#OPQS

I won't waste time talking about how "I'm back to blogging" or "this time ill stick 'wit it'" cuz im sure the next post will be in 6 months ;-) but i just had to chime in on one thing. omega pharma quickstep.............i am SOOO excited about this team it is insane. Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish are two of my absolute flavor flavorites and the rest of the team is action packed as well.

Now as you may have read before i'm not usually a fan of the super teams. for instance thor's talents are wasted on bmc and having griepel and cav on the same team was a waste of griepels. so typically when i see a star studded roster i get worried. BUT these guys seem to be diverse enough that i think this team will just work.

Tom Boonen, mark cavendish, sylvain chavanel, peter velits, tony martin and niki terpstra all under the direction of Brian Holm! i mean..........im just really excited.
oh and this picture of tornado tom and the manx missile is just sick

*photo credits to road bike action magazine's facebook page please don't get mad at me zap

That's just tacky

Great ride by Luis Leon Sanchez today.  Very smart to not try and fight Sagan at the finish line.  Obnoxiously someone put tacks all over the road and caused over 40 flat tires including three for cadel Evans and one for Maillot jaune Bradley Wiggins.  That's total b.s. and could have caused someone to be killed (not being sarcastic).  Try descending the Pyrenees with a flat tire.  Much respect to Wiggins for slowing the race to wait for cadel.  Made me proud to be a part a sport that has so much respect for each other and only wants to win in a sporting manner

fine whine in france

In the sprint for yesterday's stage finish (stage 5) tyler farrar was caught up in ANOTHER crash. As my regular readers will know I am NOT Tyler's biggest fan. In fact I believe in previous blogs I've reffered to him as the pelotens biggest whiner. anyways, when a door closed on farrar he resorted to trying to shove himself into argos-shimanos line. After bumping shoulders with one of their racers he had a bit of a tumble, nearly taking out greipel and putting sagan on the ground. So how does whiner mc-whinerson confirm what a baby he is. he storms the argos-shimmano bus after the race! try's barging in to chew out the racer that HE bumped into! What a tool. There's two positives to take out of this. 1.) we can stop wondering if maybe we should like tyler just because he is the only american sprinter. It is now confirmed he is a mess. 2.) check out greipel's amazing handling skills as he unclips and plants his foot on farrars stomach, gets around, finds his team, and wins the stage.

The manager of Garmin-Sharp (tyler farrar's team) said that tyler would not be sprinting anymore this week and probably not next week either so that he can "cool down and recover". My guess.......he's in trouble

*ive gotta be honest i expected sagan to do a bunnyhop 360 over farrar's bike but i guess he forgot all his old bmx skills

I pick my team like I pick my nose. (i forgot to post this on the 30th....so here it is a lil late)

the prologue starts tommorow and i am anxiously awaitng (even though i wont be able to watch it till sunday) This will be an extremely short Individual time trial in Liege.(6.4 kilometers) Basically a battle between tony martin and fabian cancellara with (i assume --->) little effect on the overall lead. On a fantasy team side the stage winner will also pull on the yellow jersey racking up some serious early points if you have them on your team. so here's my "fantasy team" for the 2012 running of Le Tour De France.
1.Cadel Evans
2.Peter Sagan
3.Frank Shleck
4.Tejay Van Garderen
5.Mark Cavendish
6.David Zabriske
7.Marcus Burghardt
8.Peter Velits
9.Matty Goss

1.) My money is on evans or wiggins to be on the top of the podium come chams elysse so it was tough on choosing which to "sign". Both have shown they are strong and ready to rumble. But, I truly believe that in our generation of racing one man, no matter how great, can win the tour de france. It takes a dedicated, synchronized, experienced team. For that reason cadel evan's Team BMC tipped the scale for me. With riders like van garderen, gilbert, and most importantly hincapie, this team know how to win and knows how to protect their rider. we saw that last year when hincapie escorted cadel through some of the worst crashes in TDF history like he was secret service protecting his president.

2.) Sagan I believe is a gamble. Showing near impeccable form in california i have to assume he will make me some points in stage wins and green jersey pursuit.

3.) the number 3 category is for climbers. i went with frank shleck. That again was a really tough call for me and i hope he doesnt dissapoint. he's been talking about how he's not in good form after tour de suisse and how he doesnt want the team leaders position. but this guy has been in the top 10 in paris 5 times and even took up the bottom step of the podium last year. If he doesnt get me some stage wins or gc points ill be surprised and heart broken, especially since he doesn't have to watch after his brother this year.

