Collegiate Career is Over...With a Bang

This weekend found the Purdue Cycling Team down in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio for the MWCCC Regional Championships at Lake Hope S.P. First off, this little pocket of Ohio is absolutely beautiful...rolling hills, lots of trees, winding roads, quaint little farms tucked in....in short, a great place for a road race!

Our race took place on a 20 mile loop around Lake Hope State Park. There were two big climbs per lap, but also a lot of smaller climbs and rollers that wore down on you. The final 8 miles of each lap was into a 15-17 mph headwind which made for a bit of a leg breaker finish. We did three laps of the circuit for 60 miles total.

The first lap was pretty easy...we only averaged 17.5 mph for that lap. The second lap was when the racin' began. The first big climb came about 5 miles into the first lap and about halfway up, 7 of us put the hammer down and had a good gap at the top. We bombed the descent and got organized into a break. It was me, two Purdue teammates, and one rider each from Marian, Michigan, Wisconsin, and DePaul. Our break worked well together and before long, we were haulin' some booty. We ended up flying past the A's peloton and chase group on that lap...pretty cool.

I forgot to mention that we started the race at 2:30pm and it was pushing 90 degrees. Hot hot hot. By the time we got to the feedzone to start the final lap, I was feeling the heat a bit. I was gapped up the first climb and never regained contact with the break. I decided to time trial my way to the finish because I didn't know how far back the field was. I ended up catching the DePaul rider just as the moto-ref came up to us to tell us that he hadn't seen another rider behind us for a while, so between the two of us we had 6th and 7th locked.

At the finish, my teammates took 1st and 2nd and I ended up getting 6th. Not a bad showing by Purdue at Regionals! Come to find out at the end, only 8 riders finished the race! I finished with the DePaul rider about 5 minutes behind the winning group and the 8th rider finished about 20 minutes behind me. Apparently when the 7 of us went away on the climb, the field completely exploded and everyone abandoned at end of the second lap. 

Not a bad way to end the collegiate career.

P.S. - I almost forgot to give a shout-out to Chris Langsenkamp for hooking me up with some phenomenal pass-ups in the feedzone...dude's a pro.

Ceraland Classic

Hey Hey. This past Saturday was the Indiana Race Series opener, the Ceraland Classic. In addition, it was also Sustainable Cycing's hometown race in Columbus, IN which provided the community and our sponsors a chance to see us in action.

Overall, the day went well. I feel really happy about how the team rode together...enough to even say that our team together is stronger than the sum of its parts. We animated the race more than any other team there sending off multiple attacks that made the race exciting. We were well organized in keeping the race in control given the fact that this was our first "real" race as a team. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring back a small group of 2-3 at the end (it was close though). Spencer ended the day with a strong 4th and we had another few top twenties. 

Post race, we were able to enjoy some mudslides and milkshakes thanks to Culver's cupons that were in the newspaper containing this story.

Coming up this weekend are the MWCCC Conference Championships out at Ohio State University. The road race really tickles my fancy at 60 miles with two long climbs per 20 mile lap. My legs are feeling good and my confidence level is high. I'm expecting to finish off the collegiate season with a bang. This will be the last weekend where I suit up in a Purdue kit (or any collegiate kit for that matter). It's a little strange to think about. Including this week, I only have 4 more weeks as a college student. Then it's off to the real world, with real world responsibility. I'm looking forward to wrapping up my school career and starting my life as a "grown-up". 

Lastly, Fink put together this video introducing our team that will go up on the website later this week. Luckily, I'm putting it here, so you don't have to wait for it to go up. Enjoy!

(at 1:30 is a sweet segment of me puttin' down the hammer...haha)

Team Presentation

It's official now...Sustainable Cycling is the new team on the block for the 2009 season. We had our team presentation this past weekend down in Columbus, IN. It was a pretty smooth event...we were able to meet our sponsors, introduce the team and it's philosophy to the community, and have a rare chance to have all of us team members in the same place at once. Oh, yeah, we had some yummy food too (thanks to Kylie and Casey).

It's really cool being able to see what started out as a wishful conversation between a few of us on Chris Pfeiffer's back porch come to fruition. We have been able to form a team, secure sponsors, create a philosophy that we all support, etc. It's pretty cool to be able to have been a part of forming what should become the most dominate Cat. 3 team in the midwest.

This coming Saturday is the Ceraland Classic...not a big race in the grand scheme of things, but a big race for our team because it is our "hometown" race in Columbus, IN. It will be our first chance to show our sponsors and the community what we are capable of, and what we're doing with their support. We'll have 8 of 9 team members racing, so there shouldn't be an excuse not come away with a victory. Stay tuned for the race report!

Hail Purdue....The Road Race Report

Attacking, starting a break-away, and staying in the break for a bit is sweet. Nothing like the feeling of riding away from everyone, only to look back to see a big stretch of road between you and the field with one rider strong enough to stay on your wheel while fans on the side of the road are yelling at you to keep going hard because you've got a gap on everyone.

Making the break stick is a whole other story.

I found myself in this situation during the Purdue Road Race this past Saturday. The circuit is a 4 mile loop with a beast of a climb that makes you hate your body for being merely human and not some sort of mutant or android that is void of the ability to feel pain or fatigue. During the 4th trip (of 8) up the climb, I decided to put the hurt on everyone else. I popped it into the big ring and opened the throttle....it was pretty sweet feeling riding away like that and hearing everyone go crazy...running along side of me and screaming their lungs out. 

After the effort (that made me a little dizzy...I'm no super man) I looked back only to see one rider from Marian College, Isaiah...a real nice chap, on my wheel. I drove it for a bit, the with a flick of the elbow, he came through and started working. Sweet! Maybe we'll have a chance of staying away.

My youthful exuberance got the best of me though, and the ever realistic probability of 40 riders versus 2 got the best of us just in time to climb the devil hill again. I felt wonderful and strong in the break, but once we hit that hill, I seemed to go backwards, traveling from the front of the pack through to the back. I spent the next lap chasing back on. Thankfully, my power animal is a falcon, so I was able to fly like a madman down the descent and catch back on....too bad I caught back on just in time for the penultimate climb up the hill. Needless to say, the gas was out of the tank by then. 

Here's a picture of me finishing, I'm sure you can tell I'm not flying solo for the V. Although, I ended up only being a few seconds behind the lead group, so all-in-all, it wasn't a terrible result given the situation. I came away from the race happy and having had a lot of fun on one of the best road circuits in the Midwest.

I had enough time to give all of the fans on the side of the hill high-fives as I was finishing. They deserved a thanks for all of the support while we were racing. It was especially nice having my family and a lot of close friends there to watch me do what I love to do most. Thanks for caring everyone!

And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Uberti for getting a no-questions-to-how-awesome-of-a-rider-he-is victory on the day. That kid's a cowboy!

Two last images that sum up the mood of the race. My friends never dissappoint.

I'm getting really good at predicting second places...

The latest giant race of the pro calendar, The Tour of Flanders, ended with another fine showing by my pick for the win, Heinrich Haussler. But, for the second time in a row, he got second, thus making me an expert at predicting second places. 

Stijn Devolder defended last years win with a repeat this year....in nearly identical fashion. He's only the third person to win back-to-back Ronde's. Props.

The Purdue Road Race was this weekend. I've got a lot of good pics and stories from

a great day of racing. I'll toss a post up on that early this week, so stay tuned!