PennState: 1,2,3Monday, March 26, 2007
Bucknell
Got the second ECCC race weekend under my belt, and it was pretty schweet.
Day 1
Team Time Trial- We got a good warmup in, and were ready to rock the time trial. We started 2 minutes down on Princeton and a minute in front of Bucknell. Princeton is a REAL strong TTT team, so I'm sure they were going away from us. We worked pretty well together, and after the turnaround we saw Bucknell coming by, and it seemed that they were already making up time on us. And they probably were. Shortly thereafter we went flying by Princeton(!!) but they were on the side of the road with a flat. Sucks for them.... but we went real hard thinking we had a shot for the win. Turns out Bucknell took about 30 seconds on us, so we got 2nd. Still a good improvement from the 9th at Philly.
Road Race-Relatively flat 8 mile loop. Still had some climbs that I big ringed, but probably shouldn't have. From the gun Carney from UNH took off, and he kept pushing it. Two other kids bridged up shortly after. About halfway into the lap they had a significant lead, and the field was being pretty lazy about it. Smolko tried to attack to get up the speed or possibly get across. Once he settled back down I jumped and went across the gap, taking two others who helped make the connection finally. Two BC guys, Dartmouth, UNH, myself, and a strong kid from Hamilton. We worked real well, and from what I understand the field was held up real nice by the PSU boys, possibly with some help from the UNH/Dartmouth guys. I felt real good at first, but I don't think I drank enough or had enough gels. I've never cracked quite so hard. At one point I just started seeing lights.... stars all over the outside of my vision. Couldn't pull through anymore. Then I couldn't even hold the wheel. DAMN I thought, because I thought we still had about 1:30 gap like we had at the maximum. But once I popped off, I sat up for a second, and the field wasn't too far behind. I tacked on, but couldn't recover well at all. Next hill I got popped off.... turned around and went to the parking lot. I'll pack it in for tomorrow. Jeff ended up winning, with everyone else scoring points as well, so they made up for my lackluster performance.
Day 2
Criterium- The course was pretty freeking sweet, with some nice turns that I thought were perfectly suited for a breakaway win. This was confirmed, I thought, while watching the Men's C... who had a break last the whole race... not common for that field! So of course, I attacked the shit out of my race. Started in the last row, and got to the front by the first straightaway. Held myself in check for about 10 seconds, and as soon as I could, took a flyer off the front. Noone came with. Didn't get a good gap... just strung the field out like crazy. Spent the next 5-10 laps attacking, and working very well with Jeff and Justin to take a bunch of prime points. Coming into the bell lap, a Yale kid took a reaaaal hard legit flyer on the homestretch. He had the largest gap of the day, and I was concerned about it, but not enough to work to bring it back. Jeff was already in front of me, and he jumped hard and put in a huge effort the whole last lap to bring the Yale dude back. Not sure exactly when he got washed up, but coming onto the homestretch I got onto Jeff's wheel, and within sight of the finish I told him to hammer it. And he did... opened it up and I was able to come around real strong. I heard Justin yell that he was on my right as I was trying to come around Jeff. Tried my best to come around and let Justin out as well... and I guessed it worked pretty well, as I took the win, Jeff held on for second and Justin rounded out the all PSU podium in third. Team PennState, fuck yeah. Jeff is now leading B's, Justin is in 5th, and I'm in 7th....based only on my 3rd in Philly and 1st at Bucknell. Once I can climb... watch out.
Props to Munas in the A field for lapping the field. Those suckers in the field did a whoooole extra lap. Those suckers.
Here are the crit results, with the team overalls up top.
Day 1
Team Time Trial- We got a good warmup in, and were ready to rock the time trial. We started 2 minutes down on Princeton and a minute in front of Bucknell. Princeton is a REAL strong TTT team, so I'm sure they were going away from us. We worked pretty well together, and after the turnaround we saw Bucknell coming by, and it seemed that they were already making up time on us. And they probably were. Shortly thereafter we went flying by Princeton(!!) but they were on the side of the road with a flat. Sucks for them.... but we went real hard thinking we had a shot for the win. Turns out Bucknell took about 30 seconds on us, so we got 2nd. Still a good improvement from the 9th at Philly.
