If you're chasing dreams you gotta run em down, but take a break for a minute its the summer now

I've been a little MIA in the blog-o-sphere since pretty much the start of summer. You know going off to magical places and doing big things. Pretty much general dirtbaggery.

Summer recap, race report, random rambling a bit of all should follow in a random order but whatever. Or you can look at the pictures and get the TL;DR at the bottom.

***Not quite finished yet but I'll put it up now anyways***

Big things

XC MTB National Championships

Bear Creek, for those not in the know its about an hour due west of NYC and has some smallish mountains with a crazy amount of rocks just kind of everywhere than will make or break someone. More DNFs to crashes and broken bikes than I would have thought, clean a lap and you are a certified bike NINJA, clean them all you are some kind of Demigod mingling with the mortals. I think I got ninja stuff a few times. Made some friends and raced some races.

Not winning but styling for sure

STXC Cat 1 19-2somthings

So I started the long weekend off right by racing in a skinsuit and vintage RayBan aviators made sometime around 1975. Not going to write a long story about a short race. Second row call up, SICCCKKKK, on B-Slows wheel from the gun, good idea bad plan.

Made it up to back of the really fast guys drafting Mr Lewis then he made a pass I didn't and another and another. Then I got passed and again and again, by the third lap I was on the ragged edge on the back of the second group. Shortly there after I got dropped and pulled. About 12 minutes that crushed me, immediately found beer and finished before the leaders were done. Winning. Oh yeah I turned 21 shortly before nats too.

Finished up 20th out of 25

Sketchy hotels and many laps and lots of rocks 

Note to self Red Carpet Inns are sketch, $80 a night is cheap, deal with it, use savings to buy fabrezze and get by. Also camp next year and bum showers off of the guys that spent money on the resort rooms. 

Crushed some pre laps with kool kats from all over. Met guys that ride for Marion Univeristy, they were fast. Showed some pro the line off the drop off on the pro course. More pro than the pros, ninja level achieved. 

U23 How is it possible for guys to be this fast? For real what is happening.

So I defiantly ended up in cyclingnews at the back from the gun.

Does this make my butt famous?

 Took a more conservative strategy of survival in the U23 race. 2nd to last row call up. First UCI race. This is going to be hard. Fast from the gun I held about 25-30th for a majority of the race, getting passed by delayed riders in other categories and eventually getting lapped. 

Still CLEANED the pro rock garden, by far some of the gnarliest stuff I have raced, multiple laps, had a few clean laps, didn't get hurt and had only minor mechanicals due to wearing out my wide narrow in six months, sorry raceface your rings are too soft for my power. 

33rd of 45, getting better in a faster field, whats going to happen next race?

XC Cat 1 19-not very old and helping save the day.

XC race, whatever went fast jumped rocks, dabed and fell a few times went faster, only got passed by one singlespeeder, finished 14th of 30. I was pleased.

Shortly after the two winners Bryan and Gordon dropped me 30 seconds into their cool down ride I went back to the parking lot. I was spent could barley turn pedals. I came across a group of racers and a team mechanic a ways from the start finish. It was Vicki Barclay of Stan's No Tubes Elite team and her singlespeed wouldn't stop shifting. (to those not into bikes this is really bad). Ended up needing some more tools, my car was 50m away and happy to help I loaned them out. Clutch save less than 10 minutes before her start, she won the Ladies SS and I was rewarded with a pretzel and much swag from the Stan's guys. Still winning at nationals just off the race track.  

Cool Virginia kids win pretty much everything

Between Bryan Lewis, Gordon Wadsworth, Adam Croft and a few others I'm forgetting off the top of my head there were a heck of a lot of stars and bars jerseys taken back to the Old Dominion. East Coast peps shred east coast gnar and even wear East Coasters Socks.  

That Foof is Fly

21st Suckas! Not really being an adult is lame.

21 years old yay, I can no longer get an underage drinking charge! Woot! This is kind of cool, but the novelty wore off when 6 days in I was no longer getting carded in Charlottesville. 

Thanks to Bryan Somers for being the only person in Blacksburg cool enough to go downtown with me on a Sunday! 

