Joe Martin was one of the early season targets that I had lined up, with a lot of winter training dedicated to the 10ish minute time trial that had been switched from Stage 1 to Stage 3. Last year was a tremendous learning experience, where I did really well the first day and then progressively got more and more exhausted until I was dropped about halfway through the crit the final day. I guess you can read about it here.

We woke up early on Wednesday so we could drive to Fayetteville and arrive in the early evening. The drive was fine, I slept a lot, and we got there pretty uneventfully. I had fried rice for lunch. I stopped eating meat a couple of months ago, so that’s been an interesting transition, especially when traveling, but it’s been wholly manageable. We rode the finish for stage 1, a new, summit-ish finish.

I picked up some kit from the Borah Factory Racing guys, the Minnesotan team that I was guest riding for, and we talked tactics a little bit. We went to bed early and got ready for an 11am rollout the next day.

The course was brand new, with two pretty serious climbs and one in the last 40ish kilometers called ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ a really painful and selective climb. The first miles were anxious, no moves going, and then there was a mad dash for the front as we hit a technical descent about 30 miles in. Then we started climbing. It was a hot day, and bodies were popping off. I got to the top in the second group, and bridged to the front group of 15 with fellow Minnesotan and collegiate racer Sam Fritz. I thought the selection had been made, but the group was unmotivated to work and we were caught by the second group, swelling to about 40 people. There were some probing attacks that went and were brought back before Hell’s Kitchen, but everyone was prepping for the fireworks on the climb.

Hell’s Kitchen popped a few people off but didn’t affect anything dramatically. The group coalesced on the descent into town and about 25km out, my teammate Peter Olejniczak attacked with a few others. I covered a lot of moves until they were clear and then more or less sat in. Ones and twos would go, and I would cover some of them, but I was pretty fried.

Up the final climb I was in a group of 7 or 8 representing everyone who made the lead group over Hell’s Kitchen but hadn’t yet attacked. I cramped up the summit finish and was the last out of that group, finishing 24th. Peter ended up 3rd, and I feel like I really contributed to that finish. It was a good day, really hot, and proved that I was ready to be a factor in the race.

Day two I flatted before the 20 mile mark. I rode with 3 others who flatted on the same stretch of road for the last 90 miles. It started raining. It sucked. It was the hardest day I’ve ever had on the bike. My GC hopes were flattened, but we made the time cut to ride the next day.

Day three was the TT. I was tired, but felt ok. Thanks to a less-than-stellar race commissar, I almost missed my start time. I raced without looking at my power meter, and caught three guys during the race. I ended up with a time of 11:02, 30 seconds slower than last year. I was happy with the result and my execution. I ended up 19th, a very strong result, but I was upset with what could have been.

Day four we stayed most of the morning in the AirBNB-the crit started late and we wanted to rest in advance of the race. It was a really cold day and I was nervous about what to wear. I was also nervous since I had gotten dropped the previous year, and was dedicated to finishing and helping Peter get the stage and maybe claw back a couple spots on the overall. We got to the course well in advance and watched the finish of the pro men’s race. I didn’t get that good of a warmup in, but was excited to race. Peter told me to cover moves and be at the front of the race.

The course is really technical and a lot of people DNF each year. Lap by lap, the field pared down and I continued to do work for Peter. Two to go there was one guy off the front and I ended up first wheel. Peter told me to keep it steady, so I did. I was just happy to be there. The last lap was chaos, and Peter ended up second, pipped at the line by a quick and skinny U23 rider. But it was a good day, and I had proved that even if I wasn’t stronger this year, I was a better bike racer. I had been valuable to the team. I had finished in the to 25 3 of the four days. Without my setback on stage 2, I would’ve finished 17th in GC. I was so happy. Sunday nights driving home have been some of my favorite moments this year.

Getting home was a mess, with a 6 hour sleep stop in Iowa and a lost car key and an Uber from Bloomington to Carlson. I was out of shirts by then.

Thanks for reading. Below are a couple pictures of me taken by Brooks Bixler, who’s site is here. Check him out!

 

 

 

This winter I’ve started getting coached by the UMCT team president, Logan Grace. We’ve had a casual relationship so far, and he pushes me to work harder than I might if I was self coached. I started training pretty late this year, but I’ve found a bit of form this year and am enthused by the first several results of the season.

In other news, I will no longer be racing for Donkey Label this season. I’m disappointed to not be racing with them, but now I recognize that a team that doesn’t honor the commitments and dedication of their riders is a team that I don’t want to be a part of. So I’m exploring my options and considering riding unattached/doing some guest riding this year.

That’s a life update, but lets get into spring break. Every year the team goes on an extended training camp over spring break, and this year we woke up at 4 am to drive the 14 hours to the beautiful city of Boulder. We raced across the Nebraskan country side in a Ford Transit 10 passenger van and arrived the early evening.

The next days were a blur of training, gravel, snow, ice, rain, heat. Boulder is 10 minutes by bike away from the start of the mountains and because of that, each day, we biked west into the mountains for thousands and thousands of feet of climbing. I won’t get too detailed but below are a few pictures of the highlights of the trip.

Boulder was great. Beautiful people, good food, Guy Fieri endorsed restaurants, an awesome downtown, beer scene, and cool college campus. I want to move there but I checked Craigslist for apartments and it’s not cheap.

Friday we packed up and drove to Fort Collins for a 67 mile road race. It was an intense, windy Kermesse style race with a 2k gravel section that was won by way of gradual attrition. We didn’t make the break but all made the chase group, with me and Logan making the final selection-Logan ended up 6th, I think, 2nd behind the break, and I rolled in last in the chase group for 11th.

The legs are good. The weather is looking up. I don’t have a job lined up, unlike most people I go to school with, but I have faith it’ll work out. I’m still deciding on my bike racing priorities but I know one thing-I want to be fast. And I want to do a lot of things this summer.

