The end of my season

If you've been around me enough you know there's a saying I always say each year. I'll admit it's a rather grim prediction but one that I know has a good possibility of happening. I say each year I will have one major injury a year. For the amount of time I spend on the bike, I've always been aware that injuries are bound to happen.

So lat night while practicing for cyclocross with Micheal Bloomhuff, my luck caught up with. We had just gotten done practice dismounts and had moved onto cornering practice. We had set up a figure 8 course and I was going around and hit a hole as I was entering a turn and my front wheel hit a hole and the next thing I knew I was on the ground and I immediately knew my collarbone was broken. Micheal asked if I was ok and I simply said "I broke my collarbone." Micheal tended to me and then went to get hi car as I laid in the middle of the field, clutching my left arm, helmet still on and my bike still at my feet. We slowly get me into the car and as soon as I sit down, my version goes blurry and I'm about to pass out. One thing I'm good at is dealing with pain and being aware enough to communicate with whoever is helping what they need to do to get me through. I had Micheal blast to cool me down as I was overheating.

Luckily, Cleveland Clinic had a satellite hospital right around the corner. We got there and I was wheeled in in a wheelchair. We had to sit in the waiting room for what seemed like forever but was probably only five minutes. I finally got wheeled into a room and was given a tetnus shot and a morphine shot, the morphine shot made it bearable. Now, I sat there alone waiting for the x-ray of a bone that was clearly broken in half. My head dropped and I closed my eyes and these two sentences ran through my head over and over: "I broke my collarbone. My season is over." I sat there having those lines repeated over and over again, on the verge of tears. All that hard work and just these past two weeks if feeling on the bike and getting my form back, and all the races I was ready for and in those moments I knew my season was over.

Well after the x-ray, which involved me vomiting, i got slinged up and my prescription. I was sent home. Now I'm o go to the doctor to see if i need surgery. Wish me luck.

West Lake Crit: Continuing to Improve.

Tonight's race at Westlake was kinda fucked up. I generally like Westlake because I usually fell real safe there. I've really not had a big problem with erratic riders and just plain bad riding. Well, it was a little different tonight. I don't know if it was placing, I was further back in the field than normal as there were plenty of people willing to pull, or if there were more dangerous riders. Needless to say, there were numerous instances where if I could be scared on a bike I would have been.

Ok, I guess I must clarify that last statement. I've been scared on a bike numerous times. Usually for a split second, and then I realize I somehow made it through, or I'm "picking up the pieces." But I found in crit racing your best option is not to be scared. If you are scared and you are thinking about being scared, your not paying attention to whats around you, and that's when bad things happen.

So back to my story. After a lackluster season so far, I decided last week to turn that around. So I did a killer week with a ton of intensity and as much riding as I could put in. This week it seemed to work as I came into the race with my legs feeling good. So I talked to my pseudo teammate Weston and we decide that he's going to lead me out for the early money prime so I can collect a prize for my work for him last week. The lap comes up and I jump on his back wheel, and to his credit, he does a perfect leadout. He pulls me up through the field as the lap goes through and as we pull onto the front stretch we are on the sharp end of the peleton. He does an amazing pull all the way to 200 meters out where I'm fully protected and no one comes around us. In hindsight, I had perfect position and we were controlling the sprint that I could have sat on his back wheel for a tiny bit longer and I could have easily won the sprint. If I would have gone at 175 or 150 out I would have had it. So I sprint from 200 out and I'm doing well, but I start to fade and I see a wheel creeping up the inside. I have pinched in between me and the curb so I hold my line making him ride in the gutter hoping it will spook him and he'll let up for a second. To my dismay he gets around me and I come in a close second.

