Thanksgiving weekend training

Jaggy the bunny was sound asleep, but if she was trying to play dead then she did an emmy award winning performance for a good 30 seconds … enough to scare me into thinking maybe she was dead!

With Kristine taking the kids early in the week up to a big family Thanksgiving gettogether in northern Indiana, I stayed home to finish teaching my classes for the week and then take care of Jaggy the bunny. What a hoot the last day turned out to be as Jaggy ended up laying over on her back with all four paws and one ear in the air — sound asleep! I panicked shortly after taking this picture thinking that maybe she had choked on something so I ran over to check on her and ended up scaring her badly as she righted herself and bolted for the door before stopping and coming back.

My classes ended on Tuesday for the week so I had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to kick-start base training for the upcoming season. I ended up doing a ton of climbing with more than 10,000 feet of climbing each day for over 50,000 feet of climbing in just 5 days. The weather was absolutely fantastic all five days with shorts / short sleeve weather on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday … followed by cold but clear weather Saturday and Sunday.

Looking towards the Leeds ridges (AL-25, Vandiver) on Sunday’s ride

Wednesday’s ride was mostly in Mountain brook – wandering over to Irondale to scope out the Karl Daly climb and get a video for this week’s Strava Shootout climb. 58.1 miles and 10,052 feet of climbing. Thursday’s ride was early Thanksgiving morning, and I put in my KOM attempt on the shootout climb early in the ride on my way over to Red Mountain to climb to some of the 1200 ft spots on the mountain — what is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition (see 2012 and 2011). 75.4 miles and 10,534 feet of climbing. For Friday, I wanted to do 10,000 feet of climbing just on Shades Mountain climbs in Hoover, Vestavia, and a little bit of Homewood. 63.6 miles and 10,394 feet of climbing. Saturday was a Thanksgiving weekend special edition of BBL. We had a great turnout despite temps below freezing to start the ride. I picked out a route to take us up Pine Mountain near Springville, but otherwise tried to stay to flatter valley roads getting us there. This meant I had to add on about 20 miles to get the climbing total up to 10,000 feet. 99.1 miles and 10,253 feet of climbing. Finally, today, I was happy to have Kristine and the kids home so I ended up trying to hit 10,000 feet of climbing in as short as possible time and distance. I tied a distance record but fell a few minutes short of a time record … distance to 10,000 feet 50.1 miles, time to 10,000 feet 3 hours 51 minutes. Total ride 55.4 miles and 10,398 feet of climbing – most of this in Mountain Brook.

Garmin screenshots from today’s ride below:

Complete ride stats, part 1

Complete ride stats, part 2

Complete ride profile

This may have been record time/distance to 8,000 feet of climbing … especially if I had noticed earlier when I actually crossed the 8000 ft mark

So close!!! The elusive 1:2 climbing ratio for 10,000 feet … haven’t quite hit it yet! This is the second time I’ve come really close.

I kept taking screen captures of 50.0 as I was climbing up Vestavia Dr knowing that any second it would tick over to 50.1 miles. Sure enough, I missed it by 10 feet.

Here’s the time/distance after the total ascent crossed the 10,000′ mark

Max speeds … I photoshopped two separate screenshots together to get all 8 laps on one screen. Look at the decimal place on the max speeds … I would guess the probability of the decimal places patterning out like this is really low, but here is an existence proof that even low probability things can happen! I was robbed on the 49.1 on the first time down ride the bowl … I know I was going faster but I hit a bump at the high speed point and I’m wondering if it caused the wheel sensor to miss the magnet for 1 revolution.

All told this five day block of training covered 351.6 miles and 51,631 feet of climbing. Great start to my training for 2013 … a bit of recovery early this week before some long slow rides later in the week.

Strava Shootout plus Red Mountain 1200s

It seems it has become an annual Thanksgiving Day tradition for me to head on over to Red Mountain and Ruffner Mountain to climb to the 1200ft summits. This year I did the route in the reverse direction so that I could put in my Strava Shoot-out effort on the Grants Mill – Karl Daly climb. It was a good effort on the climb, and I ended up beating my previous best time by 34 seconds … I made a video narrating my effort on the climb … if you watch it on youtube you can click on the time bookmarks in the description to jump to a specific part of the climb.

