Hongseong OLY Tri

3 June-

The first triathlon of the season popped up on the calendar by surprise.  5 short weeks after the Tour de Korea I was getting ready to get back after it.  I hadn't really let up since the Tour de Korea, I took the first weekend off after the race and then have been racing every weekend since.  I made the switch back to my triathlon coach, with the hopes of getting selected to the Air Force team, which did happen.  Like I have mentioned before Scott (my tri coach) doesn't like me racing all the time, but I just happen to love racing.  We have an agreement that I don't get to rest/taper into these races so I just train through them.  It keeps the training consistent and since I am not targeting these past races it is all fine by me.  I got up early on Saturday and got out for a long ride and then headed down to Hongseong with my buddy Robbie, who was also racing on Sunday.  In Korea you have to show up the day prior to pick up your race packet and get your bike checked.

Once getting the registration sorted out we headed to the transition area and I got in the water for a short 30 minute easy swim.  The water was quite warm and I was happy about that.  It was going to be a 2 lap swim, but unfortunately they didn't have the course marked yet.  I just got out there and got use to swimming in the wetsuit again.  After that we managed to go find a hotel, it ended up being about 1.5K from the race start, so it made it nice for the morning of the race to just wake up and ride over.  The next task became quite difficult.  Dinner.............Being out on the coast in a coastal town we couldn't find anything other than seafood.  I mean I am all about trying new things, but when it comes to the night before a race, not the best idea.  We drove around for a bit until we found a meat restaurant that had some chicken soup thing and then we think we were served duck meat, but it might of been pork, or possibly dog, who knows either way it was decent and filling.

I ended up getting to bed quite early and was asleep by 9, which was probably the earliest I have been asleep in a while.  I was up by 0530, which kind of sucked as race start wasn't until 9.  I slowly got up and got breakfast and headed out to the shoreline to just enjoy the morning and eat.  After that I just went and lounged around the hotel until about 7 before heading to the race start.

Breakfast- (I forgot to get my go to meal of Instant Oatmeal)
3 hours before race
1- Honey Stinger 20g Protein Bar
1- FRS 20g Protein Shake
1- Chocolate Muffin
1- Pastry

1 hour before race
1- FRS Can
3- FRS Soft Chews

30mins before race
1- Honey Stinger Gel w/ Caffeine

Swim- 24:01

The swim has never been my strong suit, however it seems the races here in Korea  there are not a lot of strong swimmers.  We started in waves, and we had a pretty small wave with Male 18-34.  We started 2mins after the Pro Males and 1 minute after the Pro Females.  It was 2 loops, but you never had to exit the water.  I started on the outside as the rope kind of swung out and formed a C instead of a straight line.  So the shortest route to the first buoy was to start from the outside.  I went out pretty hard for the first 200m and found myself side by side with another swimmer.  About another 100m I found myself solo out front.  I just tried to keep my pace and slowly started building up a lead.  After the first lap I looked back and had a pretty solid lead and just focused on swimming the second lap strong.  I ended up coming out of the water first for the amateurs and then had a long T1, about a 300-400m run.

 

Probably one of the few times you will ever see me leading a swim by that much, or I should say at all!

(Click Picture to Enlarge)

T1-
Ahhh the dreaded wetsuit stripping, didn't use any body glide or lotion so it took me a bit to get it off.  After trying to stand on the leg with one foot and pull up with the other and it didn't work I just went it to turtle mode and flipped on my back.  Sooner than later it was off and I was running out of T1 with my bike.

Bike- 57:50 (not including T1/T2) 1:00:33 Including T1/T2

Well I wanted to make sure the off season cycling focus didn't go to waste.  Luckily the pros were out in front so I had something to chase.  I slowly started picking off a few of the girls on the first loop and then a few of the guys on the second loop.  It was a 2 loop course with a small hill right out of transition, which you only hit once due to the turn around being down the road a little ways.  Then right before the far turn around there was another gradual uphill that was about 400m long.  Other than that it was a slight tailwind out and slight headwind back, with 4 180 degree turns.  It made for a pretty fast course.  The Pro's were ITU draft legal and they combined our T1 time with our bike time so not sure exactly how my "bike" time measured up to theirs, but below is the Top 10 splits.

