Update: Delta

Hi all, its about time for another update! Since Nature Valley I have taken a much needed rest! I hadn't had a week of not racing since I arrived in the States! Spent basically 3 weeks here to which was cool. Got to go out and look around Portland and go swimming in the river! We have had some awesome days here well up into the 30's! I also competed in a local track event here, it was a 6 day with a Madison in it each day. Evan and I did it together, we both survived, just! Managed to walk away with 3rd overall too which was a bonus!
We are now into our final phase of racing then home time! We just completed Tour de Delta which was up in Canada, then we have Boise Twilight crit this weekend followed by Cascade tour from 21st-25th of July. After that we have Elk Grove, Portland twilight crit and then our final race Tour of Utah which is a 6 day tour. Then if all goes to plan i should be home for Auckland 1000!
Anyway i will give a quick run down on Delta!
Stage one was a 3 km prologue around a block, i didn't get a chance to have a ride on the circuit so just rolled around it on the footpath. Its not quite the same as riding it, you don't get the feel for the corners etc. It didn't go to bad I'd say i could have gone a bit harder through the corners but i guess its better to stay in one piece!

Next day we had a 90 min crit, the road was pretty wide open and fast apart from the last corner which was quite tight.. I was feeling really good through out the race, managed to pick up a preme and avoid all the crashes! Coming into the final few laps i was following Evan, he kept me in good position and then gave me the best lead out! I was setting up for the last corner 1st when 3 guys came under pushing me wide and loosing momentum.. I still managed 4th and was coming up really fast on them, its nice to know i have the speed there so hopefully everything will fall into place next time!



The final day was 140km, we had to complete 4.5 circuits then head out to another circuit that we had to complete 10 times. There was a lot of wind so with the small roads and also the strict no crossing of the centre line rule it made it really hard in the cross winds. Unfortunately i was too far back going into the cross wind section and had to play catch up.. I managed to get onto the back of the lead group of roughly 15 but then someone dropped the wheel further up so was game over for me! Luckily we had Aaron Evan and Jim up there, so i settled back into the 2nd group. I wasn't feeling the greatest on the finishing circuits so did 5 of them then pulled the pin. I stopped at the start finish line to watch the women come in, I'm glad i did because i got to see Marina come in solo for the win! Was pretty cool!
Anyway, back in Portland now, getting ready for Boise Crit this weekend, hopefully we can make some good coin!
Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading!
Mike

Nature Valley:

Been back in Portland coming up one week now. Its been so good finally having a break off the bike and racing! Marina is staying here too so perfect timing! The week has gone fast tho, back into training full swing again next week.
Nature Valley ended up not being so bad.. Considering i was feeling really crap to begin with! Last time I updated I was 2 days into the 5 day tour..
Next stage was a twilight crit, it was a 6 corners pretty flat and fast.. I started pretty much dead last again, but was feeling good this time and was able to move my way up the field. Just over 10 laps to go there was a crash right next to me, basically 100 guys got stuck behind it and went into the pits. Normally if you crash or get stuck behind a crash you can take a lap out in the pits and then rejoin the following lap at the back of the field. We came around for the following lap and they had rejoined the race at the front nearly causing more crashes... So i went from the front quarter to almost the back again. In this time the sprint teams got on the front and had the race single file.. There was nothing i could do but hang on, in the end i lost 20 sec with gaps forming in the field.
Next day was the longest day of the tour, 94 miles with a finishing circuit at the end that we had to do 4 times. I managed to get in the break 16 miles into the race, pretty much all the important teams made the break so the field was pretty happy to let us go.. It was one of the weirdest breaks i have been in, they were attacking each other pretty much the whole way. I managed to get in the right split and went onto the finishing circuit with about 7 other guys, we rode a lap together then the next lap i just rode hard on the front on the climb.. I looked back and there was one guy on my wheel, he just sat on me and wouldn't pull through. In the end we caught the lone guy up the road and they both pumped me in the sprint! I had to keep riding hard tho because i was after time for the young rider jersey which i ended up getting! We had a pretty good day, Bobby was 2nd u23 on the stage also and moved into 2nd on u23!
Last day and by far the hardest day. It was supposedly a a crit but had a 22% wall in it which we had to do 20 times.. I knew i was going to be in for a hard day, so hoped i could hang on for as long as possible.. 2 laps to go when the pace really went on i got gaped and couldn't quite get back on.. My team mates Jim and Aaron did a awesome job helping me to chase and try not to loose to much time. In the end Bobby took over the U23 jersey and a dropped to 3rd, by 9sec! So if i didn't loose time on the 3rd day in the crit i would have been 2nd! Oh well i was pretty happy with how i rode in the end! Thanks for reading! Mike

Philly international

Last weekend I had the biggest race of my life! The race is a UCI 1.1HC which attracts some of the best riders and teams from all over the world.. It was also the longest ride I have done to date, 156 miles or 252km! It's a circuit race in down town Philadelphia, we had to complete 10 big laps with the famous Manyjunk wall in there, then we had to do 3 finishing smaller laps. I was feeling pretty good up until about the 8th time up the wall.. Then it became really hard! I just tried to hang on for dear life! Last time up Manyjunk I was gapped off a wee bit but managed to rejoin the peleton pretty sweet. Before the race I was told if you get over the wall all 10 times with the group then you will make it the finish easy because the rest of the circuit is no way near as hard.. This was far from the truth! Highroad jumped on the front and drove it to bring back the three riders up the road, I was at the back swinging and got dropped with 20km to go.. Would have been nice to finish but I was still happy with how I rode. Evan managed 15th in the kick too which was awesome for the team! Roman stacked it about 140km in but carried on until the last time up Manyjunk. Was pretty impressive he was getting bottles and feeds for the rest of us and helping out as much as could. The next day we found out he actually broke his wrist and needed surgury! We are in Minesotta at the moment doing the Nature Valley GP. So far we have had a 6 mile tt an hour crit and a 66 mile road race. I have felt pretty average in all of them so far. I think the racing every week since I have been here has caught up with me! Anyway I have finished just in the bunch, so haven't lost any time. I'm just going to try survive the next 3 days as best I can before we return to Portland for a much needed rest! I will update later on how the rest of the tour goes. Thanks for reading, Mike.