Critical power curve for today’s ride – annotated to show my KOM effort on Grants Mill – Karl Daly
Power map for the Grants Mill – Karl Daly climb annotated at 30second power averages

After climbing back up Karl Daly again to narrate the video, I headed on over to Red Mountain via John Rogers to get to US-11 to take me to Trussville. The first 1200 climb is the Turncliff radio tower climb. One of the unique features of this climb is the kudzu forest that you ride through. The other unique feature is the tiny neighborhood that is built almost entirely above 1200 ft on a very small saddle between two slightly higher 1200 ft points. There are some cool turns as well just to get to the neighborhood (see Garmin screenshot)

Turncliff kudzu forest

Turncliff neighborhood turns. The road to the lower left is the radio tower climb.

After descending back down from the Turncliff neighborhood, I headed back up again climbing up above the St Vincent’s East hospital to a cool water tower. This climb starts out with a 40% cement ramp out of the hospital parking lot, which then turns into a deep gravel road. I’m hit or miss on whether I can clear it on a given day … fall is particularly tough because of all the leaves, but I somehow managed to clear it today and not fall down on the way back down.

Descending back down from the hospital through the rollers took me to one of my favorite neighborhoods on the side of Red Mountain … don’t know the name of it, but it has this really cool climb up to a road called Observatory Road. Then you turn onto a one lane road that connects over to the outskirts of East Lake still on the side of the mountain. This neighborhood is home to the 27% Valley Hill Dr climb. I was coming from the other direction so I opted for a twisty descent that bypasses Valley Hill and takes you to some rollers to join up with the Ruffner Mountain climb near the entrance to the nature center. The last two Thanksgivings the nature center has been closed, but this year it was open. Making it to the top of the climb up to the fire tower, I made this video:

I took a new route through Gate City which has one of the coolest (and probably most dangerous) descents … I was flying down it when I saw a sign that said bump … so I hit the brakes not knowing what kind of bump it was, but it was actually a table-top ramp where the road kicks up to a table top where the road drops down 20% immediately, you go from a very small uphill to a 20% downhill with practically no transition … I’m sure you could catch air on a road bike if you take it at speed. That wouldn’t be too dangerous except for the 90 degree turn at the bottom less than two or three seconds after your tires land. I think if you apply the brakes gently while you are still in the air, then you might be able to make the turn at the bottom. I might try it next time I’m out there.

This was the only negative thing of the whole ride … while waiting for the train in the video to cross, I climbed up a hill into a project neighborhood where they were having a big outdoor community feast and somebody yelled “get out of my neighborhood” at me. I don’t know maybe they were just joking, but they certainly sounded serious. Not cool. Racial prejudice works both ways, folks.

After turning around and “getting out of their neighborhood” the train was gone and I was able to finish the climb up 58th street to the top of Southcrest, turn around and take Clairmont over to Altamont and the descend down the secret climb to five points heading over to the last climb of the day up Red Mountain – the Red Mountain water tower climb which starts on UAB’s campus. Got a video of it here:

I needed to stop by my house to pick up my backpack and change of clothes for Thanksgiving dinner … running a bit late on my ride so I had to drill it up Columbiana, down Columbiana, up Montreat, down S Cove, to my house and then over to my parent’s house. Guy in a red convertible offered to let me hold onto the side of his car up the Rocky Ridge road gradual climb, but knowing that it wouldn’t be fair for that Strava segment so I laughed and told him I’d have to pass on the offer.

One last video I got was the view of Oak Mountain view from top of Columbiana:

Other pictures and screenshots from the ride are captioned below:

St Vincents East 1200 tower

Annotated view of downtown Birmingham showing UAB, 280, and Sloss Furnace – this is from the road where the secret climb comes into … it’s on strava so I guess it’s not too secret anymore!

Squirrel and the Vulcan. I stopped to take this pic of the Vulcan from an angle where I had never seen the Vulcan before – and the squirrel decided to run right into my picture

Thanksgiving dinner at my parent’s house – yum!

Annotated ridges – doesn’t include Turncliff climbs or the two Karl Daly climbs or the initial Dolly Ridge climb

Turncliff neighborhood turns … such a cool climb, descent, and neighborhood. If you live in Birmingham and haven’t done this climb, then you are missing out.

Fun roads with all the railroad tracks

Red Mountain water tower climb – Garmin driving directions didn’t know what to do with all the switchbacks apparently

Complete ride stats 1

Complete ride stats 2

Clingman’s Dome 2x plus Waterrock Knob

Today’s ride may very well have been my toughest road ride ever (last week’s 9 hour mountain bike race at Oak Mountain may have been a smidge tougher). I’ve done rides that were much longer with twice the total climbing, but this one was particularly difficult because I was trying to go for some really long KOMs on top of the overall fast pace for the 135 mile ride. Plus, I was not quite adequately dressed for the first 4 hours of the ride in temps that varied constantly from mid 20s to lower 30s back to mid 20s to upper 30s back down below freezing again before FINALLY starting to climb up to the predicted high of lower 50s.

