Stage 2 cherry blossom

Today was a really tough stage, quite possibly one of the hardest road races I have been in to date.  There was pretty much no place t rest and catch your breath.  The profile of the course resembles a jigsaw blade with over 7000 feet of climbing (maybe over 8000, I can't remember) in about 70 miles.  The pace was fast right from the gun and the peloton shattered early.  There was only a group of about 20 of us together after the first couple of laps, and then that completely blew apart on the final climb to the finish.

Talking to the hosts that we are staying with, they seem to think that we finished up around 12-15th (i finished the race with their son) and they said that there wasn't really anyone crossing the line in a group.

Should be interesting to see the reults!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Cherry Blossom Stage 1

Today was a very odd race... I think it was something like 75 miles and the first few laps (4 total) were pretty slow and I think that I used my brakes more in that road race than in any other I have ridden to date.

There were a couple of hard pushes on the big climbs, but nothing that really split up the pack much.  I think that the race finished almost completely together with just a couple of guys that got off the front early in the race.  Since there was one member from the biggest teams, there were no concerted efforts to reel them back in...

Tomorrow is another road race, I think around 90 miles followed by crit and ITT on Sunday.

Fwd: Tour of Walla Walls 17 April 2010 YOUR UNOFFICIAL TIME

20:13 would put me around 15th in the overall standings for last year's times.  Again a little disappointing, but I didn't have the best warm-up due to poor time management prior to the race.  It appears to be taking me a little longer than expected to get back into the swing of things.  Like learning how to race all over again :P

Oh well, I just have to remember that this is my first race of the year...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <al@agrtech.us>
Date: Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Subject: Tour of Walla Walls 17 April 2010 YOUR UNOFFICIAL TIME
To: devon.smibert@gmail.com


Bib: 111 SMIBERT, Devon Time: 20:13.11

I iz pack filler...

So, I finished 74 (I think) of 107 in the first road race of the Tour of Walla Walla yesterday.  I didn't have high hopes going into the race as I have been sick since I got back from Cuba and wasn't really able to do any intensity for the last couple of weeks... But still... Bottom half! Ouch!  I can't remember the last time that I finished bottom half in a race.  A bit of a hit to the ego, but I hope to redeem myself a little in the ITT this morning (starting in 2.5 hours from now).  I also made a bit of a bone head move early in the race.  There is a tactic that PO Boily told me about where you shoot off of the front of the pack early in the race and then get caught relatively quickly so that nobody will chase you if you do the same thing later in the race... Well, it backfired bad when another guy came up and joined me and we ended up riding by ourselves for about 30km :P  As coach EvDE likes to say... you only have one pack of matches per race and if you burn them all early in the race then you won't be there at the finish.  I burned too many matches in the wind :P

walla walla day 1

Yesterday was pretty much the 13 hour epic road trip I had expected (including gas and food stops).  It was really nice to be welcomed by a very friendly host that was gracious enough to open up her home to me for the weekend. This is a really great thing that some of the races hosted by smaller communities seem to do.  The race organizer contacts several members of the community and finds individuals that are willing to host athletes coming into town for the competition.  This helps the race organizers to attract some of the bigger teams that are trying to stretch their budgets and helps out poor schmucks like me that are trying to stretch their own budget with limited funding from a team :P

 

I am really glad that I was able to come down the day before the first stage to give myself time to check in, clean my bike, and take my time to get ready for the race.  This is my first solo race in close to 2 years now, so I have to say that I was a little bit wound up last night as I was trying to go to sleep.  I guess that this is a good sign, it means that I am excited to get back into the game again J

 

I picked up my race package this morning and was quite surprised to get hit with a 30USD fee for one-day licenses to race in the US.  I guess that this rule has been around for a long time, but it has never been tightly enforced.  If an individual from just across the border was coming down to race, most organizers would simply ignore the rule in favour of helping attract more riders.  I am going to have to figure out how to get this UCI license out of the CCA as there are a couple of races coming up where they will not offer 1-day licenses and I have already paid my registration... learn something new every day!

Cost savings vs. Hassle...

So, while we were in Cuba for the training camp, I thought that going down there to an al inclusive resort was a brilliant idea to save money and get some good training in.  The food at our hotel was terrible (helped me loose a few lbs :p) but the weather was great almost every day and it worked out to be a lot cheaper than staying in the southern US as we have done in the past.

After chatting with Brian and reflecting on the health issues that I have had in the last couple of weeks following the camp... I think that the monetary cost savings are outweighed by the loss of training that both of us have suffered due to some sort of bug that we both picked up down there (presumably from the food).  Training in Tuscon and Florida were both a few hundred dollars more, but in both cases we were ready to resume training after a few days of rest at home... Perhaps a higher class resort may not have had the same issues, but I am a little reluctant to gamble with another few weeks of my health and corresponding training time.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

over training + travel stress = sickness

So, while we were at the Cuba training camp, national coach Eric VDE kept on harping on about how we should be sure not to push ourselves too hard while we were there or we would get sick and end up having to take time off when we get home to recover... Well, that is kinda what happened to me.  I was feeling good while I was there and really went for it thinking that I needed to make the most of the warm weather for training.  This is a common mistake among athletes that is a little counter-intuitive for those looking into the sport from the outside, but I have taken a little comfort in the fact that even the pros tend to fall into the same trap from time to time.  I have been reading an autobiography written by Bradley Wiggens called "In the pursuit of glory" where he talks a little bit about how he drove himself into the ground when he first went pro on the road.  Great book, highly recommend it if you are looking for a good cycling book http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=pd_lpo_ix_dp_go_uk_ca_en_in.020the.020pursuit.020of.020glory.020wiggins_gl_book?keywords=in%20the%20pursuit%20of%20glory%20wiggins&tag=lpo%5Fixdpgoukcaenin.020the.020pursuit.020of.020glory.020wigginsgl%5Fbook-20&index=blended

BoosterJuice to pass a pee test?

The stupidity of the massess never fails to amuse me.  I was at TD Square waiting for the battery in my watch to be changed so I went to BoosterJuice to grab a smoothie while I waited.  While waiting for my smoothie to be made, this guy (early 20's) goes up to the counter and says 'I hear you guys can make a drink to pass my pee test'... The girl behind the counter looks stunned and replies 'what?'... The idiot continues 'yeah, I have a drug test tomorrow and my buddy said you make a drink that will make me pass my pee test.  I smoked some marijuana yesterday and I have a drug test this afternoon.  What do you have that will make me pass the test?'  The girl behind the counter giggles and grabs one of her coworkers that was making a turkey panini behind the counter... He replies 'we don't have anything that will guarantee you to pass a pee test, but the green matcha tea smoothie has a lot of anti-oxidants in it'  The idiot says 'yeah, gimme one of those'...

Who needs TV when you can get great entertainment like that by mingling with the unwashed masses?

Fool's crown

So, apparently I was the most gullible member of the team today as our fearless leader played an April Fool's day joke on the team.  The picture below is the copy of the "proposed" new team kit for the year that was accompanied by a semi-plausible story about a clothing store owner that created the design for us...  I drafted a very politically correct response to the various e-mails flying back and forth across the team and was given the 'fool's crown' for my efforts :P  Shame on you Scott!