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?

The Anzac Community.

Another week that was. Done and Dusted. Training miles collected.

With the build up to Tour of Gila ticking along nicely there hasn't been much to report on.

Thursday morning we all awoke to a few inch's of snow that blanketed the entire town. There goes the day training right? Wrong, by the afternoon all the snow was gone, the roads were dry, and the temperature was quite warm. Boulder's weather is an extreme version of Auckland's 4 seasons in one day.

The only weather constant we have to deal with is the gale force winds that do physically pick you up and blow you around. Who needs and erg when you can ride into a block head wind riding as hard as you can to keep your speed up over 10kph.

One noticeable change in Boulder this week has been the Anzac Community that has been formed.
The only time I have ridden with a local American is either on the Saturday Bunch ride or the first week we were here. Otherwise every ride has been shared with the strong Aussies and Kiwi presence.

With the arrival of the remainder of Pureblack Racing and Fly V Australia we certainly dominate the bunch ride. Passing remarks of "here go the aussies and kiwi's racing each other again" has been heard several times.
We cant however forget those Aussie's and Kiwi's who also ride for American teams like Trek Livestrong, Bissell and Garmin-Chipotle, and with Greg Henderson in town and Hayden Roulston due in here soon our own micro community population is starting to sky rocket.

Us Anzac creatures are normally found around our local watering holes at around 10 as we emerged half awake for the morning coffee and scone. So far there is peace amongst the crowd, however once the test rugby season gets going and the Rugby World Cup gets closer I am sure it may get a bit amusing loud and rowdy at these cafes.

It has been a real bonus having so many of us characters in town as there is always someone to ride with, everyone gets along and we all look out for one another. For me it is really helping me as you enjoy your days so much so you feel as if you are home and enjoy the company you ride with.

Enough of my Blabbing.

Noddy.

Home away from Home.

By the end of week 2 and we had finally moved in to our ‘town house’ which is part of duplex, quite the micro-community here. A half furnished house with the bare minimums like washing machines and a dish washer. This has saved us in set up cost yet we are still to fill the place with a couch and dinning room table.

The one challenge we have to face is buying all of the stuff you need like cutlery, bowls, cup, cooking ware for only 5months. No fancy toys and nice looking appliances, more the best bang for your buck option. It has been a bit of a reality check.

It has been all exciting however to set up the place and personalizing my room.  I am really starting to feel like a big boy who has moved out of home, but in saying that I still look forward to the 21^st of August when I do go back to my own bed and Mums cooking. Living with parents is such a bonus at times. This does not mean I am not complaining about Marks cooking while we have been over here, we have had some all mighty feasts.

With all the excitement and being busy setting up here I haven’t thought about home so much, but as we are starting to settle down and unpack our bags properly to set up camp I have been starting to miss the small things about New Zealand like seeing people you know every day when you pop out of home and pulling out of the drive way to start a ride. The North Shore is home.

Random Snow storms have halted a couple of rides but the next day it’s just like summer all over again. It is definitely the strangest weather condition I have ever been in.  I was looking forward to getting the chance to race here in Boulder at Mead-Roubaix however a complication with a UCI (international cycling union) stopped all plans of racing. Being a “pro” rider riding for a Professional registered team this prevents us from racing any races not sanctioned by USA cycling. It is a ruling I don’t really understand, how we are supposed to support local racing? In simple terms the rule stops professional riders from racing any club events, if we are caught riding these events we can face a fine and a 1 months suspension.

   

On a positive note, the weather is warming up and training is rocking along nicely. I feel as if I am starting to adjust to the altitude but still learning a lot about my body up and how it is coping with the adjustments. Practicing deep breathing on the bike seems to be a bit of a trick that’s helping.

The countdown to Tour of Gila seems to be getting closer and closer all too fast. I guess tie flies when you are having fun. I am jumping out of skin to show what I have to offer and get amongst it.

Time to sign off.

T