Nevada City

This past weekend my; father, brother and I took a road trip south to historic Nevada City in Northern California. Nevada City is the second oldest race in America and one of the hardest courses I’ve ever raced. This years race was only made harder buy the presences of; Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, and Lance Armstrong. However, before I had to race with the big boys of the sport, I competed in the junior race, which turned out to be faster that I expected.

Nevada City is up in the foothills of the Sierras so, as you can imagine it’s hilly. The course has a zigzag climb up the back street of the old town, then a screaming straight descent down Main Street before a tight left hand off camber turn at the bottom. Racing this course is much like a set of twenty intervals, and you are maxed out on the climb but have just enough time on the downhill to recover and do it all over again.

The junior race commenced with around thirty riders from ages 10-18, so the difference of experience and strength was great. It didn’t take more than two laps for us older riders to get in a group of our own at the front. For several laps I went to the front and punched it up the climb but couldn’t get our group any smaller. After a few more laps I was able to get away on the downhill nonetheless, and with six laps to got I was off the front solo. I was able stay away for the remaining laps and win the junior race.

After the junior race it was time to start recovering for the day’s later race with
Armstrong and his friends. The time pasted quicker than I had thought and before I knew it I was back in my chamois heading down to the course. One the start line I waited as the three big names, along with other top riders were called to the start line.

When the gun was fired and the raced started was when it first hit me, I was racing with Lance. I worked hard to move forward in the pack, as did everyone else, but slowly moved into the top thirty. Not to long after the pace increased and riders began to drop, and before long I myself was in the red. By now; Lance, Levi, and Ben where off the front and quickly coming to lap me, as the three riders came past I jumped onto their wheel and hung on as long as I could. It turned out to be longer than I had expected, for seven laps I fought my body to hang with the leaders of the race, and having nearly 25,000 spectators cheering us on I was able to ride just that little bit harder. Riding at the fast pace with the leaders I was able to rejoin the main pack of fifteen riders, but as Lance passed the group he upped the tempo again and I was at my limit. I started to ride a pace that was comfortable and once I had recovered a bit started to ride faster.

I began catching riders one by one as the climb started to take a toll on everyone’s legs. And with three laps to go I looked back to see that Lance was gaining and about to come around me for a second time. I lifted my pace just a little to prolong the infinite catch, which didn’t take place till the following lap. He caught me at the top of the climb and again I jumped on his wheel. As we crested the top the paced slowed so I decided to give him some help. I went to the front and gave it all I had, and leading through the start/finish I heard one lap to go. The crowds were going wild. I lead him into the sharp left hand turn and accelerated up the climb knowing I only had one lap left. It was an awesome feeling leading the greatest Tour de France riders in history up the finial lap of his first victory since his seventh tour win.

Nevada City was a great week of racing, but its time again to go back east and win some races with the team. Monday I fly back to Boston where starting on Thursday Hot Tubes will defend a long winning streak at the Fitchburg Classic. Then we will travel to Kentucky to compete in a junior stage race, which will be the first UCI junior race help in the US.

Check back for more updates
Ian
Here is a link to a video of Lance, Levi, Ben and I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdmOgG8tBoU

At home

I’ve been back in Bend for a week for some much needed rest and recovery. Life on the road is awesome, but there comes a time when you just want to be at home, so that’s where I’m at. I have been very fortunate to have traveled and seen all the places I’ve seen. However, Bend is an awesome place and it’s often not till you are away for a long period of time that you realize just how beautiful it is.
It’s been great to see my family and friends again and for the first time in three months be able to put on a shirt that I haven’t worn for the past week.

I’ll keep ya’ll updated on my time at home and how my racing and training is going.

Ian

Back in the USA

I’m now back state side after some hard racing in Europe. This weekend our team will travel to Nashville Tennessee for the junior Worlds Championships Qualifiers. This will be my last week on the road for a while as I will finally be returning home for most of the month of June.