I got started at 6:40AM still before sunrise, and after a very short warm-up, I started out on a KOM attempt from Gatlinburg up to the top of the Clingman’s Dome tower. I set 275 watts as my power goal and ended up falling a couple watts short of that … I broke my old record by a few minutes, but it was only good enough for 5th place on Strava. When I made it to the Clingman’s Dome parking lot, there were only four cars and so I was able to ride up to the tower passing two couples along the way. I made it up to the top to enjoy the view very briefly before heading back down. I was super, super careful on the descent as I passed those same two couples still walking up. See video of the tower below:

From the top of Clingman’s I started to head back down the access road towards 441. I stopped to get a few pics on the way back down since I wasn’t going for any KOMs. I also got this video below of the icicle wall melting:

The Clingman’s dome access road is on the southeast side of the ridge line for the most part so it warms up pretty quickly, but as you descend on 441 towards Cherokee you enter a narrow river canyon that is shaded by an arm of the ridge line. This was the coldest part of the ride because I was sustaining an average speed of close to 40mph at temps below freezing. My “holey” long finger gloves, which I had brought with me because I knew that it was supposed to warm into the 50s, were no match for the windchill. I think it is probably in the top 5 of the coldest I’ve ever been on the bike … #1 still belongs to another ride in Gatlinburg from about 5 years ago where it was raining in the low 30s and I had short finger gloves on … oh my goodness just thinking about it makes me shudder. Also, ironically, these gloves were “holey” from a wreck a couple years ago where I slid out on some ice on the descent from Newfound Gap back down to Gatlinbug. I ripped both palms wide open sliding along the icy road … fortunately my hands were ok, but the gloves were now “holey”.

I made it down, stopped briefly at the national park info center hoping for some free coffee and after not finding any checked my Garmin and saw that a mini-mart convenience store was only 1 mile away in Cherokee, and headed out to refuel with something hot. I got a large coffee and also a large hoagie burger that had 650 calories and 31g of protein and who knows how many grams of fat. But it was awesome. After warming up in the gas station for a good 20 minutes, I headed back out to start the climb up the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Wolf Laurel Gap and eventually to the 6000ft overlook at Waterrock Knob.

The cool thing about this long climb at the very end of the Blue Ridge Parkway is all of the tunnels (about 5 of them). At the very beginning the road is potmarked with rockfall from the super steep wall immediately right of the road. It’s easy enough to dodge the small holes when climbing, and then when descending you are on the opposite side of the road which doesn’t have as much damage. It’s also easy to get paranoid that a rock is going to fall and hit you … I looked up a couple times just to make sure everything looked stable.

After the long climb to Wolf Laurel Gap, there is a 2 mile descent down to the bridge which crosses US-19 before the 6 mile climb up to Waterrock Knob. The cool thing about the Waterrock Knob climb is that the trail to the overlook area is paved … it averages probably somewhere around 18% with sections close to 25%. The paved trail climbs all the way up to the steps to the overlook. You have to unclip at nearly a 20% gradient with a rock wall to your left and a steep drop-off to your right and only one chance at getting it right. It’s the one time I actually get nervous when trying to unclip because of the consequences of not getting unclipped. Fortunately it was no problem and I was able to lean forward to keep from tipping over backwards. But I remember last year when I rode to this same point being nervous about unclipping. You climb a short flight of stairs to this overlook (see video below).

My original plan after this climb was to descend down the other side down to Waynesville, turn around and go back skipping Clingman’s Dome … but I chickened out thinking that my legs wouldn’t be able to handle a FOURTH hors categorie (HC) climb in this ride so I opted to add on the additional Cat 2 climb from the top of Newfound Gap to the Clingman’s Dome tower. Next year, I’m going to try to plan it out better and do that extra HC climb and skip Clingman’s Dome especially after what happened this year …
First, I got these videos of the climb on 441 and then the access road to Clingman’s. I was really tired by this point. Then, when I finally made it to the parking lot, it was jammed pack with easily 100 or more cars. There were people everywhere. Naturally when I started to ride up the path, the forest ranger stopped me and told me that bikes were not allowed. I convinced him to let me walk with my bike so I took off my shoes and ended up walking/jogging all the way up the super steep trail to the top (about 0.3 miles / 300 feet vertical gain). I still had to weave around hoards of people as I was jogging up the mountain in my socks … and I couldn’t help but think of the irony of me being faster 110 miles into my difficult ride, running in my socks, pushing a bike up the steep trail than most of the people who were trying to hike 0.3 miles from the parking lot. Kudos to them, though, for attempting the strenuous activity rather than just sitting in the parking lot and enjoying the view from there. Here’s the video I got from the top the second time:

