Turkey Trot

After dropping Nicole off at LAX for another 4-week session of talking on the phone, I was able to make it over to Glendale in time to do the 3/4 race at my third to last prestige series race, the Turkey Trot.

This was by far the coolest course there is in SoCal. Added to the course was just enough leaves and loose dirt and sand to make the course challenging but fun. Swooping turns you could rail through, a short sandy runup, a sand-trap and a hard little bit of single track that came after an almost 180-degree sandy turn.... pretty flipping sweet.

I started in the front row, and didn't quite get the usual fast sprint of a start that I'm capable of... probably didn't warm up enough. Though I still managed to slot into 5th or 6th. The whole first half of the first lap I had about a 5 second gap to the front group, and behind me was an even larger gap.... so I knew I had to gas it real hard to stay with the leaders. On one tricky part right when I had caught back on, a guy fell right in front of me, but by locking up the rear brake and sort of sliding around, I was able to get by him quickly, and right back up to the front of the group. After things settled down, it was the yellow jersey and another guy up the road, then me, and then two guys chasing me at about 10 seconds. Stayed that way for most of the race, until the 4th placed rider caught up to me, and then passed me when I slid out on a sandy turn. I didn't hammer it hard enough to get right back on his wheel, and he ended up getting a bit of a gap with about 2 laps to go.

With one lap to go, I had 4th in the bag, as I couldn't even see the 5th placed guy anymore, so I figured I'd take all the risks I could to try and catch the dude ahead of me. It was fun, with a few people yelling at me to catch up. I had been gaining on him in the corners, so I railed through some, going through sections without brakes that I didn't think I'd be able to manage. I finally caught him by skidding through the 180-degree sandy turn and getting the sand pit perfect. Though I botched the opportunity to pass him, and instead was right on his wheel (This as it turns out, is a subtle difference between cross and road. In a cross race, pass people. Always. This isn't always true on the road...) Having made the effort to get there, I didn't have the gas on the last quarter of the lap to stay on his wheel to try and win the sprint, and he got a bit of a gap again that I couldn't close. So I ended up 4th, but it was a heck of a fun race.

Looking forward to Bakersfield next weekend, where I'll be looking to snag another free jersey...this time it might have a bear on it...

Also, this is awesome. My former roomate Mike Friedman was on Slipstream for the last two years, and is still on it this year, as it progresses to a top-tier almost pro-tour level team. What a ride. I used to take craps in a toilet that he clogged on a consistent basis- I can't imagine what it's like to say hey, I have to get some good training in so I can help Magnus out in the Spring Classics. Unreal.

Urban (in the ghetto) cross

My new team, liquidfitness, was the host of the #3 race in the Urban cross series, the other series in SoCal. My teammate Ted and I drove up to Torrance to race in a sand bowl, which I had heard stories about.... but wasn't half as bad as what people were saying. This course was different than the Prestige series courses, not necessarily worse.

The course started on one of the "road" sections, a lot of gravel. Very quickly in there was a sharp turn, then a LONG loose sandy runup that HURT like hell. Following this was a longer less steep sandy descent to the barriers that really didn't require any pedaling, just holding on. After the barriers was some more sand, then a little single track, then down through the finish where there was a 2nd set of barriers right after a loose gravel turn. Little ways down were three tree trunks that you had to get off the bike for, then a long loose sandy ride-up, which fed into a bit of a hairy sandy descent, then basically back start.

I did the 4, and the 3/4 race. The 4s I did basically just to get points to try and get at my upgrade. There were about 12 dudes there.... from the gun I took off, and by the top of the runup I had a big gap. The race was already over. I just rode relatively easily, watching the 2nd place guy when the course snaked back on itself, but he was a ways back. Sweet... 10 upgrade points, only 3 to go.

The 3/4 went pretty well too, and was fun. Wish there were more guys there, I think there were only about 15. Ted and another guy went at the runup hard on the first lap, and were gone. I was in third, and came relatively close to catching them.... but after people started settling into their paces, the front two took off quickly. A guy caught up to and passed me, and I couldn't quite hold onto his pace. Then another guy came up and we were fighting for 4th for the next 3-4 laps. He rode for another team that is run by a guy who does coaching, so all the guys associated with our two teams sort of made a rivalry out of it, and everyone was LOUD when we came through... made it a lot of run. He kept getting away from me on the runup, and I'd fight back up on the sandy climb. With ~2.5 laps to go, he attacked, and I thought had it sealed, but he ended up fading reaaaal hard, and I caught him right before the runup on the last lap, and cruised to 4th. Go liquidfitness. Ted managed to get us onto the podium with a strong 2nd place.

With those results, I should have my upgrade, but I think I'll be holding off upgrading until after Bakerfield, where I can vie for a cat.4 SoCal championship jersey.... I think the ones around here with a big bear, like the state flag.... sweeeeet.

Eco-Cross

This past weekend's SoCal Cross race was up in Sylmar again, in the same park where the second race, Redline Cup, was held. Other than the start/finish paved stretch and the barriers, though, everything was different. The loose dirt and carpet of pine needles didn't serve me very well this time around either.

The course was pretty technical, which isn't quite an advantage for me, as I'm not all that comfortable taking turns through loose dirt and stuff yet... but it was still a really fun course to ride. My favorite stretch featured a steep loose dirt (I should almost say sandpit) hill, which was ridable only because you could carry momentum into it. I consistently lost time in the more technical sections, and wasn't able to gain it all back in the power sections. Suspicions of my being limited by handling skills were apparent when people I had been riding with for a lap or two (10-15mins) would easily gap me once they got the chance to pass me. I didn't feel all that gassed, so it wasn't me being tired, they just weren't such wossies in the turns! Still had a fun time though, and I did get more comfortable as the race went on, and caught up to two people on the last lap that had passed me earlier.

I got a decent start, and was sitting around 4-5th going into the barriers for the first lap. There was a dirt patch, and a paved hill after the barriers, and the leaders rode a bit away from me, and I never saw the front 3 or so again. I yo-yoed between 6-10th for much of the race, and ended up finishing 10th. I should slide a place or two in the overall standings from 5th, but I'll still get the all important callup.

I'll post some pictures of me in the green racer jersey later on when they're up online.

Cyclocross Nationals

The UC Irvine cycling team is picking up my tab to send me on out to cyclocross nationals this year. Sahweeeet. The race is in Kansas City, KS, a mere few days after I finish up the finals for the fall quarter. I'm currently trying to get my math final moved so that I can get out there to race the B race on Thursday, before the collegiate race on Sunday. I've been looking at the weather for that time of year (probably snow!), and just ordered a pair of 34 Tufos to use instead of the 30s I've been running out here- I'm planning on throwing those on my Ksyriums... would be a sweet cross bike when paired up with those wheels, I'm pretty siked for it.

