Lesson Learned

Oooh...2 posts in one week! Exciting times. I was originally going to entitle this post "When It Rains, It Pours" but I decided on "Lesson Learned" because there was a lesson from today and I think upon reflection that I may have grasped it.
Today was the first day since my CL RR that I wasn't feeling crummy about my race performance. This morning, I officially let it go and moved on from my poor showing in my hometown. Today I had short prologue-esque TT intervals scheduled in the morning and a mid-week crit in the evening. As I rolled down the hill from my house this morning and stopped at the first stoplight, there was a person holding a sign on the corner (as there is everyday at that corner). I'm sure you've seen this scene: a person writes some sort of message that is supposed to illicit pity, guilt, or a laugh with the ultimate goal of scoring a few bucks from people stopped at the corner. Today's person had a sign that read "Appreciate what you have and don't take it for granted." I immediately thought, "Ya dude, you should appreciate that you're healthy enough to be out here enjoying this beautiful day and by the looks of it you're not starving or anything." Little to zero empathy or sympathy from this guy (thumbs pointed inward) when I saw this person this morning. And certainly no inward reflection about the message on his sign.
So, I continued on my ride and I could tell right away that it was going to be good day. I wondered not if, but by how much I would smash my 5' TT power records today. I was engulfed in this train of thought when I noticed my turn was coming up and so took a quick glance over my shoulder and then started to make the left turn going a little faster than usual. Well, there was about a foot wide strip of deep gravel on the edge of the left turn lane that I failed to notice in my daydreaming and my tire slid out immediately when I hit it. I slid to a stop in the middle of the road, cursing before I was even finished sliding. I untangled myself from my bike and my next action was to hurl my bottle at the nearest inanimate object. I just kept saying "I can't believe this" in between expletives. I thought I had wrecked my chances at doing well at Cascade. A nice older gentleman named Ken came to my aid and brought me a first aid kit and water from his car, because by this time I was dripping blood from several different locations. I knew I hadn't broken my collarbone so my attention immediately went to my ribs and hips, two of the initial contact points along with my elbow/forearm. I took a deep breath with no shooting pain so I was pretty certain that I hadn't broken ribs again. I was walking around so the hip couldn't be too bad. But I chose not to appreciate this relative good fortune. All that I could think about was the missed workouts and the possibly hindered state that I would be starting in next week. I changed my tube (sliding along the pavement wore through the sidewall and blew the tube as I was coming to a halt), thanked Ken for caring enough to spring into action to help me, and gingerly climbed aboard my wounded TT bike. As I was limping home, trying to avoid touching the handlebars with the open wounds on my hands, I thought again of the message on the sign at the corner "Appreciate what you have..." I thought about how foolish it was for me to be so upset about not winning my hometown race. After having so many friends and family come to support me and see what I love to do, I chose to focus on my failures rather than how blessed I am to have so many great people in my life. In this, the year of racing that wasn't even supposed to exist for me due to a suspension, I chose to feel angry and wronged somehow by the tactics that were played out 'against' me. Really? This whole friggin season is a gift! I have no right to pout about some lack of result when I was never even planning on pinning a number on this year. Yes, I can be disappointed about not winning and about crashing stupidly on a training ride but I better recognize and acknowledge the good fortune with the bad, otherwise I cross the line and enter into "whiny, self-pity" territory. And there's far too much good going on in my life right now to be hanging out over there.
Oh, and just analyzed my power file: 44.7 kph when I hit the deck. Boy, I forgot how much I missed cleaning wounds in the shower! Where's a bottle of percocet (or scotch) when you need it??

