Chuncheon Hill Climb aka Missed Start & Crash

13 May-

Coming off of the win yesterday I was feeling really good about today.  It was broken down in age groups of 10 year increments.  Most Korean races are either open with everyone or age groups of 10 year increments, yesterday was rare to have Under 40 and Over 40.  Either way I know most of the guys in the 20's and I was going to be fighting for 2nd, with my teammate JY the favorite for our AG and the whole race.

We left the shop early in the morning and got to the race about 8, which we though was 1 hour prior to start.  No worries, plenty of time to get everything ready, not much time to warmup but luckily it was 13K of rolling terrain prior to hitting the 9K climb.  I planned to just sit in and get the legs woken up.  In order to do that you actually have to make it to the start on time.  So here comes the start of what I will describe as the "shit show", pardon my french.  I will pre face the next portions of this with, this might be a vent session about how Korean races are ran and mis managed.

I missed my start, the race started at 8:47, 13 minutes early.  One of my teammates came to the van and told me to hurry up they were starting soon, so I headed to the line and they were already off so I had to play catch up.  About 400m down the road I was doing about 25mph trying to catch up, not knowing how much work I would have to do but I was pissed off and that means riding hard.  I get to the first intersection, cops standing there hands in pockets not pointing to turn, and stopping a car from coming into the road, must mean I need to keep going straight.  Can't see anybody up the road so I figured I had a lot of work to do.  I kept hammering away and about 3 minutes later I started to realize I couldn't be on the course, so I turned around and went back to that first intersection.  Once again they are standing there with their hands in their pockets and don't have a clue what is going on.

By this point I know I am 6 minutes down plus however much I missed the start by.  I figured I would just get a good solo workout in and see how well I could climb the climb.  I kept hammering away and was just about to the climb when all craziness broke out.  I came up to an intersection that had a lot going on in it.  I have a picture below which shows what was going on and there was a lot of confusion.  I was in the process of passing a guy on the left and trying to figure out how I was going to make it through this intersection.  There was people getting off a bus yelling at the traffic cops and the cops walking back and forth on the straight section trying to get the people back on the bus.  I was focusing on that and all the sudden the guy I am passing decides that he wants to make a hard left to the road that is to our left.  Come to find out that is where we were suppose to turn.  No cop or marshal standing at the corner pointing left, no sign, just a few small chalk marks on the ground, that are not visible when doing 20+mph.  Our bars locked and the guys in experience completely destroyed any chance of us staying up.  I have learned to be calm in these situations and if not in a peloton to just slow down and then un hook the bars.  This guy decided to start violently shaking his bars thinking it would solve the issue, well that was not the case and next thing I know I am on the ground and my front wheel is destroyed.  According to my Garmin 800, impact speed was about 15mph.

 (CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURE)

Many of you from the states or other areas probably are wondering why people were cutting the corner short and so on.  In Korea all the races I have done have been closed roads, for at least the side of the road you are racing on or the lane you are racing in.  The yellow line rule does not exist and it is ride at your own risk if you choose to go into the other lane, however the lead moto will make cars in the on coming lane move off the road.  This is the norm here.  I am a firm believer in you should know the course, but when the maps are not detailed and there are no signs or marshaller's paying attention I get very frustrated with the race organizers.  It would be one thing if I could understand the street signs, or the maps they provided even provided street names.  My biggest complaint was this was two days in a row this had happened with poor marshalling and course markings.  Yesterday I benefited from it today I was a victim of it.

As a country, Korea is completely behind in the whole cycling spectrum.  The problem is they hold very few races, although each year there seems to be more.  Most of the racers only race the Tour de Korea, which creates a lack of racing experience.  They have no category system and at best you get age groups, which really solves nothing.  There Pro racing system is completely segregated from the amateur scene, if you are not in it from a young age you cannot get into it.  The pros are not allowed to race with amateurs, unlike the US where we have P/1/2 races.  Something needs to be done but it seems they just like to keep throwing money at these races which draws strong riders with not a lot of ability to show up to the start line attempting to cash in on a paycheck and instead cause craziness in the group.

As the race organizers are throwing big money at the races they need to start doing the little stuff well before doing the big stuff well.  The Crit this past October had $15,000 in prize money, all kinds of cameras and big screens, but not all that well organized of an event.  The race on Saturday paid $500,$300,$200 in 8 different categories, that is $8,000, and the race was horrible in terms of organization and course markings and having people to direct you where to go.

I am not sure what it is going to take to fix the cycling scene out here, it is not far off from being a good racing scene, they just need to start following suit with some other countries and start doing things "right".  I absolutely love racing over here, it just seems lately things have not been working out well and becoming quite poor, compared to mediocre like before.  I enjoy riding with all the riders out here, there are some very strong riders and then the crazy ones that you have to watch out for, just like anywhere else.  I hope things can take a turn for the better soon, because Korea can offer a lot from a training and racing experience for ExPats that come over here to live.

In the end I had a bad day, but the rest of my teammates did quite well.  As expected JY won our AG, Stpehen won the 40's and Elmer took 3rd in the 30's.  Good day for the team and a strong showing on the weekend.  Looking forward to this coming weekend where I will be trying to defend my WIN from last year, the DMZ race has been moved from October to May this year.  The course is absolutely beautiful with two great climbs.

Thanks again for the continued support!

 JY, Stephen, and Elmer with their certificates.

 The Wheel is destroyed

 Can't seem to figure out exactly how this happened.  Luckily HED has great customer service and a crash replacement plan.  A new wheel is already in the mail and headed out my way.  Very impressed with the whole HED crew and how quick they were to help me out.

