My first weeks at Giant-Shimano

The new year started like any other, except for the part where I was packing my bags for a 5-month trip in Europe and getting everything else in order.

On January 2nd, my parents drove me to the airport, and I began the first part of my adventure with a backpack and 49.5lbs of luggage. I would first be flying to Philadelphia, where the weather was threatening to disrupt my plans. Thankfully Philly didn't get the worst of the winter storm that was blasting the Northeast, but there was still enough snow to cause my flight to Amsterdam to be delayed by 3 hours as they plowed the runway and de-iced the wings. We spent those 3 hours on the plane, though, which has to be the worst way to kick off a transatlantic flight.

On the bright side, there were several hours before my next flight, so the delay had no real consequences besides exhausting me further. I joined up with several teammates and staff as we made the final leg of the journey to Altea, Spain for training camp.

The team has rented out most of a hotel that doesn't get much business anyways, so we effectively have the run of the place.

On January 4th, the first block of the camp began. For all the non-Europeans who had jetlag, we took things easy for the first couple of days. I got to meet my new bike at last, the Giant TCR Advanced SL with electronic Dura-Ace 11-speed and an SRM power meter. Definitely the most advanced bike I've ever ridden!

This one isn't mine, but you get the idea

 Some of my readers may remember that my first road bike was the cheapest TCR that Giant made. It's certainly come full circle, as now I'm on their most expensive model! If my new bike serves me as well as that first one, it will be a good year, for sure!

I raced my TCR to my Category 3 upgrade 

I even re-purposed it to a TT bike in later years, with success

Back to camp. On the first day, I had a bike fit with the Shimano expert, and made some small adjustments to get my bike perfectly dialed. I also got a fancy new pair of custom insoles--thermoplastic molded right to my feet. It takes care of my varus wedging, too, and for the first time I can feel that my entire foot is touching the insole.

It took me a few days to fully adjust to electronic shifting, but it is nifty, that much is sure. The mechanical engineer in me does miss the simplistic mechanical derailleurs and the finesse required for certain shifts, but I must admit that I was entertained for hours when I learned that I could downshift through the entire cassette by merely holding down a button.

I got to know my new teammates well over the first week as we had plenty of time on rides to talk, followed the thrice-a-day meals cooked by the hotel restaurant. It was certainly the healthiest I've eaten for a whole week straight...ever. With over a dozen nationalities on the team and a half dozen languages spoken around the dinner table, it's a lot to take in. Thankfully, everyone speaks English so we at least have a common language!

Also in the early days of camp, we were weighed and tested for body-fat percentage, to track our progress from the measurements taken in October. I had been hard at work, as I vacationed pretty hard last fall and gone a bit further than intended. The hard work paid off, though, with 9% body fat, which is right in the ideal range.

The first rest day arrived quickly, and I was excited to finally kick the last remnant of the jetlag, but was awoken at 7am for an anti-doping blood test. Such is my life now.

In the second block of training, I had to do a 20min power test to determine my training for the upcoming weeks. I haven't done one of those in a long time, and this was the first time I'd really gone all-out since September. It really hurt, but went fairly well. As an athlete, you always wish the numbers were higher, but that had to be a power record for January. Anyways, I come into form very quickly with a bit of intensity, and now just 2 weeks later I'm certain that I would test higher.

Just a few days in, the team was called in for a meeting in which the team owner, Iwan, explained everything that had happened surrounding our sponsorship last fall, and revealed our new team kits. We had team photos the following day, which was risky as all 28 riders were out in public while trying to keep a lid on things for another week. Somehow no photos surfaced, though!

By the end of the first week, I was neck-deep in training camp twilight-zone. Every day is the same, and in the insulation of the hotel, you lose all track of time and can't remember whether something happened yesterday or last week. We were nearly always kept busy with meals, riding, massages, meetings, interviews, photos, and sleep.

At the end of week one, most of the team left to return home for a week. A handful, myself included, opted to stay. I would be better served by staying put and getting a solid week of training, rather than doing a lot of travel (I certainly have enough of that coming up anyways). Besides, I've already found an apartment in Lucca, Italy for the year so there were really no errands that I needed to get done.*

*For those thinking, "Hey, I thought you would be living in The Netherlands...." I have a Dutch work visa, which requires a Dutch residence. So, the team has registered me and several other riders at a house in Holland, but we will only be staying there when we have races nearby. For the rest of the season, we are free to live somewhere with better weather. So I will be living in Lucca, sharing an apartment with Garmin's Ben King.

The second week was great, as I got to know a handful of teammates much better. We still had some team support with bikes and ride food, as the U23 and Women's teams had camps going on at the same time, but for the most part were self-supported. We had to provide our own meals, which was a nice change of pace. The hotel food was good, but lacked variety. So for a week, we used the kitchenettes in our rooms and shared meals.  We also got in some good rides and had a few adventures.

Then the rest of the team came back (excluding the Tour Down Under squad, of course) and we began another week of more intense training. I can feel my legs coming around quickly, and am really getting excited to race. Today is another rest day (and once again I was awoken at 7am for a blood test), and we have one more tough 3-day block ahead. By the end of the week, I will have passed 1,500 miles for January.

