Terrific Season B N Back on the Race Scene

It has been 2004 since I last raced and trained a full on season.

Since those times have been girls, Beer, The glance of a bike hanging. A few new houses built. Alot of moving. A very sporatic ride for a terribly unfit hour.

WHEW!! I am getting older and the fitness and recovery doesn't come as fast.

In Fact I plan to race less but more specific next year.

I also need to type some bullshit on this blog more often. Even If I have to lie about it.

Well I got my ass handed to me by Josh and Alex sat night.

O I handed myself my own ass on Sunday.

Taking you to the curb.

If you race a bike eventually you crash.

If you race a bike you will get pissed off at other racers actions. Teammates, best friends, lovers, and the competition.

If you race a bike you will win, lose and get over it.

If you race a bike you will make friends, lose friends and get over it.

If you race a bike you will likely piss someone off and shit on someone.
You will learn from that mistake and get over it.

So move the fuck on with yourself. DONT SHOW UP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnLDr6jRSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1jxAyxOyZc&feature=related

Rhett's Runaround/State Championship

Columbia Missouri would host this marathon race.

It would be a 4 mile loop of constant twists and turns. Tons of accelerating and decelerating.

I was not sure about this day. It was raining hard and I did not bring mud tires.

I was just hoping for a top ten finish considering all the time on the mtn bike racing scene had been foiled by rain and trail conditions.

So as we lined up the rain just had let up. I was pretty damn happy about that. My technical abilities just aren’t up to speed.

We started in a field and it was a hammer drop from the gun into the singletrack.

I was 4th or 5th into the trail and it was a constant grind. The roots and mud were not helping me one bit.

I got passed by two guys before this lap was over. Which stuck me around 7th. It was slick and I was all over the place. Off the trail and past the trail. If it were a trail making day I would have been putting my name on the new one I was cutting in.

I came through the first lap and really was hating on it.

2nd lap was a different story. I was walking up the slick sections and sliding into some trees.
I could not get the mud shed off of my wheels. If this kept up I was going to be done with this shit real fast.

Now when the 3rd lap was going on the trail started to tack up and I was getting some good traction.

I was starting to gain some speed now and was getting into a rhythm.

Now on the 4th lap I was flying and it was feeling good. I had came through the feed zone and got some good handup from Miss Corina Redmond. THANKS MUCH

I was starting to catch a couple of guys and really felt good. It really changes my mind set when I have someone in site.

I knew going into that 5th and 6th lap really needed to step it up and punish myself. I really started to turn the screw.

The only problem I have is I am to powerful and my fitness is good (from the road circuit) But the technical skills suck. I have to be careful not to over power myself thru these tech sections and crash myself.

At 2 hours 50 ish minutes I was coming through the finish line. Which means I have one more lap to do.

I was hating my back at this point. It has been a rough week of training and I hate showed up this morning with tired muscles.

But this was only going to be a 30ish minute lap so I could hold out.

I came in with 3 hours 17ish minutes on the day. 5th place for the state championship race. Not to bad.

My Sponsors

I would like to invite you to take a look at my sponsors.

They have been very goood to me.

My training has really come a long way since I was off the bike for quite some time. With a minimal amount of training my strength has come along well. Its been a great experience so far and hope to continue to push each and every race that I enter.

Thanks to Fulcrum Coaching

http://fulcrumcoaching.com/home/

My bikes are some smooth fast machines and really are helping me stay up with the strong guys. Whether it is on the Mtn bike or the Road machine.

Thanks to GT bikes

http://www.gtdirtcoalition.com/

May 30: O'Fallon Grand Prix (Illinois)

This was a day when you rolled out of bed you asked yourself...........

WHY????

...Do I do this?

• - Early up every weekend!
• - Early to bed every weekend evening.
• - Pain and suffering of a kind that most people will never feel go through their own body's.
• - The constant travel TO and then after your ASS is completely beat down from racing the drive back home.
• - Then the Big WHY?? Don't I stay home in bed snuggled up next to this wonderful warm creature next to me? It's F N raining hard out.
• - Sometimes it's cold as hell out.

So why would someone do these things to themselves? Cause Racing is RAD!

This morning was pouring so hard on the drive out of town that I was asking myself if this one was really going to happen.

90 miles in the pouring rain. We rolled into a lighter rain shower at the race parking lot.

Thanks to the sun god and rain angels they parted the cloud monsters and gave us one hell of a damn nice day to race in.

The race started with a punch. Mark Murawski (Gateway Racing) turned the screw immediately.

The pack stayed disorganized for quite a while.

We were doing 4 laps and most guys figured on him burning himself up by sitting out there.

About 10 miles in Texas Roadhouse bridged up to Mark and the Duo went to work.

Now rolling into the 2nd lap several of us were taking turns pulling in the two. Till we brought them back.

Great course on the country roads. Sunny day and I was feeling strong. But taking hard turns was not on my list today. So moderate turns on the front were good enough.

I had not been riding these kind of miles. Actually this would only be my second time I had ridden 90 miles since I have been back racing on the road. More than 3 years.

Now, I hit a point going into the 3rd lap where I wanted to punch it. I rolled to the front and pushed the pace a few times.

Shortly after a few guys attacked and rolled off. It was time to bridge that gap. Anything getting too far in front of you wasn't coming back.

It turned into a 10 man break and the rest were left to chase.

That sucks! I know how that feels. 'Cause I have done a lot of chasing.

And that would be for about 50 more miles. F_CK no.

We all took turns for the first several miles. Then it turned into. A few guys sitting in back. Then it alternated. I took to the back every now and then.

See I missed my feed station and was out of goods. Bad deal! Corina wasn't there when I thought she would be due to a flat in her race and the lack a rear wheel to get her back in.

