Racing

It has been quite a while since I have updated this blog, I have some big news however. I have recently decided to stop racing bicycles, there are many things that I attribute to this decision. Last year at this time it was very much the same story, I was a bit on the fence wondering if it is all worth it.

Even tho cycle racing is going to no longer be a big part of my life I'm going to continue to ride my bike a lot and rather enjoy myself. I will still be enduring severe pain In order to stay in shape and would like to do a lot more mountain biking, and endurance efforts. The new doors that have been opened in my life will allow me to do cool things that where a bit limited while racing in fear of getting hurt, like backpacking and skiing. The blog will not be going anywhere I will keep those interested in my travels as I expect those not to go away as well. Colbyelliot.com will be turned back into a photography website at the end of the week and you can also expect to see a lot more photos posted on this blog as well.

This has opened many doors for me and I am very excited at what the future holds, I would like to thank all my supporters and fans who have followed me for the past 4 years. Everyone has really been supportive of my cycling career, and maybe in the future I will find it again. Until then

"Goodnight and good luck" - Edward R. Murrow

Redlands Cycling Classic

The week before the Redlands Bicycle Classic at the San Dimas Stage Race, I had a bit of an accident, the result was 30 stitches in my left arm and a cracked collarbone on the right. It was Probably an unwise decision to start RBC, but after all I was finally in the race that had eluded me for the past two years, couldn't simply not try. After the prologue it was evident that my collarbone and stitches where in no shape to be racing, with 120 miles on the plate for the next stage by morning I had made the decision not to continue. After my withdrawal from the race I stuck around to help out with the rest of the stages, and whatever else the boys needed.

Stage 2 was a long hard day in the saddle for the riders, and stress filled day in the car for manager Pat Jak and I. the heat got to most the riders the most I think, but it didn't get to my friend John Bennett who took out the stage with a magnificent victory!

Out of the original 8: Orion Berryman, Colby Elliot, Lars Finanger, Dirk Friel, Alexi Grewal, Alex Jarman, Julian Martinez, Anton Villatoro. 5 now remained for the crit, lots of good photos came from the crit, and the guys did really well in a technical fast race, however we then unfortunately lost Alexi and Julian. A great victory to another one of my good friends Roman Van Uden, well done mate!

The final stage in Redlands was sunset loop, a technical and challenging course, would hash out its punishment for the majority of the riders in the field. Amazing work however by Orion Berryman, Lars Finanger, and Dirk Friel, also good work on the behalf of Hans Finanger for the massage work and double bottle feeding. Overall a fun weekend, thanks guys!

Now that my string of bad luck has been going on for a while now, I have decided to take a 2 month break from racing get some fitness and come back strong for Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in June. This will be my next target race and should be bit refreshed from my collarbone mishaps, see you all there!

Callville Bay Classic 2011

This weekend a few swamis attended the Callville bay classic in Lake Mead, NV. The weather report showed rain on sat and sunday so yet another epic race was in store for us, we just had no idea how epic.

The first stage was a short RR coming in at just under 50 miles, team Exergy sent a guy in the breakaway and kept the race under control there where without a doubt hard moments. I tried to get in or make a few moves early on, but this was all chased down. near the end of the race the wind or the weak before had worn on my legs a little to much and I finished right behind the pack.

The next stage was the TT, slightly uphill for 4 or so miles the TT was actually not much of a deciding factor in the race. I felt fairly good for the TT in the

morning, but my result turned out average. It was pretty interesting that the tailwind was so strong it took nearly twice as long to come down the gentile incline than to go up it. The rain had not come yet but it was due that night, and was to continue through the next day.

The next stage was another RR, this one was a decent length just over 80 miles. I woke up the morning of however starting to feel the onset of a cold, sniffles and a little tickle in the throat was not a good sign when the day consisted of riding in the rain and cold for 80 miles. The whole race our worst suspicions where confirmed it rained 80% of the time, and was not ecatly the warmest race in the world. that night it snowed in las vegas, at this point I'm fairly certain that the snow is following me around, look just because I miss winter in Chester doesn't mean I want to race in it every weekend.

The next day was the Crit, kind of an interesting course the crit was held through the parking lots of the Callville bay marina and was by far one of the highest speed crits I have done. throughout the race I put in attacks to try and escape the clutches of the speeding group, but the all proved futile, as the group stayed together in the end.