I have seen my race schedule for the spring, and am really excited for the challenges and opportunities that I'll have. My season starts February 2, with the one-day GP Marseillaise, followed quickly after by the 5-day Etoile de Besseges, both in France.

This is my bike. There are many like it but this one is mine. Photo by Cor Vos / Team Giant-Shimano

Got any questions that I didn't answer? Let me know in the comments!

2013 in as many words (and then some)

Training for the 2013 season started with a vengeance after the way my 2012 season ended. By the time training camp rolled around in early February, I already had over 3000 miles in my legs. To say I was motivated would be putting it lightly.

My family learned mid-January that my Dad’s cancer had returned. Thankfully, through perfect timing and circumstance, he would be the first American to begin the stage 2 trial of the most-promising drug for his cancer.

I made it through training camp without crashing, but also was climbing better than I ever had before as a result of my weight loss during the previous fall. I couldn’t wait to get started with racing. I even got to wrap camp up with a session in San Diego’s windtunnel with HED guru Dino. The mechanical engineer and bike dork in me got to geek out!

My season started with the Merco Classic, where I got 3^rd on GC after a very good time trial and a good stage 1.

From there, we hopped over to Portugal, where I immediately loved the racing. I ended up leading Ken out for the win in our opening race, then our team performed quite well at Volta ao Alentejo. I was top-5 twice, plus a very close second after being nipped at the line on the final stage. Ken and Tom also won a stage each, and my 2^nd on GC made for a pretty good haul.

Hungry for a win, I took out my anger on the opening time trial at Redlands and took the top step. I held the lead through the two following stages, only to lose to Mancebo in the last 10 minutes of the Sunset Loop road race. 3 stage races completed, 3 podiums. The frustration was building.

My next race was Joe Martin Stage Race, where my parents would be watching me race on the road for the first time in years. I ended up a close second after the opening hill climb time trial, but the chaotic finish of the first road stage put me in the leader’s jersey. I had to rely heavily on my team in the final two stages, and together we kept Mancebo restrained. I finally had my first NRC Stage Race win, and my parents were there to see it!

From there, I race Gila just a couple days later, succumbing to some sort of allergies and having a poor performance. I dropped out of the final stage after an hour, hoping that maybe I could salvage a good Tour of California.

15 minutes before the start of Tour of California, we still hadn’t decided whether I would go for the GC or the KOM jersey…that was decided when I didn’t make it into the break on stage 1. Stage 2 was the most memorable stage of the whole year with its suffocating heat. Thanks to the support of the team getting me to the final climb practically shivering from all the ice and fluids they were getting, I had the climb of my life and took 6^th on the stage, jumping to 7^th on GC. We had a few good sprint stages, with Ken snagging 2^nd on one. Then I had a good-but-unsatisfying time trial, and finished top-20 on the Mount Diablo stage, dropping to 10^th overall. Not too bad for my first foray in a 2.HC event, and the talks that had already begun with WorldTour teams intensified after that result.

I did not recover well after Tour of California. It had been 6 straight months of building without a significant block of rest, and that race was so hard that it finally pushed me over the edge. I managed a very good performance at the TT national championships, but was still disappointed with my 5^th place finish. A couple of days later I realized just how burned out my body was when I couldn’t even make the 2^nd group on the climb in the road race.

I still had 2 races to go before my summer break, though, so I was resting furiously between races, trying to get any semblance of performance back.

I actually felt pretty good during Philly, but started to fade towards the end so we opted to make Jesse the guy for the race, leading him out into the base of Manayunk wall the final time, where he brought home a hard-fought 2^nd.

A week later, we were racing the Nature Valley GP—a must-win race for Optum, and one that they had won the 2 years prior. We stacked the top-10 in the opening time trial to give us as many options as possible for the remaining stages. Friedman went on to take yellow after a very dramatic stage 2, and would hold it to the end. I was happy to take on the role of worker for him, as nobody was more deserving of the win and the best way to get my legs to summer break was to ride tempo at the front for him.

Ahh, summer break. 9 days without touching a bike, and then a couple of weeks to start building form again. It was during the break that I finally cemented the deal with Argos-Shimano, which had quickly emerged as the frontrunner during discussions. With that completed, I could focus on the rest of the season without stressing about the future.

Also during the break, I moved across town to Ian’s new house in the Old North End of Colorado Springs—big old houses in the beautiful part of town. Ian’s new house had a huge finished 3^rd floor/attic space, which would be perfect for a couple of bike-racing Hagas.

My first race back would be the Cascade Classic, and I was very fresh going in. The objective was to win by the smallest margin possible—that is, to win but still use the race as a building block for the late-season biggies.

The morning before the prologue (which I had won in 2012), my family learned that my dad was again cancer-free!

As I was still building form, I didn’t quite have winning legs for the prologue. Stage 1 went well, but I struggled a bit on the final climb of the day. Thankfully I was a bit better in the Stage 2 time trial, climbing up to 3^rd on GC. It was on the finishing climb of stage 3, though, where I felt that my legs had finally arrived. After battling Mancebo and Gaimon up the climb, I took 3^rd in the sprint finish at the top and jumping to 2^nd on GC. I survived the crit, and the final stage was going to be a nailbiter. Unfortunately, our plans did not work out and I dropped to 3^rd overall. Not what I was hoping for, but I knew my legs were getting better every day.

