Team Camp... so far

We are all settled in to our hotel and getting to know each other a little better. At least the people that are new to the team. Today is the first day and so far we have had our ride delayed due to poor weather.  

My observations so far are:

Ashley has very tiny hands.

Nathan knows wayy more than most people give him credit for. He can also punch through anything with his bare hands.

Casey is attractive.

I'm not good at using waffle irons at the hotel breakfast.

I'm sure there are more to come so stay tuned. Talahina on Tuesday for New Years. After today, the weather is supposed to be nice so I am looking forward to the rest of camp.

Pictures soon. When I take some.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. I, for one, am not arguing with this weather. Finally! 60's and sunny at the end of December!? That's the Texas weather everyone loves. Hope Santa brought everyone what they asked for, and no one is eating too much and getting out of shape. The road season starts in about a month.

I have a change of plans coming up. I had originally planned on doing the state cross championships, the first of the year. However, now i will be busy with the Metro VW team camp that starts on Saturday and runs through the 4th. I was kinda bummed at first, but now I'm pretty excited to get in more good riding. It's also an opportunity to spend time with the team. There are some new riders this year, so it should be pretty ok. 

Tomorrow Will, Peter, Corey, Phillip, and Andrew G. from Florida will be doing a little ride together before heading over to the hotel in Grapevine to meet up with the team. The guys are coming around nicely. Even Phillip, who desperately needs a bike fit to optimize his power output. 

Oh yeah, I got a sweet new Nikon digital camera. Maybe now my blogging will go up a notch with some quality photos.

Good luck to everyone that will be racing the state cx. I am personally going to place my bet in Vegas for Captain Amazing to repeat. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cheers

Top 5

A few days ago, my buddy Phillip Snodgrass, posted something on his blog about the top 5 hottest celebs. Or something like that. He included people like Tina Fey and Eileen from Seinfeld. Not to take anything away from his list, I would like to say, I think he failed to look at ALL of the celebrities we have has of early 2009. I have compiled a top 10 list, 5 of which are bike racers, just to prove there are 5 attractive female bike racers out there. The first installment will be my top 5 celebs, plus a couple of honorable mentions.
Here is how mine would go:



5. Jennifer Aniston- Let's not forget, she's 39!



















4. Jessica Alba- she has a baby now, which may make her even more attractive. But since this little addition she hasn't been in anything; meaning I can not enjoy her nearly as much as I would like.




















3. Jennifer Love Hewitt- Quite possibly the most underrated beauty. I believe you can still watch her on the Ghost Whisperer. I never watch that show.




















2. Giselle Bundchen- What do I need to say about her? She is the face of Victoria Secret and near flawless. Tom Brady has a good looking girlfriend. If I were him, I wouldn't care I had to sit out a season with a knee injury.























1. Megan Fox- Watch Transformers and find the issue of Maxim she graced the cover of. You will become a fan, I promise.

















Honorable Mention:
Scarlet Johanson
Kate Hudson
Ashlee Simpson (with the new nose)
Mila Kunis

Farewell Texas Stadium.

And see ya later 2008 season. It had its ups and downs, but it was ugly!

I would like to see Wade Phillips stay for at least 1 more year. I believe he is a good head coach. I do, however, think Jason Garrett needs to go coach little league somewhere. Just to hone his skills as an offensive coordinator. Does he not know that there are more than 6 plays on that laminated sheet he holds in his hand during games? He is not playing a video game, where running the same handful of plays over and over actually work. 

Dear Cowboys defensive,

Off game? More like off 2 plays? You dominate for a good portion of the season, then during crunch time you fall asleep and you let the same run play go for 75+ yds, back to back. Ouch, that has to hurt.

Oh well, live by the boys, die by the boys. There is always next year.. Players will get healthy and studs will get drafted. Maybe.

Name change

So I recently decided that since I was no longer racing for TX Tough, I don't need it as the URL for my blog. 

If you check my blog often enough for this to matter, please add this link instead. I know my name is tricky. Remember, there are 2 H's in my last name. That's pronounced, Dahl- heim. It isn't hard if you break it down.

I am trying to put together a slide show of pictures. If you have any of me at a race or something and wouldn't mind donating it, that would be awesome! I will be sure to give you credit for the photo.

Thanks.

andrewdahlheim.blogspot.com

Wheatus

So since the weather in D-town has been absolutely shitty! I have done a fair amount of my riding this week in-doors. I managed to bust out a 3 hr ride in the cold rain on Wednesday, but Tuesday and Thursday were trainer/roller days. I hate those days. I guess you have to knock them out if you want to make it. Someone close to me once said, "There are chores to every job that are work. Pros just get them done anyways." Today while I was doing my workout on the rollers, I  had my iPod playing for some extra motivation.  I usually just put it on shuffle so I get a surprise with every song change. Well today must have been my lucky day. I was fortunate enough to stumble across this little gem.

Love & Life

Lately, I have been stressing out about who I will be riding for in 2009, if anyone. Well let me put all the questions to rest. After a couple of commitments with Metro and A&V- McDonalds, and a couple other sub par offers. I will be sticking with Metro VW. They are both very good, proven programs and I am lucky to be a part of either one. Europe is a place I want my cycling career to take me. I won't get into details, but sometimes things just don't work out. I am, however, looking forward to 2009 season now that all my team worries are put to rest. The team is going to be super strong this year and i fully expect strong showings in all of our races.  My winter training has been going well. getting in solid rides on the 'ole Redline cross bike, equipped with SRM. It gets the job done while things are being ironed out. 

