Snelling RR

Long flat and cloudy this sums up the eventful day just outside of Merced CA, at Snelling. the race went very well fast pace and good riding, enjoyed this race very much, walking away with a 7th is not too bad either.  However the next day was much less fun, racing in downtown Merced we had a crit, and this day it had rained in the morning then let up enough for the pavement to become completely dry and as the pro race was starting the rain decided to plague us again, an entire race in the rain so much fun.  to make a long story short i did a whole lot of work with no reward, but had fun none the less.

Valley Of The Sun 2009

The valley of the sun stage race, I was given the idea that the valley of the sun stage race was a large important race.  Man was I wrong, the valley of the sun stage race was not a race i would return to if it hadn't been for the great company that I was in throughout the trip, spending time with my new friends from San Diego.  The best part of the trip was not the racing, but the company, that we all had such a great time around dinner.  

The races however where very fun other than a few downfalls that occurred during some of the races.  During the Time Trial I got a horrible time and was placed 78th in GC, this was my only chance to contest the GC.  Then the road race, I was very excited for the road race because I had a very good chance of winning in this discipline, but Arizona racing being what it is inhibited us from doing this.  Because of a crash around the finish line they didn't allow the pro 1 field and the CAT 2 field to finish, when the race could have simply had another lap added on to clean up the crash and give us a finnish.  

That was the bad news, then followed the good news the crit, the crit course was very fun lots of turns and uphill and downhill I took a 7th place not too bad of a result considering that I didn't have this luck the previous days.  To cap off the last day I met a very beautiful girl who shares with great interest the racing bug Ivy, drove down with her mom from Missoula MT, for a small stage race in Arizona now that is dedication. 

Boulevard Road Race / Red Trolley Crit

Boulevard Road Race:

 usually an epic battle that takes place in early feb in southern california, well this year was even more epic than ever.  Right before the start of our race it stated to snow very heavily, within the first 200 meters there was a crash, actually the only crash of the day, but I looked back and all I see is Jelly Belly riders sliding across the ground and they pretty much just turned around and didn't race.  I lasted for three laps of this early season classic, then I was dropped going up the hill, the cold was so intense that i was forced to turn around half way through the last lap in order to preserve my health. Valley of the sun is my next race and it is vital that I am in good health for this race.  Whenever you get to race in the snow, it will always be a battle of epic proportions and even though I was forced to abandon this was a great race for me.

Red Trolley Crit: 

  The day after the Boulevard road race is the red trolley crit, it is a fun short course with a slight riser at the end of the back stretch, however on this day I was not feeling my best because of the brutality that occurred the day before, i just simply didn't have any thrust in my legs, but I had fun, so this was a good weekend. 

SANTA BARBARA WEEKEND

This weekend was the first road race of the year, it was located in and around Solvang CA right above Santa Barbara CA.  It was a fun race, however team type 1 showed up with  everyone on the team, this however was not fun.  team type 1 put ten men up the road and then controlled the race to a T.  they would put 4 guys on the front of the pack and then go attack over the yellow line so no one was able to chase after them, and this made for a very uneventful rest of the race.  Due to the team type 1 debacle the main field had lost the incentive to race hard because of the simple fact that we would be racing for 20th position.  other than the highly annoying team type 1 squad the first road race of the year was very fun and went very well.

Mothballs: the mothballs crit the next day, this was a big chance for me to get a big result on the season, the first part of the race very uneventful, I put in a few early attacks and tried to bridge a few gaps early on.  Then disaster at the 20 laps to go I feel my rear tire start to slip in a corner and then to realize i have about 20lbs of air in my rear tire , damn a flat at this time.  This is perfect time as teams are starting to get organized  for the sprint.  going to the pit i take my free lap and back in the race in no time, however my adrenaline being so high i went with the fist attack that went off the front as soon as i rejoined, this was the wrong thing to do, because i just wasted a bunch of energy with not much time left in the race.  After recovering as much as possible i lined up behind teammate Paul Che, my replacement wheel however had a 12 tooth rear gear and this was impossible to sprint on with speeds reaching 40 miles an hour. ending up 12th i was not incredibly happy but still a solid finish.