DEPAULA RACING
UNION CITY-CRIT 2010
5TH PLACE
Team training ,16th january 2010
Hey everybody. Team kits will be in next week. A bunch of guys have their Colnago Team bikes built up. Team training ride on January 16th. (Sorry WBL peeps.)
The long-range weather forecast is guessing 50F.
Tour de Gila 2009
This year's race was bigger than last year, but just as hard. There were 168 riders on the start line on day one. The race is held in the Silver City, New Mexico area and various between 5000 and 8000 feet above sea level. Since their is less oxygen at these levels it makes the race even more challenging for those of us who live at 1000 feet above sea level. Even though the race is difficult at this level of racing and even more challenging because of the altitude, it is one of my favorite races because it helps you get in shape. That's the reason why Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer were there this year.
Stage 1 was a road race with lots of climbing. I followed a few attacks in the first few miles, but nothing happened with any of them. It may not have been the right thing to do so early in the race because I was not acclimated to the altitude. On the last climb my legs weren't there.
Stage 2 was another road race. on the first very hard climb I was in the top 10 with 300 yards to go to the top and my legs ran out of gas. From that point the whole ride was to get to the finish as fast as I could. Again, the altitude was play havoc with my body and those of most of my teammates.
Stage 3 was the time trial. The pain from the previous two days was definitely there for the time trial. It was an awesome training day, but didn't do as good as I would have liked.
Stage 4 was my chance to win or podium. It was very windy and the race started out very hard. The plan was to stay in the pack until 10 laps to go and then move into the top 10. The plan was working great until lap 7 when I got a flat tire. I pulled into the pits and the SRAM guys got me changed and back into the field. With 5 laps to go I was 3rd behind Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner with Levi Leipheimer on my wheel. On the last lap, Levi was in front of me when his tubular tire came off. That caused everyone to check up and in 1 second I went from the front of the pack to losing the pack. I was greatly encouraged though because my legs were finally coming to me and I was riding with some of the greatest riders in the world. My time is coming.
Stage 5 was the final day and was yet another road race. 45 miles into the race there was a big pile up and I crashed at around 30 mph. Suffice it to say, my race was over at that time.
All in all this was a great training race. I would love to do better next year, but it will require spending quite a bit of time training at altitude in order to handle the lack of oxygen. The only one of my teammates who finished well lives in Colorado so he was not affected by the altitude like those of us from the east coast.
Stage 2 was another road race. on the first very hard climb I was in the top 10 with 300 yards to go to the top and my legs ran out of gas. From that point the whole ride was to get to the finish as fast as I could. Again, the altitude was play havoc with my body and those of most of my teammates.
Stage 3 was the time trial. The pain from the previous two days was definitely there for the time trial. It was an awesome training day, but didn't do as good as I would have liked.
Stage 4 was my chance to win or podium. It was very windy and the race started out very hard. The plan was to stay in the pack until 10 laps to go and then move into the top 10. The plan was working great until lap 7 when I got a flat tire. I pulled into the pits and the SRAM guys got me changed and back into the field. With 5 laps to go I was 3rd behind Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner with Levi Leipheimer on my wheel. On the last lap, Levi was in front of me when his tubular tire came off. That caused everyone to check up and in 1 second I went from the front of the pack to losing the pack. I was greatly encouraged though because my legs were finally coming to me and I was riding with some of the greatest riders in the world. My time is coming.
Stage 5 was the final day and was yet another road race. 45 miles into the race there was a big pile up and I crashed at around 30 mph. Suffice it to say, my race was over at that time.
All in all this was a great training race. I would love to do better next year, but it will require spending quite a bit of time training at altitude in order to handle the lack of oxygen. The only one of my teammates who finished well lives in Colorado so he was not affected by the altitude like those of us from the east coast.
Tour of the Battenkill 04/19/2009
Tour of the Battenkill 2009 - Tough Race. 125 miles of rolling hills and dirt roads. This was a very difficult race as attested to by the fact that only about 1/3 of the starting field actually finished the race (62 out 155 or so). The Tour of the Battenkill takes place in New Jersey and features over 8000 feet of climbing with 14 climbs with grades up 10 18%. To make things even tougher there are over 30 miles of dirt roads with all the rocks and dust to go with riding those roads. As i stated: it was a tough race.
The day started a little scary for me in that at the 5 mile mark I felt a twinge of a cramp in my hamstring. That's not a good way to start any race, much less one like this. I concentrated on the race and spinning my legs and eventually it went away. The dirt roads were really hard because of having to battle the rocks and dust. My lower back became sore from having to hang on so hard. Three times I was dropped from the pack on a downhill because of not being able to see the road due to the dust. However, each time I was able to ride back to the pack.
I really felt pretty strong throughout the majority of the race. However, with 12 miles to go I was dropped on the last 18% grade. My legs had enough. I don't think I ate enough in the beginning of the ride to get me through to the end. However, I finished 38th in the race when almost 100 hundred riders didn't even make it to the end. My fitness is definitely coming around and will hopefully be even better in the Tour de Gila in New Mexico at the end of this month.
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