Bicycle, Blues, and BBQ Festival

I had a great time at the Bicycle, Blues & BBQ Festival in Clear Lake, IA this past weekend. Tim Putnam put on two excellent races and the crowd at the criterium on Saturday night was exceptional. The crit had a very professional feel to it and I think the racers really appreciated all of the hard work and effort that was put in to create the event. I had quite a few racers say to me "Wow, you're from here? This is a cool little town!"
I had me some tasty BBQ brisket and listened to a really talented Blues band, Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Altar Boys, on Friday night. I got to see tons of friends and family who live in the area and came out to Clear Lake to watch the races.
The Saturday crit went well, we narrowed the field of 50 down to 7 riders containing teammate Nick Frey and myself with a few early attacks. With 10-12 laps to go, I attacked hard and the other 5 riders responded but then Nick counter-attacked and went solo for the win. It was a good day and everything worked well...though I should have worked harder to get on the podium.
In the road race, I was feeling good and very motivated to win. It was a frustrating race because there were a lot of talented, strong riders in the field but they all seemed to be waiting and reacting rather than racing. That's fine, I can totally understand their reasoning but I let myself get frustrated (and a little bored) and so attacked solo with about 45 miles remaining in an 82 mile RR. I really thought that as good as I was feeling that day they would never see me again. First mistake: pride/ego. The field worked well together and kept me within 30" for about an hour. I finally gave up the fight with 15 miles remaining since my back was tightening up badly and I was completely out of water. As soon as the field caught me, there were numerous counter-attacks but the majority of the field was still happy to sit in rather than race for the win. And then I started to feel sorry for myself thinking about how thirsty I was and how I was starting to cramp up and blah, blah, blah. I took it upon myself to keep the breakaways close to give Nick a chance at the sprint but I really didn't fight for the win. In a way, I just gave in to the whiny voices in my head. I'm really not proud of the way that I raced the last 10 miles of that RR. Looking back, I think that if I would have continued to fight and attack, I may have changed the outcome. As it was, Nick sprinted for 3rd and I didn't even contest the sprint due to being boxed in and then having someone pull out of his pedal right next to me. Congratulations to FasCat athlete Gregg Brandt who placed 2nd in the crit and won the road race in an exciting sprint! I'm disappointed in the race but mostly due to the mistakes I made. If I am fortunate enough to come back next year (which I really hope my schedule allows) I will just hope and pray for 30 mph winds in that road race!
Anyway, it was a great weekend of racing and I had a blast. Plus, I was reminded of how hard this sport is at this level and that you have to keep fighting no matter what. A big thank you to Tim Putnam, Monson and Sons and all of the other great sponsors who helped create the event.
Now it's on to the Boise Twilight and the Cascade Cycling Classic. I've never done the Boise Twilight but I've heard it's a fun race with a good atmosphere as well. And of course, I love going back to Cascade for the beautiful courses and to see how big the Sheasby kids have gotten. ;-)

NVGP

Hanging in the Twin Cities for the Nature Valley Grand Prix this week. Having a lot of fun seeing friends and family in the area who have come out to support Jamis/Sutter Home for the race.



Look at these die hard racing fans braving the rain after the TT on Wednesday! I think they're tougher than me...



We'll keep doing our best to make it an exciting and interesting race but so far it's been pretty one-sided. Gotta keep fighting though!

Okay, now breathe

Wow, that was quite the ride. I feel like I finally have an opportunity to breathe a little after about a month of craziness. I went from the Tour of the Gila to "Hurry up and get ready for ToC!" mode, to the biggest race on North American soil, to our National Championships to the biggest one-day bike race in the States. All the while trying to be an effective cycling coach to my athletes who I'm already emotionally invested in.
Now that I'm home and able to relax and reflect, it's a bit overwhelming. It's just nuts how much change has occurred in my life over the past 2 months. I'm so, so thankful that Jamis/Sutter Home believed in me and worked so hard to get me on the start line of these races. What a great bunch of people! It really is quite astonishing how much this team accomplishes for how few are working behind the scenes.
So up next for me is Nature Valley Grand Prix and then potentially, probably my hometown race in Clear Lake with my teammate and fellow Iowan Nick Frey. And though I'm really excited and hungry to win a lot of races this year with my new team, I have to believe that everything from this point on will be lower stress than these past 40 days or so. It'll be a cinch! (note: that's entirely false because if there's one thing I've been reminded of since my comeback began, it's that this sport is so friggin hard!)

Jamis - Sutter Home!

I'm proud to announce that I've signed with the Jamis - Sutter Home Cycling Team for the 2011 season. Yeah, it's not exactly breaking news but as you can imagine, I've been a bit busy these last few weeks. This is very exciting for me. To go from a suspension to racing with one of the best domestic racing teams in the U.S. in a matter of weeks has been a bit of a shock....but a good shock. At least I get to eeeeaaase into things and get my legs under me before I head to any big races. (This is called denial due to the truth being a bit too scary and overwhelming). I will, in fact, be heading to Tahoe tomorrow to line up with some of the best in the world starting on Sunday.
Gila was great for the fitness (and I just love that race) and my training in the past week has gone better than I could have hoped, so I'm actually in a good place both mentally and physically.
Thanks for all of the support I've received regarding my recent fortune in finding a great team to ride with. I'll be writing a daily blog for Cyclingnews.com during the Amgen Tour of Califoria, so please follow along as the Jamis / Sutter Home team tries to make waves racing against those stinky Euros! (just kidding Euros, I'm sure you shower regularly...and use a healthy amount of hair gel and cologne to boot!)

