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Taiwan

So we wrapped up Taiwan with a big team effort to maintain my yellow and green jersey.  With less then 10 seconds going into the last two days of racing it was a bit stressful.  It all worked out in the end though and I won the gc and the points competition.   I'm finally back in Athens trying to recover from the 12 hr time change.  I think I'm going back to sleep now...

Gritters wins Stage 6 of Tour of Taiwan!!!

After spending all day in the break, "TruGrit" got to the finish with only team type 1's Kobzerinko and Grit took the sprint by bike lengths. There were 3 breakaway remnants 25 seconds behind them for 3rd-5th. I took the field sprint for 6th and held onto yellow and green. The last two stages are 60k crits. Should be fun.

After stage 3. This is NON-alcoholic champaign... seriously

We just finished Stage 4. I won the 2nd and 3rd intermediate sprints to extend the points a bit. Finished 3rd so I got a few more valuable seconds for the overall.




Somewhere in Kaohsiung...
Overlooking Kaoihsung.
After Traveling halfway across the world to get to Taiwan, we had a good start to the race yesterday. With Gritters and I hitting the intermediate sprints hard I took the green jersey I tried to take O'bee to the win but couldn't catch the break with enough time to do it. The last 200 meters was tight and when we caught them there wasn't enough room to make the pass. so It was 6th and 7th with O'bee and me.

Racing Started

So racing officially got underway at the Tour of California a bit ago. I'm just settling enough to do an update about it. I'll just start off with saying that the conditions of ToC were REALLY hard. It was just not the sunny California that everyone was hoping for. At the prologue I had a good run at it holding the fastest time until Dave Z knocked me off. Then 18 others did too. I think if I hadn't had screwed up the Stanford oval(had to hit the brakes hard not to slam the barrier) I could have been a bit faster. But that's how it goes. Then from there on out it was just a suffer fest. All the days were tough. I had enough legs to try in a couple of the sprints, so that was pretty cool. Stage 4 was ridiculous. That's all I have to say about that.

I spent the following week recovering from the week long effort. I decided to head down to Albany GA for the first GA Cup of the year to push the legs again. It started with a 3.6k prologue. I had a good run at the 12 turn course and won it by two seconds with a time of 4:07. The crit I felt strong but the sprint was screwy and I was just glad I got out of it without going down with another guy. I was able to stay in the GC lead(yes it's a stage race) after the crit. Sunday was a 140k road race pretty flat. After a few attacks, I made a bit of a mistake by forgetting about the yellow line rule and got disqualified for attacking over it. I didn't get ONE warning or anything. Just disqualified. The official had complete disregard that I was leading the race and just wanted me out. I would have thought they could have at least given some sort of warning but nope! So that blew my WHOLE weekend.

I'm off to Taiwan on Thursday for the Tour of Taiwan. A good week stage race should be fun.

Health Net P/b Maxxis 2008

Getting Started
Starting a new season off is always an exciting time. Some new
teammates, staff, gear etc etc. For me as a returning rider things are
pretty simple; Most our sponsors are the same, only a few new teammates
(Collier, Cooke, and Zajicek) and a few staff changes. This makes it
much easier knowing what to expect at training camp and stuff. We are
wrapping the camp up now which was in Salvang, Ca. We got in some
quality kilometers on our new Super Six Cannondales which are fully
carbon awesomnous. We gave the bike some good testing up the local
"Figuroa" climb. We also got to set up our new Slice full carbon TT
rigs which are superfast. I'm hoping to improve on my TT'ing from last
year and this bike WILL help.For me this year is a big one. My training has been going pretty well
now since December. I'm doing ToC so I've been focused and the power
is good and continues to improve. The slightly smaller team this year
should open up more opportunities as well. A couple more weeks of
training and ToC will kick off the season.

My birthday and Todd graduates house party

We had house party...and beer pong...

Brasstown Bald...

I went up and did 6 gap in dahlonega GA on Monday and decided to take some photos of the mountains. These are pics from the top of Brasstown. Yeah, I did brasstown in the midst of a 6hr ride. I figured it would be a good way to break my legs in for the year. Great views though

Oh and by the way my "choice" to live in GA is paying off a bit right now. It was 75 degrees and sunny all day in the mountains. Riding in just shorts and jersey in December...