After walking back down to the parking lot (again in my socks), I put my shoes back on, hopped on the bike, and zipped back down to 441 where I ended up unfortunately getting stuck in a long caravan of cars stuck behind a slow driver. The cars were still going fast enough on the flatter sections of the climb that I would briefly get dropped before catching up in the next series of turns. This meant I got to enjoy at least a few of the many corners on the descent at speed.

Gatlinburg was a bit of a zoo by the time I made it back down at 4:15 in the afternoon. Fortunately, the turn to get up to our hotel is the first righthand turn you can make as you get back into town so I was able to make it back to the hotel without the Garmin battery running out … 9.5 hours after first starting … the rest of the pics, Garmin screenshots, and videos are below.

Christmas lights leaving Gatlinburg before sunrise

View looking back towards Gatlinburg from the lookout tower atop Clingman’s Dome – partial view of Mt Leconte which rises up higher just out of the frame of this pic

View from Clingman’s Dome looking south towards Fontana Lake with a cloud bank above the lake

Melting icicles alongside the Clingman’s Dome access road

Huge raised relief map at the Cherokee information center for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I was absolutely freezing when I made it down to Cherokee … so cold … a hoagie burger warmed in the microwave and gas station cappuccino worked wonders for a bit, but it was still really cold on the start of the climb up the blue ridge parkway

View from Wolf Laurel Gap looking down towards US-19 … Waterrock Knob is towards the left and you can just barely make out the road climbing up it

The tunnel at the top of Wolf Laurel Gap – this one still had a bit of ice on the road, but short enough to ride straight over it

Looking down at the Waterrock Knob horseshoe on the Blue Ridge Parkway

My bike at the Waterrock Knob 6,000 ft overlook

Me at the Waterrock Knob 6,000 ft overlook

Waterrock Knob Trail sign with Blue Ridge Parkway descent down towards Waynesville in the background

View from Waterrock overlooking looking down at the Blue Ridge Parkway descent back towards US19

View from the waterrock knob overlook looking back towards Clingman’s Dome (the North Carolina horizon)

“The North Carolina Horizon” is a perfect way to describe the view from Waterrock Knob looking back towards the NC/TN border, which is the crest of the ridge line

Rest stop before starting the final climb back up to Clingman’s Dome (two 20 oz cokes)

Lots of snow on the climb back up 441 to Newfound Gap

There were lots of people on the Clingman’s Dome walking trail so the national park ranger made me take off my shoes and run to the top. It was worth the blisters on my feet, though!

Self-portrait at the top of Clingman’s Dome for the second time of the day

Complete ride stats, part 1

Complete ride stats, part 2

After climbing Clingman’s a second time … note the distance … this would be the perfect course for Ironman Great Smoky Mountains … follow it up with a marathon from Clingman’s running all the way back down to Gatlinburg. Who’s with me?

Note the time to total ascent ratio … about 2000 ft per hour.

How long was the ride? I zoomed the Garmin out as far as it would go, and it still couldn’t fit all three climbs. Note the vertical scale of 2000 ft.

This screenshot is actually from my ride yesterday where I had a Garmin course plugged in … Note all the squiggly lines especially in the direction arrow … love it!

Gatlinburg Day 1

Do you know how much I love riding in the true mountains? We got in last night at 11:45PM, and I knew that my 700x23c racing tires would be no match for potentially slick icy roads up here so I spent another 30 minutes changing both tires and putting on some good 700x25c all-weather tires (gotta love the Strada-Ks) so that by the time I made it to bed it was 12:30AM. Nevertheless, I set my alarm for 5:30AM so I’d have a chance to do some riding before my computer conference began. Now during a quick break after lunch I just uploaded my ride and see that I ended up with the KOM on the motor trail descent … heartrate still racing a bit from ducking, diving, and sliding around corners in the half-light of dawn shaded by Mt Leconte. Here are some pics I took along the way:

I started out by climbing up the Ober-Gatlinburg ski resort side of the valley and was rewarded with this view of the sunrise coming over the shoulder of Mt Leconte.