Road Race-Relatively flat 8 mile loop. Still had some climbs that I big ringed, but probably shouldn't have. From the gun Carney from UNH took off, and he kept pushing it. Two other kids bridged up shortly after. About halfway into the lap they had a significant lead, and the field was being pretty lazy about it. Smolko tried to attack to get up the speed or possibly get across. Once he settled back down I jumped and went across the gap, taking two others who helped make the connection finally. Two BC guys, Dartmouth, UNH, myself, and a strong kid from Hamilton. We worked real well, and from what I understand the field was held up real nice by the PSU boys, possibly with some help from the UNH/Dartmouth guys. I felt real good at first, but I don't think I drank enough or had enough gels. I've never cracked quite so hard. At one point I just started seeing lights.... stars all over the outside of my vision. Couldn't pull through anymore. Then I couldn't even hold the wheel. DAMN I thought, because I thought we still had about 1:30 gap like we had at the maximum. But once I popped off, I sat up for a second, and the field wasn't too far behind. I tacked on, but couldn't recover well at all. Next hill I got popped off.... turned around and went to the parking lot. I'll pack it in for tomorrow. Jeff ended up winning, with everyone else scoring points as well, so they made up for my lackluster performance.
Day 2
Criterium- The course was pretty freeking sweet, with some nice turns that I thought were perfectly suited for a breakaway win. This was confirmed, I thought, while watching the Men's C... who had a break last the whole race... not common for that field! So of course, I attacked the shit out of my race. Started in the last row, and got to the front by the first straightaway. Held myself in check for about 10 seconds, and as soon as I could, took a flyer off the front. Noone came with. Didn't get a good gap... just strung the field out like crazy. Spent the next 5-10 laps attacking, and working very well with Jeff and Justin to take a bunch of prime points. Coming into the bell lap, a Yale kid took a reaaaal hard legit flyer on the homestretch. He had the largest gap of the day, and I was concerned about it, but not enough to work to bring it back. Jeff was already in front of me, and he jumped hard and put in a huge effort the whole last lap to bring the Yale dude back. Not sure exactly when he got washed up, but coming onto the homestretch I got onto Jeff's wheel, and within sight of the finish I told him to hammer it. And he did... opened it up and I was able to come around real strong. I heard Justin yell that he was on my right as I was trying to come around Jeff. Tried my best to come around and let Justin out as well... and I guessed it worked pretty well, as I took the win, Jeff held on for second and Justin rounded out the all PSU podium in third. Team PennState, fuck yeah. Jeff is now leading B's, Justin is in 5th, and I'm in 7th....based only on my 3rd in Philly and 1st at Bucknell. Once I can climb... watch out.
Props to Munas in the A field for lapping the field. Those suckers in the field did a whoooole extra lap. Those suckers.
Here are the crit results, with the team overalls up top.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Past few weeks
Well the past two weeks went by real quick. Asheville, which I was sick for was capped off by the race weekend being canceled because of a snowstorm. Pussies. I still went to NYC, only took me 5 hours longer than usual. I was the only non-four wheel drive vehicle on the road. It was a very stupid drive, but it was a good relaxing weekend.
I went out to visit UC Irvine from Mon-Wed this week. Interesting stories: missed my flight out because I forgot my alarm clock wasn't set to DST. Got out there on the next flight though, no hassle... Thank you Southwest, you rock. Then the take off coming back from SNA is very interesting. There are houses nearby the airport that a lot of rich people own... and they don't like hearing airplanes. Therefore jets taking off power up to 90%, while holding the brakes, then take off screaming down the runway. The liftoff is at a much more dramatic angle than normal as well. Oddest thing of all is that about a minute after being airborne, the engines are cut back to 50%, so you're basically gliding along. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE? It is a very very odd sensation.
Long story short I'm going to go to UCI for grad school, barring any huge changes in the next week or so. I'll comment a bit more on the school and that stuff later on when I'm not so tired.
Also interviewed at Siemens for an internship this summer. Again, I'll explain later.
For now, looking forward to Bucknell's race weekend... hope that the last two weeks didn't screw up my form toooo much. REALLY looking forward to training a lot in the next few weeks. One thing is for sure... this collegiate season isn't wearing me down yet at all.... I'll be ready to kick some ass this summer from the get go...