Next though, I need to clean all the gunky horrible Vittoria glue off the Ksyriums before I can put the new fatties on there properly... gonnna get high on some lacquer fumes

Weird video on YouTube

I have a math test tomorrow, so naturally that means I'm online looking at cyclo cross videos on YouTube. Check this gem out... really weird, yo.



I think the weirdest part is at about 2:40 in... is that the woman's house the race is going by?? it looks like it... really weird, and the music right at the end makes you think that cyclo-cross has some tie-in with Halloween or something. freaky.

Just a few years ago...

I was racing collegiate C's back East at PennState. Found some old pictures while cleaning off the harddrive on my desktop. I know I'm probably wearing a few more layers in the first picture, but damn-I think I must have been pushing 185 back then.

First race weekend in Rutgers: 2003. Our best result would come from Mike Lahm, I think 4th (yeah, I take that gimkabo for memory, can't remember the name right off). Munas ended up making love to a curb... I wish I could remember what BS Lou was telling me at this moment.

Just a few weeks ago, digging the pre-fire clean air....

Coffee Crew Ride turned Octagon Death Match

So this morning I went for my first group ride since the fires, and it turned out to be pretty dramatic. We took a different route that kept us away from where the fire had been just last week. Visibility was poor, thankfully due mainly to fog... I hope. At any rate, at one point in the ride, a dude sort of went real fast on a downhill to catch up to some homies up the road, and kept drilling it. Another dude on the ride wasn't too happy about this, and after coming back together in a mile or two, they started exchanging words. It was pretty unsafe how the first guy rolled off... sort of rode right through a group on a narrow road with poor visibility.... but what transpired was still flipping crazy.

They started exchanging more words, and even smacking each other on the helmet. Numerous times people said "come on ladies" or something to that effect to try and prevent the fight, in the presence of some women on the ride who probably thought... well fuck you! Then at a stop light, all hell broke loose. Full on swings, head locks.. you name it. Both of them laid their bikes on the pavement and went at it. It was so very middle school.

So if you're ever on a group ride in SoCal, don't fuck with a dude in a Disco kit. He really does ride for Disco... maybe he's just mad that his team is gone...

Training this week?

Probably not. I'm already taking off Friday - Sunday to go visit the Big Apple, which I'm psyched for. I'll be doing a good bit of work this week, catching up so I won't have to do a lot this weekend... but I still planned to do some riding this week until this happened....


D'oh! I usually climb up and over that ridge and ride through the canyon on the other side. But I can't even ride anywhere else around here because the air quality is atrocious. So hopefully these will clear up a bit by the time I have to take off from Long Beach on Thursday afternoon...

If you're bored check this site out. Shows all the fires, though its not updated all that often.

Damn Cross (UCI #2)

So today was the same race as yesterday. Some changes were supposed to be made to the course, but they weren't, but that was ok because there wasn't much that could be done to make the course any better, given the location with all the gopher holes anyway...

It was my cleanest cross race so far, and not surprisingly I got my best result, both due to that fact, and some poor luck of folks in front of me (that's cross!). So right from the gun I was in 2nd position, but couldn't hold the fast pace up the first grade, and got gapped a bit. 4 leaders with a 5-10 second lead, then me with another two guys. That was basically the scenario until the series leader, and my teammate Ted, who were both in that front group of 4, both had mechanicals. The leader got a flat, but had to ride a little bit to get to the pit before changing and getting back in- he would up just inside the top 10. Ted was a bit more unfortunate. He rolled his tubular front tire after hitting an odd corner, but was able to ride the wheel into the pit and get his spare, which he then flatted somewhere in the next lap or so. Bummer because he was looking REAL good up with the leaders.

Those two mishaps and I'm sure some surges a the front, broke everything apart. I was well behind the two riders up the road, with two different guys coming up towards me. One guy faded, and one guy made his way up to me. I punched it real hard going into the last lap, and he spent the whole rest of the lap clawing his way back to me. He then flatted trying to hop the curb to ride the last runup, so I had an easy ride in for 3rd.

Really looking forward to the next few races... next one is in two weeks, so I'll be on the road again for a bit...

UCI (not UC Irvine) cross, #1

Cross racin.... pegged to 185 from the beginning, kept up there for nearly 45 mins, with a max at 195. Sahweet.

This weekend was the first ever UCI weekend for Southern California. UCI in terms of cycling has nothing to do with UC Irvine, for those of you wondering.... Union Cycliste Internationale is the global governing body for cycling- a UCI race usually means big names will show up, and the promoter will loose lots of money because they have to pay the commissaries a billion swiss francs per hour.

Anyway, none of that really matters for my Cat 3/4 races, so it was just a normal race. Attendance was actually a little low unfortunately, only about half of the top 10 on the series were present, so that was a bummer, but a good chance to move up I guess. I was 11th in the series going into the race, so no call-up, but that didn't matter much. I punched it hard on the opening paved section and cruised up the first big hill, and got into 3rd. My buddy Ted had the misfortune of unclipping on that hill, and lost a few spots, but he was quickly back up near the front. In the early parts of the first lap I did my usual first lap crash, just sliding out (despite the new tubies!). This not as bad as last week though, and I was able to quickly get back up, only losing 3-4 spots. After a few laps most of the race had shaken out, and the two leaders were well up the road, Ted was in 3rd, I was in 4th, and there were a few riders looking to come up, who never quite made it. I don't think I would have placed any differently had I not crashed. Maybe I would have been there when the guys took off and made their gap (my crash may have been what caused their initial gap....) but I don't think I would have hung with, and may have even blown up, so maybe it's a good thing.

So I should be looking at a callup for tomorrow's race, which I hope will feature more people, especially more from the top 10 who had been handing to us pretty well the first few weeks.

Greenhouse Dollars

... no greenhouse dollars are not things that Republicans spend on the free market in order to fund the military by buying Haliburton contracts while also pissing off Al Gore.

They are a form of free money disseminated by the University (UC Irvine). One of my buddies Dave told me today that if you work for the University (which graduate students do) and you do not have a parking permit for parking on campus, then you are eligible to receive 10 greenhouse bucks for each month, meaning $90 for us right now. These can be used at the bookstore, or any place on campus to get food. So obviously we marched right over to get burritos with Dave's money, then walked over to get myself some "wad of cash".

Today just got a lot better... I have "85 dollars" burning a hole in my pocket. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way for this money to make its way onto my bike. I think the best way may be to shop around on half.com for a book that is selling for a decent amount of its retail value, and then try and buy it at the store, and sell it quickly online. Though I fear my timing for this might not be that great... with quarters starting later than other schools, and the fact that we are a third of the way through this quarter...

