July 12th, 2008
Ok, so I always really liked Horner as a rider there's just something about his riding style which always amazes me. But here, here is one of the most badass things that I have seen him do, and no, it wasn't a win or an attack or a crash, but rather something completely different.
With 2k to go uphill to the finish, Horner was riding in with a group when he noticed a rider runnig his broken bike up the hill to the finish. Rather then joing in with the "oh shit, that sucks dude" of his companions, Horner pulled over and said "hop on".
How badass is that?
Yes, they were given the same time.
July 12th, 2008
So, the crit didn't exactly work out that great for the team. There were multiple crashes throughout the day and almost all of our riders were involved in one. Brock and I got a great seat right at a bar on the last corner and got to see Jonathan Garcia from BMC come flying practically right into us. The quote of the day however comes from Santi Botero. Santi comes back to the car after his race with blood dripping down his leg and his ass hanging out of his bibs. The first things he says is "Criterium mother fucker". LOL
July 11th, 2008
On a light note, I thought I would go back to posting some fun online material that you can all enjoy. Here's a music video that I saw for the first time in Belgium. I suggest you watch the whole thing. The best part starts right around 2:30 in my opinion.
Oh yes, and here's one more for all you cyclists out there. I especially love what they do at the end.
July 10th (again)
And that was the last I saw of the peloton for the rest of the day after my team car ditched me
At least he has good form. Right foot in the air and push off the left
This is going to suck
July 10th, 2008
Let me just warn you before I start this entry that am more then a little pissed off. There you go, there's your PG-13 rating warning.
So, our plan coming into the day was a little more complicated then usual. Usually, the leader's team sits on the front all day and sets tempo. However, we knew that we did not have a strong enough team here at Cascade (with our "A" squad racing in China) and that might be a tall order. What we were going to do was to hopefully go with as many moves as we could in the first part of the race to neutralize them, and once a break established, that we would go to the front and keep the gap around 3 minutes till the climb.
One problem that we encountered was that the break that got up the road was around 12 guys. No real threats for the overall after the TT, but some quality guys none the less. After they gained about a minute, we organized at the front to keep the gap right around 1:30/2:00. BMC decided to chip in after they missed the break as well, and for about 45 minutes, myself, 2 teammates, and 3 BMC riders rotated through hard to keep the gap stable.
Here is where my race went to complete shit. We had been on the front for around 45 minutes when my front tire decided to go flat for the second day in a row. I drifted back through the single file line of riders back to the caravan. Unfortunately, our car was not in the greatest of positions and I was just off the back of the caravan after my wheel change. Normally, no problem.
My car pulled alongside me like they were going to motorpace me, the took the fuck off. Apparently, the commisaire was going to fine them for motorpacing me back. (fuck them, just take the fine and do it anyways. We are the leaders team and this is a National Level bike race. WTF). Normally, I would still be able to get back on, but add in the fact that I had been riding hard on the front and that we were going into a 20mph headwind and I was screwed. SOL.
So, with 45 miles left to go, the last 10 being uphill, I was on a mission to make the time cut. These 45 miles were all a headwind, so I was flogging myself pretty hard so I could be of some use to Santi in the coming days. With about 11 miles to go, I was 12 minutes back and pretty sure I was going to make the time cut. Here's shitty part #2.
Fucking race marshalls directed me the fuckin wrong way. Apparently, this happened 3 times throughout the day. I rode 10 miles the wrong direction with the broom wagon following me. Finally, I motioned the lady in the broomwagon up and asked her how far to the finish. This fucktard (sorry, really pissed) had no idea and claimed that she had just been following me and had no idea where to go. I asked her for the race bible (which she had but apparently didn't use) and found out that I had taken a wrong turn 10 miles back. After that, I got in the van and was driven to the finish. We'll appeal the result, but I don't think it will do much good.
In other news, I fly from here to do 2 wonderful weeks of Superweek in Milwaukee.
July 9th, 2008
Todays Headline:
Santiago crushes all at the first stage of Cascade. Santiago got into a 12 man breakaway and single handily outrode Slipstream and HealthNet trying to pull him back. I love this picture, this is in the last 1km of the stage and the hill is like 14%
By the way, these are they new kits and they kick ass. I heard the ones for Qinghai ake are even cooler tho with gold and dragons. I finished of today's stage around 25th. I dug myself into a hole after flating about 2 miles from the main climb and having to climb through a couple of groups to get back on. Oh yeah, we started out today like a bat out of hell. Plenty of time riding around 34 mph. We took the first hour at 49kph average and ended with a 47.5kph.
.Tomorrow's headline: Adam rides ont he front all day and blows up spectacuosly to just barely make the time cut so he can endure another 3 days of riding on the front.
July 7th, 2008
Fun 4th of July weekend if I don't say so myself. Last time on here was the morning of the 4th of July crit in my hometown so lets start off there.
Even though the race was a whole 6 minute bike ride away, I actually drove to the race to sign some pictures for the kids along with some other local pros and didn't really want to be sitting around in my chamois for the 2 hours afterward before my race.
I got my usual warmup in before the race of talking to people I haven't seen in a while and taking one full lap of the course. Of course, after that 1 lap warmup I started at the back of the 120 person field but was able to move up pretty easy. Long story short, rode in circles for an hour, jumped in a few good moves, made a big move with like 10 to go and pulled out maybe a 15 second solo gap but it wasn't really a good course to go solo on. After that I pulled the plug for what is normally a crash filled finale.