Incheon Rally Road Race

12 May 12-

Post TdK I had a weekend off and worked the weekend duty.  I was up to 11 days straight of work which isn't anything crazy, but I was really looking forward to this weekend as it was going to be 2 races in 2 days.  Today was the 40K RR (road race), and tomorrow would be the 22k hill climb, 9k of which would be up the climb.

I had talked to a friend of mine on what the strategy should be for today, and we have started to pick up on some things about the Korean road racing scene.  If you can get a decent gap and start to get out of reach the peloton will just shut down and assume they cannot catch you and just fight for 2nd.  So he told me to just go from the gun and see what happened.  I had JY from my team and Aaron and Luis in the field, so they could control the peloton if need be and JY would be able to win the field sprint if I could stay away.  The other interesting thing is it was grouped by under 40 and over 40, but we all started together.  There was 123 people on the entry list, but I would estimate about 80-90 people on the start line.

Once the gun went off it took me a few seconds to get clipped in but I was still out front.  Once that right foot clipped in I put the hammer down, probably a little too much as my 10s power was 888 watts.  It worked though and I opened up a small gap.  Then the first corner came and I overshot it and ended up on the opposite side of the center divider, which I think caused some more confusion to the group, but 200m up the road there was an opening in the divider and we got back over to the right side of the road.  The course had a few turns early on and that is where I wanted to try and maximize the gap and get them to think that I was going to stay away.  By the first main long stretch I looked back and there had been one guy trying to bridge but he was back to the group by then and it looked as if I had opened up a 30-45s gap, so all was going good.

Then at about 20 minutes into the race when they came at me on the opposite side of the road, it was really confusing.  I had the lead moto so I wasn't worried about me going the right way, well I mean he did take a wrong turn or two, or at least attempted to.  So at that point I knew something was wrong, either A the moto took me the wrong way, or B the chase pack took a wrong turn.  Come to find out they had taken a wrong turn, a couple to be exact.  At that point I kind of had an idea that the race was going to be screwed up, but I kept hammering away and just followed the moto.  I kept looking back on some of the straightaways and couldn't see anyone so I throttled back just a bit as I knew I had to race tomorrow.

I came to the final turn to an empty straight away and no one in sight behind me.  It was a good feeling to have won the race, but it was a bittersweet feeling as well.  I really would to of liked to know if I could of stayed off the front solo.  In the end I still took home the pay check, but they DQ'd the 1st main pack that took the wrong turns which sucked because JY had won that field sprint and put him 2nd across the line.

It was a good way to kick off the start to a 2 race weekend, and I am looking forward to the hill climb tomorrow as I think I have a good shot at the podium, 99% sure JY will be kicking my rear up the mountain though.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the support and a special thanks to the US Military Cycling Team fueled by FRS, Primal Wear for the awesome skin suit, Honey Stinger for the great nutritional products, and WATTS/Storck Cycling of South Korea for all the logistical support.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/8353660

Results: 1st out of 76 (123 on start list) Link to Results: Click Here

 Luis, myself, and Aaron, the guys I train with at Osan.

 Waiting for the prize $$$$$

 The traditional Korean bow and nod

2nd Win of the season!

TdK Stage 8 Recap

29 Apr 12-

Well today was the last day of the TdK and we had our work cut out for us.  We had a lot to loose today and not so much to gain.  With JY still having the Yellow Jersey, Sprinter Jersey, and Best Young Rider Jersey we had a lot to cover.  Luckily the race was only 48K and flat.

I made sure to stay up towards the front to stay out of trouble and avoid anything crazy.  A lot of random people showed up since it was a Sunday and it was near Seoul.  That is the interesting part of the amateur race is there is no cut and you can take a day off and show up the next day.  It played into my favor with having to work, but it also brings some un experienced people to the start line that have no business being up in front on the final day.

With about 15K to go the 2nd place guy in GC started attacking.  It was a pretty smart move on his part as he was attacking through this set of tunnels we had to go through.  There was a small break of 5 guys up the road and he attacked and I just sat on his wheel.  It was hard work as he is super strong but I never felt like I was going to get dropped.  It was quite funny when we caught the break as he just went flying right by them and I just stuck with him.  At about 5K to go you go from one freeway to another one with an on ramp.  We were all back together at this point and I was up front just trying to keep things under control.

At this point there was only one thing left to do.  At 1.5K out there was a very sketchy chicane that had some metal rails sticking up.  We had all talked about it and stated that it was very dangerous and that if you weren't sitting in the top 15 wheels you my as well just sit up and just soak in the last 1K.  We had enough guys up in the top 15 that I just took it easy.  This has been the plan the last couple days as I have no reason to be sprinting for position due to not being in the individual GC.  The risk to reward just isn't worth it, it is to early in the season to be getting taken out in a field sprint.  If you have been following the blog you know there has been numerous accidents.  Our team alone had 1 broken femur, 2 collar bones, a sore kneck, and 2 jacked up bikes.

So our guys did a great job today and JY kept the Yellow and defended the sprint line and kept some points.  Today was a very emotional day for the team as we started this race not 8 days ago, but over 3 months ago.  We all sat down and came up with one goal, and that was to get JY the Win.  He is a very strong rider, but to win a Stage race it takes more than just 1 strong rider, it takes a team of strong riders.  This year we had that and we worked very well as a team and accomplished our goal.

Next week I will be taking the weekend off but then the following 3 weekends will be packed with racing.  I am looking forward to getting some solid 1 day races in and looking for some good results.  Thanks again for all of the support, this was a huge race for the team this year and to see everyone come together and work as one was an amazing thing.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7542298

Stage 8 Placing: 109th out of 168 (Time Gap: :19) -Stage 8 Individual Results

Stage 8 Team Placing: 2nd (Time Gap: 0:00)- Stage 8 Team Results

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week!