I don't really want to use the money for food on campus.... I mean my last post was an excel spreadsheet screen shot depicting how I'm counting calories. Seriously.

Suggestions are welcome. If you wish to suggest I wait and use it for my textbooks for next quarter, then don't even bother responding, that is deplorable. This is FREE MONEY.

I'm a dork....

So I dig excel graphs for some reason, don't ask. Spent a little too much time on this guy....Net calories calculated from basal metabolic rate (calculated to be 2700 KCal per day), my Polar output in KCal, and my food intake, estimated to within a few hundred probably. Not that I'm really manging my eating/training habits off this, but I think it might be kind of cool to watch how it goes.... Interesting at least. I've already noticed that I'll spike at least 1.5 to 2 lbs for a day or two after a hard ride (and presumably eating more, I just started "counting" calories now)... then it'll settle down in a few days. Sort of cool... body has a large time constant.

So spoiled...

So I was taking a look at the flyers for this weekend's double header of cross action, and I was thinking to myself... MAN I don't want to have to make this drive twice! An hour and fifteen minutes each way!? That sucks....

Then I remembered back in the day in good ole Pennsylvania where I would have driven about 4 hours to race.... damn I'm getting spoiled out here already. I'm already sulking the fact that I need armwarmers and kneewarmers to ride in the morning... wazup with that?

Major Jake, ready for deployment...

So the Kona is finally done up right. As I said before, the cross rig now features sram rival 10spd drivetrain, paul's touring cantis, and tubular race wheels (though I only have one 10 spd cassette that is crossworthy, so these will basically be training and race wheels). As shown, comes in at 18lbs. Legit!!

The front end... featuring the extra brake levers that I have not used much since I've gotten used to being on the hoods / in the drops

Paul's brake calipers. Sexy.

They feel just as nice as they look. I promise this bike won't be clean in one weeks time... have two races next weekend...

The picture below shows an extra washer I had to put in so that the calipers would work properly. The problem was that with certain calipers, there was an inordinate amount of torsional friction, which would not even be compensated for with high spring tension (which would have felt weird anyway). So it took a few days, a phone call and a few emails with Paul himself to get to the bottom of it. Actually Paul didn't know what was wrong (hard without see it)... it took me taking the calipers apart numerous times to realize what was happening. What happened was that if you accidentally overtighten the bolt without holding the nut the caliper down on the post on the frame / fork, then the sleeve, which is slid on top of the post, is pushed onto the flats (further than it was designed to go) and therefore allows the spring mechanism to be squished. Now this could have been avoided if AlphaQ and Kona had made the flats on these parts larger than the shank of the post, but that would be hard to fix now.... so what I did was add an additional washer to make sure the caliper didn't push the sleeve up onto the flats. Might be easier to see what I mean...

For those of you who don't know what the heck is going on, then you might not realize how Paul's brakes work, which I didn't either before buying them. It is actually really cool - they do not use the typical tabs which lock the torsional spring into place (in fact I took them out on the fork). The springs are held between the caliper itself and the nut that the mount bolt goes through. A really cool design, that you really need to see to get your head around I think, and even then it took me a while to realize what was going wrong with my particular installation.

Yes, I'm a dork for making up that picture. Excuse me while I go spend my Saturday evening recovering from a 90mile road ride by coding matlab and watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car".

Pictures....

Also, check out this picture from the Redline cross race this past weekend...

This last one reminds me of the TTT from Bucknell, depicted below with artistic addition from Anna Kelso.

Eatin' good in the neighorhood

So I've been making a conscious effort to really watch what I've been eating the last few months. It's been sloooowly paying off (I'm down to about 165 on good days now). I've basically had a veeery simple diet:
Breakfast:
cereal, bannana, OJ

Lunch:
sandwich, carrots, apple, couple cookies

Dinner:
salad, pasta or stirfry

Snack:
yogurt with pretzels (don't knock it until you try it... but be ready to be addicted people).

Anyway, my main point is that today I was coming home from cross practice, and I stopped at Subway. Got a chicken bacon ranch on the cheesy bread. Not the best of choices, but I had just put in a good cross workout, and I was hungry. Probably the first "greasy" food I'd had in a while. I used to eat these things all the time... but let me tell you... I was not ready for the chaos this would have on me... I felt like I had just eaten a Big Mac or something!! I think I really got my body off the greasy food, and it didn't like going back.

Tomorrow, breakfast is oatmeal.

I'll also be posting some pics soon of new completly overhauled Kona Major Jake. Sram Rival 10spd group. Paul's touring cantis (funny story about these, and Paul himself later), and a new appropriately used left non-sti brake lever (instead of a right one). It feels faaaaaast.

More Crossin

Did the 4, and the 3/4 today at the second race in the Cross series out here. The first race went pretty well, got 3rd place, and my future teammate took the first lap by storm and never got caught. The race split up very quickly, and after about 10 minutes in, I was battling with one other guy for 2nd... so it was a good result, but it wasn't the most competitive or anything. There were a decent amount of guys there... just blew to pieces real quick I guess.

The second race wasn't quite a race for me. I got the last callup spot from my 10th place finish last week, and got a decent start, into about 4th or 5th in the beginning of the first lap. My bud Ted dropped his chain over the barriers, and myself and at least 5 or 6 others flew by. I was pretty amazed when, about a minute later, he came absolutely flying by me... I mean totally different speed. Impressive, too bad he dropped his chain again, but still ended up 10th. We're going to get that 3rd eye chain watcher adjusted...then look out. As for my race... I slid out in a corner over some pine needles in one corner, and being a little too frantic to catch back on, overcooked a fast downhill grassy corner and landed pretty hard. I was a little shook up, but probably would have ridden it out, but my shifter was on the fritz.... so not even one lap into the 3/4, I was just hobbling back to get changed back into civilian clothes. Bummer.

Good news though, is that I have a new shifter, brake calipers and tubular tyres (if you are talking about cross tubulars, they are tyres, not tires, bitches) coming... so this cross bike is going to be raging.... just need to get more comfortable taking turns at speed... still feeling overall better each time on the bike though, and it's still fun as heck...

Cross Race #1 in the bag

Did my first cross race this weekend, and it was pretty sweet. Was only about a half hour drive, up in Fullerton. It was basically an all grass course, which makes it slow and hard... but since I did the 3/4 which was the last race on the 2nd day of racing, there was a beaten down path in the middle of the course which made it much faster than my trial runs on it before the elite race the day before.