(Click Picture to Enlarge)

Run- 38:01 for 10K, but unfortunately the run was 7 miles.......so 43:16

The one area I was concerned about 5 weeks ago when I came back to the tri training.  I had been running once to twice a week during the cycling focus, but my last race was Kona and I left there with a solid run.  I was concerned I was going to have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was.  Well the last 5 weeks went really well and I came back in my opinion stronger than when I left Kona.  I am not sure exactly what it was but these 5 weeks I have been running really well.  Scott has me hitting some great workouts and they are working wonders.

I came off the bike still in the lead and luckily I had some pros to chase down.  I figured since there was no amateurs ahead of me I would just focus on the pros and see what I could do.  The run course was 4 laps, so I was able to see how big of a lead I had off the bike.  Well when it came down to it I had almost a full lap.  I think I ended up lapping all but 1 guy by the end of the run, and I managed to run my way into the pro field.  I was very happy with my run and am anxious to build on this performance and hopefully put down a solid run at Pt Mugu.

(Click Picture to Enlarge)

Overall I am very happy with how the first race of the season went, disappointed the run course wasn't accurate, but that is out of my control.  I look forward to building off of this race and seeing how things go in Pt Mugu at Armed Forces.

Official Times based on Timing Chip (T1/T2 included in Bike Split)
Swim- 24:01
Bike- 1:00:33- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/rides/9992618
Run- 43:16- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/runs/9992919
Overall- 2:07:49

 (Click Picture to Enlarge)

Below are some photos from the race:

AF Tri Team/CAT 3 Upgrade/Summer Plans

5 June-

Over the past 3 years I have applied to the Air Force Triathlon Team.  Last year I was not able to apply and was the first year that I was close to the level to be on the team, however we had a big inspection at work so my boss wouldn't even let me apply.  I still sent my resume to the coach so that I did not fall off the radar.  Since last year’s application a lot has changed on my end; my training habits, getting a coach, getting a power meter, and having a breakthrough year last season.

I put in my application this year and my boss was behind me 100% and was happy to sign off on it.  This is the first year that I thought I actually had a really good shot at making the team.  I had put in a lot of work last year and put up some solid results, more on the long course side of things, but still had some decent short course results as well.  I was thinking to myself if I was not selected to the team I needed a break from Korea and was considering funding my own plane ticket back to Cali to do the race and then spend some time at home.

Luckily I got an email about 10 days ago informing me that I had been selected to the Team and would be representing the Air Force at the 2012 Armed Forces Championships in Pt Mugu, California.  It is a 1 day Olympic Distance Race (1.5K Swim/40K Bike/10K Run).  It is ITU Style, which means you can draft on the bike but must use road bikes and not triathlon bikes.  It does not suit my strengths, but I believe I can still have a solid race and help out the team.  The race has individual results as well as team results.  They do Cross Country scoring and take the top 8 males from each branch.  We will have 10 guys and 6 girls there racing officially for the Air Force.  Others that were not selected may fund their own way, which is what I was considering doing.  If you do this and have a good race it will get you noticed and more than likely selected to the team for next year if you beat some of the official representatives.

I posted this on my FB page when I got the official word, and this pretty much sums up how I felt about being selected:

“Woke up to some GREAT news this morning......Selected to the '12 Air Force Triathlon Team, and will be racing in PT Mugu, CA on 23 June! It has been a long journey to this point, and one thing is for sure " I " had very little to do with getting to where I am. There are 4 reasons why I am where I am: The great support of my Family and Friends, the amazing mentors and coaches I have, All of the g...reat training parterners and teammates I have and have had, and then lastly all of the people that step onto the same start line as me and push me to my limits! And there is one person that got me into all of this, so if you ever need someone to blame Gen. Brad Becker, thank you for inspiring me to do my first triathlon and putting on that event (And kicking my rear as well that day) THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!”

I am looking forward to representing the AF and hopefully contributing to our team results so that we can keep the Title for the guys in the Air Force's hands.  The past 2 years the guys have won the title and the past 3 years the girls have won the title.  As well as the past 2 years Maj James Bales and Capt Kathy Rakel have both won the individual titles.

