Philly Phlyer criterium report

So, after having crashed yesterday and waking up with my back pretty sore, I still decide to race this morning in the 20 minute criterium. And it was a good decision!

I got my warm up in and got to the start/finish line to race. Had a good start, and actually stayed towards the front for a bit. I started falling backwards, but I kept pushing hard to stay in the field, and that I did. A few times I would work my way back to the front to partake in some action, but I couldn't win any preme points. Preme laps are every few laps usually, and is a way to get a few extra points by being the first to cross the finish line on a preme lap.

I was feeling really great, and stayed inside the field for all but the last two laps. I got dropped with 2 laps to go, and after trying several time to sprint and get back in, I looked back and saw 3 guys behind me by about 80 meters or so. I first thought I should just pedal hard and keep my distance from them to finish, but then I dropped back more to ride with them for the last lap. on the last stretch of the 2nd to last lap they did catch me, and I rode in a line with them. On the 2nd to last turn of the whole race, I went inside and started passing the three guys, and got by them prior to the last turn for a sprint finish. I just hauled it with all I had beat them for 38th place, out of 53 that finished, at least 60 started.

I can't tell you how happy and excited I was today, I'm still happy about it! This is the first criterium ever that I did not get pulled or lapped in. And it's funny how I went from being pulled a few laps in two weeks ago to actually finishing every single lap!

Taylor did well today, placing 4th or 5th. Kim did excellent today, placing first. Not only did she place first though, she went off the front on her own and kept gaining time, eventually lapping everyone after about 13 or 14 laps. She was amazing today!

Next week is Army weekend, I hope I can keep up my good work! I'm going to make some more challenging goals for myself now that I know I'm getting a lot better!

post-crash

Woke up this morning to a sore back, but my knee and everything else is fine. I did get hit by several wheels on my back so I was expecting my back to hurt. I just popped a few Ibuprofen this morning and am taking a bottle with me.

As of now I'm still planning on racing in the Criterium that will start around 10:30 for my category/division. If my back gets worse, then I'm sitting out.

Race-report tonight!

sharp left turn, then BAM!

Got no warming up in prior to the Cat 4/5 race, so I just decided to start in the back and try to hang on for as long as I could. Ended up being dropped, and decided since I got another race, that is more important to me, to just lay back and do a warm-up pace for the rest of the first lap and then take myself out.

Lined up for the second lap, was feeling very warmed up. Took off, and felt great, I was towards the front, going back and forth between 3rd and 6th wheel. On River Road, which was pretty flat, I was expecting several breaks, but everyone stayed together for the most part. Two Army guys attacked, but they didn't get far and was swallowed up quickly. Then we came up to a sharp left turn and then BAM! Two guys in front of me go down. I knew they were going down by the way the one guy wasn't keeping his line around the turn, so I went towards the outside more to follow this one guy's wheel, who was just to the right of the initial crash. He, for some reason, felt the need to slam on his brakes when I was expecting him to start sprinting up the ramp, and with very little time to crash I ran right into his rear wheel, taking both of us out. I got hit by a bike or two while on the ground, a few bikes went over top of me. I scrambled to get back up and get my bike up, the chain was off so I quickly fixed that. When I took off I noticed the rear wheel was rubbing the brake, so I got back off to fix that. Then my knee started to hurt. I hurt my knee last week playing basketball when I was tripped and hit it directly into the floor, so I just aggrevated the injury today in the crash. I stopped racing, and went back to the staging area, very lightly pedaling because I didn't want to injure my knee anymore.

I thought I was scared to death about racing tomorrow in the criterium, now I'm even MORE scared (can you get more scared than to death?) because I just crashed today. I'm just going to rest my knee tonight, and see how I feel in the morning.

In my brother's dorm at Ursinus now, waiting to go to his tennis match that is at 1:00. My dad came to watch both of my races and then we went to have a late breakfast and now we're here to see my brother's match. SHH, I'm on his computer without his knowing, I just felt the need to update my blog about the crash haha.

2009 Philly Phlyer

I have a huge, busy weekend up ahead. I can't wait for a break over Easter weekend!