Now the really sketchy stuff happens, a couple laps later while taking the first turn, I'm on the outside with another rider on the inside. He's riding a Scattante, which doesn't make him dangerous, and they are good bikes, as I have one and recently traded up the other one. But add on the fact of a flapping jersey and baggies instead of bibs and I should have known this cyclist is not up to the official rules of the euro cyclist, and should be feared. Midway through the turn, for reasons unknown, said riders decides to go straight, and turns directly into me. We bump shoulder and I hear the ping, ping, ping of his pedals hitting the spokes of my front wheel. I should have gone down, but I didn't. Which I can only say is through the skills I learned through mtb and cross. I yell at him, nothing profane, but he needs to know he did something wrong and to let everyone else know to stay away and be wary. The next lap I spend looking down at my wheel fully expecting a broken spoke or at minimum it to be out of true. But to their credit my Forte Apollo's show no damage at all!

The turn in question (but on a different lap)

I have more stories about sketchiness but they all come down to two things and two things most crits riders have come across, people not holding their lines and random braking. So I'll leave it at that.

Me coming down for the final sprint

Finally, the final sprint. I'm feeling good and I've been learning a lot from my mistakes at other races, so I'm feeling confident for the sprint. The final two laps are spent trying to conserve energy, and move up positions. I'm still feeling good and in the top ten positions coming into the second half of the last lap. Jumping wheels to find the best position, while dodging riders as they drop back after they've done their pull. All is going well until about 400 meters out I get boxed in between two riders. I push my way through and try and do my best. I ended up finishing 6th or 7th and I was catching up to everyone at the end. I topped out at 35mph and easily could have placed better if I had better position. Well, there's alway next week and I'm sure I'll learn from my mistakes.

The final outcome, 3rd-6th, only a bikes off of 3rd!

My Summer Report

It is said that the difference between winning and coming in second is mental toughness. To tell you the truth this summer I have severely lacked that toughness. My head was just not in the right frame. Some people can show up to races and no matter what's going on in their life they can leave it all behind and get the job done. I, on the other hand, am completely opposite, for me to do well everything must be in place so I can focus on the job at hand. If things are going well, it's fucking brilliant but if something is unresolved, I'm rubbish. Last summer was incredible for me, I had nothing on my plate and everything was taking care of. In the time I wasn't working I could be on the bike and training. This year has been a different story, time off work has been a constant struggle making sure things get done. My mileage has been halved to what it was last year.

Add on to the fact of a nasty break up and my mental state has been horrible this summer and it's been very hard to be motivated to do what I needed to do to be the best I could. The usual training rides that would be all out and pushing the pace last year, have turned into contemplative sojourns to figure out what is going on in my life. It's hard to bury yourself, when you already feel buried.

This isn't to say there haven't been sparks of brilliance and improvements. There have been improvements but it never seems to translate into race finishes. It's not that I doubt I can do well or that I am not physically able to, because I know I can, but it just hasn't happened this year. My sprinting in road cycling has drastically improved more than I could ever planned. When I first started cycling, I always fancied myself a sprinter. I clearly don't have the build of a traditional sprinter, i.e. muscular. I have the frame of a pure blood climber. I'm lean, which if you know me is an understatement, and have less to carry up the hill. I'm good at climbing but not epic long climbs, I'm best suited for short punchy climbs, classic type climbs, short but very steep. Last year, in my second year, I started playing around with sprints. I didn't really have anyone really to sprint against. I would sprint with my rides but hardly ever against anyone. I would normally hit 28mph and on the really good days I could hit 30. Not good at all.

It all changed last year near the end of the season. Sara and I were riding with the Summit Freewheelers. We had gone off the back deciding whether to ride to the car or ride back with them. I pulled at the front for a good 5 miles as fast as I could, pulling back Needless to say, when I got back to the bunch the sprint came and I missed it because I didn't have anything left. It was near the end of the season so I didn't get back to contest that sprint again. So I stewed on the near miss for all winter.