Other races and rides and whatever

Fat Tire Weekend

Went fast, passed Quadsworth, for a short period of time in the short track, came out in third. Cool beans.

Crushed my soul in the Fat 5 endurance race, did a full pre-lap to set up the course. Still held 10th at the end of the day. Death may have occurred.

Got lost 10 minutes into and dropped out of the Fat Tire Frenzy XC race, they went back to marshal the corner I missed and saved no less than 3 peoples races.

Mixed results but you can't complain with 75miles of singletrack in a weekend.  

Walnut Creek

by Robyn Ritter Browne

Skinsuited nats tune up, went crazy fast in the beginning, dropped my chain blasting through an alternate creek crossing line attempting to freak Bryan and Charlie out by overtaking them for first place. Lost spots, got stung by a bee in the quad ended up 6th. Conclusions: skinsuits are really hot. The best post race activity is laying in a lake. 

Luke was a total BAMF and raced the SS division on his SSCX rig. Who even thinks of doing that? Major kudos there. 

Later that weekend chilled in Chralottesville with B-Slow and then my long lost friends Jake Brown and his fiancee Lemma. A very good weekend if I do say so myself. 

Blacksburgering Epic in the Rain, We Cool. 

Somehow a casual Sunday visiting Blacksburg turned into riding 80 miles in the rain and hiking dragons tooth in the rain during the ride. This is what happens when the Woodards come up with a plan, it gets epic real quick. More documentation of stoke is to come

Organizing a Race or Trying To

...in progress more content and pictures soon...





TL;DR

-Passed Quadsworth for a short period of time.
-XC MTB Nationals was fun, got my but kicked by fast kids, still got 14th. Did 3 races too.
-Ended up on a cyclingnews photo.
-Mostly organized a race for the fall.

Mud, its just like a trip to the spa

So this is a few months late but no matter...

The welcome relief from engineering school known as spring break has come and gone, and as a college student this week is always go big or go home. Why not go home then go big?

VA XC State Championships
It seems silly to have a state championships as on of the very first events of the season doesn't it. It is but why not, time to find some early season strength and see if I can snag a nationals qualification.

Soup

Leaving Blacksburg early Saturday morning for my excursion to scenic Danville VA, I noticed something strange. The further east and further south I drove this very peculiar white stuff was consistently coating the ground more fully. With a forecasted high in the 60s it was going to be a mess and mess it was! I'll skip the play by play because frankly its boring, just had to go fast and go big!

I met up with Bryan, Steven and the rest of the UVa crew before the start and immediately commenced warming up aka riding out the backside of the course to give Bryce a hand-up and help power him to a 2nd place singlespeed finish! These cats know how to do mountain right!

On to my race, summed up in 5 words: it was really freaking muddy!

Keeping it dirty

Frankly we put well over a years worth of damage on that trail in one day, the only saving grace was the flavor of mud present. Rather than all peanut butter packing up everything to a 80lb bike sort of mud it was the very soupy standing water coat everything and I mean everything in a thin even layer kind of mud, with enough water to wash off chains when needed.

With an Ikon on the back I slid into a 10th place finish making the top 15 for my nationals run! When I say slid I mean it, sideways all over the place but it was fun! Certainly it was a race of survival, many quit to save their bikes others due to shredded rear mechs and demolished miscellaneous parts.

Before heading back to Blacksburg Tyler Edwards convinced me to bust out a sweet century ride showcasing the thunder ridge climb and a little bit of gravel. For those not in the know Thunder Ridge is a really freaking big climb, 12.5miles at 5% with over 3000 feet of gain. Was a sweet ride for sure!

Goals and Progress

There comes a point when one sets goals and another much better point when those goals become within reach. With the close of my first collegiate seasons I've reached and exceeded many goals set from a year ago, Cat 3 in cross and road now. As of recently a collegiate A in all seasons (mtb, cx and road), won a few races and took the top step in the Men's B Omnium in the ACCC in road, 3rd in CX D1, rode well at mountain bike nationals back in October and even took the front row call up for the first lap during the team relay.

 

Now this was pretty darn cool, oh so pro #3 Nats plate too! 