Jack

With plans to leave early Monday morning, January 8th, me and Chase were well prepared. The car was ready, the bikes prepped, the AirBNB reserved, and the routes and distances roughly planned. We had been monitoring the recent colder weather and were prepared to pull the plug, but things were ready to go coming into Saturday night. Then we both got a text.

WILD BILL: I’m good to come with you guys?

JACK: lmao what

WILD BILL: I’m coming to Arkansas

I guess, in retrospect, we didn’t have a choice. So 5 AM Monday morning rolled around, after my employee holiday party the prior evening. Chase and, inexplicably, Wild Bill pulled up to my apartment. I guess this was really happening.

Chase was the brains of the operation, driving nearly (maybe all) the way to Arkansas as we pulled up. Chase is both indestructible and impossible. Have you ever heard of the sled dogs that love running so much that they will pull a sled until they die? They’re Chase’s spirit animal. Chase had a bad crash during cyclocross season, which made him start up late in training 2017, to set up for a few midseason spring goals, namely JMSR 2018 and Collegiate Nats.

Wild Bill née Alex Turner was the last minute addition. He just upgraded to Cat 3 last season and trains incredibly inensely. He’s blustery, sometimes abrasive, but supremely friendly, willing to chat with everyone. He was in Arkansas for the same reason as the rest of us, looking to get in some base training miles.

We were hosted a little further South this season by two southern gentlemen named Jarrod and Justin. They have 4 pets, 3 dogs and a cat, and are working on adopting a child from Missouri. It’s taking a little longer than expected, so their Christmas decorations are still up. Super nice folks and incredible puppies.

After a day 1 spin, day 2 we had a slight river crossing due to a bridge being out. There was a 20 foot gap and a 15 foot fall, with probably a 6 foot deep 20 foot wide patch that needed to be waded, but that didn’t initially deter Chase. He was 1/4 of the way across before me and Wild Bill told him ‘no way.’ It resulted in a 7 mile detour.

Chase and me shared a room, we’re getting to be experienced bunkmates. I’m excited to announce that next year we’ll be on the same team again, with a new group of folks. Logan, recently married, is making the hop across with us as the rest of the Apollo Velo boys head over to Minnesota Cycling Team. We’ll be racing with Donkey Label Racing this year, which will give us access to some incredibly strong and experienced teammates along with several new domestic elite races. I think a Cat 1 upgrade is on all of our minds, with an eye on Northstar Grand Prix in early summer. We’re stoked and Arkansas is just the first part of this adventure.

Days 3 and 4 were a blur of political arguments, waffle house, miles, pedal strokes, and Chipotle. We were bracing for a cold snap Friday, and it happened. We decided to cut the trip short and ended up heading up early, with many miles in our legs, and a few new experiences to write about. A good part of the trip ending early was that I managed to make it up to the cabin with Louis, Emma, Jordan, Waverly, Hailey, and Tony. It was a great time near St. Croix State Forest. Always a good time with tons of physical challenges and games. It was chilly this weekend but an excellent way to wind down winter break.

Lastly, Apollo Velo is using the influence and notoriety we developed last year by pivoting into a bike accessory business with  Louis and I taking the reins. We won a University of Minnesota business competition last month and have some great momentum heading into 2018. We’re looking for beta testers and brand ambassadors, so let me know if you have any thoughts or are looking for some free product in exchange for some feedback. We’d love to work with you.

I hope to get a little more back into the blogosphere as I continue to travel and study and live life. I had a big semester this fall but didn’t adventure too much beyond Minneapolis and that’s been the main reason for the lack of posts.

I hope all of my family, friends, and maybe some readers I don’t know are well going into 2018. I’m excited and I hope you all are too.

Jack

My girlfriend Cassidy and I had been contemplating another trip ever since Gooseberry Falls, but as college students on a budget we had to be a little choosy on our destination. After a few ideas (New Orleans and Montreal) ended up impractical for various reasons, some cheap $160 tickets to Los Angeles came up and we pounced. After a couple Airbnb arguments and subsequent relocation, we had a rough itinerary, and lodging and airfare combined for both of us ended up around $600-not horrible.

Wednesday

We left very early (4 AM) Wednesday morning and took an Uber to the light rail station to get to the airport. We were flying Spirit, and each had packed a very small bag that we could carry on with us so as to not spend unnecessary dollars (did I mention we were on a budget). The bags were packed pretty tight but not horribly so, and we made do. I slept through almost the whole plane ride and we landed almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule in LAX. With no bags to claim we walked about 100 yards and were thrown into the chaos of the surrounding LA airport, which is practically a self-sustaining economy itself. We rode a shuttle to the bus station and subsequently couldn’t find a bus to take us in the right direction. Thankfully Venice beach is only a few miles north of the airport. We hopped in another Uber and pulled up to the boardwalk itself. Our trip had begun. I looked at my phone. It was 9 AM.

After caching our bags at a hostel, we brunched at a nice vegetarian place called The Butcher’s Daughter. Everyone was beautiful and the guy (an actor) at the table next to us was talking to his date (a screenwriter) about how he had gone to Bali with his father to reset and unwind after his latest project failed. But he could still pay for avocado toast. I had the egg sandwich and Cassidy had a nice breakfast burrito and our waiter had extraordinarily good looks. We walked the boardwalk at Venice, changed and went swimming. Cassidy wouldn’t wander out far but I went into the 8 feet waves fearlessly and bravely. I left with moderate whiplash and approximately 1 pint of water in my sinuses. Although it doesn’t really have a reputation for a swimming beach, it was really fun and the boardwalk has a cool rundown ambience to it. After the swim we tried to hike a short ways to a coffee shop further away from the beach, which turned into a hike a long way from the beach because all the coffee shops had no seats, or no seats available, or a cup of coffee cost $13. We found one and hoped to charge our phones, but alas-no electrical outlets. Get it together Venice.

After deciding that we’d rather take a 30 minute car ride to the AirBNB than spending 2.5 hours on public transit we hopped in a car and arrived at a house with a thatched fence near an Armenian grocery store, a 7-11, a Thai Restaurant, and a Laveria.

