Weekend Recap & Special Tunes

Another Year, another Walburg and the legs are slowly starting to come around. The 7 times I have done that race now, it was always somehow epic. Rain & wind didn't disappoint this year either. Somehow, I always had a "No-Go" at Walburg in the past years and was left dead w/ 10 miles to go. With the rain this time around, I punctured my tubi in lap one, got "a wheel", and got back in relatively easy. That "wheel" was a bad choice, though as the "someone's" freehub body was "dry" and it made for some entertaining sounds in our little chase group of 8 for the remaining 2 laps ;-) My bike sounded more like this rather than the regular 10speed flow. We had played the cards right until our man Tank & MSU's Colt got "ridden out" of the 5-man lead-break by an unnamed rider...I ended up 9th and was pleased, considering I usually don't hit the results until March comes around. Good enough change to enjoy some post-race "As-Big-As-Yo'-Face Burrito" at Chuy's with the whole team.

After a quick stop at SIX for the wife's birthday party I got into recovery-mode for the next day's Pace Bend RR. As usual, it was a "rollercoaster" ride and probably the easiest RR you do all year - if you chose to do so. I did, too until I saw an opportunity w/ 3 laps to go and went for it. The Carey brother #1 and Bryan Fawley aka "I-have-to-be-in-da-break-away" joined me soon after and we esteablished a nice gap quickly where we wouldn't see the field anymore. It was fun, taking those rollers at full speed and not
having to worry about 130 guys around you. I thought the fun could last until the finish but after I went for it at the feedzone hill I saw 'em coming along my way. Another VW-Turbo bridged up to me with 3miles to go but I had burned my last match with 1mile to go. Oh well, didn't work out this time around but unless you don't try you don't win. Photo courtesy of Kevin Tokarski (cyclepics.net)

BTW, check out this guy who's making a "comeback" at the age 20 (?).

Editor's Special: Check out these tunes, and guess author name and title of this "song". Correct answer/comment get's a cool T-Shirt at Lago Vista!


Enjoy,
Stefan

First "real" race of the year and more TX Tough...

Went down Southwest last weekend and hung out with the Louisiana Boyz and teammate "Big Daddy" Walker at a fantastic Bed & Breakfast in Castroville, TX. The owner even stacked up our fridge with all kind of things, bought a "heavy" Cranberry Cake for us, and had plenty of Nestlé stored for all our chocolate needs. I'll definitively come back here in August!

My first real TT "test" was Saturday morning - it was good and I was actually quite pleased with how things turned out. Next to raw power, a little bit of gambling was involved regarding the power output/pacing on the way out as we had a sweet tailwind but some got almost blown off the road on the way back in. It got me my first (of three) Alsatian Glasses for the weekend, though ;-)

Skipped the Crit later that day in order to say Good-Bye and drop off my buddy Eric at the airport.

The Road Race was pretty cool and featured a "new type" of finish - we had to negotiate through some tight turns and small roads in the last few miles before cresting a lil' climb to the finish line. My race was not too exciting and I hid for most part of the race in the field as I'm definitively not competitive for 50mile break-away's or wins yet. The next two weeks of training (less volume, more intensity) should change that - hopefully :-)


Oh yeah, check out this video of TX Tough Launch which was on WFAA Channel 8 this morning:

Riding in the 214 & Speeding on S. Mopac

Got to built up my new ride and tested it at this past weekends team get-together in the "214" as Sufer would put it. Riding on good ol' Texas chip-'n-seal with 20mph winds reminded me of the great days in Wichita...definitively made for a solid 3-day block of training and some good power data thanks to SRAM's SRM and my (now tired) piernas...

We spent roughly 10hrs in the saddle and it was good, fun times with a great bunch of people I like to hang-out. Adding sprints into the "routine" spiced things up a bit and I realized (once again) that I lack that certain bit of fast-twitch fiber in my legs ;-)

Gotta say, 'Red' shifts very crisp, which reminds me on the good old Campy Record days when I raced on a celeste Bianchi. Also, all my water bottles stayed in the cage on rough roads thanks to Dave-O's sweet Arundel stuff.

This weekend will finally see some real racing with our newly acquired teammate "Big Daddy" and a few others.

...my new "cockpit"

...friend Eric multi-tasking with camera/driving/pacing on S. Mopac