sub par-ness

Well I'm back to the blogging. Time for a weekend recap. This past weekend was the Avery Trace road race and the Cookeville Criterium. For some reason, I think of the Road race as having 3 spread out hills, then a long flat section, then a finishing hill. Boy do have the wrong idea! The race starts and immediately riders are up the road, about 3 of them I think. I decide to attack and try to get in the break, that was my goal, to get in the break. So I attack over a hill and a Piggly Wiggly (a grocery store) came with me. He asks me if I had a teammate in the break. Foolishly I say no, he then continues to tell me that he does and he will do very little work (this turns out to be a lie and Karma will hunt this man down.) My bridging attempt to the 3 riders fails, however it did give us a head start on the first climb, the peleton doesn't catch us until halfway up. Immedaitely, the other guy is dropped (yes karma is a female dog, maybe next time you will learn what goes around comes around.) As the lead of the peleton crests the hill I am just slipping back, containing myself. Everyone riding next to me is breathing like they are about ot explode and I am just pedaling around, not feeling too much pain. We go down the hill, no wrecks, GREAT SUCCESS. After the first descent the second climb start immediately. My teammate, Jeff Mcgrane starts doing a hard pull, then super strong rider, Chris Brown, goes to the front and a gap opens up immediately. Dirk Pohlman then bridges up. I knew my teammates weren't able to cover the move so I knew I had to. I jump from about 10 wheel up to the 2 riders with Brad Spears on my wheel. we crest the hill with a small gap, but we regroup on the descent. Go down the descent with no wrecks, GREAT SUCCESS. s soon as we reach the bottom of the descent, this ion healthcare guy attacks, (the same guy that won the Rome road race, super strong right now) I immediately jump on his wheel and we have a gap. I start working thinking there is a somewhat long way til the next climb. Well I was wrong, the next climb started immediately and I was toast. The transmission was stuck in reverse and I was going backwards. Needles to say, I get in a chase group and we paceline/attack our way to the finish (stupid attacks on their part, if you are off the back there is no need for attacking.)
Seeing how I didn't feel like buying a hotel room, my bro Josh and I decided to camp out at a camp ground a mile form the finish of the road race. We get to the camp ground and there is electricity at all the sites and it is full of RV's and rednecks. the only flat place to put the tent on was gravel so we were sleeping on rocks all night. Also, it seemed like every single car that drove by had flowmasters. Not the most tent camping friendly place. We decided next year we are bringing a microwave.
The criterium was on Sunday at 3 o'clock. The race starts out and my legs feel good. The shims that I had put in earlier this week were really helping (thanks Eddie Sloan http://bikedomestique.com/) About 15 minutes in, a rider is off the front and I decide to put in a good dig to chase him down. I catch him with the field struggling behind me. I sense this and decide to keep on going. I have a 5 second gap for about a lap and a half, I look back and seeing a rider chasing me with the field behind him. I get reabsorbed and my teammate attacks and the race winning break is formed. My teammate takes fifth and I don't really like the the heat so I pull the plug about halfway in (I couldn't unzip my jersey with one hand so I had to sit up to unzip it. a gap opened and I tried closing it but blew up in the process. not the smartest thing on my part.
Overall I'm happy with how the legs felt. They felt much better, probably because the shims. I was much faster. Now if my power tap would hurry up and get here. I am not going to let my sub par results (mid 20's both days) get in the way. I am happy with how my form is. I can't win every race, I'm just happy the legs finally felt good. That's all for now, I might give a midweek update, who knows.
peace love and happiness,
the crow

Feeling Hot

Yes it's that hot, and super humid as well. I think everyday of June has been 90+ degrees. However, if I recall from last year, July was not as hot as June. Hopefully that is the case. I'm going to go the Avery Trace Road Race and the Cookeville Crit this weekend. Both races are notoriously hot. The Road race is probably the one race that I have done multiple times and not had any luck. In 2005 I sucked that year and puked on top of the first climb and got dehydrated. In 2006, I face-planted on the first descent. Half my face was gone after that. Many people still come up to me and tell me how they remember seeing my race with a half missing face. It's very cool to know that people still remember that. The most recent edition of the race, 2009, I flatted a mile from the 3rd and steepest climb. As I was chasing back on, I dropped my chain. With stupid SRAM, I had to get off the bike and put it back on. Race over. Needless to say I have never had any luck with that race. Honestly, even if I had good luck on that race, I would probably still suck. It finishes on a steep, 1k climb. I may be skinny, but I suck at hills, I can fake it on the hills leading up to that last climb, but on that last climb there is no faking it. So why am I going you ask? 2 of my teammates are 1,2 in the Tbra cat 2 standings, honestly, they are owning the points race. I am going to support them, and get in a good work out. I was fitted on Wednesday morning and immediately noticed a huge difference. There is a 1.5 centimeter length difference in my legs, And I had been riding with no shims or anything like that. Needless to say, once I got some shims in it made all the difference. Hopefully the crow can put in a good ride, maybe get in the break or get a team mate the win, we will. I will post a race recap either Saturday night or Sunday after the Crit.
thanks for reading,
the crow

