La Crosse, here i come!

Its now 6:53am on Sunday June 24th. I am off to Caleb's house to pick up Caleb and Colton, then we are headed west and stopping in La Crosse for a week of awesome riding. GOOD LUCK to all those going to the State TT!

I will be back friday, hope to see you at dexter!

This past week was long, this next week is longer

Sorry i havent written anything, ive been up in Pentwater the past week. I went with 5 of my freinds and camped. Kurt took his bike, so him and i did some riding...and man was it wonderful scenery. Anyways, we grilled everyday for dinner, layed out on the beach, build sand structures (they werent really castles) and played frisbee. At night i would build a nice big fire, and we would just sit around and talk. It was a fun week. I got back Thursday afternoon. I had a few days here to get my bike tuned up, and find everything i need to leave tomarrow for camp.

Tomarrow im off to La Crosse, Wisconsin. It is on the Mississippi River. I have to pick up Caleb, and Colton, then its off across the midwest (and through Chicago). This is a fun camp, its called the Midwest Regional Road Camp. Its a non-compeditive camp where we will put in 450-500 miles in six days, riding with some of the best juniors in the midwest. I am going as a collegiate rider. It will be fun, and ill let you know how it goes after i get home from the Dexter Crit. (oh yeah, im comming back friday at like 10pm, to wake up at race at 9:45am after riding 450 miles durring the week.) Well good luck to those doing Dexter. Im off to Walmart and the local shop to grab a few last minuet things, then packing, hitting some open houses, then comming home and sleeping. PEACE!

Allen Park Recap

First off....THE CAT 4 FEILD FINISHED WITHOUT A CRASH!!! Its rare. Anyways... Got up at 7am, made some breakfast, put my gear in the van then headed out to pick up the peeps. Its not very often that i have friends attend my races, but when they do...i am elated. I picked up my freind Kurt, who is going to get into racing in the next month or so (i hope), then Cat, then Melinda.

On the way there, they slept while i focused on the race. We got to the industrial park, and my first thought was...."darn, they did away with the huge inflatable arch :-(" O well. Then i went and registered, found Scott and Roger, then we warmed up. It wasnt the turnout we had hoped for on our team. Jeff said he was going to show, but never did.

Anyways...the race. They shortened out race from 45 minuets to 40 minuets, i dont think any of us were complaning. It started off fast, and there were alot of strong riders out there, Marco was here from Windsor, along with the guy in the "Jack's" jersey, and about 8 (ish) Wolverine guys. Before the race started Scott said he heard Marco saying he would help the Wolverine guys. So from the start we knew the Wolverines would attack constantly. And that they did. For the first part of the race i was near the front, then i rode at the back to recover and conserve. I was surprised people were riding smarter than usual. It was smooth and crash-free.

There were several primes and i think everyone there heard the line "The next rider across the line gets a 4 pack of Full Throttle" about 90 times haha! Thanks Joe! Somewhere near the end of the race, or at least in the last quarter, Dominick Wieczorek and another rider went off the front and stayed out for a while. We finaly brought them back and the feild was all together for the finale. With two laps left, a Wolverine guy attacked, he got a gap and the peloton had a hard time chasing. We almost had him as we rounded the finaly corner, i was right where i wanted to be when the sprint started. The flyer made it to the finish and won, with Macro picking up second and i nipped some people before the line for 5th place overall. Scott had 10th, and Roger took 14th.

It was a good race, tiring, but good. I was happy with the outcome. I felt like i could have gone a little harder in the sprint and picked up 4th, maybe the podium...but i didn't. Scott was happy with my finish, and Mark Lovejoy (who did well in the masters race) said he was proud...well accualy he said "It's about time!" haha! Well like i said, im happy....and look, i got $20 for 5th place.

Dave Z is the man!

How about the American pro cyclist David Zabriskie? He has the potential of being a grand tour contender. Exept he had never been able to climb very well. But look at his results today! 11th on Mount Ventoux! Ive always liked Dave Z, and he can be a nice guy. (i met him at interbike in september) I hope he can get some good results in Le Tour.

Finaly, some rest!

After four days of reletively heavy riding, i finaly got a rest ish day in. I did and hour and 45 minuets with an average HR of like 127. My freind Kurt, the one who just bought a bike, has been on his bike constantly the past four days. And so we went out into some country roads today. It was fairly flat, and he sat in my draft most of the time. He did a few sprints, because he was feeling good, but i told him not to over do it. So that was my light morning ride.

When we got back to my house, we changed into our swim suits. I ran to the local bike shop (On Two Wheels) and picked up another bike try and two wheel holders for my car.(Im getting ready for La Crosse) then came home and washed my bike for Allen Park.