TdK Stage 7 Recap

28 Apr 12-

Well I knew the back to back hard days would eventually catch up to me, and today was the day.  It was alright though I knew today was going to be tough so I helped the team out all the way until the base of the climb.  It was 50k and I did a decent amount of work throughout that and then just went up the climb.  There was a 20k section between the 2 climbs where I was hoping the group would come back together.  Our GC rider attacked after the first climb and put 1'30" into the first group.  So that drove the first group to chase him with 3 guys from the 1st place team who are all within 30secs of the GC.  I was back in the 2nd main group and we weren't able to catch the main group.  I just sat in and let a team that was in 5th in the GC and only had 2 guys up the road do the work (Your top 3 riders count for each stage for the Team GC), so they had 3 guys in our group doing a majority of the work.

I just took it easy and sat in for the last 30k and made sure to avoid any craziness.  I caught some wheels at about 2k to go and stayed with them but with about 1k some other guys came around, I got on there wheels and then when the group came together with 500 to go I just pulled off.  There isn't a point for me to be sprinting for 33rd place and risk getting tangled in some non sense.  Our group ended up 5 minutes down, but no big deal as I am not in the GC due to missing Stages 2-4.

Now for our team, they had a great day and our GC rider stayed away after the climbs until 20k left.  He then managed to find his way to the finish line and win the stage.  That gave him a 10 second bonus, which puts him 11 seconds ahead and in the yellow jersey.  Elmer won the KOM for the Tour de Korea since there is no KOM tomorrow and JY still holds the Sprint, Best Young Rider, and Yellow Jersey.

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy 48k of mayhem, but I am looking forward to showing up and doing what needs to be done to protect the Yellow Jersey for JY and to hopefully help him get the sprint points as well.  All I can say is it is going to be a crazy one, and hopefully we can all come out with no injuries.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7478791

Stage 7 Placing: 62nd out of 155 (Time Gap: 5:08) -Stage 7 Individual Results

Stage 7 Team Placing: 2nd (Time Gap: 0:00)- Stage 7 Team Results

TdK Stage 6 Recap

27 Apr 12-

Well back to back tough days really take a beating on the body.  Although today was a little shorter than yesterday I found myself in a break again.  The only good thing was this break had 11 people in it which meant a little less work but the pace was still fast and the rolling hills were brutal.  In this 11 man break we had myself and 1 guy from our team, 2 guys from the 3rd place team, and 1 guy from the 1st place team.  It was a perfect opportunity for us to take the Team GC, only problem was that is not our goal.  This break started around 20K and grew all the way to a 2 minute gap, and it grew to that very quickly.

Now the problem with this break is that the 1 guy from the 1st place team (BMC Korea), was that he was in 3rd on the Individual GC.  So then we had a problem on our hands, but one would think that BMC would of wanted to pull the break back to protect dropping all the way to 3rd in the Team GC.  Obviously they have their priorities set on the GC as well as they did not do any work to bring the break back.  With 40k to go our team went to the front along with my friend Derek Laan's team, Team Cannondale Korea.  They were working really hard to bring our break back, so now let me fast forward to the last 5k.  We still had our gap I wasn't doing any work other than trying to get over the last few rollers, the guys were drilling it up these things and I was on the rivet.  With 1k to go we still had a small gap, maybe 15secs.  Things started shaking up in our group of 11 and people started firing off.  A guy went at 500m and ended up getting a good gap, at 300m I found myself on the 3rd place wheel and was going to ride that to 100m and then sprint for the last spot on the podium.  Well at 200m I look to the left to some guys who weren't in our break go flying by me, talk about a kick in the junk.  It wasn't that bad though because that meant we didn't lose any time on the yellow, and I managed a top 20 finish.  The crappy part is being in that break that stuck for that long and then not finishing off the job.

All in all the day ended alright, our team just had to do way too much work as a whole.  My legs are getting pretty heavy considering I have been in a break for 3 hours over the 5 hours of racing the past 2 days.  The bad thing about that tomorrow is a huge stage for us and the hardest stage of them all.  It plays into my favor that it is 120k, but going into it with thrashed legs will be tough.  Anyways, below are the results from today and a few photos.  Also, JY (Our GC rider), talks about the race and how he REALLY REALLY likes Honey Stinger Waffles.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7431946

Stage 6 Placing: 19th out of 153 (Time Gap: 0:02) -Stage 6 Individual Results

Stage 6 Team Placing: 5th (Time Gap: 0:02)- Stage 6 Team Results

As you can the portion that we covered in our break was pretty brutal

 

 Overall Results, we still have all 4 Jerseys

 Sign in board, pretty neat other than the board is re used every morning so it is getting a little dirty.

 JY still in 1st place with the Yellow Jersey

 JY and the 2 guys that are in 2nd for the Best Young Rider and Sprint Jersey

 Yeah, ummmmmm I want to go Right?

 

TdK Stage 5 Recap

26 Apr 12-

Last night was an interesting journey to make it all the way down here to the race start area.  It started with what was suppose to be a 40 min train ride to get to the KTX station.  Well 3 stops from the KTX the train decided to stop and make us get off.  I had a very small window to get to the KTX station so I had to get a cab and have him drive me 10K to get to the KTX station on time.  I ended up getting there on time and made the train, so one headache avoided.  I met up with my buddy John on the train and we made it to Daegu about 10pm and still had about an hour drive via taxi.  The cab driver we got was by far the worst we could have got.  He would step on the gas and off the gas so it was very uncomfortable and then on top of that he couldn't work his GPS, and he might of been slightly blind.  So on top of all of that he then decided to take a round about in the opposite direction until we started yelling at him.  So what was suppose to be a 1 hour cab ride turned into a 2h15m cab ride.  So that was the trip to get back down to the team, now onto the important part, the race!