Up next was the Tour of Elk Grove, which I had not raced since first signing with KBS in 2011. The race’s opening time trial went well, giving me my 2^nd stage win of the season (and first UCI stage win ever). Then Randerson finished 2^nd in the remaining two stages, giving him 2^nd on GC in the end. I had one day to recover before the Tour of Utah.

The purpose of my racing the Elk Grove/Utah double (Tour of Elktah) was to gain as many UCI points as possible before the cutoff for Worlds TTT qualification. We succeeded in qualifying, so it was worth it, but this plan would also be my downfall. After such a huge spring for me, undertaking a 10-day stage race was ambitious, and resulted in wearing me out again. I felt great for the first few stages of Utah, but then hit the wall of fatigue and performed poorly in the key late stages.

I had to watch the USA Pro Challenge for the third time, so I just put that frustration into my training for the Tour of Alberta. I would only be satisfied with a win in the prologue, which was suited very well for me.

I knew that my prologue form was very good going in, and the course was memorized and practiced. I felt that my execution of my pacing and cornering was nearly perfect, but it would only be good enough for 6^th in the end. I could have gone a bit faster, but Sagan was far out of reach that day, and he would go on to dominate the rest of the race. Like I said, my prologue form was good. I seriously struggled with the road stages—I just couldn’t handle the sustained intensity any more. Randerson, thankfully, continued his hot streak with several good finishes, along with Eric Young’s nailbiting 2^nd on stage 1.

Our season would end with a trip to Italy for Worlds TTT. We had an awesome rental up in the mountains outside Florence, and had a mini-camp of TTT practice. Training in the morning, Italian fine dining in the evenings. It was great!

The race itself, though, didn’t go quite to plan. Friedman was suffering early and was dropped shortly after the big climb of the day, and I felt great until the half-way point, when I had to start skipping pulls and taking short pulls. A disappointing way to finish my last race in Optum colors, but it was an amazing experience to bounce past the Duomo in the World Championships!

After that, I bid my teammates adieu and went on vacation in Tuscany. For a few days, I traveled with Sam, Optum’s media/photo guy. We toured Florence and Siena (watching their horse races is now on my bucket list), and then I met Ian and his fiancé in front of the leaning tower. We would go on to see La Spezia and finish the trip on the beach of Cinque Terre with some kayaking and paddle-boarding. It was an awesome trip, and I had way too much gelato. Like I said, it was an awesome trip.

Returning to Colorado as October began, I readied the third floor for a new occupant: Shane!!! Having graduated and become a bike racer, he was finally joining me in Colorado. We went mountain biking and had a grand old time.

10 days after arriving, I was on the road again. We drove back to Texas, where I boarded a plane to Amsterdam to meet my new team and get set up with them. After 4 days in the Nederlands, I was on an early flight back to Dallas, where Shane would pick me up and we’d go straight to Lee’s bachelor party. I was the best man, and I somehow managed to make it through the night. We did have some real Texan fun, though, as evidenced by the menu for the evening, which was concluded with some skeet shooting.

The wedding was great, I gave the greatest toast ever, and then after another day of rest Shane and I drove back to Colorado.

I stayed for another 10 days, then was up in the air once more. This time, en route to Tijuana.  I would be joining Jesse Anthony and Optum’s mechanic Bob, along with several more cyclists and Shawn Johnson, among others. Our group, organized by Guy East as a Homes of Hope/More Than Sport project through Youth With a Mission, would be building a house in 2 days for a family who greatly needed it. To add even more emotion to such an awesome cause, we learned that the father of the family had passed away in a car accident just two months prior. I have so much to tell about this experience, but not enough time or space to do so. Please ask me about it, I would love to tell you more. It truly was incredible, and was great to actually get skin in the game of helping others and meeting some awesome people in the process. I hope to build many more houses in the future!

The day after returning from Mexico, training for 2014 began in earnest. So much for the offseason!

I returned to Texas shortly before Christmas, so that I could spend my remaining time in America with my family. 2014 would not begin slowly!

Snippets

I've been wanting to write lately, but was unsure of a good subject. I just kept coming up with half-thoughts, ideas that didn't really lead anywhere. Then it occurred to me that, together, they could make a complete story. Or it could just be a series of disjointed, half-finished thoughts. Let's give it a shot, though, and see what happens.
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When asked about my history with bikes, my story invariably includes the phrase, "I grew up on bikes." I phrase it that way intentionally. Bicycles have played a part in every phase of my life, from training wheels to race bikes.

My mom recently decided that it was finally time to redecorate my room at home. In doing so, she entered memory lane, stumbling upon all of my old school stuff. I had notes and schoolwork in my closet ranging from middle school through college. I'm a dork, what can I say? You never know when you might need to look up your end-of-semester poetry assignment from Mrs. Jones' class in 7th grade. Or, perhaps, an essay you wrote about bikes when you were 16 years old.

I'm sure my mother was crying as she read this essay, because let's face it, she's going through all of my old stuff. She's going to be crying. (Love ya, Mom!)

I won't bore you with the full thing, but here are a few excerpts that really stood out to me. For context, I was writing about when I first learned to wheelie on my BMX.