Sara Mach yelling at me that I am so much better then her husband Paul Mach
After the race we continued the 4th of July Celebration back at my place with bbq, beer, grapefruit smashing, homerun derby at the park, fireworks (both legal and illegal, plus we pissed off the neighbors which is always good) and finally a trip to the big Davis 4th of July kickoff where there were skydivers, bands, firewroks, the whole shebang really.
Yesterday was Leesville Gap RR. Once again, blah blah blah, rode hard etc. Treated the race more like a workout but wouldn't minded the win. I was able to spit things up on the hill rather nicely after leading from bottom to top, but at the finish, I was just out played. I felt that I was probably the strongest out of the group (6 riders, 3 of the Cal Giant) if it came down to a sprint, but it wasn't meant to be and I settled for 4th. Good day or riding still and a good win by Jesse Moore.
Leave for Cascade tomorrow afternoon. Should be fun, good to get out of Davis for awhile. Wish me luck. I'm going to leave you with a strip from Garfield minus Garfield. Who would have thought that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?
July 4th, 2008
Morning of the 4th of July Crit. We'll see if I can't light some fireworks today in the race. Before hand, I am going to the Bistro downtown to sign some pictures and talk to some kids along with some other local pros. It's always great to give back to the communities that gave you so much. Hopefully, I'll get back at you tomorrow with some more comics and some my own personal Tour de France commentary.
I am going to leave you with a clip from an awesome website. www.postsecret.com. It's a website where people send in there confessions and they are posted to the website along with a picture that describes them. I especially like this one because I have been guilty of doing this many times.
July 2nd, 2008
My roommate Amy has been bugging me to update my blog in an effort to surpass the excellence that is paulmach.com. Lets see...well, the weather has been so crappy lately due to the fires that I have had a very light week on the bike, so you are spared about hearing about some boring bike talk.
In Davis, we are lucky enough to have more then enough frozen yogurt places. One of these frozen yogurt places is a "pay by the ounce" place. Yep, you get to choose how much ice crea you want, add up to 50 toppings, then you pay by weight. Tyler and I take pride in determining what is the best taste and substance to cost ratio. After months of discussion
- Ice cream is dense, stay away from the ice cream. If you must get some, use sparingly
- Whip cream is a definite plus. You can get a giant cup of whip cream for like 30cents. One of these days, I am going to go in and have them just give me $2 in whip cream
- Chocolate sauce and caramel sauce, while delectably delicious, are the big money wasters. Thick and dense
They also have a record for the most ice cream eaten at one sitting. The current record holder gets a $20 gift certificate, and the current record is somewhere around $27. Let me tell you, the day the off-season starts, that record is going down.
4th of July is this Friday and I can't believe I forgot to bring all of my illegal fireworks. There goes any chance of me lighting my roof on fire. A good race, bbq, and fireworks show should hopefully make up for it hopefully.
I am going to leave you with the directions that I got from google maps to get from my house to Australia. According to google maps, it should only take me 41 days to arrive there, mostly due to direction #17.
Don't worry, I have plenty of new content next week, especially my theory on using HR monitors and power meters in the bedroom. Intervalls anyone? Also, for the inquiring and meddelsome minds (yes, you Amy), I had dinner with the most beautiful and fun girl last night. Happy now???
This blog was brought to you by Eric O'Brien; who sehds a tear and doesn't know why everytime I make a gramatical error. Oh yes, Tyler and Paul...hurry back. My life is so anti-homoerotic since you have left
June 28th, 2008
Ok, so I am going to figure out how to add a comment section to this webpage, but it might take me a little while. Hopefully though, you can look forward to it in the next couple of days.
The air here in Davis has been complete crap the last week thanks to all of the NorCal fires that we have had. At least I've had a pretty chill rest week, so I haven't been riding too much outside. I even rode the rollers one day (thanks to my host family in Truckee for gifting me those awesome Al Kreitler rollers). Other then that, I've just been hanging around Davis and catching up with old friends and trying to get my roommate Amy to do something exciting with me. We are thinking about trying Bikram Yoga here. 90 minutes of Yoga in 105 degree heat, perfect training for U23 Nats in L.A.
Also, this morning I made my way to the Farmers Market and bought nothing again. I always go there
thinking about all of the delicious food I can get, but realize once I get there just how much of a cheapskate
I am. I am going to leave you today with a comic from one of my favorite websites.
June 26th, 2008
Here we go, another blog for your enjoyment. My first goal with this one is to make it past the 10 posts. My second goal is to move ahead of paulmach.com on Phil's list of best websites.
Blah blah blah, bikes bikes bikes etc etc. Thats pretty much what every bike racers blog is about. I'll try to be a little different, but I really doubt that will happen. Anyways, next race on the schedule is Cascade which should be a blast since Botero will be there. Yay for riding on the front for 7 days.
Here's a list of some things I want to accomplish over the summer. If you want to help me, email me and we'll go do one
- Take a tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield
- But first take a tour of the Budweiser factory next door to make the Jelly Belly tour more enjoyable
- Go to a waterpark
- Kayak down the American River
- Hit a bucket of golf balls
- Play nine holes (even though I have never really picked up a golf club)
- Go to the Berkley horse track and learn some cool lingo and bet on something like a trifecta