Fall Update
My, my, how time flies. I must call this my Fall update since I have pretty much dropped the ball on the blog during this season. As my sister put it, "you should update your blog before you leave again!" I guess that might be jumping the gun a bit, but we'll get there. Wow I guess I have been dormant since a week after getting back from the "Summer Tour." Anyway I have now found some time to update so here we go.
A month of my life was filled with Track Nationals. I don't mean that I was gone at nats for a whole month. But between finishing off the major training prior to nats, taking another road trip to LA, participating in a USA Cycling Madison camp leading into nats, racing nats, taking a few days to relax in the CA sun, and then returning home, it seems that we may as well call it a whole month!
The USA Cycling camp was a great start to a multi-year program that will work to promote US riders to take part in the European Six days each winter. This year the program will allow several selected duos to compete in multiple under 25(U-25) Six day races! The European Six day races are all run similar in that there is a pro level Six day race where these riders race for Six consecutive days and approximately 3 hours per night. These races are similar to a carnival type atmosphere, and it might sound ridiculous to say knowing how ingrained NASCAR and football are to American culture but these events are the "thing" to attend when they are in town. And almost every night the arena will be filled with 3000-5000 paying spectators. Now the U-25 races serves as the "minor leagues" and when promoters need more pro riders they look to the top U25 riders to fill in the spots. Furthermore, many of the top endurance track cyclist in the World Cups and World Championships take part in multiple six day races each winter. You could say that these riders use the six days to train for the World Cups. So all in all USA Cycling has made a huge step in the right direction for the future of American international track stars.
I guess I can give you a short summary of how my Nationals unfolded. I didn't make the final in either the scratch race and points race. I was not riding very smart and I did not have the legs I wanted. I just felt really dull. Luckily though my legs came around for the madison and we had a good ride taking forth for the second year in a row. But on the bright side, we are now the top U-25 team, keeping our streak of being top in our age group going. I have to say that all the madison training that we have put in this year has served to specialize my ability to the madison, which is not to say that this does not translate to other events on the track, but most other endurance events on the track require more sustained power that comes with time and more road miles. I can say that each of the last five years I have become more proficient on the track, but each year the level of competition and overall involvement has also increased. This is a great sign for the sport and I hope to see this continue in the years ahead. Adding to this trend is the work on new tracks all over the country, which will help to grow the sport even more. these are all good signs and I think we can now say that our sport is in a growing phase, now we just need a little helpful publicity.
After we settled in back at home, we were approached by USA Cycling to be involved in the European U-25 six day program this winter. We are still finalizing the exact dates of our trip over the pond, but it should start some time in the middle of December and last about 4 or 5 weeks! This is the best opportunity of my cycling career! I can't wait to duke it out with the best U-25 riders in the world for multiple races! I mean we are riding at another level compared to where we were last year when we raced the Ghent U-25 Six. Only time will tell but if we stay healthy this will be one wild ride!
So what have I been up to since the nationals adventure? I have been putting in many, many miles on the road. So many miles in fact that I don't even bother counting anymore. I now ride by hours and even those sound outrageous to me. In the past month I have passed a few mile stones. I can now say that I have ridden for 7 hours. I put in a 20+ hour week. I ran out of climbs to ride in Colorado Springs on a particularly cold 40-45 degree, 5 hour ride. And we are now making it a habit to combine a 2 hour group ride with a 2 hour motor-pacing session on the road, as we have done for the last 4 weekends. However, with all this suffering, and you don't truly know suffering until you motor-pace, I have seen the biggest gains on the bike ever. People say that we are missing sustained power and we are putting in the work to put that concern to rest. I predict that there will be big things to come for us in the next year, now we all just have to wait and see what fate has in store.
A month of my life was filled with Track Nationals. I don't mean that I was gone at nats for a whole month. But between finishing off the major training prior to nats, taking another road trip to LA, participating in a USA Cycling Madison camp leading into nats, racing nats, taking a few days to relax in the CA sun, and then returning home, it seems that we may as well call it a whole month!
The USA Cycling camp was a great start to a multi-year program that will work to promote US riders to take part in the European Six days each winter. This year the program will allow several selected duos to compete in multiple under 25(U-25) Six day races! The European Six day races are all run similar in that there is a pro level Six day race where these riders race for Six consecutive days and approximately 3 hours per night. These races are similar to a carnival type atmosphere, and it might sound ridiculous to say knowing how ingrained NASCAR and football are to American culture but these events are the "thing" to attend when they are in town. And almost every night the arena will be filled with 3000-5000 paying spectators. Now the U-25 races serves as the "minor leagues" and when promoters need more pro riders they look to the top U25 riders to fill in the spots. Furthermore, many of the top endurance track cyclist in the World Cups and World Championships take part in multiple six day races each winter. You could say that these riders use the six days to train for the World Cups. So all in all USA Cycling has made a huge step in the right direction for the future of American international track stars.
I guess I can give you a short summary of how my Nationals unfolded. I didn't make the final in either the scratch race and points race. I was not riding very smart and I did not have the legs I wanted. I just felt really dull. Luckily though my legs came around for the madison and we had a good ride taking forth for the second year in a row. But on the bright side, we are now the top U-25 team, keeping our streak of being top in our age group going. I have to say that all the madison training that we have put in this year has served to specialize my ability to the madison, which is not to say that this does not translate to other events on the track, but most other endurance events on the track require more sustained power that comes with time and more road miles. I can say that each of the last five years I have become more proficient on the track, but each year the level of competition and overall involvement has also increased. This is a great sign for the sport and I hope to see this continue in the years ahead. Adding to this trend is the work on new tracks all over the country, which will help to grow the sport even more. these are all good signs and I think we can now say that our sport is in a growing phase, now we just need a little helpful publicity.
After we settled in back at home, we were approached by USA Cycling to be involved in the European U-25 six day program this winter. We are still finalizing the exact dates of our trip over the pond, but it should start some time in the middle of December and last about 4 or 5 weeks! This is the best opportunity of my cycling career! I can't wait to duke it out with the best U-25 riders in the world for multiple races! I mean we are riding at another level compared to where we were last year when we raced the Ghent U-25 Six. Only time will tell but if we stay healthy this will be one wild ride!
So what have I been up to since the nationals adventure? I have been putting in many, many miles on the road. So many miles in fact that I don't even bother counting anymore. I now ride by hours and even those sound outrageous to me. In the past month I have passed a few mile stones. I can now say that I have ridden for 7 hours. I put in a 20+ hour week. I ran out of climbs to ride in Colorado Springs on a particularly cold 40-45 degree, 5 hour ride. And we are now making it a habit to combine a 2 hour group ride with a 2 hour motor-pacing session on the road, as we have done for the last 4 weekends. However, with all this suffering, and you don't truly know suffering until you motor-pace, I have seen the biggest gains on the bike ever. People say that we are missing sustained power and we are putting in the work to put that concern to rest. I predict that there will be big things to come for us in the next year, now we all just have to wait and see what fate has in store.
