My new blog can be found at: http://andreas.motd.org

While I have time at the computer, I thought I’d recapitulate my experience at Copperopolis. Apparently my body allocated extra energy to its immune system fighting off a pesky rhinovirus leaving me tired even before the race. In a way that was good because it gave me an excuse for not doing as well as I had hoped other than that I ate nothing during the race and bonked.

I got a mediocre warm-up before the start. I had hoped to make it fast the first time up the climb, but I was not in the shape to do it and ended up setting a mild pace. A first for any juniors race I’ve been in, once we got over the climb everyone started to rotate without anyone saying a word. We went fairly fast, and I was already starting to wear down. The second time up the climb was okay, but on the flats I was pooped. I tried sitting out a few pulls, but Adam Hodes (Tieni Duro) got butthurt.

The last and third time up the climb I was done for. I hung on as long as possible, but once I was done I was ausgespielt. I completely hit the wall and rode back at a laughable pace. Because the field was fast but small, I still came in fifth and won a t-shirt, succeeding again in my universal goal at Velo Promo races.

Now here I am with a lingering sore throat the night before a big race that I really want to do well at, so there is nothing to do but to wait anxiously. My brother is drinking a can of lemonade, and I’m going to eat some oatmeal cookies (no raisins) for dessert. Yeah, it’s a real party here.

The next race I did after the Early Bird Road Race was the Pine Flat Road Race, one of my favorite races of the year. Probably because there was a chance of rain, the field sizes were a little small; the 3s race I was in had only 19 starters. It was a fun race nevertheless. Right from the start a Roaring Mouse rider soloed off the front and another guy bridged up to him. Strangely, most, if not all, of the Tieni Duro guys in my race dropped out within the first 10 or so miles. The pace wasn’t very high nor was the terrain terribly difficult, so I don’t know what their excuses were. The remaining group had some trouble getting organized, and there were, of course, attacks. Once we got out of the gentle hills to the flat middle section, however, we got a paceline going. Before I knew it the break was in view. Without the shelter from the hills it got a little windy, and once we got within reaching distance of the break the organization faltered. But we still caught them at the base of the first final climb. Right about then Steve O’Mara of ZteaM got away seemingly effortlessly while I was starting to hurt. Before the descent between the two final climbs Andrew Demas of Third Pillar got away too. With not much left I stayed with the group down the descent. I made an effort with about 200 to go, a small gap opened up, and I clinched third place. I was very happy with the race, and to top it off I got a long-sleeve Velo Promo t-shirt, a first for me.

Here I am taking a pull near the beginning of the race.

The Snelling Road Race was the next weekend. The 17-18 field was surprisingly different because many of the usual suspects have realized that they’ve become too good for juniors races, but there are a lot of good new guys to take their places. Contrary to my usual style, I tried to be a little more offensive, so I attacked quite a bit during the first lap. We didn’t drop too many guys, but it felt good to be in control. Cody was looking good, but the saddle on his newly-built-up Look came loose which pretty much put him out of the running. As usual the race came down to a sprint, exactly how I wanted it to since I’ve never lost a sprint on that course. This year was no different.

Here’s a cool picture of my sprint.

The next race was the Berkeley Bike Club Team Time Trial. Because my dad had health issues relating to his crash from last year, I had to partner up with my brother in the juniors category this year. We did some time trial training leading up to the race, and on the day of I was feeling pretty good. Once the race was underway we quickly passed some other teams. Alex did a lot of work on the starting descent, and I did most of the work on the rollers leading up to the final climbs. But just then Alex threw his chain. It took him quite a while to get it back on, and as he did other teams were passing us. Once we finally got going we also lost a lot of time on the hills. We ended up fifth, but I’m confident that without the chain incident we would have easily gotten top three. No picture for this race, as it deserves no acknowledgement.

The last race that I need to catch my readers up on is the Bariani Road Race. As expected, it was very windy as it usually is. My brother and I just hung on the back, tried to get whatever draft we could, and hoped for the best. A rider stayed off the front on his own, and I weaseled my way up to the front in time to get third in the sprint, putting me in fourth overall.

Here my brother and I are, sitting at the back like losers.

That’s all I have for right now. I’m trying to get over a cold before Saturday’s Copperopolis. I’m looking forward to it because I get to do three whole laps. I’m not being sarcastic.

The week following was finals week at my high school. I have a bad feeling about all seven finals, which might just be my pessimistic instinct. Now I’m nervously awaiting my semester grades.

On Friday night after the last final my family drove to Patterson to the Best Western from which the Early Bird Road Race leaves from. It was rainy, and to make things worse, we arrived before we got to listen to Opie and Jimmy make Erock a peanut butter hat in honor of the peanut butter recall that affected some of our Clif Bars. (This was on Opie and Anthony on satellite radio.) We had a good dinner (veggie quesadilla for me) at a Mexican restaurant that we found last year. Luckily, my brother and I managed to find a hilarious picture of Erock’s peanut butter hat online, and then we tried to get some sleep before we woke up at six in the morning.