Its very rewarding to see progress, in strength physically and mentally both on and off the bike. Progress in race results and attitude. Feeling fitter than I ever have, massively faster than this time even a year ago, looking forward to the rest of 2014, and into '15, with big goals set. Many national championship events in my sights, a SM 100 PR, three collegiate seasons, maybe some upgrades, and organizing a mountain bike race of my own for VT. Representing two teams in events all over the country while trying to be an ambassador for the sport by spreading stoke and good vibes.

In the lead on the dirt
Good feels in the legs recently

The support of teammates, friends, and family, on and off the bike while racing and training throughout the seasons has made all of this possible. Shout outs to everyone that helped out, Luke for the best leadouts, those who worked with me in the breaks, everyone that attempted to teach me how to race smarter, the co-drivers for interesting conversation and DJing during all of the Van rides, everybody that drove to and from, the team parents graciously letting a bunch of crazy college kids sleep and eat for free, all of those who spectated and cheered, East Coasters for fixing the machines and supplying sound advice, Jacob for loaning me race wheels during a majority of road the season, everyone else who loaned me bikes parts wheels or clothes throughout the year, those really fast and super nice guys for inspiring greatness, the cool kids that got me in way over my head during training rides, all of the great new and old friends from throughout the racing community that made chasing guys clad in spandex around in circles so much fun every weekend, everyone that shares this grateful and friendly attitude towards racing bikes, and everyone that has been following me along this crazy journey.

Lots of friends were certainly made this year.

Just keep on rolling

Words and some pictures from the VT home race

Although we didn’t have to travel much or sleep somewhere outside of our beds this weekend it was still game on starting from 2pm on Friday without much time for anything else until Sunday night. There is something incredibly fun and rewarding about helping set up and run a large event, huge thanks to Luke for getting all the details and most of the work done!

Rather than the typical traveling to faraway lands on Friday, several team members and friends went out to the Maggie Valley Road course in order to sweep corners and mark road hazards. Followed by a quick ride along the beautiful valley roads.

It seems that home races require an earlier wake-up call than most away weekends we returned to the race course slightly before dawn. Driving the lead car for the Men’s C race was almost more enjoyable than racing the course itself, it is an excellent experience watching a race unfold in the rear view mirror. If the opportunity to help with supporting a race presents its self I highly recommend anyone interested in bikes or racing to seize it, more than fun!

The road race was really fun in the B’s, everyone was motivated to go along at a good clip without too many hard attacks. The climb each lap proved to be challenging putting even the strongest riders in the field into difficulty. On the third lap the damage was done, attempting to rest near the back of the lead group a gap opened up leaving Luke and I both on the wrong side. The chase wasn’t showing much motivation to close it so I went for a solo bridge, but the headwind and distance to cover proved to be too much. Having spent too many efforts without enough food in my system the two riders I was left with after losing the solo bridge attempt dropped me. The 4^th lap was pretty lonely until I was caught by the women’s A race and sprinted a group of three other guys that joined me shortly before the finish to 16^th place.

Finishing out the road race 

Sunday on the other hand was an excellent day!

Criteriums are definitely my favorite, especially this weekend’s at the CRC. A fast course with a few hard corners and a punchy power climb played directly into my strengths. One of those strengths is not racing smart. My plan was to sit in, making sure I was with the two other strong men in the field ,Carter Harris (UNCW) and Gene Taylor (App State), while blasting some music out of my jersey pocket to keep things fun. When the official announced a first lap prime, I immediately abandoned the sit in portion of this plan, asked for room in the first row.  From whistle, I hit it, laying out power all the way to the line and decisively winning the prime with a solid gap on the field. Rejoining the pack, Gene, Carter and I wound up on the front for the rest of the race, with a few other riders mixing it up. I took the second prime in the same manner as the first, and the third in the last two without really knowing they were prime laps.