I started in the 2nd row, and was probably about 10th through the first turn and into the first set of barriers. By the end of the first lap I had worked up to 6th or so, feel pretty good. My highest position was 5th, which I held for a lap, despite skidding out around one corner. My big mishap came on a concrete slab before a few stairs. I think that I didn't get my left cleat unclipped all the way before I started to lean over to start running, and both myself and the bike went down. Picked the bike up, but when I put it back down on top of the grass, the rear wheel was locked down. Damn. The canti caliper had been jammed down past the rim, and I needed to nail it back over with my hand. Took only about 15 seconds, but I lost about 10 places in the process. I was pretty bummed, and went real easy the next lap and a half, feeling like the race was all but over, but I managed to find some motivation to suffer a bit more, and over the last two laps made a bunch of places up as people were hurting to come back and secure a 10th.

All in all a good race. I just ordered some better calipers (not that they were really at fault for the rear wheel lockup) but they do suck, despite being orange. Also planning on making some spare tubie wheels into cross wheels if I can do it cheaply enough. They are box section rims, so I might beat them up a bit, but the cross riding out here isn't too terribly tough, so I hope to be able to use them so I can run tubies. I'll post some pictures later on if the photographer uploads them online.....

Next weekend, look out for another top 10.... hopefully.

Stealing some thunder

So Andy sent me a cool link today about a dual drive "fixed" gear. The question we had, though, was whether the gear ratio had to be the same for both sides. In case you are too lazy to read the link, the setup is basically two front chainrings, with chains running parallel back to two FREEWHEELS on either side of the rear hub. (if its two fixed gears the answer is much simpler)

I believe that the gear ratios can be different. I thought about it this way:If the two concentric circles are the two chainrings, and the two cogs on the outside are the rear cogs. Because they freewheel in opposite directions, they cannot produce torque against each other, so they have no physical mechanism that connects their motion.... so I drew it this way to make it more clear. Obviously the two gear ratios above are different.

So clearly the angular velocity has to be the same for both chainrings, being constrained by the bottom bracket. But if you then express the cogs' angular velocities through the gear ratios, you see that the only way that omega2 = omega1 is if r2/r3 = r1/r4, or if the gear ratios are the same.

Physically, if you had a big gear for going forward, and a small gear for stopping, or going backward, then the whole time you are moving forward, the other freewheel (on the non-drive side, or I should say the left) will be freewheeling like crazy, but because its going backwards it shouldn't matter. If you get a cheap freewheel like I have on my single speeds, then it might sap a few watts out though!

Anyway, if you disagree with my conclusions, let me know... I'd be curious if anyone sees this differently...

Holy shit....

legit....legit....legit.




Pictures of the Bianchi cruiser will be coming soon. 42x16 drivetrain, riser handlebars, orange grips, yellow seat. It's the shit.

That's MAJOR Jake to you

The Kona

Cockpit... cross brake levers... crossed up naturally. Yeah. Orange calipers.


Notice the brake housing.... running the whoooole length. The brazeons on the frame would not accept ferrels, so I had to run the housing the whole way, or buy these metal pieces from Kona that the deal said have a tendency to get sharp and cut people.....

Chainring... with chainguard and 3rd eye watcher. Still managed to hop the chain off on a descent the other night....don't think I'll do that in an actual race though, hopefully.

MAJOR Jake

Kona. notice the Alpha-Qness. Hot.

Fa-Fa-Fa Friday

Friday is going pretty well. I got word that the Easton wheels that I EP'ed almost a year ago finally made it to the shop, and arranged to have them shipped out to the West Coast. See this picture for why I'm so amped about that:

Full carbon rim, straight pull spokes. No J-bends where I usually break spokes.... lovely. I'm contemplating removing all the decals (pronounced deeeeee-cals) save for the E. Originally I had planned on somehow making other letters to spell out "ERIK", but I think I'm too lazy, and since watching the show "Entourage" 'E' will do just fine. So... not that big a deal, I knew they were coming, why such a 'must write in my blog about them' sort of deal?

The charge on my credit card was over $1,000 for them. What the balls? Supposed to be like 500 bucks. So I call up Easton, and after sitting on hold and listening to the same 30 second clip of a Beethoven invention (which having played it previously made it worse to listen to over and over) for 30 minutes I found out that they forgot to take the 40% off wholesale.... and they'll be cutting me a check for about $400. Even better... I even get the points on my credit card, and I get cash.

And then to top it off, I get back and get an email stating that the irDA usb hub that my old roomate Andy (see his blog for further humorous details on this debacle) bought and sent to me (to the incorrect address that I provided) had finally found its way back to the seller on eBay, and that she was sending it again.

Rocking. Now I just need to come up with a dynamic systems level model for a PEM CHP unit, validate to published data, tweak the code and then graduate and make bank. Rocking.

Cross riding... attracts cross weather?

So I went out for my first cross practice yesterday evening. I literally installed the cleats in the parking lot, then took a few minutes to spin around and practice hopping off and "hopping" on before we did a few laps around the park. It went relatively well.... need to do a lot of work so the whole process of hopping on and off is fluid and seamless, but I have some time, so I'll work on that. I did bite it once... at the bottom of a BIG hill. There is basically a large sand pit at the bottom, and I didn't realize how sloppy it actually was down there. So taking the turn at the bottom of the hill I just washed out... but it looked much more hardcore than it was due to my opening up an old cut. Sweet bloody cross.

Thursday morning... coffee crew ride. 30 miles which is usually relatively chill until the end which picks up the pace a bit, then hits two relatively good hills towards the end. The ride was completely different though. It was raining! Wasn't so bad when we started, and it didn't really even ever rain that hard on us, but the spray and all the gravel kicked up made the ride horrible. It was better out East when the constant rains drove junk off the road. There were tons of little stones in my eyes. (sunglasses were worthless). Oh well. My goal was to make it over Newport Coast Dr. (big climb at the end) with the group, but I didn't even really make it to the bottom with them... thanks rain and stoplights. Maybe it was the cyclocross that brought out the weather.... supposed to have more of it this weekend. bummer.

Harden the F&^# up

Well the cross bike isn't quite assembled yet... still need a saddle (coming) and cleats (ordered at the shop). Hopefully I'll be able to get it out a few times before the 30th, which will be the first race... that I already regged for.... sahweet.

Don't have much creative to say... but this dude does... the motivation behind Staurt O'Grady's black wristbands at the Tour...

Kona in charge

I got a cross bike! Kona Major Jake. I've got most of the cockpit assembled, but am still waiting for a few essentials in the mail... saddle, brakes... But I'll throw a picture up of the new steed up on the blog when she's all done. For now, suffice it to say... it's going to look HOT.

