Blogger struggles to blog, breather struggles to breath?

No, these are not the same thing by any means, but i do consider myself both a breather and a blogger, but in order to be a breather i do indeed have to breathe... to be a blogger... you get the idea. Ok, the last post, a miserable March 21st breifing on what i had been up to during the time i was also sucking at blogging previous to that post. If i breathed like i blogged, i would be a lot like my blog activity: dead.

Well, contrary to blog evidence, i am not dead. I took the long way home from tucson, stopped off in jackson hole (which is a lot like driving to where you are going, but just a lot longer) and visited annie which was totally worth it. Upon arrival home I was greeted with Milwaukee weather and a full season of racing ahead of me.

First off, Sunny King and some random RR the day after. Sunny king went pretty well for the team, Birdman picked up 4th after lapping the field with what can be only described as pretty much the entire field (14 guys?!) and monty picked up just about all the prizes in the second half of the race. I remember nearly crashing myself out on a hard corner thinking "man, i should really get used to this bigger bike" while my rear wheel skips through the 3rd corner at the bottom of the hill. The next day was another half field breakaway that ended like this "why are we all of a sudden going fas... whats that tent doi.... oh shoot thats the finish line isnt it, and there it goes. balls. how do we get back to the start line?" Ok, not a bad start, that is if you ignore near self-inflicted injury and missing all the signs telling you where the finish was. So i was a bit rusty. Lets see, whats another good warm up race....

Dear SRAM Tour of the Gila,

You have got to be kidding me.

Sincerely,
Jim "hello gutter! goodbye field!" Stemper

So my first tour of the gila experiance was eye opening. The first stage was interesting, the break just rode away, and noone seemed to care, it was simply a matter of 10 guys going kind of fast, and 160 or so guys not doing anything about it. I guess this is when i started to realize the difference between the terms "selection" and "the move" as they both have similar resulting looks, but occur in 2 totally different ways. We all missed the move, and frankie was more than somewhat peeved having told us "do not, under any circumstance, miss a move with 10 guys in it" the night before. So my first stage of my first Gila also became the first time i got to chase as a pro. Heres the dialogue for the remainder of the race as i hear it:

Phil: "jim, frankie wants you to chase"
Jim: "shut up, haha, very funny"
Phil: "I shit you not."
Jim: "well..... got another bottle?"

....60 miles later...

Lance Armstrong: "Good job guys, in a mile we are going to ride"
Jim's thoughts: "What does that mean? I wonder if lance makes jokes"

....1 mile later....

Jim's thoughts: "yikes."
(Apparently 'ride' means every single devlopment kid on garmin and livestrong takes a turn doing 900 watts on the front for 30 seconds, shattering the group....oh shoot im the last guy, hope they stop riding soon)

...8 minutes of 9 million watts later....

Jim's thoughts: " "

I got back to the front after lance's minions were done riding and were going back to what i previously thought was riding, but my definition of that will forever be changed, i guess they went back to sleeping in the biking position. We caught the group just at the base of the mountian top finish, where i preceded to climb so slow i considered faking a flat and asking the SRAM support car for a bigger cassette.

Day 1, 9:30 back from leader, woah.

The rest of the race is not worth as much detail. Day 2 was 50 mph winds and i want to talk about it as much as you want to read about it. Got dropped in the cross wind, chased back on the climb, with 2 miles to go i forgot the lesson i learned earlier in the race, and got dropped in the crosswind again. I litterally watched 102 guys pass me on the right, not one of them kind enough to let me into the draft. Day 3 was the TT, a 20-year-old won? Day 4 was the crit and i told the guys i was going to attack until i dropped out of the race, made the first break which got caught and countered by jake who was in the main break of the day, which was also caught, a 20-year-old won? Christ. Day 5 a guy crashed into me 5 miles into the race, rolled the front tubular off my wheel, took out half my team, and ended gila for me and the guys a bit early.

All in all I learned alot, mainly i learned that theres a lot more to racing than going hard and crossing your fingers that it works out for you. I liked getting to chase, and i like getting to work on a team, so the year had some real positive things to come in my view despite a pretty rough gila.