The bulk of my training has looked like this: 2-3 hrs on Monday, down and around White Rock Lake. Then I follow that with the FatBoy ride that goes up northeast of Mckinney on Tuesdays with Mike Gacki and and a few other guys that don't have work. Wednesdays are designated track days after a short ride in the am. This time of year, it feels a good 5-10 degrees cooler inside the Superdrome than it actually is.  Thursdays, I have been doing rides with my good friends, Stephen Crawford and Gary Glanger. It's good to mix things up a bit. Training can get old and lose its fun real fast. Sometimes we will go ride around the lake a bit and sometimes we hit the trail with the cross bikes. I think on Fridays, I am going to start doing the Gacki ride. A few guys meet up at his house in north Frisco for an extended ride up north of Celina. Best riding in the area by far (within a 20 min drive). 

The past couple of weekends have been a little different than others. Last weekend I went up to Tulsa Oklahoma. Mainly to see someone, but to ride also. Tulsa is a hidden gem for riding. Surprisingly. I would not have expected such good riding in such an armpit of a state. It was a good change of pace. 

This weekend was the Eggnog and Chunks crit in Denton. Put on by my coach, Christian Williams. The whole point in the race, was to raise money for the juniors he coaches to get to nationals. At first, I felt obligated to go considering I used to be one of those juniors. However, it ended up being pretty fun. Despite the 40 mph wind, it was 78 degrees and sunny. Can't complain about that. It was fun to do a crit on a cross bike with a 48 front chain ring. It had to be good leg speed. Brett Crosby came out hot. Lapping the field with one other dude and taking the win. I knew he was gone as soon as he went. I finished 4th after getting in a small chase group with a couple of guys that had no idea we were racing for 3rd and not 1st. Oh well it was a good cause. I even donated my prize money for some baked goods. Totally worth it!

If your in the area and you want to knock out some miles, give me a call. I'm always free to ride.

Out-

Andrew

Where has Andrew been?

Well i know I don't blog much, but I am making up for it by blogging TWICE in one day! Lets see if I can make this a habit. It's not like I do much else with my days besides ride. Lately I have been doing a fair amount of training. The hrs are getting higher and the legs are feeling better. Last week for Thanksgiving I went up to Nebraska with Pops to see some of the family. It's almost always a dreaded trip when we think about it, but usually doesn't turn out too bad. I didn't ride much at all during my trip but it was only a couple of days that shouldn't kill me. When I got back I hit up some yoga with my good friend Crawford. I have recently decided that it is quite possibly the most underrated workout. I will never judge again. It was hard not to laugh when I started thinking of Barry Lee getting his downward dog on in the middle of a gas station parking lot on our way back from Arkansas.  Good times..

There are some rumors going around about who I may or may not be riding for next year. Regardless of what cycling news may say, the final roster is due to the UCI next Monday and nothing is set quite yet. Plans are still being made and were hoping for the best. Should be good though. I will post here when everything is finalized and I know for sure where I am going. Nothing is a done deal until you dot the i's and cross the t's. Thanks again, as always to all the supporters. You know who you are.

Also, big congrats to Andrew Armstrong. After getting is dual cat 1, he was successful over in Switzerland on the track and is set to head over and race in Hong Kong, and Australia on both the track and road. Definitely an underrated rider. While I'm giving props... Alex Boyd signed with Rock racing! That's' rad and no one is more deserving.

That's enough man crushing. I just had to add substance to the post.

Out.

Since when does Stefan do cyclocross?

It seems like that guy can do it all as long as it is on a bicycle. Im sure Mr. Godsey is very happy to have a rider like him on his team. A couple of weeks ago I did the cross races at White Rock lake expecting to see the same cast of characters show up. However, to my amazement, not only did Stefan Rothe show up. He won the first day and got 3rd the next. Will Ross even came out of retirement to mix it up. It was awesome. Thinking that they probably just didn't have anything else going on that weekend, I was surprised to see Stefan at the start line again the next weekend in Ft. Worth. This time, Captain Amazing graced us with his presence after recovering from an endurance race the previous weekend. The races were well run by Moritz and the depth of the field was by far the best I have seen in a Texas cross race. Bryan and I went 1-2 both days, ust in a different order and Mitch and Stefan along with Matt Davis and Chopper battled out for the 3rd place spot behind us. It's about time I beat Fawley in a cross race. Hopefully the field sizes stay this big. It makes the racing and spectating way more fun. Im going to bail on the Houston races, but you may see me in San Antonio for the state championships. Here is a good picture of Bryan and I battling it out the first day in Ft. Worth.

Interbike

So for most bike racers, the end of September usually means the end of the racing season for most. That is if you aren't one of the few to try and extend your form and fitness for mountain biking and/or cyclo-cross. In years past I have been one of those few. Taking a little time off and then getting right back into racing. However, this year, the season ended with the USA Crit finals in Las Vegas. Nathan, Christian, Shannon and myself loaded up the Metro VW van and trailer after the Cotton Patch Classic in route to the cycling spectacle known as Interbike. First on the agenda was the industry group ride leaving the dirt demo in Boulder City, NV. Just a short 30 min outside of Vegas. We finished the final 2 hrs of our drive and hopped out of the van just in time to make the start. The ride was really cool, about an hour and half out and back route to Lake Mead. Definitely a good opener for the crit a couple days later. We spent much of the dirt demo at at BH trailer. Pretty much just sitting around out of the sun, but it was some house keeping stuff we had to take care of to keep all the sponsors happy. Plus it was rad getting to ride all the new bikes for 09.

