We knew that with 1,100 feet of climbing per lap, for four laps, the road race would turn into a battle of attrition; our strategy was to stay together as a team for as long as possible. Throughout the first lap, there were continuous attacks from every team. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought there was a prize for whoever attacked the most on the first lap. Eventually, a breakaway of six riders went clear; however, we didn't have any representation in it. Just after the start of the second lap, Chad, Alex, Nick, and Dylan all went to the front in a bid to bring back the breakaway, which had edged out a gap of roughly 30 or 40 seconds. Although we weren't able to bring down the gap, we were able to keep it at a constant. At the time, we were debating if we were making the right decision - should we be working this hard, this early? But in hindsight, we did exactly as we should have.

About midway through the lap, there was a quater-mile-long climb, and I would estimate that it was roughly 8%, but don't qoute me on that. At that point, my teammates were quite fatigued - the course definitely didn't suit their strengths. I decided to attack at the bottom of the climb, and by the top, I had bridged the gap to the breakaway. About eight other riders, including Chris, had come along with me. A mile after that climb, there was a false-flat-type climb, and Jordan Cullen of the Chipotle Junior Development Team attacked. My legs were still tired from my attack; I know I could have followed Jordan - my legs would have been very angry at me, but I would have made it. Instead, however, I made the critical mistake of hesitating for just a split second, and the opportunity was gone.

For the rest of the second lap, and all of the third lap, our group of roughly 15 leisurely raced about the course. Luckily, on the climb to the finish line (as we received the bell lap), a Lees-McRae rider attacked. I immediately followed, and noticed Chris was right beside me. He, myself, the Lees-McRae rider, and one other guy went clear of the group, and began chasing down Jordan's group.

As the lap progressed, we worked well as a group of four. I was happy to know that I atleast made it into the second decisive breakaway of the day. But as the finish neared, we began to play the dreaded cat-and-mouse game, and that's when I knew we wouldn't catch Jordan. (By this time, he had dropped his breakaway companions; we'd also caught and dropped them.) At the end, we could see Jordan was merely 500 meters up the road, but the gap was far too big for how little time we had left.

In the final kilometer, the others in our small group had marked my wheel. Chris was fourth wheel, so I asked him to come to the front. As he went by me, I noticed that neither of the other two followed him - they were still on my wheel - so I told Chris to attack. His attack brough them onto his wheel, and I was able to see everything at the back. The finishing climb lasted the final 600 meters of the race, and Chris led it out for us. When the sprint came, I was unable to match the pace and subsequently finished 2nd in the spring, 3rd in the race. I was most happy with Chris' 4th place finish. I had asked him to do a lot of work for me throughout the second half of the race, and for him to still come home in 4th is a testament to the strength he has in his legs.

The following day was the Wheels on Willy criterium. This race is always fast, and always hard, and in recent memory, has never seen a breakaway last until the end. Knowing this, our plan for the day was to have Dylan, Nick, and Chris follow attacks, while Alex and I saved our legs for the end and leading Chad out for the sprint. However, this year there was a Super Prime, a $500, one-place prime. Yep, you heard right. 500 big ones. Not that I'm particularly motivated by monetary means, but it was no less an eyebrow raiser. This Super Prime certainly made us re-think our strategy. Did we want to go for the prime, and risk ruining our chances for the finish? Or should we throw all our eggs into one basket for the finish? Just hours before the race was set to start, we all agreed to lead out Chad, and for the prime, we would play it by ear - if we were in a good position, we'd go for it, but only if.

In the first 5 minutes, a break of four had already gone off the front, with a gap of 10 seconds over the peloton. I had started in the back of the field, and it only took the very first two corners to realize the slinky effect would wear out my legs with time. I made my way to the front (while the break of four was establishing itself), and not more than two laps after making my way to the front, Chad Heartley of Kenda made his move. He bridged up to the front four with myself and two others in toe, making a group of eight. Our gap hovered around 20 seconds for what seemed like forever. I was pretty anxious to force the gap wider, because I know just how fast the peloton can go to catch a breakaway. Luckily, with a little patience, and a little luck, our gap ballooned. Soon, we were out of sight, which is one of my favorite feelings to have when I'm in a breakaway.

Interesting side note: After the race, I was talking with Alex, and he said that while our gap was still hovering over the field, he followed an attack on the downhill, and went through the second corner (which is a 90 degree corner) at 60 kph. Yep... that's fast.

As the race progressed, our breakaway shrunk. With ten laps to go, we were down to four riders, and our gap was enormous - we were two blocks away from making contact with the field, something that I had no intention of doing. It would have been nearly impossible to keep track of my breakaway compainions had we integrated with the peloton.