A pretty successful week of racing although struggling with a little sickness and cold weather where not pleasant. I was happy with the weekend and now must recover and get ready to do it all again in 2 days.

A massive thanks to the Shackleys for putting up with our crap over the weekend! you guys are awesome!

3 Days 3 Breaks 2 sore legs

The past three days my teammate Matt Shackley and I did a mini stage race of our own from individual races in the southern central part of California. From valley of the sun stage race a week ago until redlands bicycle classic at the end of march we will be competing in a stage race every weekend, for some we will have as little a 2 days rest between them. This weekend however went a little something like this:

UCLA Road Race: The UCLA rr course was not exactly suited for me, with about 8-9,000 feet of climbing per lap and me not exactly being a climber it made all the sense in the world to go do it. the first lap was relatively easy Matt and I where sitting around the front waiting for the decisive move, on the first lap teammate Lars Finanger decided that he was going to make the move. After the climb lars was a wee bit tired, being a big boy as well climbing not a strong suit he hung out keeping pace on the climbs to finnish the race. on the second lap there was a break away with a lot of good contenders in it, this was the move that I decided to get in! there where 6 of us for a little while but for me the climb proved to be a little too much, I went back to the

peleton, but the race was not yet over. I started to unhitch at the top of the climb, a long way into the pain cave from the breakaway I thought I might not catch back on, but about half a lap later I was back. When I got back to the group the impetuous had disappeared from the group, however I was not going to let that happen. I started to work at the front and the rest got the idea that this race was not over. Matt, Chris Burnham and I did a lot of work at the front to bring that group closer while Pascal Bonaventure and Orion Berryman sat in. On lap 3 it started snowing, second race in my career that has been in a snow storm, and they where both in Southern California go figure. This lap we did alot of work to bring the field back to contention again, right at the top of the climb I began to unhitch again however this chase back to the group was a bit easier. When I got back to the group I had decided at this point or maybe a few laps ago that I was not going to climb myself back into this race, and was now working. After doing a good amount of work up the climb on the 4th lap, this time the hill proved to be too much, I did what I could now it was up to the others, wreaked from doing a bunch of work and getting in the early break and a little cold I pulled out of the race. the group that was left was very small on the 5th and final lap and the finishing order ended up being,

Orion 6^th, Pascal 9^th, Chris 10^th, Matt 12^th and Lars 13^th

Pine Flat Road Race: After UCLA Matt and I continued on to go the next few races in the Fresno area, next on the agenda was pine flat. The race started out real relaxed and slow, well we can't have that now can we? this is a bike race, rolling down the downhill in the beginning a group of 7 of us rolled off the front. When we saw that we had a gap we started to push the pace a bit more and grow our advantage, after 25 miles our advantage was near the 2 min mark and we decided to do a bit of weeding out. After a few attacks up one of the climbs we brought the group down to the 5 strongest guys and decided to roll with that. After the decent and a bit of flat the race official told us that the group was only 1:20 back so we had to push yet a little harder. At about mile 50 right before the climb, the attacks started to come out of the breakaway group, I was able to follow some, but when we got to the base of the climb that was it for me. I rolled in at about 15th position and matt rolled in slightly after me, It was yet another good day in the break.

Dinuba Crit: This being the first crit back from my broken collarbone I was a bit apprehensive about taking the starting line, however once I did the racing gears kicked in and there was no problem. Yet again in the first portion of the race I found myself in another break away, after a little bit however the accumulation of the weekend had proven too much to stay with the two others, and I slipped back to a group of 3. I was able to stay with them halfway through the race and then my legs could not handle the accelerations that where put forth by these guys. I was on my own doing work for a few laps then I decided that I need that little bit of a break from the wind so I waited for the group to catch me so I could find a few people to work with. When I got back to the group Matt was on the front covering moves and willing to do work, so I told him to attack. He put in a good few accelerations and when that didn't work, we needed an alternative. We both went to the front and put the hammer down to get a smaller group off the front, when we had 3 guys to do turns it was gold, unfortunately Matt slipped back to the group after a few laps. The rest of the race I was in a group of 3 working pul for pull trying to limit our losses, with the first 4 spots up the road we where going for 5th. Blake Anton put in the attack for 5th, doing a bunch of work to chase him back I ended up 7th, after all a very solid week of racing.

