We are very excited with this news, and we’ve been doing everything to stay healthy, nutritious, and active for our baby. We want her to be brought up in an environment with the pinnacle of love and good-health, and I think we’re both doing an excellent job so far of creating that environment.

So, the racing schedule will definitely be modified, but not obliterated. I still have the goal of competing at a professional level…but, the immediacy and primacy of this goal is second to loving and providing for my family.

It’s actually funny, I have been more disciplined now that we know we have a baby on the way than I was in the past. I get up each morning early (momma and baby are hungry) and make sure that I get in at least a half hour of hard hill riding in before I start working. This has been a very good application of practical health strategy for me.

I don’t know what my next races will be, but I will continue to be biking and getting ready for whichever one it is. So, be prepared competition! I will be there and ready to rip your legs off, even if I look like a hairy mountain man and not a slick-greased roadie like I used-to! Hah!

At the start line I spoke with a couple of the other races around me – mostly to reduce my jitters, and also to not act like the “lone ranger” which is the role I so often take in large competitions (cycling, poker, chess, caber tossing).

The guy behind me was from Vancouver, BC, and had come down with a whole team of Red Truck guys…I didn’t realize how fast they were until the next day, but I definitely envied the aero setup he had.

Off-the-gun I got in a good wind-up, settled into the aero bars alright, and worked into a motoring rhythm. The first right hand turn was only after perhaps 1/4 mile, and I stupidly thought I could take it the whole way while pedaling and in the aero bars. Holy crap that was stupid! I caught my inside pedal on the pavement, and completely kicked out my real wheel around the turn. I was unstable (to say the least) in my aero bars, and not having my rear wheel on the ground. Luckily, my mountain bike savviness saved me, and I was able to pull out of it without crashing.

The near-crash really set my hard pounding and my nerves ablaze. And, what do I do when I panic? I slam it into a big gear and pedal along at a real slow cadence to slow down my respiration. Mind you, this is my natural tendency, not a good one for racing, but something I think my body does to bring itself back to some sort of normal stasis. It is awful hard to gauge your effort level when your body is stressing from external factors, and you are using force as a maximizing factor. I will try and explain better:

• Force = gear, hill, or otherwise required output by your legs strength wise.
• Speed = cadence – how fast you are able to repeat the force.

The mistake that I made in the prologue was that I shifted into one of my biggest gears and then tried to pedal it as fast as I could (60-70RPMs). My heart was pounding and my nerves were attentive, but for the wrong reason – I narrowly avoided a crash, and so was still reacting to that. If I had instead used speed as a maximizing factor – pedaling 105RPMs in the biggest gear I can push, for example – I would have had a lot less fluctuation in perceived exertion, and probably done a bit better.

Regardless, I finished third-to-last with a time of: 9:58.6, 1:56.93 down from the leader. Wow! quite a loss for a prologue – looks like I will be aiming for a good stage for the rest of the race. If I calculated this right, my average speed was 24.66MPH over 6.6k/4.1miles, and the winner averaged 30.69MPH – wow! Looks like I have some room for improvement – (hehe) to say the least!

http://app.obra.org/posts/obra/show/42537

If this is the case, I just may have to head on down and do it. Albany is 10 minutes away from Corvallis, so this would be a good chance to wake up, drive down and race, without taking a whole day out for the event (like I usually have to do).

I hope to see other familiar, shining happy faces out there as well!

Short answer, here’s what happened: No, I didn’t get dropped again. I flatted out.

Long answer:

I arrived at Hagg Lake with good time to warm up. I didn’t bring my trainer, so I was going to have to get in a good warm up on the road. Another benefit of my arriving early to this race, is that there is no waiting line for the restroom (yet) – way to go coffee drinkers!

So, I registered, took my time getting dressed in the cramped quarters of my father in-law’s Silverado, made sure that I had my three clif shots, two full water bottles, and headed out on my warm up. One thing I realized while warming up is that I was stupid in not bringing my pump and saddle bag, because if I got a flat 4 miles out on my warm up, I didn’t have my phone to call Stacey, and I didn’t have a wheel car, so I would have been royally screwed. Luckily (or maybe not luckily), I didn’t flat on my warm up. I made it to the start of the race with a warm sense of false security.

I lined up at the front with my old time buddy Devin, and nervously surged with the rest of the pack as the whistle was blown. Although I was at the front, I had absolutely no intentions of working hard, breaking away, or otherwise putting in some sort of 77-mile suicide attack (Jacky Durand anyone?). I did, however, comically mention to Devin that “now would be the time to break away,” right as the race got off to a rolling start. Maybe he just wanted to show that he had the balls to do it, and I didn’t, (or perhaps he overheard my semi-sarcastic remark to Devin) Erik Tonkin immediately attacked and had two or three other guys fly up with him. I kicked back, but remained in the front 20, just to keep an eye on any major explosions.

Given that this was my first race feeling strong, I didn’t want to go ahead and chase down a bunch of futile breakaways, then not have any legs for the final lap. So, I watched the guys go, and didn’t respond myself. Fortune (or buff legs) has it that this ended up being the winning breakaway…but I didn’t know that at the time (and even if I did, I don’t know if I would have tried to bridge or go with).