We ate at the Thai Place (delicious) and went to bed at like 8 pm since we had been awake since 2 AM Los Angeles time.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: Hole in the wall weed dispensary witch doctors, sunburnt tourists, free canvas buzzfeed bags from a friendly Buzzfeed employee, spending too much on an Uber to North Hollywood

Thursday

After I woke up we got a feel for our surroundings- we were in a room with a concave mattress made completely out of tarps and cloth. Cassidy insisted it was ‘nice’ but I thought it was more reminiscent of camping than your typical AirBNB. The house was a typical bungalow and had three bathrooms, but in the backyard there were two campers and maybe 8 of the huts outside-they were perhaps 8 feet by 8 feet and all were under a tarp that stretched across the whole backyard. It was unusual but not poorly done-it did feel glamorous, and no one seemed turned off or intimidated about the situation. It was reminiscent of a hostel or a commune. We made a few friends at the house and don’t have much bad to say about it, but if I had to guess it breaks more than a few zoning laws. Me and Cassidy did the math and estimate that they have about $9000/month coming in from this setup.

We hung around and got our bearings at first, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood so that I could get a feel for what was going on in the neighborhood. We had our leftover thai food for lunch and then took an Uber to Griffith Observatory. It was hot and super sunny and we had initially planned to do a short hike but ended up bailing on that and just walking around the observatory for a while before going to a shaded roped off deck to hang out until the observatory itself opened. The observatory was excellent and really beautiful, and provided an awesome view of Griffith Park (which is actually really mountainous) and the Hollywood sign. We paid $5 to attend a planetarium show which was worth it and then took a few pictures before we argued about which bus to take down. But we made it down, upon which we had to take another bus that we subsequently missed. Fortunately, Griffith Park is not too far from Hollywood Boulevard so we uber’d there for like $5 or something practically as cheap as bus fare.

I was surprised to see that Hollywood Boulevard wasn’t quite the zoo I expected it to be. And then it was. The sidewalks were packed, people were everywhere, I saw spiderman, wonderwoman, and a lot of homeless people. We stepped into the mall for a second and were swarmed by thousands of tourists just like us. As we had seen a bunch of Hollywood stars and weren’t really impressed. We sat on a bench and tried to find something to do. We tried to get into a showing of Jimmy Kimmel but didn’t make it in time, so we went to Zara where Cassidy played dress up with me. I got a shirt.

Dinner was at a vegan chain restaurant called Veggie Grill where we tried all of the house-made juices and sodas they have (just $2 for a cup!) and had a good meal. We ended up at a donut shop and walked from there to the Hollywood bowl, where we hung out outside for 30 minutes and then went inside. The venue was awesome and a nice old man named Art loaned us some seat cushions while bemoaning the state of the outdoor concerts for the LA Philharmonic (poor acoustics and subpar guest conducting.) I really enjoyed the pieces, especially Brahm’s first symphony, a classical reflection on love. A German trumpeter featured in a Hummel piece and we heard about Art’s corporate career at Xerox over the intermission. We headed home after that and slept wonderfully.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: Overpriced Coca Cola, no recycling, Hollywood Tour guides, wiping off cans before you drink out of them, Grumpy Cat Hollywood star hoax, donut salesmen

 

Friday

Friday was one of our least busy days. It was our first foray into public transit from the door and it was pretty easy and pretty time consuming. We rode a bus to the train station and the train station bought tap cards so that we could use bus transfers.

From the first train we switched to a second and ended up somewhere Northwest of USC’s Campus. We ate at a big food court at an Ethiopian-Vegan place and it was very delicious. We shared Horchata for desert. We walked to the California Science Center after that, a free children’s-oriented museum. It was fun but not awesome, so after an hour or so we walked across to the USC Campus to explore. We looked around the beautiful, mostly brick campus. It’s super open and none of the roads are accessible by car, so it’s an awesome campus. We hung out in the library to beat the heat and charge our phones. I read about communist spy librarians. It was interesting.

 

We hopped on a bus to Downtown’s Grand Central Market, an open air collection of restaurants on the ground level of a building. Known as the epicenter of LA’s food scene, it was awesome to walk around the place-from sushi to carnitas, it was incredible to take in. We went with ramen at the end of the day, at an all vegan ramen shop. We scored a spot outside and enjoyed delicious ramen. The bus ride home was eventful, where we almost missed the train, and when we got off at Burbank Station we realized the bus didn’t come for another 45 minutes. We got on a bus that got us closer to the Airbnb and Uber’d the rest of the way.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: Hog Maw Tacos, Alfred the squirrel, Air horn wielding teens, no-touch tide pools, nice train conductors

 

Saturday

Saturday we got on a bus to someplace near Hollywood called Café Gratitude. Our server (Nicholas) didn’t greet us until we had been there for over 10 minutes and we didn’t get our food until 30 minutes after we ordered it. It was delicious, but we complained to the kitchen manager Ernesto who was really disappointed in the service and offered lunch on him next time we came in. 1/10 service 8/10 recovery and I really liked Ernesto.

While we were there we saw the famous comedienne Tig Notaro and her kids, along with her wife Stephanie Allynne. Their kids were really cute and it was cool to sight a celeb, albeit a B or C-lister.

We rode a bus to the Broad (pronounced brode, not brode) and found out that the wait time to get into the museum was 2 hours. Cassidy wanted to go but I wanted to find something else to do, so we compromised for Cassidy to stay in line while I explored the Walt Disney Concert Hall (LA Philharmonic’s permanent residence) and the LA Opera hall. I found a rock for Cassidy’s brother Carlen and by the time I made it back Cassidy was almost at the front of the line. The museum was really cool, a lot of contemporary art with some cool video pieces and plenty of sculpture. I saw some Basquiat’s and Warhol’s for the first time and that was cool.

