Athens

Well well well, Athens has come and gone. Unfortunately I didn't have the same performance as last year. Friday evening comes, and Stefan and I head down to Athens. After a long windy trip down to Athens, Stefan and I finally get to Athens around 11 pm or 12 am. Saturday comes and I am doing the amateur races. With these races, there are qualifier races in the morning, then finals races in the evening, with the big pro races at night. So first up is the cat 1/2 qualifier race.
Leading into the race, I start riding around with Stefan (Stefan is doing the pro race that night and just spinning his legs out.) I get a good warm up in, about 45 minutes. The race starts and I immediately find out that my legs are still very fatigued. As the race goes on, I have no acceleration. I cannot follow any attacks. The race had constant surges. Every other lap on the back stretch, the group would bunch together. What this means is it is so easy to loose field position. All luck. One lap I would be in the top 5 wheels, the next lap, I would be second to last wheel. About half way through the race, I thought it's going to be really hard to qualify. With my legs not feeling 100% and everything going down to luck, I didn't feel to good about my chances. The last lap comes, and I move up. I get on Tim Henrys wheel and stay on it all the way to the finish. I end up sprinting to 7th place. OK not so bad.
The finals race comes and it is only 20 laps. The field is stacked with some strong masters racers. The starts and I immediately start getting mad. The whole thing with the finals race is anyone the qualifies races, meaning juniors, cat 4s, cat 3's, and masters. Which means is a sketchy race. The race starts and true to form, I feel bad. I can't really respond to attacks all I can do is sit in. The whole race, I am sticking around the front, staying well positioned. With 2 laps to go, There is a wreck that I get caught behind and I can't close the gaps to get back to where I was. Not quite the same luck as the morning race.
Roswell criterium is the next day, and this time, I am doing the Pro race. The reason why I didn't do the Pro Athens races is because I didn't register in time. This time, I am in the pro race. I get a mediocre starting spot, just to have it taken away by a horrible clip in. It probably took me 3 tries to get clipped in. My guess is nerves on that one. This was my first NRC pro race (national caliber field I.E. best of the best) so I was a little tense. The race is a crash fest. I get caught behind one crash, unclip, stay up right, then got a free lap. So I'm back in the race, holding on for dear life. The race continues. 30 minutes pass and I am sitting mid pack. The guy in front of me clips a wheel and goes into the barriers, taking me with him. My 1st crash of 2011. I flip over my bike and land on the inflatable barrier. Then my good friend Alex runs into my head. That didn't feel so good, but I am still able to ride. So I go to the pits. My front wheel is trashed and my front brake pads are completely shot. After the neutral service guys pt new brake pads in and change my front wheel, I get back into the race. 2 laps after that, ther is a massive pile up that spanned the entire road. I was not apart of this crash, but I was still caught behind it (along with 75 other guys.) So once this giant rush of people show up to the pits, the officials stop the race. And restart it. Kind of like a red flag in Nascar. We restart with 30 minutes left. After about 10 minutes, I get a 2nd wind. I start moving up and I feel great. Every strait away, I move up 5 spots, which is quite a task when the entire race is single file. I FEEL GREAT at this point. With 5 laps to go on the 1st turn, a guy goes down and I narrowly avoid the wreck. I loss all the field position that I had gained. I just sit in the rest of the race and give up on moving to the front. I strongly feel that if I had not been caught behind that last crash, I could have gotten a top 25 result. But o well, that is life. At least I was not badly hurt.
That wreck looked a lot worse than what it felt. I am hardly banged up and very blessed I am not hurt at all. I don't even have road rash or anything.
So now that that is over with, I am deciding which races I want to do next. I will be racing within the next 2 weeks, but not sure which races they will be. But once I figure that out, I will be sure to let you guys know.
Til Next Time,
The Crow

