It was a speedy & treacherous weekend, racing the Raleigh Downtown Twilight Crit, and BikeJam crit. BikeJam was a hot, but sun-shiny day, and I worked hard to cover as many moves as I could. I was surprised that I could recover so quickly and go again- I had lots of good-juice Saturday. There were a couple of shady local riders in the race... Todd calls 'em "riff-raff." I told one dude to "get your shit together, man!", and he replied "i'm tired, i can't." Hmmmm, yea, I guess that happens. Bozo. We all start out as riff-raff, so it's cool.

This is a photo from the Raleigh race:

Photo credits go to Charles Herskowitz- who no only took over 100 photos in the dark pouring rain- he took excellent photos. (http://snortingbull.smugmug.com) Check out those calves on Emile Abraham- they're bigger than that in person. Goodness gracious.

About 85 guys lined up in Raleigh and blasted right from the gun. I am working on my handling in crits, and positioning... so I made my race staying at the front. That was my race, period. For the first 10 miles I never got further back than probably about 20th wheel. It's easy to race when you're focusing on one goal... like staying at the front and covering moves. But, anyway, then the rain came. Holy BUCKETS! It started thunderstorming and there were HUUUUUGE puddles in the corners and no one could see very well. I was a little too timid in some of the corners and was caught behind a field split, and ended up 30th, the last paying spot. Tyler and Gus got 8th & 9th, though- scrappy tough dudes.

Seriously... crits in the dark and pouring rain with 8 corners... they suck. Wicked.

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Yes!!!!

It's the Ian's Fascinating Cycling History page!

Your question, "why am I reading this?" is only answered by my response to the question "why did you write this?"

Enjoy!

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No one disputes that diet is a crucial part of your training & performance. Supplements are part of a diet. Sure, you don't need to supplement, but from what I've learned from numerous nutritionists and top-level athletes, proper supplementation can give a huge boost in health and performance. But be educated about it.

Some supplements give an acute, short-term ergogenic effect. For example, simple energy supplements, properly formulated electrolytes, B-vitamins, recovery mixes with added antioxidants & aminos, or l-arginine & l-citrulline before racing/training. There are many examples of supplements that can be taken that give results right away.

The goals of long-term supplementation are much more significant, however. The human body makes new cells every day. Your skin is replaced ever 2 weeks, your blood every 3 months, and most muscle cells every 6 months. When your body makes these new cells, it makes them with the nutrients present in your body. If you're lacking something... a trace mineral, an amino acid, an enzyme, a vitamin... that new cell may lack nutrients. Wouldn't that suck to produce sub-optimal cells because of a lacking diet? Athletes need to constantly supply their body with the whole gamut of nutrients, because you are what you eat. Deficiencies are often overlooked because it is difficult to measure the 'intracellular' nutrient levels. Instead, people get blood tests to measure the extracellular levels of nutrients, which often don't reflect the body's real nutritional status. Don't run the risk.

All that being said, I am a huge advocate of supplementing a wide range of nutrients, on top of a good ol' fashioned wholesome diet. I take a lot of supplements. Most are not only for athletic performance, but rather for general health and longevity.



I recently met and went for a ride with Charlottesville resident Robert Kunz, a founder of First Endurance. (www.firstendurance.com) I learned a lot from him, including that 1- he and his staff are extremely knowledgeable, and 2- they put the science first and the marketing second. I am excited for their company, and in particular their Optygen product. Optygen is one of those long-term supplements that eventually has a profound effect on performance. Without a doubt, it is a product worth trying for a few months. Trust me!

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Tri-Peaks NRC last weekend. Lots of driving, lots of HOT, lots of loot, lots of toot.

Order audio CD's to learn French in car, but they don't arrive before trip: $37.73
Car A/C Repair not completed in time for trip: $1042.84
Caffeine tablets to stay alive on I-40: $4.99
Making a round trip of 1922mi to Russellville, AK: $247
Sausage Egg McMuffin, Sticky Bun, & Fruit Parfait: $5.65
About 10 beef tacos from El Huerta: $12.54
3 vanilla milkshakes at McDonalds: $4.00
New Asian Salad at McDonalds: $5.49
Getting 3rd on stage 3 and brawlin' with the big-dads: $200
Todd Herriott's mind-blowing car-trip commentary & pukat: priceless
cyclingnews.com completely omitting your result in your first NRC podium: priceless
(the full results have been posted, now, actually, but it's still fun!)



Todd got 4th overall- delicious. Zak worked. Christoph needs a rest-week, but attacked the peloton many times. Maybe some locals will think twice about shopping at Walgreens. Overall, the weekend was successful. None of us really were very psyched about Arkansas... nor was anyone else I spoke to in the peloton... but the roads and scenery were quite nice, and a quality field of about 140 riders.

Herriot is hanging around in C'Ville for the week, then this weekend is the Raleigh twilight crit, BikeJam, and Somerville. On my agenda this week is to replace the spark plugs in my car, change my oil, have a picnic with Herby, and recharge the batts.

