Memorial Day Weekend

Was the bomb. 3 days - no work. I spent 4+hrs each day on the bike and spent the rest of the time chillin with the wife. Slept late on Monday and went out to eat at the EggShell in Cherry Creek.....great breakfast, but a southern boy like me has to have biscuits and gravy (which are not of the menu). Spent most of the morning shopping for some new furniture and accessories with the wife. Found some cool stuff at Z Gallery at the Cherry Creek mall. And finally got my TV room set up downstairs, so I'll be ready for the tour de france and rainy days on the trainer.

Cherry Creek Time Trial # 7 2007

Was cancelled.....this spring has been crazy. We started off with tons of snow and now we are getting buckets of rain. They actually had to cancel the Time Trial tonight because of the weather. Bummer, as I finally feel like I a starting to get my legs. Oh well, it just means that another year of the TT has gone by and yet again I failed to reach the top 20 and score any points. So, overall I finished 38th. I am currently in the hunt for a TT rig for next year....

Cherry Creek Time Trial #6 2007

Finally, a break from the wind. Unfortunately, I killed over on my own this time. I had an awesome start to the race and my splits were looking good. I guess I got a little overzealous on the way back to the finish line. My heart rate hit 190 bpm with about 2 miles to go and I blew hard. Overall not a bad time at 26 min 47 sec, but it landed me in 34th place. Still looking for that elusive sub 26 time and sub 20th place finish. Maybe next week.....

Cherry Creek Time Trial - Race #5 2007

Timing is everything....at least today it was. It was a beutiful day with very little wind....that is up until about 15 minutes into my TT. Then the rath of mother nature decended upon us. 30+ mph wind gusts and rain pelted me over the last couple miles. Not exactly the "great" time I was expecting.....I have always listened to Kathy Sabine's weather forecasts, but I don't think she saw this one coming.
I knew the course was going to be fast, so I took off like a bullet out of the start gate. I had an awesome time at the first turnaround and started making my way back. I new things were going well when I passed Casey a little further along than usually. About 30 seconds later is when the sky opened up, the wind blew directly in my face, and I through out the anchor. Still ended up with a time of 26 min 26 sec, which put me in 26th position, but I feel pretty confident that I could have slipped into the top 20 if it weren't for the sudden change in weather. After the race I spent 20 minutes huddled in the back of Tim's truck trying to stay dry and warm. Then Dugan and I enjoyed a cold and wet ride back home. Overall I am pretty happy with the results....finally starting to get me legs again. Now it is time for some aero bars and a aero helmet.

Avg HR: 176
Max HR: 190a
Avg Speed: ~24 mph

Wheels of Thunder Crit this weekend.....stay tuned.

Cherry Creek Time Trial - Race #4 2007

The Cherry Creek Time Trial series round 4 occured today. Map of Race Course. Hmmm, can I say unprepared once again. I didn't get off work until about 5:30pm, so I was hauling ass to get from my house to the race course. Nothing like burning a few matches before you even get started. The wind was brutal this week. Pretty much a constant 20-25 mph with gusts of 30-40 mph. It was tough into the wind and wicked fast when the wind was behind me. I easily topped out in my 25/12 cassette. Nothing like time trialing with your climbing bike. I think next year I am going to invest in aero bars and a TT helmet. Overall I finished 41st out of 53 people in the Category 4 race group (winner in at 23min 52sec.) Wow, I was 5 minutes off the pace. My times and places are getting worse instead of better....Gotta do better than this.
Here are my stats from the race:
Temp: 60 degrees
Altitude: 5446
Lap Time: 28min 49sec
Distance: 10.5 miles
Avg Speed: 21.8 mph
Max Speed: 35 mph
Cadence Avg: 86 rpm
Cadence Max: 95 rpm
Avg Min/mile: 2.44
HR Max: 187 bpmHR
Avg: 178 bpm
Big time climbing planned this weekend!

Deer Trail Road Race

A great day to race. I had a pretty good day on the bike, but in the end I was rewarded with a big fat DQ....which pretty much sucks. Not to mention all the flack I have caught for it. It is nice to have your name posted on the ACA website and Teton Forum.....although no one called me out specifically (probably because I didn't do anything wrong!) I was never told I was DQ'd and wasn't pulled from the race. I had to email Yvonne at ACA to even figure out what I did. She really couldn't even tell me but assumed it was a yellow line violation. I asked her if maybe they DQ'd the wrong number, but she didn't have an answer for that. Enough about that crap.....heres what happened in the race. A break went off early in the Cat 4 race. No one really wanted to chase it and the HART guys did a good job of blocking in the front to allow it. Over the next 2 laps to Agate I was able to get off the front a few times to help motivate the peloton to chase. We got way behind at times, but ended up catching the last man in the breakaway prior to the finish. My teammate Jeremy got a good lead-out from my other teammate Chaz for the final sprint. Jeremy finished in 6th place. Sounds a lot like Dugan and my finish 2 years ago. If you want to see what happened in the Cat 3 race read here.....