Catching up on July 09

Last time I blogged was right after Fitchburg - and now a whole month has passed - I don't know HOW so much time passes between blogs for me. Just busy. I am always impressed by those who can keep up their blogs. Like Nate. Who is racing the big boys @ Cascade - but he just chilling after racing - lotta time. I got back from Fitchburg and working like crazy to get caught up and get training plans out; so I could head off to Kentucky for the Tour of the Red River Gorge race with a 17/18 JR team I entered in the UCI invitational race. I decided to do this after being support for Nate and Blair out at the Gila. It felt good and along the journies of life you hit upon what you wanna spend your life doing. This always changes - but I knew that I wanted to get a team to the TRRG race. So I started asking for sponsorships - what I needed came in (thanks to vmware, Jim Strang, Juergen Eckmann/Pearl Izumi, Kirk Otteson/Veloworks Cycling Development, Len Forkas/ Hopecam, KBS - Nate's team). And as always many parents throwing in extra money for making it happen. Thanks to ALL of you that allowed me to get a team to KY. I feel giving people the opportunities in life for them to grow is one of the best things I can do, with my life - and I happen to do much of this through the sport of cycling. I don't know why it came to be cycling - it just did.

It is such a team effort to even GET a team to a race - we had Pierre's brothers in Oregon working the jersey design (thanks Renee and Franc) with Alvin Chang/east coast getting it to Champion on the east coast; the riders (from CO, NY, VA) and their parents and directors getting it to all come together for a week in Kentucky. The staff - me, Pierre, Carolyn Wilson, and Reed Black - taking a week of "vacation time" to go make sure the whole system operates smoothly. Carolyn spent both her birthday and Mother's day being in a car 8-9 hrs - okay crazy. We all in this sport coz of one thing - we love it. It is what we DO. But the process of what it takes to make even ONE single race happen - is crazy. So many logistics. This particular race - the UCI 17/18 jr event was a frst year event - and as such, it had its' share of glitches also. The worse being the road race courses were TERRIBLY marked and roads were wrong and what shoulda taken 1-1.5 hr to predrive took us about 4 hrs - we did this 2x for both road race courses - and that meant missing dinners in the cafeteria (wait a minute was this planned guys????? I know that UKY food was not the best......)(slowly coach is catching on to the ways of the riders humm.......) and massage being done too late at nite.

BUT - it was sensational adventure. Just about everything went great. The team, the staff, the race itself for the most part; it went super. No crashes in the caravan thank God coz I was driving the Wilson's car and yes the first stage WAS hairbrained with many new caravan drivers and oh yeah - NO, yup I did say NO communication between officials, motos, comm cars - the radios weren't working. That was in the 2nd stage - the first RR stage. I heard they had 3 repeaters but NO communication. That was HELL. We had 2 guys up in the break and we couldn't get across. Nate came unglued and all I kept thinking was I shoulda have been there. Somehow. Whether that meant getting a fine - who cares. These are the factors I don't like about racing - some things simply are NOT fair. I know life is such - some things are not fair and you just deal. But there has to be a line. As I was talking to Jeff Anderson this morning about drugs in the sport - that Greg Lemond is still on a mission to prove Lance not legit. I think can't Greg find another mission in life besides trying to bring down a sport and its' heros?? IF they can be called that. But let it go. Isn't there karma - what goes round comes round? I think this is enough. Like I said earlier we all decide on how we want to spend our life and time on this planet.

I want to work with athletes - create them, believe in them, support them, and myself - always be an athlete. I haven't been able to ride much - extremely busy trying to open my life long dream - a training center. I finally found the space - and now hope in about 2 mos I am ready to open the doors. Being great on the bike and reaching goals in the sport of cycling pretty much comes down to one thing - hard work. On this I agree with Lance 200%. I always wanted to have a training center. I been doing it at Spokes for the last 5 yrs - cannot believe 5 yrs!!!! and decided that I was going to try - try and make a center happen. I started looking for space last fall but got kinda freaked about all the economy stuff. So waited it out and I also didn't come across THE building, that I wanted to work out of. So kept looking and renewed the search this spring - finally found 2 good places - settled for the one in Herndon next to Great Harvest Bakery. Good location, not quite as big as I would like - but got the right vibe from it. Jim Strang told me don't take any space unless you feel it is right. Jim has been an incredible mentor to me along the way - my adventure of going from bike racer to a business person. He has always supported what I am doing - and I owe him training lessons for life. I used to be in Spokes with ripped clothes and cycling shoes duck taped together so they would stay on my feet (oh gosh I hope Steven Black doesn't read this......) - Jim always kept me up and running. Many people have been there. I wanna have a grand opening for the shop and will mention all the people that allowed the shop to actually happen. They are the people that kept giving me confidence. Allowing me to grow.