Here’s a view looking more towards the summit of Mt Leconte … not sure if that is the true summit visible

After descending back down into Gatlinburg, I headed up Cherokee Orchard road and encountered these wild turkeys in the middle of the roadway, but couldn’t get my camera out in time to get a pic until they had scampered off into the woods. They were really big!

Sign pointing the way towards the start of the one-way motortrail road … awesome to do this early, early, early before any cars are on the road

View looking at the start of the one-way motortrail road … awesome to do this early, early, early before any cars are on the road

Palmarés Updated, 1993-2006

1993 – After my first mountain bike race – the 1993 Cumberland Classic at Sewanee, TN. 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (there were 100 people in the race!)

I started this post earlier in the year when I decided to update my racing results dating all the way back to my first mountain bike race in 1993. My latest foray into mountain bike racing (winning the Chain Buster Battle at Oak Mountain 9 hour race on Saturday) has had me reminiscing into how I first got into mountain biking back in high school in 1993 so I thought I would go ahead and wrap up this post. Most of it centers around Oak Mountain. In fact, if you go back even earlier to the late 80s, my dad and I used to do road biking on a 10 speed (eventually 12 speed) with down tube shifters at Oak Mountain. We’d park outside the park at the info center and then ride in through the front entrance. I’d always start out fast and ride off ahead of him and his work friends, but then even before we made it to the golf course I’d be tired so my dad had to ride with me slowly the rest of the way to the spillway in the back of the park and then back to the car. Probably a couple hours for the 15 mile ride.

Fast forward to 1993 – my junior year of high school, and two of my friends on the math team (Steve Montgomery and Jeff King) were into mountain biking. Steve said his dad had a mountain bike I could borrow, so the three of us set off to Oak Mountain one day after school in two cars. We parked Steve’s Bronco II at the picnic area parking lot and then piled into Jeff’s jeep and hauled ass up the Peavine Falls road (seriously don’t know how we didn’t roll that jeep) up to the overlook area near the end of the red trail. We took off up the red trail and then turned left into the BUMP downhill. I don’t remember my first experience with blood rock, but I assume we walked it. We flew down the trail past what is now the berm (I don’t think there was a berm back then) to the twisty section of the downhill, popped out onto Peavine Road followed it for a tenth of a mile or so to reach the Johnson’s Mountain climb. It started out with a tricky entrance with a short log bridge over a small creek crossing, and then the super steep trail with the rubber run-off protectors across the trail every few feet. I eventually could clear all that on a good day, but I definitely walked it that first time up.

From the top of the steep section, you had a nice pine-straw covered straight gradual climb until a couple twists at the steeper section near the very top of Johnson’s Mountain (super fast coming back the other way) at the park boundary. Then you came down through some tight small trees, small logs turns entering the rocky bumpy section (where I would sheer a seatpost off in a ride the next year) that is now the opening climb for Johnson’s Mountain (when coming from picnic area parking lot). My first big wreck was on the downhill after the giant log (the log is long gone and replaced with some rock steps now) where there are some wood trail run-off protectors now. There were no wood steps back then (unless we were going so fast through there I forgot about them), just a fast downhill with me going right off the side of the steep hill falling halfway down to the creek at a high rate of speed.

Then it was up the shallow switchbacks and the fast straight section (now called Foreplay) across the horse trail intersection into the long set of twisty turns (now called Mr. Toads) through the picnic area parking lot down to Steve’s Bronco II for the shuttle back up to the top. I think that was it that first day out, but eventually we got into good enough shape to not need the shuttle any more, and we would just start out in the parking lot head up the climb to the red trail, turn around at the top and then come all the way back down adding on the lower section of singletrack by the paddleboats. This section was an out/back trail that wasn’t finished. We would ride it through to the end and then just keep riding a ways through the woods before turning around and heading back up. After buying my first mountain bike from James at River Oaks Cycles in Hoover (the Mongoose Alta shown in the top pic), I made this trip pretty much an every day after school experience. The lower section of trail was finished shortly after all this began so eventually I started to park at the old boy scout road just past the golf course where the lower trail section ended. I would ride from there all the way up to the Bump trail, turn around and ride back.

By April of 1993, I raced my first mountain bike race — the Cumberland Classic in Sewanee, TN — where I finished 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (our fields were combined). There was more than 100 people in the race (IT WAS HUGE!!!) and I still remember starting and climbing out of a gravel parking lot area, racing across some huge field by a barn or something, and then a double track road before making the left into the singletrack. Whenever I think of “hole shot”, I still have this mental image of the gravel hill, followed by a wide open field leading to a double track leading to a lefthand turn onto singletrack overlooking a valley far below that made me think I was in an airplane (which I had never been in before). Later in the year, during the start of my senior year I would see a flyer for the Bull’s Gap time trial and race that as my second race (see pic below), following that up with two more mountain bike races (the Maddog Mountain Bike Race in Springville, Alabama and the Suck Creek Classic up in Chattanooga, TN).