Fast forward to the beginning to this year. I'm back with the Summit Freewheelers and in the pack a we come up to the sprint. All I can think is this is my chance to get redemption for myself. I somehow am put in the perfect position second place coming into the town sign sprint. At this point instincts kicked in. I knew when I had to go, and I waited, waiting to pounce, still waiting. Is no one going to go? I catch a wheel coming on my left and that's all I need, I jump on his wheel for a brief second and then I opened up my sprint. I look back just as I crossed the line to see where my competition was and he was a good bike length back. I had finally won my first sprint! I sat up, and congratulated the person I had out-jumped in the sprint. I had hit 32mph which I had only hit once before in a sprint, and it sparked something in me to get better and better.

I soon had started a regular sprint interval workout. In no time at all, I had upped my top speed from 30mph consistently and 32 in my best form, to 34mph consistently and 35mph as my top speed. With more work and a new bike I can now hit 35mph consistently and hitting a 37mph top speed on a pretty regular basis. So this is all to say that this summer hasn't been a total waste. I'll eventually get there and it may take me till next year to get that elusive win I've been striving for all summer. But then again I have the rest of the NEO Powerseries, a couple more Westkae Crits, Rubber City Meltdown and the NEOCX cyclocross series. Who knows what may happen the rest of the season and finally my mind is starting to get in the right place and things should be turning around.

Blue Knob Trip 2010

So I'm sitting here watching British TV and trying to forget the pain in my legs. I've been in a training block with 12 rides in 12 days, (I did have one day of rest but I did a double day.) Tomorrow I get a rest day and then it restarts again.

The highlight has to be CAMBA's annual campout at Blue Knob State park in Pennsylvania. If you haven't gone, I can't recommend it enough. The beauty of this is it's free. That's right you get yourself there and then after that it's all taking care of (besides food, which if you sign up for the Saturday dinner plan is $5). What you get is rustic cabins, beautiful scenery, and great riding. It's really the weekend I look forward to each year.

But before I take you to Blue Knob using my wonderful prose, I must make a side trip, to my side trip to the Allegripis Trail system. It's located outside of Altoona and is about an hour away from Blue Knob, so if you can get off work the Friday before the camp out I would put this on the list. These trails have gotten a lot of bad press from some riders, the two most popular complaints is the tread is to wide and the trails are monotonous. Well the complaint about the tread being to wide, is now a non-issue, with a year of use under it's belt, the tread is coming in nicely. Now about being boring, well I guess that's is personal preference. My riding partner Mike and I had perma-grin's the entire time. We left at about 8 on Friday and arrived at the trail at noon. We started the trail by climbing up to the lake side of the trail. Once we got to the top we started the downhill, and most importantly the whoops and dips. A skilled rider can pump the whoops like a pump track and fly through the downhills and it's set up that you can pump the uphills and hardly have to pedal. I was instantly in love with this trail and was flying down the downhills and jumping some of the whoops. We ended up doing 19+ miles in under 2 hour. Could have gone further but we got smart and cut out before we killed ourselves. Highlights where the Hydro loop, which was a fast flowy 2 mile trail where you didn't hit the brakes once, nor did you really have to pedal. Then my highlight was the switchback climb. For some reason when I hit a switchback I just feel the urge to attack, so I really opened up my legs on that. After we got back we showered and headed over to Blue Knob State Park.

Friday night was chill, and we greeted everyone coming in, and went to bed pretty early. Woke up Saturday early got a quick breakfast gathered our gear and headed up for the ride. I would be in charge of the fast intermediate ride (AKA A ride). It would follow about the same route as last year, so I had a good clue where we'd go. The day started with a scorching downhill that shot you out right into a rock garden. Once you got to the bottom, you had to climb back out. That climb was a killer, in the wet condition almost everyone had to walk this climb, including me, even though I had my granny gear this year. Though this year I held down my breakfast unlike last year. Once at the top, we stopped at a road and while waiting for the stragglers we saw a big black bear cross the road about 100 meters from us. we looped back around to the campsite and started climbing clickity clack which is one of the favorite trails of all the riders. It follows a ridge line up the side of the mountain and is lined with flat rocks the when you ride over make a rhythmic clacking sound. From there we climbed 500 vertical feet to the top of the ski resort which is over 3000 feet above sea level. We were greeted at the top by some of the hardest rock gardens I've ever ridden and the picturesque overlook that you will see from so many pictures taken on the trip. From there we took a new trail to me, down the side of the mountain which included some tight and steep switchbacks. Then it was the race back to camp, which I came in second behind Brian Lowe after I overcooked the last turn. As soon as we got back, it started raining and Mike and I sat on the porch of our cabin and relaxed after a great day of riding.

