Independence Valley Road Race

The course layout on this race was very exciting. It had 2 good climbs, 1 climb taking 3-4 minutes and the other around 2 minutes. Mike, Travis and Gerrit all met at my place at 6 and we took off for coffee and arrived in Tenino, Wa around 8ish. It rained the whole way down there. The forecast for the day was 100% chance of rain. We were hoping since the weather people here tend to get things wrong that they would get this wrong. It was pretty cold when we arrived and it was kinda stressful deciding on what to wear. There were a few times I almost didn't wear my rain coat. I thank the stars now I did. We all piled under one tent with our trainers and bikes and warmed up for a few minutes. I learned I need to warm up longer than 5-7 minutes when there is a climb within 2 miles of the start.



As we were rolling out to the "official" starting point it sucked. You go from dry and warm to cold and wet. The first climb wasn't so bad and everyone stayed together for the most part. The second climb is when the field was destroyed. It was also snowing and sticking.
Thanks to Jed's wife I believe for the pictures.





I was right there with the front pack but got stuck behind a slower rider on the decent and that cost me. I never did make it back to the main field. The rest of the race was survival of the fittest or craziest. There was a group of 3 of us that were rolling pretty good and we kept picking up guys that were dropped from the main group. It was Mike, Gerrit and I from Cycle U. Mike was sick so he gave me his food at the end of the first lap because he was in pretty bad shape and wasn't going to finish. First lap is done and we have picked up a few more guys so we had about 9 or so in our little group. As we head up the first climb again we lost several guys and I was feeling pretty good as far as my fitness. The first lap I couldn't get the heart rate below 170bpm and maxed out at 187bpm! Now I was cruising at 150-160bpm, much more managable. Mike was still with us coughing and sticking to my wheel. I made sure if he was going to finish he was going to stick to my wheel the whole time. He did some pulls at the front of our group but we tried to keep him behind us to save his energy so he could finish. I would say he was one of the crazy guys that stayed in. We got to the second climb and there was snow in the trees on the road and I looked down a couple times at my feet and I had snowed on them too, strange thing I couldn't feel them either. It was cold. It was hard shifting or even holding on to the bars. I made a little break on the decline and rode by myself for a bit then the group caught back up. Gerrit went off by himself and finished a few minutes ahead of us. As we came up to the finish one of the First Rate Mortgage guys that was with us took off for the sprint to the line. We weren't sprinting for anything but I felt good and went with. I was able to beat him to the line to finish 18th. The worst part of this whole race was riding another 2 miles to the cars after we finished. It was the worst experience on a bicycle I have ever had. However we finished and my hats off to Mike for being a tough guy and not wanting to quit. Thats all he kept saying the whole time, I don't want to quit. Its good to have a competitor and teammate like that.

Not sure what the next race will be but I will be doing the Tour of Walla Walla in April.

Tour de Dung #2 Sequim

This was my 2nd race of my very early bicycle racing hobby. Lindsay and I headed out Saturday and dropped the dogs off at my parents house along the way. We arrived in Sequim around 4ish and checked in to the lovely Econo Lodge. Was upset to find out that just down the street there was a hotel for half the price we paid. Oh well. Just have to remember that for next year. I met up with the guys on the team and we road the course to get a idea of what we were facing come Sunday. Lindsay and I had dinner reservations that night with the team at the Alder Wood Bistro at 8. Food was good and the beer was good too.



I didn't have any real goals for this race besides finishing in the pack and wasn't sure how it was going to play out. The course is fairly flat with some average rolling hills. The team thought it could go both ways as far as the pace for the race. It could be hardcore because its flat and there is no place to rest or it could be chill because you aren't working so much with no hills. We arrived after I got lost to the race course. Thankfully I found some bikers on the road that pointed us in the right direction. Of course if I listened to my co-pilot Lindsay, we would have never got lost to begin with as she just told me the exact direction that the cyclist told me... We got set up with our canopies and trainers. The teams that put on the race were a bit under staffed and didn't have enough forms to fill out so we sat there in line for 20 minutes. Then I had to go to the bathroom so bad waiting in line I got registered and went to another line and stood there turning blue and loosing my vision for another 20 minutes. All that done and over with I went back and hung out with the team and talked a little stragedy. The weather was pretty good with no rain but cold. They split the Cat 4/5 field because there were about 100 or so racers total. We were set to do the 12 mile course with 4 laps for a total of 48 miles. As we lined up for the start all the Cycle U guys immediately moved to the front of the line waiting for the start. Mike and I led off and rode at the front of the field for the neutral start which lasted a 1/4 mile or so. Once we passed that point it was relatively calm for a couple miles. Then the same guy that blew up the Mason Lake race a couple weeks back did the same thing. It had to of been the worst lap ever! The whole field didn't want him to get away so everyone whicked it up a notch. Luckily we had a couple guys go with him and the break was at around 8 or 9. Cycle U had two guys in there, Travis and Evan. Travis didn't stick with them and fell back with us but Evan stuck it out and hung with them. Again the first lap was horrible. We were at one point in the pack cruising around 30 mph. The next lap was alot calmer and much more enjoyable. The break wasn't coming back to the field as they already had a minute or so lead on lap 2. There were really no sketchy moments through out the race. We caught Evan towards the end of lap 3. I felt bad for him as he was in the break for so long. He jumped right in to the pack and at that point I moved to the front and we started increasing the pace a bit.