So I had to conserve for a bit. But I did take turns when needed.

I knew that Dave Henderson and Justin Pullsalot would be the ones to watch. Nagy made a go with them at about 12 -15 miles to go. So Iowa guy was with them.

We just could not pull them back in. So with 4 off and 5 of us in the chase RACE ON!

For the first few miles those guys were away 4 of us did the work to chase. The 5th one was a real wheel sucker (Vandeven, But I love him. We have been friends a long time and he was on Justin's team) so no work from him.

With 5 miles to go Jim turned the screw and rolled off. We were shot. Texas Roadhouse and I did a fair turn to pull him in. Then I fell back and Mark Schwartzenburger did a good share.

4 miles to go and I was on front we dropped the Vision Quest guy.

3 miles to go Mark and I dropped the Texas Roadhouse guy still trying to reel in Vandeven

2kilo to go I was on front with several rollers ahead. I kept it in the big ring and hammered it hard.

I had gapped Mark. I really started to feel good. I wanted that 5th place and was going to drive it as hard as I could to try.

All I worried about was dragging Jim back to me and I tried so damn hard.

6th for the day and I was real happy.

The Beer Drinkers Race

Ofallon Gold Grand Prix May 9th 2009

This was a beautiful start to a long sunny day. Corina’s race was the usual 8 something early start. But she supports me. I am there for her also.

Momentum put on a real nice race at a very clean safe venue. This race was going to be fast I could tell by the course.

I still have the flu,triple pneumonia, and a bag of other stuff wrong. No really my lungs are just full of some trash that I am fighting to get rid of.

I switched to Time RXS pedal. Its been a great choice to get out of the Speedplay pedals. I have been racing for 10 years off and on. 5 total in all actuality.
It has always been on a Speedplay.

Now that I have started to race again with about a few year hiatus I have decided to try out something new. I figured that the Time might have a more solid platform and there are a ton of top pros Euro and Domestic that are not payed to use them. Must be something good going.

The Time Pedals are absolutely awesome. BTW Time doesn’t pay me to use them. HAHA.

My new ride ( GT Full monoque machine) I am racing on is the best crit racing bike I have owned. It is super responsive. I can really tell the difference in the way it has been performing as my fitness is getting better and I am trusting what it can do under me. I am very in touch with myself, O I mean the bike. As it performed like a champ today with its navigator trying to hang on.

Todays race started out as a sit in race. But after some hard pace making by Mark Schwartzenburger (he is a damn horse) several guys felt like they should give it a go.

I thought about how I was feeling and figured that just sitting in isn’t cool. If I am under the weather I might as well blow myself up and get some good efforts in. So it was time to get to the front and reel in some attack aces’.

I found myself, Nagy and Marburger at the front again doing a lot of the work. It was time to give it ago when I noticed that a few guys got off and I wanted to bridge.
I made it up to them and after about two laps they were reeling us in.

We were coming up the hill climb and as soon as the field had reached us I punched it again. Hoping to get a few fresh strong lions to join my efforts.

It was no good. My jump was dangling and I wasn’t going to far on my own so I turned in and hoped to have a few strong mates to go with later in the race.
So it was time to sit and see who had some legs. The usual small attacks that don’t get to far.

Then Justin and Andrew Lister rolled off with a solid effort. Nobody was trying to hard to bring them back other than Jay Marburger.

Jay is a damn good workhorse and a hell of a nice guy. When I see him up there I look around. Like I, he typically has no teammates to lend him a hand on the front. So I don’t mind working with him.

I came to the front gave a small kick to his efforts. Then fell back a couple lengths. Nothing was happening. So it was time to drill it and see if I could bridge the gap.

Those boys up there had a solid lead but I started to feel good and new I had a bit of juice in the tank. I punched it hard and fast out of the turn and nobody in sight.

Then Jeremy Pych jumped on my wheel. We had a hell of good gap. With 5 laps to go maybe we could stick this.

With 2 to go I was hitting E on the power. My wattage was down from the last few laps and Jeremy was turning the screw trying to bridge to Lister and Mastokillit.

He dropped me on the last half lap to go. I ended up getting swallowed up to a 12th place.

race catch up. Sylvan Springs Crit May 3

Race update.

The Castlewood mtn. bike race (May 3rd) that was supposed to happen was cancelled. Which sucks because there is not a ton of mtn bike races local. I don’t have the time to travel and make a day or two out of a weekend right now.

Whats worse is the fact that it was cancelled and the weather was fine. But, the possibility of tearing up the park was heavily on the mind of the new park ranger.

So for a back up plan I had Sylvan Springs Criterium race to do. Sweet deal when you have a choice.
Thanks to Velo Force squad for putting on this race on a not so nice day. A little rain, cloudy and cool out.

I woke up that morning still feeling like crap. Congested. But race on.

The course was a smooth fast circuit with one little upward kicker that false flattens out then jumps up again to a hard 90 degree left hand turn with a flat finish a couple hundred meters down the road.

I knew that with the way my chest felt (wheezy) I just needed to do the race get the miles in and be happy for the efforts.

I made several attempts at reeling in the attackers but with the way I was going I hit that point where I knew I needed to sit that last 1/3rd of the race.

Zach Reed had settled into a single man breakaway at this point.

Dave Henderson and Justin Mastermeatman made a nice bridge to kick it to the line with Zach.

I managed to be about 5 guys back on the up hill kick for the finish bunch. Out of the turn the sprinters hung on. So it was a bad thing for me not to have made the uphill jump. Because those guys wound it up on the flat section.

That put me at 10th for the day.

Then I paid for being wet and cold. The next week would be havoc for me as I had that fine, sweet filthy yellow trash coming out of my throat and lungs for the next 6 days.