In other news, I put in for my CAT3 upgrade through USA Cycling.  I fall under the NorCal region, since that is where home is and submitted through them.  Being overseas makes the situation for upgrades a tricky situation.  I have racked up some solid results the past couple weeks out here as well as participating in the TdK, however none of my TdK results counted for points due to not placing high enough.  So I took my race resume and submitted it to the upgrade person in NorCal.  He approved the upgrade so now I am officially a CAT3 road cyclist.

I have made travel arrangements and plans to head to SuperWeek while back in the states and hopefully have some solid results out there to upgrade to CAT2.   I will also be racing a few races while I am back in California, after Armed Forces Triathlon.  Check out the Race Calendar link off to the right for more information on the races.

I am looking forward to being back in Cali to represent the Air Force at Armed Forces and then follow it up with wearing the stars and stripes of the US Military Cycling Team throughout the US for a few weeks of racing.

Hwaseong Circuit Race and TTT

26 May 12-

Well last year this race we did as a team and won the TTT.  Myself and my good friend Aaron had marked this on our calendars again as a race we wanted to target.  Last year they had a circuit race prior to the TTT but they were not allowing people to do both.  This year things were different and we were allowed to do both.  The circuit race was 40K with one neutral lap, so total distance of 45K.  The TTT was 30K.  The race was held on the Kia Motors test track, it is basically a 5K super speedway with high banked corners (we stuck to the bottom on the corners which was flat).

The circuit race was first and started at 0900.  They had the groups broken up into Under 40 and Over 40, with about a 5 minute gap in between the starts.  Our group had 65 people or so in it, with a few local college kids from the local cycling University.  High school and College sports are specialized at a young age in Korea, so if you want to be a cyclist you go to said school, or a basketball player you go to another school.  So these college kids aren't your typical college cyclist, they are the future of Korean cycling.

The race started off really slow, so I jumped early to get things going.  I got a decent gap and stayed away for a bit just sitting out there at a tempo effort.  A few others joined me but about 5 minutes later we got pulled back.  I made several other attempts to get in a break but nothing was sticking.  So about 20 minutes into the race I just went towards the back of the pack and just sat in.  With 1/2 a lap to go I started moving up to the front to get into position.  Going into the 2nd to last corner (these were long sweeping corners, not your typical corner) I was boxed in pretty good and I eventually got out with about 1200m to go.  I moved up to 5th wheel at this time and just sat in.  A few of the guy started to go super early but I stayed patient.  With about 500m to go the sprinters from the Korean BMC Team (the guys that beat us in the TdK) went.  I had the opportunity to get on the guys wheel that took 2nd but my teammate and lead sprinter JY was already there so no reason to take the wheel from him since me being on the wheel wouldn't benefit him.  That was the best wheel for him to be on for a leadout as the guy from BMC is a strong sprinter.  There was a train lined up behind JY, so I just went at it on my own and ended up 7th, not bad for not being a sprinter.  I was happy with the result and it was a good way to open the legs up prior to the TTT.

The TTT started at 1230, so I had some downtime in between races.  I just sat around with the team and got my TT bike ready to go.  We talked strategy a little bit and got things sorted out.  We have all ridden with each other here and there but not all 7 of us at once, so we practiced a few starts and such and felt somewhat comfortable.  We got to the start line and took off.  I had the Garmin 800 set to auto lap at the line so I had a decent idea of where we were in terms of getting slower or faster.  Our team director was also showing us if we were up or down from the previous lap compared to BMC who was going to be our biggest rival.  Every lap we were a few seconds down and by the last lap they were showing us 8 seconds down.  We really hammered it home for the last lap and ended up putting down our fastest lap while BMC completely fell apart.  We ended up winning by 11 seconds and had almost 2 minutes on the 3rd place team.  We really wanted to get redemption on BMC from the TdK and myself and Elmer both said we would rather take 6th and beat them than take 2nd and lose to them, so we were glad to win and still beat them.  It was a great day as we defended our title from last year, and made a little money while we were at it.