Once in Vegas we checked in to our super posh suite at the Venetian, courtesy of Brad Hagsted from Metro VW of course. It was nice having the expo just across the casino in the Palazo. I think since all of us were experiencing Interbike for the first time, we were all pretty excited to check out the new bikes and equipment for next year. Thus the inner bike nerd came out. We spent a lot of time with BH and talking to other current and future sponsors. After all that stuff we were able to do a little sight seeing. More than just the expo. The hotel and casino itself was pretty unreal. With several food courts, pools and spas on every other floor and a mall fully equipped with gondola, an entire days worth of entertainment could go by without even leaving the hotel. The of course you have the casino and every other attraction on the strip that LV has to offer.  I had always thought Vegas was a place you could only enjoy if you were old enough to gamble and do other adult activities. On the contrary, it was rather enjoyable from a minors perspective.  I will just have to wait until next year to blow my years worth of race winnings at the black jack table. 

With everything going on, it was easy to forget why we were there in the first place. To race our bikes. It is our job, so obviously that was our priority of the trip. The race itself was kinda weird. Unlike most of the crits I have done. The course was similar to the one at nationals in California. Circling around the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay, lined with barriers. Nathan raced the industry race for BH while Shannon did the woman's race and Christian and I did the men's race. Being from Texas where humidity is always high, we weren't used to the dry air, and staying hydrated was crucial. It definitely got the best of Nathan. Being forced to bail, he was coughing like he had the black lung straight through our trip to track nationals. Shannon's race race was for the laps led competition. The dry air seemed to hurt her a little bit, but she stuck it out and rode an aggressive race. In our race, there were close to 100 starters. From the gun there was a $200 prime, so it was strung out instantly. The entire course was on a polished black top parking lot, making every turn a little more difficult than a normal 90 degree turn. It was like the roads were wet except they weren't. People would take a corner as well as you could and their tires would break lose and into the barriers they would go. Christian had a rough time, being taken out in the first 200 meters and forced to make a bike change. Within the first 10 laps, the pack had dwindled down to 50ish. It was obvious that to finish high up you were going to have to take some risks. More than usual. Mid way through the race, Christian went down again, and as soon as he got thrown back in, he was attacking the field. If there were a most courageous rider award, Christian would have won it hands down. I on the other hand raced a bit more conservatively. I managed to stay upright, but before I knew it, it was the last lap and the time to make something happen had past. Christian finished 17th and I finished 12th. I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied. Other than the difficulty in breathing, I was in no discomfort and felt fresh at the end. regardless of how we all did, we were pretty happy the road season had finally come to an end.  The only thing left on the agenda was a trip to CVS for tegaderm and then some last minute photos from our trip to Vegas. Oh, and a stop by the Paris so Christian could get his Eiffel Tower drink. The ultimate pain killer that he deserved for all his hard work and awesome year. 

Next year will be even better, no doubt.

Been a while.

So I have recently decided that my blogs are really quite boring. Just race reports with no pictures, and my posts are scarce. If anyone ever gets any good shots from races or what not please send them my way.

I have a handful of pictures on my iPhone from Vegas at Interbike and from elite track nationals. Hopefully I'll get around to putting them up soon. Right now this blog sucks. Not everyone can have an entertaining blog like Surfer. I guess blogging really is an art. I'll figure it out someday. Just work with me.

Basically since Downers Grove over a month ago, I have been to the following races:

HHH- Christian won cuz he's a bad ass, and I had a HHH personal best with 9th. Christian wrote a pretty good race report in one of the recent Racing Post issues.

Atlanta 100k- I felt pretty good after a tune up race the day before. However due to poor mechanic skills on someones part, my crank arm cam off mid race after being limited to my little ring for a few circuits. Shannon got 3rd.

Cotton Patch- I got my first win of the year in the road race while riding in support of Peter and Corey. Peter did an awesome job and finished in 2nd! They should be quick to receive their upgrades.

Interbike- Was pretty rad. We did an industry group ride at the dirt demo as soon as we go there. It was pretty much like one of those unofficial races that go on during the weekends. It was pretty revy and by no means flat. christian and I held it down for BH. In the crit, I finished 15th and didn't crash while Christian finished a little behind me with 2 crashes! One within the first 100 meters! He is a trooper and after a bike change and one more wreck he still finished in the money around 25thish. Scary race!

The season is officially over and I am in my "off time". Christian went back to Germany for the winter. I went to elite track nationals with Shannon and Nathan, just to hang out and help around. Shannon, Kim and Alison Powers won the team pursuit. Kim and Shannon got 1st and 3rd in the individual pursuit and that basically concluded the season for all. Andrew Armstrong had an impressive ride in the scratch race finishing 4th!

I am now back in Dallas. I'm going to begin my riding again next week. I have also been hitting the gym with Crawford. It has been about a year since i was last in a gym at good ole Pure Austin. I am very sore today and not sure if I will be able to play as much golf as I wanted to. We will see though.

Again, i will try my hardest to throw some pics up here, but I can make no promises.

Hopefully my next post will be much sooner.

out for now.