Now - back to the race - I will write a brief:
Our team was Nate Wilson, Steven Black, Kevin Gottlieb, Ben Salibra, Andrew Barker (who is leading the LaAbitibi up in Canada right now!), and Robin Eckmann. Day 1 was a 2 stager - a 1.0 mile prologue in the AM and a RR in the afternoon. Robin ride a fast 1.0 mile - he was flying when he came in. Andrew also rode well for someone who said he cannot ride prologues! Day 2 saw fairly aggressive race - we had some mehcanicals. Ben flatted and chased back on so hard - got on in the feed zone only to come off again coz the sec he got on it really heated up. I hated watching him so close but not quite on. Hincapie Steve Baker helped us out alot - trying to get Ben back on. The dude rode the original race course - which was 5 miles longer than anyone else (yes they changed the course without telling any of us) and still made the time cut. Steven Black went rolling in the mud - Pierre and I saw a rider covered in black and mud and realize oh NO it is one of OURS'!!!!!! He looked like he was half porcine and man it was kinda funny - he really was completely covered in mud. You realize it is YOUR rider and you are like OH NO. He chased his mud butt back on - was pretty damn hard chase back on - made it on and into the BREAK and finished 7th on the day. Like I have heard some say - once you make Steven Black mad - watch out. Nate was also in the move of the day, didn't get enough fueling, got popped on the last climb - rolled in 9th or 10thon the day. I was very bummed this day - coz none of the radios were working, we spent 4 hrs + previewing the road course the day before, and then they change it without letting us know.

Day 2 - was a 14 mile TT. We had some very fast TT boys. Robin took 6th, Andrew Barker 5th, and Nate 11th. I followed Nate in the car and it was the best TT I have ever seen Nate ride. All I thought about was how many damn 3 mile beginner TT's I have made him ride in the Computrainer classes - and he wasn't losing time over the tops going down the other sides. His limiter in the past. You gotta make it hurt when it is easy to ride. When going up a hill - easy to generate power, but when go over the tops - easy to coast and go fast. Must work the downhills and the tailwinds.

Day 3 - last RR - was going to be a hard day - had 2 very tough climbs - one in the beautiful Daniel Boone Nat Forest. Gorgeous but one bear of a climb - the 2nd KOM. We pre drove the course and decided since we were 10' behind Hot Tubes and not likely going to claim the top position in GC - we were going to go for stage win. It was SO cool seeing the team come together and ride as a TEAM. I did receive some ?? about the strategy we employed that day - but sometimes you have to go AFTER it. Win or lose. We decided to race as a team - and see what we were capable of. We lost our 2nd place in GC this day by 7 secs - but had one last day to go for it - the crit and it had 4 time bonuses. It was very hard for me to tell 3 of the boys who were loer in GC to work their butts off - but this is bike racing. The GC riders were selected at this point in time - and we had one day left to use the course for our advantage. The course had some very dangerous spots - and in the first 15 miles there was a 30 person pileup which took our an entire team. We kept all our riders safe - and went into the first KOM ready. You cannot sit back and settle - when some of the cards are on the table. Look at the TdF - there are 4 guys within 30sec for the 3rd place podium. Tomorrow is going to be a war between these 4 guys. You can bet their teams are going to help. The non GC guys will work their asses off. I was so PROUD of the team on this last RR stage - I was proud of what they were doing for themselves - but also for bike racing in general. They spoke - and even though we lost 7 secs - the were heard long after the race was over. And - what is really important - you only get stronger from standing up to fight.

Day 4 - last day - a twilight crit. We the staff were ready to have some fine Kentucky bourbon - we had MADE it!!! It was SO hard - the support of 6 riders in a very serious stage race. These were the best juniors in the US - and these guys go for it. Carolyn, Reed, and Pierre - were miraculous. If it had been just me and Pierre- scary to think. Carolyn and Reed did pretty much ALL the bottles and prep and cleaning and laundry. It seemed like all of us worked from the time we got up til we collapsed into bed. Ben - who had the worse luck all week - 2 flats and chasing for maybe 100 miles all up - was out go to guy for the crit. He was amazing! he took 2nd in the field sprint to Nate Brown - ending up 6th overall. Kevin Gottlieb was so active on the front when he needed to be (when everyone else was trying to get some air). Kevin had been sick and didn't know if he could even race - the form he will get from last week going into Nationals will be outstanding.

It was really a race - and took all of us inside and outside the race - to make it happen. Thanks to all the people who had a hand in this. I cannot wait til the next one. I am off to JR Nationals in a few days - Steven Kendall, S Black and Nate really have a shot at a podium. I wanna be there. One of the greatest things for me as a coach is seeing my athletes LIVE. Showcase the work - that we work so hard on for yrs, together.

Til the next time ciao