Back to where it all started.

Next week I fly out to Portland, Oregon to race the Mt Hood Classic with a few guys in the team and complete my 2nd block of racing.

What makes the trip to Mt Hood so special for me is that it was the first race I did last year when I came over to join Mike and Roman to race for Rubicon Orbea last year. Although they have changed the majority of the courses this year I am really excited to be heading back. I have already arranged for a trip to to downtown Portland for a famous Voodoo Donut. We also get the chance to spend a few days riding around, so I look forward to showing the boys the loops.

After that we fly from the West Coast to the East Coast, from Portland to Washington D.C. This will the first time I actually have been to the East. Here we will be racing the Air Force Classic. Not too sure of the format but sounds like it is a couple of crits. None the less its racing!

While my little trip is going on the older PBR boys will be lining up for the Philadelphia International Classic. This will be one of the teams biggest races this year as Pro-Tour teams from all around the world come to race.


I can now say I have been to a baseball game over here in the States. What do I think of it. Well its alot like cricket. The crowd really makes the experience and the game. It was a crazy sight to see over 64,000 fans out packing the stadium. I even treated myself to all american hot dog. Nothing still compares to the classic Kiwi sausage sizzle however.

Living out of a Bag

After 3 weeks on the road living out of a bag and jumping from Hotel to Hotel coming into Boulder felt like I was coming home. The familiar sights and surroundings never seemed so welcoming.

Gila was a bit of a learning experience and one race where the results would never show the progress I have made. As I have written earlier on.

Heading East and losing altitude with 2 days of 11hr drives we set up in Arkansas for Joe Martin Stage Race. A leafy green Uni town. The polar opposite of anything I have been around for 2months(desert). Arkansas was alot like New Zealand and during our first ride it seemed everyone was in a great happy mood from the lush surroundings and itching to race another tour.

This was also my first race away from any sorts of altitude in a long time so it was going to be interesting to see how I managed. Seems I managed alright and felt as if the legs were coming back. I wasn't "creeping" as much as previously alluded to in the report on Gila.

Joe Martin was a great tour and exactly what I needed. It had two long days, 170km and 180km stages. Its not often I race that distance let alone 2days in a row.

Luckily after Joe Martin we stayed in town for several days getting to have a bit of a look around and recover. There was no real reason to shoot of to St Louis in a hurry as the riding in down town wasn't perfect.

The shorter trip of our drives, 6hrs, we rocked up to Race accommodation. The Race organisers had put us in one flash wee hotel which seemed like a great way to round out 3weeks on the road. Although I drew the short straw and had to sleep on the couch.

St Louis Tour De Grove was made up of 3 evening crits. One of which was raced at 945pm! It was one late night. Another of the crits was a NRC (national race calendar) race, and they are pretty much a big deal over here. An aggressive start to the race from the Pureblack racing boys ended up putting Mike and Louie up the road in the winning break. The skinny guy Mike sprinted to the Win in the cold and rain. This is one of the teams biggest wins!!

Back home in Boulder and all it seems to do is rain and feel very cold. It isnt the greatest training weather and today I froze. Luckily its a bit of a recovery week as I build up to the Mt Hood Classic. The first race I did last year when I got here. Should be fun as most of the tour has been changed with new stages.

Over and Out.

Joe Martin Stage 2, 2011

A hard day of racing. One attack finally stuck in which I was included it. Once Paul Mach bridged across It threated our GC hope.

So free ride until Roman joined us at the front. From there the orders were to drive it as hard as I could into the base of the climb.

Then.. Lights out.

Still a great ride for both me and the team.

Joe Martin Stage 2, 2011 by teegun at Garmin Connect - Details

Joe Martin Stage 1, 2011

What a hot and sunny day today was.

Alot of team work paid off with Roman running 2nd and moving up on GC.

Untitled by teegun at Garmin Connect - Details

Joe Martin Prologue 2011

Racing with Garmin means I come home with some pretty cool details from the race.

It includes the altitude, meters climbed, profile and map of the course and a few more details.

I will try post each stage and every race I do this year.

Heres the first of many to come.

Joe Martin Prologue 2011 by teegun at Garmin Connect - Details

Gila

It’s been a wee while since my last write up.

Personally I am not crazy about blogs with blow for blow reports on how each stage went kilometer for kilometer.

What I can say is that Gila was a learning curve. Last year I got extremely tired and burnt out at one stage from the volume of racing. I was just shy of 90 race days. Joining PureBlack gave me a bit of chance to control this a bit more. With such a big squad there were a few races I could miss due to the already strong presence of PureBlack riders already there.

My last race was in February in Hamilton at the Rev120 before Tour of the Gila. It is almost 2 months apart from each race.  What has surprised me the most with such a big gap between races is how ‘rusty’ you can get. I struggled with the feeling of racing in the bunch making poor calls and judgments. I must say it is very disappointing and my performance suffered because of this.

Racing at altitude is also a completely different experience compared to training, although having lived at altitude already for 6weeks it did take a lot of the edge off it.

It is easy to focus on the negatives and start comparing myself to others who have had a good tour, however with the support of some of the older guys in the team I have learnt not dwell on how it went. It was simply just not my race. I have to sit down see what I can do to improve myself for the next race.

I use to be good at stretching and doing my core work out but I have got lazy. Rooming with Guddy (Tim Gudsell) has definitely encouraged me to get back into it.  Also for Scotty his final stage of Gila didn’t exactly work out for him either. However he has laughed about it and now has that drive to race even harder at our next race Joe Martin.

Seems like there is plenty of time to do some thinking here, I type this as we are on our second leg on our way to archensaw. We drove 7horus late into the night after the last stage of Gila and we are now following it up with another 11hours on the road. Can’t say it is exactly exciting but I am living up to my nick name “Noddy” and sleeping through most of it to help make the time pass a bit easier. I can now say I have been to Texas after driving through it right?