We dined at Grand Central Market again and I had sushi. I accidentally ate a glob of wasabi and my heart rate is still elevated. We left from Grand Central Market to Chinatown where we ran into some big festival where everyone was launching confetti cannon-firework-projectile-launchers. There were a bunch of food trucks and stands. We ducked out of the chaos for a second to grab some bubble tea and explored a few shops. I got a picture in front of a restaurant featured in Jackie Chan’s Rush Hour. We rode a bus home and watched Tig Notaro’s TV series, One Mississippi.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: fake crab, overzealous security, Jenny Holzer, fake cat poop, burly security guards eating vegan coconut soft serve

 

Sunday

Sunday was our beach day, and we rode some busses and trains to Santa Monica beach. We had some lunch and got cranky at each other cause we were both hungry. Once we got in the water, things were a lot better and we had fun playing in the surf. The beach was packed.

I rented a boogie board for an hour and had a lot of fun with that, even though Cassidy thought I was trash at Boogie Boarding. I’m not. I want to be a professional.

After that we left the beach, got some Powerade and tried to find a place to change out of our swimsuits. Cassidy managed to change in a hotel before we got kicked out, but I had to change behind a dumpster. We walked 1.5 miles to a Veggie Grill (worth it) and refreshed with some tasty veg. On the way back, we hitched a ride with a Louisianan transplant who dropped us off right by the pier. We explored the pier and had an awesome conversation before we hopped the train home and got on a bus with a gang member who visibly did drugs in front of us. We finally got home and crashed hard.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: Iranians, the merits of to-go vs. dining in, hot feet, food sharing with strangers, inadequate surf, fierce sunburn.

Monday

Monday we weren’t sure what to do so we tried to get into a studio audience. We went for Jimmy Kimmel and Conan, and a spot for Conan opened up right away. We ate some breakfast and watched some more One Mississippi before we got on a bus to Studio City. We had some burritos where I ran into a relatively unknown Soundcloud rapper named De’wayne Jackson-I took a picture with him. He was one of the guys that got me into rap, surprisingly enough, off of a remix of Kendrick’s HiiiPower.

We walked to the studio since we had time to kill and pretended to see celebrities. We crossed over the illustrious LA river and arrived at Gate 8 at Warner Brothers Studio, where we were corralled and had our pictures taken (presumably so the producers could seat the most attractive people up front). We walked through the lot past a bunch of sets before we arrived at the studio.

Me and Cassidy were seated right up front, cause we were the most beautiful. First we got directions to the exit from the Warner Bro’s fire chief, and then a hype man got us HYPED. The band worked the crowd up with a few songs and then things settled down. Conan went on and did some one-liner type-deals before the first guest, Bob Newhart, who is very old. The second guest was a comedian and he was really funny, at one point I was crying and trying to not make any noise as to disturb everyone watching ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. The show ended with us pretending to applaud Sheryl Crow, as she had a scheduling conflict which required her to tape in advance. We took a Lyft home (which was nicely appointed) and I had 5 for $5 tacos from a Mexican Groceria.

The power went out which was very interesting for all parties. I was in 7-11 at the time, and was the last person who made it out with their purchases. It was out until like 12:30. With our phones dead, no light, and no wifi, there was not much else to do but shower in the dark and go to bed.

Stuff I couldn’t include: Yes, no, rock, Gypsy

Tuesday

We were trying to hit two museums today, the LA County Museum of Art as well as the Getty. We got up early to pack and hit the Getty earlier. When you arrive at the Getty, you take a tram up to the top of the hill where the museum is located. It’s an extraordinary open campus museum with a few galleries connected by some terraces and with some gardens on the grounds.

Cassidy and I split up at first to do our own thing. I explored some Gothic art and learned about the religious history of art. We met up at Rembrandt and then went and saw a room chalk full of masterpieces-Cezzane, Rodin, Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh, who signed his famous ‘Irises’ with a simple VINCENT.

We grabbed some lunch at the cafeteria and enjoyed a shady lunch under the great architecture. We tried to nap on the lawn for a little as we realized that the LACMA wasn’t possible and enjoyed the Gardens. Finally, we checked out the photography exhibits. One was an interesting collage-ist, one I found a bit documentarian for my taste, and the last was a photographer named Chris Killip who embedded in a fishing community in England. There was a video of him going through his pictures and talking about the meaning and his relationship to the subjects which I really enjoyed. We left on the tram and took a bus and a car to LAX. The Uber driver was a woke music producer named Antonio.

When we arrived at the airport I forgot to take my laptop out through security and got held up for a while. But we made it through and got to the terminal just fine.

We went to another terminal for some food and I dragged my feet a little through the duty free shop as Cassidy continued on. On the escalator I ran into famous, multiplatinum recording artist Swae Lee of the hiphop duo Rae Sremmurd. Then we ate dinner and almost missed our flight.

Stuff I couldn’t mention: Cassidy being right, Swae Lee’s middle finger, bodyguards, posse members, juice cleanses, hodgkins lymphoma

The flight was uneventful except for a bit of an in-flight hiccup with some screaming babies. When we got off the plane we walked to the light rail to get home.

When we got off the light rail platform, we turned around to a man slamming his head into the now departing train and then the concrete. We were screaming at the people in the train to call 911 as he laid dazed on the train platform. I called 911 through the emergency dispatch box on the platform and we went over to the man.

Another man got off at the same stop us as us and two dicks tried to steal his bike as he was trying to help the man who had hit his head. The guy who had hit his head was on the ground not moving and bleeding out of his ear.

After a little while a lady who had gotten off at the same stop started trying to move the guy around. I was freaking out because although his eyes were open, he was not able to move and was not able to talk. I was freaking out at the lady and she kept being aggressive towards me and saying she was going to hit me. I was scared but I hoped that if she would yell at me she wouldn’t move the guy around at all.

The police finally arrived and they got some information from us. Me and Cassidy took an Uber home and ate some granola and went to bed.

And then our trip was over, just like that.

A couple takeaways-I feel like I really got a feel for the city of Los Angeles—I knew some neighborhoods but I never really got the topography or geography, and I really feel like traveling on our own and constantly looking at bus routes and google walking routes.