Saturday night was all about socializing. Everyone cooked dinner and then we mingled around the mess hall, eating smores and telling stories. It was great seeing everyone again and making new friends...and I didn't wake up with any lingering effects from the "festivities."

Sunday Mike and I choose to do the short easy paced ride. We road the road up to ski resort and dropped into the resort side trails. On this ride thre wasn't a local to lead us, and I vaguely remembered the trails so I took over finding the trails. Only one misadventure down the ski slope and we had found the trails. Truthfully, we only missed the trail by 100 feet. We did about about 9 miles on the last day and headed back, flying down the infamous roller coaster trail, where all you can do is grab the brakes, and ride it out. We headed down clickity clack and about half a mile the skies opened up and down-poured on us. Overall, looking at the weather report coming into the weekend, half a mile of rain isn't to shabby.

Overall it was a great weekend, did about 50 miles in three days on some fast flowing to rocky and super-technical single track. Over the weekend we climbed 4,000 feet. Even though the trails were awesome the highlight definitely was the people. CAMBA has some of the nicest, most welcoming and most fun people to hang out with and to share a ride with. I can't praise these people enough and I'm happy to be a part of it. If you haven't done so yet, I can't recommend enough going on a group ride, outing, trail day, or camp out. There has yet to be a day with the CAMBA folk I haven't enjoyed.

See you at the next event.

WestLake Crit: Learning to Sprint

Tonight I finally made it out to a Westlake Crit training race. I had always wanted to go but found stupid reasons not to go before. I have to admit, my confidence in racing was really low. I'm doing real road races and also moving up a class in Mountain Biking. I should be ramping up my fitness and I should be feeling good, I've done everything right, but my first two races ended in complete failure. I got dropped from the field on the first couple laps each time, leaving me with nothing to show for it. So there were a couple weeks where I couldn't bring myself to go race. It tore me apart to do this and I hated that I had got to this point. I had glimpses of greatness on some of my training rides, won a bunch sprint with the Summit Freewheelers and had some good moments but when it came to race day, I had nothing.

So today I decided to hell with it, I'm going. I packed up and on the way there my wheel flies off my roof rack and bounces down rush hour traffic on 77 north. Luckily it bounces into the median and not into traffic, wheel is ok and the wheel carriers will be used no more. I arrive at the race and just as I'm signing in, a familiar white car pulls in. Now I'm freaking out, I haven't seen this person since spring break and there's still bad feelings. I decide to not let this person ruin my race, I was going to ride my race.

My main goal is to finish this race. I just wanted to ride smart and be at the finish with the group. It's also a mixed field of the lowest three categories (I'm in the lowest) so I know there will be some fast people in it. We start off and I make my way to the front, safest place to be, and easiest to react to moves by other riders. My big problem has always been cornering, I have never felt confident in my cornering but today with new tires on, it was a huge difference. I didn't have to brake going into the corner and I was pushing hard in each corner and came nowhere near pushing the tires past their grip threshold. With that problem solved I was able to stay near the front the entire race, only going to the back once to rest after a sprint.