40K Circuit Race Under 40-
Link to ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/9421718
Results: 7th out of 63

30K TTT-
Link to ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/9421593
Results: 1st out of 10

Here are some pics from the event as well as a few videos:

 

DMZ Road Race

20 May 12-

After getting in the crash last week and DNF'ing the Hill Climb the DMZ Race was shaping up to be very similar as last November.  This was the race that I closed out my 2011 season with, a win at that.  The interesting thing is the race before the DMZ race last year I also crashed, so there is something about the DMZ race that gets me in trouble prior to it.  It makes me show up to this race ready ride and get after it.

The race is a very interesting one at that.  The best way to describe it is it is a 2 stage race, except you don't really get a huge break in between, about 12K of neutral decent at that.  So you finish what I will call "Stage 1" at the top of a 20min climb, descend through a technical decent where your time does not count (neutralized), then you arrive to a timing mat to start "Stage 2", which includes a 5k climb and then about 20K to the finish line.  There is some strategy to this race since the timing is all chip based, and it can really bite you in the rear if you don't pay attention.

I showed up to the start line on time this time and believe it or not they actually started the race on time instead of early like last week.  I sat at the back of the group and made sure I was the last person in my age group to role over the line.  That gets you at least a few seconds in case you come across the line as someone else at the same time you should have the upper advantage.  I sat in the group for most of the flat section leading to the climb, but with about 5k to go went up front and started to hammer it to put some of the other guys in the hurt zone.  I was feeling fine and showed up to the bottom of the climb in the front and then my teammate and stud climber JY took off up the climb.  A few guys tried to go with him but I knew it was a long climb so I just held my own pace.  I was back to about 5th and just kept on going.  About 3/4 of the way up the climb the 30's Age Group came by us, well the 3 leaders, which included one of my teammates Elmer the Flying Osterich.  I picked up the pace with them for a bit, but they were just hammering away so I got back into my zone.  With about 1K to go I had caught the second place guy and up a steep right hander is when I made my move and attacked.  I rode hard to the top of the climb trying to put has much time into the guys behind me, but knew there was no way I was going to catch JY.

I ended up crossing the line 1min40secs behind JY, yeah he took it to me pretty good.  I also put 40secs into the next guy behind me so I had a pretty nice cushion for Stage 2.  I rode down the neutral zone with Elmer and then Stephen who was in the 40's caught up to us.  The ideal way to ride Stage 2 is to group up with a decent group and then go with them from the start.  So off we went for Stage 2 and Stephen left the line about 1min before all of us to try and get a good gap so that he could go over the top of the climb with the climbers.  I had to stay with the guys in my age group to make sure we all crossed the line at the same time.  About 1K from the climb Stephen was still up the road a bit so I attacked and bridged up to him.  We both worked together up the climb but about 1K from the top of the climb I got caught and dropped by the three 30's age group guys.  They all went over the top and I ended up going over the top with three guys from my AG.

We all stayed together all the way to the finish and I sat 2nd wheel for about the last 1K and with about 300m to go I jumped out and took the sprint out of us.  I am still trying to figure out how far out I can go from so it was a good practice sprint for me.  I ended up 2nd to JY and he had the fastest time on the day, and he solo'd the whole 2nd stage of the race.  The guy is super impressive and just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

Overall it was a great day, our team had a good showing with 5 of the 8 of us on the podium.  We are making a statement, that although we did not win the team title at the TdK we are the strongest team right now, cleaning up at every race we show up to.  There have been a few guys avoiding riding in the road category and have been doing the MTB races because of how we have been dominating, it is quite comical.

Thanks again for all of the support, looking forward to putting in a solid 2 races in one day this coming weekend with a 40k Circuit Race in the morning followed by a TTT in the afternoon.

Link to ride on Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/8931183

Results: 2nd out of 43 (51 on start list) Link to Results: Click Here

Haven't been able to find any race photos yet, but here is a few photos from the podium.

 Gotta support the WATTS Shop, as they provide plenty of support for our team.

 Quick change into the military kit, that is what I have been racing in.  Love flying the Red, White, and Blue onto the Podium!

 All of the podium guys!

 Everyone from our team that raced, saying "FIGHTING"!

34kg of rice, gave it away to some of my Korean friends!

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 ;)