Downers Grove

This past weekend I headed up to the Chicago area for the Pro/Elite crit nationals. Shaun and a hyper Bryan picked me up around 5 a.m. and we drove the 14 hrs north straight through, getting to Shaun's friends house around 9 in the heart of downtown. Walking distance from the Sears Tower. The first race was the Saturday night Pro/Am. At first I wasn't planning on doing this, but since I had an extra entry fee and had never done the course before, I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn the course. Figure out where to move up at and the best lines. I purposely started on the back row, just to see how long it took to get to the front. The course was super fast and technical. With the field strung out, it took me about 5 laps at a pretty hard effort to get into the top 10. Bryan and I both managed to avoid the wrecks. Although Bryan did have a close call with 2 laps left. he finished in a solid 49th. I seriously thought about pulling the plug with 5 to go, considering I was still on Jim Hoyt's bike. I figured racing is racing and i might as well stick it out. With 2 to go I found myself in the top 20 and just kept surfing wheels to maintain my position. on the last lap I was a few spots behind the Colavita lead-out train. What I thought was the place to be. Wrong. Rashaan, Kayle, and Sterling Magnel, flew by Colavita on the downhill. I ended up getting swarmed a little. While Sterling and Kayle went 1-2, I ended up cruising in , in 17th. Not bad for not really "racing".

I ended up getting to bed around 11:30 after some intense Olympic watching, and of course cheering on the love of my life, Shawn Johnson.  I woke up early to watch Bryan dominate the cat 2 race in convincing fashion. Finally he gets that big win. He was due. Shaun also pulled out an awesome 6th in the 2's. 

I had pretty high expectations for the national championships. Simply win. I knew exactly where to be at every point during the race. I knew all the lines and when to move up. I knew who to watch for and who I was going to have to beat. This wasn't my first song and dance, but I definitely made a huge mistake. The legs were feeling good and I was ready for the final 5 laps. I popped a gel in my mouth for a little extra energy for the finish. What I forgot to do was wash it down with enough water. The last lap I was sitting comfortably in the top 10 and moving up on the climb. I went to accelerate into the top 5 for the downhill and felt that gag reflex we all love. I never have this feeling and I all i could think was, what bad timing. Going down the final downhill I could feel it coming again. So I decided to try and puke and maintain my position and get ready to sprint. I tried to get rid of the feeling but nothing came out. I came around the last turn somewhere in the top 10 and finished in a very disappointing 9th. I felt like that was my best chance to win a national championship and I screwed it up by a rookie move. Still a pretty solid result but not exactly what i was hoping for. Just like u23 nationals though, there is always next year.

next up on the calendar is Hotter N Hell this weekend followed by 100k in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.

u23 nationals road race

After the crit and a couple days off for some quality beach time, we had a tough 120 mile road race around the Irvine subdivisions. This is kind of a touchy subject for me, and a bit of a long story, but here it goes.

The first 2 or 3 laps of 7 total were pretty tamed. After a big pack split came back together, at the end of lap 3 a break of 15 or so got away. I was fortunate enough to have Corey up in the break. This made my job easy. All I had to do was follow wheels and keep making the front selection up the 2 little climbs. After 4 laps, the break had about 3 minutes up on our chase group of around 18 riders. According to the officials, they were only allowing a 3 minute window before you got pulled. Yeah. Pulled. In a road race.. with 35 miles left in the race. Since I was just sitting on the back of the group getting my free ride, I ended up being scored at 31st. Not even knowing that was going to be our last lap. Since there was still a lot of racing left, no one in our group wanted to bail. We continued our chase for another lap. During the chase, we dropped all but 6 in our group and ended up catching and dropping about 5 guys out of the break. We picked up Corey who fell off the pace of the front break, but was able to hold on to our group. With one lap remaining, Kirk Carlsen was solo of the front still 3 minutes ahead of our group. Clearly he wasn't coming back. The rest of the break however, were only a minute and a half ahead. At this point we had ridden into the top 10 with podium spots still in contention. With a lap still left to race, it was too little too late, and all the chasing we had done was all for nothing. We had already been scored at the end of our previous lap.The worst part of the whole thing is that the race was unfolding exactly like it had last year in Seven Springs. With all but a few guys out of the break being caught.  USACycling and whoever said 3 minutes was a large enough window clearly messed up, and at nationals. Good job guys. Oh well I guess, it is what it is.

Corey had the ride of the day, being scored at 13th. Not bad for his first nationals.

Huntington Beach

Yesterday on our first "off" day before the road race on Sunday, we decided to ride out to Huntington Beach for some swimming and body boarding. The ride from Whittier was about and hr and a half. If you go a normal pace. Since Corey had the board strapped to his back it took us a little longer than expected due to the head wind. The water was pretty nice and the waves were pretty solid. Much better than the Gulf Coast of course. Since our little adventure, I have decided that I really need to move to California. Especially right off the coast. It's so nice and the weather is perfect. Plus it the scenery isn't bad on the eyes. So that's a huge bonus.

I'm not too sure when I'm going to make this big move, but it's going to happen. 

Today was the last prep day before our 115 mile road race. At first I thought the race was going to be a race of attrition that came down to a field sprint, but all of the woman and junior races today and little breaks getting away. It should be pretty tough.

After the race tomorrow, we will get showered up and loaded and head back to Dallas. 21 hr, non-stop drive. Yes, I am excited. Downers Grove next weekend and I am officially registered.