The problem with winning

Just 10 months ago, I upgraded to cat 2. I went from racing cat 3, to racing with the big boys. The first race I did was Crossroads. It's a week-long Twilight Crit series. It was my first set of Pro/1/2 racing and boy was I in the deep end. My buddy Stefan and I showed u to a start line full of nrc teams that were fully supported. Kinda a punch in the face for me. Not the best first time experience. However, I love jumping into the deep end. It makes it seem like the local race stuff is easy. So anyways, I started this year not knowing what to expect. Majority of the time, "rookie" cat 2's generally have an off year their first year. I didn't know if that was going to happen to me so I went into the year ready for whatever and knowing I was going to keep my head high regardless of what happens. Well guess what, I won a race 2 months into the season. Ok, the normal person would say thats awesome, but I am not a normal person. It was awesome at the time, and for a good month afterwards. But right now, IT SUCKS. I'm kinda in a slump right now, I'm getting dropped in races, not putting out any power, doing what a normal cat 2 "rookie" does. But wait, I have already won a pro/1/2 race, I can't be getting dropped in races. It sucks because that race raised my standards. I'm a big fan of having low standards (when it comes to racing a bike that is) so that way I'm never disappointed, but some how the opposite has happened. And it sucks cause I can't meet those standards. So what am I going to do? Well I'm starting off by getting my power tap running. I ordered one 2 months ago and it is supposed to get here this week. I think that is a good start. Something like that makes all the difference. Also, it's time to start training and stop riding. I enjoy riding, but I have found out that I enjoy winning more than riding. Having a training plan saves alot of time and energy. Why ride 4 hours when you can ride 2 hours and do some organized intervals, and that 2 hour ride is better for your legs. I'm a big fan of doing whatever you want to do when it comes to riding a bike. However, that is obviously not working for me right now, so it time to start training!

unprofessionalism

Koman Coulibaly. He made a terrible call and has yet to explain it. The closest thing to an explanation is he did it because he hates America. He has come out and called us racist and crybabies. He is also saying that if you disagree with his call then you are either A) an American or B) Corrupted by the Americans biased media. Are you serious? This is his response to someone asking him for an explanation of the call,

"You’re right about one thing, this whole thing really needs an explanation. How can they doubt me like this? Why is FIFA going through this “witch hunt”?

I really have to wonder, is it because I am Malian?

Best,
Koman"

Are you serious dude? You think people are questioning your call because of were your from? referees are supposed to be professional, and be able to put personal feelings aside. HE has done the opposite. In his first press release, (which he has since edited) he voiced his opinion about the war in the middle east. Is it me, shouldn't the "Official" press release be concerning soccer, not political matters. In my opinion, his personal feelings made him blind to the obvious. How much more unprofessional can you get?

When in Rome

Well, time for a race recap from the crows point of view. This weekend I decided to go down to Rome Georgia to try my hand at some large fields and hard selective racing. I got what I paid for, kinda. Early in the morning, there was a team time trial, I decided to skip that so that i would not have to stay at my friends apartment in Chattanooga more than one night. Saturday evening was the Criterium. I was really hoping for a large field, but that was not the case. I showed up to the start line to see only like 20 riders there, very disappointing. Last weekend at the state criterium, I started on the last spot and from the gun I was in the hurt box, not fun. This weekend, I vowed I was going to start on the first line in order to save myself the trouble of having to move up the field. As I said earlier there were only 20 people there, so that was pointless. The course had 2 pretty steep climbs and was less than 9/10ths of a mile long, thats means it was going to be hard. The first lap was super slow then the 2nd lap, the poop hit the fan. As I was sitting 3rd wheel, I see Ty Magner (6th in Athens Twilight Pro) O'niel Samuals (former pro Jamaican national champ) and AJ Meyer (super strong 19 year old) go past me. I immediately jump on the wheel and we have a 5 second gap. After 2 laps pass we get caught and I decide to sit in. After several laps pass, the break had been formed, and slowly riders attacked the main field, I decide to look back and there are only 3 riders with me. The main field was up the road, and I was not in it. THIS SUCKS! Yet another bad criterium result, I lasted 30 minutes into a hour long race. I was hoping my legs were getting better but they are not. The next morning was a 70 mile road race that started at 9 am. Due to 85 degree weather at 8:30, the race director decided to cut our race to 50 miles as the temperature was sure to hit 100 later on in the day. I would have liked to do a 70 mile race, however that heat sucked. The course was very selective. 1 steep roller and one climb that was around 2 miles long. The loop was around 25 miles long, and we did 2 laps. The finish was on top of the 2 mile climb. As I show up to the start line, I see a slightly larger field, around 30 or 35 guys. As the race starts, I was trying to get in the break so I was very active. The most notable move was more of a selection, 10 of us working very well together however someone decided to shut us down. As soon as we were caught 2 riders attacked and stayed away. As we approach the start of the climb, we had already dropped 10 riders. The climb started, and true to form, I sucked. I was dropped. As i went over the climb and started the descent, I was joined by another rider. We worked our butts off to get to a group of 5 riders. The whole time I was contemplating dropping out, but I just kept going for some reason. We caught the 5 riders, and all of a sudden, the moto ref tells us there is a group of 5, 1 minute up the road. We catch the 5 and that is the main field. I was originally thinking there was like a group of 10 up the road, but apparently it was only 3. At this point there is only like 16 people in the race. Again, we Start the climb up to the finish and I suck. I end up getting 13th out of 16 finishers and 30ish starters. At first I wasn't to happy with that, however, the more I think about it the more I am happy with it. That was a truly grueling race and it showed, roughly half the field dropped out. I'm somewhat happy with that, and at the least, it was a great day of training. That is all for now, I might do a blog post mid week. The next race is the Avery Trace classic. Another super hard race due to the heat and hill top finish. Hopefully this will help my form for Crossroads, my peak race.

