Hongcheon RR 6th Wk in a Row

16 Jun-

Today marks the 6th weekend in a row of racing.  It has been quite the past 6 weeks with a lot of racing.  I have had a lot of fun racing the bike and throwing the one triathlon in there.  This weekend looked like it could be the end of my streak.  The course profile didn't suit me all that well and they had all the 45 and under guys racing together.  Before the race even started I knew it was going to be a tough day.  I had a game plan to keep my streak alive, it was just a matter of executing and hoping it would work.

The course started on a slight uphill that went along for about 6k.  We started with all of the road bikes together.  Then of course in typical Korean Cycling fashion they had to screw one thing up, and honestly this was the only thing they screwed up.  They sent the MTB'ers off right after us, and they ended up in our peloton and trying to ride through it quite quickly.  It just became one big group of roadies and MTB'ers and I wasn't happy about that one bit.  Other than that the race was put on very well, great course marshal's, great lead vehicle for both the breakaway and the peloton and then results were posted in a timely manner.  Only other complaint is it took a while for awards to take place, about 45 minutes later than the posted time which was 45 minutes after the finish, so 1h30m after the finish they put on the awards ceremony.

At about 4K there was a solo guy off the front, no one to be worried about but a reason to go to the front to pull him back.  I was getting in patient with the MTB'ers being with us and wasn't happy with how things were going in the pack.  I went up front and picked the pace up trying to string things out.  I took it over the top and through a tunnel.  Then we started a downhill, and as all cyclist know the downhill is not the place to attack.  I figured I had nothing to lose and really wanted to get away from the pack.  There was a slight head/cross wind so I put the hammer down.  It took about 5 attacks to finally get away but I finally made it stick.  At the end of the downhill we took a right hand turn and got onto some back roads.

The reason I had to get away was because there was a climb that started at 30K went to 35K and then it was 4K to the finish.  I needed to get some time on the climbers prior to that climb so that I could hopefully go over the top with them.  I slowly worked up a gap and was able to maintain about 45secs all the way till the start of the climb.  We had looked at the profile and wasn't sure how bad the climb was going to be.  Well I came around the corner and it was a dang wall with one switch back at the top.  It was quite brutal and I made the mistake of looking back and the whole peloton was in chase mode.  Luckily Elmer (my teammate) and Hyung Mo were the only ones that caught me, and they caught me at the top.  Strava says that Elmer out climbed me by 45secs so that is how we know how big the gap was that I worked up.

From the top of the climb to the finish we just hammered away and all did a share of the work.  The fun began about 500m out when Hyung Mo attacked.  He sat up at about 350m, and then attacked again at about 250m.  We kept it together there and then at 150m Elmer put down the final sprint and took it to the line and I came around Hyung Mo at 50m to take 2nd.

All in all it was a great day and I was able to execute the plan that I had laid out.  I was really excited for Elmer to take the win as him and Hyung Mo are in the same age group and are always going back and forth.  I couldn't of stayed away with out the great help of some teammates in the peloton keeping it under control.  So a big shout out to them for keeping it under control and letting me stay away.  Thanks guys!

Once again thanks to everyone for all of the support!

Under 45 Overall-
Results: 2nd out of ~40
Link to ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/10931879

 Fellow Military Rider Matt Burt just arrived in Korea and joined right in the racing action!

 

The pack attempting to chase me down.

 Our Team dominated the top 6! If you can't beat them my as well join them, I think Hyung Mo might take that into consideration ;)

 The top 3!

 

The Top 10 is all they posted, and here it is!

Typical Weekend in S.Korea= 9 Stitches, Crazy Korean Cycling Rules, and Missing the W by Inches!

10 June-



** IF YOU JUST WANT TO READ THE RACE REPORT SCROLL DOWN**

Where to begin to describe this weekend.  I guess I will go with chronological order.  Went out for a ride with the guys on Saturday and got in a great 3 hours.  Came back from the ride cleaned up the bike to get it ready for the race and then was going to head to the pool to get my swim in.  On the way to the pool I was riding with a new guy from here.  He is borrowing my road bike as his bike hasn't arrived yet and I was just riding on my commuter bike.  We were just talking and going along at probably 15mph or so.  Next thing I know he is going down on the railroad tracks and I am in shock that he is crashing on MY bike, and next thing you know I look up and my wheel is in the tracks.  Yeah, stupid move on my part to lose focus and take myself out.  I whacked my chin pretty good and had some decent road rash.  I spent the next 3 hours in the ER with an amazing crew of medical staff that took great care of me.  Alright I know you could care less about me, YES the bikes are OK ;)!  I ended up with 9 stitches and had to plead with them on how long until I can swim, it was the first question out of my mouth when I walked in there.  Originally it was 4-5 days, then by the time I left they found a source that said 24 hours.

After the stay at the ER I headed back home got my bike and caught the bus up to Seoul.  I spent the night up there and we headed out early Sunday morning to the race.  We knew there was a parade that we were suppose to attend, it started 3 hours before the race and was only 30K.  We got there in time to try and do the parade, but we were a little slow getting ready.  I had to take care of the morning business, Elmer was pinning his number on, and then one of our guys told us it didn't start till 10.  We thought it started at 9, so we figured we would just show up a few minutes late and do the parade course more less on our own.