On my bike, hours at a time, I strove to keep the front wheel off the ground a little longer than the last time. It was during this time that I discovered that merely sitting on the seat and pedaling was a great way to reflect upon, or even escape, the world in which we live. If I am angry, I can vent all that energy by riding as hard as I can until my lungs scream for oxygen  my muscles on the verge of collapsing. Even when I am calm, riding is an exhilarating experience, transporting me out of reality and into my own little world.

I try to ride every day, just to clear my head of the chaos around me. I have learned many more tricks, donated more than a little flesh to the pavement learning them, and still live to ride. 

I do not know why it is that I am so addicted--maybe I am just meant to ride bikes.  I also don't know why riding clears my head so well--maybe it's a s simple as the pedaling motion is also turning the gears in my head. Either way, bicycling has become my refuge from the pandemonium of life and an unrivaled form of expression.

Reading that now, it makes so much more sense to me now that I fully understand what it means to be an introvert. (Side note, if you really want to know more about me, read that post. That's me exactly.) I still love to go on long solo rides, and now I know why.
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When I was just a local mountain-bike racer in high school, there was a  race not too far from where I lived. It was a relatively unpopular trail, though, so it didn't get the greatest turnout of the series. In the Sport 15-16 category, especially, there was a poor turnout: 1. Me.

To make the start waves more efficient, they simply put me in with the next group. I thrive off competition, and the promoters had just given me plenty. Nevermind that it was over a dozen full-grown middle-aged men, I wanted to beat them. I don't think I beat them all, but I sure as heck got the holeshot.

This wouldn't be the last time in my racing career that I tried to "punch above my weight."
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In 2010, I spent the summer as bike racer. I had worked at an internship the previous two summers and wanted to spend my last in college enjoying it.

I put several thousand miles on my truck that summer driving back and forth across the country. One trip in particular was special, though, in that Shane came along for the ride. It would be his first real trip to a bike race outside of Texas, a fact that I never realized until he pointed it out to me recently at the Cascade Classic.

The race was the Tour of Lawrence. We opted to skip the street sprints on Friday night, choosing instead to save our legs for the more important races and save money on a hotel by paying our Grandmother a visit in Oklahoma. The next day we finished the drive to Kansas just a couple of hours before the race, which didn't go great for either of us. It was a technical, difficult, and wet circuit and we just didn't have a great race.

That evening, we rented a hotel room with two full-size beds. I used my AAA membership to get the room rate down to $40 for the night, so it was a really nice place. After we unloaded the bikes and gear into the room, we went around the corner to Dominos--we had a coupon. While Dominos was making the pizzas, we walked next door to the gas station and bought two half-gallons of milk.

We spent the evening on our beds watching some movie (for some reason one of the Bourne movies comes to mind) with our two medium Dominos pizzas and our milk.

Checkout was late morning. We consolidated the leftover pizza into one box and loaded up the truck. It was still 6 hours before we would race, so the brothers Haga went to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D. Yeah, I teared up when Andy gave the toys away, what are you gonna do about it?

Anyways, the movie ended and we returned to the truck with our eyes barely open because the sun was so intense. It was a hot and muggy day, and my truck was filled with still-damp race clothes from the day before and a box of pizza. You can guess how that smelled.

The crit that evening went slightly better. My last-lap flyer failed, but Shane pulled off a decent sprint and won his half of the gas money and hotel room. It had started raining hard half-way through the race, and 2 minutes after the finish, the course was flash-flooding.
_______________________________

When I signed with Kelly Benefit Strategies in 2011, I immediately knew that I would never leave the team voluntarily until I was in a position to make the big jump. The level of support that I received was obviously unparalleled on the domestic circuit, so there was no good reason to want to be anywhere else.

The support paid off, too, especially this year. People noticed. I did a good job of compartmentalizing everything that was going on this season. Focus on the races when I'm racing, and deal with negotiations in between. I had a great group of people to talk to while all this was happening: friends, family, team staff, and my teammates.

Two days after the ink was dry, Marcel Kittel won the first stage of the Tour de France. My mind exploded a little bit, for sure. My new team held the yellow jersey of all yellow jerseys, and I could say nothing.

Finally, after sitting on the news for so long that my butt was sore, the announcement came just days before my 25th birthday that I will be performing on cycling's biggest stage for the next 2 years with one of the most dominant teams on the circuit.

To answer your question: surreal. It feels surreal, the knowledge that all of my experiences have led me to this point.

Worn out.

Today marks the 8th day that I have not gone for a bike ride. Why, you might wonder? Well, since base training commenced last Thanksgiving, these ol' legs have accumulated 10,000 miles. So, yeah, I needed some time off. Truly, I needed it after Tour of California, but I just had to push through the best I could and help the team.

After returning from Portugal, I had a bit of time to adjust to the altitude and sharpen up for Redlands. It went pretty well, I must admit. I got my first win of the year in the opening time trial, and held on to yellow until the last 15 minutes of the Sunset Loop Road race. Mancebo just proved to be too much to handle that day.

As disappointed as I was to lose the race, we did pretty well to snag 2nd and 3rd overall (Zirbel) without even fielding a full squad at the race. We would be prepared for the next race.