Asheville

The boys(Crane, Rory and myself) just finishing the Mt. Pisgah climb at the Blue Ridge Parkway. We pretty much smashed it. Lauren is obvious not wanting any part of this photo.
Another shot from the parkway.Smile for the camera Teddy(the guy in the "other" green health kit)

Back to it

It's been a while since I've put anything up here, but honestly it seems like only yesterday my season just ended. I guess that means it's been a pretty good time since. I started riding again with a huge wake up call doing the "Fall Tour". This is a 4 day mountain biking event that's only for the lovers of pain. 4 days of 5+ hrs of riding in the north ga mountains was amazing. But now I'm back on the road bike for a while and even incorporating a bit of gym work this year. I've never been a fan of the gym but I figured I could probably use the strength to try and prevent injury or something. Anyhow, it's been good getting in there and finding out how weak I actually am. Oh yeah I'm talking about the gym...This is the second highest point in Ga, we raced to the top...

Oh yeah and I also spent a week in Bermuda with a bit of "offseason racing." Russell Downing won the final stage and the overall with Menzies winning all the other stages.

100k, NRC and that's a wrap

Yep, it's official. Health Net Presented by Maxxis officially won the Overall Team NRC Title this monday in Atlanta. Menzies took 2nd with Rory close behind in 8th in the 50mph sprint. Rory also stepped over BJM for the Inidividual NRC title also. Good work boys, good work.

Portland and stuff

It's been a bit since I've done a blog update. Anyhow I just got back from Portland for a Health Net Twilight Crit. If the name doesn't give a clue the team needed to win this one. I attacked off the front with around 15 laps to go and stuck it for a solo vic. Doug jumped off the front on the last lap and took second. Hartley was third after chopping Kirk and almost crashing him. Chopping the just recent national crit champ isn't really a great idea but maybe he didn't know it was him. Kirk was still 4th and Roman rolled in with 10th. Anyhow, for flying across country Thursday, race Friday, and flying back Saturday it was a pretty cool weekend. I have to say that Portland is one of the coolest towns I've been too in a long time. We spent some time downtown Friday night and it was going off. Really cool town.

Nature Valley TT and Crit

Another flat tt 8k out and back. I took 5th, about 14 seconds behind teammate and winner Nathan O'neill. My power was good and I held almost the exact same split on the way out as on the way back in. The team had an impressive showing stacking 7 of us in the top 15.

Kirk took his second win this evening in the crit to put Health Net at 3 wins in a row. He is in second overall with Stevic of Toyota in the leaders jersey. Tomorrow's gonna be a blast...

Yeah Nature Valley

So the first stage was a 1 hour crit. I didn't get to ride yesterday so I was just hoping I could open up during the first part of the race. I felt like crap for the first 30 minutes, but then came around. I screwed the finish up and was too far back when it got wound up. Kirk went 2nd with Rory 5th and Pipp maybe 10th. I'm hoping to get up there and at least do some better work tomorrow.

Philly

(Manayunk Wall)

CSC and Lancaster

CSC- The race was on from the gun with Victor Rapinski(Navigators) almost lapping the field 40 laps. He eventually lost steam though and was brought back. Lots of other attacks but nothing stuck. It was so hot I was taking as many water bottles as I could and pouring them on my head and back. In the end Milne was our best finisher at 5th, and Rory at 10th. I went like 23rd I think.

The next day was Lancaster which I was pretty excited to race for the first time. The conditions were wet from rain all afternoon. I had some bad luck about 25km in with a front flat right before the main climb. I got a change and started to chase back in the cars. Half a lap later I got back in the main peloton. Tim Johnson(TJ) was up the road with 10 riders and a 2 minute gap. After that though my stomach was really bad, and my legs even worse. I threw up a bunch and had no power. I found myself unable to hold the wheel in front of me on the climbs and out of most the corners until I was eventually dropped. Tim winded up flatting out of the break and that pretty much ended his day as well. The break was eventually caught and the race reshuffled to put Pipp in the next break. Pipp winded up 3rd when Eisel(T Mobile) and Lagutin(Navigators) got off the front in the closing kilometers.