It was unbelievaly hot today! So i called a few freinds and they came over to swim. I did alot of lounging and just sitting out in the sun. My freinds had all of their horseplay fun. After they left i took a short nap, then i went to Quizno's and then to my freinds house to watch the NBA finals. I really dont care about basketball, so we played Euchre and i came home. Now Im sitting here writing this, contemplating going to sleep, because i have to be at MIS at 6:30 tomarrow morning for work. Well, again, i hope to see y'all at Allen Park on Saturday!

Peace!

Nascar Weekend

Well its almost Fathers Day, and anyone from Battle Creek to Ann Arbor knows what that means.....NASCAR! Im not a fan of it myself, but i guess watching cars go in circles can be entertaining (sarcasim). Accualy i enjoy the three race weekends we have a year at Michigan International Speedway. Because it means i make money. My dad is the medical director out at MIS and he got my a job out there being a "gopher". Essentialy i get paid $8/hr to drive around in a golf cart with the highest level credentials. No accualy i drive patients back to their cars or camper, i also transport paper and medicine. Its accualy quite alot of fun. Ive met most of the drivers, and its seen some pretty drunk people. (someone came in one night to the care center and blew a .38 on the breathalizer. A .38! .08 is the legal limit!)

Well anyway, thats what i will be doing friday and sunday. Saturday, obviously...is the Allen Park Criterium. Hope to see you there.

Tuesday Night Crit Practice

First off...i know this is out of order.

So this was the second time ever being to a Crit Prcatice, and the first time ive ever raced in it. My freind Kurt, who just purchased a road bike, and is interested in racing, came up with me. He stayed on for two laps in one of the races, but kept getting dropped. I told him he would do fine in a few weeks if he sticks with it. So we did a 7 lap race first, and i wasnt supposed to go all out, so i rode at the back. Then durring the second race, i was a corner marshall.

Somewhere in there, we did a 5 lapper, and Jeff and I attacked right from the start. We stayed out for 2 laps, then David comes flying by doing his TT form. Jeff was having trouble closing on David, and finaly cracked. So i chased down David. On the hill of the 4th lap, David cracked. By Now the peloton was right on me, and as they closed on me, the guy at the front yelled "come on zack! lets go!" so i cranked down and pulled the group another half lap then pulled off and rode easily to the finish. So 4.5 laps of a 5 lap race i was out front...not bad.

After that we were doing a 10 lap race, and Kurt had to be getting home, so i only did 5 laps. Again, right from the start i attaked again. Yeah, i know i know, i wasnt suppose to go hard....but in my defense...i didnt contest any sprints. This time i could only stay out fot about 2 laps, i was getting tired, so i pulled off and let the peloton go around me. On the next lap there was a group of 3 guys who made a break, i jumped on them for 2 laps. This whole time, Mrs. Anderson, and Mr. Vermulen are sitting at the Start/Finish line. Everytime i came around off the front they just laughed and shook their heads. i was detrmined to make the breakaway work.

Well i located Kurt, then put the bikes on the roof and headed home. After i dropped him off, i went home, took my stuff inside. Then went out untill 1am hanging out with my freinds.

TT Practice

Last night was the AAVC monthly time trial practice. After sitting through traffic backed up from Ford Lake to Huron St. on I-94, i got to Willow Metropark at around 6:20. There were 3 juniors there awaiting the arrival of a coach, but there was no coach comming. Mark Lovejoy emailed people to ask if they could help out with timing, because him, Mr. Christy, and Darrell weren't going to be there. So i took the liberty of getting thr juniors warmed up. As we left the parking lot, Joe Christy pulls in. So he got set up for the TT while i did a few laps, pacelining with the juniors.

Mark Lovejoy emailed us saying it was suppose to be a 5 lap TT, where as the juniors were just going to do a 3 lap TT. But with the State TT comming up (which i will have to miss, i am going to camp in La Crosse, WI), we decided that a 40K practice would be nice...thats 12 laps.

Talk about painful! Man, at 6 laps i was ready to quit! But i thought about what Dave Z. Would do, so i stuck it out. Luckily my friend Cat went with me, and she kept my lap times, took pictures, and gave me water bottles as i asked for them. (it was HOT) So i stayed hydrated, and i had a couple of GU packets.

I started my TT 2 minuets later than i was suppose to. I had forgotten to ajust my seat and change my gearing for the start. So i started 3 minuets after Colton. I did this without my aero bars, because i wasnt going to have much time to change back to road bars for Allen Park. Well 12 laps is 26.5 miles, so it was accualy longer than 40K. I did it in a time of 1:08'12 which is 23.3mph. My average HR was 178 bpm, max 196 bpm, and burned about 1100 calories. Time trials aren't really that interesting, so there isn't much i can write about. The only cool thing that happened (for me) was that i passed Colton with 2 laps to go. Yeah. So anyways....Doug, where were you last night? And where was everyone else? This really is a great workout, and more people need to come to them.