The day started out with an extended neutral zone due to the poor road conditions from the previous days storm.  The rain, wind and road conditions were so bad yesterday that they canceled the race.  This didn't help my "fresh" legs as much as I had hoped since everyone else was fresh as well.  I got a 20 minute warmup in which was a little short, but knowing the neutral zone extended I wasn't too worried.  I stayed up at the front of the main group and we got to the first climb and I slowly dropped back trying to conserve energy for the second climb which would be a crucial part of the race.  As we came to the bottom of the first climb the team that is leading the race launched an attack and I marked the guy.  It ended up just being the 2 of us and we opened up a gap to 1m30s and didn't get caught until about 2k from the 2nd climb with a group of 4.  At this time we had 6 guys, I sagged off the back of the group on the climb and just kept them in my sight.  I had 2 of my teammates coming up the climb and they put some time into the field so at the top of the climb the 3 of us came together and descended together.  At the bottom I worked hard to get the 3 of us back to the group but 2 guys had slowly slipped up the road.

We eventually came together as a group of 8, 3 from our team and only 1 from the lead team.  I tried to get the group motivated as everyone but that 1 guy had a lot to gain, especially us.  We were working well together except the 1 guy kept disrupting the group.  There was a sprint point at 77k, and JY (Our GC, Young Rider, and Sprinter) said he wanted to go for it this morning.  So with about 1k to go from the line I let it rip and we strung things out, I went for about 500m.  Luckily we had it stacked perfectly to where JY was on my wheel and then Elmer was on his, so when I came off Elmer sat up and JY got a big gap and took the sprint points, which put him in the "BLUE" (more commonly known as the Green) Jersey

After the sprint the main group caught us and we stayed together all the way to the finish.  JY had planned to attack with about 1k to go where it hit a small incline.  He got a decent gap and ended up taking the Stage Win!  This win gave him the Yellow Jersey, so it was a big day for our team.  We now have all 4 Jersey's and are sitting 2nd in the Team GC, down by 23 seconds.

I enjoy the team concept a lot and feel that it is almost more rewarding that triathlon.  Not every race is about ME, it is about the TEAM and today I was able to walk away from the race with a not so great placing but still had the feeling of accomplishment due to contributing to the TEAM.

Tomorrow is going to be 89K with a lot of rolling hills, so it is going to be another tough day especially since we have so much to defend.  Looking forward to another beautiful day on the bike.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7382724

Stage 1 Placing: 55th out of 153 (Time Gap: 0:25) -Stage 5 Individual Results

Stage 5 Team Placing: 3rd (Time Gap: 0:00)- Stage 5 Team Results

Overall Standings, as you can tell "STK" we STORCK are dominating, claiming all 4 Jersey's at the moment.

 Today's course that we covered, right after that first hill is where I got in the 2 man break.  Stayed away till right after the sprint line.  We got caught by the right after that small climb before the 2nd big climb.  We stayed away all the way till the sprint line and then the main group was back together.

 Signing in for the Stage, sporting the HONEY STINGER HAT!

 Started the day with Chamois Butt'r Embrocation on due to it being a bit chilly and finished the day swiping it off with Eurostyle Sport Wash.

 Post race interview with a local Korean TV station that broadcast in english.

 

 Elmer on the left who has the KOM Jersey and JY on the right who has the Yellow, Sprinter, and Best Young Rider Jersey's.  Heck of a day for the team!

Video from today prior to myself and John showing up.  If you get tired of the beginning forward to the end to see the scenery of where we started.

TdK Stage 1 Recap

22 Apr 12-

To kick things off for the Tour de Korea they decided to start it off with a fast and flat 55K.  A majority of the course was going to be on the expressway, although the first 10K was along a river which had 13 speed bumps.  These speed bumps would have been fine, however it was raining this morning.  They aren't your typical speed bumps, they were cobble speed bumps to begin with so the race people put thick rubber mats over them.   They then became slippery and ended up taking out quite a few people.

Today the main objective was to just finish in the main group and not let anything get away.  The team made a critical error early on by letting a break get up the road with 4 guys in it, which we had one of the 4.  Not so critical at that point, then the guy in the break thought he heard us call him back on the radio and just slowed up and let them go.  So instead of not having to worry about bringing the break back we got put into a situation to have to work to get it back.  It had 2 guys from one of the stronger teams in the race in the break with a GC contender in the break.  Instead of being able to take it easy and just mark people I ended up having to sit up front for about 15 mins with 2 other guys and work to pull the break back, eventually we got it back so no big deal.

With about 10K to go I really started concentrating on my positioning and made sure to stay up front in the first 10-15 people.  With 3K to go we came off of the freeway and across a bridge.  I then really focused on staying up front so I could possibly setup a leadout for our GC guy.  At 2K our 2 teammates that were up front came off the front and I sat up there and kept the pace up for about 800m.  Crazy thing is the only 2 signs I saw from 2K out was the 2K sign and then a 300m sign.  With about 1K left I peeled off and just tailed off the back to try and avoid any craziness.  I wasn't in a position to win or podium so there was no need to take any risks.  I ended up with the main group and came out with no road rash or injuries so all in all a good day.

We had one teammate crack a frame and another fracture his femur, so team wise it was by far a good day.  Not sure as of now where we are in Team GC, but it shouldn't matter much as there was no time gap.  Stage 2 suits some of our riders a lot better than today did and we should be looking for a good day tomorrow.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7158865

Stage 1 Placing: 70th out of 171 (Time Gap: 0:09) -Stage 1 Individual Results

Stage 1 Team Placing: 7th (Time Gap: 0:00)- Stage 1 Team Results

 

Stage 1 Map and Elevation

 Signed in and ready to race! #126!