Final lap and I wasn't sure what we were going to do as a team towards the finish, since we weren't going for the win. Gerrit decided to make some people suffer as he sprinted off the front of the pack and yelled "come on, come on". Mike, Tony and myself jumped out of the saddle and sprinted with him but the pack caught back up to us a few seconds later. It was fun and we made some people hurt for sure. We went passed the 1k to go sign and I was near the front on the shoulder side. Next thing I know I see the 200 sign and I am still kinda stuck on the shoulder. There was enough room for me to squeeze up the side but it was going to be close. I sprinted and yelled "on your right" as I made my way up the right side. It actually worked out pretty well as I finish in 8th place overall. The race was alot of fun and the weekend in general was a great time.



Cycle University and myself will be racing at, "Team Group Health Independence Valley Road Race" this Saturday. I must say it is a very addictive sport, this bicycle racing is. Who would think, suffering on a bike for 2 hours burning 2000 plus calories and sitting on a little seat would be a good time???

Hmm...

Photgraphs were taken by the lovely Lindsay!

First Bicycle race under the belt!

Well its been a busy couple months, with training, getting the location sorted out for the wedding and trying to stay sane. Since joining Cycle Universities Road Race development team back in Nov 08 its been alot of fun training with a group of guys/gals on the weekends.

The first race of the season was Sat March 7th at Mason Lake Road Race out in Belfair. We had a really strong squad going into the weekend with around 8 guys in the Cat 5 class. We met at my house at 5:45 Saturday morning! Too early for sure. Of course the pre night jitters were back and welcomed back as its been some time since I had them from Road Racing motorcycles. However the lack of sleep the night before kinda sucked, but I was ready and feeling good. We made the 1.5 hr trip over there and arrived to see blue sky and sun. When we left Seattle it was windy and raining. This continued all the way there until we hit Gorst/Bremerton and we all started to get hope of a dry race when we could see the sky begin to open up and show the sun. We arrived with sun and set up our canopies and trainers in the parking lot to get warmed up. We ate and joked about stratedgy and just going out there and trying to stay together and survive. My goal was not to get dropped by the main field and stay out of trouble. Everyone told us leading up to the first race of the season that it was a total crash fest so we were all anxious to stay away from that. We rolled out to the starting grid for the start and there were a fair number of us in Cat 5. We got under way and followed the lead car around until we got to the first corner then they honked and we were officially racing. About ten minutes later I asked Shawn on the team if we were actually racing because it seemed we were going pretty darn slow. Apparently we were and were just cruising along. Which was ok until I realized just how cold it was. We had 3 laps of 12 miles around the lake for a total of 36 miles. Most of the team was right at the front and Shawn and I were chillin in the back of the pack. Probably not the safest place to be and it turned out to be very similar to a slinky being stretched out, speed up, slow down, speed up, grab a handful of brakes and watch the guys in front of you almost crash. It sure did make it interesting. I am actually glad I got to experience the back of the pack. This way I know how annoying it is back there and to stay away from it in the future. Although Shawn and I did make our way to the front and then the next thing we knew we are pulling the field at the VERY front. Not what we were expecting when we wanted to get closer to the front. Then the next thing you know we are at the very back again. It happens pretty quick. We came around a corner and the field just got hammered but a side wind and then a head wind. Not at all fun as you can never find a place behind someone that will block the wind completely. Lap one down and we are all still together until one of our guys Travis gets a flat. So now we are down to 6. We had several teams come up and mention how strong our team looks this year and it was good to see us with so many guys at the race. Cycle U pretty much controlled the first lap. There was a guy from Carter Volkswagen team that took off from the word go and was gone. Other than that the majority of Cycle U was controlling the field and Shawn and I were watching the back, haha... The constant speeding up and slowing down were starting to take a toll on both Shawn and I. The speed of the peleton was beginning to increase quite a bit. This was really starting to break up the back of the pack and guys were beginning to get dropped off. A group of 3 took off at the front and nobody chased from the field. Shawn was with me then he was gone. A few minutes later Mike ended up back there in the back and I mentioned to him I think we lost Shawn. We both turned around to see the car right behind us. That was it? The field was down to 25-30 guys out of 45+. We came up to Travis who got his flat fixed and was back in the race but a lap down. The field was really broken up and Travis came back and pretty much pulled Mike and I back up to the pack. We met up with Evan and Gerrit who had been at the front the whole day. As we went by start finish for the final lap, the 3 that took off earlier had a 2 minute lead on the field. There was no way we were catching them. Now this was going to be the hard part. The pace again picked up and the group of 5 of us stayed close to the front. I looked down a few times to see what our pace was and we were cruising along at a cool 26 mph. I was feeling ok and we came to a small hill and the pace slowed down a bit going up it but I was out of the seat and just kept my pace going, which moved me right up to the front of the field. We still had some time to go before we got close to the finish and I didn't want to be at the front pulling. We came on another rolling hill and thankfully a few guys came past and I was able to get back in there tow. We came upon the 200 meter sign and it was pretty awesome to watch everyone just spread out and sprint. I was done and had no sprinting in me. I rolled through the finish line with Mike and Travis. Gerrit took off for the sprint and did pretty good finishing in 11th. I took 19th right behind Mike. Wow, was that alot of fun. Here are my stats from the race.

1 hour 43 minutes
34.6 miles
20 mph average
37 mph max
161 bpm (heartrate)
182 bpm max
1513 calories burned.

The next race I am going to try and make is in Sequim March 22nd.

Till then
Brad