Nevada City

Although I had done Tour de Nez before, I had never done Nevada City.  With Nevada City being about 5 miles from Grass Valley, where my wife’s grandparents live, it was a must do race. 

Usually courses like this are great for me…very selective, no place to hide, etc.  However, when you factor in that LANCE was going to be there, as well as 140 or so other Dreamers, and everyone wanted to show LANCE what they could do, the difficulty was increased exponentially.  Usually in races such as this, it is important to start up front, but when they do “call-ups” for 15 people, and those people end up being the front group…oh well.

So I set off to make my way up to the front, gaining a truckload of spots every time up the hill.  There was a split of about 40 or 50 guys 5 laps in that I was behind, so I launched across to that, which took 2 laps to get to.  Once I got to the front group, there was another split across the top of the course, which I again jumped into, but the next time I had nothing.  I sat in no-man’s land for a few laps, waving to the cheering crowds like I was a super star. 

The absolute coolest thing about this race is that it brings out a TON of people in a very small town, and they all think you are the best thing since that Greg fellow who won the race a few times in France.  You have kids coming up to you getting autographs, you toss fans water bottles…it really is a great atmosphere.  I’ll be back next year, and hopefully able to either get a call-up (yeah right) or not be such a lame-ass.

Tour de Nez

The TDN is a 3-crit omnium in its current format…it has been a 4day stage race, 2 crit omnium, etc over the years.  It has had TTs, road races, and different crit courses too.  This year, they had the same Truckee crit as in years past, the same Reno crit, and a new Northstar crit.  The team was staying at the resort in Northstar, which as Rudy put it, “does not suck.”  Staying at a ski resort in the off season (for skiing) is one of my favorite things to do.  It is quiet, I love the mountains, there’s always great riding, and did I mention it is quiet?

When I retire, I think I’ll end up in Bishop.  The Sierras are a special place, and as nice as the west side of them is, I prefer the east side for the sole reason that in the valley there is a lack of snow.  It does not snow much in Bishop, if ever, whereas on the west side they get hammered.  The west side is greener, however, so it has that going for it. 

We watched the movie “Stepbrothers” probably 5 times over the weekend.  I can now quote the whole movie.  On to the racing:

The first crit was a shock to the system, and I tried to warn the team.  Warm up, although dorky as it might be, is truly important for these afternoon crits.  We go out for a short ride in the morning to wake the system up and get the metabolism running, then return to the hotel/resort to rest.  Upon getting to the race site, we set up the trainers and hop to it like we’re getting ready for a time trial.  The reason for this is that the first few laps (in this case the whole crit) are always super fast, and if you go into the red too early because you’re not warmed up, you will get shelled.

JK and I finished in the front group, and he made it up in the mix for 5th place. 

The next night we had the Reno twilight crit.  Don’t let the TV show fool you…Reno is worse than you think.  The first thing we saw when we got off the freeway was a pregnant woman sitting at a bus stop…smoking a cigarette.  JK managed to crash in the first half of the race, and I went up to tell our FNG Devan to stop in the pit and give up his bike.  The ref let them both back into the front group, and there was a split after another two crashes, which left JK and Devan up front and Travis and I in the 2nd group.  Usually this crit isn’t so sketchy, but because it started about 45 min late and there aren’t any lights, it was pretty dark out.  We finished.

The Northstar crit was a great course, and we now had to get JK in the move for Omnium points.  He managed to finish up front again, and moved up to top-10 overall, which was a great result for the team.  We packed up and headed for Nevada City, where my wife would join us to watch us do battle with Lance and the gang.

big weekend of nothing

Fortunately, there is a lull this week in between the state RR and Tour de Nez, allowing some time for actual training.  There were a few local crits, but they don’t do much for 5 day stage races with 100 mile days and 10k of climbing (Cascade), so I opted instead for a little block over the last 4 days.

After the RR, I had a few easy days to allow my body to rest and recover before the final push to cascade.  Thursday was…umm…I can’t recall as I sit here totally fisted from the last three days.  Friday was a 5-6k climbing day, but most of that was two trips up honey springs, a local San Diego climb, done in 3min anaerobic capacity intervals.  After the 2nd one, I thought I was going to pack it in, but they got seemingly easier as my legs opened up.

Saturday was an epic day.  150 miles (actually, 149.9.  I was too toasted to ride around the parking lot to get that extra .1).  Somewhere close to 12k climbing (11.5 and change).  La Mesa to Alpine, then Viejas, Pine Creek, Kitchen Creek, Sunrise, and back.  I did a ride a few weeks ago that was in the same general vicinity (Cuyamaca) but was only 6 hrs (only!) and much less climbing, and that ride had me sitting on the side of the road 15 miles from home gathering the courage to finish.  This time, I made it all the way to 8 hrs before I folded like a lawn chair.  The last 15 min took me 30 min, and I went straight into the ice bath to observe the shrinkage phenomenon.  