Brian Toone – Bull’s Gap Time Trial 1993

Eventually, I’m going to link these pictures onto my results page, but in the interim, I’ve included a gallery of pictures that I scanned in from 1993-1998. If you are wondering how I could remember these results from way back then, I still have my “bike racing photo journal” (see pic below) that I kept which included a description of the race, the number of people in the race, my result in the race, as well as two or three 35mm snapshots. When I started college at Clemson, I kept track of everything in a Microsoft Access database (see other pic below).

Photo journal of bike racing I started my freshman year of college
Screenshot highlighting some 1997 entries from my microsoft access database of racing and training

1993 – After my first mountain bike race – the 1993 Cumberland Classic at Sewanee, TN. 6th in the juniors and 25th in the beginners (there were 100 people in the race!)

1993 – Cumberland Classic – finishing up in 6th place – it was just one lap

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginners field strings out heading towards the singletrack

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginner

1993 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race – NORBA beginner

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – lined up with other NORBA Beginners

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – I remember telling my dad as I passed by that I needed to get clipless pedals after this race

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – creek crossing

1993 – Suck Creek Classic – triple down arrow section shortly after the hole shot

1994 – Jackson, MS – AL/MS state road race championship juniors field

1994 – Clemson collegiate mountain bike race

1994 – the Cow Chip Classic

1994 – the Cow Chip Classic, sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL – I stop for a pic with my mom before the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL – the sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Maddog Mountain Bike Race, Springville, AL

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the juniors field lined up for the start of the mall criterium

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the mall criterium

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – the mall criterium

1994 – the juniors field just before the start of the road race at the Natchez Cycling Classic

1994 – the juniors field during the road race at the Natchez Cycling Classic

1994 – Natchez Cycling Classic – my first view of the Mississippi River

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – Hunstville, AL – the sport category lines up for the start

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – shown is my Schwinn Series 70 mountain bike, which I raced on until 1999 and then kept as a commuter bike until it was stolen in 2004 at UC Davis

1994 – Rocket City Mountain Bike Race – Hunstville, AL

1994 – I lapped the field with Dan Hubbard from UTK in my first collegiate race (Cat B, Michellin Classic) – I ended up taking 2nd even though I had Bert and Pat to help lead me out – my sprint was awful – no power

1994 – the Natchez Cycling Classic time trial – aerospoke front wheel – very flat 2 miles out and back on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River

1994 – my first and only cat 5 race. I upgraded to cat 4 based on my collegiate results

1995 – finishing 21st in my first assault on mt mitchell. i probably only weighed 125 pounds in this pic.

1995 – Coming out of the chicane in the Augusta criterium – cat 4

1995 – Augusta criterium cat 4 – my clemson teammate Pat just behind. He was a great sprinter – probably won this race

1995 – Clemson Collegiate Road Race – off the front

1995 – Clemson Collegiate Road Race – off the front

1996 – Clemson dirt criterium – precursor to today’s cyclocross mania. I lapped everybody except for the 2nd place rider. In retrospect, I probably should not have been racing the B category. My teammate Bert Hull did pretty much the same thing in the A category lapping everyone and winning by a long way.

1996 – Life College parking lot crit in the rain

1996 – Auburn collegiate criterium – 5th place, my best finish in a collegiate A criterium. I attacked on the hill on the last lap taking two riders with me who both passed me at the line for 3rd and 4th. Up ahead, GSU teammates Dave Martin and Shannon Hughes lapped the field taking 1st and 2nd.

1996 – Cleveland Park on the back stretch – is that Travis Sherman in the Auburn kit?

1996 – Cleveland Park start finish area – somebody in the pit

1996 – Tour de Bloom, winning a prime in the Cat 4 race

Tour de Bloom criterium – I made it into the winning break in the Cat 4s, which gave me enough points to cat up to Cat 3 at the race and then double-up to race the Cat 3 race where I believe I just finished in the pack

1996 – Virginia commonwealth games – Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Roanoke

1996 – Cleveland Park race during the Michellin Classic weekend – rounding the final corner in the collegiate race

1996 – Cleveland Park race during the Michellin Classic weekend – Cat 3

1997 South Carolina Road Race – 1st place, Cat 1/2/3 state championship. I didn’t have a camera with me so when I made it back to Clemson I snapped this pic of my bike and my car. The race was at the Donaldson Center in Greenville and I won on a solo breakaway but finished same time as the field sprint won by my roommate Bert Hull who earned the state championship medal by winning the field sprint since I was out of state.