For the circuit races tomorrow, they are having both USCF and Collegiate races. At 8:30 is the Cat 4/5 race, and at 9:15 is the Collegiate Men's D race. I'm crazy enough to do both, back to back. Both races are exactly the same, 6 miles per lap, 2 laps, 12 total. The reason I decided to do both was to use the Cat 4/5 race as "warmup", while still going to attempt to do well. Then I will go all out in the Men's D collegiate race right after. Never did a back-to-back race like this, but I'm prepared.

For the Cat 4/5 race (non-collegiate), I will be racing for Team Vortex and wear the jersey while wearing my DeSales shorts. I'm just going to get in a field somewhere, and just ride it out. Unless it is for first place, I'm not going to do a sprint at the end as I usually do, especially with others racing. I'm just going to ride this out, view the course, and come up with strategies for the Men's D race.

After the Cat 4/5 race, I will line up for the Men's D race and change into my DeSales jersey. For this race I just gotta get to the front and stay there for the majority of the race. Any breakaways, I'm attempting to follow, or if I can't I'll try to help bridge any gaps. I want to finish top 20 in this race.

As of now, weather says just cloudy for most of the day, as oppose to rain as it has been saying all week. So hopefully it'll be correct and it won't rain.

On Sunday is criterium. No non-collegiate races so just one race for me. Men's D is at around 10:00 or so, and if it rains I'm going to be scared to death, but gotta be fearless. Why would I be scared? My field sucks at racing, no one knows how to ride properly in a race, and crashes happen a lot in D. then add the rain.... YEAH! gonna be ugly so hopefully that'll be the motivation I need to get to the front and STAY there, to avoid crashing.

Race report coming Sunday night.

Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong is in surgery now, if he hasn't come out of it yet. Sucks what happened to him. If you haven't heard yet, he broke his collarbone in Spain during a race:

Read about it here

He's on twitter, so I've been keeping up to date about his last few days:

http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong

Here's a picture he posted just an hour or so ago before going in for surgery:

http://twitpic.com/2fewc

Get well soon Lance, I wanna see you race in the Tour de France!

Delaware race report

I only got to go Saturday, and was not able to go Sunday. The road race was pretty good, I liked it. It started western Delaware in Newark, went east into Maryland, and came back to the west coast. I knew Delaware was skinny, but I didn't know you could ride your bike across the state in less like 15-20 minutes!

I did pretty poorly. I guess I didn't warm up enough so I just have to warm up better next time.

Like I said, the course was pretty good; challenging and technical as I like it. One of the best road races I've done. What I didn't like was the course marshalling. Some of them were airheads and didn't know how to point properly, which caused me (and I heard a few others talk about this) miss three turns, or going the wrong way. That's something USAC should do, have a Course Marshall license, haha.

Anyways, I usually go through the whole course mile for mile, but I'm tired right now and need to get to bed. Just in a nutshell, I got dropped off the back like 3 or 4 miles in, and was by myself for most of the race. I found a few riders ahead of me eventually, and went into my sprint pursuit mode to catch them. Caught and passed one on a hill, and eventually caught two others that I rode with them. The very last turn prior to finish, I was leading the paceline and went through the intersection, because of the cop standing behind a telephone pole and the sign for the turn was almost impossible to see. The two behind me somehow knew to take the turn, so they beat me to the line when I was hoping for a sprint finish. I turned around, gave an attitude to the cop, and then went to cross the finish line. I got 34th of 36 that finished, 38 that started.

My teammates did pretty well, Kim got first in all of her races, and Taylor definitely improved from previous races, getting second in the criterium and finishing well in the other two races.

Philly Phyler this weekend, I'll talk more about that this week.

Sucks for Lance Armstrong, breaking his collarbone, but I'm sure he'll recover prior to the Tour de France. Not sure about the Giro d'Italia though.

U of Delaware race weekend

Tomorrow (Saturday) morning we are heading down to Delaware for the road race. After my last two weekends of criterium fails, I hope I can use the Road Race to redeem my dignity. Road races, everyone usually starts off slower, so if I warm up for 30 minutes prior to starting I should do fine for the first half of the course.

About 17 miles long, It should take me no more than 1:10 to finish. Looking at the elevation chart at http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/de/newark/421157963389 it seems pretty easy with flats/rolling terrains the first 6.5 miles, before the first of three "climbs" prior to a flat/sprint finish. I'm going to try to keep with any leading or lead chase pack. This way, by the time the climb comes, I can just keep my pace similar to those around me, and if I get dropped I can use the valleys in between the climbs to catch up. If all goes well, I hope to finish strong.