http://usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=4153

Coming close, but not close enough

After a disappointing stage two, I came into stage three ready to race, as did our entire team. Almost from the gun we all took turns attacking and riding aggressive letting the other riders know that despite tradition Americans can do well in road races, and we are not just time trialist. The field was quick to chase our attacks down and nothing got away, and even with the hilly course that we had ahead the pack would stay for the most part together. With 25km remaining the yellow jersey attacked with two others and then proceeded to drop them and ride to a solo victory. Behind him two riders from Kazakhstan attacked with 15km remaining and one being caught with a few km’s after. There has a final steep climb in the final 10km which split our lead pack and I found myself in a group of 30 riders charging towards the finish. The under the 5km banner two riders attacked and I saw a chance so bridged up. Shortly after Charlie came across with two other riders and we began to drive it home. We worked well until 2km to go then riders started to fatigue and missing pulls, so it was then I decided that it was now or never. I attacked the group as I saw the main pack closing in a last chance effort to beat the pack to the finish. One other rider from the group was able to come across to me which helped to make the move stick. We came within 15 seconds of the yellow jersey, caught the remaining Kazakhstan rider on the line, however the other rider I was with piped me in the sprint by half a bike and I came across the line in 4th.

It was a good ride, but I realized unless you win you will never be satisfied.

I’m back in Belgium now and preparing for another stage race next weekend.

Frankfurt.

I’m now in Frankfurt at 3etappen der Rad. It is a three day three stage race, which started with an 8km time trial. I had the chance to follow Austin in the team car before my own race, and scout the course that turned out to be very beneficial. In a matter of only 8km, the course had three 120 degree turns, one of which the follow car couldn’t make it through, Ben had to do the three point turnaround just to get the car around the tight turn. Other than the three hard turns the course was flat and straight as could be.

As I sat on the trainer warming up the air was hot and humid and I was beginning to sweat, but as the begin to look at the surrounding sky I saw that rain was inevitable. No less than 5 minutes later the rain came down hard, almost hail like drops. Then our mechanic placed wheel bags on my back as I continued my warm up. With ten minutes before my start I got to and put on my race wheels and rolled down to the staging area. All the while the rain was still pouring down and I was starting to get chilled, and not a minute later Anders finished and I saw his ripped up shorts. He crashed in the final 120 degree turn, because it was raining so hard he couldn’t see the cones. I then rode over the Ben in the team car and asked if it was still worth going for it, and he said “what do you have to lose”, so I remained chilled and road in the pouring rain back to the start area. As I was on the to starting block Ben called out on his megaphone which was placed on the front of the car, that riders were still posting fast times so I need to give it a go. As the clock hit 6:12 I was off. From there the race went well, the turns were wet but not extremely slick and my legs felt good so I powered my 52x 14 for most of the course. I finished with a time of 10’49” which slotted me into 9th place 14seconds behind the winning time. It was a good ride but the race is not over yet, we have two more road races each with lots of time bonuses out on route so I’ll need to be attentive and aggressive to improve on my position.

stage 2

Stage 2 stated great and ended with my head hung low. The first 40km of the race were flat and fast but nothing that hard. 20km into the race I braked hard and my front brake cable came loose so I had to drop back to the car to get it fixed. It wasn’t easy as I ride with one hand quizzing the brake calipers tight and used the other hand to tighten the bolt. After a few tries I got it the brake working properly again just in time for the first and hardest climb of the day.

Climb one was a 10km climb, however it was not as steep as anything we did in the Czech. Near the top things started to split apart, and giving the good legs that I had I found myself in the lead group of 8 summiting the top. From there things figuratively and literally went down hill, after a few minutes of descending we came to a steep downward pitch and a tight right hand turn. It only took one rider going to fast to over shoot the turn then try and come back on the road which took myself along with 3 other riders down. I landed hard but my bars took most of the fall, as I remounted my bike and began to ride I realized that the bike was not ride able . The bars were severely bent in and the derailleur was bent. As I sat on the side of the road I saw my race go out the window, but I still had some hope. As the next group of riders came by containing Andrew, Austin and Anders I tried to get there attention. Anders happen to see me and being on Hot Tubes and a good guy he pulled over and gave up his bike. With a bike that was several sizes too short I chased as hard as I could. As the chase went on I began to lose hope of catching back up.

After 15km of chasing a group containing Ryan caught me and we continued riding hard. On the final climb Ryan and I rode at the front and descended like made men and dropped the entire group and rolled into the finish 15 seconds ahead of the group we where in but over 3 minutes behind the winners.

Today was mentally hard, being high on GC and having good legs but having a crash take me out of it, made for some frustration. However, as Anders says “ if you can’t get hurt and lose it all it’s a game, not a sport”, tomorrow is another day and another chance to lay it all on the line.

p.s. in the crash I tore up my jersey, broke my helmet and lost my second pair of glasses on this trip, but escaped with minimal road rash.

Shit happens
Ian