I went out to visit UC Irvine from Mon-Wed this week. Interesting stories: missed my flight out because I forgot my alarm clock wasn't set to DST. Got out there on the next flight though, no hassle... Thank you Southwest, you rock. Then the take off coming back from SNA is very interesting. There are houses nearby the airport that a lot of rich people own... and they don't like hearing airplanes. Therefore jets taking off power up to 90%, while holding the brakes, then take off screaming down the runway. The liftoff is at a much more dramatic angle than normal as well. Oddest thing of all is that about a minute after being airborne, the engines are cut back to 50%, so you're basically gliding along. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE? It is a very very odd sensation.
Long story short I'm going to go to UCI for grad school, barring any huge changes in the next week or so. I'll comment a bit more on the school and that stuff later on when I'm not so tired.
Also interviewed at Siemens for an internship this summer. Again, I'll explain later.
For now, looking forward to Bucknell's race weekend... hope that the last two weeks didn't screw up my form toooo much. REALLY looking forward to training a lot in the next few weeks. One thing is for sure... this collegiate season isn't wearing me down yet at all.... I'll be ready to kick some ass this summer from the get go...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Philly + Asheville
Hit up my first collegiate race weekend of the season this past weekend in Philadelphia. Great event put on by a bunch of philly schools that combined the EasternI ro conference (ECCC) with its little bitch ass brother Atlantic conference (ACCC).
First day was just a circuit race, and not much went PennState's way. At least in my case I got dropped on the last little hill up to the finish. I was feeling a little bit on the rivet for most of the race, so I'm not surprised I got canned. The A race featured some crashes via some Army riders that took Munas down, though Chris managed a top 10. The C team came up big by putting three in the top 10.
Next morning was the TTT. I rode the A TTT with Munas, Spohn and Chris. We weren't as smooth as we could have been, and Munas, Spohn and myself agreed afterward that none of us were really gased after it, so we needed to go harder. We only managed a 9th, but the B squad got 2nd, and the Women's B got 3rd.
The afternoon was the crit, where there were good placings in many categories. I didn't watch much of the action as I was hanging out with a special guest and getting ready for my race. The B field started off relatively easily. After the first prime lap people were sitting up, and I was able to coast all the way from mid-pack to the front, and figured... what the hell, so I gunned it through a corner, gassed it on one straightaway, and already had like 10 seconds. I stayed out by myself for about 4 or so laps, getting a prime. I was hoping someone would bridge up and help stay out for the duration, but it didn't happen, so after my prime I eased up and made sure to stick myself in the first 5 wheels. Few little moves went, but nothing too big. With about 6 to go a group of two NCState guys took off to take the last prime. Guess they really wanted those ECCC points. After they took it, they kept trucking, and a Maryland dude gunned it to bridge across. I jumped on his wheel and he took me most of the way up. I finished it off, and there were 4 of us. Eventually the NCState dude who did all the work previously fell off, and it was just three of us. I attacked on the last lap fearing that we would get caught, but we didn't... and I lost the blinking contest. The two sprinted for it ahead of me, while I finished up alone for 3rd. Good result still. The A guys finished off the crit strong getting 2nd and 6th I think with Chris and Hoadney flexing some muscle.
We're in Asheville now, which I'll talk about more later because this is already long as crap. Long story short though, I got sick at the end of the weekend, and haven't been able to ride like I'd planned... so I'm not in recovery mode, just hoping to have some legs by Grant's Tomb, which I want to attack the shit out of.
First day was just a circuit race, and not much went PennState's way. At least in my case I got dropped on the last little hill up to the finish. I was feeling a little bit on the rivet for most of the race, so I'm not surprised I got canned. The A race featured some crashes via some Army riders that took Munas down, though Chris managed a top 10. The C team came up big by putting three in the top 10.
Next morning was the TTT. I rode the A TTT with Munas, Spohn and Chris. We weren't as smooth as we could have been, and Munas, Spohn and myself agreed afterward that none of us were really gased after it, so we needed to go harder. We only managed a 9th, but the B squad got 2nd, and the Women's B got 3rd.
