Tour of America's Dairylands Intro and Part 1! (First 4 days, including a top 10 on day 4)

Tour of America’s Dairylands. The first 4 days!

Furry Friends! 

There are not many racers that I know of that do now know of the 10 days of racing that go on in the Milwaukee area during the month of June. Back in the day these races were known as Superweek, and typically brought in the best road racers and crit racers to compete in back to back 100km crits on courses in the surrounding towns across the greater Milwaukee area. Today the races are known as the Tour of America’s Dairylands, or TOAD.

Party on the Hill! (Tulsa Tough Day 3)

WAIT, This is in Tulsa OK??

I cannot think of another criterium in the country as iconic as day three of Tulsa tough. Also known as Cry Baby Hill. Although the course is not too technical, it does offer its own unique characteristics to challenge the riders. Every lap involves sprinting up a short but steep hill (CBH) into a mosh pit of spectators, and then immediately come down through the start finish. Rinse and repeat.

What makes the race so unique is the party at the top of the hill. The whole city comes out every year to drink, dance, and party, all while a peloton of riders races through the middle of the group. The party on the hill starts early in the morning as the races begin. As the beer, liquor, and dehydration start to set in throughout the day, the party reaches maximum intensity by the time to pro men and pro women go off to end the weekend of races.

Day 2 of Tulsa Tough! GIANT Team effort helps Tristan Take 6th and Move up to 7th in Overall

#BlueSteel 

With my elbow bandaged up, I eagerly went to the start line of the second day of Tulsa tough. Earlier than morning the team had a little photo shoot with Lee McDaniel and we were looking forward to not only looking good off the bike, but also looking good on the bike and in race mode. Rolling into the race for the second day of Tulsa the squad would be Scott V, Beau E, Tristan U, and myself. In years past I have always seemed to have a better performance on the second day of Tulsa and with the crash still fresh on my mind, I knew it was not going to take much to improve upon yesterday’s race.

Heading into the race the team plan was to help Tristan get the result. With his finish yesterday, he grabbed some points for the overall. It was the job of the rest of the team to help Tristan not only stay safe and in a good position, but to also do whatever it takes to help him extend his overall.

Tulsa Tough Friday Night! Saddly an early crash messed with my Mojo. Pack finish.

When you can's slide in her DM's... so you decied to jump in head first!

VIDEO OF CRASH: Vid of Crash

There is no other race in the country that I cannot think of that has changed the way I viewed P1 racing in my life as much as Tulsa Tough has. The first year I did Tulsa would be 2010 where I raced the 1/2 event. My next time would be in 2012 where I raced the P1. It was that year in 2012 where I was first exposed to how fast criterium races can be. I remember that as my first year as a category 1 racer, I was fresh off of graduating high school, and Tulsa Tough was going to be my first event of the summer to kick off my summer of racing.

OKC Day 3. 13th Place!!!

 

Off the Front!

The third and final day of OKC would be on a wide open dog leg course with a slight raise coming off of one of the late turns in the race before the turn into the final. Out of all the courses I’ve seen for the weekend this was the one that I was most excited about being part of. I was able to survey the course the night before at the pizza joint on turn one over some cheese, dough, and beer. Now it was time to take those calories and improve upon my two 15^th places and try to sneak into that top 10 if possible.

OKC Day 2, 15th place (again!)

IDK when this photo was taken, they all seem to blend in together. (OKC day 2 or 3)

Day 2 of okc was on a flat figure 8 course. It was a pretty tight course where all the turns were on fairly wide roads. I started near the front of the group based on what my teammates told me about how hard things were going to be to move up. I decided to save the effort and start near the front.

The start of the race was fast as Arapaho and Elbowz were eagerly trying to see how many riders they can send up the road in the first 20 mins. I slowly started to fade back from all the early attacks. I felt a little sluggish and I wanted to save more energy in the center of the pack. As the laps started to go down I looked up and saw Beau all over the front of the race. He was racing in the top 15 riders for the first half hour of the race. I started to move up to do my best to ride up there with Beau. As the two of us were up there Scott would come by and take some massive pulls on the front if we missed any sort of break of split in the field.

OKC PRO AM Day 1, 15th Place!

