Turns out....

Racing in altitude is rough. This past weekend I ventured up to the Iron Horse Cycling Classic in Durango, CO. First of all this town is one of the greatest towns to have a race in. The elevation in Durgano is right around 6500 feet. So trying to race at this altitude is tough if one is not used to but is still good to get in some good race training. I set out to beat my times in both the TT and RR from last year. I accomplished that goal.

The road race was going good until they started to attack near the top of shilona. my legs felt good i just couldn't seem to catch my breath and got popped. This seemed to be the story for the weekend. This happened in the crit also. There was no organization in the crit. Teams were attacking each other due to contracts being on the line for the rest of the season. Only four people finished on the lead lap.

As for the TT i had dan bowman was my 30 second man. Dan seemed to be a great guy. We chatted up about racing in MI and with the wolverine fellas. He caught me 10mins in to the TT. I wasnt even able to hold my normal power when doing a TT. When i got near my normal TT power I'd start to be almost hyperventilating. It was one the most frustating TT Ive done.

The racing was great and learned lots even if I didn't do what i hoped for in result wise. I'll try to post more pictures later(the one up now are from the durango herald).

I'd also like to thank my new "sponsors" the grants for allowing me to crash on their super secret training spot.

readers digest version

Part of the team before sat morn race

A lot has happend since the last time. A few races nothing too exciting happend. Last weekend was la vulta de bisbee. This was my first race with the big boys. the big boy teams included United health care, Fly V austrilla, Bahati and few other scattered pros in the field. The first part of the race was a twilight prolog of 2 miles up a steep climb(5%-6% avg). The next day was a 90 mile road race then that afternoon was 7.2 mile TT. sunday morn was a great race of 84 miles with a long climb into town with a bit of descent to a round a bout and back to climbing for another 1-2 mi into downtown bisbee. I ended up coming in 56th overall and learned a ton from racing in this race. Next up for me is Long Beach crit, AZ state Road race championships and then the Iron horse cycling classic. Hopefully this year since grant wont be there i wont get food poisioning like last year. Ill try to update this after the LBC this coming week.

call up sat morn

DG and I in durango(pre durango luxury homes mag)

field size

I lied

So I lied I havent kept up to date with this as much as I thought I would. I flew back home for xmas and my buddy's wedding. That was a great success and a pretty good time. I was snowshoeing quite a bit with the thuggery of MQT. I even went for a very slow ski with dan and lynch. these two fellas had to wait for me quite a bit but little did they know i had a trick up my sleeve where i wouldnt have to go skiing any more while i was home. I steped on the pole and broke it into jenema size.

Bissel pete near top of the world

hobo home

I made it back down to az a few days after the new year and was glad to be met with warm sunny skys. Lately it has been crazy cold. A storm rolled through here and we didnt see the mtns for a few says it seemed. finally when the clouds left the mtns were covered in snow and all the washes were running with water.

The view from our backyard when the storm was starting. Usually you can see mtns all around

On my way up towards oracle. After the storm with all the snow on the mtns.

I'm BACK!!!

Well its been just over a week i've been back in Tucson. It feels good to be out on the bike and not having to worry about weather. I'm back with the coach starting to build some base. Im excited to get going with the team again. My first races this year will start at the end of Jan.

I promise to keep this thing better updated now that I'm doing something again.

if you dont know...

you should...
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been awhile

when i last wrote an entry i was on my way home from tucson. Well things have it as i was unexpectadly put on the IR with a busted collar bone. i recieved this while racing in my first race back in the midwest. As the hellish month passed on the trainer so did the nice weather. After i recieved the green light from the doc the weather seemed to turn to crap as the rain rolled in and never seemed to leave.

Now the shoulder is feeling pretty good and can do much more then what i have been able to do in the pass 2 months. With being able to ride outside again my fitness has started to come back. With the itch to race again and the ore to shore was coming i decided the night of registration to race. as i was walking out of the venue thinking i was racing a ss. the owner of sports rak hooked me up with his bike an EX 8. This bike was a blast while riding. With stacking it up 3x in the last 2 miles. I felt good the whole race and never really hurt at all with pushing a decent time. Perhaps ill be seeing you all in TC!!!!!