The afternoon was the crit, where there were good placings in many categories. I didn't watch much of the action as I was hanging out with a special guest and getting ready for my race. The B field started off relatively easily. After the first prime lap people were sitting up, and I was able to coast all the way from mid-pack to the front, and figured... what the hell, so I gunned it through a corner, gassed it on one straightaway, and already had like 10 seconds. I stayed out by myself for about 4 or so laps, getting a prime. I was hoping someone would bridge up and help stay out for the duration, but it didn't happen, so after my prime I eased up and made sure to stick myself in the first 5 wheels. Few little moves went, but nothing too big. With about 6 to go a group of two NCState guys took off to take the last prime. Guess they really wanted those ECCC points. After they took it, they kept trucking, and a Maryland dude gunned it to bridge across. I jumped on his wheel and he took me most of the way up. I finished it off, and there were 4 of us. Eventually the NCState dude who did all the work previously fell off, and it was just three of us. I attacked on the last lap fearing that we would get caught, but we didn't... and I lost the blinking contest. The two sprinted for it ahead of me, while I finished up alone for 3rd. Good result still. The A guys finished off the crit strong getting 2nd and 6th I think with Chris and Hoadney flexing some muscle.
We're in Asheville now, which I'll talk about more later because this is already long as crap. Long story short though, I got sick at the end of the weekend, and haven't been able to ride like I'd planned... so I'm not in recovery mode, just hoping to have some legs by Grant's Tomb, which I want to attack the shit out of.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
California Take 1
Last week I went out to California to visit UC Davis, and then hang out with my brother. Weather is awesome out there. Got a few pictures of the UC Davis campus:
The campus was really cool, and the school seemed like a nice place to be, but the research going on there didn't really mesh too well with what I'd like to do. Additionally, the one professor there working on fuel cells has 17 students already, and just had his 6th kid. Nuts. So I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to Davis. However, I still might hit up Cali, because Irvine accepted me and gave me a fellowship for the whole first year. Shi-bang!
But the real fun was the bike riding. 80 mile training ride on Saturday. First 2/3 of the ride was getting out to a big (70 person) group training ride. We went up along the coast, turned inland and did a few hills which ripped the ride apart. I finished in the second group, feeling a little gassed. Nick, Lisa and I then spun around for a bit.
Sunday we did a crit up in Compton (ya know, like the rap songs). I did the 3, and felt pretty good. Stayed in the top 15 the whole time, tried my hand in a few breaks. Coming into the bell lap there was a group of two that had about 5 seconds gap on the field. I figured I would jump across to them, and then jump again on the backstretch and try and win the sucker solo. Well, I couldn't quite get up to them, and we all got caught. Got washed into the field, but managed to recover enough to at least be present in the sprint, but way too far back... somewhere near 25th. Still, very pleased with the effort for my first race.
Lisa won a $20 prime, and took 2nd place in the Women's 1/2. She also did the 1/2/3 30+ Masters race for training. BEASTLY! Nick did the 1/2/3 30+ and the Pro 1/2-doing some work for his teammates at the beginning, and then finishing it off for the training miles, or kilos as it were. Great training crit all around. Sucks that the weather won't be like that out here until June.
The campus was really cool, and the school seemed like a nice place to be, but the research going on there didn't really mesh too well with what I'd like to do. Additionally, the one professor there working on fuel cells has 17 students already, and just had his 6th kid. Nuts. So I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to Davis. However, I still might hit up Cali, because Irvine accepted me and gave me a fellowship for the whole first year. Shi-bang!But the real fun was the bike riding. 80 mile training ride on Saturday. First 2/3 of the ride was getting out to a big (70 person) group training ride. We went up along the coast, turned inland and did a few hills which ripped the ride apart. I finished in the second group, feeling a little gassed. Nick, Lisa and I then spun around for a bit.
Sunday we did a crit up in Compton (ya know, like the rap songs). I did the 3, and felt pretty good. Stayed in the top 15 the whole time, tried my hand in a few breaks. Coming into the bell lap there was a group of two that had about 5 seconds gap on the field. I figured I would jump across to them, and then jump again on the backstretch and try and win the sucker solo. Well, I couldn't quite get up to them, and we all got caught. Got washed into the field, but managed to recover enough to at least be present in the sprint, but way too far back... somewhere near 25th. Still, very pleased with the effort for my first race.
Lisa won a $20 prime, and took 2nd place in the Women's 1/2. She also did the 1/2/3 30+ Masters race for training. BEASTLY! Nick did the 1/2/3 30+ and the Pro 1/2-doing some work for his teammates at the beginning, and then finishing it off for the training miles, or kilos as it were. Great training crit all around. Sucks that the weather won't be like that out here until June.
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