With five laps to go, the announcers rang the bell for the Super Prime. For me, it was perfect timing, because I took my pull through the start/finish line, so for the rest of the lap, I would be able to see any and all potential attacks from my position at the back. Just before rounding the final corner, I edged my way onto Chad Heartley's wheel, taking it away from Bissel rider Alex Weiseler (althought it's also certainly possible Alex let me have the Chad's wheel). The sprint was on - it took all I had to follow Heartley's acceleration, and with 100 meters go, I somehow found a little extra speed and started to come around him, but it was too little, too late. I missed the prime by half a wheel.

I looked back immediately after we had finished sprinting, and saw we had a gap over the other two, and I invited Chad to come with me as I kept up the pace. He didn't get on my wheel, and I was not about to wait. I did all I could to get away, but I kepting thinking "do not blow up, do not blow up, do not blow up, do not blow up." I still felt as if I was going much slower solo than we were in the breakaway, but the other three began to watch eachother, and that slowed their pace down considerably. I soon had a 15 or 20 second gap as I came around for the bell lap, and then came around for the finish. Of course, with 200 meters to go, I had to double-check behind me to make sure no one was there - I've seen it happen enough times in the pro races where the would-be winner didn't win because he or she didn't look behind while nearing the finish. No one was behind me when I looked, and I was able to relax at I crossed the line, the winner of Wheels on Willy.

It really was a great experience. To have the announcers saying my name over the loudspeaker is really quite neat, and to had hundreds of fans cheering me on, and then congratulating me afterwards, was humbling. I just hope I gave them a good show.

Next weekend brings the Memorial Weekend races of Snake Alley, Melon City, and Quad Cities. I'm hopeful that they all go well not only for myself, but for my teammates as well.

Until next time,

Tony

I had a blast in Ogden.. for the most part. The scenery was beautiful, and the climbing out there is spectacular. The criterium on Saturday was... interesting, to say the least. The course was incredibly fast, with a slight half-block climb leading into the first corner. Unfortunately, the course also proved not to be the safest of courses. There was a sunken manhole cover in the middle of the climb, asphault patches in the apexes, and a few corners had very uneven pavement - not to sound like I'm complaining; it just made the course that much more difficult. 

With 98 starters, the pace was fast right from the get-go. Luckily, I had earned a front row call-up for winning the Conference Championship Criterium on the U of M campus the weekend prior. However, my position at the front did not last very long. In the opening laps, I found myself constantly getting shuffled towards the back of the peloton, and I had to waste a little energy to get back to the front on several occasions. I soon found a rhythm and I was able to stay in the top 20 for nearly the rest of the race - until I crashed. With 7 laps remaining, I found myself tangled up with another rider as we entered a left-hand corner. I assume that one of two things happened: either he had turned into the corner sooner than I had anticipated, he being on my outside, or I picked a horrible time to lose concentration; however, I think it was a combination of both. I was the only rider to fall, and I was incredibly frustrated with myself. As I sat there in the corner collecting myself and my thoughts, the paramedics came over to check on me; they said I had slid 30 feet on my entirely on my head. Good news though - my helmet worked. I really thought my race was over, until one paramedic asked if I wanted to get back inthe race - a slight detail I had forgotten about. I was able to get a free lap, hopped back into the field, and immediately started making my way back to the front.

Entering the final lap, I was placed roughly 30th in the peloton. Going through the finish straight, with the bell ringing, I instinctively tried to gain positions by sprinting up the right side of the group - into the wind, but I didn't have a choice. Not more than two seconds after I began my attempt to move up, there was a massive crash on the left side. I was able to up into the top 5 into the first corner, but I didn't have the legs to keep it, and I faded to 12th at the finish. I'm still pretty happy with that considering all that happened.

The road race the following day saw something like 39 DNFs - largely due to a crash that included nearly half of the peloton 4 miles into the 80-mile race. The race course took us around a small loop, with very little climbing, three times. Halfway around the loop the fourth time, we decended into Ogden, and made our way to the 4-mile long climb. Gradient-wise, it averaged out to be roughly 8%, but the last three miles were 10 to 11%. It was absolutely beautiful...in hindsight. At the time, it hurt. A lot.

Halfway up the climb, the field of 50 remaining riders was completely shattered, as was expected. I was at the front with one other guy - who eventually won - and we were joined by the eventual runner-up. I couldn't match their tempo, and I had to find my own rythm with one mile left to climb. I was caught by another rider, and I latched onto his wheel with all I had left. On the decent, I put a few seconds' gap inbetween into him, just from a lack of brake usage. I nearly saw my life flash before my eyes going through some of the corners.