What If?

As I sip on my morning cup of coffee and get ready for my trip down to Rome Georgia, I started playing the what if game. If you are not familiar with the what if game, it goes a little something like this, What If I were a good racer? What If my mom still didn't have a job? (I would be lie-ing if I said I wasn't dependent on my parents. However, compared to some other people my age, I am hardly dependent.) This is probably my least favorite game of them all, so why am I playing it in my head? It makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm sure it has something to do with the race this weekend. The last time I raced in Georgia it was the Athens/Roswell weekend. Possibly the defining moment of my best friends, Stefan Swecker, career. We were doing the Athens Amateur race (one of the most well known races in the country). The week before, I had won the Dogwood crit with Stefan taking 3. That race was pretty much luck, it was Stefan and I against 2 other guys from other teams, we knew one of us would win, It was just luck that i was the one that won. Anyways, back to Athens/Roswell. We are at one of the most prestigious races in the country coming in with half a lap to go, I was sitting 2nd wheel as the group was going super slow. A small gap opened in front of me and I drilled it, no one followed. As I make the last turn, my legs begin to crumble, 100 meters later, I blow up and everyone passes me. Stefan WINS. Later that evening, he wins the finals race. At that point everyone knew about us. Everyone in Tennessee was dumbfounded. So is it fair for me to think about what would have happened if I didn't take that flyer? Stefan is practically my brother, that was the happiest I have ever been, so why am I now thinking what if I didn't do that? I feel like everything happens for a reason, I took that flyer for a reason, the reward was Stefan winning, had I not taken that flyer, Stefan would have been too far back to put in a sprint. Although I did not have the individual glory, he did. I am very happy for him. Living life with no regrets is something that is very important to me. All this what if crap is regrets, regrets are stupid. As I get ready for the Rome race, I hope that I end the weekend with not only a good result, but also the knowledge that I did everything possible to get myself as good as a result as possible, was not over aggressive or overly conservative, I played the race right. If I can say that, I will probably have another top 10 under my belt. For me, playing the race the right way is very hard. It is something I have to learn, but everything that happens is a learning experience. I try to soak up as much as possible. Sorry for the long post, I just feel like rambling this morning.
Crow

First Blog

Well, seeing how everyone and their brother is blogging right now, I decided it's time for me to jump on the band wagon. I guess I'll start off by filling you in a little about me. My name is Jon, I race bikes. I work at a bike store called Cedar Bluff Cycles. The nick name CROW was given to me during my first semester of college, it has stuck ever since. During my first collegiate season of bike racing, the term Crow Nation was given to all my "fans" at the races. Its pretty much a joke, but its still kinda funny. Therefore I decided to name my blog the Crow Nation. I will pretty much talk about whatever I want, but mostly bike racing. In person, I don't really like to talk about my racing, and working at a bike store, people come in and ask me about my race. I don't like talking about it, so I can tell them to visit my blog and they can read all about it. My next race is this weekend. Its the Georgia Cup Rome. Should be a fun race with a challenging hill every 30 miles. I could do well, or I could suck horribly, time will tell. I might post a blog before this weekend. If I don't post before the weekend, I will definitely post on Sunday giving a race recap. Enjoy the reading.
Jon