Flew home and flew to Joe Martin a day later. Did not feel very good at all in the TT which was really dissappointing because i really thought it was a good oppertunity for me to show how hard i worked in the offseason. Kept the spirits high and came out swinging in the second stage. I found good legs and followed moves for the first 40 miles but nothing was getting very far. The field hit the feedzone hill and i couldnt believe it, but i was passing people on the climb! I got across to the front group that seperated over the climb, which eventually attacked itself into a 15 man breakaway with 40 miles to go. With about 30 to go i started to cramp up and nick waite smartly told me to sit on, I hung on for dear life to the finish and finished 10th. I wish i would have had legs to help nick who was left to fend for himself and got 8th, i think if he had me to help we would have done better, hydration is therefore important, your teammates depend on it. The third stage was another eye opener: Luca Damani is damn good. I was supposed to keep him in good position but the holes and spots he shoots through kept me doing everything i could just to stay on his wheel. He sneaked himself onto the 4th wheel with 1k to go and i watched in amazement as i couldnt seem to find any space to get to him. He finished 4th on his own and i just sat there open mouthed and totally pumped to have that guy on our team. Quote of the year:

Jim: "dude luca, you gotta teach me that."
Luca: "Sometimes, you just have to close your eyes."
Jim: (aussie accent) "f-en hell"

The last stage of joe martin will go down as one of the most dangerous races i have ever done. I was pretty tired after all the racing and couldnt get good position, so i ended up behind 5 or so crashes that left me chasing, eventually i just couldnt get my legs convinced to go harder and i had to call it quits and watch yet another race finish without me in it. Let me tell you what. There is nothing, in my mind, worse than watching a race that you were in finish and you know you were no help. Its my biggest motivation to train hard when i think about those finishes i was stuck watching as a spectator.

Some time off lended itself to some good money making oppertunities. I went down to quad cities over memorial day and (i will just sum this one up): Burlington RR: chased, didnt get them all. Dissappointed in that. Also a world record number of jersey numbers:



Snake Alley: Made it to the front group but went into the snake with a foot down, never saw the lead group again. Very cool race, i will be back to avenge this thing.



Melon city: great team effort with birdman taking 2nd
Quad Cities: another great team effort with marco taking the sprints, chad just missing the win, rob smashing it as usual, and me having my best legs of the year. I can tell you what, i am going to try more often to gamble off the front at the end of the race because i really think i can do it. OH, and this happened (laundry is sometimes optional on bike weekends, at least if your super-pro like bird):

Chad on skinsuit stench patrol.

Philly...

Philly is going to really be in my head for a while. Coolest, biggest, craziest, longest bike race i have ever been a part of. Our team was so good and so excited to ride in such a cool race. Right from the gun we had 3 guys in every move, and we only had 5 guys covering moves. Nick Waite smashed it, unbelievable ride. He coverd moves, attacked, pulled, bridged gaps, and finished the race on his way to a 4th on the KOM competition. Rides like that really get the rest of the guys inspired. Personally, i would have to say my day was good, but left a very sour taste in my mouth wanting the race back in a big way. I cant wait for next year already. After the first time up the wall i bridged across to the 30 man break with 5 other guys by the top of strawberry hill. Kenda had Waite, Bush (19 years old), Monty (20 years old), and myself in that move and it looked good, but HTC missed it. They chased into the bottom of the wall on lap 2 and got a few across to it including Luca and Jake, but the move didnt last much longer and eventually the field creeped back to a lazy front group as 10 rolled off the front. Waite, after admitting over the radio he needed a break, crossed the gap over the top of the wall on the 3rd lap and we had representation and that was the move. Half way through the race i ran a crashing rider over on the fall from the wall, and broke my rear seat stay in half. I got a spare but the chain was out of whack, so after chasing back on i got another bike change (complements of good old chad thompson, who it turns out, is not as tall or long-legged as me). After i got back the second time I got to do my first on the bike rolling bike adjustment, got the saddle close, and it was back to racing. 3 laps later i think my decision to ride the bike despite it not really fitting caught up to me and it was lights out on the wall. 115 miles in and my philly was over. Nick finished it out like a champ even after attacking his lights out, jake finished a solid 26th, luca felt it and lost contact with only 800 to go and im sure had we all been able to stick it out a bit longer he would have made it, hes damn good and ive never seen someone so dissappointed, still rode great. Phil and Bush finished it as well making an impressive showing for our team. I was proud to be a part of kenda for sure this weekend and i cant wait to hit that wall again in 360ish days from today.

Well.... that just about covers it. I hope to keep you updated on dairyland coming up in just over a week now. If you made it this far tell me you did and i will buy you a coffee next time i see you for being such a good reader.