A couple laps in the primes started. For those who don't know, primes are races within the race. Every couple laps the bell is rung and a prize is displayed. Whoever crosses the line first on the next lap wins the prize. There were no breakaways in the race today so every prime was a sprint. The perfect chance for me to work on my sprinting. I decided to have some fun and go for every prime. In total I sprinted for 7 primes today. I won one, and finished in second in 3 or four. One I lost by only a wheel length at the line. Each one I was topped out at 30 mph, and my fastest was 34.6 mph which is a new personal best for me. Overall, I was very pleased with my showing. At one point the pace was slowing and I was feeling good, and I decided to try for a break, so off the front I went, it didn't last long, but it was worth a shot. Then a couple laps later, that unnamed person took a chance and went for a breakaway. If it stuck I wasn't going to let them get away with it, so I quickly jumped on their wheel and followed them till we got reeled back in.

After having to add another lap because a car slowed us down right before the start finish line, we came around for the final sprint. At this point I had burnt all my matches and there was no way I was going to be able to sprint for the win. I ended up midpack but I'm ok with that. I finished in the pack and that was my goal. I also did a lot of sprint practice and I think I really animated the race. I got a lot of comments on my race and the big one was that I was a sprinter. Who thought the skinny climber could hold his own in a sprint. I had an inkling but I'm glad I got to test my legs. The important part is I had a ton of fun. I'll be there next week.

Thanks for Bike Authority, Camba, Rudy Project, Kenda Tires, Crank Brothers, and Ritchey products for supporting me in my racing.

How to Win the Polka Dot Jersey

So I've been thinking about how I climb recently. Last year I mainly climbed standing up. It cam from riding a lot of short steep hills, and also poor fit. I was to far back so I wasn't over the pedals, blah blah blah, Doesn't matter the specifics but needless to say the proper fit has changed my riding style so that I can do things I couldn't before. Thanks to Mike at Performance in Green for that.

Well, this year I've been trying out new things and watching races on tv and youtube seeing how I can better myself. Trying to figure out how they got away. I've come to three different versions of winning a Polka Dot Jersey.

1) The Contador (aka uphill sprint)
The first one is best exemplified by Alberto Contador, and Armstrong (in his heyday). For those keeping track that is the first time I mentioned Armstrong in a blog post. What this consists of is waiting till the last moment and standing up and sprinting to the top of the climb, much like a final sprint. The goal is to get enough of a gap on the followers and then either keep lengthening that gap or just not letting it close. The benefit of this style is you can surprise the other riders and if they aren't watching it can be easy to close that gap. It's best to do this when you see your other competitors tiring and won't be able to respond. The downside of this tactic is you go past your anaerobic very quickly and if you can't get away it gives the other riders a chance to attack while you recover. This is probably my used tactic and does work if you can get going fast. Here's Alberto Contador attacking on Verbier. It's a textbook example.



2)The Spartacus (upping the cadence)
This one is a little more sly. All it involves is upping the cadence, thus upping your speed until you pull away from the other rider. The beauty of this one, unlike the uphill sprint, is that you don't show your cards before hand. Stay seated pick an easy lower gear than normal, wait for your moment and just spin up. I've done it where the other rider didn't even know I attacked, the next thing he know I was 50 feet up the hill and by then I was gone. The beauty of this one is that you stay aerobic so if it doesn't work you aren't in the red zone as bad. Fabian Cancellara used this tactic to win this years Tour of Flanders on the Kappelmur. Watch the video below about 1:14 in they hit the climb and watch the gap he gets in a short amount of time.



3) The Cadel (uphill grind)
Ok so this one isn't an attack, per se. All it is is just keeping the pace high enough so that your competitors drop off the back. It's that simple. No videos of this because there's really nothing much to watch on this one.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Up next is a review of the Cannondale Cross bike I wont from OMBC, and the transformation of my ratty white Fixed gear into something I want to ride.

