A Quick California Update

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we had no internet access at the team house for a whole week! Finally we are up and running. Here is the down and dirty on the road events:
Time Trial: I was a bundle of nerves and just plain blew up. Up the first climb I started hyperventilating and pulled just after the first climb.
Criterium: I got to the front at the start and managed to stay there for the whole race. The field got whittled down to about 30 guys down from 58. The final lap was crazy fast and at the 300 meter card I decided to let it go. John Funk was at the other side and nipped me at the line. After the officials looked at the film I got the bronze medal.

Road Race: HOT AND DRY AND HILLY. Perfect conditions for the road race. The field stayed together for the first lap and then the attacks came non stop. James Anderson's team mate Alexy almost got away for a solo win but was brought back. Up the last climb to the finish I faded a little and finished a few seconds behind the peloton. The winner of this race was a guy I was lucky to meet at Red River Gorge this year. Scott Mcleary is the new National Road Champion. CONGRATS TO SCOTT !!

Today was the first track event, the 500 meter time trial. Lots of surprises. I took a solid 8th place finish with a time of 39.525 seconds. Tomorrow is the 4000 meter scratch race.

Check back tomorrow.

Ride On

Drew

California Bound!!!

Uggghhh. It is 3:30am on Tues morning. In about ten minutes we'll be headed to the airport. Be sure to check out the Akron Beacon Journal tomorrow. They sent out a reporter and a photographer to our house for a story. The bikes are all packed and I am PSYCHED. We are taking the laptop so stay tuned for lots of pics and daily updates. RIDE ON !!
Drew

Secret Weapon.....Unveiled

As most of you know, I hate racing in the heat. A couple of weeks ago my dad found this picture of the Garmin Chipotle guys wearing these funky looking vests. They are called cooling vests made by a company called Arctic Heat. They are amazing! You just go through your normal warmup wearing it and when you get to the line you feel great. Not that draining feeling in the heat. I've used it for three races and won all three. This is going to be perfect for California! Check out their website at http://www.arcticheatusa.com/. It's cool to be cool!
Ride On,
Drew

Training and Racing Updates.....and the Secret Weapon for Natonals

Training for the big show in California is going well. Mondays consist of sleeping until noon, eating and maybe mowing the lawn. Tuesdays have been time trial days. We found a 2 mile stretch of brand new pavement up near the sod farms in Hartville. I'll ride it a couple of times on my own and then motorpace it a couple of times. Wednesday is still the big hill day in Tuscarawas County. We've been doing a 23 mile loop with 1200 feet of climbing. Thurs is another day of sleeping in and hanging out. Friday has been a real easy long spinning day. Usually doing a race on Sat or Sun.

Last Thursday I raced in The Chapel Series B Race. It was a nice size field of 25 or 30. The course is really technical. A BIG Thank You to Mike Gorman for helping me ride the fastest lines. It really paid off and at the final sprint, I got the win. In addition to the win I also got $50. That is going into the iphone fund!

This weekend is Troy on Saturday and the Ohio State Crit Championships on Sunday in Miamisburg. I think James Anderson is coming down for the Troy race.

In case you didn't know, I hate racing in the heat. This is not a good thing considering the temps in CA have been in the high 90's. But I now have a secret weapon for the heat. This weapon will be revealed here on my blog on Friday. You won't want to miss it!!

Ride On'

Drew

Race 'Til You Puke

Today was the Tour of Grandview down by Columbus. This is one big race because of the crazy prize money. The junior field paid $250! It was very hot and humid even at our start time of 8:30am. The junior field was fairly small (7 riders) but almost everyone was 16, 17, or 18. A big kudos to Erick Madis for hanging tough in a much older field. A group of five stayed together for the entire race. In that group was Cory St. Clair, Sam Murdock, myself, and a rider from Anthem and Team Dayton. At the bell lap Sam and Cory put the hammer down for the last sprint up the hill. I managed 2nd place in the sprint. After the race I started throwing in up in someone's lawn. Later I learned that Cory was also throwing up. What the heck, we raced together, we may as well throw up together. The day's winnings were $50!! Thanks for reading!

Ride On,
Drew

PS, Remind me not to eat any more spinach quiche for breakfast on race morning!

State Time Trial Championships...... 1st Place!

Ooops....a little late with results. What can you write about a time trial? The starter says Go, and you just ride your brains out until the end. Not very exciting. Don't get me wrong, it is very painful.
I improved my time over last year by about a minute and a half. Not too bad for only a 9.6 mile loop. Average speed was 23.41 mph. I felt a little bit off today for some reason, but seemed to recover from the effort fairly quickly. I'm taking Monday off with a light spin on Tues and the big hill ride on Wed.
A nice job to everyone especially Robert Sroka who rode to a very solid 2nd in the 13-14 cat.
And lets not forget Tony Marut who rocked the cat 3 field with a 4th place finish!

Ride On,
Drew

PS. Congrats to Russ who rode away from the field in Jens Voight fashion for his first win during the GOBA Crit!!!

Training for Nationals

The road course for nationals this year looks like a very hilly 23 mile loop in Southern California. After some research on the internet, my dad found a 22 mile loop that is very close in the total amount of climbing. I've been riding this course every Wed afternoon in the heat of the day. The weather in Orange County has been 100 degrees plus for the last week. During the ride I've been getting used to pouring a couple of bottles over my head and testing different drinks.

After doing this post I'm headed out to the garage to get the Cervelo ready for the State TT tomorrow. My start time is 8:06 am. What this means is we have to leave at 4:30 in the morning!!!! Stay tuned for TT results tomorrow.