Corner One

To the front on the climb

Riding perhaps the strongest I have all season, in direct correlation with the amount of cheering I got from friends, teammates, and my parents- who had driven down to watch. That energy from the sidelines kept me rolling fast and on the front. With three laps to go, Craig and a JMU rider attacked, establishing a sizable gap on the field. Only Carter, Gene and myself were working to bring back any break attempts the whole day, with Gene’s teammate up the road and Cater hiding for the field sprint I was my own. Now feeling extra bold and strong at 2000meters to go, I laid out a vicious attack, with no one able to keep on my wheel. I caught the two leaders on the power climb, just before the start of the bell lap and neither could catch my wheel. Still holding a gap on the field I put my head down and engaged beast mode. I held my lead until just before the line when three riders sprinted past. A bike throw against a Duke rider left me with fourth by less than an inch, a true photo finish.

THE SQUAD Cater, myself and Gene, killing it in the Killer Bs

The SQUAD

Bike throws make a difference!

Frankly I’m happy with how everything turned out, for as dumb as I rode and as well as I finished and those who beat me deserved it. This was Gene’s last race in the 2014 collegiate road season, glad he ended on a high note and I’m defiantly going to miss racing with him at the West Virginia and Navy weekends. That’s what cycling and racing are really about, not winning or anything else, but making friends.

All about having fun and making friends

Chasing Dreams, Wild and Wonderful West Virginia Weekend!

For all this talk of winning, it is nice to have run that elusive W down last weekend. 

First time on the top step after a paved event for me.

Victory at last

Whats better than winning? Crushing it, killing it, all time conditions! All with good friends, teammates or not its fun to ride and go hard with some good people. Not to mention I had 3 new VT B team guys to race with! Quinn Giroux, Wyatt Lowdermilk, and Kyle Johnson all stepped it up and upgraded for this weekend.

Also better than winning, victory lap wheelie brigade after breaking away all day!

Double Wheelie Bros!

 Results from Saturdays Crits:
(yeah this weekend was backwards, but just like my cross mounts, opposite just works better somehow)

Mens B 2nd place to that monster from State after quickly breaking and almost lapping the field, decided not to mess with a field sprint since we had less time between us and the field than they had on us with 6 laps left.

Cat 3/4, those West Virginian's take their State Crit Championships seriously, 13th place. Attacked on the line for giggles, WVU A rider Chas McFarland bridged up and we went for it. The two of us held off the field around 20-30 seconds gap for over 30 minutes, getting caught with 10 laps to go. Sat up for the sprint after rubbing bars in corner 3 on the last lap. Contact while apexing a corner around 50 km/h takes the motivation to stay at the front right out of me.

Congrats on that victory Richard, of everyone in the ACCC B field you deserved that the most. Go big or go home right?

Red and Orange just killing it

Downhill, down wind and all power, Richard definitely got the better end of the sprint 

I missed crushing it with THE SQUAD but thanks for not showing up Cater and Gene, it was nice not to having to nearly die just to hang on your wheels.    

THE SQUAD, during the VT crit, Cater Harris, myself and Gene Taylor
Coined by Cater due to the three of us always being on the front 

Good riding with you Chas, too bad we couldn't make lightening strike twice. 

It was a damn good run at it though!

Going for it in the 3/4s

Road Racing or Something Like It

Feeling awesome after such a solid performance in the crits I was feeling pretty confident during the road race. The course was a lollipop with, 5km out the stick 5 laps with a solid climb and super fast descent each time around, a little bit of "flat" in between. After going in circles it was back on out.

The first lap and a half went very smoothly and easily with the entire mixed Men's B and Women's A field agreeing to take it easy and stay neutral. 

The B-Team

Smartly sitting towards the front of the field I saw it all unfold. Half way up the second lap's climb, about 25km in, a Navy rider went off the front, shortly followed by a teammate. Quickly recognizing that two strong guys off the front would be hell on this course I followed getting the second rider to pull me up to his teammate. A quick glance behind reviled that my teammate Quinn Giroux was on my wheel and a sizable gap had opened on the field. Cresting the top we hit it, going to the front for the descent I sent it, the rest of the break in tow. Throughout the rest of the race I was the guy for the downhills, guess it comes with the territory in racing XC and Cyclocross the rest of the year. The four of us called a truce until the base of the climb on the last lap. Working together well we established a lead of well over 2 minutes on the next chase group, ended up being the rest of the VT B team. Before the 4th time up the climb one of the Navy guys, Kevin Lee, dropped off, mixed feelings ensued, he had put out a lot of work and deserved to stay with us but now it was two on one in Quinn's and my favor.