Who reads this?

Hey All,
Sorry that i havent been keeping this updated. I didnt know anyone really read it. But i recieved a few complaints, so now ill try my best to keep it up.

If you could be so kind as to leave a comment saying "Hey Zack i read this" if would give me a good idea of how many people accualy look at it. Thanks

Tour of Cedar Creek - State Championships

So an 8:30am start time, in Twin Lake (north of Muskegon).....hotel. Scott and David dropped by J-town at 4:15 and picked me up. We drove to Muskegon, got our room, then went to dinner. Ahh, its been a while since ive had Sbarro. After a carbo-load, we went to Twin Lake and drove the course. We agreed that the safest place to be is on the yellow line. We also noticed a very nice, decently long hill. Scott told us, "if you can tell a good joke, your doing fine". So i joked around in the car and was like "So i said...". Once we finished scoping the course ,we went back to the hotel, pulled out the bikes, and went for a 20 minuet spin around a parking lot. When we finished that, we took the bikes and wheels inside, then Scott and I changed and sat in the hottub for about 10 minuets. Then it was lights out. Time for the race.

Man talk about a small room, we have two beds and a roll away, allong with 3 bikes and 6 spare wheels...essentialy, only one person could walk around at a time.

The following morning, we were up at 6am (which beats 3:30am had we stayed home). We went down to breakfast....waffles, cereal, water, toast, and bagels. Then we changed into our kits, loaded the bikes and wheels, and were off to the race. We found a spot right in front of the school, so we went to check in really quickly, then pull out the bikes, find the chase vehicle, and warm up. I didnt know that Roger, Ben and Jeff were comming, so we had a nice strong 6 person team. Our goal was to ride at the front, hold the yellow line so no one could pass, and animate the race.

Well the race started in its usual fasion, fast and dangerous. But it settled down. I rode on the yellow line for about 80% of the race. There was this one annoying guy, #104 who kept going around me and attacking the peloton. He crashed and didnt finish....good. We avereaged about 24 mph for the race, so we were moving. The group got over the hills pretty well. In the first lap, there was a crash. It was at the back in a corner. No one really knows what happened. In the second lap, an ambulance passed us, i guess someone in another feild broke their leg. We had a second crash in our group somewhere, i dont really recall it but i know i heard it. Finaly we got to the third lap, i was feeling pretty good. I had some GU and stayed hydrated. With about 10 miles to go, the peloton was getting antsy. Lots of tension, and blind moves. This is where #104 went down. He was on the far right side, and the road suddenly ended. According to the West Coast Michigan rider that got taken down, 104 moced into him, taking about about 1/6 of the feild. It happened about 3 feet to my right. The West Coast guy was right of Ben, who was directly next to me. When the West Coast guy went down he hit Ben, who hit me. We both stayed upright, and the feild split behind us. Jeff was unlucky enough to be caught up in the crash, he went down into the grass, and never got back onto the feild. Scott was caught, but somehow made it around it. David was nowhere to be found, he was stuck at the back from the start, and its nearly impossible to move up from the back. The other half of the feild caught us as we were at the bottom of that big hill i mentioned. I was feeling great at this point, so i turned to Scott on the climb and said "So i said..." and he laughed. But it didnt last long, seeing as he was cramping up. Now we have about 7 miles left, and this dude wearing a SRAM jersey takes off. We gave him the gap, it got up to about 30 seconds I'd say. We chased and caught him just before the last right hander. Then it is dead flat and straight for 2 miles.

Now the group is really moving, as everyone is jockying for position. The SRAM guy was right in front of me and making my life difficult. Then, at the 2K mark, Roger went for the flyer. This man is strong! So Scott and Ben jump on his wheel, i worked my way around the SRAM dude and made the jump too. The four of us got an immediate gap on the peloton. We tried to get a paceline going. When it was my turn at the front, we were just within 1K to go. We could see the banner over the finish line. We were close, and thought that we had this in the bag! Well i buckled down, and started the lead out...i had to be pushing 35mph, we were haulin'! What i didnt realize was that i was feeling better, and was stronger than the others (of course i hadn't really done any work at the front) an i got a gap on them. WELL to make a long story short, at about the 150m mark, all four of us cracked. In those last 9.2 seconds, the peleton caught us, and we all ended up at the back.

We decided that had we waited about 20 seconds, We would have had 1st-4th. And i could have potentialy won the state road championship. We live and we learn, life goes on, and there is always next time. Well im calling this one a mental victory.