Edgar Soto Stage 4

The final Stage of this glorious stage race ended with a 109 mile route that finishes on a 5km summit finish. That would make for an exciting race cause my yellow jersey was just a 19 ahead of 2nd place Neil Shirley(Jittery Joes). The Jittery boys and Menzies kept the race in check and let a safe break get up the road. The roads were really nice, always going up and down and twisting. I ran into a bit of trouble about 25 miles to the finish when my rear derailer cable snapped. Luckily SRAM Neutral support was there and I went back for a neutral bike. The mechanic was super helpful and got me set up right away. 57cm, ok. Speedplays, ok. Seatheight, ok. And just like that I was off. I got a draft from the car and within minutes back in the race. It was a bit of different setup, but that's expected. Anyhow, after about 12 bottles of water(thumbs up for neutral feeding and about 7 feed zones), we got to the bottom of the final climb with the break caught. Cesar(Jittery) attacked almost right away to soften the group. Shirley, Pipp and I were glued to his wheel. He attacked again and this time he rolled off the front of us. It was Shirley's job to drop me, so he then started throwing in the attacks. He would attack, Pipp and I would cover. He attacked, we covered. This happened maybe 10 times. I stayed on the wheel until there was only 6 of us left(Shirley, Pipp, Me, Henriksen, S. Stewart-vmg, and herbalife). Cesar still up the road. With 1km to go it would seem Shirley had given up on getting rid of me. But then Herbalife rider attacked and it was the acceleration I just couldn't follow. Shirley saw I was behind and just drilled it to the finish. Pipp stayed glued to him. They caught Cesar with about 200 meters to the line and Pipp took the stage win. I winded up 7th, losing 49 seconds and subsequently the race overall. Pipp slid into 2nd and I fell to 3rd on GC. Menzies took the Green(Sprint) Jersey with me in 3rd and Pipp in 5th in that comp. A solid weekend for the boys getting ready for Philly week. Just one place in the GC higher would have been nice for us, but we gave it all we had. Next week is the real deal and we are rolling. Can't wait.

Edgar Soto Stage 3 Crit

The stage 3 crit was downtown Nashville on a nice 6 turn course. We started the 75 min crit quickly by Menzies and Cesar Grajales(Jittery Joes) lapping the field in the first 30 minutes. Once they got back in the peloton everything was pretty much shut down. Menzies took the sprint and also the green jersey just ahead of Cesar. I'm still leading the GC with Pipp in 4th and Menzies moved to 6th. Tomorrow's 109 mile day with a mountain top finish might shake things up a bit.

Edgar Soto Stage 2

Stage 2 was a 107k Circuit race. The 6 laps of the 18k course was rolling, always up and down. A break of 11 got away by the second lap, with Frank Pipp and myself in there. We stayed away and put almost 4 minutes into the peloton. Frank set me up perfectly getting off the front over the last few kilometers with Edy Hilger(Juris). Neil Shirley(Jittery Joes) and Nick Reistad(Jelly Belly) were forced to chase. Hilger and Pipp were caught with about 500 meters to go and Pipp immediately jumped again to lead me out. I took the win ahead of Dirk Pohlman(Krystal) and Shirley. Hilger and Pipp rounded the top 5. I also took the GC lead as well as the points. The crit is next with a 109 mile RR on Monday.

Edgar Soto Stage 1 TT

The first stage of the Edgar Soto Memorial was a 10.5k TT. I was the first of the pro 1/2 to start because of a late entry, so I had no one to chase. It wasn't a problem though and I was only beat by Trent Wilson by 4 seconds. I got 2nd with Menzies 5th and Frank I think 12th. It should be an exciting weekend ahead.

Tri-Peaks

So after an extremely successful Joe Martin Stage race, the Health Net crew headed to Russellville, AR. We got the race started off on the first stage with Menzies and Pipp in the winning breakaway. The stage ended on Mt. Magazine which is a 12k climb or so. Menzies took second and Pipp followed a close 4th. Pretty damn solid for a mountain top finish huh!

Stage 2 was a 100 mile journey with a 7k climb halfway through and lots of rollers all day. We took control on the climb and kept any breakaway attempts in check. We rode the front for the rest of the day and brought the race to a group sprint with Menzies taking another close 2nd.

(On the front in the Crit)

Stage 3 and 4 was the double day on Saturday with a 75 minute crit in the morning followed by a 9k TT in the late afternoon. We got through the crit with Pipp and Menzies both finishing inside the top 10.

(Concentration)
The TT in the afternoon was flat and simple. My TT bike finally saw some action for the first time this year and I guess the bike was excited cause it propelled me to my first NRC WIN EVER! I had a solid effort with a 10:26, riding an exact 50kph average. I took the win just in front of teammates Rory and Menzies. Menzies got enough time on the rest to step into the overall lead going into the final day.(Milne and me on Mt. Nebo)

Stage 5 was a 115k's finishing on the tough Mt. Nebo climb. We knew we had to put pressure on Toyota to try and wear out there climber guys who were a threat to Menzies for the overall. In the end, Pipp(Superclimber) took 3rd on the stage, and came 4th overall GC. Menzies hang close to the leaders but fell to 6th overall for the GC.

Arkansas

So we just finished Joe Martin Stage Race here in Fayetteville, AR. We took 3 stages and 1st and 5th in the overall, so it went pretty well. I'm feeling better and better coming back from the hip injury. We are here in Arkansas for the rest of the week starting Tri-Peaks stage race on Thursday. More climbing in this one I've heard.

So we're off to ride to the next hotel and settle in there. I'll get some pictures up here eventually but the business of stage racing has taken over from my blog updating.