I am pretty sure I am not racing Sunday, due to something I need to do at school if I can't get someone else to cover for it. I will do my post-race report tomorrow evening, and let you know then if I'm racing Sunday or not. Sunday is an Individual TT and Criterium, so I won't be disappointed if I don't go.

Grant's Tomb and Stevens Duck Country Criterium

First off, apologies for promising I'd write over the weekend and didn't get a chance to. When I wasn't out driving or at the race courses, I was pretty much sleeping. I don't get a break anymore.

So Saturday, we were at Grant's Tomb (Criterium) in NYC. Same course as last year, just a different start. I just went as hard as I could because I knew if I didn't I'd get dropped right away. Well, I did go hard, and still got dropped within a few laps anyways. And pathetically, I got pulled from the race a lot earlier than I did last year. Freakin' winter sucked! Didn't train at all and put on some weight, which is showing in my performance so far in Collegiates. I ended up placing 41st out of 46, which I think is wrong because I'm pretty sure I was closer to last, if not last. I think the race officials messed up or something as I did end up getting lapped but they didn't pull me right away because the pace car got off the course for a lap for whatever reason. Anyways, I'll take 41st, but I did do a LOT better last year than I did this year.

Sunday, Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ hosted the Stevens Duck Country Criterium. My view of the elevation chart was so wrong, because I thought it was just moderate down and up round-2-blocks lap. Nah, it was more of a straight down, flat, straight up, somewhat flat course. I have pictures which, if I remember to, I will post.

The downhill was always fun, but just like any other races, people must really LOVE to brake. I learned from previous races and would get on the outside of the downhil turn and just past everyone. However, the hill was a killer. Oh yeah, and SPEED BUMPS?! How did ECCC approve of this course?! Speed bumps, pot holes everywhere... this was one the nastiest course ever.

Back to the downhill, I discovered you really don't need to hit the brakes more than just a tad bit, because I went down and made the turn easily just about each lap I was in the front or by myself. The one lap, I was less than 45 degrees (angle) off the road when making the turn, and I was comfortable doing that!

Well, for some reason I wasn't placed, and actually given a DNF. Everyone else placed, which just shows how pathetic my performance has been so far this season. I need to make a change. Kim even wrote me up a training plan for the next two weeks, which I'm going to make sure I follow, even if I gotta let my school work slip a little to make it happen.

Taylor had a good weekend, struggled a little but she's doing fine. She raced in both Women's Intro and B on Saturday, and for a starter like her I think she did fine. Kim got 5th on Saturday and second on Sunday. As of the end of this past weekend, we are placed 12th in the Conference, going up one place since last week when we were 13th.

Next week is University of Delaware, which I will talk more about later this week. Thanks for reading!

Grant's Tomb Criterium at Columbia

in just a little bit we will be leaving for Grant's Tomb in NYC, hosted by Columbia University. I can't say much as I have little time to.

I did this last year and can't really remember how I placed except that I was one head my teammate Jon. But he had a mechanical, and I think he could have beaten me.

I plan on just staying with a pack, not getting lapped and finishing strong. There is a power climb that I'm sort of fearing, but I should do fine.

Tomorrow we go to Stevens Institute of Technology for another criterium, I'll talk about that later today.

Team Winter

Not sure how many of my readers know about Team Winter, but here is a very inspirational video:



This morning Mr. Vinecki, Winter's Father, had died after a battle with cancer. Winter has been an inspiration to me and if something were to happen to someone I love, I hope to have the strength to make an awareness as she certainly had. She has eventually become a part of a group called Athletes for a Cure, running in their 2008 triathlon, which there she has a line of clothings, sunglasses, and other things to help raise money for research and such. I got a pair of the sunglasses as a gift about 2 months ago, and in honor of Winter's Father and her cause, I will be sure to race with these sunglasses in all of my collegiate races.

Some relative links:
http://www.athletesforacure.org/
http://athletes.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=290780
http://burnurl.com/p7w5uZ

RIP Michael Vinecki

It's been lost, and it's been found

I emailed the Rutgers Cycling Team President yesterday prior to going to bed, asking if anyone turned in a Cateye Astrale 8 computer. Chris (president) responded to me saying that Joe Kopena did find a Cateye computer and has it! I emailed Joe and is still waiting for him to respond to me. So instead of paying almost $50 for a new Cateye Astrale 8 computer kit, I will only pay between $15 and $20 for a mount kit, since my mount did break, causing the computer to fall off my bike. Definitely a relief!