Took advantage of one of the last homework free weekends by squeezing in about 8.5 hours of riding. I will be taking this week reaaaal easy. Got a nice easy spin planned for early in the week up the Santa Ana river... looks like a cesspool on GoogleEarth, hope it doesn't smell too much.

Also likely switching my emphasis at work a bit... looks like I'll actually be doing work with some stationary PEM units for my MS work. Probably doesn't mean a whole lot to most people, but instead of doing SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) which are real big, high temperature units, I'll be doing smaller (though on the large size for PEM) PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells. Obviously most of the basics are the same with these different kinds of systems, but there are some big differences, which I'll highlight real quick. SOFCs have a solid electrolyte and need to be run at high temperatures so that this electrolyte can efficiently conduct oxide ions. The ion migration is from the cathode to the anode..... oxide ions. This differs from PEM fuel cells, which have a polymer (repeating chain of something or other... remember organic chemistry? neither do i... i didn't take it) electrolyte which generally require water to be conductive for protons, which originate from the hydrogen fuel. In PEM systems ion migration is from the anode to the cathode in the form of protons. The net reaction is the same for both types of cells, generally, but the actual chemical mechanisms are different. If you made it this far, then you are a trooper. Give yourself a pat on the back.

So, if you skipped down to here, don't blame you. I'll be working on large-scale PEM fuel cells, which would be placed in someone's house for example, which would provide power for the house 24/7, and the grid when the house doesn't need it (ie during the day when everyone is at work). They would run on pipeline natural gas (gasp! a fossil fuel!) which would be reformed to hydrogen (the clean answer right?? yeaaaaah). They would also provide heating and possibly cooling, through CHP (combined heat and power) equipped units. Basically heat exchangers to take advantage of the fuel cell's heat generation. With big enough units you can actually cool down air if you have hot air, by using a heat pump... but with small systems it becomes too costly, so smaller units would likely just have heating capabilities, which only require an exchanger, not a heat pump.

If you were interested in any of that mumbo jumbo, then good. If not, I didn't tell you you had to read it. If you want to know more, ask.

Off to bed... I rode 80 miles today...

Riding

I've been out in Cali for a bit now... and I know where the grocery store is, where the closest 173 Starbucks are, and where not to take a #2 on campus. Pretty productive first few weeks. I've also been riding quite a bit. Since I don't really have anything to do in the lab, sometimes I just don't go. Now I'm all physched for when I do have work.... I like getting stuff done (not gettin' 'er done), but when my adviser applauds my simply writing a 4 page fluffer of a thesis proposal, and says its a great start.... its time to slow it down and decrease those expectations.

So yeah... not so much work means a lot of riding. And a lot of riding I did. The first week back on the bike I logged 17 hours. Granted about 9 of those were just real easy spinning around, but still... 17 hours is a good chunk for me. I've done some sweet riding in Santiago Canyon nearby (which sucks when its really hot) and also along the coast (which never sucks). Also been finding some really cool hills to do repeats on later in the year... I'm really pumped for trimming down a bit, and hitting the hills hard in attempts to not be dropped on every climb in every race this year.

Also pumped at the prospect of finally doing a cross season. Despite having two cross bikes in the past, I've never gotten a good ride and a healthy Erik in the same season.... so hopefully this will be it. Got my eyes on a few gems (and a few rustbuckets) on eBay, and also a Major Jake w/ Alpha Q carbon fork locally that I'm checking out tomorrow..... wouldn't that be sweeeeet.

California...

So for those of you who read about the cross country extravaganza here, you know that I'm already out in Irvine. Got my apartment all set up, and after Nicole helped me assemble some Ikea furniture, the place is looking pretty rocking. I'll snap some photos later...

But down to the real business at hand, I've been on a few rides, and already have a pretty funny story to tell. I did a ~50 miler (second day back on the bike after 30 days off) to Santiago Canyon. Now most people would hear "Canyon" and figure they'd be climbing a bit. I trusted gmap pedometer's profile, and thought it looked relatively flat. Wrong. It was lump enough to make my completely out of shape legs feel it quite a bit. Wasn't so bad though.... but it was getting dark as I started to get back onto the roads that I know well.... and then... passing under the 5 (that's how you call out highways here... the 5) I nailed something, and a mile or so down the road, my front wheel went flat. Balls. Changed that up pretty quickly, and got moving on.... the last hurdle was going through this gated community. I knew it was a private road, due to the large signs stating such, but I figured as a cyclist, I'd just cruise on through. Well I came up to the entrance of Jurassic Park, and thought... shit, how do I get through this? Keep in mind its getting dark, and if I have to go around this Porsche haven, then it's on busy roads with cars that all have their headlights on by now.... So I sort of skirt through the first gate, and that's when three dudes come out of nowhere and are like.... "what are you doing?? you can't go through here". So evidently there is a bike path through the rich fuckers community that I missed.... so they showed me where us mere two wheelers tread through their land, and I was off.... But it was looking sort of hilly to me, and I didn't remember seeing any hills near campus, where this was supposed to let me out. Went on for a few miles, and finally ran into a couple walking on the path. Stopped and asked them if I was close to UCI, and they said it was just ahead... so sweet, saved. Then they keep talking for a while because the husband is a cyclist, and he starts offering up all his advice on cool routes to ride around there... so that was pretty cool. Then his wife tops the boat, and is like, you know we live right up around the street.... if you want to come over for home cooked dinner, feel free any time, we're always around. What!? Seriously? Just because I shave my legs? Weird. I've already forgotten where they said they lived... but still, pretty cool I guess.

Back to work. I'll talk a bit about what I'm studying out here later. When I figure out what that is.

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Fitchburg Day 4- Crit

The last day of Fitchburg.... and I was feeling it. Crits have been my thing this year, and I really wanted to be able to have something positive to remember this race for. Got a descent warmup in, and got to the line at the right time.... second row back behind the callups. This crit is pretty tough... good uphill grade up to a 180 degree turnaround, then back down a screaming (35mph) descent into two hard left hand 90 degree turns, which places you back on the homestretch uphill grade.

Pace was pretty high at the beginning, and I quickly lost my position near the front. I dug in in the middle of the field, and spent most of the race just moving up when the opportunity presented itself to do so easily. My plan for winning this race was to get to the front for the last points sprint with 3 to go, follow the dudes sprinting, and then peg it as hard as I could after their sprint was done to try and hold on solo. I kept feeling better and better as the race went on... as I was able to recover and move up on the descent relatively easily. With 4 to go I moved to the front, but couldn't muscle my way into the top 10 places. The points sprint came and went, and someone else executed my plan.... he stayed away and won. Ben Showman... strong A rider from Army's collegiate team. Had I known it was him off the front, I would have buried myself to try and get up there... but I probably would have just toasted myself anyway.