1997 – McMinnville road race finish – this was the Cat 3 finish. I had been away solo for 15 miles. Note the field approaching very quickly. I barely held on to win.

1997 – McMinnville road race – happy to have won the cat 3 race on a long solo break

1997 – McMinnville time trial – shortly before the start, note the litespeed bike and the Lemond time trial bars

1997 – McMinnville Criterium around the high school – I tried to race aggressively (here I am attacking) and my finish in the crit was good enough to keep me in 3rd overall for the weekend

1997 – Augusta downtown criterium Pro/1/2

1997 – Augusta downtown criterium Pro/1/2 – in break early (shown here). Post-race analysis: “So close, so close, so close. Attacked hard with 3 to go and caught the National Junior Champ (Eric Walters) with 2 to go, but we got caught with 1/2 lap to go. I still finished 15th in the sprint.”

1997 – Clemson Collegiate A criterium – how did this break not stick with UF, GSU, Clemson, and UGA all represented? Answer: it looks like it was my fault … post-race analysis: “Did not place in any primes. Was in a four up break with 5 to go, but I could not pull through and we got caught. Felt pretty good, but heart rate not quite as high today.”

1997 – Georgia Tech Collegiate A criterium – “I felt pretty good. I did not seem to be working nearly as hard on the climb as everybody else. I also took the corners much faster than everybody. I tried a solo break on a prime lap and made it to the top of the hill before getting caught. On the last lap I went hard b/c Bert was in good position. I was too tired to attack on the hill as I had planned.”

1997 – James Madison stage race – my Clemson teammate Bert Hull and I drove up to Charlottesville and stayed with my grandparents for the two day race. I flatted out of the road race but was allowed to start the time trial. Bert won the overall after passing six or seven people during the hillclimb timetrial up to Skyline Dr.

1997 – Pro 1/2 Crit for Kids in Columbia, SC – does anyone recognize who the national champ is? Wikipedia says it was Jonas Carney that year. Is that him? Or is that Eric Walters?

1997 – PeeDee road race – national champ present again. This was the only race my Grandma on my dad’s side of the family ever got to see me race.

1997 – Tour de Pocono pro-am field

1997 – Tour de Pocono pro-am field strung out (this was pretty much the entire race … single file through the motorcycle infield and then half a lap around the Nascar track)

1997 – Tour de Appalachia in West Virginia and Ohio – I always looked like a chipmunk

1997 – Athens twilight Sunday race in Conyers, GA. I had placed 2nd to George Hincapie the day before at the Assault on Mt Mitchell

1997 – Assault on Mt Mitchell – me with my parents shortly after finishing 2nd to George Hincapie

1998 – me and Daniel road tripping to Jacksonville for one of the first collegiate races of the year. We played follow-the-leader / tag through a car dealership until midnight shortly after arriving the day before the races. Tied my best collegiate A criterium finish (5th place) during the race the next day.

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – me warming up before a cold rainy collegiate criterium

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – Daniel before the start of his juniors race on Sunday

1998 – Jacksonville, FL – me before the start of the USCF pro/1/2 race on Sunday

1998 – Georgia Southern collegiate A road race start – I finished well in this surprisingly hilly course. I think Travis won it on a solo break.

1998 – Collegiate National Road Race near Ceasar’s Head, SC – I flatted out, but my teammate Bert Hull (middle) was in the day-long break before it got reeled back in towards the end of the race

1998 – Collegiate National Criterium in downtown Greenville, SC – I won a points prime fairly early in the race and then finished towards the front of the field sprint

1998 – flowers for Carol, our SECCC coordinating official, during the nationals award ceremony banquet

1998 – Athens Twilight – first of three races of the day, this was the amateur 2/3 race qualifier.

1998 – Athens Twilight – first of three races of the day, this was the amateur 2/3 race qualifier. Travis Sherman and I started a two-man break that eventually became a ten man break which stayed away … good enough to qualify for the finals race setting up an attempt at “epic triple”

1998 – Athens Twilight – me resting before the start of the amateur finals race. I would finish near the back.

1998 – Athens Twilight – neither of these is me, but I think one rider is Jesse Lawler from UGA, which means that I was just out of the frame to the right as we got popped and pulled together fairly early in the race.

1998 – McMinnville, TN pro/1/2 road race – lining up at the start. The red team would win … literally, the whole team.

