Party Big aka Fiesta Grande

I wasn't sure I was even going to race this one. Tuesday that week I woke up congested and a sore throat. So I went out for a 1 hour easy spin that evening. Wednesday was even worse, I was achey too. I had my daughter after work so I put here in the trailer and tried to do an easy 1.5hrs, although its hard to do anything real easy with that much of a wind catcher in windy Corpus Christi. Thursday I felt a bit better and for whatever reason I decided to pull the trigger and race.

Friday evening had a 10mile technical TT on Fort Sam Houston. The course was not really closed and only about half the intersections were guarded. It was a bit scary barreling full speed through intersections with cars waiting at the stop signs. I think the fact that traffic laws are much more strictly enforced on military installations had a lot to do with making it out alive.

I have my TT position dialed in. I'm not happy with how high my front end is right now, but the hip angle is perfect I think. This was the first effort where my power was good, my legs felt strong and at the end I wasn't cramping. Usually my glutes are hurting so bad by the end, but this time I felt like I had just got off of my road bike. I think I will measure my hip angle and then move the front end down a little, and adjusting the saddle to keep the angles the same. Power output was good for me in the TT position: ~23min @ 330w+.



Saturday afternoon we came back for a crit. The goal here was to get Colton or I into the break. We covered everything and Colton was able to get into the 12man split. I tried getting across with a few riders but was trying to be careful not to pull a large chunk of the field up. I knew c-money has a good sprint and could finish it off better than I could. He ended up 4th!



Sunday was a hilly circuit race and I was not feeling great, the lack of mileage in my legs this week was evident towards the end. I wanted to respond to some late attacks, and I did but didn't really have the horse power to make anything stick. The field was all together on the last lap except for Serrano up the road solo, Colton took off with 2miles to go, about a half mile later Robbinette attacked and caught Colton. They worked to gether and Colton was able to hold onto third with the pack storming behind by just a few seconds.

New Front end

So I have been tinkering around with my TT set up. Got a set of oval carbon armrests and the stem that holds pads and extensions. I also was able to get a smokin' deal on some zipp vuka extensions with the shifter bosses built in for $40!

I decided to do a modified 'aero or die' set up. I didn't 100% commit to the 'A or D' set up, but I thought this looked a little more aero, but who knows.

The base bar is a 130g Oval concepts mountain bike bar. I turned the vision brake levers so that they were on the same plane as the bar. Underneath the tape I added some cable guides to give it a better shape and make it easier to hold on to.

This weekend will be my first race on it, its kind of a technical course so i'm not sure that this is the best way to test it out.

Fort Davis 2009

Coming off of a good weekend of racing, i was especially looking forward to racing Hammerfest. Its one of the few races I get to do that has some real climbs on it, although none of them are super long, sustained climbs, its pretty close.

My coach, Chann McRae , had my peak starting the week before this race and like clockwork, it showed up. My power at FTP jumped ~15w in about a week and my weight has stayed pretty constant at about 147lbs (68kg).




After an 8hr drive from Corpus, Kevin, Colton and I, rolled into Fort Davis around 3pm on Friday. We unloaded and headed out to do some openers and maybe some light climbing. There is a 10min climb behind an RV park that I like to do, its not a road that many know about I suspect and there is a "No bicycles" warning at the base of it.



I was getting good signals from my legs and was pretty confident about getting a decent result this weekend. There was only a few things that could throw a wrench in the weekend: 1. We were racing a separate P/1 category from the '2' category but racing at the same time, which completely confuses the race tactics 2. There are a handful of Pros in town that normally are not there.

Stage 1: This year the first stage was the Hill Climb RR. An early move of really strong riders got away in the first few miles and hit the base of the climb with a really big gap. Not sure why the peloton thought it was ok to let these guys go but we did. Vargas, Frost and Dille were gone and finished a couple of minutes ahead of the first climbers in the Peloton.




Once we got near the base of Mt. Locke the pace picked up and I moved into the top 10 on the protected side and was feeling good. John Coppin and I set tempo on the lower slopes, we had a tail wind so being at the front seemed like a smart move. Once we turned and the wind became a factor I drifted back and sat in the top 5. The pack quickly whittled down to about 10-11. Pat McCarty (Ouch Maxxis) and Heath Blackgrove attacked after a few minutes of climbing and I didn't respond, thinking that if I climbed my pace it would end up being faster. There were some other attacks but I kept my own tempo and was able to drop most of the group. Chris Wherry attacked and got a gap that I almost closed at the finish 3miles later. At about half way up, a Ten-speed drive rider and Stefan attacked and got a small gap, i caught them as the course leveled off and we rode hard to keep the gap on the rest of the field. I was able to pass them on the final incline and hold of the field. I finished 7th on the stage and 4th out of the main group.

Stage 2: The TT was held in the afternoon and the winds kicked up to a steady 40mph+ there were reported gusts to 60mph. I thought that they might cancel the stage but no luck there. My TT was ok, but not great. I averaged ~17mph for the first 9miles and 40mph+ for the final 7miles. My time put me mid-pack of the P12's. After the first day I was sitting 14th GC.



Stage 3: The final RR was a 72mile RR. The first 35miles were flat and then you start hitting the climbs. The race was hard for the first hour or so as people tried to get away, but nothing was going to stick. The field would split and rejoin in the crosswinds. Once we hit the first climb, 'Bear Mtn.', the tempo started to pick up. San Jose kept the pace most of the last half to keep Vargas in the lead and to keep the attacks down. McCarty attacked a few times but was reeled in each time. I just stayed near the front making sure to stay out of trouble and be ready to respond to any hard surges. By the time we hit the finals decent and run into the finish we had 15 guys left in the group with a few dangling off of the back. I finished 9th on the stage and 13th GC.




All in All i'm happy with the weekend. Chann has the ability to make sure you are fit and efficient all season but also that you are peaking right when you want to be. Even though my results here weren't as good as 2007, my power was up, almost 10%. It took more power this year to hang with the leaders, the fields are getting deeper and the top guys that are here have national level experience.

If I can start focusing on my time trialing I can improve my overall results. However I am happy with 2 top tens.