I sat back and tried to start looking for the leadouts. Most of them came up the left side.... where noone was moving up before. I was stuck on the right side, where I had been able to move up all day. Balls. Coming into the homestretch on the last lap I didn't have great position at all. Way too far back to contest anything. I still uncorked a good sprint, passing probably 20 people from the last two turns up to the line to finish a respectable 37th. I was satisfied with how much better I felt in the race, and the placing is allright. I think I'll be setup allright for Owasco. Bring on the upgrade points.... hopefully.

Fitchburg - Day3 Road Race

I was looking forward to improving upon my last Fitchburg Road Race, when I came into it at 8th in the GC, and ended up at 99th. That was when I was a 4, and we only did 3 laps. On tap for today was 6 laps, for a total of 68 miles. There is one signifigant climb with a long false flat after it that hurts a lot... then a really fast (57mph) descent back on down. The final lap features a crazy climb to the top of Wachusset Ski Resort. Nuts.

I felt pretty good on the first lap. We were sort of neutralized because we had been caught by the 35+ field. That kept things real easy on that false flat after the climb. So the first lap was cake for staying in the field. Second lap we went balls to the wall to try and catch a break that had formed on the first lap. We flew up the climb, catching the masters field... which was confusing as heck, and finally leaving them behind for good. I got a bit gapped on the false flat section, but made it all back on the descent by hammering out 57mph. That was fun. I knew what was in store for the next lap, however, and lights went out on the climb. I could reach out and grab the field the whole time.... and actually almost got back on the false flat, but they got a bit too much of a gap that I couldnt' make up on the downhill. Balls. 30 miles to go. A bunch of groups were behind, and they were drilling it paceline style. These people were all idiots. We're not getting back on. We're going to loose massive time, dont' kill yourself! So I rode easy to the feedzone again and stopped and hung out with my parents. When the field came by I hopped back in and finished up with them. Lapped riders finish on the lap with the field... so I rested, and did one less lap. Fresher for tomorrow right? Hopefully... The climb up to the ski resort still hurt like hell. I didn't even start with the group, as I was dropped for a second time (that's a first for me) on the false flat.

Fitchburg Day2: Circuit Race

On tap for the second day of Fitchburg was a 28 mile circuit race featuring a two block long stairstepper climb, and a fast backside to make about a three mile loop. For most, it is easy to sit in for this race.... usually finishes all together without any time gaps. Didn't quite work out that way.

Since my TT put me way out of contention for any hope at overall glory, I figured I'd try my hand at the points jersey. The first sprint was the very first time through the line. I tried to get myself up to the front, but was still about 40 back through the turn at the bottom of the hill... so no dice for that sprint. Two laps later, I got myself into the top 15 into that turn looking to snag some points... but as soon as the road went uphill, I slid back instead of passing people, which is necessary in order to get points. From there on it was a race of survival. I kept slipping further and further back, and eventually was gapped off at the top of the hill, and the lights went out. I rode it very easily, not really caring how much time I lost... turned out to be a good strategy. The field was finishing right as they were lapping me, so I blended right in, and they placed me in the field.... at the same time. If this mattered at all, I would have corrected the officials, but their mistake moved me from 85 to 70 overall, instead of moving me down to a likely lantern rouge. So.... whatever. I'll claim that prize tomorrow during the road race.

Fitchburg Day 1: ITT

Day one of the Fitchburg stage race was a moderately uphill ITT. This race always starts with an ITT, and I really prefer the flat affairs, but this one was a bit different. Not an uphill ITT like Army's collegiate event, but gradually up 600 feet over a few miles (with some pretty good kickers) and then a flat, almost downhill speedy finish.

I used my road bike with some borrowed clip on aerobars, and it probably wasn't the way to go. Should have brought out the TT rig. The climbs were not as bad as the profile made it out to be, and I think that good times were up for grabs from those with their TT bikes out. That being said, not sure I would have moved up much from my 85th, about 2 1/2 minutes down on the leader had I brought out the Zepp. So yeah... cracked the top 90.

Tomorrow is the circuit race, which features the first sprints for the points jersey, so I will be going balls out for that bitch. Hopefully snag some points and get myself into a good place for that. Need something positive out of this stage race...

All in the details

This picture is of a wiring issue in one of the 5kW units that Siemens is operating now. It's at Phipps Conservatory near CMU in Pittsburgh, so the last few days at work I've been going down there to help with some maintenance on it. Got me thinking.

Most of the problems with fuel cells aren't the fuel cells. They work wonderfully if you give them the right amount of gas, take away the products and don't let the reaction sites clog up with carbon that you'd expect to see on a grill after charring some steak. (All that is relatively harder than you may think...)

True about a lot of things... it's all in the details. You can ride your bike alot, train yourself into the ground, but if you don't look after the details of eating well, sleeping well, and doing the right kinds of riding, it won't matter much come race time. You can take time to talk with people, but if you're constantly thinking of all the other things you have to do, and stressing about what you didn't get done, you're loosing out on the big picture. So here's to taking care of the small stuff. First off is replacing these fuses with smaller ones....

See you in the details.

Update contd

Ok, so yea. I'm living in Pittsburgh with Munas, who thinks his blog is as good as mine (actually, its far superior because I have more of a life). We have real nice place neary Shadyside/Point Breeze area. A block from Walnut St, which is a happening place. The riding is beginning to be better as we find quicker ways out of the concrete jungle and streets with needles on them.

Work is actually pretty cool. Getting paid twice as much as at school has perks, and I'm really interested in what I'm working on in general, so it's pretty good times at work. Siemens is the world leader in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology, so it's cool to be there learning alot about what they've tried, and what hasn't worked. I do do a lot of bitch excel data work from time to time, but at the same time I'm also learning all the ins/outs of the tests being run as well, so I learn from that, and they gain from me copying and pasting, reformating, making graphs and sending it out. Good trade for now. I have a guess I might be back here some summer during grad school, and I'd like to not do that kind of work then. We'll see.

Racing hasn't gone too bad. Did pretty well in a podunk crit in WV a few weeks back. Nabbed a prime and 3rd place, so about 80 bucks. Also did a crit in jersey, which didn't work out too well because the large teams represented there gave the break too much leash. Overall I'm feeling pretty good though, and I'm looking forward to doing Fitchburg in a few weeks... that'll be fun

Pittsburgh.

Lots happened since I've updated anything on here. I've gone done up and moved down here n'at to Picksburgh (that's 'pittsburgh-ese' for "I've moved to Pittsburgh"). I'm working this summer at Siemens, the world leader in SOFC technology.


Ok, something much more important just happened. Hi surprise.

I'll update all six of you about my life later.