Sleep time.

Nationals crit

My first of 2 events this year at nationals is over. It was also my first race with my new team, Metro VW. The course was basically the king of all parking lot crits. It was a pretty tight and sketchy course in the Angels baseball stadium parking lot. That's right, parking lot crit with barriers lining the course and a man made round a bout. Probably the sketchiest crit I have ever done. Top 5 for sure. Only because There was a wreck in almost every corner. When there wasn't a crash, there was a good close call because people can't ride their bikes and they hook bars with the rider next to them. With 3 laps to go, all I could think about was the last thing Jim Hoyt said to me before I left for Cali. "Don't "fubar" that bike while your out there." I was very afraid of fighting for positioning simply because I really want to go home after I leave here. However, I sucked it up and grew a pair and managed to avoid a crash going into the last lap that was about 20 riders back. I could hear all the carnage behind me. Riders hitting the barriers, carbon wheels hitting the ground and derailleurs going into spokes. Tristan went down but is ok. Too bad, he was riding well.

Around the round about on the last lap (about 500 meters to go), I moved from 12th or so into the top 10. With 20 meters to go, it was on! I was hesitant to jump and waited for the favorites to jump first. Not too sure why, its not like I was going to sprint around them. In hind sight I would have jumped when I should have but I'm still not sure it would have made much difference. I ended up in 7th. I am very happy with that place, all things considered. I have done nationals since 2005 and I have only been in the top 10 one other time, and that was a 10th in the tt in Seven Springs in 06. So needless to say I was satisfied. Yet left a little disappointed. The podium was within my grasps and not out of reach. Justin Williams and Jake Keough battled it out for the win. It could have gone either way, but went to Justin. Halloway finished 3rd followed by Eric whatever from Time Factory and then Alex Boyd! rounding out the podium. Boyd is the man! Alexi Martinez finished right ahead of me in 6th. It makes me feel a little better knowing that I was the 2nd amateur, but there is no jersey for that. The rest of the guys rode well. Covered stuff early on so I didn't have too. They all stayed out of trouble and didn't crash and finished with the group. Not bad considering NONE of the guys have every done nationals before. Talk about being thrown into the gauntlet. Even Thacker Reeves threw down a good ride in his first nationals with a 10th. Hes got talent.

It was nice being able to jump across to a break or cover an attack and ride at the front and not get yelled at for being "selfish". Not a bad start to nationals, but I will need a little bit of luck for the next race. 115 miles on Sunday is gonna be rough. I am confident though. Winning or making the podium will be no easy task but this isn't my first dance.

Wish me luck.

Just to clear things up.

So I just want to set the record straight and let everyone know. TxTough and myself have parted ways. For people that cant draw their own conclusions, it was just a bunch of different things. Eventually something had to give. A week before nationals was not the best of timing, however it needed to be done. It was a mutual decision and no relationships were harmed. That I can see anyways. It is a disappointment, but not a surprise. I had originally just wanted to finish out the remaining part of the season unattached, but that was not very cost effective. Thanks to all the friends that gave me advice and support. I will be finishing the year with Metro VW starting with u23 nationals. My schedule is a little different than originally planned but it should still be good. After my departure in California I will head back to Dallas for a few days then straight to Chicago for crit nationals at Downers Grove. Then Hotter n Hell and 100k in Atlanta over Labor Day. I will also get to race the remaining crit series races with San Fran. and then the finals in Vegas. 

I'm pretty excited to get a new start with a new team. I was pretty lucky Nathan offered me an opportunity to ride for his team.

A huge thanks to Mike Gacki, Gary Woolfolk, Woody Smith and Jim Hoyt at Richardson Bike Mart for loaning me a bike since I have been back from SuperWeek. They definitely made things a ton easier on me.

Our first race isn't until Thursday with the crit at the Anaheim Angel stadium. The tt is tomorrow. We rode the course today and its pretty tough. I wish I were doing it, but its kinda expensive to fly 2 bikes. Maybe next year.

The road race is on Sunday. Its 186k, luckily its pretty flat with some gentle climbs. It should still be pretty hard though. 

Wish me luck.

Unexpected trip back to Dallas.

SuperWeek is officially over, however i have now been back in Dallas since Wednesday. I only raced 11 days before returning home. While racing in Bensenville, I crashed with 4 to go and broke my bike. I was ok, not even a bit of road rash, but I managed to get a 3-4 inch crack in the center of the top tube of my bike. Awesome. SRAM support was worthless so I continued to race it for another 5 days or so. On Tuesday I woke up feeling like a pile of crap and decided not to race. I told Barry and we agreed going home would be best.
I did manage to salvage a 7th place finish in Ripon before heading back. Not bad considering I was riding in support of Carlos. I think the rain made it easier to get a good result. All you had to do was not crash and stay at the front. Carlos had maybe the best Superweek he has ever had. Even after a slow start. He finished 3rd overall, 3rd in the sprint competition, and 1st in the top amateur competition. That's pretty solid considering he did it basically all by himself. He's the man.
Nationals is next on the agenda in just a couple short weeks time in the great state of California. The following week is crit nationals in Downers Grove.
This is all assuming I get a bike to ride and an airline ticket from my team to get to Cali. For the time being, Richrdson BikeMart has been very generous in loaning me a bike for training while I am in town and until Scott can come up with another one for me. I see myself riding a Speedster in the near future. Awesome! What an upgrade.
On the upside I did win the u23 state crit championship. We can just forget that the turn out was sub par for the event. For obvious reasons. A jersey is a jersey I guess. Bryan won another one too.
Out for now.

