tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52695451597121602292024-03-20T14:14:28.830-04:00Rockets to Sprockets<center>A study of Rocket Science's <br>Application to Bicycle Racing</center>Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.comBlogger264125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-3330740569942923922013-11-07T15:17:00.001-05:002013-11-07T16:24:41.404-05:00Can we say Goodbye to these Pro Cycling Dopers?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">It is unbelievable that we're still stuttering through the delayed confessions of the "Doping Generation". What we're teaching in pro cycling right now is this: Cheat as much as you want, as long as you confess after <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/11/news/canadians-confirm-ryder-hesjedal-faces-no-sanction_306818">statute of limitations is over and we'll forgive you</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Just when we all though we were out of the fog of the USPS team soft confessions, Michael Rasmussen comes out with his book implicating the Canadian Giro winner IMMEDIATELY he comes out and says he cheated...Seriously? He really thought he could just fly under the radar: maybe no one of the dozens of people who knew about it would come out and say he doped. It's the most forgiving time in recent, anti-doping history, and he still thought: "maybe I'll get away with it".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">And </span><a href="http://www.roadcycling.com/news-results/tough-times-cycling/page/0/2#.UnqZeZTwLGg" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">this guy</a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> guy decides to saw his bike in half because he felt so abandoned by the cycling world after he confessed to cheating and lying about it. These guys are not the heroes we feel pride for and want to root for.</span><br />
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<a alt="Lance Armstrong is an Ass but still my Hero" href="http://www.pointsincase.com/files/u3/lance-armstrong-horns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://www.pointsincase.com/files/u3/lance-armstrong-horns.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Say what you will about Lance being an Ass, but he at least had a constitution to stick to his guns not to run off and snitch on every single person at the slightest hint of doubt. The Lance-scape-goating has gotten so prevalent we can probably go ahead and blame Lance for the NSA, Drones, AND Obamacare #ThanksLance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I'm sick of the these guys saying: "Lance/Rasmussen/Team Director made me do it"...grow some balls for god's sake. This is the toughest sport in the world (according to me), don't abandon your Nads/ovaries as soon as you take off your clicky shoes. At least Lance and George are ponying up and putting money back into the sport by sponsoring Continental teams. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">So all the USPS guys got pushed up against a wall and cried uncle, they got their slap on the wrist (to promote a confession culture) but continue to ride as if nothing ever freaking happened. Or they retire to start an illustrious career earning appearance fee's on the Fondo/Group-ride circuit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I think that this is all silly, cycling is just a sport like any other: complete with cheats and heroes. In the grand scheme of things none of this matters. But I've tried my hand at domestic racing (and will continue to) and know how hard it is to scrape by. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I also know countless other younger WAY more promising guys than myself doing the pro biker thing and it really sucks for them (I'm a crit racer duh). Races go away, teams get smaller, and it's in no small part because people continue to let these old dopers to influence cycling and take the spots from guys who could be the clean future of cycling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">We all now know that EPO and Testosterone are ACTUALLY the keys to eternal youth, and when I quit competitive cycling I'm going to EPO and LowT myself to the gills, but let these guys go. It's sickening to see teams still hiring some old big name dude and give these dopers a shot at "redemption"</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">. Regardless of how clean they are now, they used cheating to get to the top level of competition, top level of support, and only benefitted further from being there: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_rich_get_richer_and_the_poor_get_poorer" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">the fast get faster and the slow get slower</a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">If people want new clean heroes they have to make room for them in the ever shrinking Pro peleton.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I know this is a real world and all these guys know is how to ride bikes. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I know it's a slap in the face of mortality to win a race at 40+ years of age. B</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">ut for god's sake, stop buying their </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Danielsons-Core-Advantage-Strength/dp/193403097X" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">books</a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> and hiring them and make room for the new guys. </span>Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-12606105298949672262013-10-12T11:51:00.000-04:002013-10-12T11:53:30.013-04:00The 6 million dollar man (ok more like 33k dollars)It's now two plus weeks out from my surgery I had on my <a href="http://r2suberti.blogspot.com/2013/09/off-season-starts-tomorrow-at-600-am.html">torn labrum</a>. Since I slept through the entire thing I cant say first hand, but I was told the surgery was a success.<br />
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I was also told that the shoulder was a lot worse off than the MRI had shown. Once they prodded into my shoulder arthroscopically they not only discovered that the tear was much bigger than they thought, but also that my shoulder was pretty much on the verge of popping out at any minute. The common shoulder analogy is that the shoulder joint is similar to a golf ball sitting on a tee, with a small O-ring on the edge of the Tee to keep the ball in place. MY golf ball metaphor not only had a torn O-Ring, but my golf ball (shoulder) was sitting precariously on the edge of the tee held in place by only muscles and tendons...and it had been like this since APRIL.</div>
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All I can think is thank god I didn't crash in any races. Sure I could pull a Die Hard and just slam it back into place (which doesn't work BTW!), or some sweet <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134847/trivia">Vin Diessel move that allows me to escape being handcuffed</a>. But John McClane must've been on Coke (the 80's man), and Riddick is an Alien. I'm human and dislocating your shoulder hurts like a bitch (also generally makes me cry) and every time you do it you tear up all the internal stuff.</div>
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So it's fixed now.</div>
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You may be asking, how do you fix a Labrum?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_mpgXF06S-mOpWxJqoqkZDQlPTECK0_F3FeSxHXAPKoUypLEpK-ig9N6QL-sH6iwUbNC0Lwoowy9uthkRkk7w19CV_jNj00Ktf4s76upRlYFyIO4JgZFmq-XxFNWMP55S5chV5mhdw58/s1600/show-you.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_mpgXF06S-mOpWxJqoqkZDQlPTECK0_F3FeSxHXAPKoUypLEpK-ig9N6QL-sH6iwUbNC0Lwoowy9uthkRkk7w19CV_jNj00Ktf4s76upRlYFyIO4JgZFmq-XxFNWMP55S5chV5mhdw58/s320/show-you.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's my Labrum before the surgery. That big gaping black area shouldn't be there:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE40_YV-DOtgJyWP8O2nJIYoWXMY-EIav85YPDeqbKtLVcTlyhRuia_ps1LolY2MidD5ZEVbY9coRq_1UPoOWuzklXfg4iZFNLOqghzqs2PHs8Liu_rDQ0JjbyrUHG-w0NRm4EkWPADhk/s1600/Torn_Glenoid_Labrum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE40_YV-DOtgJyWP8O2nJIYoWXMY-EIav85YPDeqbKtLVcTlyhRuia_ps1LolY2MidD5ZEVbY9coRq_1UPoOWuzklXfg4iZFNLOqghzqs2PHs8Liu_rDQ0JjbyrUHG-w0NRm4EkWPADhk/s320/Torn_Glenoid_Labrum.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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So as you can see it's pretty nasty looking.</div>
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Now here's the after shot, a few anchors drilled into my shoulder bone, some nylon string, and bam: </div>
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Now my shoulder looks like a roast beef:</div>
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Do not try to cook or eat me</div>
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I managed to hop on the trainer for the first time since the surgery, just a 20 minute spin to feel like a cyclist again, hopefully cycling will prepare me for a speedy recovery.</div>
Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-39693828008312854622013-09-25T22:33:00.001-04:002013-09-25T22:43:26.880-04:00Off Season Starts Tomorrow at 6:00 amNormally my off season starts right about when I've crashed my CX bike for the 100th time, or get lapped out of a UCI race in 2 laps, or decide a hangover is not something worth riding through. This year it's going to be a little more scheduled: I'm going under the knife tomorrow to fix my bum shoulder.<br />
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I dislocated my shoulder earlier this year while MTBing, this tore some soft tissue (labrum), that is sort of like a gasket for your shoulder ball-socket joint. This is now a recurring injury: I first dislocated it at the Red River Gorge Road Race while descending (crashing) in the rain, I dislocated it again two years ago during a Tough Mudder mud run while trying to pull myself up a muddy quarter-pipe, and finally the MTB thing earlier this year.<br />
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So tomorrow morning I'm getting things all stitched back together. I'll in a sling for a good 3-4 weeks, but things SHOULD be back to new with some PT after that.<br />
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With a recurring injury like this one I become more prone to re-injury and more serious damage with every time I dislocate it. Also, last time I popped out the shoulder VERY easily, while biking not quite in the middle of the woods. It didn't take a big leap of imagination to envision being out on some epic MTB ride or narrow back road and having a dislocation that I can't get back in and being really screwed. Hiking out those 500 some feet I did last time took a half hour, with me having to sit down and collect myself every few steps so I didn't puke or pass out from the pain. Maybe I'm being a wimp, but my 10 is having my shoulder popped out; far surpassing anything I've done in the past (cracked ribs and bad road rash are all I can muster).<br />
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So I'm getting it fixed, that way I wont have a nagging worry while heading out on a ride or dive bombing a corner in a crit. It'll give me some good forced time off the bike to reflect on the season, recover, and decide what to do next.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-73515950182986322432013-09-17T14:17:00.002-04:002013-11-06T15:32:20.953-05:00They see me rollin'So recently I had an incident with a Deer in my car. Long story short the car got totaled, and I just got a replacement. This replacement car happened to be ANOTHER Mazda 3 (ok so apparently I love Mazda's). This one has the updated skyactiv engine that gets infinity gas mileage and a few small cosmetic updates but is almost the exact same car, except it's a manual.<br />
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After getting the car I told my parents I got a manual and my Dad's response was "Chris, why the heck did you get a manual?" I brushed the question off at the time but really started thinking about it after a while. I even googled "Advantages of owning a Manual" and got a few results that are not really all that true:<br />
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1 - Better gas milage...this USED to be true but now auto's are mostly better than Manuals<br />