Movin' On...

I did Turkey Hill this past weekend. Rolling ~6 mile loop with a hill thrown in the last two laps. Not too much to report- I felt pretty bad the Friday before, and on the first small uphill on the loop I pegged my HR up to 180 very quickly. My legs felt like I had alrady ridden for a few hours.... needless to say I didn't hang on long. I've been off the bike since, trying to eat and sleep alot. Not sure why I felt so hoorible on the weekend (thanks cycling.tv) but the days afterward I was pretty well messed up I think. Constantly felt starved, but couldn't really eat much. Think I may have been a bit dehydrated. Been eating much more normally the last few days, so when I get back on the bike once I'm out in Pittsburgh hopefully I'll feel allright.

Graduation is on Friday, the 18th, then it's off to Pittsburgh for the summer. Munas and myself got a place near Walnut Ave in Shadyside- a cool hipster area of the city. Even the goodwill there has a fancy storefront. Looking forward to the J-O-B- at Siemens where I'll hopefully learn a lot of real world fuel cell stuff before heading back to school.

Easterns and the end of an era

This past weekend marked my second and last Easterns weekend. Hosted in Vassar, it was a heck of an event. TTT and RR on Saturday, and a crit on Sunday.

Day 1
Team Time Trial
I stepped down and did the TTT with the B squad this weekend, hoping to go for a "V", and because Justin and Jeff had upgraded to As for the mass starts, and couldn't do the Bs anymore. We were relatively smooth for the 11 miles. I worked it up real hard on the last lap and did a few long hard pulls towards the end, but we ended up only 3rd. I think Yale and MIT beat us out, which was a theme for the weekend, as these teams were sparring for the overall..... Yale and MIT? Go fucking study you dorks.

Road Race

This was a fun race, but not for me. Pretty epic course though. I was bitched off the back of the field on the first climb, just a few miles in. I chased for most of the 30 mile lap with a group of ~10. We got within sight, and people started saying stupid shit like... go easy, we'll catch them. Stupid. So on the next little climb I put my balls on the stem and went as hard as I could, catching Munas's Subaru in the process. I may have ridden directly behind it for a few miles... but then it was a long descent, and I went through a shit-ton of cars and motorcycles, and even swerved my way through traffic coming into a hairpin turn. That was fun. Caught back onto the group just in time for THAT climb again.... you guessed it. Bitched again, and just rode to the feedzone and called it a day. Luke manned up from our field and got himself a top 10. Legit!

Chasing back to the group next to the team car. So

Day 2
Criterium
I was really looking forward to the crit. I got to the course and was already a little disappointed. Four corners and flat it was... but the straights were so long, and the corners so easy.... this would be too easy. Noone would get shelled. Too many people would think they could win. And that's what happened. I stayed right at the front for the whole race, feeling pretty good. Got mixed up going for primes and was never really in the best position for them. People kept FLYING by on the backstretch completely voiding my good position I had fought for. I worked very hard to stay in the top 10 in the last few laps, but then when we got the bell, it all sat up. All the way across the road. Bitches! Doesn't someone have teammates? Shouldn't we have shelled half of you? Yes and yes. The BC dude Greg had a teammate, and he got a legit leadout on the backstretch and won. I botched following a strong wheel, and came across in 6th. Not the best way to end the season, but it wasn't too bad.

Cornering after taking a flyer that no one was interested in coming with for. Noooo I'm not clipping my pedal.

Next up: Turkey Hill this Saturday. Hopefully I can help some of the Dynaflo guys who's names happen to be Munas or Spohn out. Or maybe make it over the hill twice in good enough position to mix it up myself. We'll see.

One trip of groceries is enough

So Munas and I hit Wegmans for some dinner and groceries. They should really pay us to shop there, we bring the fun into the store, for real.

We get back, and I explain my hatred for coming back to the car for that pesky second load of groceries. Andy expresses his desire to not carry any groceries in whatsoever. Solution? Turner carries in all the groceries.

Not really as heavy as it looks...


Getting some momentum going...


this is NOT a muscle double...

...and the money shot.

Army... looking forward

Last weekend was the Army race weekend. Things didn't go quite as planned. Munas and Spohn both skipped out in order to try and get themselves back together. Andy did donate his car, however, which was clutch.

Team Time Trial
The Men's A TTT team consisted of myself, Chris, Jeff and Rhodney. We were not all that smooth, and had a huge difference in fitness, with Rhodney and Chris both riding extremely well. I wasn't quite feeling that great, so basically Jeff and myself would work to the front, and pull very quickly and get off. Chris was drilling it... but the Bucknell machine behind us still caught us, putting a minute into us. We ended up quite a ways down... not the best showing.

Road Race
I was looking forward to laying some hurt down on the fast finish to this race, but the uphills got the worse of me. I started the first climb right at the front, and faded a bit into the field, but nothing too major. The second lap I was the first rider starting the climb, and was the last over the top. I'd have to pull something special out for the last two laps. Well the third lap comes along and the rubberband stretches and snaps. Take a look at my Polar output from the RR. The light, bright red is HR while the darker red is altitude. (5 points for anyone who figures out what the lime green line is). You can definitely see that even though I got popped off on the third big incline (3rd lap) my HR didn't crest 180 like it had on the previous laps. I hope that this stems from not being well enough nourished to start off the race... and not some indication that I wasn't recovered enough. In any event, I'm taking it easy this week before Easterns, and eating A LOT after the TTT.

Uphill TT
What the hell am I doing an uphill TT one might ask. I weight 180lbs. Well, I want to score points, and score points I did bitch. I think that this shorter effort was more up my alley. Helping even more was the fact that I was chasing down Justin in front of me. I actually got pretty close to catching him on the second little grade near the stadium at Army. Certainly I was going good, because Justin won, but a little too good. I faded a bit near the end as the course kept rising a bit too much for me. Still managed a 6th, for 24 key points.

Criterium
This was my chance to make up even more points. I felt decent, and had a few digs off the front trying to get someone to come with and get a good break rocking. I don't think the weather was going to allow a break to roll through the corners that much faster than the small field we had, so it all stayed together. I tried my had at some primes, with only points coming out from one of them. Finished decently in 7th, but really should have been smarter on the last lap. Army had a legit leadout that I will not miss at Easterns, though I doubt I'll see those guys at the end of that crit.... I hope to be by myself.

Easterns in Poughkeepsie, NY at Vassar this upcoming weekend. Looking forward to possibly stamping my name on the Men's B field despite not having scored any points in a road race yet. I'll have to this time around, though, if I want to score a snazzy medal.

So...don't pull out in front of a truck.

