new job

So its been a little bit since my last post but i have a new job at New England Bicycle Consulting. Its a shop that specializes in custom bike fitting by the professional fitter Carl Ditkoff. Its a really cool process and really helps out a lot of people who have no idea that a good bike fit and increase power and overall fitness on the bike

Bike racing has been going pretty well the past couple weeks. I did Bear Mountain 2 weeks ago and there was a really strong field with a team of jamis pro riders and kelly benefit riders. We did 4 laps of a 20 something mile loop. with one giant climb each lap that really shows who was the strongest. the first 3 laps were not to shabby. the field was dwindling down from around 120 riders to a group of about 50. There was still no break up the road yet so the last time up the climb was gunna be brutal. The attacks started coming early in the climb and i made right about to the top of the climb when cramping set in HARD.. ouchies. my teamate gave me a little push, but by then if i had even made the group it wouldnt have mattered because my legs were shot. so i fell off the back and ended up riding with a group of 15 riders that fell off before me. The race was over, but a small group of us decided to sprint anyways for like 30th place. I believe by looking at the results i was one of the first cat 2's if not the first to cross the line. So thats cool.

This past weekend was Sunapee. I was racing with a full team of 10 riders. And my coach really wanted me to get in the break during this race because he thought i could do well.. He told me when the break would go before the race, and roughly what riders would be in it. And he was right! it must be nice to know when the break is gunna go, because he is the one who starts it every year at the race. so i saw him go and he got clear and i knew it was about to all go down!! and it did. I got into the break with 7 other riders, one of them would end up falling off. the pace wasnt bad in the break and i was feeling really good. I was the new guy in the break so i skipped a lot of pulls and they didnt seem to really care until the final section when Robbie king went clear and Thom Coupe looked at me and said i had to start working... but then my coach and teamate attacked and i got to continue sitting on a group of really strong riders. It was a perfect situation because i knew Gavin Mannion from Trek Livestrong was most likely going to come in the top 2. so as Alec kept attacking to keep me from doing any work i was just sitting on waiting for the final move. And then we had to stop racing because of an accident. at this point we were about a mile from the finish and i was well recovered and feeling strong. So much for that. we sat for about 45 mins while people got put on backboards and rushed to the hospital. i hope they are ok. Then they had the break start and sprint it out. which of course was bad for me. and i took 6'th out of 7. it was my best result ever. so thats pretty cool.

and yesterday i did about a 6 hour ride with some strong guys in the hilltowns... i wont be racing this weekend as i will be training, and killington is too expensive.

Going to see a house today that i will be renting out with 6 other guys this summer. its gunna be good.

-j