 Getting the legs loosened up on Saturday.  We are rolling in style this year!

 The Harley Davidson truck which is transporting all of our bikes and gives us a dry and warm place to warmup.  This was Saturday the day prior to the start at the host hotel.  It was raining and all the teams were impressed with our setup, crap today at the race all the pro teams were in awwwwww at what we have.

 The Team at the Welcome dinner.  Rocking our Watts Hoodies and shirts.

When there is not an actual washer and dryer you have to improvise ;)

2012 TdK Preview

21 Apr 12-

So the time has come for the 2012 Tour de Korea to get underway.  I will be riding for the same team as last year, except for this year I will be on our "A" Team.  We have two teams, Team Storck (A) and Team Watts (B).  We are all riding for the same shop owner, who owns Storck/Rapha and a new shop called Watts.  All of our jersey's and shirts have Watts on them as we are trying to promote the new shop.  Each team has 8 riders and unfortunately a few of us are not able to ride all 8 days.  A month or so ago I approached my boss for approval to race the whole thing and due to inspections going on at work I am not able to race all 8 days.  I am hoping to be able to race Stage 1 and then 5-8.  It will hopefully all workout for the best and I will be there for the last 4 days, where I could possibly play a crucial part in the race.

Our "A" Team was 2nd in the Team GC last year and we also had our GC rider finish in 2nd.  This year things have changed and we have a new GC rider, a 23 year old Korean guy who took 3rd place last year.  The team focus is to place well as a team but to also get him in the Individual GC.  He is super strong and has actually been involved in a college study where they had him sleeping in an elevation tent that was set at 4,000 meters.

I am looking really forward to the race and hopefully being able to help the team accomplish all of our goals.  I have put in the work and am ready to go so we will see how it all plays out.  Below are some links of where to follow the race at and some pictures of the route and prize money.

Tour de Korea Website: http://www.tourdekorea.or.kr/homepage_eng/index.asp
Tour de Korea FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/TourdeKorea

 Team Storck, the most diverse team in the peloton. 2 from Korea, 2 from the US, 1 from Japan, 1 from Denmark, 1 from Begium, 1 from South Africa.  Great group of guys and completely bummed I can't ride all 8 days with the.  Not only can they ride fast, they are also awesome to be around.

 Stage 1-8

 The route that will be traveled.  We always finish in the same city as the pros but each morning we have to get up and drive ahead, as you can see by the dotted line.

 

The Prize Money.  50,000,000 Won, about $44,000USD.  They changed the payout quite a bit this year, Individual GC goes 50 deep and no team money for team stage placing.  They have also added best young rider and spring jersey's for this year.  Best young rider is 1987 and younger.

A Look into the Past 4.5 Months of Training

17 April 2012-

After Kona back in October I decided that I would switch my focus to cycling and start prepping for the Tour de Korea.  There were two bike races after Kona that I did a little prep work for to end out the season.  If you remember I got taken out and crashed in the crit but came back two weeks later to win the road race, so ended the season on a high note.  Well over the past 4.5 months a lot has changed and I am starting to feel more like a cyclist right now than a triathlete, but don't be fooled I have still been running and swimming a bit as well.

I switched coaches back in late November and started full time with Zach Garrett a member of the US Military Cycling Team, accomplished cyclist and Aerospace Physiologist.  We kept in mind that I would be returning to Triathlon shortly after the Tour de Korea so agreed to try and maintain my run and swim, but we knew it would drop off a little bit.  The bike was the main focus and we will soon see how that works out, but I can tell a huge difference from November till now.

So what has the last 4.5 months looked like?  I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks home in California and the weather cooperated and made for some great training.  I was also able to attend the US Military Cycling Team Camp down in Florida and get two races under my belt as well as train with the Elite Team and soak up a bunch of knowledge from the best riders in the military.  With all of the above happening I put in some solid training, but also put in some solid travel across the Pacific Ocean. Below are some graphs to help you see how things have went over the past 4.5 months.

Above is the hours I put in each week.  I have averaged 13 hours up to this week, and have a total of 265hrs and 4,340 miles accumulated between all 3 sports. 11/28/11-4/17/12

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For those of you that use TrainingPeaks and WKO+, this is my total TSS combined for Swimming, Running, Cycling.  I averaged 772 not including this current week, which is the last column. 11/28/11-4/17/12

 (Click Image to Enlarge)

And again for those TrainingPeaks/WKO+ users, here is my PMC Chart.  Those 2 spikes in TSB were when I came back from Camp and was completely exhausted from a big week training and the travel to get back and then just as I got back into it I got sick. 11/28/11-4/17/12

(Click Image to Enlarge)

With all of the above data some of you may be able to relate to all of it, but for the most part everyone can understand the hours/distance trained.  The biggest thing that a lot of people overlook in training is consistency.  I would like think that if you look at the above data you can see that I have been really consistent week in and week out considering the circumstances.  When you travel across the Pacific it can make things a little harder as it eats up a few days, but for the most part I am not putting in "huge" weeks and just keeping everything consistent.  Over the last 15 months I have completely turned my training around and have found great results in that.  What has been different?  I have found great coaches, put my trust in them and let them guide me down this path.  Training is quite simple when you are surrounded by great mentors, coaches, friend and of course family.