The true heros of the week where however our hosts in Fresno, Byron and Cindy Beagles. they cooked us a lot of food and gave us a place to sleep, and so much more! couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks a Million!

Valley Of the Sun

Valley is usually one of those races early on in the year that is good for me, however this year it did not go so well for me. Recovering from my broken collarbone this was my first race on the year and I had the goal not to crash in it, I did not meet this goal. I had a ok TT, but returning from my injury it took me a while to get back into the whole suffer mindset. The secondstage was the road race this unfortunately was the day that I crashed, making sure I fell on the right side so I didn't break the collarbone again, I came out with a few scratches, but my bike was a little less fortunate. A bent derailleur hanger made it quite hard to chase back to the group, also the fact they where going quite hard in head and cross winds didn't help.

The weekend however was not a

total loss, kudos Lars Finanger who won the cat 2 field with a strong TT performance and awareness to make the break in the road race. Well done mate!

Moving on there is lots of racing on the plate, this weekend we will be attending the UCLA road race in Pearblossom CA, then heading up to do two races on sunday and monday in Fresno CA. For the next 6 weekends in a row me and teammate Matt Shackley will be attending stage races, which will be quite the adventure. Lots of racing to come so please keep checking back for updates and race reports.

Long Training, and fun in the sun in San Diego

San Diego has been quite fun over the last few weeks, lots of sun and good training. the past few weeks i have been fortunate enough to get some of the hours necessary in preparation for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Phoenix Arizona, this upcoming weekend. I have been looking forward to this race for many of reasons, this will be my first race back after my collarbone, which is reason enough. I have lots of good memories at this race for the past few years and can't wait to go back and make some more!

This last weekend Swami's cycling team participated in the Boulevard RR and Red Trolley Crit, races that I also have memories at, however many of them not so fond. This year the weather seemed to cooperate a bit and it was quite pleasant at both of these races. The Swami's racing team did reasonably well at both the races this weekend, although lacking in the results a little bit. I feel as tho these first races of the year are critical of getting the sea legs under us and also giving a good gauge of the fitness compared to the competition, the results will come after the fitness and comfort is regained. It was a pleasure helping the boys out this weekend, and hope to be joining you guys on the bike soon. Good Job!

Swami's Training Camp 2011

Unfortunately I was unable to participate fully inthis years swami's team camp due to my broken collarbone, however I was able to to take pictures for the team. The nice sunny days of the team camp was an excellent change of weather, coming from the single digits in Chester CA. I was eventually able to join in part of the last day after a long endeavour assembling my Cannondale machine in a hurry before the ride.

Since that ride I have been on the bike multiple times trying to regain the lungs I had before the injury, but the road back is going to be a bit longer than a few weeks, it looks like I will be racing myself into shape in the beginning of this season. Valley of the Sun Stage Race in arizona will be my debut race of the 2011 season, see you there!

Home & Healing

Healing at home has been a good experience, I have found that I still have a great desire to take pictures and still have a great desire for cycling. This time of the healing process is however most critical and I must stop myself from doing things that I think that I can do, but really can't. I feel that the collarbone is at 60-75% and gaining much strength everyday, everyday I have a greater range of motion and can function with my arm just that much more. Since the two week barrier I have been able to ride the trainer seriously with both hands, this will prevent my legs from completely disappearing.

The next few weeks of my life are about to

get very busy again with cycling and all that goes with it. On monday I will hopefully be heading down to chico to sort out some stuff and visit friends, then by the 20th I will be headed down to San Diego to attend a training camp the weekend of the 22-23rd. This trip down south starts the beginning of the seasons travel, which should be non-stop until May and then non-stop again from June on, looking forward to the travel of the season makes me a bit antsy to start riding and traveling, but it shall come soon enough.

See everyone out there soon!

Collarbone

unfortunately the last few posts have been about accidents and injuries, this might be good however because im getting these out of the way before the season kicks off. last tues i regret to inform everyone I broke my collarbone, for what is now the 4th time. One week later and im starting to feel a bit better, hopefully within the next few weeks all be able to be back on the bike. This hindrance comes at the best time of the year with the cycling season getting started around early feb, it is not the best to keep to the training schedule, however I will not miss any races.

I would love to write more however writing with one hand is proving to be difficult, but i would like to say thanks for all the wishes and will see you on the road soon!

CARS!!!

Really tired of cars!

Living in San Diego over the past few weeks has really shown me the reason that I hate the city, and how truly great places like Chester and Chico really are!