That race was the Joe Martin Stage Race. Going into it, we knew that we could win the whole thing. And I intended to do just that--my parents would be there to watch me race on the road for the first time in years. My legs were great, but I still made a couple of tactical mistakes--including one whopper in the second road race--and had to be bailed out by my team. They delivered, so I had to, too. Once again I went into the final stage with a mere 5 second lead on Mancebo, but this time we had him under wraps. The guys buried themselves to keep the pace high the whole day and mow down every attack except for Mancebo; he was my sole focus the whole day. In the end, I won my first NRC stage race (crossing off one of my 3 season goals) in front of my parents. For the full significance of this win, you've got to read my Dad's blog about the race: http://canceron2wheels.blogspot.com/2013/04/when-dreams-intersect.html

Eric and Meatball enduring another Kenda team attack after riding on the front on gross day

Hiding in my team bubble in the crit

Mancebo had a very short leash indeed

That afternoon we began the first leg of our trip over to Silver City for the Tour of the Gila. With the form I had, I had thoughts about winning. As it turned out, the environment had other plans. On the first stage, I was across the mesa on the Mogollon climb without ever really suffering. Two seconds later I was completely blown without warning. I couldn't breathe at all. Stage 2 was never terribly difficult, but in the time trial I was great for first 15 minutes and then completely fell apart again. My nose was running constantly, and other racers were having similar problems. In the crit, the most I helped the team all day was moving over to let Eric take Cando's wheel for the sprint. I started the Gila Monster but was immediately in the hurt box, unable to breathe again. For the second year in a row, I DNF'ed, pulling out in the first feed zone. I knew I had stellar form, that I wasn't overcooked from the race season. I had to keep reminding myself that something external to me was the cause, and to brush it off--next on the calendar was the Tour of California.

Across the mesa on Mogollon at the front, completely comfortable. Surprise collapse imminent.

Even with a bad second half, I managed 11th in the TT on my sweet new bike

Half an hour before the Tour of California started, we were still debating whether I should go for the KOM jersey or GC. That decision wasn't made until I missed the break just a few miles in. Welp, that's settled, then! As it turned out, I surpassed even our optimistic expectations and finished the race in 10th overall. A learning experience, for sure. Even with an okay time trial, I could have finished in 5th or 6th if I hadn't made some mistakes on the wind-blown stage 5 in which the race exploded. We also missed an opportunity for a stage win due to miscommunication between me and Cando on stage 1. Such an amazing race, though, and I think I'll be hearing about my finish on stage 2 for quite a while. Also, climbing with the lead group through the thousands of spectators on Mount Diablo was one of the coolest experiences ever.

Finishing 6th in the sweltering 112 degrees of Palm Springs on stage 2

I even got a bit crazy in the TT and changed to my road bike for the finish climb

Next after TOC was USPRO Nationals. My legs felt good going into the time trial (another of my season goals) and I had a really good ride but ended up just 5 seconds from the podium. Big Z crushed it to avenge his suffering in California's heat. I can't wait to see him in his stars-and-bars skinsuit on his custom painted bike! In the road race, I saw just how overcooked I was from such an exciting spring so far. I had to shift focus mid-race and work for Cando, as it was obvious I would not make the front group the final time up the climb. In the end, our chase group was unable to rejoin the leaders and we just rode it in to the finish.

Somehow the photogs always catch me when I lift my head to take a peek up the road

From Tallahassee, we moved on to Baltimore for a week of rest (for me) before undertaking the iconic Philly Cycling Classic. I was disappointed to need rest so badly, as the riding in the Northeast is phenomenal.

Doing well at Philly is entirely about being in position for the climb up Manayunk Wall each lap. The first few laps I was about 40 riders back every time, but made the front group each time up to make sure we had representation there. Zirbel, Zwiz, Marsh, and Friedman were on full attack mode, riding in every break of the day up the road. Ken was helping me, Cando, and Jesse with positioning in the runup to the wall. Being unfamiliar with the course, though, it took me a few laps to get a handle on how the fight for position goes, and I kept getting pinched off the train and pushed back before the bottleneck at the bottom. The penultimate time up, I was already pretty smoked and knew I was not the guy for the final sprint up. So I jumped into leadout mode for Jesse and Cando, taking the front with about 3-4km to go. Jesse had a great sprint up, managing second on the day and Big Z was rewarded with his efforts off the front all day with the sprint jersey. With my leadout completed, I rode wheelies up the wall to the finish. Let me tell you, drunken fans love wheelies!

At the base of the wall, the field's been whittled down quite a bit in the 120 mile race

Come on ride that train!

 After Philly, I immediately went into recover mode again, as I still had one more race between me and summer break--arguably the most important race on our calendar because it's in our sponsors' hometown, the Nature Valley Grand Prix. We took a hit squad to the race with the sole purpose of winning the GC. Even despite my fading legs, I managed 7th in the TT and we stacked the GC with the whole team in the top 12. I had fun in the St. Paul crit because I actually raced it! I've always loved crits, but fighting for position all the time without ever racing is miserable. In Canon Falls, we unleashed the fury on Jelly Belly and Friedman took yellow with Zwiz and Jesse right up there in mix as well. The crit in uptown the next night was awesome because we just rode the front the whole time. We were going hard the whole night, but I could manage it because it was at or below threshold, and I never had to make any hard accelerations. In the Menomonie road race, I got to ride the front all day along with Zirbel and Creed. I had to sag all of the climbs, but then immediately went back up to the front for some more tempo work to keep the field together for Friedman. On the final stage in Stillwater, I managed to ride the front for about half of the race before my legs finally gave out and I got to watch Friedman win from the sidelines. Of course, I had to ride a few wheelies up the wall before pulling out. I made it to summer break!