We had super full days every day, and a lot of that was due to us taking our time and seeking out new parts of the city, along with the relatively high public transit times. Public transit, by the way, was more than adequate even though almost all sources said that you needed a car as a tourist. We intended to use a split of public transit and Zipcar to get around but really relied on public transit more than anything along with Uber to fill in the gaps.

It was awesome that we left early and got back late-it basically meant we had 2 extra full days of travel without having to pay for lodging, so that was awesome.

Finally, as I sit down to write and reflect on this trip I realize how insane and action packed it truly was. I could write for pages and pages about it and all the crazy experiences we had, so many of them unplanned. The 7 days cost around $600 for me total-I think I’ll do another breakdown later talking about my costs for the trip.

 

I love the Tour of America’s Dairyland-henceforth referred to by the initialism ToAD. It’s an 11 day crit series in the Milwaukee area, and it’s some of the fastest and best run crit racing I’ve ever done. And that’s just Cat 2/3. I was racing five of the days in the middle, as I wasn’t prepared to race all 11 days this year.

I headed down Thursday after work so I could get a little time to settle in at the Madison house. Friday I went to the dentist and visited the new house my parents are building out in Fitchburg, WI. It’s going up crazy fast. Fun Fact: Fitchburg, Wisconsin is bigger in area than the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin.

Anyways, Saturday morning I was off to Grafton, Wisconsin for the first race. Coming into the race I was seeing that the first few days had a lot fewer people than last year. Along with that, I recognized a lot of names that had gotten in the top 15 the first days, and felt like I could be pretty competitive overall.

The race was quite aggressive, but none of the breakaways were lasting very long and I was comfortable surfing wheels and staying in the top 10-15 positions. 5 to go a guy escaped by himself and there was a moment in the front group where everyone just looked at each other, giving him enough time to escape. Through the last corner, which was quite technical, I was about 10th, a bit further back than I wanted, and I rolled in for 11th place and $40.

Sunday was in Waukesha, and I was determined to be aggressive. I was in a couple early moves, including one where I had maybe 15 seconds solo, but I was brought back each time. Towards the end I was sitting further back and a strong move escaped. It was completely gone by the time I made it to the front. Last lap through a corner someone came out super wide and caused me to hit my pedal, (I kept it upright) but I was forth back. Came in 20th, and was disappointed.

In West Bend, my Grandma came and watched me, which was cool. She’s turning 90 in September. I was stoked and aggressive but couldn’t manage a split. Came in 12th in the sprint.

Schlitz park was more of the same-on a course that really suits me, I tried to be aggressive and couldn’t break away for long. It was frustrating, and was proving to be a long standing theme in all of ToAD this year. It’s easy to blame it on my legs, but simultaneously, I think that could be a cop out.

I was aggressive this week-which was a large goal. But it’s not enough to attack and to stay away for a lap or so. I really need to save my energy for one big attempt to break away and to legitimately have a shot of winning. It’s not enough to be aggressive for aggression’s sake.

Port Washington was the last day, and a course that suited me. I focused on a good result, I meditated on it, I knew that this was the course and the day for me. I was going to leave nothing out–today was the day.

When I rolled up to the start, my legs were tired, but ready. The first few times up the climb were tough, but by the third lap my legs started to come around. I started to force splits, to follow moves. It was hard for the next few laps, completely strung out. But when you’re at the front of the race, putting the hurt down, it hurts a whole lot less than when you’re at the back getting dropped.

Finally there was a split, but we couldn’t work together well and were brought back. Two or so laps later was the move. It was four of us, and we got into a good rotation immediately. I was second wheel going into a downhill corner, and the guy in the lead went down. And that was it. I slid on my butt for about 22 feet and destroyed my chamois and that was it. ToAD had come to an end.

I went to the medical to get myself checked out and patched up, and I was ok. Then I drank some chocolate milk, picked up my payouts from the week, went to my car, and cried. I didn’t cry cause I hurt, but I cried because ToAD is my race series, the set of races I base my season around, and I couldn’t pull a single result out.

I’m kind of at a crossroads now. The season more or less winds down in a month, but I’m not even sure if I can scrounge up enough motivation to finish it out. After Collegiate Nationals, I thought my future was set out for me–a great summer crit season, and then a jump to a higher level team for next season. But with my results the way they’re going I didn’t even touch my bike after I got up to Minneapolis until the following Sunday

It’s easy to focus on how you feel day to day when the macroscopic ups and downs are harder to see. That’s what’s interesting about bike racing, and sport in general, and what makes it so hard, and what makes it so beautiful. I love it, but sometimes I don’t. But that’s why I love it.

 

Jack

 

 

With both me and my beautiful girlfriend Cassidy restless and between jobs, we decided to take a quick trip up to the north shore of Lake Superior for a nice little Sunday-Tuesday vacation/getaway.

We left Sunday from my house for the little less than 3 hour drive, with Cassidy napping/navigating and me handling the wheel. She provided logistical support and equipment. We stopped to grab camping food for the trip in Duluth and hit up Target and a nice Co-op, called by, but not affiliated with Whole Foods.

I’ve never been to Duluth, and it’s amazing. Coming in from the southwest, I35 drops down towards the St. Louis river as it flows into the lake, creating a huge watery green expanse. We ran into a little rainstorm as we hit the shore and made our food stops, and it was freakishly cold.

When we arrived it was beautiful for a little bit as I worked on a fire to cook our pizza. As soon as we got the pizza on the fire, another crazy hard rain squall hit and caused us to char (blacken) the bottom of our pizza, as well as get our clothes wet. We peeled tin foil off of our messed up pizza and laughed about our misfortune as we ate in the car.

The rain cleared up and we walked down to the water. The coast was a little foggy, you couldn’t see across to the other side, but it was beautiful. The craggy rock shore runs all the way up to the water and it’s really nice. We took some pictures and returned to go to bed. The night was cold, but bearable.