Yesterday I got hit by a car again, luckily (knock on wood) the two times I have been hit now have been relatively minor. It is still however no fun to get hit by cars, moments of inattention that people have when they are driving. As you may recall I posted about this on twitter a few days ago, and yet again I strongly feel that we need a much stronger system for driving in this country, much like the one in Finland! People must realise that when they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, they have in their control a deadly weapon. Pedestrians and cyclist are not incased in a metal box that will protect

them, and when they are involved in a collision with a metal box usually the outcome is less than desired.

Obviously since it is my job to ride my bike living around cars is not ideal, and a place with less of a populous is more ideal. However there are many people who do live within large concentrations of people and cars, this is a cry out to drivers anywhere!

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU GET INTO A CAR! PLEASE!

Swamis / Michelob Ultra Cycling Team

It has been a while since my last post simply due to the lack of news, until now. My new team for the year will be the Swamis Michelob Ultra Cycling Team, out of San Diego California, we will be doing an array of larger races near home and scattered about the USA. I am very excited to be a part of this developmental program, as we have some fast racers and I believe that we can come out with some big results on the year. The Swamis development cycling team has been going on for a few years now, but this year it is about to take off in a big way, no year has the development team had this sort of schedule or this sort of talent all bundled up into one. For this reason I feel that not only will the team help to bring riders to the next level I also feel that the riders are going to help bring the team to the next level. With the amazing pool of talent that is in the San Diego area it is a surprise to me that this sort of team has not already sprouted up. This just tells me that we are on the ground level of something happening that has the potential to flourish into something much larger, and I'm excited to be a part of it!

Winter Training

It has been a good while since I have posted on the blog, sorry about that. After Cascade Cycling Classic, my season had pretty much ended, without any large races for the rest of the season, my intention was to race throughout Aug- Sept, however after a few races in Aug I quickly realised that the compounded exertion of the season thus far had caught up to me.

For the past month I have been managing the bike shop, and doing pre season prep in the gym getting ready for the much anticipated start of training on Monday the 11th. I am really excited about the upcoming year, with the additions that I have made to my pre season training this year, and the abundance of knowledge that I have coming to me from 3 or more coaching sources I feel really confident about the season, and my abilities to help the team a lot.

This year I will be living and training in Chico, CA. I have been sorting out a shed behind my friends house to live in that is coming along quite nicely, a few more necessities and will be the perfect getaway for the long winter season that is upon us. anyone who would like to come and train or visit is more than welcome!

Cascade Cycling Classic

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I have put up a post about my travels, most recently we traveled up to the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, OR. The trip was a blast, this would be the the last major trip with the team for the season, and it already started off interesting. As the team arrived to pick me up in Red Bluff, CA they thought they had room for me! Cool, good start. Well turns out that they did have room for me, and we made it up to Bend after all.

In bend we stayed with a very gracious host in Sun River, it was a bit interesting on getting rides to the start of races as we hijacked Bosco's van sorry bro, thanks for letting us use it all weekend man. Cascade is a very hard race as most of us had figured out quite rapidly, the quote of the trip came from our best placed rider Dave Santos "why do people do this?" good question my man.

My tour started off rather bumpy, with a crash in the prologue I was then at the bottom of the GC, and a rather hilly stage the next day put me even further down. I however did my work for the team and was not so bad in the end. I am looking forward to the Cascade Cycling Classic for next year, and would like to thank all those involved in this years edition.

ToAD

It has been a while since my last post, mostly due to lack of motivation to post something on the blog. the last race that I participated in was the ToAD (Tour of Americas Dairyland), this was a great race. Situated in eastern Wisconsin, the race had a bit of variety for everyone, leaned mostly to the crit side of things but that is ok. Unfortunately upon arrival I had encountered some difficulties with Fed Ex and not all of my equipment was delivered in the box that it was supposed to be in, after some fighting with Fed Ex and not getting much of anywhere it was time to just get on with it.

The racing in the midwest was faster than expected, after a few races I finally started to get the hang of things a little bit, with a 24th as my best finnish it was not a great toad for results but the experience of racing there and the people that I met along the way made the trip worth while.

Some of those people, That I would like to thank again include the Verizon u25 cycling team, and our gracious hosts Peter & Margie. Thank you all for the good times and your generosity it was much appreciated.