Sorry for the delay in postings but no one reads this anyway

Well I've been very lazy with updating my blog. It's been a crazy couple of months. A lot has kept me from the blog but likely in the last month it hasn't been personal reasons but an abundance of training. I've been riding a lot lately and for the first part of the month I was not progressing well, but finally my form has finally been coming back. I've done two races so far but neither went my way. I'm immersing myself in the roadie scene and it's been paying dividends in my form in general. It's just a different style of racing. I'm using road riding as a good training tool for the power series in the fall and then cross season and I hope all the miles I do know will pay off in the end. I knew I needed to peak later in the season so I've been taking a slow buildup this year and it seems to be working. Well that's all for now, I have more ideas to write about but I'm tired and I have a ride at Medina in the morning then an 8 hour work day and then after that I'm going to see Neesayer with my dad. So I need to go to bed.

My trip to the National Bike Summit in Washington DC

Last week I was lucky to attend the National Bike Summit (NBS) in Washington D.C. as a representative of CAMBA and IMBA. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of the cycling movement on the national stage. First, I should explain what the National Bike Summit is. For three days people who believe in the importance of the bicycle converged on the nation’s capitol to lobby for more bicycle friendly laws and initiatives. Everyone from advocacy representatives (like me), bike store owners, and industry representatives from all across the country came together for one goal, to promote cycling.
The first day was just a precursor to what was to come ahead. The main highlight of the day was the first timers meeting. Being my first time at the summit I attended this meeting which was an introduction to what was to come. With a brief primer on how to talk to the representatives to best get your message across. The goal for the first two days was to prep us for the third day where we would meet with senators and congressmen from our own state. I must admit it was overwhelming on the first day, though I knew that my love of the sport of mountain biking would make it easy to get my message across.
The second day started with a large opening ceremony where, Google announced its new biking directions on its map tool. After the meeting we broke off into the first of three break-out sessions. I choose to follow the IMBA path and take the three seminars. The first was titled, Best Practices in Youth Cycling. It was an introduction to how to best get youth involved in cycling. It covered topics on Youth Races, how to introduce kids in the sport of mountain biking and how to foster the love of the sport. It was informative because to help grow this sport and keep this sport going we have to introduce youth into the sport.
The second course was Growing Mountain Bike Participation. This session was the most informative as it was aimed at an introduction about how IMBA and local clubs can work together to grow the sport. It was nice to hear about the options that IMBA provides the help local clubs to make it easier on the local clubs. After this session we broke for lunch where I was able to meet Gary Fisher and talk to him shortly, I got a chance to tell him my story of how I got into the sport, he was very gracious and it was nice to meet such a legend in our sport. The third session was Cycling Tracks to Pump Tracks. This discussed linking cycling paths (towpaths, bike lanes) and mountain biking trails so that a seamless system exists. It was interesting to hear of plans of cities across the country linking a biking community into one system.
The last day was the big day, a full day on Capitol Hill. I arrived briskly at 7 in the morning on the hill, grabbed a quick breakfast and stepped into my first meeting at 8:30 with Senator Sherrod Brown. Over the course of the day I met with six different members of congress, some out of our area as backups for their constitutes but most were from our district where I was able to push our agenda and make sure congress knew how important our cause is. Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot and I can’t wait to go back next year.

Kicking the Bucket...uhh list? Colorado Ride!

I got to finally check off one of my goals in my bicycling bucket list. I when I say bucket list, I have not idea what I'm actually talking about, because I never really wanted to watch two old men courting in a movie. One of the things that I have been dreaming about for the longest time is to get onto a climb of epic proportions. The valley has some good climbs, but they always seem to make up for being so short that they go straight up. I wanted to climb a grade that seemed to go on forever.

Well on a recent trip to Colorado I finally got to mark that off the list. I flew out there for Valentines Day to see Sara and before our valentines dinner we did what only a cycling couple could enjoy and decided to go for a bike ride. She had her bike there, with all her new presents from me, and I rented a Trek 1.2 from University Cycles in Boulder. Our route was a simple one, mainly two roads, the start of the ride was beautiful, 40 degrees and sunny, but with a heavy headwind. I pulled from the start and allowed Sara to save same energy. The climb started immediately but at first is was quite shallow. We climbed about three miles until we hit Sugerloaf road and that's where the fun began, it steepened up to stretches of 10% grade and a ton of switchbacks. After about half a mile it leveled out and Sara I climbed another 12 miles to above the tree line where it was cold and snowy. In all we climbed 3500+ feet over 15 miles. I gotta say I felt good and was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't sure how I would handle altitude and not riding outside on a bike for a month before this but I felt really good.