Racing Update

It's been awhile since my last race update! ;-)
I've gotten some emails and such about posting a race schedule, etc. Not really sure what kind of racing schedule I'm going to have but I list what I've got so far:
Apr. 2, Louisville Crit - 1st place I'll spare you the race report only to say that it wasn't a bunch sprint like the results timing suggests.
Apr. 10, Mead Roubaix
Apr. 16, Haystack ITT & TTT
Apr. 17, Air Force RR
Apr. 23, Deer Trail?
Apr. 27-May 1, Tour of the Gila??

That's what is on the docket for now. I'll try to update the blog as things progress. Thanks for the support!

3 things...

on the agenda today:
A) Please check out this ESPN interview by Bonnie Ford. She's bright and knowledgeable about cycling and thus asks good questions.

B) Taken directly from the letter from USADA, citing the reasons for my reduction (first 3 reasons are related to the people that I put them in contact with):
"Fourth, the fact that the substance likely at issue in Mr. Zirbel's positive test, DHEA, likely does not continue to provide a performance enhancing benefit and the fact that Mr. Zirbel undertook substantial efforts to identify the source of his positive which may have been caused by a contaminated nutritional supplement."
Holy shit! They really said that I MAY not be a cheater. Yippee!

C) Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the positive and encouraging emails, texts, and phone calls this past week. It means sooo much to me.

Rewrite

Um well...so I guess I have some good news. Turns out I can race this year due to a string of random events that played out starting last October. Remember when I lamented on this blog a few months back about Di Luca because he got a reduction in sanction for providing details of his doping practices? And then I said something to the effect of "if only I had actually doped or had knowledge of dopers, I too could get a reduction". Well, at some point after that rant I met with a person who had incriminating knowledge of a suspected doper and I eventually helped convince that person to approach USADA with that information. USADA found that information so useful that they decided to reduce my sanction because of it.
The other crucial part to this puzzle is the onset of a new program started at the CU - Boulder Law School by USOC ombudsman John Ruger. It's a program where law students can take on real cases of athletes battling doping violations but who don't have the money to hire legal representation. I was their first case, and under the tutelage of Professor Andy Hartman, they helped me use the information that I could provide USADA for my benefit. Without their help, I'm sure I would have still tried to convince that person to help USADA but my situation would be unchanged. I'm convinced of this because this is the 2nd time that I've done this for USADA since my sanction began and the first time I simply put them in touch with the person who had the information with no discussions about how it should benefit me. This time, my CU team helped convince me to 'play the game'.
Yes, I agree that this has absolutely nothing to do with me and I'm don't really think it merits a reduction in sanction. But I'd like to think that USADA is beginning to realize that I'm not a dirty cheat. I think that they've talked to a lot of people both clean and dirty who all think that mine is a case of unintentional ingestion. I'd like to think that this was their way of getting me a reduction on a technicality. However, I'm probably full of shit. I think that I ultimately just saved them some money and potentially losses and they want to encourage others to do what I've done.
In citing the reasons for my reduction, they said that coming forth with information took 'courage'. I was a little offended by that. Every clean rider that I know of wants nothing more than for all of the cheaters to get caught and the punishment that they deserve. There is nothing courageous about wanting a clean sport. It's actually a selfish endeavor. I don't want anyone who is taking shortcuts to beat me or any of my friends. The reality is that I would have given them the information regardless of whether it directly benefited me or not - the same as any other athlete out there who is doing things the right way would do.
It's a crazy world. I'm going to make the most of this opportunity. The 2011 season was previously taken away from me so now anything positive that happens from this moment on is a gift.