We woke up the next day for a nice little bagel breakfast. With bellies full of fruit and bagels, we went back to sleep, and didn’t wake up until lunch. The plan for the day was a hike, with maybe a little swim. We had some trouble getting to the falls, but we made it and snacked and did a little more relaxing. Back at the camp Cassidy whipped up some Seitan and Couscous (delicious), and we went down to the beach and chatted as the sun went down. I slept a little better the second night, Cassidy said it was cause I snuggled with her more.

The next day we took it easy, made it down to the shore one more time, and left around noon. We stopped in Duluth for some Chipotle.

We arrived back in Minneapolis in time for a quick buzzcut (I look like an egghead) and the Tuesday Night Criterium, which was a blast (Jordan grabbed his first Cat 3 win). I had good legs in the 1/2/3 race, coming in 10th, a victory for plant based athletes and car campers everywhere.

 

 

Collegiate Nationals is often placed quite inconveniently relative to University of Minnesota’s Finals week. Last year it was smack dab in the middle of finals, but this year it was only mildly inconvenient, placed after a long and tiring week of final projects and final reviews for classes. But I got through it, and packed up Thursday night. With a relatively rigorous qualification process, there were only 5 of us in the contingent, all some of my best friends.

We had:

• Born Finesser (both on and off the bike) Daniel Svedberg
• Bike Prodigy Colin Catlin
• Crit Monster and super-domestique Logan Grace
• The opportunistic goofball, Chase Wark, who brought along his food baby, Phil D.

We left at around 4:30 AM Friday, electing to skip the Time Trial so that we didn’t have to skip as much class. The drive was uneventful and smooth until Colorado, where we went up through the mountains past Denver through Vail Pass with the high point at over 11,000 feet of elevation. As we started getting up to high elevation, I looked back at Logan, who pretended to gasp for air. We all laughed, but could really feel the altitude, and realized that it could play a big role in the racing.

We arrived at Grand Junction while it was still light out and checked into our days inn. Our bikes were a little gritty, so we showered them off and went to bed.

We woke up and had a good breakfast before heading the 30 minutes to the race course. The profile looked a little more extreme than it ended up being, with a flat crosswind finishing stretch gradually climbing to over 6000 feet, then a long sweeping descent with a switchback climb, back into a crosswind section, coming back around to the climb with a little kicker into the finishing stretch. We raced four laps, for a little over 100k with 6k feet of climbing.

I got a front row callup for winning the conference, which felt good. The pace started off pretty slow, and the high speed descent with over 100 riders was pretty sketchy, but coming around for the crosswind section I positioned myself well towards the front. An attack through the start finish had the field guttered through the crosswinds, and some jockeying and attacking caused a pretty serious selection of around 30 guys. I made the split as we started the descent, but no one was working seriously at the front which allowed a lot of guys to catch back on. The group ballooned to probably over 40 as four attacked: UCLA, two guys from University of Colorado-Denver, and one from Boulder. I thought the move was pretty promising but thought it would still come back, with the pretty big chase group I was in. Only Colin had made the selection, but he lost a contact lens, causing him to crash a little later and he pulled out of the race with 2 to go.

The third lap was hard but uneventful, with UW-Madison’s David Lombardo Chasing for Max Ackermann and a few single riders contributing a little. The crosswind section dropped a few people but I stayed towards the front and had to be aggressive to hold good position. The gap was around 2 minutes coming around for the last lap.

The uphill crosswind section was brutal the last time, with attacks going hard, and everyone guttered. I saw newly crowned Collegiate TT Champion jump hard after a few attacks were reeled in and knew that was the move. CCB Pro Noah Granigan caught his wheel along with me and a guy from the Air Force Academy. I hung on for about a minute, going incredibly deep at the portion of the course at the highest altitude. I made the decision to drop back, hoping that there was a smaller chase group behind I could get into. Max Ackermann jumped past too fast for me to hang on so I got into the next group of 3 riders. We pushed on down the descent but were caught. The group was quite small at this point, with around 20 people, and 2 groups up the road. With Max Ackermann sprung from the group, David Lombardo no longer chased. Fellow Minnesotan Sam Fritz jumped on the descent and I tried to get a chase started, no one wanted to work. Some Colorado Boulder guys swore at and made fun of me for trying to start chasing with some others, which is something I found incredibly unsportsmanlike.

We more or less rolled along until someone jumped from the group in the last 10k. No one chased and we were spread out across the road. A few Ks later  I jumped once and was followed. I jumped again a little before the 5k to go sign and got a gap. I put my head down and powered on. With the last hill approaching I threw both of my water bottles to the side of the road, knowing I’d need everything to hold off the chasers. Up the last kicker, 2k to go I looked back and saw that I had a healthy gap, I thought I could hold it. On the finishing stretch I caught the UCLA guy who had been dropped from the break, but he sprinted past me at the finish. It was awesome coming in that early in the race, ultimately grabbing 10th place. I rolled past the finish and was immediately ran up to by Logan and Chase, who congratulated me and handed me some food and water. They had both DNF’d, with Chase having an asthma attack. Sveddy and Colin DNF’d as well. We went back to the car and grabbed the water bottles I dropped, I ate a bonk breaker and sat in the back seat, incredibly pleased with my result and completely blown out. It was the best result of my life.

We ate dinner and went to bed. The crit was the next morning and we were stoked to race. The plan was to race for Logan, who had a good result last weekend at UW against some of the best crit riders in the nation. We were excited but nervous, and we knew if we played it right we’d have really good chances. The crit course was pan flat, unlike the last few years at collegiate nationals, so we thought it would come down to a bunch sprint.

I got a callup again and the race started furiously. It was 70 minutes plus 3 laps, which is longer than the crits I’ve been used to doing this year. The pace was on from the beginning and I was sitting in pretty good position for the first few laps, but ended up floating to the back. 15 minutes-35 minutes I was much further back than I wanted to be, probably sitting 50 wheels back and suffering.