We had some continental breakfast (man, that low-viscosity syrup tasted funky!), and then we registered at the Velo Promo tent, which was literally a few footsteps out of the hotel door. After getting back to the room we got ready, which meant slapping on some good ol’ warming cream. We met up with Cody outside and warmed up for just a little bit. My brother and I waited for roll out, which didn’t end up happening. This is what we looked like:

We were approached by a dude who needed his number pinned. We told him that he was better off asking someone else because we never pin our own numbers because our mom always does it. Someone else offered to help him, but he was pretty pissed off that we didn’t do it and told us that someday we would have to pin on our own numbers without our mommy. I don’t understand why he couldn’t pin on his own number if he was going to make fun of us for not doing it.

Then we waited for the start. Only another exciting picture could explain what we looked like while we waited.

The 3s, which was the race that my dad and I did, were pretty fast until the climb. We hung around the back until the climb when I moved up. I blew myself up too early, but after the turn-around at the top of the climb I caught the front group on the descent. My dad didn’t make it back to the front. I took it easy and sat out a few rotations. A few people flatted from some of the rocks washed onto the course but luckily not I, which did happen last year. The race ended up in a sprint, in which I ended up second. I was pretty happy with my result.

My brother was most likely the youngest person racing that day, but he didn’t do so hot in the 4s. Here’s what his finish looked like:

Cody, however, brought home another second place for the juniors that day in the 4s. Afterwards we all went to the Patterson Lamppost Pizza. Davis also has a Lamppost Pizza which we frequent. I beat Cody at pizza-eating, but I have to admit that my pesto-sauce-and-reduced-cheese pizza was probably less hearty than Cody’s pepperoni-olives-and-mushrooms pizza. Cody also walked away second from the Dragon Punch competition after losing to some little kid there, who apparently can punch harder than Cody.

We definitely had a good day. Cody is now only a few points away from his 3 upgrade. And by my count, I now have enough points for my 2 upgrade. But I think I’ll stay a 3 for a while longer so that I can race with Cody and my brother. Plus, I think I would get my butt kicked in any Pro/1/2 road race.

In an hour I’ll do an easy, 20-mile ride with a few teammates. I hope some show up.

The Mount San Bruno Hillclimb happened to fall on the day the rest of the world knows as New Year’s Day, as it does every year. To make a short story shorter, I won the juniors race and Cody came in third. I think everyone is at least a little surprised with Cody’s four-minute improvement over last year. Way to go! It’s nice to have some momentum going at the beginning of the year and to know that my training is on track. But I’m still not planning on doing crits this year, so don’t hold your breath!

The prizes, I’m sorry to say, were lame again. For winning I got some packets of promotional sunscreen, a promotional mini backpack thing, a medal, Gu2O, and an honorary envelope (and by “honorary” I mean that they gave me an envelope with nothing inside). To top it off, I got an NCAA basketball video game for Xbox 360. Firstly, I don’t have an Xbox 360 (or, for that matter, a PlayStation 2, which prevents me from playing the Tony Hawk game I got last year), and secondly, I am a little bit insulted that the promoters would think I waste my time playing video games rather than waste my time training. But I shouldn’t be complaining because juniors are technically not supposed to get any prizes other than medals and ribbons (do honorary envelopes fall in this category?), so this was pretty good, and they did put on a great race. I just wish they wouldn’t assume that a junior who would spend his New Year’s Day doing a bike race likes video games so much.

Here is proof that Cody and I were on the podium:

My dad moved all of the components to the Pegoretti Love #3 that I got for my birthday half a year back. It is awesome to say the least. I find that it has a little bit of a smoother ride that the 8:30 AM that will be passed on to my mom and is also a little lighter.

One picture for now (Yes, it has a headbadge. If I wanted the lightest bike I would’ve gotten something uglier):

On Sunday we hauled it over to the Napa region for some climbing, which was a lot of fun. We were even graced by the presence of local pro Paul Mach who rode with us slow pokes.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the year (cycling-wise)!

Dunnigan Hills Road Race:
My brother went off the front early as a joke, but some Swift guys bridged up and the break stuck. Cody and I made a series of attacks that shattered the field, and we got a small break going. I won the field sprint for fourth and Alex won overall.

Mt. Shasta Hillclimb:
As usual, this was a small event but fun nonetheless, as usual. I got a good time, finished a little ahead of my dad, and won the juniors field of four.

Mt. Tamalpais Hillclimb:
A break got away that was just going too fast for me. I was third in the 15-16s but a little disappointed.

I’m looking forward to Mount San Bruno, the first race of the 2009 season.

Right now I’m working on a new website, although I’m not sure whether or not it will replace this blog.