Eddy Merckx TT in the pouring rain

Crits are so much easier when you control the front

A long day of tempo

So like I said, it's been 8 days since I last rode a bike, and I'm gonna take at least one more day off. Do I really need that much rest? Well, let me tell ya...

I had the opportunity, between Philly and Nature Valley, to do some physiological testing at UC Denver with the esteemed Dr. Inigo San Millan, and we got some really interesting data. At lower and middle intensities, we learned that I do a very good job of burning fat for fuel. Once the power was cranked up, though, I fell apart pretty quickly. The most telling bit was that when I finally cracked (much earlier than I should have, mind you), the concentration of lactic acid in my muscles was actually very low. That means that my muscles literally had a lower threshold for pain before shutting down. All this data was confirmed with my power data in races--I was completely fine at lower and middle intensities, but (no joke) I was missing 10% of my usual power on the climbs. Yeah, I needed rest.

Oh, and for the record, I do not like the breathing apparatus on the testing machine. It was my first time testing with one, and I was not prepared. There's no resistance on the intake side of the mask, but there is a bit of backpressure when you exhale. That bit of pressure made my mind think that there was a hand on my face and I wouldn't be able to inhale again. So for the first ten minutes, my mind was doing this:

<Inhale> This mask isn't too bad, but it's not very comfortable.
<Exhale> There's something covering my mouth, I'm gonna die!
<Inhale> Phew, I can breathe, I guess I'll be okay.
<Exhale> There's something covering my mouth, I'm gonna die!

In my time off, I've enjoyed doing anything and everything that doesn't involve bikes. I've also had time to digest all the excitement that this spring has brought with it--multiple cyclingnews and velonews articles, and most recently I was featured in ROAD magazine (buy a copy!).  The attention did not stop there, and big news is in the works in the near future, I'm pleased to say.

With that, you can consider yourself up to date on my activities! Now then, time to tune up my mountain bike so it will be ready when I am...there is plenty of racing still to come, and it's about time to get back to work.

Portugal!

Well, I'm back in Colorado after a successful trip to Portugal! I'm just gonna give you snippets of observations and experiences from the trip, and many photos. Enjoy!

I had a blast racing over there and the country was great. The food was delicious, and every town we stopped in (or bounced through on cobbled streets) was beautiful, and the general public loves to watch bike racing.

The language was hard to understand--written Portuguese looks fairly similar to Spanish, so I was able to discern many of the words. Spoken, though, the language sounds like a German or Dutch imitating Spanish. More than a few times, the language barrier had us scrambling to communicate, and we found ourselves speaking broken Spanish in the hopes that maybe it would work. It didn't.

Trans-Atlantic flights are long, but they go a lot faster when your personal TV works. The Life of Pi was a great movie.

We didn't get to do a ton of touristy stuff, but a few of our easy rides found us duck-walking through castles in our bike shoes. Castles are awesome! The castle at Marvao (the location of the stage 1 finish) was built in the 9th century.

Some of these photos were stolen from Tom and Jesse.

Cobbled streets led us to the castle along the route of our first race

We had some fun with the iPhone 5's panorama feature

The basilicas in Fatima had many rules...no skanks and no trumpets!

A cool road...we're looking at the Marvao castle in the distance

Cool castle is cool. 

Coolest ride I've ever done

We were definitely waterlogged that day

So devastated. 

Just another day at the office.

Here are the race summaries I posted on facebook, along with the videos of each stage.  For some more photos, check out the cyclingnews article about the trip.
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Today was our first race here in Portugal, my first in Europe. As I understand it, the race was part of Portugal's national race calendar, but not a UCI race. 171km with 3 categorized climbs towards the end. The racing was awesome. Very aggressive, constant attacking for almost the whole day. I was in several moves, including one big one that stayed away for a while. Then Salas got away on the first climb in a small group and didn't come back until after the second climb. We prerode the finishing circuit yesterday, so we knew the climb and the run-in to the finish well. The last time up the climb, just 6km from the finish, I gave it a go but could not get clear, so we reverted to our field sprint plan. It was crazy and chaotic, and our train got broken up. With just two turns to go, gaps were opening and a few riders were slipping away. I saw Ken was about to jump to close the gap, so I took a run up his inside with 2 turns to go and he slid in behind me. With him on my wheel, I jumped into the u-turn with 700m to go and sprinted out of the turn, getting him to the small group ahead of us with about 400m to go. He moved over behind them as I dropped anchor, then dusted them in the sprint for the win. When I say dusted, I mean they posted the results with a time gap between him and 2nd place. In summary, Portugal is awesome, and bike racing is quite fun.
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My legs were great today. Going into the cat 3 climb at 150k in, Jesse and i got caught up in a stupid crash caused by others. I got going again faster than him, and was able to make it back to the group. Then I wasted a little bit of energy following moves up the climb. Hit the final climb in good position, had really snappy legs and was on anything that moved. One guy slipped away while I was boxed in, and the group spent a lot of time looking at each other. With a bit more than a k to go, I attacked and was clawed back. I recovered a little, and with 500m to go hit it again, getting clear. I blasted past the last two from the all-day break and closed the leader to 15m in the final switchback as the road leveled off with 150m to go. I didn't have the snap to kick again, and was passed in the final meters by 2 guys. Had I waited just a little longer to attack, that race would've been mine. Live to fight another day....