More Superweek.

Almost halfway done with Superwwek 2008. All in all its going ok. We had our first off day on Thursday, skipping the Shorewood crit, and used the day for travel from Chicago to our host housing in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Carlos is around 10th overall, 2nd amateur. He has been consistently finishing in the top 10 on every stage. On day 1 in Bensenville, he lapped the field with 7 other guys and finished in 5th on the day.
Coming into Superweek, we all knew that it was pretty dicey if you chose to be competitive, and that it wasn't a matter of IF but when you were going to crash. The team fairing well in the crash department so far. (knock on wood). Only Barry, John and myself have crashed. All on the same course. Luckily nothing too bad.
Yesterday was our first race after the rest day in Ripon, WI. The course was a kilometer long with 2 punchy climbs. Start positioning was crucial, groups were getting pulled 8 laps into the race. A group of 3 got off the front and eventually lapped the field. With 20 laps left it began to rain. For the next 12 laps there were crashes on every other corner. The race finished with myself, Carlos and Tyler all in the top 20. Today's course is in Waukesha. Last year this race had to be stopped and restarted twice due to crashes. Hopefully it goes better this year. However, rain is threatening, so it could get worse.
Before the race yesterday, I noticed a crack on my top tube a couple inches long. Still not sure if its all the way through the frame or just paint. I better find out soon though. Still a lot of racing left.
Internet is sorta hard to come by at the moment. I'll post back as soon as possible.

Thursday was also my dad's 52nd birthday. Just want to shout out to my biggest supporter and sponsor. Thank you for everything you do and the shit you have to deal with. I couldn't do it without you.

SuperWeek

We are up in the Chicago area for the first few races of Superweek. After Wednesday the remaining races will be up north in Wisconsin. The first races have gone by OK. No one has crashed....yet. Carlos is sitting in the top 20 overall and showing signs of good form despite being sick the entire trip up. Yesterday he spent over half the race in a 3 man break before getting caught with 30 laps remaining. He has been finishing consistently in the top 20 everyday. The races are much faster this year then I remember. Kelly Benefits has 6 guys, Kahala La Grange has 6 guys (at least). Plus Rock Racing is sending their squad from Cascade up to join the 2 jersey wearers, Rashaan and Sterling. Tyler, myself, Tristan, and newly adopted team mate John Trujillo are trying our hardest to support Carlos. The legs are feeling better and better each day. We all knew the first week was going to be the roughest. Hopefully things just continue to get better each day. Still 13 days left including 2 road race which have double points. We are a little further back then we were hoping but there is still a ton of racing left.
Check back in for updates every other day.
Today the race is in Bensenville, IL. About 10 min from our hotel. No more sitting in traffic for 30 min to get to the race. Finally. 2 1/2 hrs and 100 kilometers of death.

Also, Thank you to the following people for continuing to donate to TX Tough in my behalf.
Nancy Donahue
Betsy Murphy
Tammy Rice
Alan & Kathy Johnson

Back to Austin.

I've been back in town for a couple of weeks now. I can't believe I went so long with the lack of training in Dallas. Its not that its bad, Austin is just far better.

While I was in Dallas I managed to play a ton of golf and match my all time number of wins at the Tuesday niter with 2 in a row. I know its no 7- straight. But it will do for me.

The Matrix Challenge went alright. No wins for the team but some money made and still some solid results. I basically sucked, but rebounded nicely the following weekend to make up for it.

Carlos also won the fastest lap and in doing so scored a sweet Trek cruiser bike, or the "scraper"  bike as Tristan calls it.

Last weekend was the 5th annual AT&T downtown criterium. This weekend as a whole was probably one of the coolest moments of my racing career thus far. Top 5 for sure. Thursday was the driveway as per usual, but this time with the Colavita boys, Rashaan Bahati and some out of towners. Saturday was the big show. A twilight crit in front of a few thousand drunk spectators. Always a good time. Colavita won again, with Toyota going 2-3-4. As predicted, the top 2 amateurs in the race came from our team. Carlos got 6th and won the top amateur jersey, and I finished 12th and won the best young riders jersey. Tristan and Tyler also put in solid rides. Making their presence known at the front.

We had this past weekend off from racing, and after one more "off" week, we leave for SuperWeek on the 8th. This kicks off our season. At least the part of the season we care most about. We have very high expectations as always. After Superweek we fly out to California for nationals. From there we will see how everyone is feeling. Gateway Cup and Vuelta Chihuahua are also on our schedule by seasons end.

Hopefully the ORIGINAL rat-tail will join us for some of our expeditions.

Also, thank you to everyone who has continued to donate to the txtough.org website in my behalf.

Keep the $$$ coming. :)

Andrew

Happy Birthday!

Just another day. I think I'll go ride my bike today. :)

big number 20.

Thanks.

Tulsa Tough

Last weekend was the Tulsa Tough. I love coming to this race. It's harder than a Txbra race but its not completely demotivating. This year was a little bigger than last year. The purse was larger, and the competition was tougher. This year there was a cat.1/2 race, followed by the Pro/1 category.

