Fort Davis

We (Thomas, Troy and myself) rolled in the Fort Davis on Friday around 4 o'clock. Unloaded our things and headed packet pickup and take a spin on the hill climb course and see just what we were in for. Well, we were in for a pretty good climb. The best part was that were were quite a few turns over the whole length so you could get our of sight possibly. That evening the whole team got together and at the Cabin we were staying in. In order to get to the cabin you had to drive down a dirt road with sharp turns and small rollers, which gave Troy a chance to try out his rally car driving skills.
Saturday morning was a TT (16 miles). I ended up sitting in 5th overall after this stage. I ended up having a slow leak in my rear tubular. Yet I do not feel that had much of a factor in my final time, because I did not feel in until about 500 meters after the finish. That afternoon we all went back to the cabing got some lunch and took naps for the rest of the day and around 2pm we began to get ready for the "Hill Climb". The was a point to point race to the top of the Mc Donald observatory. All I have to say is Crazy!! The race was going well we had a plan to try and get my to the top first. A small break went early and the field was leting them just dangle out in front the a gap opened up even more. when we got the the first section of the climb, the pace picked up and I went whith the guys to try and close the gap. after about 1/2 mile I looked over my shoulder and saw that the field had shattered and there were only about 10 of us chasing. About 500 meter later there was only 5 in our group. This is when the attacking started and went on until the last 1/2 miles when is was just a matter of keeping the bike moving up the hill and not loosing ground. I rolled across in 9th for the day. I was happy with this stage.
Sunday the 76 miles road stage. This was going to be fun because we get to come down 90% of the climbs we went up yestarday. The group stayed together for the most part until around mile 45 or so. I am not realy sure, because my magnet moved on my and my computer stopped. Then there was an attack and I jumped in. There were small surges up the climbs and I kept on the right wheel. Then a small attack went and I did not have the snap in time. About 30 seconds later I tried again and started to bridge up to the break and was within 10 seconds of them and the gap stagnated. I got a few other guys to work with me, then they just stopped pulling through. So I decided I was not going to pull these guys up there so I knew I would have to attack a couple time before I broke free of my anchor. Sure enought after my second small yet abrupt surge I was free. Then a Solar Eclipse rider and Will Ross got on my wheel and we worked toghether for the last bit of the race together. Chasing the break down we were making time on them and just ran out of road. I believe my placing was 7th on the day, 4th for final GC.

The was a good race to prepare myself for Gila in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for updates on Gila.

Matt

Fort Davis/Gila

We are begining our trip to Fort Davis and Gila today. Look for race reports on my blog and other riders blogs.

Matt

New Additions

I figured out how to add links to my page. So if you look to the right side of the screen you will see I have added a few.

baseball stadium my sister and I went to. 

Down Time

I know this is not cycling related but I had to share the picture with you. My sister and I went to a minor league baseball game last night. The stadium had a pool, hot tub, playground and other fun stuff. I never knew baseball could be so fun.

Friday Night Races

This was my first Friday Night Race in Frisco, and my first ever race on a Velodrome. I am hooked!! It did not take much. On Thursday Thomas and myself arrived in Grapevine to meet up with the rest of the team to ride the track that evening. This was alot fun, we had a chance to try different things and even our four man pace line.
Friday Nite, could not have been more fun. Since this was my first time racing the track I was placed in the senior 4 category. I wanted to try and earn some upgrade points, so I asked Nathan for some strategy pointers for each of my races (Danish, Snowball, Points). During the Points race, I was told to wait for the first sprint and when everyone lets up a little attack, well that is just what I did and I was able to pull off laping the field and earning my 20pt. bonus along with 5pts for taking a lap. Which put me winning the overall race. I really only had one problem during the races and that was I did not have my seat clamp bolt tight enought and my saddle nose kept sliding further down, thus causing me to slide forward and almost off my saddle by the end of the race. By the end of the night I was able to pull off the omnium win.

training in Austin Part II

My dad had some buisness in Austin this past weekend so I caught a ride with him into town. Thomas an I got some good riding in out west of town in the hills. Seeing as Fort Davis and Gila are coming up in about a week and a half. I was feeling as though my gears were a little off when doing some hill repeats on Monday and came to findout that evening my little ring is a 42tooth. yea, exactly what I was thinking "Why did you put a 42 on your bike", well I forgot I had put it on towards the end of last season and never took it off.
Other than riding the hills on beautiful road in West Austin, other highlights of the trip were going to the new Whole Foods, and grinding my own honey roasted peanut butter. Yes, thats right Honey Roasted, this is the best stuff. I also have to say that this trip was fun because it had been a long time since my dad and I had a chance to travel and hangout together, just the two of us.
I will now be heading up to Dallas to ride the track on Thursday and Race Friday. I am looking forward to this.

Matt

Riding with an airshow

Yestardays ride was interesting. This is because for the first and last thirty-minutes of my ride the blue angles were doing practice runs for the airshow this weekend.
Today was a little different, I recieved a phone call this morning too see if I could come in and substitute teach the second grade class at a school just down the road from me. Well I had a short training day scheduled already. So I figured this would give me a change of pace and I would still have enough daylight to get my ride in. The day was interesting to say the least. This weekend I will be doing a Crit in San Antonio and then heading to Austin for a couple of days to get some more hills in.


Matt

I am now an Uncle. Say Hello to Julia