Traction

I thought this Washington Post piece that was linked from the Velonews site was nice to see. The fact that people are starting to raise questions about the anti-doping system in place is encouraging. Without inadvertent ingestion due to contamination or use of non-performance enhancing recreational drugs, USADA doesn't have much to point to.
I understand the importance of having a deterrent, but Tygart and co. see no need to make the distinction between intentional cheaters and the other 50% of athletes who they sanction.
The reality (and pessimistic view) that I'm beginning to hold is that if you want to cheat, you are going to be able to stay one step ahead of the anti-doping authorities and get away with it unless you screw up or really screw up.
It's not all gloom and doom, I guess. Paper trails seem to be an effective way to catch cheaters after the fact (Operation Puerto, Papp List, etc.). And then there's the cutting edge tests that some of the cheaters may not know about until it's too late (Cera in 2008 and plasticizer test in 2011?).
I guess this is my question: is WADA really an effective deterrent to cheating if the dopers know that they can get away with it if they're careful enough? And how effective of a deterrent does USADA and WADA need to be in order to justify the roughly 50% (if you believe that statistic) sanction rate of inadvertent 'cheaters' that test positive for something that in all likelihood had no effect on their performance?
Maybe we should spend more time and energy into changing the culture of doping in sports being as the current drug testing is seemingly so ineffective. Of course there are always going to be cheaters and D-bags in every profession but if we could minimize that from within, build trust that the guy or gal next to you is clean, we might be able to effectively clean up sport. Maybe I'm naive, but I still believe in people and I think that many athletes who choose the dirty road do so because they think the person next to them is doing the same thing, and they justify it to themselves accordingly.
How could we possibly change the culture and build trust? Start with strong leadership to get the message out. Team leaders sitting down to talk with the young guys/gals on the team. Leaders of the sport saying 'enough is enough' and abolishing the omerta. Communication between athletes, management, and anti-doping authorities. I think that we're starting to see this in cycling, but I hope that it's taken up a notch.
I don't know if this is the answer or even the right path or not. Just seems like we can do better.

Poor Fella

I couldn't resist posting this story brought to my attention by Betts. Ouch! 10 whole games!?! Granted, he probably will lose more money in 10 games than I will have lost in 2 years...
I could be wrong here but basketball is an Olympic sport and should be held to the WADA Code, right? Let me know your thoughts on the matter.

Oooohray

Rebecca and I spent a weekend in Ouray, CO recently and there was a lot of "ooooh"ing and "aaaaahh"ing going on. The oohs were for the up close and personal mountains surrounding the tiny town and the aahs were for the time we spent in the natural hot springs in the area.
Really, pictures don't do it justice so if you haven't been and you find yourself in the same timezone, it's worth experiencing. Ouray is primarily known as an ice climber's paradise in the winter but we're not quite that hard core (and don't have the gear) so we just gawked at them for a bit. However, we did experience first hand how much snow the area has received by trudging upward through trails that hadn't been traversed in weeks. Even with snowshoes, it was typically knee deep or greater. It took us over 2 hours of huffing and puffing to make it 2 miles up the trail. At that point, we decided some hot springs action was in order and so flipped it and headed down.
It's called the Switzerland of the U.S. for obvious reasons seen from the pics below. Also, of constant debate during the trip was the correct pronunciation of the town: Is it Yer-ray or maybe Ooh-Ray? I chose Oower-ray because I think it deserves an extra syllable.

Our accommodations for the weekend. Livin Large!












Ouray was originally a mining town so there are several abandoned mine shafts on the surrounding trails.

The Giving Game

I'm not good at Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love the pretty lights, the trees, the cookies, the music and the Holiday quaffs. But I'm usually really bad at buying Christmas presents. And it's not that I don't like giving people things, I think it's that I really have a hard time buying for someone something that will rarely or never get used. It's tough. Most people in this country have everything they need and most things that they want (within reason). I suppose I should be 'showing' my love and doing my part to stimulate the economy...but I still have a hard time with this game.
This year, my dad came to visit us in Boulder the week before Christmas and brought me some really nice Christmas gifts. And what did I get him this year? Well, I picked up the tab at dinner one night because I didn't want to play the game. Lame. And now I'm feeling guilty even though I know he doesn't mind one bit. So here is my solution to this dilemma:
Dad, I bought you a bike. You'll never get to ride this bike that I bought for you and probably will never see it either. But know that your bike is going to help a lot of people in Zambia. This 'community' bike in Zambia will help multiple people get to and from work and school much faster and more efficiently. World Bicycle Relief was just named one of the best not-for-profit organizations in terms of amount good done per dollar donated. I really believe it will be an effective gift/donation.
My only regret is that I can't put Z-Man on the down tube of the bike. Merry Christmas!

