Funny story

Today I was at school and I drew a picture of me riding my bike and one of my friends said, "Oh, it's like Lance Armstrong except you're not eighty." Then another friend said, "Wait, I thought he was fifty." Haha.

Oak Ridge Velo

This weekend was the Oak Ridge Velo Classic. I was really excited about this race because it’s close to my house and it’s very hilly. I prerode the course with Tim Tidwell and co (Larry, Greg Millar, etc.) twice so I had the course dialed in. The weather looked ominous before the start with clouds of fog rolling off the lake. I put on my kit (my mom calls it a “bike costume”) and rolled up to the start line. Lucky for me, my friend Greg Casteel was the lead motorcycle. We started neutral so there was a nice warm up riding to the course. Just about the point we started on the loop the skies opened up. The wet course must’ve messed up some break pads because too guys slid right by the first turn and had to turn around. It was kind of nervous riding in the pouring rain but it wasn’t too cold. Everything stayed together until the first climb. I had just put on new Swisstop pads but I hadn’t stood on the pedals hard yet and it was a bad feeling realizing they were rubbing when I stood. So I attacked in the saddle to start wearing everyone out. I spun out on the descent so then went into an aero tuck. I mostly just kept an eye on things from the back the next lap. Nick Nichols took off and was out of sight until the climb and I just remembered to adjust the brakes so the first part of the climb I used the barrel adjusters until everything worked better and our group narrowed after some attacks. I spent most of the next lap waiting for the climb. I went to the front with an 18 year old junior from Hincapie and ramped up the pace so that by the bottom of the descent my group was down to five. Everyone worked pretty well together so we extended our lead and stayed together until the fourth time over the climb, when the Hincapie junior and I attacked on the climb, dropping two of our breakaway companions. We mostly just waited until the final kilometer which was an uphill sprint. The Hincapie junior attacked and then blew up while the rider from Memphis tried to drop me but I hung onto his wheel until about 150 meters to go when I came around to take the win. I was very happy because this was my hometown race. After the event, Greg Casteel told me he had been riding sidesaddle on his scooter to watch the race play out.
TT. The time trial was a nice, rolling course of 7.5 miles. I felt pretty good riding my normal bike but my aerodynamics couldn’t match a TT bike and I finished tenth but I was content because I gave the race a good effort. After the race I talked to Jesse Stidham and then went home to eat Thai food and rest for the crit.
Crit. We arrived at the crit early to watch the 10-14 juniors. Max Hansett took home a strong third place despite taking a month off his bike while in Belgium. The handcyclist race was very interesting to watch. There were two national champions in the race and everyone was going really fast. It was really cool. In the 15-18 race Alex animated the race even after he was sick yesterday and quickly made it a three-man race. Alex proceeded to drop the other riders in the break to take the win. After his race, Alex was nice to show me the fastest lines through the corners. I had a good cheering section because my parents were there along with my mom’s friend Sandra and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Our race started in the heat of the day but I had a supreme pit crew in my mom. She supplied me with fresh ice water and dumped ice and water down Alex’s, Phillipe’s, and my skinsuits. The race started fast. Alex and I took turns attacking the field. About 20 minutes into the race I made a move and started a group of four. We had a TCRC rider in Alex and a Memphis rider along with one other guy and me so all the major teams were represented. As soon as the break took off we started working well together and Phillipe used his strength and wits to hold back the field. One Nashville Cyclist rider bridged up and worked as well. At four to go I tried to go it alone with the encouragement of masters speedster Ron Wilson and made it to two to go before I got swept up. I still felt strong so I sat in on the last lap waiting for someone to go. On the roller before the big hill the Nashville Cyclist rider attacked up the gutter on the opposite side of the road and I wouldn’t have had any idea except for Ron Wilson telling me to “Go, now!” I was able to jump onto his wheel putting me in a good position for the sprint. On the final tricky corner, the Nashville Cyclist rider left the inside line open so I jumped and held off the rest of the riders by about a bike length. This result placed me third in the omnium because the TT was given double points. After two wins in the weekend, claims of sandbagging were flying fast but I think I will finish the season as a cat 3. Thanks for reading.

Knoxiecross video

Video of the 2010 Knoxiecross race series. It's pretty artsy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxqecA_SQaQ

Fitchburg

       A couple of weeks ago Alex Dayton, my dad, and I went up to race in Fitchburg, MA. As soon as we left our house the skies opened up and dumped rain, people were sliding off the road and hiding under overpasses.  We stopped to borrow some equipment and the rain died down so we kept driving. After a little confusion on the location of our first hotel on the way to pick up Alex my dad and I finally found the hotel. In the morning Alex met us and we loaded up the five bikes on the car, threw a bunch of wheels in the back, and drove off looking real pro. We stopped at James Madison University and tried out our borrowed TT bikes. A graduate student there named Kevin took us on a ride. We showered at the University then kept driving to Pennsylvania for our next stop where we drove by the hotel two or three times before we finally made it in. We watched Last Comic Standing for a while then had Reese’s cups and Cheetos.  