Rutgers/Princeton Race Report

Yesterday was the Time Trial at Rutgers and the Criterium at Princeton. I was aiming to do 7 minutes for the 2.7 miles in the time trial, and ended up doing 7:23. This course was similar to Rutgers TT two years ago, and I did almost 9 minutes, so I definitely did improve my speed/sprinting. However, so did everyone else in my field since last year, and I got 91st out of 122 in Men's D. I based teh 7 minutes goal off of the results from last year's race, and that didn't work out for me. However, I still consider this a great time for me and I think I did pretty well.

We then headed towards Princeton for the criterium after we all raced the TT. The usual 4 corners with a power climb. A power climb it WAS! I completely bombed on this course and got 51st out of 52 for Men's D Division-2. And as I've said in the past, brakes should be illegal in criteriums, just like on the track. There were 4 or 5 crashes that I know of, all after a turn and involved someone hitting their brakes too hard from what I've been told. And, I almost rear-ended one kid who slammed on his brakes for no apparent reason! No one was in front of him or to the left of him, and he took the inside of the turn as I was following him. I yelled at him to not use his brakes as hard next time. When I was pretty much by myself or with another rider or two for the last 4 or 5 laps I did (got dropped because I was going to get lapped), I hardly used the brakes on all the corners, and on the first, third and forth corner I would go through around 20-25 mph.

This morning we left at about 5:30 bright and early for the Rutgers Circuit Race. I forgot about Daylight Savings Time today and woke up at 5:10 when I set my alarm for 4:10 last night, and I get a friendly call from Kim at 5:25, thinking it was 4:25, asking if I was coming or not. Luckily my cycling bag was still packed from last night and so I just grabbed that and my food bag and went outside to see Kim and Taylor waiting for me in Kim's car just outside my dorm. I only forgot my sunglasses but I was fine without it today.

We get to the course, first to show up so we were really confused if we were in the right place or not. We were, and people started showing up about 5 or 10 minutes after we parked. I rode the course once with Taylor, and then got on the trainer. I wasn't feeling good this morning and could not eat anything solid, so I went to race on a near-empty stomach, even though I tried forcing
food down. I was able to get half a muffin and half a banana down, but that was it, nothing else was going down.

"GO" was yelled and I went off the front. I lead the course through the first turn, looked back and saw I was a little too far, so I slowed down a little and got into the field. Ended up being 3rd and 4th wheel which I was happy. I was feeling really good and had no problems for the first half of the first lap. Then, about halfway through someone attacked off the front and I went to chase.

Realizing it was too early, I backed off and went back to 3rd or 4th wheel, at which point everyone started chasing. A few broke off and caught him, while the field just became a big pack that I was in the middle of. Still feeling good though, and thought I was going to make something happen soon.

We crossed the start/finish line after the first lap and when coming around the first turn, I saw people slamming on their brakes, sliding their rear wheel, and when I got a clear look, there was a 3 or 4 bike crash in front if me, I barely got through going between two bikes and a person on the road. Those that got by quicker sprinted right away to take advantage of the situation, and since I slowed down to go by the bikes on the road, I needed to sprint harder to keep up. Couldn't do so, and the field broke up rather quickly.

After the second turn, I believe still on the second lap, I hit a huge bump in the road and my cyclo-computer broke off and my water bottle fell out of the cage... I went the whole 30 minutes without water, the dehydration definitely kicked in halfway through which slowed me down significantly.

After that, I tried chasing these two that were in front of me, but couldn't and saw a pack behind me, so I slowed down for them to catch up to me. Rode with them for a little, and on the second-to-last lap I did a chase for those two that I saw were slowing down. No one from the group I was in followed me so I was on my own, eventually wasting my energy and having to go back to the group of 6 or 7 of us. On the last lap me and someone else then did a chase for these two and caught them half way though the lap. Then the rest of the previous group caught up and it became a sprint for the finish. I beat out 2 or 3 of the guys I was "racing" with, while several were off the front already beating us.