Hard crits are a bit of  a catch 22. The only thing to do when you’re suffering that will save you is moving up, but it’s simultaneously the hardest thing to do when you’re suffering. I worked up a couple wheels at a time until I was only a couple seconds behind. And life got better. I began to recover and be able to breathe again. I was able to get a drink of my water bottle. Around this time, I saw Logan reenter the field after a crash. He said he was fine but had limited use of his front brake. Chase and Sveddy, victims of the back and the pack were dropped by this point.

I kept trying to move up, even through a few crashes, one which had me chasing onto a pretty significant split in the group. 3 to go I saw Logan, who was surfing wheels in the top 5 drop his chain. Free laps ended at 6 to go so I knew it was game over for him and I was racing myself. Two to go I got in the top 10 and saw that a little break was up the road, and thought about attacking. I hesitated, which was a mistake. Last lap I was sitting in the top 10 but was passed by a few in the sprint, ending up in 18th place.

We rolled to the car and I heard about the various misfortunes of my teammates. Chase had gotten popped early and Sveddy had some respiratory issues. A UW guy had crashed Logan out early, and then he had some other issues including the chain drop.

I ended up 11th in the omnium, which was fantastic for me. I was surprised that the racing didn’t feel horribly difficult-it was hard, but it wasn’t like I was hanging on for dear life the entire time-I feel strong and invigorated more than anything else, and I feel like I have some impressive results. The weekend was a blast, and I was stoked to finish.

Next on the docket is some local racing and maybe the Almanzo 100, a big gravel race. I’m stoked for the summer crit season and nationals round 2 at the end of June.

Although I attend the great institute at the University of Minnesota, I was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. For the last official collegiate race weekend of the year, we headed to the stunning capital city of Wisconsin for an aggressive weekend of racing. Madison is only about 4 hours from Minnesota, so we were able to chill all morning before bringing the rig down.

We arrived pretty early and the rest of the team got host housing from a guy named Hemanth (thanks Hemanth), but I stayed with my family. I ate some chicken tacos with the ‘rents and then went to bed.

I woke up the next day and picked up Louis and his girlfriend, Emma, to head to the criterium course. The crit course is at an office/research park on the west side of town where they run the Madison weekday practice crit series. To say I’m well acquainted with the racecourse is an understatement. It was the site of my first race ever (4th place in the Juniors 15-18 field) and by my count I’ve raced there probably in the neighborhood of 30 times.

We had a good start to the day, with Louis pulling out a 4th in one of his second B crit ever and Cole Feagler winning the C’s. The women had a good showing, but the Men’s A were missing some vital parts of our leadout train, namely the pocket rocket Chase Wark and the boy wonder Daniel Svedberg. Fortunately we had Logan and superstar Colin Catlin come down, which gave us a pretty strong squad nonetheless.

Collegiate Criterium National Champion/Team CCB professional Jonah Mead Van Cort was there along with his strong Lindenwood team. Marian fielded 12 riders, most of them Cat 1s, which gave us an impression that we had our work cut out for us. I was talking to some UW guys before the race, and they told me that Marian didn’t like leaving it up to a sprint against Lindenwood, since Jonah would inevitably win it. They liked to send breaks up the road and stack it against every other team. I talked to Logan and Colin before the race and the plan was for me to go with a move early and to work for Logan/Colin/whoever had the best legs if a breakaway didn’t get away.

It was very aggressive towards the beginning, but nothing stayed away for longer than a lap. Everything was covered by Marian or Lindenwood. With about 15 to go I started recovering and thinking about the best approach to lead out Logan for the win.

4 laps to go it was really aggressive, with people attacking and jostling for position. My friend from Lindenwood Nathan Schoonover crashed on the little hill on the back side of the course. Three to go Lindenwood and Marian both set up leadout trains on the front. Logan and me surfed wheels about 15 spots back. One to go I went up the left side next to Lindenwood’s leadout, trying to get Logan into position. I was worried I was going to be too close to the front too soon, but Logan wanted to be higher and kept yelling ‘up,’ so I kept moving up. I dropped Logan off in the top 5 through the final corner and he sprinted for 3rd, with me halfheartedly rolling in for a surprising 6th place. I was so happy with our teamwork and our little team competing so well against the two best varsity teams in the nation. We definitely punched above our weight class, with Jonah winning and Marian’s sprinter coming in second.

My parents invited the team to our house for a big Wisconsin meal of Brats and potato salad. It was fun having everyone over.

 

The road race was 66 miles on the nationals course from a few years ago. It was a long descent into a rolling section, then up a pretty significant climb, all in an 11 mile lap. A break of Marian, Lindenwood, and Michigan got up the road the first lap. I felt ok about the move being out there since the strong Wisconsin team missed out. Fellow Minnesotan Sam Fritz bridged up, and I told Colin to follow it. They both made it up to the break and quickly got 3 minutes on the field.

Heading into the fourth lap Michigan and Lindenwood were dropped from the break. I talked to Logan who said he was pretty fried after having to chase on after a mechanical. My legs were good so I told him to hang on as long as he could so he could set me towards the end of the race. We had good road position with Colin up the road in a break of three, and with Lindenwood caught on their back leg having to chase down a move that they counted on having a rider in. Nonetheless, three minutes was a tall ask, but UW and Lindenwood began chasing in earnest.

Descending into the 4th lap I hit a pothole and flatted on both wheels. I had no wheels in the neutral truck and that was it for me. I waited on the side of the road, bummed from my misfortune. The break surprisingly got caught, with Logan hanging on until the end for 14th place and Colin finishing a little behind. Not a horrible day, but the luck didn’t work out on our side.

Final conference standings just got posted, and I won our conference, which is an awesome achievement for me. It means I’ll get a call up in the Road Race and Crit at Collegiate Nats next week. I’m stoked and fresh, and I think we can do some damage this week. It’s gonna be awesome.

 

If you’re off the front with a seasoned pro 10k to go in a road race, that’s really good news, or really bad news.

In my case: really bad news. We got swallowed up with a few miles to go after some really, really hard riding by me and Rally Pro Cycling rider Tom Soladay. The difference between me and him, though, is that Tom won the race, and after we got caught, I got spit straight out the back. NOT LIT.