Hut Trip

I decided that I needed to post something to replace the negativity and drama from the last post.
Rebecca and I went on a hut trip near Vail with some friends last weekend. We had beautiful weather and a fun time so I wanted to share some photos:
photo taken by Dawn near our hut.












photo by Rebecca











photo by Rebecca from inside the hut.

Justice!

Well, I have to admit that I've been a little down in the dumps lately. I've known that this WADA Code that rules over cycling and other sports is unfair at times but this latest example is down right ridiculous.
Recently two Arbitration decisions have been ruled on. One was with LaShawn Merritt, a 400m runner that has represented the USA in the Olympics. He was found to have DHEA in his system during his off season in the Fall of 2009. He took his case to arbitration and he proved that he ingested the DHEA unknowingly through the supplement ExtenZe. We've probably all seen the late night annoying commercials for ExtenZe. Haha, right? Well, I'm not laughing. I feel so badly for this guy who made a stupid decision but had no intention of cheating. Of course, Extenze spikes their product with DHEA so it's not on the label. And from what little I understand about dietary supplements - that's perfectly okay! DHEA won't harm anyone (it won't help them either but that's a different issue)...oh, except for elite athletes who are responsible for everything that goes in their bodies. As if we all have mass spectrometers in our basement so we can check compositions of everything we consume. Granted, Extenze isn't exactly a reputable company that anyone in their right mind would trust but no one is denying that he made a stupid decision. To me, this is the key point of the case - excerpt taken from the Arbitration ruling found on the USADA website:
"At his hearing, Mr. Merritt proved two things beyond a reasonable doubt, (i) he tested positive as a result of ingesting the product ExtenZe, he purchased at a 7-Eleven store, and (ii) he did not purchase this product to enhance his sports performance. His evidence was so convincing that after his submission the USADA agreed that Mr. Merritt's positive tests were caused by ExtenZe."
Okay, so USADA admits that he took it accidentally with no intent to cheat. We also know that the scientific evidence of the performance enhancing benefits of DHEA are inconclusive at best. So, in light of these facts what did the panel decide? They decided to reduce his sentence from 24 months to 21 months. A whopping 3 month reduction for a guy who took something that was mis-labeled in his offseason which likely helped him athletically in no way. Wow. I bet USADA feels all warm and fuzzy about that one.
Next up we have the recent CONI deal with the Danilo Di Luca case. Admittedly, I don't know anything about this case than what I read in the headlines. But here is the story in Velonews. So let me recap, Di Luca won a bunch of races and in particular finished 2nd on GC in the Giro in 2008 on CERA, the next generation EPO that didn't have an approved test until about the time he got caught. Well, Di Luca realized he couldn't beat the charges so decided he'd detail to the anti-doping authorities his doping methods. This disclosure was enough to get him a reduction from 24 months to 15 months. An admitted cheater, who won races 'doped to the gills' as they say, gets 15 months. And what did Di Luca have to say about it?
“I gave no names. I did it for (the good of) cycling, not to point the finger at any cyclists. I explained the methods (of doping). My decision to speak was above all to help educate the youth.”
Translation: "I'm not a narc! I didn't roll on anyone, I promise! I did it...I did it for the kids! Yep, it was all for the kids. Oh, and being able to race (and get paid a shit load of money) in 2011 may have played a small part in my admission."
That's our anti-doping system in a nutshell. If only I were an actual doper with knowledge of methods, suppliers, and other dopers - I too, could possibly get a reduction. Bummer, I guess I'll just have to sit out my 2 years.

Summer in Pics

Labor Day Weekend = official end of summer. ugh. Here are some pics documenting some activities one can enjoy when not racing their bike EVERY weekend! :)
Top of Mt. Audubon (13,000+ft) in May. We hiked in waist deep snow at times!










Randomly ran into college bud Brock and fam in Estes Park when my mom was in town.










Rebecca straddling a rock in Boulder Canyon











CL Class of '97 representin RAGBRAI!











Sally, Rebecca, and I at the summit of Mt. Elbert, 14,400 ft. and the 2nd highest point in the continuous 48 States.











On the way up to the summit of Mt. Elbert










Hydration!











Rebecca finishing her 1st ever Duathlon!