After the decent, there were still 4 miles left of flat roads to the finish. I couldn't hold off the guy behind me; he soon caught me, and we started rotating. The two off the front were out of sight, and the guy fifth on the road was time trailing like a mad man to catch us, and he did end up making contact with us. With 500 meters to go, I was third wheel in our group of three, and as we rounded the right-hand corner with 250 meters remaining, I was only able to sprint into fourth place; but I am more than happy with that. I suppose I forgot to mention prior, but the previous day, I had cracked my frame when I crashed. I wasn't guaranteed a neutral bike for the next day. I didn't even know if I would be able to race, because it wasn't until 45 minutes before the start of the road race that I was able to get a neutral bike.

All in all, I would call my first Collegiate Nationals experience a success. I heard that the road race is likely to be the same exactly course for next year's event, so you'd best bet I'll be better prepared next time around. But now, it's time to catch up on some sleep.

Take care everyone,

Tony

Edit: Here's a podium picture, courtesy of usacycling.org.

Nick and Alex did the 2 day, 3 stage omnium race in LaCrosse.  Alex placed second in the Road Race after some hard work by Nick.  Derek, Chris Yotter, and I showed up for Sunday's criterium.  The team planned on riding for Alex in the crit.  Our whole team of 5 hit the front for the last 5 laps, stringing out the field, avoiding crashes, and keeping Derek and Alex in position for the sprint.  When I saw Derek enter the second to last corner in second place, I thought the win was assured.  Derek got caught on the outside of the leading rider's wheel though, when that rider blew up in the last corner.  Alex came through for 4th, and after breaking and re-starting, Derek ended up 6th.  Alex was 2nd in the omnium results. 

The team is really working well together.  No races next weekend, then Madison on the weekend of the 15th. 

With such a tight and technical criterium, with a nice hill to boot, the start was critical.  After about 10 minutes, the race had already made a selection of about 15 riders at the front.  Our Elite team was well represented in the front with Nick "Eddy", Chris Yotter, and Tony.  I was off the back a bit, and due to the nature of the course, I could see the lead group about once a minute.  More often than not, one of these three riders was off the front of the pack, forcing the rest of the race into a defensive mode.  With about 20 minutes to go, I saw Chris working on his bike in the pit, his jersey and shorts scraped up.  I never like to see crashes, even less when one of my teammates is involved.  With Chris out, it would be up to Eddy and Tony.  Eddy made a nice solo move with about 10 laps to go.  Jordan Cullen shot out of the pack on the climb, with only Tony able to react.  The two went by Eddy, and held a 1/2 lap lead over the pack until the finish lap.  Tony jumped with about 300 meters to go, and Jordan had no response.  Nick finished 3rd in the pack sprint, earning 5th place. 

Of course, our team win was not the only SPBRC win of the day.  Alec Porter won the juniors, Jim Parker won the Masters race, and as I mentioned, Tony won the collegiate race. 

Nice start to 2012!!

Its that time of year again, second semester is well on its way, and I'm deep into training for road season.  More importantly February is coming to an end which means collegiate racing is just around the corner.  The Midwest Conference will open its season next weekend in Kentucky.  Since I decided not to race much cross this year it has been more than 4 months since I last raced and I can't describe how excited I am to get back at it.  

Untill then I can be thankful the the last couple weeks have been fairly warm and sunny here in Madison.  This weekend looks like it will be more of the same so I'll be getting out for a couple great four to five hour rides.

I know Tony is planning to do a little collegiate racing in the North Centeral Conference and I think Dylan's conference has already started racing.  Good luck to both of them!  Nick told me a little while back on Facebook that he's been taking time with the mild winter to get some super secret training in.  I can only take that to mean he's been brushing up on his sweet ninja skills... So let that be a warning to any one out there who's thinking about pushing him around in the peleton. 

-Alex

I'll start the season in February with Collegiate racing and continue that through mid April or so with a big focus on Collegiate Road Nationals in May.  I wanted better than my top 25 finish in the road race there last year and I'm hoping to break the top ten this year.  After that the season will stay full with big regional races in May. Including Memorial Day weekend in Iowa (I'll try and keep my self in one piece there this year).  Then June will have us hitting some big races including Tour of America's Dairy Land and I'd like to try and find a spot for Nature Valley Grand Prix as well. As for the rest of the year I expect I'll be pretty tired by July so I think I'll plan to focus on trying to hit some good results at the bigger regional races in August.

As for looking beyong 2012, I've been trying to figure out what I want as a bike racer in the long term.  And I definitly want to continue to develope and race as a pro.  I don't really know how this will effect what I do this next season and in the comming years but I'm sure Dale and Charlie (as well as Pat and Adam) can help me figure that out.  In the end though I think it will be helpful for me as a rider to have a clear idea of where I want to go with all of this.

There's just one more week of school left before I'm home for winter break and I can't wait to get out and ski with Dale, Dave, Dilly Bar, Pat, Adam and every one else.  Although from what I've heard they don't have any snow back home so hopefully that changes soon!  Happy holidays!

-Alex

So to recap what has happened since late August...

