived dusting. Tomorrow morning is going to be COLD! It's definitely going to be an abrupt adjustment.

Tomorrow's morning ride weather:
















(courtesy weather.com)

beginning to feel like myself again

I'm finally readjusting to Eastern Standard Time! I rode Bradshaw before dawn this morning and felt great... everything feels like it's beginning to gel again, so confidence is on the rebound.

Shortly after daybreak, a farmer transporting his two horses (by attaching them to the trailer hitch of his truck while driving 3 mph) asked me to hold one horse while he put his other away. I tried to get a picture with the camera phone... but it didn't turn out too well. I didn't see that one coming when I left this morning! Nevertheless, I had a good laugh.

another...

it's here.

back in the USA

Just got back from Italia... had a brilliant 5 days and nights, but boy was it exhausting! Too tired to write anything at the moment... pics and a short synopsis are coming.

it's coming...