Next Up

This is a busy weekend with the Grand Opening of the FasCat Performance Center on Saturday and a trail running race that I'm doing on Sunday. The Grand Opening will start (of course) with the showing of the Tour on the bigscreen, but we'll have events all day capping it off with "happy hour" at 4p.
Sunday is the Barr Trail Mountain Race. 12.6 miles total up and down the same narrow trail. It nets over 3600' to the halfway point - Barr Camp situated at 10,200 ft above sea level. Betts has assured me that he doesn't walk any portion of it but I'm skeptical. And then on the way down, it is as fast as you can go without eating s#!t on one of the many switchbacks. Should be fun! Apparently they have a competition after the race awarding medals to the top 3 bloodiest runners from falls on the way down. They're a sick lot.
It should be a fun weekend...if I don't get too carried away with the FasCat 'Happy Hour' on Saturday!

Announcement

Being as the Tour Day France is upon us and teams are announcing their exciting new sponsors, I thought I should hold my own private press conference to announce my new sponsor (employer): FasCat Coaching. Many of you know that Frank Overton has coached me in the past and helped me achieve the results that landed my first pro contract. Well, over the years Frank and I have spent many hours in intense 'business meetings' discussing all things cycling over the local breweries' finest. And recently, in lieu of racing due to my current unforeseen situation, Frank took me on as an apprentice coach with his business FasCat Coaching. I have been at it for a couple of months now and I am having fun being part of the team. FasCat just opened a new Performance Center in Boulder on N. Broadway so that has been really exciting as well. If you're local make sure you stop in, say hello, and check out the new digs. We have a lot of cools things going on including live coverage of the Tour everyday in HD on the big screen! I plan to be there every morning drinking coffee and screaming at the T.V.
So that's what's new with me. I have been riding quite a bit but still no real 'training'. I have a 13 mile trail running race coming up in 2 weeks so I've been trying to half-heartedly prepare for that. I've been managing to get those competitive outlets in here and there for sanity purposes. But now that I'm a coach, I may just try to live through the athletes I'm working with!

Chamois Time!

I finished. Woo hoo! I lined up in Bailey, CO at 6 a.m. on Saturday with 150 of my closest Off-roadie friends for my first mountain bike event ever. My furthest mountain bike training ride to that point had been a 24 mile, 3 hour ride with Andy Brannon from Trips for Kids. Unprepared perhaps? Yes. But I had a game plan: I was going to simply 'survive' the singletrack sections all the while consuming so many calories and salty fluids that I could survive double that distance if I had to.
And it was a good plan. But. Turns out my tummy doesn't like to have oatmeal and coffee shoved into it at 4:30a. It was so unhappy, in fact, that I was 3 hours into the race before I could start drinking normally and eat anything at all. At that point, as they say, the damage had been done. I was already behind the 8 ball and trying desperately to make up my fluid and electrolyte deficit. I will also add that the 40 miles of singletrack in the race comes in the first 53 miles. That means that beginner Tommy was so busy death-gripping his handlebars and trying not to die that he probably wouldn't have eaten much anyway. Okay, that's enough 3rd person blogging for today. So, when I exited the last singletrack section at mile 53, I was already starting to get that 'ghoulish' look when all the hours of evaporated sweat on my skin leaves behind a salty residue that just keeps getting thicker and thicker as the hours pass by. But I was so overjoyed to be able to pedal unencumbered on a road that I carried on. However, about midway up the massive 20 mile climb that starts at mile 70, I began to crack hard. I'll try to give you a visual: we're on a one lane gravel road that climbs and climbs and climbs all the while surrounded by burnt out trees (there was a massive fire in the area a few years ago) without a cloud in the sky. Hot, dusty, exposed, searing are a few adjectives that come to mind. At one point I found an evergreen tree that produced a minimal amount of shade and planted myself beneath it for 5-10' while I watched racers go by and tried to force electrolyte drink down my gullet. Okay, get back on the horse - I knew I had 2-3 hours ahead of me still so I might as well get it over with. For the next hour or so I continued to struggle while climbing on and taking a drink every time I felt that my stomach could keep it down. At about 15 miles to go, my body started to rally a little, going from completely worthless to mostly worthless but the improvement was much appreciated.
I finished with little ado but not before the organizer played a nasty trick on us and made us do a 15% hidden gravel track climb just before the finish. Grrrr. I would hate to have gotten an audio recording of the filth that came out of my mouth during that little climb!
So, Frank Overton from FasCat Coaching let me borrow his Garmin Edge 500 for the race so I have an elevation profile and route from the race. I started the Garmin about a half mile late but made up for it by going off course for about the same distance (if you look closely at the map, you can see where I took a right at around mi 38 and then flipped it when I figured out I was off course).
Here's the Garmin info.
Post Race thoughts:
That was the longest (by time) ride of my life at 8:11.
46 psi tire pressure is too high for a mountain bike race.
I had about 2000 calories of food still in my pockets at the finish (bad sign).
I don't know that I've ever been beaten by over 90' in a race before (JHK in 6:37)
Mountain biking is hard. Oh, and I think I finished 25th. And when I start to feel sorry for myself, I think about my friend Sarai who had the determination to still finish 13 hours after starting! Wow, that's a long day. Good job Sarai.
THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to our fundraising efforts. I haven't gotten a final tally but I've heard I was in the running for the highest fundraiser in the whole race! Also, a thank you to all of the volunteers and course marshals for the race. Everyone was so helpful and smiley that it made that death march a little more tolerable.
100 mile mountain bike race: check.