Over the past couple of months I have mainly been doing school work with some riding/hiking/extreme activities mixed in when time is available.  I did some long mountain bike rides with my cousin who races MTB professionally for GT Bicycles.  He took me on some really fun 4-5 hour rides up in the mountains on trails that only the locals know about.  It has actually been really nice taking it easy in terms of training and putting a little more effort into my classes, after all I guess that is why I'm attending college.  In the past I have raced the cyclocross season out here and put a lot of effort (at least it felt like it) into training for cyclocross.  In order to have any sort of good result out here in a cross race you have to take it really serious with the field stacked with talent (Danny Summerhill, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Yannick Eckmann (17 year old superstar). Anyway, it was a pretty good fall here in Boulder, CO with some nice sunny, warm weather.  I had planned to race the collegiate mountain bike season but had a hard time finding the motivation to train and race.  However, looking back on it I wish I had raced collegiate and made the team for collegiate mountain bike nationals.  The course, which was in Angel Fire, NM was covered in snow!  Judging from the pictures and talking to the team the course was a mud fest, more of a cyclocross race with a lot of running.  CU-Boulder took 2nd overall for Division 1 for like the 3rd year in a row, the team was happy but very frustrated not to take the top step.  

After shifting more focus to school in the fall rather than racing I have come to realize I'd rather put more effort towards training and racing.  It keeps me sane!  It's all about prioritizing and I've discovered my training/racing takes priority over school (don't tell the parents!).  So for the past few weeks recent race retiree, Dave Hackworthy and I have been doing some backcountry snowshoeing in the mountains.  I'm sure you are laughing at this (everyone does) but it has actually been loads of fun filled with cliff jumps, rock slides and testing how far we can walk on a frozen creek before breaking through!

Over this last week with school letting up before finals begin I have been planning my season out.  In the past my training hasn't been planned out very far in advance and I think a more concrete training will help me stay on track.  As of right now, most of my base will come from long XC skiing at Eldora Mountain, which has over 40K of groomed skate ski trails.  At about 3000m (9500ft.) above sea level it will be a guarantee that it destroys me but I got to train for that double Birkie when I get home so Pat, Dale and Adam don't drop me 1K in and make me look like a fool! After building a big base I will start the collegiate road season on March 17th and plan to race every weekend to qualify for the nationals team.  From what Patty Cakes and what others tell me, the nationals course is really hard so hopefully I can have some good fitness coming into it.  This has pretty much what I have been up to since I last saw most of you.  I hope everyone is enjoying the fall and maybe we could plan a SPBRC team party and/or a cross country ski outing!  

Thanks for reading and I will work on writing more blog updates regularly!

-DB

Here are some pictures.  Descriptions and more pictures can be found in album "Training in High Country"

Friday was the cross country.  The race was shortened from five laps to three in large part because the course was so muddy from the melting snow.  The course had us climb 1,400 feet up the mountain and then back down.  Due to the melting snow and mud the first half of the climb was too muddy to ride so you had to get off and run.  The upper part of the mountain was cold enough that areas were still some what frozen and could be ridden which was a welcome relief.  I ran in to problems with my bike on the second lap when my front brake went out before the descent unfortunately causing me to lose quite a few spots.  When All was said and done I came in around 50th happy to have finished. 

Saturday was the short track cross country.  This was the day that the switch to elevation really hit me hard.  To begin with I'm not a great short track rider, I'm just not suited to the 20 minute all out effort that it requires.  Saturday was when the elevation really hit me hard.  I felt like I was going hard while warming up and I just couldn't breathe enough to keep out of oxygen debt. And finally to add to the trifecta I didn't have the necessary parts to fix my front brake.  So I had to make a go of it with only a rear break which turned out to be kind of scary in a few areas. In the end it was a rough day and I got pulled two laps into the race with a group of about 25 other riders.  Although it was some consolation that only 4 riders finished the whole race with out getting lapped and pulled.

In the end it was a good learning experience and I especially learned some valuable lessons about how my body reacts to being at elevation. 

-Alex

My knee has almost completely healed. It still gets sore after hard workouts and barriers, but each week it feels stronger and I feel more confident. About a month ago I was able to start doing only dismounts and remounts slowly, and I have progressed to ripping down our school's Dual slalom course on the Cx bike and flying over the barriers I set up at the bottom at a good amount of speed.

Last weekend in Raleigh was my first real cross race. It was 70 degrees and sunny, no mud, and no rain. That isn't cross. My brain kept jumping back to last years MN state cross race that followed the blizzard on my birthday, where we ran more than we rode I think. It felt so good to be racing again and I had a great time getting to know a whole new crowd of racers. They take cross pretty seriously here and there were some really talented riders in our field.

I have a lot to work on for fitness, but I'm just happy my knee is still holding up well.