Gearing up

Well Like I said, my blogging game isn't at its best right now, but I'm still trying to fight through the blogging rut. Last weekend, I did the Sparta Road Race. Last year I had a great ride at this race. I was in a three man break til 5 miles to go. This year was much different! The race starts and it is very windy, very cold (compared to what it had been) and rainy. The race start and immediately it is hard. Attacks are flying and it is tough. After about the 5 mile mark, A good guy named Dave Hixon goes down in front of me. HOLY COW. I some how avoid the wreck. I split off and ride in the grass and don't hit the ground at all! I haven't talked to Dave since then, so I hope he is all right. I notice my teammate Kent Bostick is involved in the crash (I carpooled with him to the race) So we worked together to fight back on. The pace was so fast, it took us 10 miles to catch back on. Once we caught back on, the attacks were still flying. My legs were so pegged at this point. After this point in the race, my legs were extremely fatigued. (I have been building for Athens Twilight so when I got to this race, I knew I would have fatigued legs, VERY fatigued legs.) Race continues and my teammate, Jason Jeansonne is relentless with his attacks. After Jason attacks probably 20 times, the race is still together. As the race went on, I found myself able to respond to attacks a little bit easier. Towards the end of the race, strong man Chris Brown (super strong guy with an unbelievable acceleration) would attack, and I would hold his wheel perfectly, not moving off of it by less than inch. Most of the time, people have trouble holding his wheel when he accelerates. Being able to do that made me feel good, especially with fatigued legs. So the race is getting close to the end and Jason goes off the front with 3K to go. With 2k to go, local strongman Dirk Pohlman attacks. He brings Stephen Bassett with him. Being several wheels back, I decide to risk it and hope that other people chase him down. That is not the case. Jason gets caught with 200 meters to go, and settles for 3rd. I try leading out my other teammate, Jeff Mcrgrane. So I end up getting 15. Not quite what I wanted, but I was happy to survive that race. Especially chasing on after that crash.
So up next, I'm gearing up for Athens. At this moment, I am doing the Amateur races. I am on the waiting list for the PRO NRC race. So if someone backs out of that race, or doesn't register in time, I will get his spot and race the pro race. Last year, my bro Stefan and I had great rides here, Stefan even doubled up on wins in the amateur races. I have building for this race for about 5 weeks now, so hopefully the legs are good. If I do the pro race, my goal will be more about seeing how long I can hang in there. If I do the amateur race, my goal will be about winning. The day after that, is the Roswell NRC pro race. This race is a little less selective, so it will be very possible to finish the race. Stefan and I decided if it's coming down to 20 laps to go, pull the Hail Mary and try and get as close to the top 20 wheels as possible. I think it will be possible.
On another note. My favorite hockey team, The Nashville Predators, made it to the second round of the playoffs for the first time ever. Hopefully I can get a playoff ticket sometime soon and head over there. The crowds have been amazing and the city of Nashville is really rallying behind the team! I will keep you updated on how the weekend goes.
Til Next Time,
The Crow

King College Crit

I leave the house super early to go up to Bristol. I told the King College coach I would announce for him, so I got there fairly early. Once my announcing gig was over, I went and did the pro/1/2/3 race. The course was a parking lot crit, with a u turn in it. Not good for me. Last year, I realized, my super tall inseam and my super short upper body doesn't make a good sharp corner build. I have a very high center of gravity. I have gotten to the point where I can deal with the standard 90 degree turns just fine, but the U turns aren't so good for me. At the start line, I have 3 other teammates, and there are 2 other teams with 4 guys. So it is a pretty even race. The race starts, and immediately Zack Nave goes off the front. No one really responds. After Zack gets a 15 sec gap immediately, I decide I need to get up there. I give an acceleration, get about 5 sec on the field and people start to react. The field catches me and people are starting to counter attack. I can't respond, so Stefan tries. Stefan gets about 5 sec from the tail end of the front group which is now 5 people. Stefan couldn't quite make the gap. As soon as Stefan is reeled back in, my teammate Jason Peters goes with a hard dig. Once he gets reeled back in, I decide to try again. So I attack and have a gap. About a lap later this Asheville jerk bridges up to me. I motion him to pull through, but then I realize he has a teammate in the front group. So he sits on. That is fine. After about 4 laps of working with this guy sitting on, he attacks. I immediately am enraged! I try sticking to his wheel, but I was so tired from doing a 4 lap all out pull, I just can't follow. So I see another chase group form with Stefan in it. So I decide to wait. That group catches me and we work. With about 6 or 7 laps to go, Stefan goes to the front of the group and drills it. He begins catching the front group. Next thing I know, it's 1 lap to go. We are going into the 1st turn and the front group is right there. Had I known that the front group was right there, I would have attacked and bridged a lap sooner. But I had my head down and didn't see them. So Stefan Pulls off with half a lap to go. I thought I could sprint from 3rd wheel and take the sprint, but that was not the case. I sprint for 8th overall or something like that. Overall, my team and I could have done a better job with the tactics. Ultimately, I should have gone with Zack immediately. My delayed reaction means I was left chasing. The good news is I worked on my sprint. I learned where I need to position myself to give a hard effort. I also learned not to be afraid to try to bridge on the last lap. I would call this race a learning experience. The next race is this Saturday in Sparta. It's a really fun road race that is something like 60 or 70 miles. Last year, I had a really good ride at this race, so hopefully I can reproduce the effort.
Til Next Time,
The Crow