Carlos, myself, Tristan, and Barry did the Pro race. It went pretty well for us. I managed to finish in the money all the days. Not too bad considering Toyota United came with their entire Tour de France squad. I guess they were prepping for Philly. They took 1-5 of the overall and pretty much every stage looked very similar to that also. Carlos scored an 11th on the very hard 3rd stage. Thats amazing considering 10 guys got away early and were never seen again.

I finally felt like I had some fitness. Now I remember what thats like. I was able to surf around the pack and attack and cover attacks. It was nice. Hopefully it just gets better from here.

My next race will be the Matrix Challenge followed by the AT&T downtown criterium in Austin. 

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Tx Tough.org website in my behalf! Keep the donations coming, its for a good cause!

Mike Dahlheim

Jan Diliberto

Dave Diliberto

Judy Bonacci

Kathy Radford

Ken & Lydia Ferguson

Michelle Shuffield

Frederick Kelly

Farl Maxwell

Sorry for anyone I missed!

Thanks again.

Andrew

Dallas

Been a while since I've updated. Lets have a quick recap. Several races have come and gone since the 1st of April.

Mineral Wells Day 1- Brett 1st, Carlos 2nd, Me 3rd

Mineral Wells Day 2- Tyler 3rd

Ft. Davis- Tristan 4th (hill climb), Tyler 2nd (road race)

Mississippi Grand Prix- Carlos 1st road race, 6th tt, 4th crit, 2nd GC

                                            Tyler 12th tt, 3rd crit

                                            Tristan 5th road race, 13th tt

                                            Andrew 6th road race, 18th tt

                                            Tx Tough 2nd team Classification

Joe Martin Stage race- Carlos 6th tt, 3rd road race 1, 1st road race 2, 3rd crit, 1st GC!!

                                         Andrew 18th tt, 8th crit

                                         Tristan 9th tt, 4th road race 1, 9th GC

                                         Tyler 10th crit

Bear Creek criterium- Andrew 2nd

                                        Carlos 6th

Houston Grand Criterium- Carlos 2nd

                                                 Tyler 3rd

                                                 Andrew 17th

Gary Glickman Memorial Criterium- Andrew 7th

                                                                  Tyler 8th

                                                                  Geoff 10th

                                                                  Bryan 11th

GS Tenzing Criterium- Bryan 5th

                                          Carlos 7th

State Criterium Championships- Tyler 2nd

                                                           Bryan 5th

                                                           Andrew 6th

I have been in Dallas since the conclusion of Houston Grand. All the races lately have been up in this area anyway so I thought I would take this opportunity to visit my parents and see some of my friends while they are home from school. I have also gotten in a little bit of motor pacing to prep for all the crits. We leave for Tulsa tomorrow. The Tulsa Tough is such a fun and hard weekend of racing. Im stoked for this year. Tomorrow night is our first stage, then one Saturday night, and then Sunday afternoon. Our team will be split up. Myself, Tyler, Tristan, Barry and perhaps Geoff will be doing the Pro race; and Bryan, Surfer, Brett, and Chopper will be doing the 1,2 race to grab some cash and results. I assume Im going to be staying in Dallas until AT&T crit weekend. I really want to limit my racing this month. After Tulsa I plan on hitting the 2 Matrix crits here in Dallas and then going back home for our AT&T criterium. I am opting out of the age based state championships this year. My main focus for the rest of the year is on SuperWeek, u23 and Elite nationals in California, Hotter N Hell, and of course the TX TOUGH pro criterium in Victory park on September 13th. Shameless plug i know.

My injuries are close to 100% healed up and now my fitness is coming back around. Finally! What a frustrating season thus far. i have had to make some early season sacrifices, but I believe it will pay off by the time the season is over. I have been doing a little bit of track racing also. I always forget how much fun it is when there are 20+ people racing out at the Superdrome in Frisco. Such good training too. Good Times

The txtough.org website is complete as far as I know. Please go check it out and donate in my behalf! Each of us have to raise a minimum of $500. Go make a donation for the Childrens Medical Center of Dallas.

Hopefully my next update will be soon. I'll try to check bak in after Tulsa.

Andrew

Belterra and some things.

Second week back on the bike and my first "real" race back. Solid training, nothing to really write home about. I have been capping my rides at about 3 hrs and picking up the tempo a little bit. I still don't want to over do it just yet. I jumped in the Tuesday night ride out south of town, which is always fast. Since Ft. Davis is just around the corner, I have been getting out on my Scott Plasma time trial bike a couple of times a week. It feels fast, and even if I don't set a course record, at least I'll look kinda cool with our Advantage helmets thanks to Giro and our Zipp wheels flying down the road. I'm pumped. Right now I think Tristan will be the GC guy out there. He is riding super strong, and is a good pure climber to have on your team. I also did the Thursday night driveway crit last week. After watching Don, the boss, destroy his "c" race companions in his second ever USCF race. I was just thinking, I can't disappoint. When in reality, I was going to be very happy just to hang in and cover stuff. Mission accomplished. Barry and Carlos got into a break that ended up lapping the field. Every time I looked across the course to the break, Barry would be at the front turning his giant 54t chain ring in anger.

Once the break lapped our main field, I sat up and pulled out and witnessed Barry out sprint John Korioth and Stefan to keep the KOD jersey in the TX Tough family. Hopefully he wont lose it between now and Thursday in his truck or bedroom. We'll see.

The legs have been getting a lot better. Still not much fitness to be seen out of me. Just kinda "going through the motions", as Christian always tells me.

