Between Philly and Air Force weekend the team bedded down in a small town 45 minutes outside of Arlington. It was a nice small town that reminded me of home. All the necessities close by but none of the hustle and bustle. Our first ride out we found a nice bike path that Virgina has called the W&OD trail. We spent all week riding along the trail and ended up a few nice people out riding or in the shops along the route. Each day we ventured further and further down the path and eventually ran into Arlington. Was a nice mellow week in between Philly and the crits.
The first crit in Arlington is not really my favorite course in the world but I gave it a good go. The team isn't exactly what you would call a bunch of crit monkeys. At the end of the day we missed the move that lapped the field, the guys did a great job organizing quickly to chase, but the whole sprint brake corner sprint thing was against them. The next day was a much better course, way more flow and wider roads. Around the half way point a break with all the teams stared to form, the guys rallied to the front fast and closed the gap enough for me to jump across. The break was on and off smooth because the UHC rider wasn't working. (rightly so, his teammate was leading the omnium) After a few laps the break had split, I found myself off the front with JJ Haedo and Dion Smith. We worked well together until JJ's director told him to stop contributing. Dion carried the trio for the next few laps and then soldiered on as JJ and I started to throw in the towel. All of a sudden two of JJ's team mates bridged the gap, one of the was Luis Amaron (3rd in the omnium). This was now an all or nothing move, UHC had started to chase as the move threatened their overall chance in the omnium. With 3 Jamis riders out of 5 I could sit back and ride the wheels as it was in their hands to press the pace to win the omnium. One of Jamis riders fell of the pace and it was down to four of us. Dion was the next rider to fall off the pace, and it was down to two Jamis riders and me. At the point I had been staring at the rear hub of what ever rider was in front of me. My tactic was to mainly survive the pace from Luis and JJ and contribute when necessary so I did not get gaped off. Jamis was all in to win the omnium with this move, so at times I could sit back but I also had to do my share to keep the pace high. In the end I followed JJ across the line for 2nd and Luis took 3rd and the overall in the omnium.
The weekend ended on a high note heading into Tour de Beauce, my legs started to come around and I was feeling good and ready for the racing ahead in Canada.
6.24.2013
6.04.2013
Amore & Vita at Philly
This past weekend was my debut with my new team Amore & Vita at the Philly Cycling Classic. It has been a long time since I had nerves before a race. The butterflies were flying around my stomach the same as when I was a Jr before a big race. I was doing my best to put those feelings behind me and not waste too much energy before race time. The lead up to the race wasn't great, I had a bunch of money stolen out of my wallet in a hotel lobby, I had a small fall in training and a hard time sleeping. Nothing major but not ideal before my first race back as a pro on my new team at one of Americas largest one-day races.
Come race day all the typical pre race happening go on; breakfast, stretching, coffee, internet, but with the noon start time a lot of time was sit to think about racing. Once the kit was on and the team was headed to the new start/finish at the top of the Manayunk wall everything started to feel normal again, back to what I love doing. Being back in Philly was great, I had one heck of an adventure in 2009 and have been in love with this race ever since. After signing in and finding a restroom I found a small park that was in the shade and really quiet with all the chaos around to have a moment of calm to clear my head and all around relax.
Once the race started a lot of the nerves had gone away, but it took a lap or so to feel comfortable. My job for the day was to save my energy for the 2nd half of the race. The first 2 laps were more or less full gas with everyone trying to be represented in the break away. On the 3rd lap up Strawberry Mansion my rear wheel popped a spoke, the team car arrived quick and the mechanic put a new wheel in. When he went to close the skewer for good it broke, he went back to the team car for another wheel and I was off shortly after. I did what I could not to panic and just took my time once I hit the caravan to move up. Its tricky having a lot of amateur teams in the race as most of their "directors" have never been in a caravan. Makes for a little more white knuckles while you are in the cars getting back up to the field. I finally got my self in to the group on Main street right before the wall.
When I made it up to the front to check out what was going on, I heard a large group had rolled off the front. With being a small team in the race we just had to be attentive at the front and be with anything that went across. That lap there wasn't much attacking, just a few teams riding a solid pace to keep the gap somewhat close. Going in to the wall the gap was maybe 15-20 seconds, I knew guys were going to try and get across so I placed my self up front at the base and rode the wheels up the hill. From about 500m to the top to about half way down the fall from the wall is a blur, but once I came to I was in the front group of 30 or so. Optum KBS had 4 guys I think and quite a few other teams had 2 guys a piece and then the rest of the solo guys. There wasn't much cohesion in a group that large so gaps were always opening and games being played at the back of the group. I had to keep my powder dry as long as possible and only make a move when it was worth it. For the next two laps the group shrank, and finally down to 12 or so. I somehow kept making the selection as the group got smaller and smaller.
Going into the bell lap I could not keep pace with he guys at front and got absorbed by the peloton half way up the climb. The last lap was pretty uneventful for me, I was just hanging on tell the climb. The climate on Manayunk only grew as the race went on and the finish was no exception. The crowd was just crazy, phenomenal, full of energy. With hands reaching beyond the barriers for high fives, who am I to refuse. Snaking from left to right I engaged the crowd to cheer and they went bonkers. The riders around needed it to make the final push to the top, a hundred miles in the Philly heat can crush a mans soul but only Manayunk could bring it back.
Come race day all the typical pre race happening go on; breakfast, stretching, coffee, internet, but with the noon start time a lot of time was sit to think about racing. Once the kit was on and the team was headed to the new start/finish at the top of the Manayunk wall everything started to feel normal again, back to what I love doing. Being back in Philly was great, I had one heck of an adventure in 2009 and have been in love with this race ever since. After signing in and finding a restroom I found a small park that was in the shade and really quiet with all the chaos around to have a moment of calm to clear my head and all around relax.
Once the race started a lot of the nerves had gone away, but it took a lap or so to feel comfortable. My job for the day was to save my energy for the 2nd half of the race. The first 2 laps were more or less full gas with everyone trying to be represented in the break away. On the 3rd lap up Strawberry Mansion my rear wheel popped a spoke, the team car arrived quick and the mechanic put a new wheel in. When he went to close the skewer for good it broke, he went back to the team car for another wheel and I was off shortly after. I did what I could not to panic and just took my time once I hit the caravan to move up. Its tricky having a lot of amateur teams in the race as most of their "directors" have never been in a caravan. Makes for a little more white knuckles while you are in the cars getting back up to the field. I finally got my self in to the group on Main street right before the wall.
When I made it up to the front to check out what was going on, I heard a large group had rolled off the front. With being a small team in the race we just had to be attentive at the front and be with anything that went across. That lap there wasn't much attacking, just a few teams riding a solid pace to keep the gap somewhat close. Going in to the wall the gap was maybe 15-20 seconds, I knew guys were going to try and get across so I placed my self up front at the base and rode the wheels up the hill. From about 500m to the top to about half way down the fall from the wall is a blur, but once I came to I was in the front group of 30 or so. Optum KBS had 4 guys I think and quite a few other teams had 2 guys a piece and then the rest of the solo guys. There wasn't much cohesion in a group that large so gaps were always opening and games being played at the back of the group. I had to keep my powder dry as long as possible and only make a move when it was worth it. For the next two laps the group shrank, and finally down to 12 or so. I somehow kept making the selection as the group got smaller and smaller.
Going into the bell lap I could not keep pace with he guys at front and got absorbed by the peloton half way up the climb. The last lap was pretty uneventful for me, I was just hanging on tell the climb. The climate on Manayunk only grew as the race went on and the finish was no exception. The crowd was just crazy, phenomenal, full of energy. With hands reaching beyond the barriers for high fives, who am I to refuse. Snaking from left to right I engaged the crowd to cheer and they went bonkers. The riders around needed it to make the final push to the top, a hundred miles in the Philly heat can crush a mans soul but only Manayunk could bring it back.
5.31.2013
A new chapter from the same book.
Hey there everyone! It has been some time since I wrote on this blog. I plan to keep it updated with photos, stories and all such things.
2013 has been such a great year so far. I started the year racing with Team Mikes Bike pb INCASE, for me it was such a great fit with a relaxed atmosphere. It was a 10 year reunion with the two teammates I raced and had a ton of fun with as a JR. I really can't thank Mikes Bikes enough for everything they provided for me to race my bike and actually showing me what its like to have a lot of fun in the process. I am going to miss the guys for sure, but I am looking forward to building the new relationships with my new pro team Amore & Vita
With this fresh start of blogging, please feel free to interact with me by commenting here, sending me Tweets @the_hollywood, following my Instagram dholly_wood. Have questions, please ask them! Hopefully we can get things rolling enough where I can do some giveaways from my sponsors.
2013 has been such a great year so far. I started the year racing with Team Mikes Bike pb INCASE, for me it was such a great fit with a relaxed atmosphere. It was a 10 year reunion with the two teammates I raced and had a ton of fun with as a JR. I really can't thank Mikes Bikes enough for everything they provided for me to race my bike and actually showing me what its like to have a lot of fun in the process. I am going to miss the guys for sure, but I am looking forward to building the new relationships with my new pro team Amore & Vita
With this fresh start of blogging, please feel free to interact with me by commenting here, sending me Tweets @the_hollywood, following my Instagram dholly_wood. Have questions, please ask them! Hopefully we can get things rolling enough where I can do some giveaways from my sponsors.
8.24.2009
8.21.2009
Hey all,
So last update was catching you up with what has gone on for a long while.
Now I am in Spain doing 2 stages races, the first one; Vuelta Zamora went well. Had a solid opening prologue to get 4th, the 4th again on day 2, the finish wasn't exactly what we all thought but that is how the dice rolls. The next 2 days of the race were a day for the boys that go up hill. I felt good on the first climbing day and was more or less with the front group. Our rocket climber had a mishap on the first big down hill and got some road rash, I road with a group of 8 just behind the lead group to wait for him to come from dead last on the road to my group at the top if the second climb. He had some awesome help from Austin and Cole to get him to the bottom of the 2nd climb and he flew up that to catch myself and Travis at the top. Once he was on I put the wood down to close a huge gap to the front group, a full team was on the front drilling it to make it as hard as possible. But they couldn't stop us! haha. Once we got there we had 5 guys, Me, Chris, Travis, Larry and Carson. My job was now to look after those guys and get them whatever they needed to stay fresh. I got popped on the next climb and road in with the middle group some 10min later. The next climbing day was rough, a windy ride into the bottom of the first Cat 1 climb, and then two Cat 2's to finish off the day. Road in with the groupetto to save as much as I could for the last day. The last day on paper looked to be all down hill, but we were fooled. A ton of rollers popped up and made the day harder than expected, but the boys road another great day and I got 2nd only because the finish was 100m sooner than the info we were told. USA had a great race overall, never outside the top 10 on the stages and Butler got the best young rider jersey, and 6th on GC. With everything that happened in Zamora I was fired up to do well in Palencia.
We had 3 days in between races to relax and see Zamora a little bit. Austin and I went on some cool easy rides to check out the city and got to see some cool views from the top of some big rollers.
Day 1 of Palencia went super. The team road great to make every big split in the cross winds to have 2 or more guys in it and then in the end killed it to bring back the break. On a long windy freeway climb another team put the hammer down towards the top and one of the teammates let open a gap to let his 4 teammates TTT away, since the team kept me fresh all day it was time for me to do my job. It was all instinct to jump across, but half I freaked a little and said to myself "WTF, your crazy! your trying to catch 4 guys doing an all out TTT!" "NO!! you have to make it, your team didn't do all that work for you to be a pussy" and like Jim Miller told me, "See stars! and you can rest when you get there". Once I was on the wheel it was pretty much a free ride, with one more small Cat3 all I had to do was play it smart. Over the top it went from 4 on 1, to 1 on 1, back to 2 on 1 for the last 5k. The 3 of us worked well for the first couple K and then one guy started to sit on, I wasn't keen on that so I opened the gap and then jumped him so he had to work. Now with both of them working to have to catch me inside 3k I road 80% into the block head wind. With 2k to go you could see the field right behind us and the left hand turn with 1k to go right up the road. I got us to the left hand turn and knew as soon as we got the cross tail one of the guys was going to jump me, luckily the weaker one jumped and didn't get so far. I took a sec to recover and take a deep breath, with 500 or so I hit out super hard and gapped his teammate and passed him at +or- 100m. I had plenty of time to enjoy the W, and point at USA across the line.
At the end of the day I took home 4 jerseys and Big Check. Yellow, Special Sprint, Combo Jersey, and Finish line points Jersey. I will do all I can to hang on to the Yellow the next couple days in the Hills, I know I can climb with the front 20 here; all I have to do is ride smart and most of all SUFFER!
I will try and do some video stuff as it is a bit quicker for me and maybe a little more funny. I think it gives some different insight on myself and the team. Hope you all will enjoy it. Now on to day 2.
So last update was catching you up with what has gone on for a long while.
Now I am in Spain doing 2 stages races, the first one; Vuelta Zamora went well. Had a solid opening prologue to get 4th, the 4th again on day 2, the finish wasn't exactly what we all thought but that is how the dice rolls. The next 2 days of the race were a day for the boys that go up hill. I felt good on the first climbing day and was more or less with the front group. Our rocket climber had a mishap on the first big down hill and got some road rash, I road with a group of 8 just behind the lead group to wait for him to come from dead last on the road to my group at the top if the second climb. He had some awesome help from Austin and Cole to get him to the bottom of the 2nd climb and he flew up that to catch myself and Travis at the top. Once he was on I put the wood down to close a huge gap to the front group, a full team was on the front drilling it to make it as hard as possible. But they couldn't stop us! haha. Once we got there we had 5 guys, Me, Chris, Travis, Larry and Carson. My job was now to look after those guys and get them whatever they needed to stay fresh. I got popped on the next climb and road in with the middle group some 10min later. The next climbing day was rough, a windy ride into the bottom of the first Cat 1 climb, and then two Cat 2's to finish off the day. Road in with the groupetto to save as much as I could for the last day. The last day on paper looked to be all down hill, but we were fooled. A ton of rollers popped up and made the day harder than expected, but the boys road another great day and I got 2nd only because the finish was 100m sooner than the info we were told. USA had a great race overall, never outside the top 10 on the stages and Butler got the best young rider jersey, and 6th on GC. With everything that happened in Zamora I was fired up to do well in Palencia.
We had 3 days in between races to relax and see Zamora a little bit. Austin and I went on some cool easy rides to check out the city and got to see some cool views from the top of some big rollers.
Day 1 of Palencia went super. The team road great to make every big split in the cross winds to have 2 or more guys in it and then in the end killed it to bring back the break. On a long windy freeway climb another team put the hammer down towards the top and one of the teammates let open a gap to let his 4 teammates TTT away, since the team kept me fresh all day it was time for me to do my job. It was all instinct to jump across, but half I freaked a little and said to myself "WTF, your crazy! your trying to catch 4 guys doing an all out TTT!" "NO!! you have to make it, your team didn't do all that work for you to be a pussy" and like Jim Miller told me, "See stars! and you can rest when you get there". Once I was on the wheel it was pretty much a free ride, with one more small Cat3 all I had to do was play it smart. Over the top it went from 4 on 1, to 1 on 1, back to 2 on 1 for the last 5k. The 3 of us worked well for the first couple K and then one guy started to sit on, I wasn't keen on that so I opened the gap and then jumped him so he had to work. Now with both of them working to have to catch me inside 3k I road 80% into the block head wind. With 2k to go you could see the field right behind us and the left hand turn with 1k to go right up the road. I got us to the left hand turn and knew as soon as we got the cross tail one of the guys was going to jump me, luckily the weaker one jumped and didn't get so far. I took a sec to recover and take a deep breath, with 500 or so I hit out super hard and gapped his teammate and passed him at +or- 100m. I had plenty of time to enjoy the W, and point at USA across the line.
At the end of the day I took home 4 jerseys and Big Check. Yellow, Special Sprint, Combo Jersey, and Finish line points Jersey. I will do all I can to hang on to the Yellow the next couple days in the Hills, I know I can climb with the front 20 here; all I have to do is ride smart and most of all SUFFER!
I will try and do some video stuff as it is a bit quicker for me and maybe a little more funny. I think it gives some different insight on myself and the team. Hope you all will enjoy it. Now on to day 2.
8.09.2009
WOW!!! It has been forever since I gave the people who look here an update. I am alive, to those who may have thought otherwise. MAN!!! There has been a lot that has gone on the past 5 MONTHS!! The time has totally flown by, and I am having a blast.
March... I left you all in Mexico. On the queen stage there I didn't finish, and missed 3 days. I went home to get fresh air and solid training in before World Track Championships.
Track Worlds were next in Poland. I was totally amped and ready to go for a jersey there. All my training had been great, and a medal at my first World Cup gave me tons of confidence. My Dad and Grandpa came over to watch me race. It was awesome to have my Dad around to chat and BS with, was like having a big chunk of home with me. My first race was the Scratch race, as every world level scratch race it was a roll of dice. The dice didn't include me this time around. Next up was the Madison, before the race even started we knew we capable of a medal. We did everything right and by we I mean mostly Colby (my partner). He was on fire all trip, had one of his best points races and had amazing legs in the Madison. Me on the other hand was not so hot, I tried as best I could to keep up but at the most crucial point of the race I came apart. I think we ended up around 8th all said and done. I learned a lot from this trip and plan to bring a jersey or two home sooner than later.
April... After worlds I took a few days off to refresh my head from everything that happened at worlds, and was back to training for my trip to Europe on the road.
MAY....The first part of my trip was with the USA National team, and then would meet up with FELT-Holowesko for the 2nd half. My first race went well, 6th in a 1.2 Hoboken and then a 1.12 in France I had solid legs on a course that didn't suit me. The next race was another 1.2 in Holland, the day started okay legs felt good was following moves and what not. Not doing anything crazy just moving around the field like normal another guy and I bumped he flipped shit and did a reverse uppercut and nailed me right in the jaw. Surprisingly I didn't crash, but my jaw hurt like hell. I had no idea what to do about the situation, I floated back a little bit to figure out how bad I was hurt. Nothing seemed to be too wrong so I kept riding with a mouth that hurt like heck. Some 50-60k's later I found myself on the ground after getting break checked over a speed bump. I hit pretty hard and called it a day. Next race was Tour Haut Anjou in France. I road a really solid TT there, and had a great ride to get 2nd on the last day.
Next up was Olympias Tour in Holland with FELT, it is there World Championships which makes for a crazy race. I didn't have to hot of a race and got sick on the 3rd stage.
JUNE... It left me pretty rough to recover for U23 Paris Roubaix. At Pairs Roubaix I bridged to the early move to take pressure off our team leaders for the first half of the race. Once we got caught I had nothing left to hang on and ended up finishing on my own. It was a long long day, and I had to talk myself the whole way in. I wasn't not going to finish Pairs Roubaix.
After Roubaix I flew home to my much wanted bed to relax and get some chill time before I had to fly back out in 5 days to race Philly; Americas premiere one day race. I had no idea what to expect from the race and my body. All stories I've heard about Philly have been war stories, so I tried to not let it sike me out. From the gun on race day I took off, half out of joke, half out to get my legs started. Im not sure why I wanted to get my legs going, I had 156 miles to get them going. Soon enough I found my gap growing and the pack or anyone else uninterested in chasing. 1 guy tried to bridge to me but never really made it, my director told me to wait for him to get within 10 sec but that never happened. Once the gap started to stabilize, all I could do was laugh about the situation and keep riding. It got hot pretty quick and my butt started to cramp on the 4th lap. After taking a portion of the lap pretty relaxed my gap to the other solo chaser dropped and he caught me going into the 5th lap. I was only able to stay off one more lap before the field caught me, I gave it everything I had to try and stay with the group. I had locked up the KOM prize if I could finish the race, but I had payed for my adventure and was unable to finish. That was an epic journey I will never forget.
After Philly it was time to work on the track form to get ready for the AVC and a 6-day in Italy. I got a sweet care package from Oakley with the new Jawbones all in RX which is amazing. I re did my bathroom with my aunt who came to visit and help Pops with the tile downstairs. My bathroom is now amazing. Thank you Aunt Hjordis!!! Sold my Rambler. The AVC went well, I won the scratch race and got 2nd in the Miss and Out, Points Race and Madison. Mis-Calculated both the Miss and Out and Madison and left it a little late in the Points race. But I did put on a good show, and that was important to me. Had 2 badass Kiwis stay at the house. Jason Allen ( Jas ) and Hayden Godfrey ( Hash ). Both awesome dudes with a crazy experience and personality. Got a new bed!!!! Its amazing, the dog loves it too.
July.... Fironzola 6-day was the next adventure. Was a really cool race and perfect for what I wanted to do with training, could ride in the mornings then do a solid work load on the track. The racing wasn't crazy hard but it did have its moments. I was able to take home a Miss and Out win one night. Back home it was back to road training to get ready for another Road trip to Europe. I raced San Rafael Twilight and had a really good race ended up 3rd. Before I left to Europe a good friend passed while riding his bike. Chris "HippStar" Hipp will never be forgotten. I will miss you my friend!!!!
My first race of the trip was Ronde Van Valaams Brabandt, a 5 day stage race with a short TT on day 3. 1st day I was on the move of the day, seeing plenty of races that virtually end in the 1st 5k of a race I wanted to be there if it stayed away until the end. When it came back I didn't have my head on and the race went away. The rest of the week was to chase stage wins. I had another solid TT but had to go in the worst conditions of that day, that is bike racing. I was able to get 2 field sprints with the help of the team, but small groups were off the front. Our next race was Tour of Namur. A hard 5 days in the south of Belgium. Lots of BIG rollers and short steep climbs, I think we did over 5k of climbing per day, some days less some days more. The first days I road conservative as we were told in was a really hard race. Some of the days weren't has hard as we were told and also the guide book was off like no other, climbs were 10k to soon or late. They didn't have nearly enough flagmen to stand in front of road furniture at all. That caused some really bad crashes, one of the worst I've seen. After 4 days of not knowing much at all and nothing to lose, I did everything I could to be in the days big break. Knowing a lot of the guys in field were super tired from the previous racing; the break might have a chance to stay away. The break was off and I was in it. 25 or so guys total. A few guys were only 50seconds off the GC so they were going real strong to try and make it stick. I sat on and enjoyed the ride. 50k's or so to go some guys decided to have a nap in the middle of the group. I was able to dodge the carnage. The front half of the group wasnt sure to keep the gas on or wait up, and the back half was left chasing. The peleton was close behind, I wasn't going to sit up and say "the field is gonna catch the 5 guys ahead" I wanted to be the last guy caught to make sure i was in it to win it. I kept following wheels as the smaller group started to attack itself and it got smaller and smaller. It was finally down to 3 guys from the original move and a new guy with fresh legs. Feeling stellar I kept my head in the game to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. The last big obstacle for me was the last climb with 15 or so K to go. It was a lot shorter than I thought but long enough to drop one guy. Once we were over the top we got news that 2 guys were bridging up to us. The last 10k was pretty much all down hill, and with less than a min gap it was going to be close to keep it to the finish. Noel told me to sit and do little to no work and let the fresh legs do the work. I did just that, I knew with 2k to go we were gonna keep it tell the end. After the long week of misplaced signs and what not I was totally unsure if the 1k sign was right. I kept an eye on the 2 guys I thought were going to try a trick on the end and the other sprinter for the finish. The other sprinter got the jump on me with 250ish to go but I was able to run him down and take it at the line with a bike throw. My first W in Europe, what an amazing feeling.
August... For the past week we have been maxin' and relaxin' recovering from Namur and making sure we are 110% for the next to races in Spain. Vuelta Zomora and Vuelta Pallencia. Wish me luck as there is a lot of climbing ahead of me.
I will do my best to keep ya in the loop. Also check out twitter.com/The_Hollywood and Robo.to/DHOLLA for quick updates and silly short videos. Hopefully I will have a Flip soon and can do a couple videos for yal.
March... I left you all in Mexico. On the queen stage there I didn't finish, and missed 3 days. I went home to get fresh air and solid training in before World Track Championships.
Track Worlds were next in Poland. I was totally amped and ready to go for a jersey there. All my training had been great, and a medal at my first World Cup gave me tons of confidence. My Dad and Grandpa came over to watch me race. It was awesome to have my Dad around to chat and BS with, was like having a big chunk of home with me. My first race was the Scratch race, as every world level scratch race it was a roll of dice. The dice didn't include me this time around. Next up was the Madison, before the race even started we knew we capable of a medal. We did everything right and by we I mean mostly Colby (my partner). He was on fire all trip, had one of his best points races and had amazing legs in the Madison. Me on the other hand was not so hot, I tried as best I could to keep up but at the most crucial point of the race I came apart. I think we ended up around 8th all said and done. I learned a lot from this trip and plan to bring a jersey or two home sooner than later.
April... After worlds I took a few days off to refresh my head from everything that happened at worlds, and was back to training for my trip to Europe on the road.
MAY....The first part of my trip was with the USA National team, and then would meet up with FELT-Holowesko for the 2nd half. My first race went well, 6th in a 1.2 Hoboken and then a 1.12 in France I had solid legs on a course that didn't suit me. The next race was another 1.2 in Holland, the day started okay legs felt good was following moves and what not. Not doing anything crazy just moving around the field like normal another guy and I bumped he flipped shit and did a reverse uppercut and nailed me right in the jaw. Surprisingly I didn't crash, but my jaw hurt like hell. I had no idea what to do about the situation, I floated back a little bit to figure out how bad I was hurt. Nothing seemed to be too wrong so I kept riding with a mouth that hurt like heck. Some 50-60k's later I found myself on the ground after getting break checked over a speed bump. I hit pretty hard and called it a day. Next race was Tour Haut Anjou in France. I road a really solid TT there, and had a great ride to get 2nd on the last day.
Next up was Olympias Tour in Holland with FELT, it is there World Championships which makes for a crazy race. I didn't have to hot of a race and got sick on the 3rd stage.
JUNE... It left me pretty rough to recover for U23 Paris Roubaix. At Pairs Roubaix I bridged to the early move to take pressure off our team leaders for the first half of the race. Once we got caught I had nothing left to hang on and ended up finishing on my own. It was a long long day, and I had to talk myself the whole way in. I wasn't not going to finish Pairs Roubaix.
After Roubaix I flew home to my much wanted bed to relax and get some chill time before I had to fly back out in 5 days to race Philly; Americas premiere one day race. I had no idea what to expect from the race and my body. All stories I've heard about Philly have been war stories, so I tried to not let it sike me out. From the gun on race day I took off, half out of joke, half out to get my legs started. Im not sure why I wanted to get my legs going, I had 156 miles to get them going. Soon enough I found my gap growing and the pack or anyone else uninterested in chasing. 1 guy tried to bridge to me but never really made it, my director told me to wait for him to get within 10 sec but that never happened. Once the gap started to stabilize, all I could do was laugh about the situation and keep riding. It got hot pretty quick and my butt started to cramp on the 4th lap. After taking a portion of the lap pretty relaxed my gap to the other solo chaser dropped and he caught me going into the 5th lap. I was only able to stay off one more lap before the field caught me, I gave it everything I had to try and stay with the group. I had locked up the KOM prize if I could finish the race, but I had payed for my adventure and was unable to finish. That was an epic journey I will never forget.
After Philly it was time to work on the track form to get ready for the AVC and a 6-day in Italy. I got a sweet care package from Oakley with the new Jawbones all in RX which is amazing. I re did my bathroom with my aunt who came to visit and help Pops with the tile downstairs. My bathroom is now amazing. Thank you Aunt Hjordis!!! Sold my Rambler. The AVC went well, I won the scratch race and got 2nd in the Miss and Out, Points Race and Madison. Mis-Calculated both the Miss and Out and Madison and left it a little late in the Points race. But I did put on a good show, and that was important to me. Had 2 badass Kiwis stay at the house. Jason Allen ( Jas ) and Hayden Godfrey ( Hash ). Both awesome dudes with a crazy experience and personality. Got a new bed!!!! Its amazing, the dog loves it too.
July.... Fironzola 6-day was the next adventure. Was a really cool race and perfect for what I wanted to do with training, could ride in the mornings then do a solid work load on the track. The racing wasn't crazy hard but it did have its moments. I was able to take home a Miss and Out win one night. Back home it was back to road training to get ready for another Road trip to Europe. I raced San Rafael Twilight and had a really good race ended up 3rd. Before I left to Europe a good friend passed while riding his bike. Chris "HippStar" Hipp will never be forgotten. I will miss you my friend!!!!
My first race of the trip was Ronde Van Valaams Brabandt, a 5 day stage race with a short TT on day 3. 1st day I was on the move of the day, seeing plenty of races that virtually end in the 1st 5k of a race I wanted to be there if it stayed away until the end. When it came back I didn't have my head on and the race went away. The rest of the week was to chase stage wins. I had another solid TT but had to go in the worst conditions of that day, that is bike racing. I was able to get 2 field sprints with the help of the team, but small groups were off the front. Our next race was Tour of Namur. A hard 5 days in the south of Belgium. Lots of BIG rollers and short steep climbs, I think we did over 5k of climbing per day, some days less some days more. The first days I road conservative as we were told in was a really hard race. Some of the days weren't has hard as we were told and also the guide book was off like no other, climbs were 10k to soon or late. They didn't have nearly enough flagmen to stand in front of road furniture at all. That caused some really bad crashes, one of the worst I've seen. After 4 days of not knowing much at all and nothing to lose, I did everything I could to be in the days big break. Knowing a lot of the guys in field were super tired from the previous racing; the break might have a chance to stay away. The break was off and I was in it. 25 or so guys total. A few guys were only 50seconds off the GC so they were going real strong to try and make it stick. I sat on and enjoyed the ride. 50k's or so to go some guys decided to have a nap in the middle of the group. I was able to dodge the carnage. The front half of the group wasnt sure to keep the gas on or wait up, and the back half was left chasing. The peleton was close behind, I wasn't going to sit up and say "the field is gonna catch the 5 guys ahead" I wanted to be the last guy caught to make sure i was in it to win it. I kept following wheels as the smaller group started to attack itself and it got smaller and smaller. It was finally down to 3 guys from the original move and a new guy with fresh legs. Feeling stellar I kept my head in the game to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. The last big obstacle for me was the last climb with 15 or so K to go. It was a lot shorter than I thought but long enough to drop one guy. Once we were over the top we got news that 2 guys were bridging up to us. The last 10k was pretty much all down hill, and with less than a min gap it was going to be close to keep it to the finish. Noel told me to sit and do little to no work and let the fresh legs do the work. I did just that, I knew with 2k to go we were gonna keep it tell the end. After the long week of misplaced signs and what not I was totally unsure if the 1k sign was right. I kept an eye on the 2 guys I thought were going to try a trick on the end and the other sprinter for the finish. The other sprinter got the jump on me with 250ish to go but I was able to run him down and take it at the line with a bike throw. My first W in Europe, what an amazing feeling.
August... For the past week we have been maxin' and relaxin' recovering from Namur and making sure we are 110% for the next to races in Spain. Vuelta Zomora and Vuelta Pallencia. Wish me luck as there is a lot of climbing ahead of me.
I will do my best to keep ya in the loop. Also check out twitter.com/The_Hollywood and Robo.to/DHOLLA for quick updates and silly short videos. Hopefully I will have a Flip soon and can do a couple videos for yal.
3.11.2009
In no particular order
The view from our hotel after day 2.
A super zoomed in shot of the active volcano we were riding around for 3 days.
The same mountains when we arrived that night. Isn't the brown sky awesome.
A sweet view from the apartment I stayed at in Girona. It was so much better in person, sorry for the crap photo.
A cool little town I ran in to while riding in Girona.
A solid race on sunday to get some confidence back under the belt.
Austin stoked about the police escort after day 3. We would have never made it to the hotel if it wasn't for the escort.
A nice waterfall in front of the hotel of day 4.
Some mansions on the hill.
The view from our hotel after day 2.
A super zoomed in shot of the active volcano we were riding around for 3 days.
The same mountains when we arrived that night. Isn't the brown sky awesome.
A sweet view from the apartment I stayed at in Girona. It was so much better in person, sorry for the crap photo.
A cool little town I ran in to while riding in Girona.
A solid race on sunday to get some confidence back under the belt.
Austin stoked about the police escort after day 3. We would have never made it to the hotel if it wasn't for the escort.
A nice waterfall in front of the hotel of day 4.
Some mansions on the hill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)