King College

Well this past weekend was the King College Tornado Cycling Classic. The weekend consisted of a road race on Saturday, and a crit on Sunday. I love this road race course. It is the same course as this years state road race in July. The course is mostly rolling with a stair step hill in the middle. As the course goes on, the hills get steeper and steeper. The last 5K are somewhat flat.
The race gets started, and nothing too exciting happens. About 4 or 5 miles in, the first notable comes. I decide to attack and see what happens. I go with a hard acceleration. I am solo for maybe a mile, then a group catches me. The group is about 7 or 8 riders and 3 of those riders are on my team. The group begins looking around at each other and my teammate, Jeff Mcgrane attacks (ends up soloing the last little bit for the win.) Mcgrane attacks and some Asheville guy goes with him. My group gets caught. The race goes on, and towards the end of the first lap, people start getting froggy. Some attacks start and sure enough a group of 6 get up the road. I have 2 teammates in this break. I decide what the heck, I'll bridge. So again, I attack with a hard acceleration, and with a few minutes of bridging, I am in the chase group. My bro Stefan was up in the move. Having 3 out of 7 guys in the group, and 1 guy in the leading group, we decide 1 of us should sit on. I volunteer. So, I have 2 guys pulling, and 1 up the road. Fair right? Not according Adm Ray (strongest guy in the race with no teammates.) He begins to fall back to where I am and I immediately know what he's going to say. PULL. So before he evens says a word, I tell him, "I've got 2 guys pulling, and 1 up the front." He then begins to tell me the guy Jeff is with, is a good sprinter. O brother give me a break, his teammates didn't seem to think he had a chance cause the whole race they were attacking. I simple tell Adam Ray sorry, I'm not pulling. Adam Ray and I begin falling back to the main field. As we are going back to the field, he tells me, "Then I'm going to attack the S*** out of on the next climb." My response is, "Have fun, cause one of my guys will be right there with you."
As the race goes on, that group was caught. Another lap passes and Adam Ray attacks. My teammate Jason Jeansonne is the first to react. Then one more person attacks and I go with that person. Soon enough, another chase group has formed. Again roughly 6 riders, I have 2 other teammates in this move. Out of this move, Adam Ray attacks again. Jason responds with another Asheville guy. The race goes on and in my group is A teammate, an Asheville guy, and I. After some faulty team tactics (that I can assure you are going to be fixed) The race comes to an end. The result... Jeff Mcgrane 1st, Jason Jeansonne 3rd or 4th, Tim Valentine 6th, me 8th, John Hart 9th, and my bro Stefan 10th. A pretty dominate result for my team. Due to this extra long race recap, I will post a crit recap later. So look for that later tonight. For now, I got to get ready for work.
The Crow

New blog site

Well I finally decided to start a Music blog. Check it out at http://sonofcrow.blogspot.com/ All the URLs were taken, so I went with a form of my nickname, Son Of Crow. It wasn't my first choice for a URL, but it will work. Plus, if you know my last name (Crowson) it is easy to remember. I will still update this blog on a weekly basis. This will still be my primary blog. With that being said, I will update the new blog a little more frequently. Most of the posts on the new blog will be links. Stay tuned to this blog for updates on my life and bike racing!
The Crow

Flats, Flats, And More Flats

Well I'm back to blogging. I haven't hit my blogging peak, but I'm getting there. Soon I might get back to 2 a week. But for now, it's one blog a week. This past Saturday, I raced the Hell of the South road race. This race, although I didn't expect it, turned out to be a pretty epic day (for some.)
Friday was upon me, and like most Fridays, I was a couch potato. Fridays are my only weekday off so I like to be lazy. 4:00 pm rolled around and I still hadn't really done anything. I am trying to coordinate a carpooling trip with my teammates. Out of the blue, Kent Bostick calls me. Being one of my teammates, he offered to carpool. However, he was driving Friday and not Saturday. I decide it was better to drive the day before and not have to get up and leave at 4:30 AM. So I go with Kent. Unexpectedly for me, it turned out to be a family affair for the Bostick household. It ended up being a pleasant trip down there and back.
After a 4 hour drive, we get down there and get ready to race. It was a 96 mile Road race with about 9 miles of gravel roads. Going into the race, I didn't think this would be epic. Believe it or not, I love the long races, and 96 miles was right up my alley. Also, I ride on gravel roads all the time, so I was sort of well prepared for the gravel. The race starts, and I'm using my Pro Race 3 tires, that have probably 1,000 miles on them. I used these tires only for racing last year. These were the same tires I flatted from last week because of a staple.
Once we get going, I pretty much attack from the gun. My friend Barrett bridges and we have a 2 minute gap pretty quick. 5 miles in the race, I hear pshhhhhh. I ask Barret if that was him, and he confirmed it was me. I had a blowout right off the gun. Probably 3 or 4 miles from the gravel section. So I wait, and wait, and wait, and finally the field passes and the wheel truck comes along. I grab a wheel and it hardly fits in my frame. So I am there struggling to get it in there, and it is just not going. Finally i get my wheel in and I'm off. I begin chasing my brains out. I hit the gravel section and immediately people are flatting like crazy. Left and right people are flatting or being dropped. After the gravel section, I am still trying to chase, except this time I was in a group of people that had been dropped. I was trying so hard to motivate the group to work and at the same time work my brains out. We start going up a small rise and my chain drops. Because the tire is so close to the frame, I can't get the chain back on. By the time I got the chain back on, the chase group was long gone. After chasing yet again, I get another flat. This time I wait for the B race wheel truck to come by and I get a spare from him. I finish, go to the feed zone, and see my step mom standing there. I call it a day and begin catching up with her. It was a good surprise to see her there. Because my team didn't have someone to feed them, I decide I would since my race was done. By the end of the day, my teammates Jeff Mcgrane and Jason Jeasonne went 2-3. It was a good ride for them. Hopefully I will start having better luck. This week, I'm doing some race up in Piney Flatts. hopefully I don't flat in that race and I will be able to show off my form, or lack there off. On Sunday, I just did a 4 hour ride with a little bit of tempo to start things off. Better luck next time for the Crow.
Til Next Time,
The Crow