Photos!

Tour Of Gila:









Land Rovering:





Joe Martin:






72oz Steak Challenge had to eat all the following:





Bobby managed to get through it but Roman failed! I was smart and just settled for a 15oz piece of steak!
Anyway way off to Philly tomorrow, leave 6am.. Best part i get to see Marina in 2 days!! First time in 2 months cant wait. Ill update on how Philly goes next week, my aim is to finish the thing, so here's hoping!

Portland Update

Well we have been back in Portland for just over 3 weeks now. Its been good to be in one place for a while, not living out of a suitcase! Its given us a chance to get some solid training in before Philly too. We have been racing every weekend still but just local races (you would probably compare these to something like a benchmark race). First race was out in Silverton and we managed to stack 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th! Bit unfair us turning up with a 8 strong team but its all good practice and training. Next week we had the Oregon State champs rehearsal race, it was 55 miles away, seen as we have Philly coming up which is 156 miles or 250km we saw it as a good opportunity to get some miles in. So we rode out and raced 80 miles also! Roman managed to pull off the win and i came in 10th. Not a bad day, 220km and 6.5 hours in the saddle! This last weekend it was the Oregon State champs on Saturday and then the Oregon State Team Time Trial champs on Sunday. This week we didn't ride out, so went in with slightly fresher legs! To be honest my legs felt worse than the week before and took me until about half way through the race to feel good! Anyway there were 5 guys up the road in total (3 were Land Rover) we got 1st 2nd and 3rd, then Evan and i managed to get 1st and 2nd out of the bunch so we were 6th and 7th. Not bad. Sunday we entered two teams of 4 into the TTT it was NZ vs USA. NZ team was Aaron, Logan, Roman and myself. A lot of shit talking was going down on who was going to win but of coarse NZ dominated haha. Unfortunately Bobby (one of the Americans) had a mechanical 10 meters into it so they had to race with 3. But we will still claim it! It was a 45km time trial and we managed to do it in 56.51, we were 2nd fastest on the day by 11 sec! We did it on standard wheels and the winning team had full TT set ups with disks etc. Anyway this Thursday we fly out to Philly and after that we have the Nature Valley stage race. Keep you posted on how they go!

Update

Sorry for the late update on Joe Martin but its here! After my last update we still had 2 more stages to go. One was a 90 mile stage and the other a 1.5 hour crit.
Both stages didnt go to bad for the team, in the road stage a break got clear about 30km into the race. It was a really fast stage and a really fast finish so that was bought back in about the final 10km.. Evan decided he wanted to have a crack in the sprint this time so it was up to Aaron, Roman and myself to get him up into position. In the end Evan was 6th and Roman was 8th, so not bad.
Final stage was a 1.5 hour crit, probably the hardest crit i have ever done, the circuit was really tough! No real chance for any rest and it finished on a nasty wee climb! I had terrible legs the whole race, and rode really bad position. I saw Roman drifting back so i thought i better do something in the race and attempted to move him up. I ended up going right up to the first 10 and as i got there a break went on the climb. All i heard in the race radio was we need someone in that, i looked up and no-one was ahead of me, so off i went! I did not want to be here feeling this crap, took me a lap and a half to finally get on the break and once there i just could not recover. I managed to hang in until 3 laps to go, then i completely blew! ha. Only 2 guys from the group stayed away and Evan got 3rd in the bunch kick, placing him 5th.
We have been back in Portland now for nearly 2 weeks, getting some solid miles in and some local races. Tomorrow we are riding 55 miles to a race and then racing 80 miles.. Well attempting to anyway! Im not sure how im going to feel with already two 6 hour rides in my legs so far this week but ill do my best. Definately not going in any early breaks! Hope everyone is good, i will update again at some stage, maybe when i have something more interesting to write about!

Joe Martin Stage Race

Stage 1:
First stage was a 2.5 mile uphill prologue with a 6.8% average gradient. Was not fun at all, i kinda blew it.. I went way to hard at the start and cracked about 1km to go! Ohwell doesnt really effect the rest of my race!
Stage 2:
Woke up to thunder and lightening this morning, great! Luckily we started at 2pm so it cleared over, other wise it was going to be a very long and wet 110 miles! It was a reasonably flat course, with a couple of climbs in it, one being about 5 miles long but not to steep. I managed to get over there no worries and had really good legs! We decided on the road that I was going to go for the sprint because it was a uphill kick and i can go ok in them. The boys did a really good job at getting me up the front, we were really organised and things were looking good. I managed to go into the 3rd to last courner 5th wheel but then i got swamped on the next corner into the the climb! I ended up 13th. I was a bit dissappointed that i couldnt pull a better result, but with finishes like that luck plays a big role aswell as strength!
Tomorrow is another road stage 90 miles or so and its pooring with rain again, Great!