1998 – McMinnville, TN road race – I won this race the year before as a Cat 3, this pro team swept the top four positions the next year in the Pro/1/2 field. I finished with the pack.

1998 – McMinnville, TN high school criterium – lined up at the front before it started to rain … post-race analysis: “Lots of rain. Didn’t corner very well and got stuck at back of pack. Had to chase out of every corner. Got dropped and pulled with 5 laps to go”

1998 – Columbia, SC crit for kids

1998 – NC/SC time trial – two things stand out in my memory about this race for me … I just barely missed breaking an hour in the 40K tt (by a few seconds) and I had just gotten a ticket for speeding on the way to the race

1998 – NC/SC time trial – my teammate Bert Hull on his homemade drop bars (probably winning or podiuming)

1998 – NC/SC time trial – my teammate Scott McDowell and his wife Rachel before the start

1998 – Espoirs (U23) national road race – Cincinatti, OH. This course would be perfect for me now, but back then it was basically a giant 10 mile crit course spanning two states with a couple of big climbs from the river. I only lasted a couple laps before getting dropped and then rode a couple more laps before getting pulled. There’s a very good chance I could win a national race on a course like this today!

1998 – Espoirs (U23) national road race – Cincinatti, OH. We rode up onto an interstate as part of the course. Loved it.

1998 – Roanoke stage race – road trip with Daniel and his friend from Brazil whose name I can’t remember but who once biked with me from Clemson to Greenville to the start of one of the training races. He didn’t speak any English, and I didn’t speak any Portuguese so we settled on Spanish … izquierda, derecho, en frente de

1998 – Roanoke stage race – Saturn pro rider Tina Pic (I think) everybody at Clemson had a crush on her

1998 – Roanoke stage race – me right before the start of the Pro/1/2 hillclimb time trial up the old road to the zoo. Oh if I could only race that again… I probably finished near the back of the pack.

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – flying out from Greenville, SC on my third plane trip ever, first time flying with a bike

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – driving from the airport through Boston to Fitchburg

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – view of Wachusett Mountain with its hilltop finish for Saturday’s road race

1998 – Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – view of one of the glacial rocks sitting in the middle of town near Sunday’s crit course

1998 – Tour de Toona – before the opening prologue

1998 – Tour de Toona – one of my all-time favorite features on a road race course – gravel hill climbing through a corn field heading into a double track section through the woods … all at 25+ mph

1998 – Tour de Toona – one of my all-time favorite features on a road race course – gravel hill climbing through a corn field heading into a double track section through the woods … all at 25+ mph

1998 – Tour de Toona – either before or after the last day’s downtown Altoona criterium

1998 – UTK Knoxville rolled a tubular on easy ride around Knoxville, fell and ripped my cycling shorts … had to race in “holey” shorts the whole weekend. The road race picture shows my normal rear training wheel paired with my American Classic racing front wheel

1998 – UTK Knoxville Collegiate A road race – right after winning the race

1998 – UTK Knoxville Collegiate A road race results – 1st place!

2001 – Reno, NV – shortly after winning the Cat B collegiate road race. I was fascinated by the snow on the mountains … my first time biking anywhere remotely near snow.

2001 – Reno, NV – Cat A field strung out climbing the hill on the crit course. I had finished 2nd in the Cat B race earlier with my teammate taking the win. My other teammate, Jeff, won this Cat A race solo. UC Davis had a very strong team and would go onto win nationals (without me) either that year or the year after

2002 – Davis, CA – after another year of no racing and only riding 20-30 miles a week (on my mtb to/from the lab), I catted down to C’s and placed third as part of a 1-2-3 podium sweep of the Cat C road race

2005 – Camp Sumataunga, AL – with my beautiful wife and newborn baby (8 months old) I started back into bike racing in 2005 making it into the break in the A training race in the spring. Later in the year, I would race in the Mad Potter’s stage race placing 3rd in the Pro/1/2 road race in Biloxi, MS only two weeks before Hurricane Katrina would completely wipe out the town.

2005 – Camp Sumataunga, AL – me in the break during the A training race. I believe that is Mark Simpson pulling at the front and me hanging on at the back

2007 – Greenville, SC – my best result up to that time and my last race as a Cat 2 was placing 3rd in the Greenville Cycling Classic just behind Geri Mewett and Bobby Sweeting. I would place 2nd the next day ahead of Geri.

Photo journal of bike racing I started my freshman year of college

Screenshot highlighting some 1997 entries from my microsoft access database of racing and training