The descent on the other hand was not as fun. The bike I was riding had a horrible speed wobble where anytime when I got up to speed the bike shook beneath me. Add that to the fact that I was not properly dressed for the descent, which made me freeze enough to stop every two miles or so to warm up. Luckily, towards the bottom the road straightened out and I warmed up enough to really open up and get some good speeds going. With a straight road, slight downhill and a tailwind, Sara and I were cruising along at about 30 mph. We ended up back at University Cycles, turned in my bike and then grab a sub. Really happy with the ride and the weekend. I'm so lucky to have had this opportunity and Sara in my life.

Winter Training and Scheduling

Not much exciting has been going on. A lot of indoor training work outs. I have been working on my 2010 race schedule. I figured this year going in with a clear cut schedule of where I'm going to race and what races I want to peak for is going to help my training a lot. There's still wiggle room on some of the training races. I'm sure there will be races that will pop up that I didn't plan on racing but I will just be in the mood or I'll find out about it during the season. There will also be races that I can't make whether it be prior commitments or just overworked. It appears that march through July will be spent mainly on the road bike, then in August I will switch over my focus to mountain bike for the power series in september and then after that I will transition over to cyclocross.

The other news is I get a bike fitting this week, it was much needed because I was going by feel and now I'm properly tuned into the bike. I can already feel the difference in the amount of power I can put down. The bad news on this is I went to move the fit from my road bike to my mountain bike and it clearly was to small for me. The seatpost was an inch over the max seatpost point. So it looks like to race on a hardtail I'll be buying a new frame. Though I'll probably hold back on this until later in the season as the my full suspension bike fits into the new fit.

Well that's it for now I'm sure the updates will be coming soon.

Couple Products

Well Sara left for Colorado this morning, so while I bide my time waiting for my trip out to see her in a month I'm going to have a good amount of free time on my hands. It's truly an awesome opportunity for her and I'm so happy for her but on the same token I'm going to miss her. But if you want to hit up a ride with me let me know. It will help me keep my mind occupied.

I did want to bring up two products that I feel need mentioning. They both are great products that I have found no faults and have worked flawlessly. The first is RoadID's. I got myself and Sara one as a Christmas presents this year. It's a great present not only for them but for your piece of mind. Knowing that your loved one will get proper medical attention and you will be notified will save you a lot of grief when your loved one is out on the trail. And since Sara will be in a new state it makes me feel better that there's still a connection to home when she's out riding. You can tell a lot of though went into the design with a watch-like clasp, which a 5 dollar bill can be folded and slid into so if you ever have to buy extra water, food so you can make it home after a bonk or a bribe for a farmer so you can borrow their tools to get your bike working again. I picked the red band for both of us, as it would be most visible, but a nice neutral color like black and you could wear the id all the time, so your always protected. A product I think every cyclist should wear if not for their own safety but for the piece of mind of their loved ones.

The second product is DZ Nuts. This is a Chamois cream which is made by David Zabriske of Team Garmin Transitions. Mid summer during the heaviest of my training and riding I developed a saddle sore. No other products or anything I did stopped it. I switched over to DZ nuts and in a week it had subsided. It's European styled so it has the cooling effect of Vapor Rub, but after some getting used to you won't want to put anything else on your nether regions. Since I switched I haven't had another saddle sore. Another selling point is everything is made from natural materials.I highly recommend this product, as it's made by one of my favorite riders, but also because it works. With news stories coming out that there will be a womens version, embrocation and leg shaving cream I'll be looking forward to check out the new products. Remember David Z only wants the best and so do I. Make sure you check out the video section on the website