4 and 7.) Tejay and Marcus are both strong riders and i would hope tejay goes for a mt. stage win but really they were in my "price range" and i hoped to get some "assist" points when their boss gets in yellow. It would be great if tejay plants himself in top ten gc while protecting kangaroo man.

5.) mark cavendish *sigh* this was my most stressed about decision.....a good sprinter can make you ALOT of points and mark has helped me to victory in both tdf and giro d'italia. HOWEVER! with him focused on the olympics, leaner then ever, not having his old lead out train, and being on a team commited to get wiggins in the maillot jaune you cant assume he will be swimming in the stage wins and points jersey like before :'( But, i had to go with my gut and sign him. he's just been to successful in the past and has SUCH a drive to win that i have to hope he will get me a few stages with bernie. But my real nervousness is that he cost ALOT and i could have used those points to purchase a better time trialist, another sprinter, or even have cadel and wiggins. Make me rich cavendish.

6.) with this year being heavy in time trials i had to ensure i had a time trialist on the team......sadly i could not afford fabian or tony martin. but, zabriske is a good time trialist who did some impressive work at the ToC. Fingers crossed.

7.)see #4

8.) gotta be honest i dont expect alot from velits. just he was what i could afford. he's was top 20 last year so i hope he can better that this year.

9.)matthew goss. was a key member in cav's htc leadout and is an impressive sprinter himself. with orica greenedge having little hope for gc I am hoping they will commit to chasing the green jersey. But, im nervous. matt too has his eyes set on the olympics and has hinted he wont even make it to paris. should i have gone with griepel? gilbert? farrar? ech even writing this makes me want to go back through and change my team.

Mad props to www.velogames.com

Is it July yet

Le Tour De France is just around the corner and i couldn't be any more excited. This is going to be an interesting year. Andy Shleck who was gonna compete for his 400th (<--exageration) consecutive 2nd place is out of the race due to an injury. Alberto Contador who has won twice, until having his most recent stripped due to doping, is still on suspension. Also Frank Shleck is saying he is still smoked after the tour de suisse and doesn't feel he will be able to perform for tdf. Horner, who won last years tour of california and went into tdf confident, crashed out in the early stages. He has battled other injuries this year so the road will decide if he has the legs to climb. Then there are the London Olympics that start one week after the peloten reaches champs elysee. Many of the riders focus is split and may not give it their all in the tour de france. One of those riders is mark cavendish, who said his fitness is more prepared for the track then the road and he will not be beating his previous records in stage wins. This has made a lot of people concernd, myself included, of whether the tdf will be "weak" or "boring". As I was sitting and contemplating who to choose for my "fantasy team" for velogames.com (yes im that lame) i finally threw those concerns aside. This is the Tour de france!!!! People don't take it easy and focus on conserving. No, people ride themselves sick. People peel their torn, bloody bodies out of barbed wire and ride another 60 miles. Men who are no-names put on a jersey and suddenly elevate themselves to the level of the "superteams". This is the tour de france and though these guys may be playing possum I am confident that when tires meet tarmac they won't be able to contain themselves and will tear into every gap they think they can gain. no I'm fully confident that this will be an exciting race.

as for my picks......well ill write that up today but probably wont post it up until sunday night when i get back from out of town......I dont want anyone changing their fantasy teams you know ;-)

s'cuse me officer......we're here for the bike race.

Its been a tough run of races these past 3 weeks........4 races in 16 days has worn me down a little more then i expected. Next time i attempt something like this I want to focus more on proper recovery and see how it makes a difference. It also has been tough because ive been skipping out of challenging weekday group rides in order to conserve energy for the weekends. A result of missing all the training is ive really fell off form. I need to find a race about a 6 weeks out and turn my focus towards that.
SATURDAY