Dalton

Well I'm officially back to racing. I can't believe it! I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I went to race in Dalton Georgia. While I was down there , I figured I would work on the spin bikes at the Rush and get paid. That idea worked flawlessly! I went down there to race, and I got paid. Unfortunately, I did not get paid for winning. Here's how the weekend of racing went down. First I go down to Chattanooga Friday afternoon. I immediately get to work on the spin bikes. Once I'm done with that, I start hanging out with my good bud Trent and his girl friend, Natasha. Friday night, they had some "sprint" race going on. The reason why I put quotes around that is because I have never heard of a sprint race. I decide to skip the Sprint race and hang to with Trent that night.
Saturday morning came, and so did the Time Trial. Have I mentioned that I hate Time Trials? I DO! I wake up at 6 a.m. and drive down to Dalton. It is pouring rain, lightning like crazy, and even hailing. Needless to say, there was no Time Trial. I drove for nothing, o well. I came back up to Chattanooga and hung out with my old roommate Andy for a while. It was great catching up with him. Once I was done hanging out with Andy, I drove back down to Dalton for the Crit. I got there, and luckily it wasn't raining. Of course the roads were soaked and it was 50 degrees, but at least it wasn't raining. The course was a typical 4 corner flat crit, however there were a few sketchy turns. The first turn went from 4 lanes to 1 while going slightly down hill. The second was turn 2. There was a SUV parked right in the apex of the turn. And finally, the last turn was unbelievably rough. The race starts and I try to keep it mellow. I go off the front once, but after that, I sit in for a while. I had one other teammate at the race, Jason Peters. Jason always does well at the crits and he did here too. Jason kind of rode off the front and the "field" let him go. He got a bout a 5 second gap for a lap then the field reeled him back in. After that, there was a noticeable slowing. So I decide to attack. I immediately get a gap. After I had been off the front for a half lap, they call for a prim. I immediately think, "looks like they are going to reel me back in." However they don't. I maintain my lead and keep going. After 3 laps of me being solo, 2 people bridge up to me. One is Cumberland University freshman Ben Salibra. The other was Emile Abraham. Ben is a guy that I met and rode with at Cumberland while I was visiting once. He is nice. Emile on the other hand, was a very seasoned pro. He has raced for several big pro teams. He was by far the favorite out of our break away. We get about halfway into the race and Emile quits pulling. His teammate bridges to our break solo. Now there are 4 of us, and the 2 strongest guys are in the break. I definitely had my work cut out for me. I continue to work. We begin to get down to laps and I am feeling good. The legs are not really hurting and I begin to think, "I have a really good shot at this." With 3 laps to go, I have a rear flat. My race was over. It sucked, but that's life. Jason did really well in the sprint and got 5th. Great job to him!
The road race was the next morning. I was hopeful after my performance yesterday. There is really nothing to be said about the road race. I saw the race was about to get harder. I could tell the winning group was about to get up the road. I even knew exactly which wheel to be on. Everything happened exactly the way I thought it would, I just didn't have the legs. I tried to follow Sergei's wheel, and I couldn't hold it. I knew that was the race, I just didn't have it. Disappointing.
Overall, I am happy with the performance of this past weekend. It was nice to be in a race winning breakaway this early in the year. Yes I am upset about my flat, but happy none the less. It was a great weekend not only racing and working, but also catching up with old friends. This Saturday, I am doing the Hell of the South Road Race. I like to call it the Dirty South road race. It is a 102 mile Road Race with Dirt road sections. I am hoping I will be able to help one of my teammates get a win. I will let you know how the race goes.
Til Next Time,
The Crow