2 - Cheaper....ok true<br />
3 - Women find it sexier...only partially confirmed, need more investigation<br />
4 - You can do sweet car maneuvers....only applies to rear wheel drive cars<br />
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There's also always some vaguely "it's manly" reason for driving a manual. At first I sort of piled that on with the "Women find it Sexy" BS pile but after driving a bit I had some clarity. Now, I never had a manual car before, I knew how to do it and had driven one successfully a handful of times(plus I ride motor bikes) but it had never been my main whip. As I quickly found out there's a big difference between knowing how to drive a manual, and being able to drive one: you forget you're in a manual.<br />
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That is I was fine driving around and what not, I knew all the maneuvers and techniques until I got into a difficult situation: like making a U-turn in downtown Charleston on some ancient narrow street. I'd be pre-occupied with whatever and just clutch out too quick and stall out...then get taunted by drunk people walking on the street.<br />
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That's when it kind-a sort-a clicked why a manual car = man (it has nothing to do with being man...just maturing). In order to learn, you just have to drive it a bunch until the whole process becomes second nature. It doesn't get cemented in your head by the 20 times you start from a stop or incline right, it's from the one embarrassing time you get it wrong. It's demoralizing and embarrassing, but you cant sit around a wallow about how much of a dumbass you are for buying a manual car, there are cars behind you, you just have to get over it, restart the car, and try again.<br />
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Now that I've gotten past that initial painful learning curve I can honestly say I enjoy it. I'm still slow off line and a little herky jerky, but it's now only mildly annoying to ride along with me. It really takes more focus, driving isn't just something I have to do while I surf facebook, it's something I look forward to. In the same vain that hipsters love their fixed gear bicycles, that cafe racer guys put up with their bike braking down once a month, the enjoyment is in doing the thing, not the destination.<br />
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<br />Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-80226224406086691692013-07-29T22:38:00.000-04:002013-11-06T15:33:04.967-05:00US Pro CritSo it's been a hectic couple of weeks since my last blog post. a little over two weeks ago we all flew out to Oregon for the Cascade Classic, you can read a full description of that race...um...somewhere else...haven't written anything....it's probably going to be a bunch of philosophical comments on what it takes to be a domestique, how NRC is so much faster than NCC, yada yada yada. Regardless it went pretty well: Flavio, a new addition to the Smart Stop squad, took the KOM jersey.<br />
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This past weekend was the rather local US Professional Criterium championship. This was my first experience doing the P-R-O Crit. I've done elite crits before, first at Downers Grove (which I think everyone misses a little) and then down in Augusta (don't miss so much). Not going to lie: when I did elite crit nationals last it was a wee bit harder, I got straight up dropped on a flat for corner crit. It was also 98 degrees and roughly 100% humidity. </div>
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This year's race was in High Point, NC. It's a very cool course, the finish is under a bus terminal, and I'd raced here before with pretty good results, so I was stoked. The course had a few hills and while a figure 8 style course, was SUPER wide open. It's narrowest point came in the final two corners. This made the race play out more like a road race in format (easy for teams to organize, chase, and bring back the breakaway). </div>
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To add to the tactical uncertainty there were a total of 40 guys racing, Smart Stop had 11, UHC had 10 or so, Jelly Belly had a bunch and so did Optum. Missing were all the single guys hoping for shots at glory that usually animate a race. From what I've heard this has always been the case at US Pro crit, unless it's a very technical course (Glencoe), breakaways can be kept in check by a single team. Knowing this we knew it was going to be a big staring contest all race, and we'd try to hold our cards to our chest longer than any other team.</div>
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Given our large size in the field, this gave a few of us the opportunity to go with a few attacks. I followed Freedman from Optum attack pretty early on (credit goes to Adam, he DID point him out to follow at just the right time). We got away with Pipp from Bissell, Kiel from UHC:<br />
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Trust me I'm there....trying to sit on, I thought having 10 teammates in the field was excuse to not really drive the break, but as I was told having only 3 teammates is ALSO and excuse to not pull.</div>
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Anyway these were a bunch of really good guys to follow around and they were actually working, for a bit. Then Kiel started sitting on...then everyone started talking/looking at each other. I knew the field wasn't exactly chasing us because we built up a 30s advantage after only a few laps. It was pretty clear my group was done too busy talking so I kept pedaling. Again they all looked at each other. I went through the finish line a quarter lap later and already had a large gap (I did NOT want this to happen, I'm no TTer, someone REALLY should've ridden up to help me out). </div>
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Unfortunately after only two laps of riding hard I was very alone, and the break was back in the field(uhhhhh crap). My gap had even gone out to 45s at that point over the field and I still had a LONG way to go. I figured there were 9 other guys to help lead out Shane so might as well get some good ole TV time and give all the other Smart Stop guys a really good excuse to sit on all the attacks.</div>
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Let me re-itterate I am no good at riding by myself for an hour: I can sprint 10 seconds every minute, I can do one or two laps pretty fast, but there I was, by myself...for an hour. Amazingly enough my gap grew up to a maximum of 1:15 over the field. It sure was fairly painful to do but at the same time one of the coolest experiences I've had on a bike. The crowds at High point were awesome and starting going crazy as the laps went under 10 to go, it definitely spurred me on to keep on going.<br />
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Deep down I knew there was no way I could hold of ten DII riders driving the field. Everyone knew it'd be a field sprint, but that's boring. It's always better to ride smart, be conservative, lick your opponents plate clean before starting on your own, etc, cycling cliche, etc. It's also better to sometimes do something stupid: like for a non TT guy ride in front of the US Pro Criterium field for an hour.</div>
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I made it to 10 to go. At that point my gap started to slowly and formulaic-ly inch down. I kept on going but knew the extent of my leg's skills to move in circles was quickly diminishing. With 8 to go Scott Zwizanski hit out from the field. He rode past, my legs were snap-less, and my race was done (only THEN did the announcers call a prime for the breakaway).<br />
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I pulled into the pit to watch the finish. UHC which had been riding from 12 laps to go (36 miles to go) was shortly passed by the Jelly Belly Train at 5 to go. Our guys were spread out through the field, but that was ok since one lap at High Point was really like 2 laps anywhere else. The laps ticked down and things were fairly chaotic for a criterium with UHC in attendance. Oddly enough, a big part of the UHC dominance in the American criterium scene has come from foreign talent, so a large part of the hit squad was absent.<br />
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Optum played the waiting game to perfection, sitting back in the small field and staying together. They launched their team on the wide downhill road overtaking everyone, going 1-2 in the field sprint, and re-crowing Eric Young as the US Champ. Shane was 7th and Frank 9th.<br />
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No idea what's next for me, the season's winding down, maybe it's just time to not get kitted up for a little bit and go to the beach.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvVb_ykrmZ6BMw1GH9_-Tq0q6HhUwJWUmoJFBDDNZE1RedMgTgxnc8Yeded271hkpxzdERcNZrvU_L11uucnPQUifRFDn6_xNCd6q2V1fTt3lUfYXMdT0ZufVWo0Zj08vQeWlkkG9VDE/s1600/CyclingKit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvVb_ykrmZ6BMw1GH9_-Tq0q6HhUwJWUmoJFBDDNZE1RedMgTgxnc8Yeded271hkpxzdERcNZrvU_L11uucnPQUifRFDn6_xNCd6q2V1fTt3lUfYXMdT0ZufVWo0Zj08vQeWlkkG9VDE/s320/CyclingKit.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">thanks Sean</td></tr>
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Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-4642436953858267562013-07-09T12:36:00.002-04:002013-07-09T12:36:37.270-04:00Like a Deer in the HeadlightsIt was supposed to be a pretty relaxing weekend back home here in Greenville after the week spent up in the Midwest. Did some of my recovery from the previous week of racing on Lake Keowee, where it rained about 100" on the 4th (this rain however did not stop jet-skiing).<br />
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After skipping out on the Pisgah Omnium TT, I trekked up to Brevard for the criterium taking place downtown. The course ran just a block north of main street, it had a very small race feel to it. On paper the course looked like a normal 4 corner course, pretty cut and dry. It was neither cut or dry, believe it or not, the town that's nestled in the Appalachian mountains had a hilly crit. The course had a very steep stinger of a climb going through the finish and just after the first corner (like little ring climb). Got <a href="http://www.memidex.com/kitted-up">KITTED </a>up under the threat of rain as is the case down here: every day it's super humid and hot, and it pours down rain in the afternoon. `Monty also made the trek from Winston Salem, so I had one teammate for the day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQpwM8YPDP7Zrpte0Php2ALLonXqW9bfO4xVdgKlXVwHE8so4IPrOKLqQuh2NL06S4c7vKjbMqOIlEy_8rLZ9IBEn0eG6OEJx2y5rBa2MQLtsxcmfYfUIVqwDadjAXcIVWVeEwNwCtow/s1600/Photo+2013-07-09+12.22.56+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQpwM8YPDP7Zrpte0Php2ALLonXqW9bfO4xVdgKlXVwHE8so4IPrOKLqQuh2NL06S4c7vKjbMqOIlEy_8rLZ9IBEn0eG6OEJx2y5rBa2MQLtsxcmfYfUIVqwDadjAXcIVWVeEwNwCtow/s320/Photo+2013-07-09+12.22.56+PM.jpg" width="240" /></a>It immediately started raining, the field split within a lap of the rain on the very difficult course. There were less than 10 in the group that went of the front, driven not by anyone in particular, just attacks. I went for some primes, thought I won two, but got one (I have bad luck with primes). We lapped a few guys and it came down to a field sprint with some lapped riders. I opened up my sprint a bit too early before the last corner and ended up giving a great lead-out to Bobby Sweeting from 5-hr who got me at the line by half a wheel.<br />
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After cooling down and DE-KITTING we headed to the newly opened Oskar Blues Brewery, which makes Dales Pale Ale in NC!!!<br />
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Had a brew and a pretzel and started heading home, drove down Caesars Head and headed along US276. It was dark and what not, came around a corner near Moody Br Rd and I saw a young buck on the right of the road, just poking out of the woods. "Oh deer" I said to Kathryn, who came up to watch the race. Just a moment before we passed the dear it jumped out into the road, I had time to swerve and start braking but it was too late. The deer jumped up just before we hit it, smashing into the passenger side of the car and tearing the bike rack and bike off the top of the car, fortunately the windshield or pillar held up and no deer actually entered the car.<br />
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A passerby helped me grab the bike rack with bike still attached out of the woods, still covered in mud deer fur and blood.<br />
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Amazingly the bike turned out to be fine (Thanks Wilier for making a sturdy bike). We headed to the gas station just down the road to wait for a tow truck. The police were too busy to stop by and take a report, and the AAA tow truck was in Georgia and 3+ hours away (still waiting for AAA to call me back and tell me they're ready to tow my car). I called another wrecker and we waited at the now closed gas station till about 1am for the truck.<br />
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Now cyclists in Greenville know the Sunoco in Cleveland, OH just off Greer highway, what they don't know is that is apparently THE hangout of Cleveland, OH. I've never seen so many people just hanging out at a closed gas station. There was beer, music, dune buggies...generally the works.<br />
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Anyway Saturday's post race meal eventually consisted of some Waffle House at 2am.<br />
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I spent Sunday morning cleaning/fixing up the bike. For being torn off a roof of a car at 50mph and thrown into the woods, the bike was remarkably fine. Just a bent derailleur hanger, torn bar tape, and an out of true wheel.<br />
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Since everything was now clean and in working order I headed back up to the mountains for the Pisgah RR. It was an even smaller field than Saturday, which meant a lot of attacks that went nowhere and marking.<br />
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It was a beautiful course though, really in the middle of nowhere, right of US 25 across from the Saluda reservoir area.<br />
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It was a fun race, good workout, and I finished 4th. I guess I should've signed up for the omnium since I would've made a little more money, but oh well.<br />
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On the way back, we stopped by the scene of the collision, found some antlers, parts of my car and skid marks, but no deer carcass.<br />
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From here on it's resting up and watching Le Tour to prep for the next big trip out to Oregon for the <a href="http://www.cascade-classic.org/">Cascade Cycling Classic.</a><br />
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At least it'll give me some time away so the car hopefully gets fixed, in the meantime I'm getting around on the motorcycle and bicycle. Just living life on two wheels.<br />
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Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-90716530300560800232013-07-05T23:49:00.000-04:002013-07-06T00:03:24.255-04:00Road trip pt 2I last left off mid-way through a brother's graduation/Tour of America's Dairyland trip. Our team's pretty focused on the National calendar events, so we said goodbye to the land of cheese and headed to Grand Rapids Michigan for the Herman Miller Brickyard Classic.<br />
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However, we were tipped off to a local race going on the night before in Zeeland. It's tough on a team like this, everyone is spread so far around the country, and the roster is so big that on any given race you could be racing with a totally different group of guys. So having a local race is a great chance for the team to really figure out how to ride like a team, which we did a pretty good job at.<br />
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<a href="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1002393_434001263373500_520705530_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1002393_434001263373500_520705530_n.jpg" width="320" /></a>We weren't looking to make the race super hard since we all had the NCC race the next day. We just covered attacks and looking for something promising. Eventually Jackie got away with another Michigan guy towards the end of the race. We set up a leadout/blocking train at the front, which is always tricky. The mission there is to ride hard on the front to keep the team out of trouble, but not catch your guy up the road. We timed our effort well, as Jackie stayed up the road to take the win, and the rest of us finished up on the podium.<br />
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Overall a great time and an impressive showing from the town for a first year event.<br />
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The next day started out with the threat of rain all day long. In the past few years the Grand Rapids race has been the national championship criterium, but this is the first year it has returned to the regular national calendar series (nationals this year are coming up in NC!!). Grand Rapids is a turn-y but pretty wide open course. The defining feature is two stretches of brick road. The last time I raced in GR (2009) the brick section on the backside was downright <a href="http://youtu.be/3QSpuhIQg1A">Roubaix-ish</a>, but it had since been re-bricked and is as smooth as a brick road could get. However, no amount of smoothing can make bricks any more grippy in the rain, and we nervously eyed the Men's 1/2 and Women's Pro race shred apart in the rain as we kitted up...fortunately it dried out just in time for us.<br />
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With a lot of overlap this weekend from other races it was a VERY small field for an NCC event (40-some guys), with a very high quality. Grand Rapids being the home of Bissell they filled their 6 rider team and UHC obviously sent a full assortment of guys as well.<br />
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I was charged to cover moved during the race and generally wait for the sprint. I got off the front of the field with a TT1 guy and Menzies from UHC after a quarter of the race, we were shortly joined by another UHC, 5-hr and two Bissell. The UCH guys (who usually dictates the tone of the NCC races) were obviously happy with the move and started driving the break and our gap went out REALLY fast. I rolled through about as easy as I could, knowing I was pretty outgunned not having any teammates in the break. We lapped pretty quickly and went back to the front. After that it was the UHC show riding tempo for the sprint finish so nothing would get away. I queued up behind the rest of the Smart Stop guys who did a ton of work keeping me out of the wind (I may have the local crit field sprint down, but the rest of the guys on SS-MK have a TON of big crit sprinting experience under their collective, um, bibs).<br />
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It would've been a forgone UHC conclusion, until our sprint train totally overtook the UHC sprint train, which trust me, is a quite the coup for anyone familiar with the crit racing scene of the past few years:<br />
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This wasn't just a short lived over-taking, we really took over the last lap. It wasn't until the 3rd to last corner the UHC guys came back around, then Shane took me up around their outside to put me into perfect position at 3rd wheel coming out of the last corner. However, my sprint isn't quite NCC caliber yet and I had to settle for 4th on the day.<br />
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The next day it was back to Wisconson for the last day of TOAD in Wauwatosa crit, another first year race. There was HUGE turnout for the race, not only spectators, but all the shops along the course had come out to sell their goods (specifically the Hawaiian place just after the finish line had great smoothies).<br />
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It was your typical 4 corner, but with a hill. We knew it was going to shred, but fatigue had really set in for the Dairyland field and things started coming unglued after only a few laps. Tired legs combined with a crash and some odd pushing of riders back into the field resulted in a LOT of gaps. I was way too far back and had to pull some maneuvers to get to the lead group. I had no idea, but Jackie had made the break that would eventually lap the field. I saw the break had only 10 some seconds and thought we didn't have anyone up there so put in a few hard attacks that put me into the red. It wasn't until the break had almost lapped that Adam came flying up to say Jackie was lapping. After he got back up to the front we did some work protecting him. Adam did the majority of the piloting and I was tasked with 'sweeping' Jackie's wheel.<br />
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For those that don't know what sweeping is in cycling (which I really didn't understand until this race), it's sort of like the job of a hockey enforcer...<br />
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...that is, if hockey players were emaciated, could only fight with their elbows, and shaved their legs. Everyone in the end of the bike race is trying to be at the front of the bike race, but not ON the front. So there's typically one or two guys riding on the front, in the wind, while everyone else is trying to ride behind them. While I was sweeping guys would try to get around our train and slot in-front of us, thus pushing us back and making us use energy to get back up to the front. So when guys would try to get around us, I would ride off Jackies wheel into the wind, forcing those trying to pass to go an even longer way around and be further into the wind.<br />
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Anyway I did a lot of this, and it took a lot of sprinting and what not, so my race was done with 1 to go. We did good work and Jackie finished 6th.<br />
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Since then I've had a pretty restful week, including a 4th spent on lake Keowee down here in South Carolina. There's a Omnium down here in Brevard this weekend. With all the fast amateur guys racing up win Wisconsin this weekend, should be some small fields. There WAS a TT today but I chose to skip it since I'd definitely get schooled on my road bike, and I'd prefer to keep my money. I decided to ride home and went through a super huge thunderstorm, I felt like it was a much better use of my time.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-32649938975510297322013-06-28T14:14:00.002-04:002013-06-28T14:14:42.685-04:00Catching UpIt's been a while since my last blog post. There's been a lot going on.<br />
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Immediately after US Pro Road Race I was scheduled to go up to Chicago for the Glencoe GP, however just before the US Pro road race there was a death in my family and I had to travel home for the week before Glencoe.<br />
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I thought that getting away from it all and going to race Glencoe would be a good change of scenery and pace, but it turns out that all the travel and being on your feet for two whole days wasn't good for the legs. Plus a very rainy/techincal crit is not the thing to focus on when you're head is elsewhere.<br />
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The next weekend was a weekend at home to relax.<br />
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And by relax I mean race the 3 stage omnium that is the Johnson City Omnium...or the only race in america to end in a 7 mile mountain top finish (I could be totally wrong there).<br />
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In the road race, since I really have no idea who any of the strong guys were I missed "the move" and waited for the climb. I caught a handful of guys from the breakaway to finish 7th, which isn't bad given my not so stellar climbing abilities. I got caught by Cameron Coggburn who has a Power/Weight of about a Gagillion...I stuck with him for a full minute before deciding I didn't want to blow up half way up the climb:<br />
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There was a TT....it sucked....nuff said
After a night at the Blue Plum music festival, which was incredibly hopping for being a mountain town in TN it was onto the Crit.
The crit was always pretty technical, and started out fairly normal as most crits do, then it started to rain. Normally I'd be super psyched about rain in a crit (I was just a normal level of psyched).
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The course had these cross walks that were either painted or marbel....regardless, as soon as they got wet they turned literally to ice. Literally if you pedaled, leaned your bike, sneezed....or anything, you'd slide out, as I did (at least 4 times) and the rest of the field did. Crashes marred the field. Eventually there was a small group rotating through that contained the two omnium leaders. We ended up lapping the remnants. I took the sprint from a long way out, going before the last corner and holding off for the win:<br />
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The next race on the docet was the Winston Salem weekend of racing. It was a bummer not to be able to go back to Nature Valley and try to improve on my 4th place at Stillwater, but the Winston Salem race has a big future and was sort of a home race for the team. </div>
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The criterium was a twilight 6 corner ordeal with a fairly large hill. Having 12 riders, we were VERY active during the race, but there was too much money on the line for a good move to get away. We got organized at the finish with 10 laps to go but got separated in the finish, the guys from Pretator cycling going 1-2-3 on us.</div>
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The next day was the 7 mile circuit race. Each of the 12 laps had 3 sizable climbs, including Pilot Mountain road which was a quarter mile of VERY steep climbing. The very tough and techincal course combined with high temperatures meant it was going to be a big race of attrition.</div>
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Again having a ton of guys in the field meant we were active early and in everything. Eventually on the 3rd lap a large break established itself with Curtis and Dan in the move. I bridged up with a few other guys to bring the group to 12 riders or so. There was a good 2 laps of hard riding with the gap hovering at just under a minute before the field behind us seemed to shatter. And our gap went out to several minutes, but by that point everyone was cracked and just riding along to get to the finish. Dan and Emile Abraham from Predator attacked up the Pilot Mountain climb the Penultimate Lap. I followed a counter to chase and had an armchair ride to the finish. Dan dropped his teammates, and I jumped away from the two guys I was with to go 1-2.</div>
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After W-S it was a quick stop at home before driving up to Chicago for my little Bro's graduation from Northwestern. This worked out well since it coincided with the beginning of Tour of America's Dairyland. I was able to steal a trip up to Milwaukee to do the first day of the race (where UHC ran the Blue Train all up on the field going 1-2-3) before coming back down to Evanston for the graduation celebrations<br />
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After a few days of heavy drinking, it was back up to Wisconsin for the Carl Zach Cycling Classic. I wasn't feeling super hot after the weekend but once the legs started spinning everything got a little better. I missed the breakaway initially and tried to bridge up with a Predator Cycling rider while they were still within striking distance. However we brought along with us a UHC rider who sat on the move, because, why should you work in a breakaway when you're 1 of 5 when you know your team's just going to go 1-2-3 in the field sprint. So this killed our bridge efforts.<br />
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Down to the finish I was staying fairly far forward in the closing laps. Everyone (mostly Predator) was taking shot's at the UHC leadout. I followed a move for a half lap and thought, this is great I'll slot in when the field passes, however since I've been spending most the year up to this point doing big RR/Stage Race events, my elbows weren't quite as strong as my legs and I quickly got shuffled to the back.<br />
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Schlitz park was our next race. Taylor made for me, big hill, technical descent, threat of rain...perfect. I made the breakaway but never really felt on top of the legs. I especially botched the finish by not sprinting enough for the downhill corners and being unable to move up after that. Finished 7th.<br />
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Now we're in Grand Rapids, MI getting set for the Herman Brickyard Classic. Hopefully now that I got me a few real crits in the legs things will go better. It should be a REALLY tough race: less than 40 are registered, including full teams from UHC, Bissell, and us.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-16011411755663848452013-05-28T21:37:00.000-04:002013-05-29T10:20:32.189-04:00US Pro Road RaceWell first Pro road race is under the belt, and it was quite a race. We got into Chattanooga on Saturday evening and went to check out the course the next day. We ended up riding with a large group containing the Jamis guys and a bunch of local cyclists. Once we got to the top and stopped I think everyone had a collective, oh crap moment. The thinking going into the race was that this would be a slightly easier course than Greenville due to the relatively flat nature of the circuits: which turned out not to be flat at all either (they just looked flat on the elevation profile because the climb was so gigantic).<br />
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The Lookout Mt. climb not only was long, at about 15 minutes when we just rode up it, it was also steep. A 28 tooth cassette was the way to go without a doubt and my legs were thanking me during the race.<br />
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Rolled out in the morning early to the course and were the first team there. Watched the women's finish then kitted up and signed in. Most of the racing on the domestic scene is the type of stuff the same sort of thing I did as a Cat 1 so there's not much difference being a Pro. But rolling around before the start of the race it really felt like a whole other level of racing, it was a true big event. There were tons of spectators all around the awesome downtown area of Chattanooga where the circuits were held. It may seem cheesy but was a pretty big deal for me.<br />
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The race had two circuts, small 5 mile laps around town then big ones that went out the climb. There were going to be 4 small laps, 4 big laps, then 4 small laps again.<br />
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There was no waiting around whatsoever when we rolled off. As soon as the neutral start ended attacks started going left and right. No one was waiting for the climb (which wasn't till mile 25) to get a breakaway off. It full gas until the last of the small circuits before a large group finally got up the road, everyone stopped riding and the break instantly got over 2 minutes up the road. Curtis made a monster move and tried to bridge up solo, and got some serious TV time in the process (yes now there's actually TV's involved here). The Hincapie Devo kids also did a 3 man team time trial attack, but neither made it up.<br />
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It was tough first time up the climb right from the bottom. There were splits all over the place. The last kilometer of the climb really ramped up and I got a little gaped off, but made it back on the descent. Once we got back onto the main road back into town the chase was on. Bissell was setting tempo on the front to bring the move back. The riding through town was the hardest part of the race. It was a windy day and the buildings really funneled the wind, making the cross winds unpredictable. The circuit also crossed the river twice, which not only meant a sizable climb to get over the river, but serious winds as well.<br />
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The second time up the climb was a lot steadier than the first, but with the Bissell team fresh off the Tour of California I got gaped off at the top again, and made it back to the field, again.<br />
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The speed did not let up and at this point I was really dogging it. The field was single file nearly the entire time we were off the climb. I was done fairly quickly the third time up the climb and rode by myself in a world of cracked, cramping, hurt.<br />
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The field was gone at this point and I just wanted to finish. A lot of guys were throwing out the parachute and I passed a few thinking I'd at least place. I rode through the finish line and the official gave me the sign that I was pulled, and I thought sweet, top 40 finish (or something).<br />
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Turns out getting pulled in a pro race does not equal a finishing position as USACycling shows me as a DNF. It's not a big deal, DNF or 45th or whatever I would've been. But I would've like to be listed as a finisher (yes I know it's not a fondo). Although as soon as I finished the end of the caravan: Ambulance and last few cars blew past me (oops).<br />
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So I learned a lot. Mainly that if I want to do well at big events...which is kinda the whole goal here. I need to do a lot more racing (in a constructive training way) or motorpacing. While the climbs were, well just OK for me, the real tough part of the race was the sheer speed that we were going on the flats. There was no rest, and that lack of recovery really hurt me once we'd get back onto the climbs.<br />
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So lesson learned. It was a great experience and hope its the first of many.<br />
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<br />Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-35524791060103579642013-05-22T17:59:00.004-04:002013-05-22T18:01:18.925-04:00Training for US Pro plus Assault on Mt. MitchellAs you may have seen I've been a little light on the racing of late, but that's because I'm doing something totally foreign to me: training mid-season. Yes gone are the days of simply going to local races and hoping 60 minutes plus 5 laps will keep me in shape, now I'm off to bigger and better things...like riding 2 hours BEFORE doing 60 minutes plus 5 (big difference).<br />
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I had a weekend off from racing and went up to the big hippie music festival: LEAF. It was a lot of good music, overpriced free range burgers, and camping. But most importantly it was in Black Mountain...which meant mountains!! That was the start of my block of training for nationals, things continued through last week with an uber epic ride coupled with an uber epic bonk through the Pisgah forest:<br />
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Then it was some Asheville Ring of Fire racing on the track (except it's not really a track and nobody's on track bikes), then two days easy, then racing in Raleigh NC.<br />
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Saturday was a 62 mile road race. As you may know the now-dead superweek would do 62 miles around a 0.8km parking lot...so doing it in a road race ain't no thing.<br />
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It was a miserably rainy road race. We had a bunch of guys in the field so were the ones to watch, however me being new to the south have no idea who to watch. Regardless I ended up in the breakaway of 11 guys (we had 4, so we were the ones to watch, again). We all worked well together and got out a gap. I joined in the attacking with my teammates a bunch on the last lap out of 6 (we did have the numbers). Finally one of my attacks stuck going up the finishing climb. It was the first win of the season for me, and even being a local race, it's good to get it out of the way.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the best I can do these days victory salute wise, what with a Bankart Lesion in my Labrium and all (I don't know what it is either)</td></tr>
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Did a little training before Sunday's crit as well. The crit had a noticeably smaller field of 17 or so. It was a tight tough crit circuit, but I was starting to feel some fatigue in my legs. It was just Pat and I from the Smart Stop squad, I eventually got away with an NC State guy in the final few laps and sprinted for the win.<br />
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Ok now here's the point where you get overtained:<br />
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I had previously registered for the Assault on Mt Mitchell. Seemed like a great idea at the time, round out 3 days of hard training with a big ride. That was until we got stuck in Charlotte traffic for over 2 hours driving home (PRO tip: Never go to or around Charlotte if you value getting anywhere in a timely manner).<br />
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The result of this was getting into Greenville late, stressing about waking up early for AOMM, and subsequently not being able to sleep. Regardless, I had to do Mitchell (at least once).<br />
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Rolled out of bed at 5 and drove out to Spartainburg for the start. It was HUGE, over a 1000 people rolled out at the 6:30 start time. It was a foggy start, which kept the heat down. It was a leisurely pace for most of the ride, but I could tell my legs were fried...like REALLY fried.<br />
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After going through Marion I did my little efforts I wanted to do then just hung on for the rest of the climbing.<br />
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Let me just quickly say once you pass through Marion, there's 28 miles of climbing to Mitchell, which took me around 2 hours. If you're not cracked after two hours of climbing...there's something wrong in your head. I spent most of my climbing time staring down the wheel of a Greenville Spinners guy who said "Oh, this is my first group ride."<br />
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Aside from my totally ruined legs at the time, it was an amazing ride. Great views, great people. Definitely something to do at least once, but I cant wait to do it again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, there was helicopter coverage</td></tr>
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Hopefully all this translates to going uphill fast...at least 4 times...or at least faster than those "sprinters" <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/05/news/tyler-farrar-hopes-amgen-tour-gives-him-a-leg-up-at-pro-road-championship_287747">out there</a>.<br />
I mean, let's be honest here: Mt Diablo is ONLY 10 miles, look out Farrar.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-91889939732624203632013-05-06T16:32:00.001-04:002013-05-06T16:32:01.460-04:00Speedweek WrapSo when I called up the orthopedic surgeon office last week after dislocating my shoulder, they said I should take a few months off the bike to let my shoulder heal. I must have misheard and interperited it as ride 3 'balls to the walls' SpeedWeek Crits.<br />
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The last time I did SpeedWeek was WAY back in 2011 after spending a week in NM feeling like I was breathing through a tube at Gila. I raced a pretty similar schedule as then (minus Walterboro).<br />
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I had to shake off the cobwebs quickly before jumping into the Spartainburg 1/2 mile crit course of doom. At least that's how I remembered it (good number of crashes last time I raced it). Since this past weekend was pretty stacked between Gila and Collegiate natz, the fields were about 1/2 what they were in 2011. This made the races in general WAY safer.<br />
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Additionally there were a few dominant teams racing the majority of the series: the DII team UHC, Predator Racing, and us. I swapped out for Shane so he could go out to Cali to race Dana Point, with good results:<br />
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I took up the role as another infantryman, covering early moves (which I'm slowly getting the hang of) and closing gaps.<br />
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Since Spartainburg was a flat relatively non technical crit, things ended as expected in a field sprint. We were working for Isaac keeping him sheltered and on the UHC lead-out train. Their crit leadout is VERY good and has been the challenge all week for us to figure out how to beat them. We let him ride their leadout and protect him from the chaos behind, he ended up 3rd.<br />
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The Belmont Crit Saturday was a new addition to SpeedWeek and a really good one. At 50 miles with a BIG climb on the start/finish straight it was a very selective course. UHC hit out immediately, by the first corner we all saw what was happening and had a bit of an "oh crap" moment. The field was totally decimated by the 5th lap. There were 22 some riders off the front of the 10 rider field. I covered an attack and was promptly dropped, luckily I was able to tag onto another group that eventual caught the leaders as they were lapping the rest of the field. Frank got off with 5 other riders in the final few laps and we jockeyed with UHC for the remaining places. Overall it was a SUPER hard race, and I hope it stays on the calendar.<br />
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The day of racing Sunday was Sandy Springs in Atlanta. Another hilly crit on tap with the threat of rain, and rain it did. It rained just before the start of the race so the start was very stop and go and crash marred. The field again split, and Frank again got off the front with a single UHC rider. Smart Stop and UHC both mercilessly covered every attack on the front, but it was no use, Frank was driving the break and stayed away for 2nd. With about 10 laps to go it started pouring again and the crashes also resumed. I managed to only go down once. Thomas and Isaac finally succeeded in overtaking and then out cornering the entire UHC lead out train on the last lap to take 3rd and 5th. I rolled in for 11th....which is what I got in 2011, coincidence????<br />
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There's not much on tap next. I have to get an MRI on Thursday to see what's going on with my shoulder, then it's off to Chattanooga for the US Pro National Championship.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-7753198424851770042013-05-02T00:06:00.000-04:002013-05-02T00:06:32.511-04:00Anniston to Joe MartinHitched a ride with a few guys from the team out to the second big stage race of the year, the Joe Martin Stage Race.<br />
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Along the way the team hit up the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston Alabama. In NCC criteriums there is a six rider maximum per team. On Smart Stop we have 15 good riders, and I'm since I'm doing the stage races currently, I was happy to spend the race somehow wandering into the VIP tent.<br />
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It's always bittersweet to watch a race that isn't on a live Sporza feed but thats how it goes.<br />
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Sunday was the foothills road race, a good number of guys from the crit on Saturday all stay over for the 74 miler. It turns out Alabama is really hilly. Anyway I was in a very promising breakaway that got brought back by a local team (who then all promptly were dropped). The counter attack contained two of ours, I followed into a second group and misinterpreted some teammate instructions to set pace for our sprinter and instead attacked the group I was in over the last climb (I'm working on it).<br />
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On to Joe Martin and the spring break stomping ground of the Purdue Cycling club.<br />
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Of all the NRC races out there I have a fair amount of experience in this one. However I did about the same in the TT as I've done in the past, partly I think because I paced myself WAY to easily in the first part of TT.<br />
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In Friday's road race I covered a few early moves before Curtis got into a 4 man break for us. I was feeling pretty good, went back for some bottles and was hanging out with our sprinters for the finish when I flatted...at the base of the 10 mile climb on the course: Mt. Gaylor. You'd think I'm getting good at pacing back onto the field at this point. However the Smart Stop car was up the road at the time, helping Curtis, so when I flagged down the neutral service car, the Shimano guys came speeding up with a bottle of purified water in had asking "Feed??!?!"<br />
Oh Shimano (another reason to stick with SRAM)<br />
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Anyway normally you can pace up through the cars, using their draft for help. However since I was on a climb the cars and their heavy footed drivers gave me little help. So I settled in for my 1 hour tempo ride back into town to make time cut (I did this time).<br />
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Saturday's 114 mile road race was again a rainy/cold affair. After following moves early in the race I was a little poorly positioned once the climb hit and the breakaway went. Optum (who had the lead) set a hard chase. On the 3rd of 4 laps 5-hr (who was within striking distance of the lead in Paco Mancebo) lit it up going up the climb. Things regrouped and Optum went back to the front but the message was clear: the last time up the climb was going to be tough. We worked together to get into position and things went crazy again. This time 5-hr brought the break to within a few second to put one of their riders in the move then let Optum chase again. The gap yo-yo'd a bit, but when we made the left hand turn towards the finish the group was getting really close. Mancebo jumped across with Chad Haga (Optum's rider in the leaders jersey). We were following the Jamis sprint train at the time and got caught a little far back. I did a turn at the front to try and bring the move back within striking distance but it was too late and the large group stayed away.<br />
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Sunday's Crit is always tough. I kept towards the front in the beginning but drifted a little too far back into the vortex of suck common in these techincal crits. Once there you have to sprint out of every corner, have to sprint to move up...and eventually end up getting dropped, thus is life.<br />
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In other news after a long trip back go Greenville I am taking it easy to recover for Speedweek this weekend. On my one easy MTB ride I made the accident of not watching where I was heading and clipped a tree at the blistering speed of 5 mph (garmin confimred) and dislocated my shoulder:<br />
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Which resulted in a trip to this place:<br />
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Shoulder is now back in place and should be ready and raring to go this weekend.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-35665682662001351762013-04-17T11:17:00.001-04:002013-04-17T11:17:16.414-04:00West Coast WrapWell I've been a little delinquent about doing a write up for Redlands because Redlands was tough, and then we had a tough travel day to get back East again.<br />
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Redlands was the last race of a month long trek to the west coast that started with the Tucson Bicycle Classic, migrated to Cali for the the San Dimas Stage race and finally wrapped with Redlands.<br />
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Redlands has always had a storied place in the American race calendar. Before the advent of the Tour of Cali, Tour of Utah, Tour of (insert soon to be bankrupt state tourism agency here) Redlands shared the top of the American calendar with the likes of the Coors classic.<br />
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It's also the first race in the NRC calendar. The series of stage races for the US. A big stage race will always draw a different caliber of rider. While 95% of American racing is Crit racing, every big team has dreams of stage race glory since the currency of success outside of America is in the stage racing.<br />
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Time trials are neither my strength nor my favorite thing to do, so I'll just skip over the details of Thursday (let's just say my GC asperations were dashed....haha jk I have no GC asperations)<br />
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Friday was my first crack at domestique duties. One of those duties, covering the early moves, is always a little tough. At the beginning of any of these races of 200 guys, at least 100 of the riders fancy themselves getting into a "day long" breakaway. Due to all the fresh riders with the same idea the starts are always chaotic and really fast. Going off the front in this situation requires a TON of energy. Cutting it short I missed the breakaway after gassing myself following other moves. Then it was onto my other duty: water. I had never been big on going back to the caravan, mostly because I've never had a car to go back to.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j_wEG2RNMJc" width="560"></iframe><br />
In normal race conditions it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined and I would have gone back more often, but our team was a little over-staffed on that task, ever time I went back there'd be a few other guys already getting bottles.<br />
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I only barely made it over the KOM the penultimate time, and narrowly avoided two crashes on the finishing straight. I was pretty blown and used the last of my energy to bring Clay back up to front of the pack with the rest of the SS guys.<br />
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I was definitely more excited going into the crit, thinking that it would be more up my alley and I'd be able to show myself a little more. This again I was mistaken for a couple reasons, mostly cobwebs. Riding a national level crit takes a lot of nerve in terms of fighting for position in corners and just cornering ability, being my first real crit of the year I was definately a little rusty and burned through all my matches trying to get/stay up front, but the front was headed by Paco Mancebo's team, followed by 30 or so sprinters who would all kill you rather than let you move up in a corner. That combined with the technical nature of the course equated to never being able to even get to the front to attack.<br />
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The final day was the infamous Sunset loop. A 7 mile loop that was all climbing and descending. I simply hung on for dear life, followed a few attacks, then blew up, I lasted until 4 laps to go.<br />
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Overall a good experience, it's early in the year and my legs are still coming around (which is good).<br />
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Did a few small races in NC this past weekend, then It's a good block of training before going off to Arkansas for the old standby of the Joe Martin Stage Race.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-76385054522259099522013-03-26T19:17:00.002-04:002013-03-26T19:17:20.663-04:00West SideThe first big trip I've undertaken with the Smart Stop guys and now as a free man is halfway done. Since there's a bit of a shortage of good racing out east this early the team is out here getting the race miles in and team tactics dialed in.<br />
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We've were in Tucson last week for the Tucson Bicycle Classic, are in San Dimas for the stage race here, and are headed to Redlands in a week. We've been bouncing around a fair bit and I finally have a chance to blog from the luxurious RV I'm currently calling home:<br />
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It's really been a learning experience riding with the team so far. It's totally a different mentality. In the past the team would go into races with the following strategy: follow some moves, hopefully one of us gets into one, freelance the sprint. Not that this was wrong by any means, but it's the best way an amateur can fend for themselves in a big race.<br />
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A lot more is expected now; I'm no longer looking for cues from the big guys in the peleton, I'm part of a team of big guys and we're the ones trying to dictate what happens in the race. Each of us takes a part in forcing the race to go the way we want it to go (usually winning). This sort of mentality is easy to adopt, and is taken by many teams through every rank in cycling, but the plan commonly falls apart once put into practice. Proficiency seems to be only achieved through a mix of talent, knowledge, experience, and commitment to the team.<br />
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It's a big change for me, I won't lie. I'm very used to riding my own race. Very rarely have I had to REALLY ride for anyone else. Not that I'm unwilling or anything; I've just spent so many years hiding from the wind and saving my energy for the opportune moment that I have to do some serious re-wiring of my racing brain. It's a huge mental block or me to ride on the front, surf the edge of the peleton waiting for the team train that's headed to the front, or do the pacing to the front myself. It's been a learning experience, the more I figure out the more I realize I don't know.<br />
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Experience and knowledge exp. points have been acquired, now it's prep time for Redlands.<br />
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Continue if you want more punishment in the form of race report (in complete excruciating detail)....<br />
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We flew out to Tucson AZ a few weeks ago for the Tucson Bicycle classic. The TBC is old hat for me, racing in it<a href="http://r2suberti.blogspot.com/2011/03/tucson-bicycle-classic.html"> back in 2011</a> when I was living down in Tucson after graduating from College.<br />
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The courses may have been the same as before, but the race itself was much different for me. Not only was I flying solo the last time, this year had a noticeably stacked field with full teams from Optum, Jelly Belly, Smart Stop, and the usual smattering of AZ guys.<br />
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The opening TT went typically terrible for me after a long day of travel from South Carolina out there and a position change that I quickly nixed (I violated some personal rules in changing position). The road race was similarly disappointing. I must have forgotten the wonderful road conditions around Tucson after a few months spent surfing the pavement around Greenville (Tucson roads are crap). I flatted on the first and second lap (of 4) on some very avoidable pot holes and thus spent a good portion of the race doing motor pacing drills behind the wheel truck. Sunday got into a little better groove, the team really got dialed in and we were a force to be reckoned with.<br />
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San Dimas had similarly bad luck in store for me. The race started with an uphill 4.2 mile TT up one of the more beautiful roads I've done. It's the same road that the Tour of California took up to Mt. Baldy. I was going pretty good, actually pacing myself well for a TT and hitting all sorts of good power numbers (it's a first), then getting a slow flat with about 1 km from the finish of the race and getting stranded at the top of the course. I had to wait to hitch a ride down with the porta-john they had at the top of the course.<br />
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The circuit race was a short but tough 7 mile loop with a few rollers and a significant climb about a mile from the finish. It was a bit of a shock to the system on the first lap. Since most of the course was completely open, the swarming in the field was pretty intense. As the course meandered through a park the 160 rider field would expand to the width of the road. Each new wave of riders going up the side of the field would bring 50 guys up and bury whoever was at the front. You could ride a wave going from dead last to first in a mater of seconds, and similarly get pushed to the back in the same amount of time. The key was to time the right wave to the front just before the course crossed a dam and went up the climb.<br />
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It took a lap to figure out but I was just getting the hang of it when I flatted again on the fastest part of the course. As I watched the field wiz by at 40 mph while the mechanic fumbled and cursed the<a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/03/bikes-and-tech/uci-to-require-lawyer-tabs-dictate-camelbak-placement-and-sock-length_209958"> lawyer tabs</a> I kinda knew there was little hope of catching on, especially after the wheel moto took off without a shred of pacing. I hoped back on and was pretty determined to get to the next day inside the time cut (5% or about 9 minutes). Being no TT-er I settled into a sustainable pace for the next 7 laps (almost 2/3's of the race). I had to pull off for the 2's field, and was joined by a small group shortly after. The group seemed more interested in comparing their <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/phinney-time-cut-as-tirreno-adriatico-gruppetto-quits">predicament to Taylor Phinney</a> than actually trying to make time cut (hint: if you're bitching and moaning, you're not really riding hard) . This was pretty frustrating, so yes, I attacked the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobus_(cycling)">grupetto </a>to a chorus of dudes yelling "Strava!" and probably cursing under their breath. I shortly joined up with another group that actually knew how to ride a pace line, but by then we were outside the time limit, and were swallowed by the grupetto I had just left a few laps later. By that point the group had swelled to 50 riders and was rolling a decent pace just due to it's size.<br />
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TL:DR I got time cut<br />
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<br />Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-6433815877429258232013-03-13T13:22:00.000-04:002013-11-06T15:40:35.931-05:00Taking a break from the Cube-FarmI know I know, JUST had a post extolling the greatness of commuting by bicycle to work and how it can save you SO much time in training that you can race the Pro/1 division while working a full time job.<br />
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Well I just quit my engineering job.<br />
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Alright just kidding...I didn't really quit, but am going on a "Leave of Absence" to focus on cycling and today is my last day.<br />
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This had been brewing for a long time. After a lot of discussion with family, friends (thanks for putting up with all my fretting), and co-workers I finally took the deep breath and had the talk. I had been going back and forth with work a few times about ways to make this work: through either part time, or remote work, but ultimately it was decided that LoA was the best route for everyone.<br />
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My co-workers/managers was actually very supportive of me taking time off (contrary to any nightmares I had before talking to them). They didn't find it that odd that I wanted to leave my engineering desk job to try my hand at being a professional athlete. I didn't want to have to describe how much less glamorous being a professional cyclist is than being say a pro baseball player, but hearing them say that made me feel pretty good regardless.<br />
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I'm really happy and excited about this, I'll really be able to focus on the cycling 100%.<br />
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I'm also pretty psyched to be doing it with the Smart Stop guys too. The team camp gave me a lot of good vibes about the guys on the team and the goals they're trying to accomplish.<br />
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So today is my last day in the cube farm for a while. Tomorrow I'm flying out to Arizona for the Tucson Bicycle Classic, then it's off to San Dimas, followed by Redlands!!<br />
<br />Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-78799108252755858392013-03-12T11:10:00.002-04:002013-03-12T11:10:52.657-04:00Smart Stop CampMy first team camp of the pro cycling caliber is complete! It's been quite the experience. My baseline experiences for team camps were set in the back woods of Mountainburg Arkansas with the Purdue Cycling team. Camp usually consisted of lots of riding, beer drinking, gallon challenges, and dudes hot tub-ing it up (who knew that's a recepie for a kickin spring break? Mexico is so overrated!)<br />
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So what's the difference? Well lots of meetings for one. They spent a lot of time schooling us on the ethos and heritage of the team. It was great to learn how the team came to be and the organization that make it happen. Then it was sponsor meetings galore, Smart Stop, Mountain Khaki, Tifosi, UCann, and more all taught us about their companies.<br />
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After the meetings we'd usually hit out on some riding around Winston Salem. We were told not to expect much in the way of training since we'd be very busy, but I somehow ended up with one of the bigger weeks of training this year.<br />
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Things were kicked off with the Triple Hump ride, which was a public group ride that had some HUGE participation. The ride meandered north of W-S and hit up these 3 bluffs that stood above the general rolling terrain around the area, the ride was very relaxed, except for the climbing.</div>
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There were also photo shoots and a very legit live broadcast team presentation:</div>
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I know what you're thinking, what a cool looking group of dudes. Well you're exactly right, it was about 45 degrees for this shoot and took about an hour of riding to warm up afterwards, but hey, sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of looking awesome.</div>
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All our dinners were big team dinners, so naturally there was a boat load of food required to feed 15 bike racers:</div>
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There was this goof talking on a camera as well:</div>
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That pretty much wrapped up the camp itself. On Friday half the team took off to Tucson AZ for the Old Pueblo Crit, the rest of us trekked down to Blythewood SC for a tune up race.<br />
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The Saturday morning TT was more of a CX TT than anything else. The 2 mile course involved several golf cart paths and the hopping of multiple sewer grates, it was fun (only because it was short and the full terribleness of TT's didn't quite get to sink in).<br />
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The afternoon Crit was a short 1km 6 corner deal. We had about a quarter of the field, so we won:<br />
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I started at the back of the field and missed the lapping move that went off on the first lap. So I attacked some, then helped out with the leadout:<br />
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The second day involved a longer circuit. I didn't want to miss the move so I struck out solo for a few laps before being joined by 12 or so guys. This ended up being the move. The overall race leaders joined up with 3 laps to go. I had been sitting on waiting for the sprint, but it unfortunately didn't do me much good. At the top of a big training week before I've really started doing any sprinting workouts, I didn't quite have the legs to finish it off. Luckly Bobby Lea took off on the last lap with Andy Baker from Hincapie and won the race.<br />
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Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-90085510129231560232013-02-13T14:23:00.000-05:002013-02-13T14:23:01.717-05:00Uber Tips for Bike Commuting So it turns out working a full time job and putting in a respectable Pro-level training load is a wee bit of a time commitment, thus I've been neglecting the blog (plus it's the off season). Initially moving down to Greenville I cut out my bike commuting because of my short 10-15 minute commute. However I quickly realized once training started up how difficult it was to motivate myself to ride after work and get the hours in. I forgot how easy it is to pile on the miles with bike commuting There are all sorts of benefits of commuting to work by bike, but for me it really boils down to just two: time management and stress.<br />
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Time management is a big factor for me when I'm trying to put in the training hours. Driving to work is a huge time killer and was particularly so for me when I lived up in Cincinnati. The commute could easily top 30 minutes each way. Riding my bike that same distance took only 45 minutes. Since I was going to train most days after work anyway, it really just freed up another hour of my day. Additionally, bike commuting was extremely consistent in terms of travel time. Without traffic (which on I-75 in Cincy was a total crap shoot) to worry about I could leave at exactly 8, get to the gym at exactly 8:45, shower and be at work by 9 every day. The ONLY time I was late commuting by bike was when I got a flat tire. This commute became so routine for me that I started to dread my forced off days where I'd have to rest the legs and drive in. The miles quickly add up as well. Even without additional training or detours that was 6 hours on the bike during the week, not too bad.<br />
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As far as stress relief goes I didn't even realize how stressed out driving made me until I started riding. It may have been because I knew I was essentially wasting time in the car, or just the fact that driving during rush hour and sitting parked in traffic is always a pain, but I would become extremely stressed out driving to work. Whenever I rode to work I knew I already had some of my training already built into the day which helped me relax and focus on work. I'd also show up to work very alert and awake since I'd already been exercising.<br />
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I've become a total convert of bike commuting, but it definitely takes ALOT of planning to make it enjoyable and worthwhile, however once you have a routine going it's a blast. Here's some of the things I've learned, if anyone still reads this blog I hope it can help you start or improve your commute:<br />
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<b>LOGISTICS</b><br />
1. Find a shower<br />
This is tough to go without, I found a gym near my place of work that I joined. The money I saved in gas quickly paid for the membership each month. If you're training after work you're going to shower twice a day anyway.<br />
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2. Get a locker<br />
This makes your life a whole lot easier. Not only can you keep shampoo/soap/deodorant there, carrying wet cycling gear to the office isn't an option sometimes (it smells). If you get to expert level of commuting you can leave cycling/work clothing there for a few days worth. Bringing this stuff in on off days allowed me to commute/train backpack free without having to stop off at home before heading out to good routes.<br />
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3. Bring an extra pair of underwear to leave in the locker<br />
You will forget and it will be uncomfortable<br />
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<b>ROUTES</b><br />
1. Scout some routes<br />
The route you use to commute is VERY important. Take an easy day on the bike to pre-ride your commute. This way you won't get lost the first time you ride in (and end up being late), you also wont be time limited and can check out other roads that might seem better for commuting<br />
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2. Avoid busy roads<br />
Obvious, but if you need to jump on a high traffic road always go for 4 lanes. You'll be surprised how much space you'll get from drivers, even in traffic, if they have another lane to pass you in.<br />
- A sub-but very important-point to riding a 4 lane road is to ride in the MIDDLE of your lane. If you gutter yourself people will pass you without changing lanes and will get WAY to close for comfort<br />
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3. Avoid Suburban Areas<br />
This may seem counter-intuitive but it's been my very consistent experience that the more suburban (vs urban) the less tolerant people towards bike. Not sure what the reason exactly, but in the hundreds of commutes I did through Cincinnati I never experienced aggressive drivers in the more urban or poorer areas of the city. However without fail whenever I crossed into Glendale I had people giving me pieces of their mind out their window or with their horn.<br />
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4. Avoid large intersections<br />
They kill your flow, add time to commute, and are usually highly trafficked by impatient people.<br />
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5. Explore new routes<br />
After a few months I followed some random guy commuting and he took me behind an old Jim Bean factory to this pedestrian bridge across the freeway, this took 2 major intersections out of my commute. In a city there's all sorts of weird oddities like this, so once you get your basic route down, don't be afraid to try new ones out.<br />
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<b>BIKE</b><br />
1. Ride 25mm tires or bigger<br />
Less flats, nuff said. I had a flat in the west end of Cincy once....switched over to beefy tires immediately<br />
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2. If you ride with a backpack you'll have to tilt your saddle down or raise your handlebars<br />
It will feel different<br />
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3. Get lights<br />
Or not, getting caught out in the dark in the hood is actually a great excuse to leave work on time.<br />
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4. Ask if you can keep your bike in the office<br />
Lot less headache and worry, plus you can ride your sweet bike in instead of a beater.<br />
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5. Get fenders<br />
Riding in the rain is fun, and people give you all sorts of weird looks<br />
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<b>GENERAL</b><br />
1. Get your stuff ready the night before<br />
Trust me it your motivation for riding into work is very low at 7 am<br />
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2. Run errands on your way home<br />
Adds some miles, also multi-tasking<br />
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3. Start in the summer<br />
Less clothes required, less dress up time, easier to start the routine.<br />
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3. Keep your head on a swivel<br />
Don't get distracted by speedometer, music, etc. Your senses are the only thing between you and getting creamed by some idiot driver not paying attention.<br />
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<b>MOST IMPORTANT:</b><br />
Be obvious and ride like a Honey Badger, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg">Honey Badger don't care</a><br />
This took me some time to learn but greatly improved my overall quality of commuting: Don't give a shit about pissing off drivers.<br />
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You are riding with people in 2 ton metal contraptions whizzing past you with not always the most competent people at the helm. Think of the drivers for a second: they're in a rush, they're on their smart phones, they may be drunk, they may be dozing off, who knows. The bottom line is don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings, be as obvious of a cyclist as possible. Ride in the middle of the lane, pull in front of people at stop lights, wave your arms wildly when turning. It may not convince any drivers to love cyclists, but really, a few people getting pissed off is a small price to pay when you consider the consequence of being hit by a car. If someone has to slow down because of you, yells at you, or honks at you, they've noticed you.<br />
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Those are just some things I've done and work best, hopefully it's helpful to anyone considering it. Oh yeah and there's all that, saving money and saving the environment stuff that goes along with bike commuting. Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-32163764631306608742013-01-09T10:53:00.002-05:002013-01-09T11:00:08.553-05:00Contour Roam testSo I got one of these for Xmas (Thanks Mom+Dad)<br />
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I've been getting some Vid's:</div>
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I know I need to re-adjust my brakes, thank you<br />
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Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-60548888966838724682012-12-10T11:21:00.000-05:002012-12-10T11:21:44.801-05:00A new form of experssionI now have a tumblr<br />
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Because I like pretty pictures<br />
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and Pinterest is for girls<br />
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Check it:<br />
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<a href="http://rockets2sprockets.tumblr.com/">rockets2sprockets.tumblr.com/</a>Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-70044424758245714552012-11-20T13:18:00.001-05:002012-11-20T13:21:35.980-05:00Off season burn outYes I'm burnt out...on the off season. Sure it's fun at first. Drinking beer, sleeping in, spending every weekend in your own bed, not giving a rat's ass about what you eat...you know: enjoying yourself. You float along in life carefree and without purpose, except possibly a day job you have on the side designing jet engines (but that's just a hobby).<br />
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Eventually the weeks add up and your RRSS (Rest & Relaxation Stress Score) has just been in the red for too long. You look at that big mac and instead of thinking 'Man this is a delicious second burger! Maybe I'll get a third!', you'll be thinking '<a href="http://youtu.be/saC13RJ8CUs">Oh Noooo</a>, my watts/kg'. You wake up and noon on Saturday and think 'If I woke up at 7, I could have already had a century done'. The list of terrible soul draining thoughts goes on, trust me.<br />
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Thankfully Thanksgiving coincides with the beginning of nearly every bike racer's annual training plan, except those cyclocross people. It's everyone's A level event of the off season. Depending on your family size it's 2, 3, or in my own case 4 stages of total gorging on turkey, gravy, lasagna, and sweets (I have an Eating Cat 1 level family) . When you're done you've guilt-ed yourself so bad you immediately hop on the bike and do 5 hours through the mountains, which probably only amounts to enough KJ's to negate ONE of the pie's you ate at your aunt's house.<br />
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And thus it begins.<br />
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Don't worry, in lieu of any physical training the past few months, I've been training in the psychological aspects of bike racing, mainly petty insults and slap fighting:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QwKaeWkYbqk" width="420"></iframe>Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-9006279515287468572012-11-16T09:06:00.002-05:002012-11-16T09:06:26.914-05:00No racing going on this time of year...So it's pretty low key this time of year, so here's a video of a Boeing commercial jet doing a Barrel Roll:<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rILk6-4SMJQ" width="640"></iframe>
Let's see your fancy pants 787 do that!! (pft, computers)Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-53610893202855997722012-11-07T22:14:00.001-05:002012-11-07T22:56:23.484-05:00I've come to the conclusion CX sucks (again)There comes a point every year I’ve ridden bikes, particularly the breed of cyclocross bikes, where I get fed up and decide cross is the absolute worst discipline of cycling ever created, even this is cooler:<br />
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Every year for me goes exactly the same, first I buy a CX bike (because I’d already sold the previous years bike in disgust). I’ll do a training ride or two on the bike with a handful of dismounts and start racing. I’ll be all psyched up for it and watch a bunch of videos at work of Sven Nys making it look easy and figure…how hard can it be? The first few races will go well because I’m cruising on my summer road fitness, but as the weeks pass by I’ll get slower…and slower...and slower. I’ll end up at a point where I’m totally fed up with CX and decide to quit and sell all my crap only to repeat the next year.
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While I may have solved the issue of selling my CX bike every year by buying a sweet bike that was specifically made for me and my ridiculous dimensions. I don’t think I’ve figured out how to make CX not suck as I realized this weekend.
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I don’t think I’d ever finished last place in a bike race in my life…until last Saturday, it was quite the experience. I made the trip back up to Cincinnati to see some friends, drop off and pick up stuff, and do a little cyclocross bike riding. The Kings CX race was terrible, I’m pretty good at night races in bad weather…on the road, put me on dirt in the same conditions and things get ugly.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lap 1, still smiling, no idea how much crashing and getting lapped is about to ensue</td></tr>
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It was an awesome atmosphere at the race: big crowd for the bad weather, very cool course, all good things, except for the mud. I think the cycling gods were trying to tell me something when as soon as I left the pavement I immediately crashed in the mud. Once the race started I probably took 1st prize for going from mid pack to DFL in the shortest amount of time. I’m blaming my tire pressure…it should have been 24psi not 25 psi, I would have had that Trebone character if I had the right pressure.
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Anyway, I did my three laps. I crashed no less than 10 times in those three laps and managed to crack a SRAM shifter clean in half (I was going fast enough to do this trust me, I was just on the back side of the course where no one could see me).
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Sunday went slightly better: I managed to ride my bike for a whole 40 minutes. However it was still ugly, I might retire for a few weeks from CX until I forget how terrible I am at cross.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-68704621365648486752012-11-06T09:02:00.002-05:002012-11-06T09:02:45.886-05:00Holy S#*t BallsI'm selling everything I own, buying a DH bike, and moving to South America.<br />
This looks awesome
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1qibdNgWU_M" width="640"></iframe>Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-25166328251258027582012-10-29T21:22:00.002-04:002012-10-29T21:25:57.285-04:00Gran Fondo!So I just finished my first Gran Fondo. While this may sound like a type of cheese, it is in-fact a cheesy type of bike ride. I've heard stories, as most cyclist have, of these Fondos. For those who aren't up on the cycling sub-culture lingo: A Fondo is basically a supported group/charity type ride that is timed. You can race it all you want, or you can stop at every rest stop and make sure your caloric ledger is in the black (i.e. stuff your face with sweets).
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For other cyclists reading this: A Fondo is what you get when you take the Tri-athlete mentality and apply it to bike racing. Sure it’s timed, but all that really matters is that you finish and try really hard (yes this is a cheap shot).
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These stories involve mostly overly intense masters<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/sports/cycling/doping-in-cycling-reaches-into-amateur-ranks.html"> cheating to "win" the Fondo</a>. Usually winning just consists of bragging rights, which we all know are the best prizes one can win from a cycling event, aside from a saddle bag of course. However in the NYC Fondo I believe you win a bike.
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This past weekend I participated in my first Gran Fondo: the Hincapie Gran Fondo celebrating the 19 year career of a very storied career. I had just found out about the Fondo last week and had to do some finagling to get in, but got my entry the Thursday before had packet pickup on Friday, and was ready to...er...race?<br />
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Early on Saturday morning Two thousand some bikes and people packed into the narrow mountain road in front of Hincapie’s Villa-style hotel. I used my awesome crit-racing skills of lining up like a D-bag and slotted only a few spots off the front of the quarter mile long group.
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Before the start as Hincapie climbed onto the lead vehicle to address the crowd, the other pros started filing in. I knew a few BMC pros would be in attendance, but there was more. In addition to Hincapie there was Cadel Evans, Dave Zabriskie, Ted King, Christian Vande Velde, Tee Jay VanGarderen, Brent Bookwalter, Michael Barry, and a bunch of domestic pro guys. I don't care whats in the news but the guys held weight in the crowd. A rider would feel a tap on the shoulder and turn around thinking to give a frown to some guy trying to wiggle up. When they saw World champion bands on the sleeve they quickly bowed out of the way. People weren't there to argue or politic, those things were better left to print and internet, they were there to ride bikes.
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The group rolled out around some truly beautiful roads near the Greenville Reservoir. People were attacking off the front of the group in the beginning but mostly the group rode whatever pace George rode. The route hung left around a quaint lake and the road snaked around the edge of the water. There was a crash, people yelling "slowing" but generally the group was calm, the perfect fall weather must have softened the toughest resolve of those determined to get to the front and show the Pro's they meant business (I overheard this more than once).
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We hit the first climb of Skyuka and the leisurely group ride ceased to be leisurely. Skyuka is well, here’s the Strava:
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It’s a doosie of a climb, with the 11-25 cassette I had I was grinding my knees to bits. I was also trying to stick with the big pro guys, because how many times do you get to ride with Cadel Evans and the rest. I was trying to conceal my fan-boy grin while totally going into oxygen debt. Meanwhile those guys were all shit-talking the entire way up the climb.
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After the climb I stopped with the rest of the group at the first feed station. From what I hear after this point a small group continued on, choosing not to stop and raced the rest of the Fondo. The descent of Skyuka was one of the most fun/technical descents I’ve done in a while.
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The ride continued through the beautiful mountain country of North/South Carolina. It hit a few more VERY steep climbs before going through Saluda and descending around the reservoir back to the start. On the descent back we started goofing around and hitting it pretty hard. The whole while THIS kid (not DZ, though they're probably got the same toys):
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…kept on jumping on every surge, spinning his junior gearing up to about 150 rpm. Watch out leTour.
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Best part of the ride though was the festival at the end with free food and FREE BEER. I'm converted to the Fondo's, not the ultra-competitive type though, there's enough of that in good ole USCF racing already. I'm there for the food, people, and mountain passes.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5269545159712160229.post-50874771525695749012012-10-25T21:26:00.001-04:002012-10-25T21:26:37.546-04:00I moved!There's good reason the blog has been silent the past few weeks. Things have been pretty busy, mostly with the off season proceedings and all the business that goes along with moving again.<br />
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It's tough to move again trust me. However at ****** Global us project engineers are considered "fluid resources". Fluid Resources really translates to: a recent grad without a spouse who is mobile at the drop of a hat. To be honest it's perfectly fine with me, it's starting to get a little chilly up in Ohio. So about a month ago I got a pretty good offer to move back down to Greenville South Carolina...yes AGAIN. This coincided with some other developments that I took as a sign from the almighty:<br />
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I said yes to move, however what I didn't know is that when I said yes I'll move they'd give me so much time to move. When I said I agreed to move my entire life "permanently" on Thursday Sept. 13th they responded: Great we'll see you next Wednesday.<br />
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Throw in a UCI level road race in the form of Bucks County that weekend and I had a stressful couple of days on my hands.<br />
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Brief Buck's Race Report: Was able to be at the front of the race, be aggressive, but ended up sinking all my chips into the wrong move. Having a 2 month break of local crits since my last NRC speed race really dulls you physically and mentally.<br />
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So after a stressful few weeks I'm finally down here in Greenville enjoying my off season. I'm fully moved into a cool apartment downtown that's just a mile north of downtown. I still am fairly short on furniture in the place, and still have some belongings in Cincinnati, but the important thing is that I'm renting it by myself which means I NEVER have to wear pants, I've say I've made it.<br />
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Anyway I'm looking foreward to getting to know the area a little better than the first time I was here for 2 months. I've already re-discovered the awesomeness of the MTB trails at Paris mountain.<br />
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So to any of my fellow Midwestern amigos, if you need a slight break from the cold weather look no further. I'd say you can crash on my couch but I don't have a couch yet.Chris Ubertihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10295549813305003145noreply@blogger.com0