Boise Twilight!!

This weekend was full of excitement. Friday night we had a team Exergy BBQ to get pumped for the Twilight Crit in downtown Boise; this was the first time all year the whole team was in one place. My parents and little sister flew in from Denver to watch the race and hang out for a few days. It was really nice having them here for the short period of time. Saturday morning we had a community group ride and spun the legs out and went to lunch right after. Got home took a shower and laid down for a few hours before we had to head back downtown to prepare for the race. We arrived with the earlier races going on and had a meeting in a hotel room and received our new kits for the rest of the year. They are all WHITE, a lot cooler in the hot sun! Then we went and raced our hearts out. A lot of sponsors were there to watch us race so we wanted to thank them with a hard effort and a good performance. Early in the race I was up front covering all the early moves and keeping it together. With 15 to go Fly V took control and drove it. With three to go a crash in corner 1 stopped me in my tracks. Carlos was positioned well with Freddy setting him up and ended up 4^th.

After the race got to hang with the parents and sis until Monday afternoon which was really nice just to relax and take my mind off of racing and training for a couple of days. Tomorrow Conor, Ben and I are going up to McCall Idaho to train in some altitude for our upcoming races. It will be nice to ride somewhere new and have the lake in the back yard to soak the legs.  The rest of the team is Racing Cascade Classic!

Canada....eh

Just got back from Canada a couple of days ago. Going to Canada I didn’t know what to expect with my form since my last race was Tulsa and I have never been to Canada so I was pretty excited to see what it had to offer. We left Thursday morning to make the trek, when we hit the US/Canada boarder we had to present our passports and answers a few questions. One of us must have said something wrong to set off a red flag so they made us park the car and walk inside to talk to another guy as he ran our passports. After only about 10 min we were on our way again and shortly after reached the host houses. I ended up staying at a house literally on the boarder of the USA. It was pretty cool is was a cement line a few inches about the ground to indicate the boarder and a US patrol border man sat on the other side off and on throughout the week.

Racing began with the Tour of Delta on Friday with a crit on Friday and Saturday and a Road Race on Sunday. Our plan was to win the overall, and it being an ommnium it was based on points the whole weekend. . The first night was a fast crit with a nice riser and a fast decent. We got a teammate up the road early in a break that stuck the most of the way. With 3 to go we didn’t want to drive the pace because we would catch the break so with 1 to go we hit out and caught the group on the last corner. Andres got 2^nd and Carlos 4^th I believe. The next night plan was to get Carlos the leader’s jersey and we did just that. We rode the front and were very aggressive. Carlos ended up 3^rd I believe but that was enough to put him in the Jersey! The next day was a rolling RR and we had to get Carlos to the end without doing much work. We rode the front early and stayed there all day. We let a break go with no threats and a couple of them stayed away. Carlos ended up losing the Jersey to United Healthcare by 1 point so that really hurt. Monday we had a day off from racing and Tuesday was another crit from a different event, BC super week with races the rest of the week but we could only do Tuesdays because we had to get back to Boise to get ready for Boise Twilight!! The crit on Tuesday was on the UBC Campus with it being a big rectangle. Carlos ended up getting in a break and Winning from it!!! Ben ended 5^th

With tomorrow being our home race right downtown Boise there is a lot of pressure to perform. My parents and lil sister are flying out tonight to see the race so it will be nice to see them and hang out for a couple of days. Tomorrow is a big day for the team; write up sometime next week about it. 

New red bont shoes so everyone can tell Conor and I apart

Boise

Well since the last post I am currently in Boise Idaho living here for the rest of the summer. The accommodations are awesome and don’t get much better than this. Currently Conor and I are living with teammate Sam Johnson and it’s a good time. Been in Boise for about a week. Went to Sun Valley Idaho over the weekend to do a crit of the 4^th of July and it was an eye opener. Coming from altitude and been racing in it for many years I was not concerned of the altitude that is in Sun Valley. However during the race I felt like I was breathing through a straw. The legs were there but the lungs were burning more than normal and everyone on the team was feeling the effect. We rode very aggressive and went for a lot of primes. In the end we came up short for the win but still managed to grab 2^nd with Remi and 3^rd with myself.

Next stop Canada. We are leaving tomorrow morning to arrive in Canada tomorrow evening and race Friday. Friday and Saturday are crits and Sunday a Road Race. The 3 day event is called the Tour of Delta, follow along at http://tourdedelta.ehosting.ca/. Then we have Monday off and another crit on Tuesday for BC super week. Then we travel back on Wednesday to get ready for the EXERGY Twilight downtown Boise on the 16^th. This is the team’s home race and having the top teams from across the Nation coming there is a lot of pressure to perform. I will update after Canada!

First race done

Last weekend was my first race as a pro cyclist and there was a lot of nerves about heading into the races. It was about a 10 hour drive to Tulsa Oklahoma for 3 day of NRC crit racing. We arrived in Tulsa Wednesday evening and didn’t race until Friday night so we had a little bit to meet and ride with our new teammates and get use to the bikes and gear a little bit. The first race was Friday night at 9pm and with the race being delayed 15 min due to lighting and rain the tensions were high to just get underway. The race was very sketchy with crashes just about every lap in the first half of the race due to slick roads. I stayed near the front all night long and with about 5 to go we lined it up for our sprinter Ben, and we all got caught up with a crash 1.5 laps to go. That’s bike racing and we all were undamaged for the most part and the bikes were still in one piece. Sunday night was the same with a 9pm start and a fast course didn’t have the same legs as I did the night before but hung in there. Sundays race I will remember for a while with it being a 4pm start in the middle of the day with the heat beating down. It had a good climb in the course called “cry baby hill” and the crowds on it were unbelievable. It was something you would see on tv at the tour on the final climb.