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Arkansas is adventureland... a vacation paradise for thrillseekers of all ages.

See the world's largest boat propeller. Then nearly smash two bikes on your roof rack into it.


Fulfill your spiritual pilgrimage:


Throw back a few with Keith the drunk guy at the Best Value Inn (that's my teammate Brad pictured here, along with Keith's special friend, Donna):


Yeah this is awesome, and we're just hangin' here between the Joe Martin stage race and the Tri-Peaks stage race. Speaking of the bike race, Zach rocked 13th on GC in Joe Martin. I basically got DROPPED, several times. Ouch. Time for an ultra-focused enduro-training block. Coming up soon...

Tonight we threw together an awesome dinner in the hotel room. Rotiserie chicken, baked beans, and brocoli that we boiled in my electric kettle. Eat your heart out, Kenny Rogers!


Ian's been resting in Charlottesville this week, but soon he'll join me here in Arkansas for Tri-Peaks. I miss you!

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Click it. (a QuickTime movie will load, ~2.5 MB)



View the poster in full size

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Nasal allergies bothering you?



Make sure to use your Netipot after every ride!

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Recess time!!! Time to take a few days easy and do anything but think about bike racing. 11 races in 12 days- fatigue. The first thing I did when I got home from was make a to-do list. (my favourite thing to do- thanks Dad) It included about 30 bulleted items, topping the list was writing what I learned from all the travel/racing... recording all of the little tacit things that could make racing easier/better in the future. Stupid stuff like more efficient ways to pack my race stuff, a better material on which to write names & numbers of riders to mark in the race for my bike, remember to pack Colavita products to give to the wonderful host-housing family... etc.

Beginning category racers should write down all the stuff they learned or could improve after each race weekend. It's a great goal to have everything dialed so that the sole focus prior to the race should be the race. I am compiling a "compilation" of such nonsense, to be titled "Ian's Anal Race Prep Tips." Please be kind while commenting.

Since I was rollin' solo @ Gila, I wanted to make sure that I had enough H20 for the long, dry road stages. To I took a tip from Rogmaster-flex and devised an ingenious way of hiding a Camelbak like bladder in the back of my jersey. It involved $10 , a Korean woman, and a huge decrease in my pro-ness:



One of the joys of New Mexico: Your clothes dry in about 9 seconds out on the ol' line.



I was so fortunate to stay with one of the great cycling hosts in the world. Cathy and Miriel were so great. Having volunteered for the the Tour of the Gila long before I was a bike racer, Cathy knew everything about the race. She had an energy for the race that just got me plain ol' excited. Miriel kept the great piano music flowing, and sent me on a trip down memory lane to my 1 month of piano lessons. She also made this awesome card, which is both genious and disturbing:



I travelled out to Gila with the female side of the Huffdrea. She bought the rental car to drive from Tucson to Silver City... cause I'm still under 25 I could drive it. But, Andrea left the race early, and I had to drive the car back myself to Tucson. No problem... just don't crash or get pulled over. Well, I rolled into Tucson safely and tooled arond the city because I'd never been there. I filled up the gas tank, and rolled to the airport, an hour & a half early. Then, at a stoplight in front of the entrance to the Arizona Air National Guard, ONLY 1.5 miles to the entrance to the airport, the car died. The freaking car died. In the middle of the intersection in front of the National Guard... with all the fancy military gates and stuff. The gate guard miliary dudes came running out like I was going to detonate a bomb in my Dodge Caravan. Fortunately, a Border Patrol car pulled up behind me and pushed my minivan safely out of the intersection. With my cell-phone mostly dead (it was mostly dead all day ;) ) I finally got through to Enterprise and pretented to be a Czech dude named Andrea, and they sent this car to bring me to the airport.



I boarded my plane with about 7 seconds to spare. It was an epic hour of my life that this blog does not do a justice too.

Let see what else could I waste your reading time with? Oh yea, I took the ol' Outback to the mechanic today to get a new A/C compressor installed... ouch, $1000- but well worth the indebtedness it will cause me. I didn't feel like riding today, so I decided to do my errands around town in my rollerblades in the pouring rain. Gosh I miss roller hockey at the park!!!!

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I'm eating cold meat loaf from a zip-lock bag. So delicious. I've just taken off my shoes here at the Luxury Inn, somewhere along interstate 40 in eastern arkansas. It turns out the Luxury Inn was $10 cheaper than the America's Best Value Inn. You can really find some great deals if you shop around, folks.

It's been a long dag-gone drive. Zach and I left C'ville at 8am this morning, and we've been steady ballin' in my trusty Saturn SL2 all day. Tennessee is an absurdly long state. It's shaped like a sloppy parallelogram and we crossed it from the top right to the bottom left. The 9-hour way.