started out really exciting. laura and i met the smith's and rios' at bagels and blenders for breakfast prior to our race in castaic. we all took one car up the grapevine. of course we got lost even though we had 3 smartphones on the task and one person who works in the area. we ended up getting there with plenty of time though so it was more fun then stressful. The race was clearly a well put together event and competition was going to be stiff. My legs had been sore all week but after a short warm-up they were feeling loose and ready. when the race before ours finished we took the field and were told by the referees to take one practice lap of the .75mi course. the courses had a bit of a hill on the back side and a long downhill straight coming into the finish line. The corners were aggressive and i knew they would be my biggest challenge. I have long known i am not good at cornering and though i feel ive improved i am still not up to par with my peers. i lose a lot of speed in the corners and as a result have to do sprints after each one to catch the group. When the referee blew the whistle and we started we flew off the line. i was blown away at the pace in those first few laps and it never seemed to let up. as i had expected....the corners were killing me, but, i could tell from the start that my body was not ready for this race. Maybe it was the races the prior to this weekend, maybe it was my lack of hard training on the weekdays, or maybe i was just mentally not focused. Either way i did not feel like myself. I found myself in the back of the pack slinky'ing back and forth as the group stretched out around the corners. the slinky effect was breaking me apart more...so on the downhill portion i made a hard effort to try and get to the front third of the field. i got their but only lasted maybe two laps (damn corners). once in the back this time i was blown to pieces from my previous effort. i would get strung out on the back then come back to the group whenever we passed the start/finish line. this lasted about three more laps until *POP* my race was done. i was off the back suckin wind. I still rode hard and pushed my pace as hard as i could in those final 4 laps. i attacked the hill then recovered on the downhill. After finishing i was pretty dissapointed but proud of my teammates who stayed in the pack and had strong finishes. I have finished in some pretty bad positions in races before (one time 47 out of 50) but i have always been happy at the end and felt i did my best or made the most of it. not the case last saturday. I felt someone else had been out there racing. I felt defeated. honestly i was confused...like "what the hell just happened". When i got back to the car i realized i had a flat tire. did it happen on the walk back to the car or during the race? is that why i felt dead? i doubt it..i'm pretty sure i ran over something on the way back to the car.

SUNDAY


Sunday was the time trial....it's been a long time since i felt i raced a time trial the right way. you can't go out and ride time trials as hard as you can and expect to do your best. you have to reach a different level. you have to shut off all thoughts and all emotions and just become two well shaven pistons firing away. This actually takes a ton of focus to shut yourself out of yourself per say. When you do it right at the end you feel emotionally exhausted and two heart beats away from a heart attack. I was determined this sunday to reach this. My legs were dead from saturday and i was in no mood to race which was a perfect reason to ignore my weakness and emotions and become a thoughtless machine. I really feel i achieved that this week. Thanks to my decreased fitness and unrecovered body my time was not as good as it has been...but...i feel i left 100% (ok 99.5% cuz i didnt pass out) out there on the road. So I'm excited about that.

I'm also excited about being done with racing for a few weeks. I need to get some good hard training hours in with no fear of being gassed for any upcoming events.

Back on the blog

WHOA! it's been awhile since i posted. What a crazy/awesome season it has been. My last time posting i had just done the first mash'n'thrash. I ended up going back there 2 more weeks and got destroyed in both of them. the last week though i stayed with the group a lot longer then usual and was genuinely happy with my performance and improvements. I am excited for this winter when those races start back up to see how i have improved in my first true race season. My first road race of the year (and my highest ranking so far) was the lost hills road race. this race was a true challenge. although the course was flat as a pancake with a slight up hill finish....there was horrible winds and a 2mile dirt road section that made a good portion of the field DNF (did not finish). the winds were so strong the entire peloten was leaning hard to the side just to stay upright, and, in all of the pictures you can see the skin of everyones faces being blown to the side. a break happened with about 6 of us and after some guys just popped and some got unlucky in the dirt section it ended up being 2 of us going into the last lap. The other rider out sprinted me at the finish and took the win. I learned a lot that day about finishing that has benefited me in just about every race since then. Probably the most exciting race so far was the Bakersfield downtown criterium where my teammate zane took the win and good friend and training partner ryan got third (i took 8th or 9th i forget). Again i learned something new in that race.....after a lead out for a teammate dont just drop off and cheer him on, but, instead get out of the way and keep sprinting you never know what you might find you have left and you can still try to get a higher position for upgrade points and shwag.

The last couple weeks have been intense. Two weekends ago i had district championship which is a very challenging course and pace. Last weekend was camarillo duathlon which i did as a team relay with the gieses. Then this weekend is the jailhouse criterium in castaic on saturday then the tgr time trial on sunday. I'm looking forward to having all these races behind me and getting back to training and enjoying group rides. I'm not sure what is left on my calendar for this year especially with harvest coming in about 2months.