Upgrade.

Its been a few weeks since my last update. A lot has happened since then...

So I did go up to Oregon for the Mt Hood Classic. It was pretty cool, I have never been there before. I was fired up to race and grab some points to upgrade to a Cat 2 ASAP. The first race was a 60 mile circuit race. 2.5 laps, a steady but progressively steeper climb for 9 miles or so, and a 6 mile decent. The race did two complete laps and then finished at the top of the climb...

I sat in for the first two laps, watching other racers. I didn't know anyone in the field so I was paying attention and trying to figure out who was strong. Somewhere one guy got off the front, no one seemed to see him go away. The race official told us he had 3:45 on us with 10 miles to go. At 5k to go he had 1:35. With 3k left I attacked hard off the front and went alone trying to catch that guy. I almost did but wound up 3 seconds short, but did finish in 2nd place. I didn't make a lot of time on any of the 'fast' guys but it certainly didn't hurt my confidence.

Next day was the TT. I pushed hard on my pedals and went harder and harder through the race. Pretty simple plan really. It worked and I won by a large margin. I went into the 3rd day with a 50 second time bonus... Not bad for a guy racing on borrowed TT equipment and almost no practice.

The 3rd day was the road race with a hard uphill finish, 90 miles long. Wearing yellow with no teammates, in an Oregon race. I'm from Utah. I knew it was going to be hard... I covered attacks alone for the first 50 miles or so. It seemed like no problem to control but I was looking forward to the hills at the end. Many attacks tried but none got away but one, and that one happened to have the 4th place guy in it. They were 4 minutes up the road when we found out... I had to decide to try to catch him or not, no one would help and my legs were too tired to put out a good attack of my own. I put my head down and drove the main field of 60 down to a crew of 8 for 10 miles uphill. When we caught the break, the race started. I hung for 2 miles but with 3mi to go, I died in the worst way. I lost a ton of time to the winners (4 min) but was proud of what I did. Sometimes you have to go for it. It generally feels really good when you do, regardless of the outcome.

Going into day 4 I was burning. I wanted to make sure to leave my mark on the race. But I was not about to go do a bunch of work for all the guys who didn't do anything for me the day before. So I sat in the whole way, right around 5th wheel. With one lap to go, there was a solo break off the front 20 seconds up. I waited for a lull and when it came I jumped. I crushed it for half a lap and put a good 5 seconds on the field and brought back all but a few seconds on the eventual winner. It felt good to succeed tactically after the day before.

So I got PLENTY of points to upgrade and finally (it has only been 2 months i guess) race with my team in the Pro/1/2 field.

So back to Utah and the State Road Championships. 88 miles. My job was to cover every move possible and do zero work when in a break. So thats what I did all day. All day. It sucks to be the guy in a good move who doesn't want to work, but that was the name of the game that day. With a lap to go, 16 miles, the whole race was together. We wanted to keep our guy, Dave Clinger, at the front when we got to the one steep climb on the course. My teammate and I drilled it at the front for a few miles to try to keep any attacks from happening. When we approached the hill I thought I was toast but that wasnt the case at all. I managed to make the first group over the hill without any problem. I pulled my guys back up to the front and led Dave out in the sprint, which means I was winning the race with 200 meters to go... I ended up finishing 11th, Dave got 2nd... Not a bad showing for my first go with that field.

This weekend was the High Uintas Classic. A good one for me, since it has a huge climb that peaks at 10,500 ft. On Friday I felt a little rough but thought it might be allergies, so I brushed it off. I started on Saturday hoping that I'd feel ready to go but not long into the race, I got myself into a good break and immediately felt my body was off. I knew I was getting sick right away. I pulled the plug and sailed back to the main field for a few minutes before rolling off the back and just spinning it out until I found a ride home.

Today, Sunday, I woke up a sick kid. Just an upper respiratory thing but that is a problem considering that respiration is a big part of how I make a living. Its a bummer but thats how it goes. Just a little bad luck. So I'll be taking a few days off and hoping it comes back around later this week. I want to race again soon. I'm having way to much fun to sit on the sideline.