Hope this little insight into my training helps you better understand what I have done to prep for the Tour de Korea and hopefully some solid results will show how hard I have been working.  Be on the lookout later this week for a Pre Race Blog about the TdK

Race for Humaity Road Race and Crit

Race for Humanity 11-12 February

Saturday Road Race-

With a big week in the legs from camp I wasn't expecting much but deep down I wanted to have a good race.  I was racing in the combined CAT3/4 race as a CAT4.  We had 7 people total in the race, including 2 CAT3's, 4 CAT4's and a CAT2 Women, Peggy, who is super strong.  Once we got up to the start line they called up our whole team to the front and thanked us for our military service and we got a good round of applause from the few fans and the rest of the racers.  We by far had one of the larger teams in the filled which ended up not working in our favor.  A solo rider went off the front from the gun and never looked back, he ended up winning the race.  With not being a local I didn't know who the strong riders were, and I had already been given the green light to race "freely" by our team manager and director.  I was told if I liked something to go after it.  About 3/4 of the way through the first of 3 laps on the 17 mile course I found myself in a nice 5 man break.  We were doing a good job of opening up the gap and slowly working on bringing the solo guy up front back in.  We stayed away for quite a while and then got pulled back in.  When we got caught 3 guys went off the front again and I wasn't too worried about it as everything kept get brought back in so I didn't think much of it.  They slowly started opening up a gap and for some reason no one else wanted to pull it back in.  By this time we were starting into the third lap and they had 2-3 mins on us.

I knew we needed to get our guys up front as the peloton was expecting us to pull them back.  Well come to find out there were only 3 of us left in the main group so we tried to do some work up front and get some others to join in.  I don't know what it was but no one else wanted to work, it was like they were satisfied to field sprint for 5th.  I made a few attempts to get away in hopes that someone would bridge up with me and we could get away from the group.  Every time I would get off and open up a gap no one would bridge or they would just bring the whole group back, it go frustrating so eventually I just sat in.  With 1.5K to go I attempted to make a move but it didn't stick and at that point I just went off the back and coasted in.  There was no reason to be in a 3/4 field sprint in February for 5th place, besides I still had the crit the following day to get back after it.

After the race I hung out at the race to watch everyone else race.  I went over to help Frank our mechanic out in the feed zone for the P/1/2 race, which all of our elite guys were racing in, the guys I trained with all week.  So I was hanging out with Frank and he was talking to an athletic, good looking girl.  I overheard some talk about the Olympics and asked Frank if I heard that correctly.  He said yeah she is going for Triathlon, I just chuckled, looked at her and said "O you must be Gwen Jorgensen".  She seemed a little shocked that I knew who she was and I told her that I am more a triathlete than a cyclist and that I follow the sport.  So during the rest of the race I was able to talk with her here and there, and I have never found a "bad" pro triathlete to talk with, but she was by far one of the most down to earth triathletes I have talked with.  It was really funny how shocked she was that I knew he she was, I guess it must not of quite sunk in how big of a deal it is to be the top contender for a medal in womens triathlon yet.

After the elite guys finished up myself and Gunny (Don), packed up his car and headed up to Ocala to watch Bryan Clauson race his sprint car.  I grew up racing with Bryan and the last time I saw him race was in Madera back in 2009 I believe.  It was awesome to catch up with him and his Dad, Tim.  I hadn't seen Tim since March of 2007 when Bryan made his Late Model debut in the ARCA car, in of all place FLORIDA.  The running joke now is that I just randomly show up across the country to watch Bryan race, and it is pretty much the truth.  Bryan is set to make his Indy Car debut this year at the Indy 500, now if only I could figure out how to make it there...................Bryan ended up taking 2nd and putting on a great show.

 At the start of the race

 In the 5 man break early on

 Gwen Jorgensen, the Olympic Triathlete who will WIN in London!

At the races with BC and Tim

Sunday Crit-

With a disappointing race the day prior I was excited to get out and race again.  Probably the best part about bike racing other than the team aspect is the ability to race back to back days or multiple days in a row.  This is the one race that I was not expected to do exceptionally well at, I mean I am a "triathlete" and all, which means I am not suppose to have great handling skills ;)  The course was 1/2 mile long with 6 corners, a brick section and a pretty rough corner.  Not the most ideal course for me, but I figured if I was back in the states I was going to race as much as I could.

The race started off pretty slow and then the attacks started happening.  Within the first 10 minutes I found myself in a 4 man break, which turned into a 5 man break when a solo guy bridged up.  We were working quite well minus one guy, and then I started yelling.  There was no way I was going to work my butt off to lap the field and have this guy take the free ride.  The interesting thing with crit racing is once you lap the field you are all on the same lap, except the guys that lap the field will be sprinting for 1st-X (however many people lap the field) and everyone else will be sprinting for the rest of the spots.  So with us being in a break I wanted to make sure we ended up lapping the field and not get brought back in.  This guy continued to not work and was more of liability to our group.  I kept yelling at him and my final words to him were "If you don't start working I am going to ensure you get dropped out of our group".  He looked back as we entered a corner to say something back and well karma must not of liked him in our group because he slid out in the corner right in front of me.  Another interesting part of crit racing, if you go down you get a "free lap" and join back in the race with the group you were in and stay on the same lap as them.

Just so happened when he went down was during the time period that we lapped the field.  So we still had 5 guys sprinting for the win, not all that ideal.  Once we lapped the field we still had about 10 minutes left until we hit the 5 laps to go.  I slowly worked my way back up front and tried to slow the race down and keep it under control.  There was no reason to get taken out at this point, so I wanted to be up front but not to far up front.  Well by sitting up front and controlling the race I found myself in that no so ideal position.  With a lap to go I was still at the front and no one wanted to come around.  I attacked with about 500m to go and 4 corners to go on a slight false flat.  I got a small gap but by the next corner a guy from our break was with me.  Into the next corner I grabbed quite a bit of brake and then accelerated out of the corner to open up another gap and gave it the go from there.  I had 2 more corners to go and just had to go for it.  My sprinting skills in my opinion had been decent in the past, but I am not quite sure what got into me during this race.  The winning sprint of the day found me fully seated and on top of the horns, definitely didn't maximize my sprinting abilities nor did I win any stylish points, however a win is a win.