My right foot got really tired of pressing on the gas pedal, so I spent awhile driving with my left foot on the gas. Feels totally wierd. Zach is an awesome travelbuddy, but sometimes I need to do something special to keep my sanity on the road. So I do things like crouching down real low and peaking out through the hole in the steering wheel. And observing the raindrops blow incredibly daintily across my freshly Rain-X'ed windshield. And eating spicy pepperoni sticks.

And pondering really important questions about life.

Dear readers, what does the word "kansas" mean? Why is the word kansas used in the names of 2 different states? That's like, 4% of US states contain the word kansas in their name. (FYI, those states are Kansas and Arkansas).

Thank you.

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While Ian's been throwing down with Gila monsters in New Mexico, I've been eating lots of fruit and tooling around Virginia.

The Zach went up to Poolesville Maryland where he won a bike race on Sunday. I stayed home, rode leisurely through Fluvanna County, and made a fruit smoothy with a hot babe. It's all part of a carefully planned preperation for the NRC onslaught that's right around the corner. It takes focus and discipline to achieve the perfect RS/PC ratio (Raspberry Sherbet : Peach Chunks).

Amdist all this hard work, the Zach and I found time to deliberate over the Superhero contest. We've narrowed it down to 5 extraordinary characters. Check it:

http://zerailleur.com/blog/archives/38

Support Democracy. Be Awesome. Vote Today.

Speaking of awesome, check out my sister:


she rocks, and she's going to Senegal next week.

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No, I didn't topple the 105.7 mile, 9,131 foot tall "Gila Monster" with Excalibur. I did, however, give him an unpleasant wetness in his ear.

5th place on stage 5 is probably my biggest result to date!
http://www.tourofthegila.com/2006race/day5mens1.html

It has been a really hard 2 weeks! I can't wait to get back home and do something not bike-related. Like waxing my car, or perhaps, going to see Marlo and getting a haircut. I am approaching mullet-status.

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The Tour of the Gila is a bicycle race in New Mexico. Presently, I am in it. However, some might argue that I'm not racing at all, given the shoddy results. It's true, I am not actually racing. I am a spectator who happens to be in the bike race. I am using the stages as recovery rides from the Tour of Shenandoah, which I'm totally blown out from. While I probably didn't need to fly to the southwest to do 100 mile recovery rides in the hills, it has been a great experience anyway. Maybe I will have legs on the final day, the Gila Monster 100+ mile road race with massssive climbs. Perhaps not. One fact remains... I really like ice cream, and sleeping. Actually, two facts.

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no... not that kind of de-briefing, you pervert.


So the Tour of Shenandoah wrapped up super-tight. Rite Aid rolled home with the sprint jersey, the climber's jersey, and we rocked a stage win in the final crit. Ian fought a long battle to finish a solid 10th place overall. The ganglier of the 2skinnpros is riding super strong right now. I'm glad I'm not in New Mexico trying to hold his wheel on the climbs at Gila. (he says he rode "rediculously easy" in the opening time trial, which hopefully explains why 47 girls beat his time).

Check out some Shenandoah pics taken by two of the hottest new cycling photogs:

Bill McCarrick (http://cvillebike.com/photos/main.php) took this one:


and Jason Watson (www.wahoosportspics.com) pulled the trigger on this baby:


Right now I'm taking a little hiatus from the travel routine. I've been chillin' at the monestary with my new roomies Zach and P-Biz. After roughing it in Patagonia for a few months, the Biz is making himself quite comfortable:


Today I was the ultimate housewife. I cleaned my kitchen with orange-fresh dissinfectant, I did a megaload of laundry, I took some clothes to the tailor to get alterred, and I worked in the garden for 2 hours. I planted basil, mint, chives, and gloria astilbe. Shazzam!

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alright. chill out, people! I told Ian that his last post was mighty cheezy. It looks like something from any other www.iamsuchacoolbikeracer.com website.

It wasn't fun, but let's put the past behind us. The conversation felt like house-training a young puppy. When Fluffy poops indoors you have to rub his nose in it, and then hopefully he'll understand what isn't cool. However you can't keep on being angry at Fluffy.



*Merlin is the greatest.

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I got 10th overall at the Tour of Shenandoah! While, sure, I could have done better if I was racing for myself or if I made it into a key break or two, I consider the race a complete success. Christoph and I got so much local support, it was amazing. Thanks everyone!

About 3 days before the start of the race, I got in a TT bike from Felt: the coveted B2. I built it up, rode it once, then raced it twice in the TOS. I am absolutely sure that I wouldn't have hung on to the top 10 GC spot if it weren't for the Felt B2. A big thanks to Beverly at Felt- she's quite possibly the most energetic and on-the-ball groovy chicks in the bike industry. And she's on Colavita/Sutter Home's side. Thanks FELT. Here's a foto of your time blaster on the new FELT B2 rig.


Photo by Jason Watson.
* note: leg muscles are larger than they appear

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