Full Steam Ahead

Quick Hundo Training Update: 3 rides, 2 crashes.
I am now the proud owner of a 29er mountain bike. I've taken it out on two rides so far and have only crashed once. Not a bad percentage for me. It is a ton of fun and I've been riding the trails with a perma-smile. I can't wait to explore some new trails.
The fundraising for Trips For Kids Denver/Boulder has been going great as well. With the donation of my old mountain bike (est. $200?), I believe nearly $1000 has been raised so far for my Bailey Hundo Charity Ride/Race! In no small part due to General CB Lee's generous donation for the ride. Sir, thank you Sir! If you'd like to help get us into the quadruple digits, please go to the Bailey Hundo website and click on "Donate", then I guess just mention my name in the comment section. Thank you to everyone who has helped out.
And um, regarding my comments on this Landis drama - these are just my beliefs/opinions and you should treat them as such. I've never seen anyone dope in my life and I'm by no means an expert just because I'm serving a suspension. I just believe that doping in cycling was the norm a few years ago but also that it is the exception now. I may be wrong on both accounts for all that I know, but this is what I believe based on all that I've seen and heard over the years. There's my disclaimer.
Thanks for following.

My Thoughts

It's usually bad policy for me to react to something that I'm passionate about before sitting on it and having a think. But that's what is going to happen now, so you've been warned:
I think Floyd Landis is a good person who f'ed up. I believe the content of those emails is truthful and accurate. I think he's probably doing this out of a combination of guilt and unfairness. Guilt because he brought too many good and honest people along with his lies. And the unfairness is that too many other cheaters are getting away with it while leading happy and successful lives. His happiness and success were taken away from him and while that in itself may be fair, it's completely unfair and arbitrary that others of the same ilk or still being worshiped as heroes. So, how can I see him as a good person? Because I can see how the sequence of events could lead to him making the decision to dope. If he had successful, charismatic people mentoring him and showing him the ropes, it's easy to see how he would follow that path, especially when you consider that it may have been the 'norm' in that era. If everyone you are racing against is doping, is it still cheating? Cheating means getting an unfair advantage - what if you're just trying to level the playing field? These arguments are nothing new and I'm not condoning his actions, but I can understand how it happened and I don't think that every doper is a POS. Most are, though. :) Especially now when it seems as though cycling is making a concerted effort to clean up the sport.
So what are my emotions this morning?
Anger. I'm pissed (like Landis) that people are out there cheating (or have cheated) and racing their bikes and having successes. I'm angry that I am sitting here at home in my athletic prime and not in Italy or California racing though I never knowingly cheated in my life.
Fear. I'm worried about our sport. How is this going to affect sponsorship? How will cycling be viewed by the masses? Will people realize that doping is rampant in EVERY sport where significant money is at stake but that cycling goes further than perhaps any other sport to rid cheaters from the ranks?
Pride. I'm proud of the fact that I have achieved all that I did with a clean body and conscience. Who knows how many people who have beaten me over the years have done so dirty. However, I have thought about the possibility that whatever was found in my system did illegally enhance my performance but then I think about the facts surrounding my test. Tour of Utah TT victory, negative urine test - 8 days later USPro TT I was blown out of the water, pos. urine test. I don't think there was much performance enhancement happening that day.
So there you go. That's my reaction to the latest scandal to hit our wonderful sport. My stomach has been in knots all morning thinking about it and part of me hopes that Landis will be shooed aside as a disgruntled, lying cheater. That way we can go on thinking that the world is just and fair - that those who cheat get caught and those who don't get to go for the glory.