       The next day we drove by NYC and went on a road that you had to pay to drive on, which was kind of weird. Finally after 15 hours in the car we made it to the hotel in Fitchburg. We rode the road race course which had a pretty steep climb. Back at the hotel Alex and I snuck into the water park and went down all the slides. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant called Il Ricordi for some fantastic pizza. We spent most of the next day chillin’ and getting lost riding around the circuit race course around the Fitchburg State College. We carbo-loaded at the Italian restaurant again.

        Friday meant race time so we woke up way too early and headed to the race. We warmed up then ditched some leg warmers and lined up first row next to my bud from road camp, Thomas Wrona. There was a pretty serious sprint from staging to the start line but we held our positions and the race started. I missed my pedal but got it the second time. The next 7 laps hurt so bad. We lapped the Cat 4’s on our first lap even though they started only two minutes behind us. I was in a break with Ben Gabardi for about 30 seconds. Then I mostly sat in and moved up each time on the steep climb to the finish. On the last lap there were two guys a couple of seconds up the road, so the sprint for third was on. I finished eighth overall and was the top 15-16 yr-old. Our average speed was over 28 mph.

Me and Alex

Start Line

Lawson Craddock

Day 2. I had a pretty nasty stomach bug after the first race so I was pretty nervous about my condition. On the bright side I got a call-up. The race started fast but none of the breakaways stayed away till about the second time over the big hill and finish. 3 guys got away and spread their advantage on the 55 mph descent. One guy from Mesa Cycles bridged up. The break had Anders Newbury from Hot Tubes plus the yellow jersey from Turner so it held about 20 seconds to our group. On the final uphill sprint Thomas took off but a little too early. I stayed on Lawson Craddock’s wheel and one guy came around me so I finished seventh and top 15-16 again. My Aunt Helen and my cousin Adam met me and Alex after rollout and she brought us lunch once we went back to the hotel. Now we set up our TT bikes for junior gearing and rode the course then slept some more. Italian again for dinner.

Feed Zone

    Day 3. By now I had the stomach bug for two days and was pretty wiped out. I could never get comfortable on the TT bike and after feeling the muscles I strained in a TT last March crying for mercy, I just had to ease it home at about 80-90%. This made for a poor 38^th place which threw my previous 6^th on GC right out the window. Another bummer was that in the last hundred meters I hit a big bump that made the aero bar pad tear open a scab on my elbow from MTB camp. It bled a lot so this was a double whammy. Thomas rode awesome and moved up to 10^th on GC. Good work. Alex put in a good effort as well. We ate our fourth and final dinner at the same Italian restaurant. Their garlic bread was amazing…

Alex TT start

    Day 4. By now I was mostly recovered from my stomach bug so we rode the six miles to the crit course around downtown Fitchburg. The crit started so fast and with Lawson in second on GC by hundredths of a second Hot Tubes was determined to get him a time bonus. The first 16 laps were mostly just pain and on the last lap someone must have liked my rear wheel cause they put their front right into it and caused a big crash. I held it up though I might’ve dragging someone’s bike for a few feet. I was pretty much spent and in the second-to-last corner I tried to move up in the group and accidently bumped into Alex but he held it up despite bouncing off a hay bale (sorry, Alex). I finished 13^th in the sprint, right behind Thomas so second 15-16. Lawson got second so he won the GC and also points jersey (he just got third at the Junior World’s TT, so I don’t feel as slow). We picked up some medals and t-shirts and rode back to the hotel and headed out. 

The race had 90+ juniors that started the stage race.

Speedy speedy

Vroom vroom..

      We stayed in Boston at my Aunt Helen’s house the next day and went on the Codzilla speed boat in Boston Harbor with my cousin Justin. Later we had cake for my dad’s birthday and watched the Tour on Versus.

     The next day was all driving so nothing exciting except a stop at Dunkin Donuts and when we stopped at a hotel Alex was singing a song about “When you love a woman, tell her how you feel” and some people came around the corner to the elevator and were listening, but we forgot to push the button so we waited for five minutes before Alex remembered. This was the funniest part of the trip. We dropped off Alex at his house the next morning then my dad drove us home.