Now I am in Denver for a couple of days then off to Grand Junction next week for a little bit then off to Boise Idaho for the summer!

BIG News!!

Well I have been out of school for a couple of weeks and it’s been so nice just to relax a little more than normal. However I have been stressing out a little bit about Grad School for next semester. I just took the GRE test (Graduate Record Examination) it’s a 4 hour computer based test covering all materials and you are not able to use any other resources besides your brain not even a calculator. I will find out in about two weeks my final score and if I get fully accepted into the program. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Other than that I did my first race back since Collegiate nationals a couple of weekends ago and I did pretty well considering I only touched my bike three times prior to the race and I was still on antibiotics. The race was a USA cycling sanctioned race so pros were allowed to show up since they are unable to race anything but USA cycling races now? It was a crit downtown Aspen Colorado which is a VERY NICE and the people are rich and walk around like it. Other than that it was a 10 corner course under 2 min laps. I ended up 3^rd which I was happy with and walked away with all my skin and some extra cash. Since then some BIG news has come up.

                Both Conor and I were unable to secure a team this year which would be able to fully fund us at the races we wanted to go to. Up until now we have been flying the colors of LiveTrainRace.com and it has been a blast. They are a local team based out of Grand Junction Colorado and they have helped us out as much as they could and we both really appreciate that. However we got an unexpected call from the manager of Team Exergy Pro Cycling Team a few weeks ago asking us if we would like to ride for them. It came out of the blue for me and I said YES right away. Exergy is a first year Pro cycling team based out of Boise Idaho and they already have some horsepower on the team. Both Conor and I rode for the team last year when they were an Elite team and learned a lot. We both are really excited to make the jump to a Pro team. We have our schedule for the most part for the rest of the season and it is looking fun and hard. Our first race will be next weekend in Oklahoma for Tulsa Tough. Its three NRC crits with two of them being Twilight crits. I am so excited to get this opportunity to ride for a Pro cycling team and it has been my dream for a long time and I have worked super hard for someone to give me the chance to show off all my hard work and the time is now. Follow along for my first season as a Pro Cyclist!

Press Release http://teamexergy.com/new/newspost/team-exergy-expands-roster/

www.teamexergy.com

Summer

School is out for summer! It's already time for summer and school is done for a few months. I get to focus on training and racing now!

Collegiate Nationals was this past weekend in Madison Wisconsin. The weather forecast before we left was saying rain every day. We lucked out and it was dry and warm. We flew out of GJ Wednesday and arrived in Madison Wednesday night. Thursday we Pre road the road course to open up the legs and check out the course. I forgot how hard this course was with short steep climbs throughout the whole course with no place to really recover. On the pre ride my legs felt awesome and I was ready to throw down.

Friday morning came early, with an 830 start and about a 40 min drive to course it was defiantly early for me. The plan was to get in a break early on and try to get two Mesa guys in the break if possible. To make it short we tried hard but nothing was going to stick. With about a lap and a half left Conor and I got into a promising break but it was not meant to be. We both cramped and the field brought every one back besides the winner. I ended up 16^th; I was really bummed because I was in the right move. I am not happy with the result but I am happy I gave it 100% and tried but just didn’t have it that day.

The next day was the TTT, and with no TT bikes allowed it was going to be interesting to see how it went. Being the defending National TTT champs there definitely was pressure to repeat. Warming up on the trainer my legs felt so bad. I felt like I was pedaling squares and was getting really nervous’. We were the last team to start to we could see the other teams out on course. It was an out and back course with short steep roller throughout the course. Right out of the gate you go up a nice kicker to get the legs burning right off the bat. We rode smooth the whole way and really pushed it on the way back. We defended our title and now are 2X National TTT Champs. I was so happy we could do it back to back. We were only about 20 sec slower than the year before which is pretty impressive with no TT bikes and the wind was a lot stronger this year.

The last day was the crit and a new venue with a longer course just shy of a mile.  We were going into the race with high hopes as well as Richard was the defending champion. Early in the race there were plenty of attacks but nothing was sticking. About half way through I made an attack that drew a few guys with me. At first it was just one other dude that was not pulling through. Then finally a few others rolled up to us which looked promising. It was a good size group but I felt like everyone was not doing their fair share so I attacked the group and drew two other guys with me. We all started working pretty well together with everyone pulling through. However I could tell the other two guys were not giving it a 100% and they were not totally committed to staying away. This made me very frustrated because this was Nationals and the worst we could have ended was 3^rd. I tried telling these guys to pick it up this is the move we can win this but they were not having it for some reason. When the field was closing in then the other companions started really drilling. I did not understand their motive but it really pissed me off. We ended up getting caught with 2 laps to go. Being pretty spent I jumped on the front to get the lead out train rolling. I pulled off with a little less than a lap to go and it was up to the guys to do the rest. A little miscommunication on the last lap Conor ended up 4^th and Rich 6^th. Not what were looking for but we can’t complain we gave it 100% and rode well.

The team ended up 2^nd overall falling short by 12pts to Mars Hill who took the top step. Mesa rode strong and smart but with small numbers compared to the other schools we rode very impressive. Someday soon we will be on the top step.

Its summer vacation now, I finished up my last final yesterday!! I am looking forward to a few days off the bike and recover a little bit and get back to the grind. I get to graduate this weekend. I already graduated last semester with my Sports Management degree but they don’t have a ceremony in the fall so I am walking this weekend. It will be weird because I am still in school going for my Master’s degree.