See You In Portland

NonStop from Boston to Seattle 6 hours 20 minutes.

I packed up the bags and placed them neatly into the well organized team van but not before taking one last ride, at least for this year, in Northampton. It wasn't an ideal day for driving the bicycle, but I bundled up and headed out into the cool and rainy afternoon anyway. The neoprene shoe covers and windstopper bib pants did little to stop the rain and standing water on the road from reaching my skin and I knew from the start that it was just going to be an uncomfortable day. After completing the scheduled workout I rolled my soggy bottom back to the house with the comforting thought of a warm shower soon to come. After giving my bike a much need wash I safely stowed my belongings, said goodbye to the guys, and headed out on I-91 south towards the Mass. Turnpike and Boston. Despite the nasty low lying clouds and relentless rain, I navigated through the surprising light commuter traffic into Cambridge, where I'll be staying before flying home to Seattle on Wednesday evening for the two USGP races in Portland.

Sterling

It was really really cold out today. I went outside for about five minutes to clean out the car a bit in order to make space for Jeremy Powers to ride along with me to the race and my finger tips were completely numb by the time I went back inside. I think the high today was around 37 degrees, in the sun, making me break out the leg warmers to battle the brisk conditions at the Sterling race. Jonny Sundt was there today and was denied a start position at registration because his payment for a fine was yet to be recieved, and that's after he drove up from Virginia. I wasn't sure how my legs were going to react to not riding yesterday, combined with 6 hours of driving the team van up from Pennsylvania but I did my best to get in a good warm-up. My warm-up today was so good that I could actually taste blood in the back of my throat, that was probably caused because of all the cold air. I rolled into the starting grid right behind Tim Johnson and was hoping to stay out of trouble as the race settled out over the first lap or two. I ended up sliding out my fron tire on a little root on an off camber corner during the first lap and watched as a group rode around me and away. With no mechanical issues from the little crash I got riding again but felt a little bit of panic and fatigue starting to settle in as I tried to regain the places that I had lost. There was a really large group behind me but they were unable to latch onto my wheel, and once I got back into a good pace they were out of site for the remainder of the race. A little over half way through the race I caught up to a couple of riders and battled it out with them for most of the remainder of the race. One of the guys crashed himself out of the group and the other guy wouldn't let me escape despite some efforts to ride away from him on the run-up that I could ride, but would then let the pace slow down when he got on the front. Thankfully I managed to narrowly beat him to the line even after leading for most of, if not all of, the last lap. After the sprint for 11th I stopped riding and then had a coughing fit for about five minutes that was probably caused by all of the cold and dry air, it was pretty fun. All in all I think I went as hard as I could today and with that I am happy.

Hey oh!

I just finished peeling the spuds in preparation for Turkey Day Dinner here in Pennsylvania. Before that I took advantage to the sun and 60 degree temperature to take a nice two hour ride out into the country side of cow manure filled farmfields. This area of Pennsylvania is pretty cool and reminds me a lot of Belgium, mostly because of the rural roads and the smell of the fields. I also like riding around and seeing the Amish men working in the fields and the kids going home from school. It makes me feel like I've gone back into time or entered onto a movie set. I know cyclists arent' suppossed to admit that they've been training much but I just finised a good little block of work after coming back from a five day hiatus off the bike. Last week I was fighting a cold and I made a choice Friday morning to skip the USGP races in New Jersey. I have a lot of travelling and races left and I didn't want to dig myself an unnecessary hole for one weekend of races that I didn't have much of chance at. Short and Sweet. Have a good Thanksgiving.

When keeping it REAL goes WRONG...

just in case you don't visit jpows.com as much as you should.

Lost In Jersey

The past weekend caused for more loss than gain but at least I've learned a few lessons from it. I don't want to wine and complain too much about the past weekend in New Jersey regardless of how ridiculous it was or how frustrated I got while it was happening. But basically I went into the start of Saturday's race already defeated from the 9 hour drive on Friday combined with not being able to find the course until it was almost too late. When I got there the rider start sheet was already being printed for my race but the women at registration were kind enough to let me sign-in and start. After going out fast, I gradually started to feel the affects from the non-existent warm-up and started going slower and slower until I was just riding my bike around at a leisure pace. After cruising for a while I decided that with four laps to go I should try and open up the legs for Sundays race so I proceeded to race my bike for the rest of the 60 minutes. Oh yeah I forgot that about two laps into the race I pinch flatted my front tire on a chunk of concrete. Just happy to be done with the day I headed to host housing where I was fortunate enough to have a nice, nutritious, and relaxing dinner with the Gordon family. After a good night's sleep I had higher hopes for Sunday's race and was pleasantly suprised when my uncle Tom, aunt Diane and her sister Beth rolled into the parking lot to watch the race and cheer me on. I started off the day well finding myself in the top three for the first lap and a half and gave them something to cheer about when I attacked the large group of 10-11 after passing throught the start finish. I was hoping to shed some of the other riders in the group but did a better job of dislodging myself after staying on the front for the remaining lap. Jonny Sundt was back a ways but was watching the lead group and yelling at me to relax and be smart, good advice considering that I was doing too much too soon. From that point on I quickly self-detonated and could feel the fatigue in my legs resisting my forward movement. Ka-pow! After that my body and mind had had enough and I felt like ending the season right then and there. I ended up finishing 17th on Saturday and 12th on Sunday making for a some what dissappointing weekend considering I was banking on earning needed UCI points for the upcoming US Grand Prix weekends. To top it all off I now have to try and rid a cold before the coming weekend.