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Getting closer.... Crosswinds today made for an active and feisty field, with lots of groups coming and going. At 85k in, I managed to slip into a 10-man break. The winds gave us the advantage as the field splintered behind us. We worked well together until guys started to fade. With 10k to go, we still had over a minute lead. Inside 2k, I followed the first attack, then countered in the gutter going into a roundabout, which opened gaps like I hoped. Only 1 guy followed, and it turned out to be the one guy I knew I couldn't outsprint, Stuyven from bontrager. We were committed, though, and he out kicked me in the finale. I've moved into 2nd in GC, and the real fun starts as the weather turns for the worst. Yeehaw!

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Today's stage was exciting and boring at the same time. 20 minutes before the start, we were huddled in the van as waves of pea-sized hail rained down. Then the sun came out, although we were rained on a few times during the race. Being 2nd on GC (and wearing the points jersey) meant I was to stay protected in the field all day. There were several very fast sections with mild crosswinds, so the 11-tooth got a lot of time today. The break didn't get away until 120k in, and we slowed to a crawl for half an hour. The guys kept me out of the wind, though, and I averaged 134bpm for the whole day. The last 20k were downhill with a tailwind, so you can imagine how much fun I was having while fighting to stay at the front at 70kph. Our leadout train assembled, but was swarmed with 3k to go and then it became a fight for survival as the road plunged on a technical descent into town. Ken freelanced it, taking the win like a boss and I came in 20th or so after closing gaps the last 2k to get same time on the stage.

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50 deg and raining hard at the start of today's stage. We embro'd up and rolled out for a thorough soaking. It dumped rain on us for 60k, and nothing interesting happened until we reached a town with a raised railroad crossing at a very oblique angle. Guys went down everywhere, and I managed to slow significantly and alter my approach, but still ended up on the ground. Not sure what happened, maybe somebody's bike hit my wheel. No big deal, jumped up and rejoined the field. Mild winds excited the field as we changed directions frequently along the coast, but we stayed together. Then after the final sprint of the day, Zirbel and Zwiz attacked together on a tailwind false flat climb and the Portuguese teams whose race-losing tactics have baffled us since our arrival let them go. Uhhh...you just let two big TT guys roll away with 15k downhill to the finish.... Spoiler : they would never come back. At the top, the field started gearing up for the sprint and we took control of the front to stay out of trouble. Thankfully the roads were dry by this point. We kept the pace high but under control, and the other teams let us. About 4k out, I heard the giant pileup that would whittle the field down to 40 riders. We delivered Ken (and ourselves) safely to the beginning of the technical descent into town. Rather than fight for position, I floated the turns, taking good lines and avoiding the multiple crashes. Sandy final turns persuaded Ken to call it a day--we already had the victory--and I finished same time with the group while Zirbel moved way up on GC. Tomorrow's stage is short but tough, I can't wait!

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In today's final stage of Volta ao Alentejo, we went all in to try and seize the overall from the Bontrager team. The circuit featured a fast cat4 climb that we would do 4 times. The guys were attacking from the gun, keeping constant pressure on bontrager to chase. 20k in, we assembled on the front before a good crosswind stretch that we checked out before the start. After making the turn, we put it in the gutter and went full gas for nearly 10 minutes, knocking the field down to about 50-60 riders. From that point on, nobody really want to race besides us. Our guys continued to flog themselves, but bontrager held strong. The 4th time up the climb, we put in a team attack to launch me. Unfortunately nobody followed, so we adjusted the plan to go for the stage win with me. I flatted with 30k remaining, motor pacing back up to the caravan. Because of a couple of flats and exhaustion, I only had Salas helping me into the base of the climb. Once it pitched up 2k from the finish, I was on my own in the scrum. I forced myself to stay patient and allow the other racers to pull back the little attacks as we twisted upward. The final turn was a 500m to go. The front of the race came back together just before the turn. I was 10th wheel, had momentum as the road flattened out temporarily, and the inside line was open. I'd had enough patience and didn't want to leave it to a group sprint because there were still better sprinters than me in the group. I jumped hard up the inside, just making it past the leader before he dove into the corner. I took it hot, coming out of the turn with a 10m gap and stretching it. 300m to go, one rider caught me and started to go by. I slid in behind him, and he exploded. So I jumped again, desperate for the finish to arrive. I just kept sprinting, checking between my legs and seeing a wheel back there, but not getting any closer. So I kept sprinting, still leading. 50m to go, I refused to slow down. Then 20m before the line, an orange blur (I was crosseyed by this point) came by me. I actually found the breath to scream "Nooo!" I was caught so off guard. I nearly fell off my bike after I crossed the line. So I wrapped up my euro debut with two 2nds, a 4th, and 2nd in GC in a UCI stage race, hungry for more.