Spangle back at it again with the race pics!
oooo the start line artistry 

With the success of memorial weekend still fresh on everyone’s minds, we were ready to head up to Oklahoma for some crit racing. Unlike the races we have been doing all season, the OKC PRO AM was part of the PRT calendar (or the first day was) and was bringing in a higher caliber field. Although many of the team names were familiar, there was an added twist with several pairs of new and old faces toeing up to the start lines.

Big Team win at P1 Texas State Criterium Championships

Tristan Takes the win aboard his TCR Advanced

With the team firing on all cylinders after a very successful start to memorial weekend, it was time to rally our week’s earlier efforts and get someone on the top step of the P1 state Crit championships. I went into the race thinking that the course was going to be the same as the age based crit we did the day before. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the course was now a drivers course with 9 turns in just under a mile or so of racing.

As we lined up to the start line I remembered that this was going to be a 90 minute criterium. Although I am no stranger to a long crit, it has been some time since I did one this long. I was looking forward to attrition that was going to happen as the laps ticked down.

Texas Age Based State Crit Championships, Tristan takes second!

Fastest Stache in Texas!

With 2016 being my 10^th season it is also the first time I am racing outside of the u23 ranks, which meant my new age group is the 23-29 year olds. Although a bit older, it is great to see how long I have kept up with the sport. Sadly, I know more riders that started out as Jr’s and quite before getting past their u23s then riders that have kept it going. This sport has greatly shaped who I am as a person as well as the direction my life has taken with my friends, school and experiences.

Crit Theory (Frisco Crit) 4th place!

The Squad 

With the multiple races and the great success of GIANT Racing, these next few posts are going to be a bit on the shorter end of things.

The morning of the race had the chance to be a logistical nightmare. I was leaving my home at around 6:30am, needed to drive through Dallas to Flowermound to where I was staying (thank you JD, Tiffany and Jade!), build Sara’s bike, drive to airport to pick Sara up, and then head up North to Frisco with enough time for Sara to get ready for the women’s race.

Podium at Day 2 of the Battle of San Jacinto Criterium. 3rd Place!

3rd's the word

With Grant’s long flowing hair in my passenger seat, I knew I had the good luck charm I needed to get a better result at the second day of racing around the San Jacinto Monument. The two of us made sure to get some good breakfast tacos in before we drove through Houston’s energy district to the monument. With the second day of racing we were lucky to avoid the nasty storms that came in and became a factor for the early races that began before I left my bed.

The race for today had a lot of the similar starters from yesterday. Although the field was a bit smaller I knew who I needed to watch to get a result. This time however, the rest of GIANT racing went back home to the traffic and hoppy beer of Austin and I was flying solo for the races.

Battle of San Jacinto Day 1, 6th Place!

If you look good, you already won half the battle

The only plans I had before heading out to the race was to give my bike a good wash before heading out to the memorial. After I cleaned up the ol GIANT TCR, I glanced down at my watch and saw that I still had over 4 hours till the start of the race. I decided to use this free time and catch up with some Netflix before heading out to the races.

Once I finally made it out to the monument I was able to quickly spot my teammates with their bright neon green/yellow bikes. For the race today GIANT Racing was bringing four riders to the start line. Beau, Jonny, Scott, and myself.

Starting Summer Break with a Wet University Oaks

Third Place!

2016 has been the slowest start to a race season I have ever had. With my new found focus to put school over racing, along with many races being cancelled due to rain and flooding. I was coming into my summer break with about 10 mass starts and I was eager to get some race miles in before I head out to the bigger races a little further down the road.

That is when I decided to go the University Oaks Criterium in San Antonio. Uni Oaks is a race I am very familiar with, and always seemed to have good luck when I toed up to the start line. It was at University Oaks that I won my first ever 123 in 2011.

Ending the season with the Texas State Road Race

Still finishing in the top 10!

For those of you that missed the race report which was published back a few months ago in the Texas Racing Post Magazine, I am going to repost it here to my blog. Give it a read and let me know what you think. Unlike the magazine write up I have Sunday's race here.

After my 5th place finish at Chappell Hill, I found time for some consistent training and recovery. I made it through a heavy round of antibiotics and was finally able to breathe normally through my nose (my first time since being back home from Europe).

Up next was the Texas State Championships at Ft Hood, which is always an exciting time for me. I cannot think of a course that is better suited for my style of racing: long open roads exposed to the winds, plus a couple really steep long hills to break things up. The Ft. Hood Challenge  marked the end of a long hard season of racing (followed by tacos with the coach, at some place with some great fried avocados, to cap it off).