The first few laps were semi-paced mostly with CMG putting in the pace at the front. I stayed in the front 20 most of the time, gaining places when people would coast, and letting the slack catch up when I saw stupid attacks at the front.

Let me better explain – the Banana Belt race is 7 laps around an 11 mile course with rolling “hills” and something like only 700 feet per lap of climbing. Now, with no winding downhills or steep extended climbs, a pack or a well-coordinated group has an advantage over any individual. So, when there is a breakaway at the front of 6 guys pacelining, and a pack of 60 other guys putting in efforts to catch the break, no individual (barring Cancellara or perhaps Zabriskie) can solo bridge up to the breakaway…no one. However, during this race, there were multiple guys from individual or smaller teams putting in attacks at the crest of hills. This cracked me up – what do they think they are doing? Showing off? Camera time? I think not…

Anyway, the third-fifth laps were increasing in pace, so I was paying extra attention to my pack placement, making sure that I didn’t get caught shooting out the back like I did at Cherry Pie. However, I didn’t see “red,” and actually felt quite ready for a strong sprint.

Halfway up a molehill in the fifth lap, I started feeling this rhythmic bumping through my rear tire. I squiggled a little and didn’t feel a flat, so I figured it was the road I was feeling. Next, I hear this loud “Bang!” My rim drops to the pavement and I lose control. On the left side of the road, I yell “F$#%!,” and pull off the side. I actually forgot that there was a wheel car, as it has been so long since I needed one (I think the last one I used was at a collegiate race in ’05). I ran from the left-side of the road to the right and shifted in to my small cog.By this time, the pack was far out of sight. I told the guy “Campy 10-rear!” He said, “Campy 9-rear!?” I said, “ok…(I guess) *grumble, grumble*.”

After the switch was made, I hammered as hard as I could for about three minutes. At one point, I actually saw the pack way ahead at the crest of a hill off in the distance, but I knew that my catch-up would be futile, unless they (for some strange reason) slowed down. Basically, I was hoping that they would catch the break at the top of the crest, and all slow down for a pack finish.

Alas…it was not to be. Hating to DNF, I decided that I would finish the last few laps solo, anyway. So, I soloed it around to finish number 5, 6, and then coming in to 7, I got passed by the finishing pack of category 3′s. Realizing that if they were finishing, the 1/2′s wouldn’t be far behind, so I might miss my chance to get my wheel from the wheel guy before he headed out with the next few races.

This might have been an excuse to not have to ride another 11 miles, but even if it was, I don’t feel too terrible about it. I soloed for almost 20 on my own up to that point, and to finish it would have just been to save face (not to mention keep my wife waiting another 30+ minutes for me to get dead last anyway).

So, that was it. I felt strong, raced strong, and got unlucky.

Today, I went out and bought some new tires. I completely exploded my rear tire and tube (I guess all those miles on the trainer on my race tires is a bad idea?!).

Until next time…

-Andy

The problem: The $400 entry fee is a bit steep. I know that I am not able to afford it without help. With gas, food, and lodging we’re looking at another $500 probably. If I manage to dig up some support or sponsors to back me in this race, I would definitely love being out there in Utah late Summer. If anyone is interested in offering support, I can be contacted at vaughn[dot]andy[at]gmail[dot]com or by phone at (541) 908-0713.

Anyone else planning on doing this race?

The list is also not ordered, as I have an ipod shuffle, and love that I get to be surprised by what type of angry music I get to listen to next.

• Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) (Short Version) – Concrete Blonde
• Running Knees – Days Of The New
• Walk The Sky – Fuel
• Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix) – Green Day
• Papercut – Linkin Park
• One Step Closer – Linkin Park
• With You – Linkin Park
• Points Of Authority – Linkin Park
• Crawling – Linkin Park
• Runaway – Linkin Park
• By Myself – Linkin Park
• In The End – Linkin Park
• Place For My Head – Linkin Park
• Forgotten – Linkin Park
• Pushing Me Away – Linkin Park
• Enter Sandman – Metallica
• Wherever I May Roam – Metallica
• The God That Failed – Metallica
• Come With Me – P. Diddy
• No Shelter – Rage Against The Machine
• Pressure – Staind
• For You – Staind
• Schism – Tool
• Parabola – Tool
• Lateralus – Tool
• Falling Away From Me – Korn
• Last Resort – Papa Roach
• Stupify – Disturbed
• Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
• Alive – Godsmack

Cherry pie was a tough race for me. Mainly due to the fact that I lost contact with the pack after a couple of surges and poor pack placement early on in the first lap. But, faced with the daunting idea of riding 40 miles alone, I was pleasantly surprised when Guinness’ rider Marco Rullo spun up and joined me. We rode together and finished the two laps significantly behind the field.

But, it’s a long season, and my fitness is increasing while my weight is dropping, so it’s only looking up from here.

Cheers!

-Andy

I saw this picture as I was scanning the preview of the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia. I’ve always wanted to race in a tropical place like the island of Langkawi. Although, I once read that Tom Danielson trained inside a sauna on his trainer to get prepared for the heat and humidity – now that’s an animal!

Mountain bike mug shots

Road bike mug shots