4/20 and Grand Junction

Well I have not made a blog in awhile so it looks like it is time. Well last week after the Durango bike race I had a fun filled week of school followed by a little bit of training. One day I went out with Nick Lebejko and did a little attack crit practice, lots of fun I felt like I learned a lot. Later in the week I went out by myself for about 2 hours and did a little bit of tempo. That is going to be a big thing for me, helped me clear my mind of a lot of bullshit. Later that night I went to Corey's for a little cycling meeting, immediatly following Corey, Brian and I all decided to drink it up a little bit. Ended up being a really funny night and Corey got on videotape me thinking there might need to be more cowbell.

On Friday, I left Greeley with Corey, Dana and Mike to head to Grand Junction for the Mad Cow Classic bike race. We had a 6am wake up call on Saturday morning because Corey's road race started at 9am. We got up to go to the road race to a very nice morning perfect for bike racing. The Men's C group left at 9:45 to start their race which amounts to nearly 30 miles. I was told that there was a fairly large hill, so I psyched myself up for it a lot because that is my downfall when it comes to bike racing. I hit the hill feeling pretty good, and when I tried to shift down my chain came off and I had to fix it. In this process, I was passed by the entire group and it took me a few minutes to fix it. As soon as I was back on my bike I was pounding it as hard as I could to try to catch up to the main group. I finally caught some kid who was riding solo and I passed him up without much effort, he then tried to catch up with me and ride on my wheel. I don't mind when people ride on my wheel as long as it goes both ways and they work too. I told him that we should work together and try to catch up with the main group. He decided to give me the silent treatment and not say a damn thing. So I saved myself for a couple of minutes and then pounded it for a few minutes only to leave him back behind me. After my effort I had reached the point in the course where you pedal up a false flat for a very long ways. I ended up finishing the race thinking that I was nearly in last place but ended up placing 26th out of 34.

Later that day we had to start the team time trial in Fruita, which is just outside of Grand Junction. I came into the race with my legs not feeling great and hoping that I was able to stick with the guys for the Team Time Trial. We started out with Albert, Eric, Dana, Mike and myself on the team and had to do 2 laps of an 8 mile course. The first lap felt very good with all of us taking our turn and with lots of teamwork and communication. After the first lap Dana told us that he wasn't feeling great and told us that he would give us everything he had on the front for a minute or two. After he was dropped off, it was my turn in line to pull on the front. The plan for the day was that we would be going a lot harder on the second lap than the first. I pulled the guys up the big hill on the course and felt absolutely cashed, and told them to keep going. We felt pretty strong about how we performed and it was great to have communication and teamwork with the guys.

Later that night I got together with a couple of guys from high school and had dinner at Qdoba. We ran into the USA cycling representative later that night and he told us that we won the TTT by a very large margin. I was really surprised and it was the first victory of my collegiate career and it felt very good. Went to sleep that night feeling very accomplished, however did not want to get up in the morning.

I woke up the next morning with my legs feeling completely locked up and not feeling to great. I was a little worried about racing in a Crit later that morning. When we got to downtown Fruita and I got out on my bike and tried to spin and hope that my legs would open up before the race started. When the race started I felt pretty good and was staying with the main group nearly the whole time. Albert King made a move with 4 laps to go, and as soon as he left the peleton sped up and I was just finished. Everyone finished in the top 20 and I finished in 18th place. Corey ended up finishing 3rd with 4 guys from Durango, way to go man you did awesome.

On Monday night we went to a club sports meeting with Corey, Dana, and Brian. Pretty freaking boring but what are you gonna do. Afterwards we went to Corey's house to make some homemade pizza, very good time we all had some laughs drank some beer and ate some good pizza.

well those have been my past few weeks, so everybody wish me luck and hope that I get a job at I-Bike, Im really hoping for it. Good Night