Overall, I think I did well considering my circumstances. If I had my water and drank from it, I could have done a lot better. I ended up placing 42nd out of 52. A definite improvement from the criterium yesterday, but still have a lot of work ahead of me for this season.

Overall, this weekend was great; for me, for both my teammates, and the team in general. I hope we all keep doing this and improving for the rest of the season, and despite being a 3-person team, I think we can rank high at the end of the season.

Rutgers/Princeton Spirit of 69 Season Opening weekend

Last time I'm going to Rutgers (at least for a while as I do plan to go back to school for my masters and can race if I go to a school that has a team). Didn't get to go last year as you may remember half the team didn't want to go on account of the early morning rain.

Short and sweet since I need to go to bed. Waking up in less than 5 hours!

Time Trial at Rutger's... same goal as last year, Top 9 to contribute at least one point to the team and be the first to do so for the season. Going to try and spin at about 90-110 RPM and go no less than 23 mph for 2.7 miles.

Princeton's Criterium, not really much for me to go off of since I didn't get a good look at the race flyer. I'm just going to race with no goals intended except to finish strong and not get lapped.

More tomorrow when we return. Oh, and take a guess as to why Rutgers and Princeton got together and called this the Spirit of 69. I'll tell you why it is tomorrow. Good night!

Good News! (and other things)

First off, I got some good news, probably just for me. I was comparing the Track schedule with several races I'd like to do over the summer, including the Pottsville City Cycle 17 (non-usac). On the track I would only be able to do the Masters and Rookies Series on Saturdays this summer, and unfortunately that is when some of my favorite criteriums are, and so is the Pottsville CC17. The last two summers the CC17 fell on the last Saturday in July so going by that I figured it would be July 25th this summer. When I looked at the track schedule, that is a Masters and Elite Championship weekend, which means I do not race that weekend! So the good news is that I'll get to race in the City Cycle 17 this summer! Not much for all of you reading this, but I was afraid recently that I may not be able to race in the CC17 this summer if it falls on the same day I have a track race. This summer is more for my track career than road once I finish up the Collegiate Cycling season.

Speaking of which, next weekend is the Easterns Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) season opener at Rutgers and Princeton, starting with the Rutgers Time Trial opener on Saturday. Couldn't do this last year because more than half the team didn't want to go on account of the rain that day, but this year I hope we fight through it because they are calling for rain again (but it's a week away, things can and usually do change). This year I'm making it happen. I'm going regardless, and I'm going to place top 7 to be the first to contribute points to the team. Overall I hope I do top 10, but 7 or less will get me at least 1 point. Then there is the Criterium at Princeton later on Saturday, and then back to Rutgers on Sunday for a circuit race. More on those later this week.

Kimberly Geist of Metro VW will be racing with us again, in her last season with the DeSales University Cycling Team, prior to graduating in May, just like me. She's mainly the reason why we place top 10 in our division at the end of the last two seasons, even though our other team members have contributed points, including myself for a few points after a team time trial.

We also have newcomer and freshman Taylor, who will be racing Women Intro for a few races. I have good feelings about her, especially after seeing her training with me on the road and on the trainer. Not to put pressure on her if she happens to read this, but I do think she could kick ass in the time trials and criteriums this year. She'll do fine in road races as well.

It is only the three of us this year. Only one from last year's team graduated, the others dropped out of the team because of either lost interest or busy schedule. Kind of disappointed but whatever, we'll still do well with the three of us. Yes, this means I'm the only guy on the team this year so I have to really make something happen.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last year for the DeSales University Cycling Team, but Kim, Taylor and I are going to start making the team known to the local community for any high school seniors interested in coming to DeSales University. Even though Kim and I are graduating this year, we still care about the team and do not want Taylor to just be left in the dark. Since Taylor still has three years before graduating, I want to see her race until she graduates so I'll even help out with the team after I graduate. In a few weeks there is an incoming-freshmen event for those graduating high school soon and coming to DeSales University in the fall, so I got us a table to that event and the three of us, and hopefully Scott (the president of our club), will be there to try and raise interest. Even if we don't have a team, I hope for the club to still be here.

Well, that's enough for one day. It's about 7:20 am on Sunday, and I plan on going out for a ride between 8 and 9 this morning for up to 3 hours. I'm gonna do some sprint and time trial workout for at least the first hour, and then base fitness riding to the end. Have a good Sunday!