The Seneca 100

I'm blogging from school today so sorry no pictures. Just taking a break during lunch to update.
A couple weeks ago I rode down to Seneca Rocks from Fairmont. It was a really awesome ride. I had done it last summer, but this would be a real test early in the season. Prior to the ride I had 800 miles on the odometer on the road bike for the year. Pretty stellar for me. Set out form fmt and headed out to grafton, caught some back roads over to kasson and 92. Across 38 and down 72 into parsons where i met amber for lunch. Im glad I rested at Parsons because the next leg of the ride is EPIC. It follows rt 72 over to canaan valley. It is basically a 1 lane road that just goes straight up and back down alot and has alot of kick ass turns in it. Still felt good once i reached 32 and down into harman. Then across allegheny mountain on 33 and done. I bonked somewhere out of harman pretty hard but was able to make it up that final climb and was rewarded with an awesome downhill into the finish. 91 miles, 6hrs . epic.
Training was really going good last week. rested on mon and did ~35 on tue and wed. then wednesday night i got slammed with a stomach virus. A week later i'm finally starting to feel better. I rode on tuesday night for 25 miles but couldn't really push it. I plan on going out today and riding since the weather has finally gotten better. I really wanted to orace big bear this weekend but it looks like i'm not going to get to due to the fact that I don't have my MTB back yet and I haven't rode in a week. Bummer. I still looking forward to middle mt mama the 1st weekend of May and Massnutten the following weekend then its graduation, snowshoe opening weekend and then Panama City the last week of may. What an awesome month!!
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WVU weekend recap and some other stuff

Me at RaysJohnny at RaysChuck at RaysRed Balls Ride it

Start of the TT

Start of the 09 Garden

So the WVU home race weekend was a couple weekends ago. It was 27* when i woke up saturday morning and after making the short drive up to mt morris for the individual time trial it never really warmed up any. My start time was 9:11 am and it was freezing. I dressed in full cold weather gear with booties and baclava and headed out. The TT consisted of like 6 miles of flase flat uphill, a one mile climb then a downhill and 6 miles of false flat back to the start. I tried to take it easy on the first half out to the climb as i wanted to save some for the climb and return trip. Less than a 1/2 mile from the climb I get caught and passed by the VT rider whom started a minute behind me. WTF?? I stayed close going into the climb and passed him back at the bottom. By the time I had gotten to the top I caught the rider that had started 2 minutes before me and the VT dude was nowhere in sight. Sweet i'm ready to rock now. Rip the downhill and head back on the flat to the finish. I've got my head down going as fast as i can and here comes the VT dude and he passes me. I couldn't keep up with him. WTF? i just chrushed the dude on the hill and i can't keep up on the flats?? I don't get it. Anyway ended up finishing 7th in the TT. Had to skip out on the crit to go to work. Sunday Morning was a little warmer and the race started later. I warmed up with booties and a baclava but just before the race left the booties and switched to ear muffs. Rolled out with the neutral rollout into mt morris then it was go. I was racing D so i knew there were some june buggers in the race. A WVU dude took off as soon as the race started and everyone attacked to get back up to him. I sat in and tried to do the least amount of work possible. As we approached the turnoff to kirby and the start of some of the rollers heading into the first climb I worked up to the front. I had rode this section the previous weekend and knew that i wanted to be towards the front b/c of the rollers and tight turns so that i could carry some momentum and not get the slinky effect in the back. I was on the front going around the turn and up the first roller, maintaining a constant efort when all of a sudden it got quiet. Huh. I look back and i had a good gap on the pack. I just went ahead and rolled with it. Rocking the turns and rollers, and head into the first climb. The lead moto was an old team member and he told me i had 20 sec gap at the bottom. I kept the pace consistent never giving my max effort knowing there was a whole race left and not wanting to blow up. about 1/2 way up i had a 30 sec gap and i'd say it was pretty steady for the rest of the climb. What a feeling to be all alone leading a road race, even if it was the D field. TOp of the climb still got a gap rock the downhill, get on the flat at the bottom and suffer by myself for a few miles. I catch glimpses every once in a while of the field chasing. Finally they catch up. I jump in, grab some food and recover. Roll out to the second climb with the pack. By now they know me. I tried to stay 4th or 5th in line going up the climb. a couple pfeiffer dudes and another WVU guy were in front and I just tried to save some. I could tell the 1 pfeiffer dude was taking it easy also. Started to push it a little more at the top and got with wndrew the other WVU guy at the top. I told him to go since he won the TT yesterday but he said no. So i took off to rock the downhill at least. The strong pfeiffer dude followed me on the downhill. I still can't believe it but he stayed with me the while way down, it got a little scary. We had a solid gap on everyone. then a chas group of 4 riders caught up. So there were 6 of us heading into mt morris and back to the finish. Attacks were launched and caught. It came down to a sprint up the hill at the end. I knew that i had 5th place locked up heading up the hill then 2 riders get together and shoot over the hill. Not sure what happened really. So i ended up crossing the line third. My best finish ever in a road race.

Maybe i was the strongest rider out there. I definitely topped all of the climbs first, but on the flats and sprint at the end i was suffering. Maybe its me and my fitness or lack of it. Maybe its my 1996 steel road bike. Maybe its Amber's idea of the fact that i go out and ride hills everday. I dunno. I just wanted to do some races to get into shape. I don' t like road racing, but love just riding my road bike.

Been riding just about everyday otherwise. Finally got my mtountain bike back last week. Was really excited to go to Big Bear and get out on a real mtb ride on Tuesday on my day off. After about 2 hours and 20 miles out on the backside of the new pines trail my tire started rubbing my frame. I instantly knew what happened. This incident happened before over on the downhill about 4 years ago at big bear. Flash Back-At that time i was riding with Chuck and i said my wheel's rubbing my frame. WTF? It's like my whole wheel is out of dish. Chuck replied with how do you knock your whole wheel out of dish. What really happened was my carbon chainstay pulled apart where its bonded flexing my wheel over into my frame. Flash forward-So now i push my bike back up the climb out of the trail, do some bushwhacing across trail and come out on the road out by the airport where i can hop on and coast back to the parking lot and my car. I went to the bike shop and WEdnesday and got it warrantied-Thanks Gene!-for a brand new top fuel frame. I'm really stoked but have to wait a couple of weeks till it comes in.

This past weekend i went down to Seneca to relax. It ahs been crazy lately and i had an empty weekend and headed out. The weather was mostly rainy but in between a shower on saturday afternoon i headed out for a ride up to the top of allegheny mountain. It's like a 10% grade for 4 miles or so. Just before i got back to camp i got passed by a pickup truck with a motorcycle that looked liked it was about to fall over onto a bike in the back. Then i realized i recognized the handlebars of the bike. It was jimmy and ryan heading to the jeff cup in Virginia. They stopped and talked for a minute, then went on.

I got started on the garden for 2009 last night. I planted about 50 tomato seeds. I hoping for a big crop this year.

I have 136 hours left separating me from graduation. I started my last rotation at Ruby in the ICU on wednesday. I can't wait to be done.

Got some sad news that Andy broke his collar bone and will require surgery. Get well soon!

Updates and pics of the new bike to follow soon.

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