Belterra was kinda cool. Not nearly as challenging of a course that they have had in years past, but still fun. With the fast downhill toward the finish, a break staying away was going to be next to impossible. We all did a good job of covering moves and getting in all the breaks. Tristan got in a move halfway through the race with Stefan and Willis that looked threatening. However, after Willis had a mechanical issue on the hill, the 2 remaining were just cruising waiting for the group to catch them. On the last lap, Stefan launched yet another ferocious  attack on the hill and no one followed him. Like I said, an end result in anything other than a field sprint was unlikely, but if anyone were going to change that, it were going to be him. Stefan is not a sprinter and will never take his chance in a field sprint. I saw him up the road, and stomped on the pedals to get across to him at the top of the climb. Keep in mind that my fitness level is rather low, so you can imagine once I latched onto his wheel, I was cashed. We soon got caught and just jumped back into the pack. A few other small attacks from people who aren't sprinters tried their chances, but nothing doing. I tried to back to the front on the downhill to help out Barry with the lead out, but again, not happening. Barry set up the train nicely with Carlos and Tyler on his wheel. Somewhere between the downhill and finish, a certain SuperSquadra rider boss hogs his way into Tyler, trying to shut down the lead out. With about 150 meters to go Tyler takes over the sprint, which 9 times out of 10 are wins for him. On this occasion, (which is also his first race back as well since his crash nearly a month ago), the SuperSquadra rider had his way with him. Pushing him over into the curb, forcing T. Jewell to stop pedaling all together. Squadra took the win, then Boyd (who is riding like a bad ass), and Rob Kane had a surprise 3rd place. I was impressed with that result out of him. He is kinda old. :)

Tyler had to settle for 4th after an arguably sheisty sprint. All you can do is learn from your mistakes though. Maybe next time he'll throw some bows and be a bit more aggressive. Carlos and Will got 5th and 6th, and I limped in with the pack feeling like a small child. 

More steady training and Mineral Wells next weekend. Good race, and good preparation for Ft. Davis. Hopefully Stefan won't have his way with me again this year. Although, 2nd to him is usually not too shabby.

On another note, Bryan Fawley represented TX Tough at the NORBA National in Fontana California. You have to hear the story from him, but long story short. A disappointing cross country, nicely rebounded with a 19th in the pro short track. He'll take that all day.

Back to Training

My first week back since I crashed and I have ridden on average 2 hrs everyday. With no major re-accuring pain. I have been taking the week pretty light. Wednesday, Tyler, Carlos and myself rode out to Lockhart. The wind was pretty burly coming back home. Carlos some how managed to break his chain in Creedmore. Thus ending our "quality" training for the day. Tyler and i pushed him all the back to Slaughter and 35. It doesn't sound that bad, but considering we aren't anywhere close to 100%, it was quite a hard task. We thought we would be smart and cut through the construction sight straight back to 35. Bad idea. We had totally forgot that it rained pretty hard a couple of days prior. So every mile or so we would have to cross a patch of straight mud. With no by passes.  By the time we got to 35, Our shoes were pretty caked with pebbles and mud. Good thing I had to change my cleats anyways. 

Yesterday was the Thursday night crit out at the driveway. The course is awesome, and will be even better once the entire thing is finished. Will took the win and brought the KOD jersey back to the family.

Tyler was given the ok to ride outside by the doctor. I think he will also race Belterra next weekend. It has been a hard couple of weeks for us missing out on all the action. We are definitely exited to get back in the swing of things and get out and mix things up a bit.

Thanks again to everyone that checked up on us and were there to support us.

We can not say thank you enough to all of our sponsors for being there for us and doing so many great things for the team. Geoff Godsey, Barry Lee, and Todd Reed have done everything in there power to make it all happen. Huge thanks to Doug Looney of Scott Bikes, as well as the nice people at Zipp and SRAM.  Thanks to Liz at Hotel San Jose and our title sponsor, TX Tough. The new txtough.org website is up and running, so be sure to check that out. 

Remember to donate! The first leg of  TX Tough is September 13th.

2 Long Weeks.

Yesterday was the first day to be back on the bike in a little over 2 weeks since my crash. My knee is still a little sore but nothing that time won't heal. Hopefully. I still have to do a few sessions of physical therapy, but I can tell my leg is feeling better and better every day. I only rode for 1.5 hrs. but I don't want to over due it just yet. I will probably do 2 hr rides all week. 

I got back to Austin on Saturday and finished unpacking my room at our team house. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done (washer, dryer, refrigerator etc.), but it will get there sometime. Now were all in the house, except for Tyler that stays there sometimes.

I got my bike fixed and the handle bars replaced. They were broken in half straight thru. No salvaging those bars. Im just happy to be back on the road, and am looking forward to Belterra in 2 weeks.

Fayetteville was last weekend.  Alex Boyd made the race his bitch by soloing the first road race and getting 2nd in the tt and last road race. Tx Tough only had 4 starters. Tristan got sick and Bryan went to Waco for the mountain bike race (which he won by over 2 minutes). Carlos was our top finisher in 14th overall. then Dan and Will were right behind in the top 20 as well.

Not great, but we'll take it.

Tyler is getting better and is riding more and more. Still not sure if he will race Belterra but hopefully he can.

Maybe we will all be fast by then.

Update.

Just checking in after the weekends racing. Obviously I did not join in on the dirt road racing festivities. However, