Back Home

Back in town now, feeling rested from the big trip and have a few races in the legs. The first races this yr have felt... better than normal. Saying the first race of year is a shock to the systems would be a huge understatement. But this year despite a very tough field at wells ave last weekend the legs handled the stop and go chaos of a bike race rather well. I can only imagine that this is due to the changes I made in my training. The changes of... ohh, sorry, the secret training can’t be reviled in detail. There is always the factor that it’s another year. Another year of races, adaptation, more training, more endurance, being smarter, but still. 3 races so far and I feel I am ahead from last year. So I am pretty happy. Most of all I am happy with the fact that I am racing again after a long winter and still loving everything there is to the sport. I have seen many athletes fight there way to the top but during there battle they forgot what they were fighting for. I was one of them. You start saying things like, "I have to do those intervals this afternoon." with a sigh, a frown and monotone. Rather than," yo! are you training this after noon? what are you doin? Because I am doing that killer interval workout and need some company to remind me what my name is after I sweat off 3 lb's of water!" almost yelling, and hands flailing like an angry Italian mother. I guess I am saying is its important to remember why we do the sports and activities we do. We don't need to understand why we do them, or feel the way we do about them. But as long as we still fell "that way" after the intervals we'll be doing the sports we love for a long time. And that's what it takes. Longevity. Back to the races. Johncake training race. I started a move which looked real good. After 7 miles or so the "pack" came back (only 30 strong now from 60). which set up the break of the race to go. Joe moody shot out of the pack to connect with Robbie King formally kenda/raleigh teammate. And they were gone. Only 10 miles into the 63 mile race they continued to put time in on the chase for the rest of the race. Joe in the end settled for second but a great showing for the team and for 140! Marblehead was, as expected, a barnburner. Fast from the gun and it never really let up. Even if it did there is a false flat with a cross wind, a 180 degree turn to sprint out of and 30 mile per hour head wind section and a 8% 30 second hill to put the nail in your legs. Throw in a few strong teams, big Mark attacking and you've got 90 minutes of pure hell. I felt good trying to bridge to the break following one of Marks attacks and patrolling the front for much of the race. In the end it was to much as the last 8 miles came I was unable to move up and relegated my self to the back. It was now Eric's job (my teammate) to see what he could do at the finish. 7th! And we were all pretty happy. Improvements to be made, yes, but 7th was a good result for a team with no pure sprinter. Back to some training. thanks for checking in.

Last one

Day 7, Recovery another long recovery day. 3:45 and 65miles. Another nice day and I was feeling the weeks efforts. We road a steady pace on the climbs and I dropped back towards the top on all 3 of them. My Hr was very low and I thought that I had better take it easy rather than dig a whole for my self. I feel I am coming out of this week stronger than I have ever been and I can not wait to test it out in the races to came very soon.
This trip has been wonderful. The scenery, cows, goats, mountains, the descents that go forever and the climbs that go further. Our tan lines are in full form now and I hope they do there job, intimidation. Its funny when I first started racing my cycling mentor, Todd, was calming me down before an early season race. I was getting very intimidated by almost every one. He said, “No, No Eric, don’t worry about them. Your strong. The guys you need to worry about are the ones that show up in April with matching bikes and tan lines”. And now… that’s me. It makes me feel really honored to have come full circle like that. I’ll miss a lot about this trip. Our friendly dog that lives down the road from us, greeting us every day. His wrinkly face flapping in the wind, tong hanging out. I’ll miss the gas station lunches. The animals, the southern charm, the slow mornings and the hot tube that greeted us at the end of every ride. I miss the company of my teammates although I miss Lindsay very much. I’ll miss worrying about nothing else but trying to figure out how I will get my body up to the task of riding yet another brutal course for yet another day.

GA, 3-16-06 the queen stage.

Ok today was epic. By far the hardest ride I have ever done. I was lucky enough to be at the 04 tour and watch lance make the alp look like someone’s driveway. The day before we embarked on a ride of only 85 miles or so but climbed the col d’ galiber and then back to the top of L’ alp. That was awful. I felt horrible, I’m sure being wasted on wine at 7000 feet and eating pizza for dinner at midnight didn’t help. Either way it’s a hard climb. But I wasn’t “on” by any stretch. Today I felt good. Real good, and I needed it all. We did the 6 gap loop we did earlier this week. With the addition of Brass Town Ball (infamous finish at the tour D’ George). From the side we climbed it totaled 45 minutes or so. The last 3 miles in the park with sustained sections of 15 and 20 percent. More details in the training log.A quick play by play: 1 hr to hog pen gap, then up. 20 some minutes of very steep roads, 10+%. Felt pretty good. Next another gap but we tock some back country dirt roads. I was having visions of Deliverance. 90 minutes on the dirt and we see a bear. A baby cub “ how cute” I thought. He was so Cute!, and where was mom? If mom finds us we are all going to die. Well, at least one of us and I was the slowest descender. We tip toed down the road following the cub until he hoped up on the side of the road and we gunned it to the main road. Another classic decent. And we turned towards brass town. Brutal! 26 minutes on the upper section averaging a 189 heart rate. The first half was all right. But after a long section of 20% or so it was impossible to recover. The last km. I was stopping between every pedal stroke, zigzagging across the road. I lead the whole climb 50-100 meters ahead of my teammates and pulling away until the final 500m or so when… you guessed it. Eric Pearson came up to me. I attacked hard and pulled away fast but paid for the acceleration fully. Almost having to unclip and put my foot down. He passed me and we congratulated each other at the summit for our efforts. back down. A quick stop for some food, water, coffee, any thing we cold get. We were already 4:30 into the ride with 3 climbs still to go, over 8000 feet in the legs, and barley halfway through. up Nells gap. I attacked again towards the top and again paid for it fully. I pushed hard and despite being caught by Joe and Eric my sprint won the KOM, not that we were racing. Down, and another turn to start the long gradual climb up woods gap 45 minutes or so we stayed together and Jay Baer laid down the tempo. Steady and strong. I was now paying for my attacking as we approached the 5 hr mark. Towards the top. Eric Pearson came to the front and lifted the pace. Nothing dramatic but I was in full suffer mode. Concentrating as hard as possible. Every pedal stroke prying that the top was around the next corner. The caffeinated cliff shot I tock at the start of the climb did nothing. Or did it? If it did I was worse off than I realized. Upon reaching the top I was shaking. Taking some deep breaths I fired down a cliff bar. And a few mouthfuls of sports drink. Shock out the legs and tried to relax. Everyone was suffering as much as I was. We skipped the last stop with only 1 hr to go and one climb. Wolf pen gap. Not so bad from this side it rolled upwards, slowing gaining altitude with frequent down hills until the last 5-7 minutes. I drank my special gel flask mixture that I have been working on. It kicked in fast and I started to come around. Still feeling I had more to give and show that I was still strong after a 7 hr ride and 30hr’s this week. I went to the front to set the tempo for 15’ or so leading into the last climb. As it started to bight I dug deep feeling better now. Eric P. came around to set the pace up the climb. ¾ of the way up he accelerated fearing an attack from me, he later said. There was no attacking to be had from me any more. I was able to match him for a 1 minute or so then I started to fall back. I held my pace and maintained the small gap in between us. I kicked again at the top but could not catch him. We all regrouped and road hard and steady, single file for the last 30 minutes home.
The dirt road slowed us down a lot. Descending at 15 MPH does the avg. speed no good. All in all it was a ride for the books and one we will ever forget. Sorry no teammate spotlight today. There all great guys but I’m barley keeping up with the daily reports.

Day 5, rest day:

A bit more “rest” than the last one. A real relaxed breakfast and a movie. I forget the name. its on Gilberto Simoni’s Giro win on 2003. pretty exciting stuff. Being inside the team bus, and lots of behind the seen’s clips. Another recovery ride today. Nice and easy still 4 hr and 7000 feet of elevation gain. The weather is still great. Cool and sunny. Some real back country roads today. About an hr. of riding today on dirt roads.
Pics: here lare some pictures of the trip so far for your enjoyment.
getting ready to go.
us recoverying in the hot tube.
some mountains.
the normal terrain arount here.
Us Pirating wireless internet, etc...

I should take a second to mention our sponsors. Not because I have to but because I am really happy to have them all. They really do make a difference.
Kenda Tires: so nice I have only ridden the training tires so far but they handle so well and are rather light for being so durable. They are also supporting us financially which has made this trip possible and will hopefully make our success this yr possible.
Raleigh Bikes: so nice I think I mentioned this before. Full carbon, sweat ride, not much else to say.
Clif Bar: I was really happy to hear that we had cliff bar on board. Simply because there the best. Gel shots, drink mix, recovery drink, and bars, I would use this stuff even if we had a different sponsor.
Rudy project: I have to say that my old sun glasses I didn’t like. Well, upon donning my new shades I realized it was because they had endured 5 yrs and several crashes. One where I landed literally on them. Breaking me 2 front teeth, and was lucky not to break my jaw. It still hurts. These new shades rock! Light weight, very comfortable, polarized lenses, and most important. They look good!
Blackburn: you train more than you race and they make training that much better. Pumps, the nicest cyclometer I have ever used. The pumps have already come in handy ironically to the one wheel that didn’t have a Kenda tire on it? I think we were riding single file?
Louis Garneau: the best clothing and accessories there are its that simple… And all of our other sponsors, they really do keep us going, and they are all very important.

Day 4, more climbing

Another long hilly one today. 90 miles only 3 climbs but they were all pretty long. we totaled almost 8000 feet of elevation, and I was out to prove myself to my new teammates. I felt good and I figured that the legs would be better today. On the first climb, the back side of a climb we did the other day, Jay Baer put in a big acceleration and I followed. After a minute or so he let up, just opening up his legs I’m sure, and I kept the pace going I was feeling strong. It was early in the ride and I didn’t want to go over the edge to soon. But I was under control and seemingly putting some space between myself and my teammates. As I approached the top I tock a few deep breaths and tried to stretch out the 3 days of tightness that were already creeping into the legs. Joe and Eric Pearson were not far behind. Joe was “stretching” his legs a bit as well. A long beautiful decent and some more gorgeous roads, Have I mentioned the riding and scenery here is awesome!? The next climb was long. Not so steep a bit of a head wind, it was a very windy day today, and about 45’ of climbing we reached the top of the next gap. Joe, Eric P. and my self laid down some serious tempo on this climb for the entire duration, 10+ miles or so. We then meandered through some rolling terrain. And by the way the “rolling” roads out here ROLLING! Steep as the steepest Trapelo road hills (for those of you that know it) and 3 times as long or longer. Tough riding. So onto the last climb, Wolf Pen Gap. This is the one closest to our house. Not to long 3 miles 20 minute climb. From the back side its broken up into 2 section so its not so bad. I really laid it down on this, the last of our climbs, Jay Baer came with me and I gave it everything I had. finally he dropped back a bit only to sprint back up to me right at the top! And he said he’s not a climber. If that’s the case I have a lot of work to do! After the decent, I caught up to my team, waiting for me. Because as you remember I descend pretty poorly. I got there and the comments started. “what happened dude? You have a mechanical?” If you know me and my past you could understand how sometimes this would really get to me. But we won’t get into that. I was mad not at the ribbing but more at why I suck at going down hill. I just can’t keep up! So still feeling frisky I went t o the front in the now brutal head/cross wind and road as hard as I could. After 10-15 minutes the yelling started. I figured I made my point and we settled into a “more efficient” pace headed home directly into a 30 MPH head wind with gusts 35-40! A killer day, I was broken and so was everyone else. Teammate spotlight: Joe MoodyJoe is a… precise guy. An engineer. He’s also easy to get along with, a guy you can just talk to. That’s sometimes hard to find with really smart people. You know those people that are just to smart for there own good all they can talk about is how to divide a Neutron, or discuss there’re own theory’s on building the next longest suspension bridge. Were off the point here but he’s a good guy. he’s also the team director, has put together this whole trip and trains like a mad man. So yeah he’s also a good multi-tasker. Joe is training for later in the season so he has been keeping the intensity a bit lower. Today he gave us a taste of what he has “under the hood”. Its always frustrating when your riding up a steep climb, have blood coming out your ears, snot running down your face and he say something like. “wow look at that view” in a totally composed and calm voice? Ohh yeah and after our 4:20 death march. Joe did another 40 minutes just to make sure he got in 5hr! (I went with being sure not to be out done). This is someone who I am very happy to have on my team and race against anymore. Really happy. Now the team and I will have the job of being strong enough to help him out in the long grueling climbs of the road races that stretch over 4 hours and we all better be up to it. Joe doesn’t like failure, and he doesn’t sugar coat anything. He’ll be the first to tell you your wrong or you screwed up. Keep an eye out this name. It will surely be in the top part of the results pages.