Benefits of a White Saddle...

...you know when your saddle sores pop.

Gross, I know...but I figured it'd be a great photo to share on the blog.

So, after having races every weekend since the end of February until the beginning of May, I've taken a month's break from racing and have been focusing on recovery and ramping back up for the second half of the season. Next on tap is the Indiana State Road Race Championships in Fishers, IN...just north of Indianapolis. It's basically in the backyard of my teammate, Chris Pfeiffer or, more affectionately known as Crispy. We're looking for a solid result (like a WIN) at this race and should have a great chance at it. Everyone seems to be on great form and the motivation is definitely there. I know I'm at least chomping at the bit to throw down some aggressive racing.

In other news, the rumor mill (aka Facebook...and now my blog) has let me in on the sweet secret that Sustainable Cycling now has a new team member - Isaiah Newkirk. He's from Bloomington, IN and raced for Marian College during the collegiate season. I raced alongside him during the collegiate season and found that he's a really nice guy and a strong rider. He's going to be a valuable addition to our quiver and I'm looking forward to racing together with him.

Well...I'm off to tent to the aforementioned saddle issue. Wish me luck and send me some DZ Nuts if you're feeling generous :) 

Legit Update Coming Soon...

....until then, here's a sweet picture to stimulate the right brain.

Italy goes all out.

Now I'm just poor...not a poor college student

Well...after four years at Purdue University, I'm a college graduate. The full magnitude of what I have accomplished never really hit me until I was on stage looking at my name on the big screen just before I received my diploma. That's when it hit me that all of the work and late nights I had gone through were finally paying off. Even better than that, I realized that never again will I have to do math homework, or B.S. an essay about some obscure topic of philosophy, or pull an all-nighter to hopefully pull off a miracle on an exam that I was no where near ready for. It's a huge sense of relief and accomplishment to have completed my undergraduate career.

The only downside to all of this is that I haven't secured a job yet...which means that I'm making the transition from being a well respected, unemployed, struggling college student to a dead-beat, unemployed poor person. Should be an interesting year ;)

In cycling news....Morgan-Monroe appears to not be happening, so my next race will be on June 6th up in Fishers, IN...the Indiana Road Race Championships. This race is a huge target for Sustainable Cycling, so all of our riders are expecting to be in fantastic shape to hopefully get Crispy the win in his backyard. 

I'm back down at my parents house for the week for a mini vacation and the weather looks like it will be dandy all week long. That means lots of miles put into the legs and perfecting the tan-lines.

Finals Week + Winona = Uneventful Post

Winona Lake weekend recap: Road Race - felt crappy...I need a break. Crit - Blake won! First win for the team in Indiana. 

This is my last week of college. The week leading up to Winona was terrible for me...called dead week at Purdue, it's the final week of regular classes before the final exam schedule. While Professors are forbidden to give exams or quizzes during this week, they DO seem to make all of our final term papers, final projects, and presentations due this week. I spent the vast majority of my week in the coffee shop buried in either my laptop or my papers wrapping up all of my final assignments. The good news is that I finished everything on time, the bad news is that "real" life got in the way of bike life and I only was able to get a few hours on the bike all week. Not the ideal or predicted run up to Winona Lake. Oh well...c'est la vie.

My body's itchin' for a little break from racing, though. I've been going non-stop since February racing nearly every weekend. Good thing is that I've got graduation weekend and Memorial Day weekend coming up, which should provide the opportunity to get some quality training in and gradually work myself back into form for the Morgan Monroe S.P road race and the Indiana State RR Championships coming up at the end of may and the beginning of June respectively.

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!