Sunday's Course

Quinn, being the best teammate he could be, put out the entire time giving solid and long pulls even has he was tiring. Feeling very strong ans still pretty fresh I knew that a big gap was safer than a sprint finish. Seeing hints of struggling during the remaining Navy rider's (Ben Walter) pulls I thought I could make something happen the last time up the climb.

Quinn ended up as one tired teammate 

The climb, consisting of some steeper stuff and two nasty switch-backs we went 3 wide all looking at each other trying to see who would jump first. At the steepest part of the first switch-back I exploded out of the saddle instantly opening up a gap, checking back to see the damage done I knew I should just go for it solo. Cranking it up, full gas for the last few miles I opened a large gap, somewhere upwards of a minute by the line. Took the descent as faster than any sane person would, getting the KOM on the strava "Gnar Descent" segment. As a side note strava KOMs are only cool when one: they have a rad name and two: you didn't know they existed prior to riding them. Checking my six a few times going back out the stick towards the finish, no one was in sight.

Now the big questions started to pop into my head, what do I do with my hands? Wasn't sure so I made something up.

What do I do with my hands again?

You ask how do I win a road race now? Sandbagging is the easiest way to go. An upgrade will be sent before next season starts up, but going for the conference points win in Bs with just one more race weekend left.

The rest of the team did excellent this weekend, Quinn rolled into 3rd with Kyle and Wyatt taking 4th and 5th. Sean Gardner won the As with Taylor Pearman taking 3rd after winning Saturday's crit by lapping the field. TJ took 4th in his crit right after upgrading to Cs. Great work guys!

Keep the rubber down, or just run it out. UNC cirt

There are some days where you have a plan but nothing quite works, other days in which you have no plan and everything works. At the UNC crit, first criterium of the '14 season, it was the standard short distance skinny tire race plan: go real dang fast, pedal really hard and try to do something at the end, all the while keeping this sweet new cutaway kit off the pavement. According to this everything did go to plan, sort of...

"Planning" or something

The first lap started out quick and by the third corner I forgot how to bicycle and clipped a pedal hard enough to scare myself. This is quite hard, the frightening that is, but setting the bike down with the rear end ~75 degrees from the direction of travel will do that.

Successfully bringing the machine under control I was informed by riders behind that my wheel looked all screwed up. Peeking back revealed a decent hop/wobble look that wasn't good to go, I assumed a broken spoke, but it was still rolling. I can make it to the pit, change it out and chase on, its only the first lap! Just take it easy 3 more corners to go till the pits...

Then this happened.... 

Listen to that rim on pavement action....

Still not quite sure how only my feet hit the ground, and I didn't take anyone else out.

If you are still confused what happened in that video, here is the break down. Tire explodes, drift, bail, run, cyclocross mode engaged! Once the tire went things got sideways and violent very sideways and very violent.

So thats what a kevlar bead looks like

Here is the time moving really slow due to the quickly approaching very bad things playback. As soon as the tire blew I knew it was going to get rowdy, even felt the Stan's hit my leg, never a good feeling. While attempting to ride out the drift the shredded rear tire locked the wheel, grinding the rim down. Aluminum to pavement at 35 km/h is a scary sound to say the least. At one point completely sideways I felt the bike give a solid buck forward and I knew I was going off. Seeing and expanse of pavement resembling a cheese grader, the time had come to go for it. Using bail out skills honed from crashing with clipless pedals on the mtb for almost 10 years, I unclipped and jumped with help of pressing off the bars as hard as I could to clear the bike. Some where between the top of the bike and half way down I remembered that I was moving close to 35km/h and needed to start running very very fast. Keeping my wits about me I held on to my bars in order to save my bike unneeded harm and keep my friends safe behind me. No sense in wrecking anybody if I don't need too. Following through I held my line running and made it to the out side of the next turn. Shouldered the bike and CX beast mode engaged, run, run, run!