Mt Hood Cycling Classic

This past week, James Williamson and I competed in the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, a 6 day stage race in northern Oregon. The prologue was a wet 2 laps around the Portland international speed way, no hills and smooth surface made for a good opener to the race, except maybe for the standing water on the track, and maybe the fact that they ran the majority of the riders in the pitch black.

Stage 1 was a so-called crit! more like an extremely short circuit race, every lap had about a 1.5 km climb, also the road was covered in green moss that was really slick. After a bit of rain earlier in the day, the first few laps where quite dangerous, but still a fun race and a great course in the right conditions.

Stage 2 the first road stage, I think it

was a little harder than some people expected and was really really fast! I had decided to make it even harder on myself by attacking and going into the break for the first bit of the race, good idea! after I had my go I got popped from the group and had to do the majority of the second lap on my own. ended up finishing over 20min down on GC which was not to my worry because I was not really going to have a chance in a climbers race like this one.

Stage 3 The TT stage was fun and scenic, but as far as the race went not the best for me, also didn't have a TT bike.

Stage 4 Mt Hood RR anticipated to be the toughest day of the tour, so my goal today was to survive as long as possible, I successfully did this feat until just before the bottom of the last climb on the day. The climb was the last 20k of the stage, boy that was fun I tried to climb my pace and finish with a respectable ride, which I was successful and was able to move on to the next and final stage.

Stage 5 it had been raining all day outside of our host house in hood river which only could add up to a rainy crit. The course had

some scary parts to it but was good over all and with the exception of the Portland International Speedway, followed the trend of the rest of the tour, climbing lots of climbing. All in all it was soon over and I had finished this hard tour, happy with my performance.

We have already booked our tickets for the Tour of the Dairyland in Wisconsin, we will be leaving the Reno International Airport on tuesday and the next few weeks will be doing some good rest and prep for the 10 days of racing ahead. Fun times ahead!

HOME!!!!

Tour of the Gila went well, although I suffered a knee injury from using another bike for the TT. The first few stages went ok tho, I enjoyed the racing and enjoyed my time there, although I could not finish. The best part about Gila was the fact that we where the main spectacle of the town, to me it seemed like the people wanted us there, as compared to cyclist just being in the way. Silver City is a very cool town, maybe sometime I can spend some time there and venture around to see everything the area has to offer.

After Tour of the Gila, it is good to return home. Being in Norcal again has just cleared my mind I don't have to deal with traffic and people, and it is some good time to relax and get in some good training. This past Sun I did the Crit at the Tour of California before the stage finnish in Sacramento, this was a great experience and a good tune up race before the journey up to Portland OR for the Mt. Hood cycling classic. Unfortunately I was brought down with 3 laps to go in the race, so another pack finish was chalked up, but that is bike racing.

I'm looking forward to spending some more time at home before I have to head off on more travel, which doesn't look like it will slow down in the near future. Next stop Portland, OR for the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, hope to see some there and will let other know of my progress.

Ciao

La Vuelta de Bisbee

La Vuelta de Bisbee, is a classic race in a classic old mining town in the southeast corner of AZ. This race was said to be a very good race, and it did not disappoint, we headed out to the Vuelta de Bisbee as the start to a 2-3 week trip including Vuelta de Bisbee and the Tour of the Gila.

We left Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon before Bisbee, after doing the whole drive in one shot we slept well that night. The next afternoon we went for a training ride on the TT course and prolouge course, both of

the courses where either uphill or had decent size hills in them. The prolouge was very hard only 2 miles but all out uphill effort defiantly burner. Stage 1 was a 90 mile RR, in which a break was let away from the field early, to begin we had two people in the break but they both came back to the field, so I spent all day with team Exergy and Bike Religion trying to pin back the riders whom had gone up the road, we where however unsuccessful. Stage 2 was a Time Trial, 7 miles out and back which I soft pedaled most of in effort to conserve energy for tomorrows stage. The last Stage I unfortunatley got dropped, but such is life, it was a fun race and a good time.

Now forward to the Tour of the Gila!

SoCal

I am not a big fan of the SoCal area, the city and amount of people condensed into a small are is not exactly my cup of tea, but as I have stayed down in so cal for the past 2-3 months I would like to say thanks for the hospitality that I received. Be it from teammates or good friends and family, I was housed and taken care of grandly and this most beneficial in my conquest in cycling.

Thank You All!