I was at Hoy St. and West College Ave on Friday afternoon getting ready to take off for Poughkeepsie for some relaxation instead of racing in Vermont. I looked to the left, no traffic. Looked to the right, and saw a bunch of cars coming. Sat for a second waiting for the traffic to let up from the right. And let up it did. Being a complete and udder idiot, I pulled out without glancing well enough over to my left again. College sort of slopes off downhill, but not really enough to hide the large freeking truck that hit me. Fuck. My head hit the driver side window, and the car was pushed laterally to the extent that the right front tire rolled off the rim. Check out some pics taken by my forensic engineer I hired to investigate the wreck:There are no pictures of the rear, but if you look at the gap between the trunk and the body, it's larger on the passenger side. This indicates that the whole frame is tweaked. Sucks. This, even more than the obvious damage in the front, might signal that the car might be totaled. SUCKS! Insurance is getting me an estimate on Tuesday, hope for some good news....

Bawston Beanpot

This past weekend saw the ECCC descend on Boston for the Beanpot. Same deal as other weekends: Team Time Trial followed by a road race, then a crit on Sunday.

Day 1
Team Time Trial

For this weekend we tried using a different fourth man- our Puerto Rican sensation, Rhodney. I didn't quite get the warmup I wanted in, but still felt allright at the starting line. Rhodney blasted off the line and absolutely drilled it. Luckily we all were on the same page and got up to speed fast, and we were off. Fast and smooth over the first third of the course. After we started hitting some rollers, however, Rhodney started to feel it a bit, and we switched it around so he would so some shorter pulls. Going up one of the bigger rollers on the course I was pulling through, and probably gave it a bit too much gas. We were closing fast on UNH, and I really wanted to pass them. I think this was a mistake, as we dropped Rhodney, and I put myself a bit more into the red that I should have been at that point. Had we kept Rhodney, he would have been a great asset on the mainly downhill rolling terrain over the next few miles. I had to skip out on some pulls over the last third, and held the guys up a bit on some of the uphills. We ended up 6th out of 12 teams, but only 10 seconds out of 4th. Had we been smarter about when to drop Rhodney, I think we would have gained 10 seconds easily. I think next time we do the TTT, probably at Army, we may be trying out Jeff Schutt to see how he fares with us.

Road Race
My roadrace was a 52 mile, 4 lap race. There are some climbs on course that break up your rhythm, and some fast sections after the climbs that were usually strung out single file with people trying to keep the pace up over the climbs. I got a normal warmup in, and felt pretty good at the start line. Few miles in, though, I got a stitch in my back that just wouldn't go away. From time to time over the next 52 miles it bugged the hell out of me and made me feel like hell. It moved around a little, sometimes making its way all the way to the front of my ribcage. I spent a lot of time right on the back of the field deciding if this was worth it or not. In the meantime Jeff managed to hit a pothole just right and his bars slipped down. I went back to the follow car to investigate our options. The official there told me we had no neutral support, and that the wheelvan didn't have tools. So... Jeff just had to ride it out. Later in the race he was able to pull them back, but he still had to be careful knowing they were a bit loose. On the last lap my bars slipped too when I smacked a RR crossing really hard. I learned later that the explosive noise I heard was the threading letting go in my stem. Somehow it stayed tight for the finish of the race, but I needed to borrow one from a teammate for the crit. So I followed wheels up the last climb, staying with the lead group. Worked very hard to stay in the middle of the group coming into the last few miles. An Army guy brought me to the front for the sprint, but I had nothing left. With how tired I was I went way too early- I basically sprinted to the front of the field, and once I got there the sprint started, and I was left way behind. I cruised in for a finish in the twenties. Afterwards I had to lay down in a fetal position for about 20 minutes until the muscle stopped cramping up in my side. That was fun, and freaky. Same thing that landed me in the hospital at UnionGrove a few years back. All in all I was happy with the road race- finishing in the front group after hurting pretty bad with a bad cramp is a good sign for the upcoming races I hope. I hope to score some points at UVM, and be ready to hammer out some big points at Army and Vassar.

Day 2
Criterium
The Boston Beanpot crit is infamous for eating people alive. I have seen cyclists literally swallowed by hay bales and sewer grates. Seriously, very seriously. It's a 1kilometer-6 turn love fest with one relatively good incline coming into the home stretch which is always full of headwind. I put my rollers next to the staging area a full two (albeit intro) races before our race was slated to go off. I think I was one of the first ones down there. I warmed up pretty well, and was feeling pretty good. When people started to congregate, I got off the rollers and lined myself up. When the scuffle ensued to get to the line, I somehow ended up in the 4th row. Balls! It would have been a huge difference to be in the 1st row, but I was feeling good, so it was allright. The first 5-10 laps I spent working my ass off to get to the front. I got up there in time for the first prime, but was so gassed that I couldn't contest it. On the backstretch after the prime, however, I jumped and got a bit of a gap. Came through the homestretch alone, with about a 5 or so second gap (absolute silence on the homestretch...) Then again on the backstretch Steve from Hamilton came up to me and we both worked for a second there, but upon looking back the field was strung out and chasing us pretty hard. We sat up and went back into the front group. Not a whole lot happened for a while, just suffering a bit to stay in the lead group. I then got caught behind a crash, which opened up about a three bike length gap in front of me. I tried not to freak out and chase slowly and consistently, but upon chasing for a half lap, the gap was going out. SHIT! I chased hard for the next lap and a half, bombing into corners until I finally made it back into the group. Somewhere in this mess a UVM kid went off the front, and was motoring away. At this point Mark Abramson blew his load all over the mic, talking about this kid with the gap. Fuck you Mark. At least say "here comes a PennState rider off the front" while I was off. It's a bit legit because the UVM kid won, and he was attacking at the end, not the middle of the race, but seriously. Stop hating on PSU, dick. Had I been able to get to the front, I would have worked my ass off to try and get him back for Jeff, but I was too gassed to even get there, so I just sat in, waiting for the sprint for 2nd. Had myself in good position coming into the final stretch, and Steve attacked, and Jeff took his wheel and got him on the line. I followed as closely behind as I could, getting 9th. Decent day in the saddle.

Didn't expect it, but I moved from 7th to 5th in the overall, though there is a big jump to get into the top 3 or so spots. Some of the guys ahead of me have already moved up, and some I anticipate will be moving up soon. I think when all that upgrading dust settles, I should be looking at 2nd in the B field. I hope that I can get some points this weekend at UVM, and move myself up the ladder even further, we'll see!

I'll post some sick pictures later. Matt Gross came with us and took some amazing shots- when I get the real ones without "proof" all over them, I'll throw one or two up here.

Boo-yah Kishah

PennState: 1,2,3

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.

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...

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.