Heat and a Sinus Infection at Chappell Hill RR

A very rare field sprint at Chappell Hill
(Photo By Robert Spangle)

Going into my eighth edition of Chappell Hill (I’m a veteran of this race), I already harbored feelings of anger and frustration.  In 2012 – which happened to be my 19th birthday – I caught a flat right at the winning Move

of the Day. The follow vehicle was out-of-sight, and I angrily DNF’d as a result. In 2013, I flatted out in the first 12-miles, before the race even picked up speed. I chased hard after getting a wheel change, in vain. So I DNFed again…my second DNF in just as many years.

2014 would be a different – I was racing solo without teammates, but I also was fighting a bad lingering sinus infection I acquired a few weeks earlier in rainy Belgium. I knew if I had a chance of getting a top result here, I had to be smart and, more importantly, patient with my efforts. Both Texas teams Boneshaker and Super Squadra (SS) would be bringing fully stacked rosters to the race, each with several guys who had the ability to win the race. I knew that I was going to have to play off their efforts to be in the money.

Gateway Criterium Finals. USA Crits Individual and Team Win!

 

Standing on the podium felt great!

I had nothing but excitement and high ambitions to bring to Gateway Cup. Less then a week prior, I landed back home in Texas after a month of racing in Europe and I was eager to put my legs to the test against familiar faces. The Gateway Cup included 3 NCC days, the third NCC event being the final for the USA Criterium Series, and it concluded with a non-NCC event rounding out that weekend on Monday

Because of my class schedule (school just started, and it was already getting in the way of bike racing) I could only race Friday through Sunday. These were, however, the biggest and most important days of the week with the fastest competition to race agaisnt.



Arnhem-Veenendaal Classic 1.1

The course map

My final race in Europe would be the most prestigious of all the events on my calendar.  Arnhem-Veenendaal is a UCI 1.1 event that consists of nearly 130 miles of racing. The race starts in the city of Arnhem where we would do circuits in a major park before heading west to Veenendaal to finish the race. Unlike my other races during this Euro trip, the race organizers only allowed 6 riders per team. This cut down the number of overall race starters from the normal 200 racers to just 105. Also present would be three World Tours teams: Cannondale, Belkin, and Movistar. I had no idea what to expect for a race of this length with riders of such caliber.

Zottegem UCI 1.1 My first UCI race with some World Tour Talent

Since I have no pictures of Zottegem. Here's a photo in
Amsterdam!

Going into my first ever UCI 1.1, I had no idea what to expect. There was rain and cobbles on the horizon.  Many teams were eager to get their bit of glory, and with 205 starters, the talent rode deep into the peloton.  There was no telling how things were going to shake out.

Format of the race: a neutral rollout through town to showcase the peloton to the host city, a large 75 km loop which would include many long stretched out crosswind sections, a 4km cobbled road, and one cobbled climb that was part of the tour of Flanders this past year. This was then followed by several smaller laps closer to town which included a very narrow technical section at the end and start of each lap.

Getting the swing of things at the "Kermess World Championships"! (Huesden)

Chris in the break

Heading to our third race here in Belgium, the team was fully motivated to improve on our last efforts the UCI 1.2 race where we swam to the finish line, just a few days prior. Huesden (another pro kermess) has been known in the past as the “ World Championships of Kermess.”  It has a history of over 200 starters, several World Tour teams showing up and boosting full rosters, all on a fast smooth course. Unfortunately, due to other races that have grown in the area, such as Eneco Tour, the number of World Tour teams has declined over the years. Nonetheless, Lotto Belisol was fielding a small team of riders along with several other pro-conti guys.

Wind, Rain, and Cobbles Havenpijl 1.2

Brecht, myself, Clay, Chris, Max, Cortlan, Matt from left to right

Heading to the team’s second race here in Belgium, I did not know what to expect. Matt has been telling the team about his marred past at Havenpijl where he has crashed out on every single one of his starts with terrible injuries. This course is about 172 km long consisting of 2 large 50 km loops followed by several smaller “in-town loops”. The larger loops consisted of about 1400 meters of cobbles per lap accompanied by long crosswind sections through one of Belgium’s largest shipping yards. The smaller loops were a bit more technical for we raced through downtown Antwerpen. With 200 starters and a forecast for heavy rains for most the race, the nervousness of the peloton could be seen on everyone’s faces.