That won't buff out...

A few notes, was not set up tubeless I was running stan's inside my tubes. All that thought happened in less than a few seconds, the adrenaline really kicked in to slow it down. Redbull does in fact give you wings! Also the Ultegra 6700 rear wheel was trashed and the only way I could run that fast is due to riding mtb shoes all day everyday!

Stan's tired but it was a lost battle

Still having the cross mentality of never leave to course unless you want to DNF drilled in over the last few months I completely forgot that one can go straight to the pits after a mishap in crits, and continued to run the entire course, of to the side. Oh well, I made it there, good thing it was only a 1km lap! Threw on my spare wheel on and thankfully the official let me loose right behind the lead group. Since I had enough adrenaline pumping through my veins to kill a horse, I quickly caught back on.

Starting out of the pits!

My "crash" had shattered the field leaving six or so up front and small groups behind. Navy had the firepower in the lead, and I was quickly informed by spectators that my teammate Luke was attempting to bridge up with two App State riders, Craig and Gene. I sat in the rotation several times soft pedaling on the front as long as I could till Navy realized that I was purposefully slowing down, attempting to disrupt them enough to give Luke a chance. Somewhere in there they bridged up!

Throwing some watts down in front

We hung out keeping the constantly attacking Navy riders in check for a while without much incident, with only one minor crash of a Navy rider right in front of me. Held my line and he slid out of the way just like speed skating.

With two laps to go I asked Luke for a lead out, going through the start/finish he obliged. The next 800 meters became an intense struggle to hold Luke's wheel, I was close to getting dropped a few times. 150 meters to go with a 90 degree turn at 100m, Gene attacked for the sprint, trying for his wheel I came around as well. Blowing too wide trough the last corner, and managing to hold second for the second time in two days was a plenty fine way to end the day!

Its great to know I have teammates that will destroy themselves on the bike for my finish, more than grateful for that leadout!  

Out wide, still able to hang on to second!

Replacement Shimano rim: $199.99
Bontrager RXL mtb tread: $39.99
An amazing save: Priceless

Just goes to show that no matter how bad it looks, go for it, give it the long shot, you never know how quickly things can turn around!

In the words of G.W.Wadsworth "Time on dirt well spent"

Thanks to East Coasters, especially Kirby for fixing up my wheel! Lacing that 6700 straight pull hub to a Stan's ZTR Alpha 400 rim should be fun!

If you aren't winning, style it! Rad Socks, Air and Finish Line Wheelies!

If you aren't winning, style it! This has been my motto for a few years to keep racing fun. No body wins all the time, except for the Magnificent Quadsworth or Big B Lewis, even then nothing is guaranteed in bike racing except there will always be someone, somewhere who will drop you. Honestly this is a pretty bleak out look, but one has to accept that they aren't the best rider in the world and probably never will be. Once you get there just have fun! In short if you aren't winning, style it! Style points are worth more anyways, throw some wheelies, hit the jumps, ride the skinnies, put some style in there! It gets one noticed, if your on a team, it gets the team and sponsors noticed which is good. Spectators love it! Keeping some style, having fun just makes the world a better place and keeps a good image of cycling, the team, oneself.

Its fun to win, but more fun to ride!

Some specifics on style.

The most important decision one can make all day is which pair of rad socks to rock out in the race.
Rad Socks = Rad Race
If you don't have at least 3 pairs of cool graphic socks to ride in, you are doing it wrong.

Some of my favorites, "Droppin' Bombs"

During a race, if you have lost the lead, have fun! If you're in the lead have fun! If you're off the back from the gun then you might as well have some fun and style the heck out of it!

"Run" Up, BRAHPPPP!

Getting rowdy on the CX bike in the homemade cape kit!

At the end if you by yourself might as well make a show, a finish line wheelie is sure to please the crowd!

I tend to do quite a few of these no matter the discipline of race.

10+ hour race now that is a long day of style!

 

Its all about having fun so lets keep it that way! Play nice have fun and style it! Make sure to save your raddest socks for race day!

There's bound to be some singletrack beside the tree of life.

A New Kind of Race Report