The newest online cycling-related trend seems to be making custom bikes with Pedal ID, so I figured I’d show off my dream bike.

Now my parents know what I want for Christmas!

A while back my family stayed in Mountain View the night before the University Road Race, where my dad and I would be racing the 3s. I wasn’t sure what the course was like other than that it was short with one hill and one descent. Once we arrived I got a better idea. It was right in the middle of the UC Santa Cruz campus and about three miles long with almost no flat spots. From the start/finish it went up fairly gradually with a steeper section to the top of the climb. Then there was a long descent with a sharp right turn back to the climb and gradually up the the start/finish again.

My dad and I rode the course in the opposite direction of the race once or twice. Then we started exploring some bike paths that seemed to connect the whole campus. We got a little bit lost but found the course again and rode back to the car. The campus is definitely beautiful. It’s hilly, scenic, sort of secluded with a lot of trees, and a whole lot different than UC Davis.

We soon started. The race was certainly fast. I mostly stayed near the back and tried as best I could to hang on. Unfortunately, my dad got dropped and had to finish the rest of the race on his own. Towards the end of the race I was really counting down the laps. The climb really hurt, but the descent provided some momentary relief every lap.

By the end of the race I didn’t have much left to sprint. The final time up the climb the group split, and I was in the back as usual, so I had to bridge the gap. By then I really didn’t have anything left at all, and I just did my best to get to the finish line. I got eighth.

So again I missed the t-shirt, but I still had a blast nonetheless. Once again I discovered another part of California through bike racing, and I’m glad I did.

At the start.

In the group going up the climb.

My dad riding alone.

Waiting for the race to finish.

Finally finishing.

Waiting for results.

The race was pretty slow at first but soon we got into a rhythm. Once we hit Cantelow I followed Alistair Eeckman, who won my brother’s Mount Diablo race, and tried to keep it together. Unfortunately that didn’t totally work out since my brother got dropped along with teammates AJ and Kelby. Cody and I were still in the lead group, though. My dad’s race started a few minutes after us, so they passed us juniors pretty early on. That was okay except that our group kept trying to pass them even though we couldn’t keep a high enough speed long enough to keep them from passing us again. I thought we should just sit up a little and let the masters get more of a lead.

The second time over Cantelow we were getting close to the masters again. I was upset that the juniors were trying to pass the masters once more, so I attacked at the bottom to make sure we would stay ahead of them for the rest of the climb. Eventually it was just Alistair, Chris Flanagan (Team Swift), and me. The masters passed us again at the top of Cantelow. Unfortunately after the descent Chris decided to try to pull ahead of the masters again. I was done with this inane leapfrogging and decided to stay behind the masters once and for all. Luckily for me the other juniors didn’t get very far before they were passed again, and so our group stayed behind the masters for the rest of the race. Both Alistair and Chris made attacks that I had to cover. I just wanted it to stay together because I knew that I could probably win the sprint. So I made sure that I was out of the wind until there were 200 meters to go when I launched my sprint. I did indeed win.

I was certainly miffed that we frequently and unnecessarily passed the masters, but it was still a fun race nonetheless. I liked going past the feed zone where there was a whole crowd cheering and riding on training roads with other juniors.

On Sunday I’ll do the University Road Race for the first time and then Dunnigan. By that time school will have already started, how exciting.

The juniors’ start.

The 45+ start.

Cody at the front.

Crossing the finish line.

Alex finishing.

After pessimistically sitting in the car for an hour I started to get ready for my 30-mile race. I just wanted it to be over. I warmed up a little and went to the start. I got an okay position and just waited for the whistle to be blown. Once we started my doubts about the race were confirmed. I quickly dropped to the back where I was most comfortable. The race was fast, and at the back I had trouble matching any accelerations. On the first lap there was already a major crash. Then there was another big one on the second lap. I knew I wanted to stay at the back, but eventually it cost me, and I got dropped. I rode the rest of the race with a few other riders. Once the winner crossed the line we were pulled from the race. Who ever heard of getting pulled from a road race? Apparently they wanted to get traffic going again as soon as possible, so we couldn’t even finish the last couple of miles. I got placed as 41st, but I was the lucky one. At least I wasn’t caught in one of the many crashes like Zach, Joel Shaffer (Team Specialized), or Ryan Eastman (Team Swift) who probably broke his collarbone, only to name a few.

The nationals road race should not have been like that. It is not normal to have that many crashes in a road race. The best juniors in the country need a road race longer than 80 minutes. They need a course more challenging than a high school parking lot with a few gradual risers. Crashing is not bike racing. Crashing is crit racing, and that is what today was.

Edit 11 Aug. 2008: I put up the pictures.

Alex waiting patiently.

Sitting at the back.

More sitting at the back.

Waiting for my start.

Riding with the safer group.

Pulled at a road race.