Checking in and catching up

I can't believe I busted my hands up over 7 months ago. A lot has happened since then....

Hands busted on July 18. Crazy expensive surgery on July 20...thank you, insurance + parents!

In the following weeks, I watched way too much Olympic coverage. But the Olympics weren't on all day, so I watched way too much TV...including all of Breaking Bad, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development, etc. I was in a low place and couldn't do much besides lay there. I had permission to ride the TT bike on the trainer (not putting weight on my hands). I had multiple days of preparing for a trainer session, climbing on, then climbing down after 2 pedals strokes because, well, what's the point?

To beat me down further, I watched my team race the Tour of Utah online--a race I was supposed to be in--while learning that my efforts in 2012 helped the team secure a start in the TTT World Championships.

...and that concludes the depressing part of this post.

Just a week after the surgery, they removed the big casts and fitted me with more functional splints. I definitely got light-headed when I saw the pins in my thumb...

The day after getting my new splints, I was flying with my parents to Colorado to get my truck out of airport parking and help with the already-planned move to Colorado Springs. We were probably the least useful moving crew ever. I had two busted hands, my dad's back is delicate, and my mom is a tiny woman. Nonetheless, my dad and I did much more than we should have (while being as smart as possible about it--for instance, I had been off painkillers entirely for days, so I knew instantly if I did something my thumb didn't like).

We got the move completed, with most of the thanks due to Ian's overworked back, then drove back to Texas.

Just before my 24th birthday, the doc told me I could stop wearing my wrist brace, resume driving, and pulled the pins from my thumb along with trimming down the splint. The icing on the cake was the permission to ride outside again with my splint.

With that news, I concluded my month of couch potatoing and returned to Colorado. I was riding my TT bike almost exclusively because it was the most comfortable, and helped Creed train for the TTT championships with what little form I had remaining.

As my thumb became stronger again, I started doing epic road rides and just enjoying the fall weather. Of course, my injury had happened right as I was coming into form again, so I picked up where I left off and started getting really fast again just chasing Strava segments around the Springs. Because I had nothing else to focus on, I worked hard at eating really well....and lost 5 lbs. I got down to 158lbs, the lowest I've been in years. It's tough to lose the weight during race season with all the traveling and eating out, but now I know how to do it. As a result, I was in the climbing form of my life.

I was finally cleared to race in mid-October, and I kicked things off with two weekends of cross racing. I did both days of the USGP in Fort Collins, actually doing pretty well even though my skills weren't too sharp and I had a lot of hair getting in my way.

Then I spent a weekend with my Grandma, racing in Oklahoma, where my extended family got to watch me race for the first time (and they saw me win!). My parents even came up to see me race, which they haven't been able to do for a long time. I had my own personal photographer that weekend--I was glad to see my Dad out playing with his camera again!

Then I got an awesome new mountain bike and hung up the road bike entirely for a month while I played around. I jumped on the hardtail 29 train and never looked back.

Then I rested up even more leading into Thanksgiving, when I kicked off base training for the new season. I piled on the miles, rested a week over Christmas when snow covered North Texas, and then piled the miles on again. Between Thanksgiving and Feb 1st, I rode 3500 miles (and dropped a little more weight), a personal best by a long shot.

After another week of rest, I headed off to California for team camp, where I saw just how much faster I can go uphill without carrying around a little extra weight. The big test for me, though, was the time trial day, when I would see whether I'd actually lost any power while slimming down. Survey says...nope.

Climbing the brutal Deer Creek Canyon on camp-champ day

To make camp even better, I got to spend the last day at the San Diego wind tunnel with HED aerodynamics guru Dino, fine-tuning my time-trial position. It was a rare opportunity for the bike racer and engineer in me to both come out and play. Anemometers, strain gauges, CdA, yaw angles, testing protocols...I was right at home.

Dino adjusted my TT position significantly last year to an already-fast position, so our time in the tunnel went very quickly as we made small adjustments to find the perfect position. They sent me home with discs of data, photos, and video, including this cool one with all the different angles... Keep in mind, this was only the 6th test, the position just got faster from here.

On a related note, I stumbled upon an old photo of me time-trialing in 2010. I was pushing so much wind back then!

As aero as a brick compared to my position now

After a week back in Colorado after camp, in which I had to ride my cross bike in the snow on multiple occasions, I was off again to the Merco Classic. The TXBRA racer in me couldn't believe I didn't start my season until March, but that's life now. I definitely was fighting some demons at the start of the first stage (and throughout the race for that matter). My last race had ended, ah, poorly, and I was finally getting back on the horse 7 months later. I had to yell at myself to get out of my own head and race my bike. Then I jumped into the race-winning break.

The time trial there was my first in my new position, and I loved it. Zirbel and I both went significantly faster this year than last, and again were separated by only tenths of a second. Nobody could beat Ben Jacques Maynes that day, though, but I was happy with my performance all weekend considering it was my first race of the year! I ended up finishing the race in 3rd overall, a good start to the year.

And now, I look forward to an awesome year of racing. There has been a lot of hype around me, including cyclingnews and velonews articles, but I'm just too excited and thankful to be healthy and on good form to think much about those.

In just two more days, I'm leaving the country for a 10-day trip to Portugal, my long-awaited European debut! Stay tuned....