This morning I was stiff.  Sore.  My underbutt hurt.  Most people call that area the taint…I’ve become fond of underbutt.  Kitchen Creek had not been kind the day before.   I wasn’t looking forward to Viejas again, but I had told Mike we were gonna do the JB ride then peel off and head to Cuyamaca.  Fortunately, we ended up skipping Cuyamaca, and instead went back through Japatul Valley, giving me somewhere north of 5k of climbing for the day.  I am now sweating in my chair like a fat man looking at porno, trying to cool off.

Look for the newsletter in the next day or so.  In it, we will go over some differences between time trials and team time trials, as well as recovering from crashes, as there seems to be a rash of them going around these days.  I’m also planning to pen an article dedicated to block training, so that should hit shelves this week too.  Happy training everyone!

 

p.s. everyone wish Luis luck as he is headed to Italy tomorrow to race for the rest of the season.  Should be a good learning experience for him!

so close…yet so far away

                                                                                                   

I suppose I should start this out by congratulating Jeremiah Wiscovitch on a great race, and tell everyone how awesome his team rode for him, and how great my team did for me (which they did BTW)…but I don’t want to!

Background info: me and the SCNCA state road race never get along.  It falls in that weird time of year where I am usually in between peaks, in a valley as it were.  And by valley I mean I have spent all of my race bullets for the year ripping people’s heads off at food park, gotten sick, had my anemia return, gotten my wisdom teeth impacted/pulled, developed Clevestein Barr, etc.  So this year, once I moved to SD, I make a solemn pinky promise to myself that I would not leave my best races for the year in Irvine in the middle of December.  It has gone very well to date, surprising no one more than myself.

Back to the state RR…I’ve never finished one.  The first time I did it, we didn’t have a feeder, it was 105 degrees, and the break of the day was long gone, so I pulled out.  Last year, I was just coming back from surgery, and didn’t expect much.  Funny thing about that is, I got exactly what I expected!  I attacked to bridge up to the break which had 3 min on the field, got within 30 sec, was being chased hard, got caught, and pulled out. 

This year, being blessed with good legs, confidence that I could do something, and a great team behind me, I was shooting for the win.   Knowing how this race played out last year, I was going for the early move.  Exactly 1/2k into the race, Thurlow and the Ninja (Devin Dunn…more on him later) attacked and I went with.  Thurlow sat up, presumably because he realized with me there all hope was lost (yeah right).  Devin and I kept rolling.  By the base of the climb we had 2 min.  3 min at the top.  4 min through the start finish.  Then the field got antsy, but I wasn’t worried.  I kept telling Ninja that a group would attack on the climb and come across this lap.  Only problem is…that didn’t happen.  I had to wait for the Ninja on the climb and lost 45 sec to the field. 

Tommy to Ninja: I lost 45 sec waiting for you…now you need to start working to get that time back!

Ninja to Tommy: uggghhh…mylegsfeelheavyimworriedaboutthedistance…imdyinghelpmegod

So we rolled towards the start/finish with an ever falling gap…down to a min…I tell the Ninja to go back to the field and he complies.  Gap goes back up with me able to work at 100% again without worrying about shedding the Ninja.  Get to 2 min by the turn into the false flat leading to the climb.  My moto buddy for the day tells me that there is a group of 2 trying to bridge, and they have a min on the field.  I do some quick math (carry the one…) yeah it’s a good idead to sit up and wait.  They get to me…Chris McDonald (former state RR winner and Paul Tracey anonymo.  I tell them I’m sitting in for a while.  Chris says no prob, PTA says (after one whole pull mind you) “you can at least work on the downhill and flat sections.” 

Tommy to PTA: I’ll work the climb…I need a break

PTA: (with two thumbs pointing towards his chest, sitting up) I”LL work the climb!   

Tommy: ok

So I start rolling through.  Ask me how many times we waited for PTA on the climb, and if you said 2, you’d still be wrong.  We dragged his sorry butt over the climb and still managed to start the descent with a 2:30 gap…And we were rolling.

By this time, Super exContinentalpro Velo (SC Velo) had started a mean chase.  Our gap started to plummet like the stock market.  Like the Padres playoff hopes.  Like San Diego real estate values.  You get the idea.  We got caught between 2 turns and a turn to go, about a mile and a half out.  I really really wanted that jersey.  Rudy saved my ass by getting third in the sprint, but as a team we really wanted to come away with that win.  Oh well…maybe next year! 

My moto buddy gave me some water to dump on my head…he said I looked like I needed it more than him.  Leg pain ensued.

And you thought we had run out of things to say…

I’ve been meaning to get around to this…getting back on the blogroll.  I want this to be a place where friends of podium training can come to interact, as well as keep people updated with race reports, both from coaches and athletes.  I’ll throw some articles on here from time to time, as this is easier to update than the web page.  I’ll also link this to my flicker, since that is how I usually store my photos.  Only the truly awesome photos will be stored for all eternity on the web site, but here it’ll be more of a steady flow.