It was nice to be able to pick up the first win of the year this early in the season, even though it was a CAT4 race.  I look forward to being able learn from this experience and hopefully next time I am in the states I will have some other races here in Korea under my belt so that I can upgrade and be racing with the CAT3's.

Huge thanks to all of the sponsors and supporters of the US Military Cycling Team fueled by FRS: FRS Healthy Performance, American Classic, Lazer Helmets, Chamois Butt'r, Primal Wear, Challenge Tires, SRAM, QUARQ, and Van Dessel.

 

Leading our 5 man break

 Coming through the corner

Putting the US Military Cycling Kit on top of the podium for the first time in 2012!

Day 3-5 at US Military Cycling Team Camp

Day 3-

Today was going to be a "big" day and the schedule had us putting in 100 miles.  We headed out around 8 and off we went.  We rode some of the similar roads but today the main purpose was to cover a loop of the race course for Saturday.  It was going to be 3 loops of the 17 mile course for myself and the P/1/2 guys were going to have a 4 loop course on race day.  We only covered one loop of the course, but we hit it pretty hard and learned some of the key points where people would be looking to attack.

About half way through the ride we stopped in a small town that had an awesome little sandwich shop.  They had some great food and we were able to sit around outside eat a good lunch under some great weather.  After that we headed back out to enjoy a great day on the bike.  Our director sent 2 guys off the front and let them open up a decent gap and then the rest of the group had to chase.  There were 5 of us working together and we worked really well together and pulled them back in.  It was nice to put what we had worked on with the pacelining the previous day to work in a "real" situation.  When it was all said and done we got back to the hotel at 97.5 miles.  Little shy of the 100, but still a great day in the saddle.

After the ride we came back to ice cold coolers of FRS and started the recovery process right away.  They have a great protein drink that starts the recovery process off just right.  We sat outside the hotel and just talked about the ride and how great the weather was.  After that I headed in to shower, grab a quick bite to eat and a quick nap.  FRS then had a product orientation briefing for us where they went over their different products and what they had to offer.  It was a great briefing and got me excited to have such a great company sponsoring our team.  We then took a break for dinner and the next briefing was with a local guy, Jeb Stewart who did a talk about training, the "whole" concept.  He talked about how to break your training into different blocks, how to target certain races, and then the most forgotten about part about racing the mental part.  He covered visualization and how to visualize winning races and to visualize the race in your head.

All in all Day 3 was a great day!

Day 4-

If there was a day to show what you were made of today was the day.  The rest of the week had been under control and there was NOT to be any testosterone throwdowns to show who the "big" dog on the bike was.  Well today you could lay it all out on the line.  With already having 307 miles in my legs from Sun-Wed, it was going to be a painful day.  They had us setup to do a 19.5 mile Eddy Merckx TT.  No TT bikes, no aero helmets, no aero bars, but everything else was game.  I just had the road bike, training wheels, normal bibs and jersey and that was it.  The course was on the same bike path we had been starting our rides on all wee so it was nice, flat, smooth rolling, minimal traffic, and no intersections.  I was 5th to go off and there were 2 minute gaps between everyone.  There was a decent head wind blowing at us on the way out and then of course it returned the favor and we had a nice tailwind on the way out.  The 4 other guys that started in front of me were all on the elite team, so I figured they would put the hammer down.  The guy right in front of me was Jay, a whole 145lbs so I was hoping to try and at least compete with him, because the other guys were some TT specialist!  At the half way point me and Jay were still 2 minutes a part.  And on the way back he put 11 seconds into me and he ended up beating me by 11 seconds, he is a strong one for 145lbs ;)  I ended up riding 47:XX putting out 331W, so I was pretty happy with that and I ended up 7th out of 19.  The 2 other guys that beat me are some super fast "masters" riders, one of which Don Davis, who we call Gunny for being a prior Gunnery Sgt in the Marines, is a Florida and Louisiana State TT Champion.  Scott Giles is the other guy and he is just pure FAST!

The rest of the day was setup with some time to ourselves so I took advantage of getting in a recovery nap.  That evening they had a sponsor dinner setup with American Classic Wheels owners Ellen and Bill.  It was out at a golf course country club and it was a nice way to spend the evening.  They are both great people and are huge supporters of our team.  It was a great dinner and another great opportunity to get to know our sponsors and teammates.

Day 5-

We headed over to McDill AFB in the afternoon and road with some of the local riders from the base.  It was just an easy 20 mile spin as we were going to be racing the next day. It was nice to get to ride with some of the local guys and here their stories and race plans for 2012.  There were a few triathletes in the group and it was nice to talk a little triathlon talk with them.  After the ride we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a briefing on race tactics.  Pretty mellow day compared to the rest of the week but you could tell everyone was getting the itch to put the hammer down the following morning.

Overall I was extremely happy with how well organized and prepared the camp was.  I couldn't of thought of a better way to spend 8 days away from the Korean winter, other than being at home with family, but I had already accomplished that over the holidays.  Being able to be part of such a great team and group of people is something that I am very thankful for.  I am really looking forward to where this team is headed and to all of the great results that are to come in 2012.  I can't say thank you enough to all of the people that made the camp possible!  Below are a few pictures from the camp.

 Unloading the pallet of FRS

After the 97 miles recovering with some FRS

 

On the way back in from the group ride at McDill

 Once we got back from the group ride at McDill, it was time for the national anthem, which in my opinion created one of the best moments of camp and this picture caught that moment.

