University Oaks Crit

My fiancee and I drove up to San Antonio to do a smaller crit on the north side. The open race had about 20 starters, 8 of which were from Bicycle Heaven.

Being the only rider on my team, and the rest of the racers having no team-mates, we were definitely out gunned.

From the gun there were attacks from BH, I tried to make sure i only went with either Wohlrabe or Mundy. About 15min into the race a group of 5 were up the road, and my two marks were still in the main pack.

I decided to bridge up to the break, brining along a BH rider, Kane. I knew i would have to tow him across as he had team-mates in the break. After a few minutes i caught a Solar Eclipse rider and Wohlrabe had bridged up. So Solar rider and I towed them across.


The break rotated smoothly and we lapped the field and rode past.

BH started attacking again and Wohlrabe got up the road, and we didn't chase. The few guys in the break that weren't on BH would have burned out trying to reel everything back in, so we decided to race for 2nd.

In the sprint, Jaime easily came around and I just got T.I. on the line for 3rd.

State Crit Weekend

I flew up to DFW, since i was going to pack and move my finacee down to corpus later that week.

After my flight landed we drove over to saturday's crit course to pick up my bike and bags. Some teammates had to drive up and were kind enough to take my stuff with them. I did not want check 2 bags and a bike.

That evening I did some openers, i could tell my legs were good but a bit stale. The week prior had mostly been easy rides to make sure i recovered from 2 weeks of stage racing. I was feeling good and was going to the GST crit to get my legs opened up for state.

GSTenzing Crit - 90min. It was so hot by the time we started, it really made the race miserable. The officials informed us that we didn't need a feed and that we would be fine. "Thanks guys who only do ralleys with 'feedzone's every 1.5miles"

I survived, finished in the top 20 somewhere. Good enough i guess.

State Crit - 90mins. My legs felt amazing and my numbers showed that after wards. My goal for the race was to help our protected riders. So for the first 30mins or so, i tried to be on the front or off the front. It worked pretty well. I helped keep things together and even spent a few minutes off the front. By 45min I was fried, and rolled out the back, but glad to have been able to do my job. JT was 8th. I know he is capable of winning the whole thing. We just have to keep riding smart and give the sprinters opportunities to win.

Tour of Arkansas

I really like coming to this race. Arkansas is so beautiful, its green, its mountainous, its great.

I knew going into this race it was going to be even harder than last week, but my legs felt ok and i was sure i could finish each stage.

Stage 1 - Epic RR - 110 miles 10k feet of climbing. After the long neutral roll out, the racing immediately heated up, it felt like a crit for the first hour our so, relentless attacking and being single file. There are 3 big hills leading up to the major 4mile climb of the day. I survived the rollers and prepared for the death march, that would likely decide the race for today. With Jellybelly and Team Type 1 drilling it up the climb, i was doing all i could to stay on the lead group, but i was hanging. A colavita rider and i slowly started losing ground with about 1/2mile to the summit. I tried as hard as i could to stay in contact, but lost the wheel in front of me. As we hit the decent the pack rode out of sight. Colavita and i rotated for about 15min before a small group of 8 riders caught us, then another 15min about 50 riders caught us. We lost 10min to the front group of ~35riders...... So close!

Stage 2 - CenturyTel Mt. Nebo RR - 98miles. This stage was brutal for me. Legs felt ok, but seem to have no power at all. There are 3 major climbs in this stage and they are very steep. The last of which averages 18% for ~3miles, no thats not an exaggeration, its on the sign at the base of the climb. Made it to the base, and rode up Nebo in my 27t at ~40rpm, passing people all the way up.

Stage 3 - Mt. Magazine RR - 98miles. The final stage started on top of Mt. Magazine, which is supposed to be the highest point between the rockies and the Appalachians. The 9mile decent into the valley was the toughest part for me. We were flying down, but not so fast that it was single file (like last year) but just fast enough that we are still shoulder to shoulder doing 45+mph. I didn't like going that fast and being that packed in. Everybody want to be near the front to hit the good lines and avoid bad parts of the road. The rest of the race was a steady ride back to the base of Mt. Magazine and the 10mile climb to the top. My legs were completely dead at this point, and I just rode up the climb at my own pace.

Stage 4 - Van Buren Criterium. I've never felt so bad warming up for a race (even at the end of Gila), I was struggling to just get my legs to feel ok. Wasn't happening. Showed up to the start of the crit, and quickly we were off. As expected we were strung out from the gun. The first ten minutes were tough, legs were hurting so bad. Then all of the sudden, they felt great!? I started passing people, moving up and feeling better. By the half way point i was in the top 1/3 of the pack (you don't want to move up much more than that as you will get in the way of the pro teams tactics, they will physically remove you from there spot!) At some point in the race, i got a little cocky and pedaled further through a corner than i should have, and i dug a pedal in hard. It kicked the back of my bike up, turned me completely sideways and rattle me a bit. I stayed up, but by the time i got back on the gas, there was a gap going into the headwind section of the course. I wasn't able to get back in, bummer.

I finished the Stage race ~56th out of 130 starters. I'm okay with that, hopefully after some rest i'll have some good legs.

The rest of Joe Martin.

So the goal of doing Joe Martin and the following weeks Tour of Arkansas was to race my self into shape. So if I got a result, good, but wasn't expected. I just wanted to finish the stages and gain some form.

Stage 2 Saturday 110 Mile RR. Its a long hot stage with lots of rollers and a 10mile Climb (Mt. Gaylor) 30miles from the finish. Save for one guy off the front the pack stayed together until the base of the climb, at which point the group shattered. Only a couple of miles into the climb, i looked back and could see that the final group had formed. About 30 of us made it over the top with a large gap and finished a few minutes in front of the main group. I moved from 9th to 10th on GC.

Stage 3 98miles, with a couple of steep climbs on each lap. My legs were heavy today. I very hard day in the saddle for me. I gave it all i had to stay with the group, was gapped a few times toward the end, but fought and clawed my way back each time.

Now the finish of this stage is notoriously sketchy. The last 500m of the race is down hill. I easily maxed out my 53x12 just staying near the front. I didn't want any part of that sprint. As predicted, there was a nasty 40+mph crash at the end. Lots of blood, and broken frames. But i went home with all my skin!



Stage 4 Criterium. Suprisingly my legs felt pretty good. However, this crit course is made for splits and for guys who are really on form. Since my form was still marginal, I made it for about 60min before getting shelled on the steep hill. Finished the race in 23rd GC.