24 hours from hell

If you ever need advise on how to turn a five hour drive into nine give me a call. I left the comforts of the 1757 built farm house in Hadley yesterday afternoon and after stopping at Joe's Garage, for a new cassette to accompany the chain, I hit the road just in time for rush hour. First I got caught in traffic heading through Hartford which was nothing compared to the horrors of NYC which was made even worst with at least one accident brining everything to a hault for at least an hour. It was of course a huge mistake to go through the city but what's done is done and the lesson has been learned. After I finally got on the NJ turnpike I made good progress towards the host housing outside of Atlantic City all be it four hours later than expected. Then when I was almost there, off the highway, on a weird strip of suburia driving on a roadway seperated by a concrete divide prohibiting any left turns I screwed it all up. I finally made it to the other side of the divide after going around a loop d'loop and then instead of turning right down Second St. I turned right and went back on the highway that forced me to drive ten miles in the opposite direction before I could turn around. By the time I back tracked and made it to the house it was 11:45 and I didn't want to wake everybody so I drove to the strip and found a decent hotel for the night. I woke up this morning hoping that I had everything dialed for the day. I fueled up got some groceries and hit the road towards Bridgeton. The icing on the cake was getting to Bridgeton and not being able to find the park that the race was at. I drove around for a while, nothing. I finally called my dad to read off directions and made it there thirty minutes before game time. Short story going something like rushing to get everything ready in twenty minutes and going to the start line without a warm-up. Jonny Sundt was racing today and rode well, I finished 17th but I'm going to try to win tomorrow so stay tuned. Peace.

Finally.

It's been a long time since I felt like a rode a good race and now after Sunday's ride I feel like the momentum is finally working with me in the direction that I've been trying so hard to go... forward. In most of the other races that I've done since leaving Seattle I felt like I was constantly struggling to hold my ground in the race with the idea of moving through the groups of other racers an unlikely possiblity. I was hoping that this feeling of going backwards could be attributed to the enormous volume of driving and the constantly changing environment, but an excuse regardless of how good is still just an excuse. So with all of that apparently behind me this past weekend my legs felt wicked awesome and after a slow closed up race on Satruday I had the day I was looking for in Northampton at the Cycle-Smart International. Begining the day with a not so good night of sleep on the living room couch, it was only made worst by my stomach feeling a bit flipped after the previous night's post race Mexican food. After getting my stomach back on track it was time to drive the ten long, grueling minutes to the race course where I had plenty of time to pre-ride and prepare for the race. The race was put on by my friend Steve Weller and he did an awesome job getting everything dialed for the day of excitement, despite having a late 3:30 start time on the first day of day light savings time that caused for an unexpected twilight finish to the elite mens race. After nearly running over the fallen Davide Fratini (Colivita-Sutter Home) mid way through the first lap I did my best to keep my foward motion and move my way through the field of riders that were starting to string out along the course. Luckily for me there wasn't any advantage to riding in a group on this course allowing for me to take my own lines and set my own tempo for most of the race. With 4 laps to go in the race I finally settled into a group after I caught a couple of riders, first year u23 Jerome Townsend and former Giro d'Italia rider Justin Spinelli, they latched onto my wheel as I pulled through and only Spinelli was willing or able to offer a pull on the front. I was getting a little tired of the two of them because Townsend wouldn't pull and I felt like Spinelli was getting in my way and slowing me down more that he was actually helping. After about a lap with these two Fratini managed to ride up to the back of our trio and sat on until two laps to go, where he then launched a hard attack soon after we hit the paved finishing straight that only I could follow. He gapped me off a bit on one of the grassy sections but I kept him close in sight as the gap started to open to the dropped Townsend and Spinelli while it simultaniously started to close in on the three riders in front consisting of Jamie Driscoll, Matt White (both Fiordifrutta) and Ryan Leech. I charged all the way to the finish and almost managed to snag Fratini on the line, unfortunately for me it wasn't to be and he took the last UCI point away with his tenth place. Fratini and I finished on the same time and were less than twenty seconds to that next group of three which is encouraging for me. I just finished up with a solid day of training here at the Hadley, MA farm house, that is home to the likes of Matt White, Jeremy Powers, Steve Weller, Al Donahue, and Brian Hayes. I'm planning on hanging out with these dudes for a few more days before getting back on the road for the following weekend. The next race is in New Jersey and I can't wait. Oh yeah the guy pictured above somehow managed to get on course while we were racing making for an unexpected moving obstacle.