 The Team Photo before dinner on Thursday

Day 0 through Day 2 at US Military Cycling Team Camp

7 Feb 2012-

Some of you have been following me on FB and Twitter so you have a good idea of what is going on, but for those of you that aren't I will catch you up on what is going on.  But first below are some links on how to stay up to date with the latest information on camp:

US Military Cycling Team fueled by FRS Facebook Page
My Twitter
See what kind of rides we are doing via Strava: http://app.strava.com/athletes/199228

Travel Day-
I left Korea at 0730 Saturday morning from my apartment to head to the bus station (2130 Friday night here in FL), and started what was scheduled for a bus ride, 3 flights and a shuttle ride.  Everything went as planned, all flights were on time, no fee for the bike and 31 hours later I arrived in FL at 2330 on Saturday night.  I got the bike put together and got in contact with the camp director and the team manager.  Come to find out there was a local ride Sunday morning, but they were meeting up at 0530 in the hotel lobby.  I figured no better way to kick the jet lag than a solid local group ride, so after about only 1h30m of sleep I was wide awake and slowly got ready for the morning.  My coach said do whatever I needed to do to get the legs opened up, so although a 2 hour group ride might not of been ideal it was awesome, see Day "0" for more on it...........

Day 0-
So I briefly covered the morning of Day 0, but here is the rest of the day.  Once arriving to the group ride we got the bikes out and ready to go.  It was myself, Bill (Our Team Manager), Sean (Our Team Director), and Andy(Long time Team member) and myself.  I had never met any of them, they had never seen me ride and I am just the "new" kid here at camp.  All the knew was what they had seen on my resume which is just mediocre as a cyclist, at best.  So they gave the spill of how the local ride works and how it was going to be pretty fast with some local CAT1/2's and some PANAM National Champs.  Well crap, I guess my legs really are going to get opened up, nothing better after 30 hours of travel.  Well the ride took off and no more than 5 miles in the attacks started.  Pretty quickly we had Andy and Sean off the front and I got tasked with marking people that tried to bridge up to them.  Eventually myself and one guy got out into no mans land in between the peloton and the break.  I was told to do nothing and just ride his wheel, why would I do anything when we had 2 guys up in a break of 3.  Yes it was a training ride, but this was a fierce training ride.  There were a lot of guys mumbling in the peloton and telling myself and Bill to do work, but O well we were just there defending the break.  Sean got lead out by Andy and got the first sprint, pretty cool to see the Stars and Stripes ripping apart a local ride.  There was a second sprint towards the end of the ride and I got into some good position and then got my legs ripped off by some sprinters, great experience but hard to sprint for a line when you have no clue where the line is.

After the ride we headed back to the hotel to get ready for everyone else that was arriving to camp.  I was able to get in a quick nap and work on some homework while watching the SuperBowl and then Day "0" was a wrap.

Day 1-

The morning started off with staff and rider introductions and then we headed out for an 80 mile ride.  It was at a casual pace, double paceline and just getting to know everyone.  The weather was great, got some good tan lines.  Once we came back from the ride there was Subway waiting for us for lunch and then we had some downtime.  With downtime comes nap time, so 1h30m later I was up from my nap and headed to uniform issue.  The new Primal Wear Kits are sweet, and after today (Day 2's ride) I can comment that they are super comfortable.  After uniform issue we had a Team Briefing on "Social Media".  I learned a few things, but really enjoy the social media aspect of things and know how important it is to market products that you like and that you are sponsored by.  I eat this stuff up and try to get as much exposure for the great companies that sponsor our team, so twitter and FB are key to this.  This blog helps out a bit as well, but the amount of people you can reach with 1 single tweet is amazing.  For example we are trying to get our Team Page more "Likes" on FB, so I tweeted it and with the help of some great people that 1 tweet spread to over approximately 24.5K people, all in a matter of 6 hours.  So yes, social media is AMAZING!

Day 2-

Today started out with team pictures and individual pictures and then we headed out for 90 miles.  Today was different than yesterday, we split up into 2 different groups.  The Masters and Developmental guys and then the Elite guys.  By quite surprise I was sent to work with the elite guys, which was amazing.  We worked on a rotating pace line and riding in close proximity.  I don't have the opportunity to ride with this amount of cyclist in a training environment at this high of a level.  It was awesome to get feed back from all the guys on the spot.  They were able to point out the small things that I was doing wrong and then help me with the simple things as peeing on the bike, without peeing on yourself.  As a triathlete, when in race situations you don't stop or slow and you just go (refer to my Kona blog).  I was also able to learn how to properly pick up bottles out of the car and get motorpaced back up to the group at a high speed.  All great things that you typically don't get to work on during an everyday training ride.  This evening Jim gave us a briefing on Nutrition, obviously an important part of training and racing.  He is a nutritionist in the Air Force and gave a great briefing.  He is also the developmental team director and I look forward to bouncing some nutrition questions off of him throughout the week.  I feel extremely grateful to be riding with the elite guys and just soaking it all in.  Like I said in my post on FB at the start of camp:

As day 1 of camp is about to begin, I sit here and realize how blessed I am. I have been very fortunate to come across great opportunities throughout my life and none of this would be possible without great family, friends and peers. I am not where I am because of who I am, I am where I am because of the people I am surrounded by. Thank YOU!

That pretty much is why I am here, not because of what I have done, it is because of the great mentors, family, friends and supporters that have guided me down this path.  That is why I am here and doing what I am doing, because people believe in me, and that fuels me and inspires me to continue to grow not only as an athlete but as a person, so like I said above THANK YOU!

Below is a link to some pictures from Camp:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.338187899555374.84634.101441499896683&type=1