Next thing you know they are telling us we are DQ'd, then they are telling us we could race.  It was really confusing, we argued with them that we showed up late and so forth and then they started coming up with reasons why we had to be DQ'd.  First was, "You didn't ride the 30K so you won't be tired like the other riders", our response, "We will ride the parade course and show you we rode 30K with our GPS". "No, that isn't fair".  Next problem, "You can't be on the podium, nor can you get prizes (it was just merchandise".  Our response "We don't care about the prizes, WE WILL podium in our Age Groups and we want to be on the podium".  There response, with no reasoning "NO".  All in all it was quite frustrating as they didn't want to budge at all.  YES, we were in the wrong, but really you are going to DQ us because we miss a parade that started 3 hours before the race by 10 minutes.  Korean Cycling took 1 step forward and 2 steps back this weekend.  This was there 2 steps backwards.

The 1 step forward they took was there was 2 road races, one was Novice (anyone that has not ridden in the Tour de Korea), and Intermediate (Anyone that has ridden in the Tour de Korea, or is a foreigner, that is an automatic nod that you know how to ride a bike).  In those categories they still had Age Groups by 10 year increments, which is still not a perfect system as it is hard to know who is in your Age Group, but it was a step in the right direction.

I would really like to see a sanctioning body stood up where they lay out all the rules and everything is the same at all the races.  It would make things much less complicated and you would know what you are getting yourself into before the race.  Some of the problems we have come across that cause confusion are: Is it chip timing or is it gun time? What Age Group are we using today? Is it mass start or wave start?  It just seems they are behind the power curve by a long shot, and hopefully it will all come together in the next couple of years as the sport is definitely growing here.

The Race Report:

The race was a 45K Circuit race with each lap being 9K and the total race was 5 laps.  We pre rode the course during our warmup and I knew where the move was going to be made and had told Elmer my thoughts on it.  The only problem is I didn't know how early it was going to go.  The first lap of the race was pretty un eventful, I just sat in and tried to stay up in the top 15 in case something went that I liked.  About half way into the second lap Mr. Lee, a prior teammate of mine and prior Olympian attacked just before the climb started.  I decided that I wouldn't mind working with him as I know he is strong and we could work well together.  Well I bridged to him and then about 2 minutes later we were all back together.  No one wanted to come to the front though so I just stayed up front and kept a nice tempo going up the small climb.

Next thing I know I hear Elmer yelling at me from the right hand side to GO BRAD, GO!  I step on it and look over to him and Hyung Mo attacking like crazy.  Elmer is the KOM from the TdK and Hyung Mo was 2nd place in the GC.  I had to work really hard to make it over the climb with them, but luckily I was already up front and was able to go with them.  About 30 seconds later the 2nd Place Best Young Rider from the Tour de Korea joined us.  I knew this break had a lot of fire power and I wanted it to stick.  I work hard and the others were working hard as well.  Once we established the gap it just kind of stayed where it was and didn't grow much.  On the last lap we really opened the gap up and half way through the lap I knew it was going to come down to a sprint between the 4 of us.

About 1K out it was a decent that then went flat for about 200m and then started a false flat to the finish, which ended up a gradual uphill.  At about 600m to go, Hyung Mo and the other Korean started talking some crazy stuff about  "Co-Champions".  Myself and Elmer were confused and were like "WHAT?", "NO WAY WE ARE SPRINTING THIS THING OUT!!".  I slowly picked the pace back up from 600m, and then really started to open it up at about 400m.  I got to 200m and the 2nd place BYR was on my wheel and I stepped on it there.  He started to come around me at 100m, came next to me at 50m, and by the time we hit the line he got me by about half a wheel, if that.  The timing sheets had us exact time to the hundredth of a second, and it didn't go any further nor did I see a photo finish picture.  Either way it was an amazing sprint finish, the best one I have had, even though I took 2nd.

Thanks to everyone for all of the support, couldn't do it without you guys!  5 weeks, 5 podiums and a whole lot of FUN!  Special Thanks to Honey Stinger, FRS, Primal Wear, HED Wheels, Quarq and everyone else!

Intermediate 20's-
Link to ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/10481043
Results: 2nd out of ~30

Intermediate Overall-
Results: 2nd out of ~75

The "SPRINT" Video:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=399671846741568
Pictures:

 Showing off the 9 stitches, rumor on the street is chicks dig scars ;)

 When they were discussing the "Co-Champions" and me and Elmer were going "HUH?????"

 Iphone close up of the sprint

 The sprint.........

 Yeah it was that close.  Insert immature dirty comments, go ahead.

 We took our own Podium Pictures, Derek took 3rd by winning the field sprint (He was technically 2nd since I was DQ'd before the start, but they still let us race)

 Overall Podium (Myself and Elmer were both DQ'd before the start due to not doing the parade, but they still let us race.  Yeah crazy huh??)

 The pink was showing we did not do the parade and would not get prizes.

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!