All day Saturday at the THK race I was a little too aggressive. We had a pretty full team there and I decided to try to get into a breakaway. Nothing stuck for the first 40k or so, and I should have known to sit up and to try to keep my powder dry, but I just had to keep riding hard all day, hoping that the metaphorical elastic would break somewhere, somehow. But it never happened. The most promising move I got in was the one with Soladay, and then, off the back.

The next day, Gopher Crit, was a new day. It was the culmination of months of stress and work on my part, as I directed the race. I never thought it would have turned out so well and without a hitch, but everything ended up being fine. There was only one crash, with no road rash (Ben Kollaja of UMCT rolled into some grass and still took 3rd) and everyone was happy and paid, at the end of the day. Weather was just a touch cooler than perfect, but the sun and beautiful sky made well up for it.

As for my races I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to turn out based on my race directorship, but I ended up being able to race twice. The Collegiate A race was nothing to speak of, as we got outfoxed by the lone UW rider, Andrew Einspanier for the wind (@cheetoluvr_enticer on Instagram and Strava).

I came in dead last, I’m pretty sure the only DFL result of my career. I asked Louis if I was trash, he said no.

I raced the P/1/2/3 Race (first race in Apollo Velo Colors) after running around and manning registration in the sun all day. I was planning on racing for Logan but ended up in a stacked breakaway I looked around and saw Rally Pro Tom Soladay, Flyover Champion Brandon Krawczyk, superstrong Sam Fritz, Junior Worlds Selectee Bjorn Larson, and local legend John Heinlein. Soladay must’ve thought the break was too big and attacked, dropping Bjorn and gapping me and John Heinlein. They took the lap on the field, with Krawcyzk winning and with John and I finishing 4-5.

I had Easter dinner with the Mueller’s ending an exhausting yet fun weekend. Collegiate Regionals in my hometown of Madison next week, and then on to Nationals!

Jack

I took a couple days off after Joe Martin Stage Race cause I was so wiped–I tried to sleep as much as possible, lie down a lot, and eat (literally) into my calorie deficit a bit. I rode easy Wednesday but the legs weren’t feeling good enough to finish my workout Thursday. So by the time we left on Friday at about noon, I had low expectations for the weekend.

Due to a small budget deficit for the University of Minnesota Cycling Team, we camped this weekend. We arrived at Babler State Park when it was dark. I had a kind of rough night, tossed and turned a lot with my deflated sleeping pad. I woke up with a sore everything and a headache, but once I got some oatmeal and bagels into me I was feeling much better.

The course was a hilly 21 mile circuit, and we were slated to ride 4 laps with 48 P/1/2 dudes. The first half of the lap is very hilly, with a big climb followed by a steep descent, then a couple of grindy pitches into a steep ascent, which is usually ripped up and decisive. The back half of the course is a roll down to the finish.

Up the 3rd hill the first lap, a couple guys attacked over the top into a windy section. I saw that the move was threatening and tried to get up, but hung off the back for a little bit. Logan saw that the move was threatening as well and came up with me. We got a big gap pretty quickly as the group behind us floundered and didn’t get a chase or bridging group together.

After a little work, the pace settled down a little, but we found it hard to get into a smooth rotation. There were 2 Pastaria-BigShark guys who didn’t seem motivated to pull, me and Logan, 2 Marian guys (one of them being Zach Nehr, a guy who grew up in Wisconsin), Lindenwood’s superstrong Evan Hartig, and two guys without teammates. The Marian guys wouldn’t work and kept screwing with the rotation. After a lap with no cohesion I tried to clean up the rotation. One of the Pastaria-BigShark guys took a pull that no one followed and drifted away, eventually out of sight.

With a little less than a lap to go, Logan dropped off after working really hard to keep the break going, and a group of a couple Marian guys and a couple more BigShark guys bridged up. I was isolated at this point and tried to do my best to eat and to sit in.

Last lap up the first hill we went hard. Spencer Seggenbruch and one of the guys without teammates started to bridge to the leader as a chase group of 5 coalesced with me and one other guy dangling off the back. We chased hard but couldn’t make contact. The guy with me cramped hard, so I decided to just roll in the rest of the way. With 6 or 7 miles to go, he flew past me again–I had thought he had DNF’d. I caught onto his wheel and we resumed working together. I tried attacking him about a mile out, but he held my wheel and dusted me in the sprint. I ended up 9th.

I was tired, hungry and cranky after the race. We ate at a horrible, way too expensive restaurant (BIG BEAR GRILL IN GROVER, MO), took showers at the campground, and went to bed.

The next day was the crit. The crit is in Downtown St. Charles, along a brick avenue which turns along the riverfront, and then a near 180 degree turn into the finishing stretch. I told teammates Chase and Logan that my legs were bad and that I’d try to get into something early to set one of them up. A couple laps in a Marian guy ate it on the sharp turn and I ran over someone/something and had to take a free lap. I got in with no hassle, and shortly after Logan got in a little move off the front. With 12 or so laps to go, I hit a brick that had come loose on the main road which popped my tire and dented my wheel up. A Lindenwood guy loaned me his wheel.

Chase got popped around that point and Logan was caught, and came up to me telling me that he couldn’t clip in to his pedal and therefore couldn’t sprint. He offered to lead me out but I was pretty smashed at that point as well, and didn’t think I could do any damage. I rolled in with a pack finish. There was a break of 2 or 3 guys up the road that won the thing.

Shoutout to the the dashing Konynenbelt duo, with Waverly scoring a 3rd in the Women’s 3/4/5, and Jordan winning the Men’s 4/5 race with the aid of Alex ‘Wild Bill’ Turner. Proud of all of them. Also we missed Louis this weekend, who couldn’t make it down.

New team member Paul Hogan was taking pictures this weekend and I’m trying to get some of those to put up, but for now, this will have to do. I’m stoked to race THK this weekend, and for my first race that I’m promoting, the Gopher Crit! (Easter Sunday) If you’re local, I’d love to see you there!

 

Jack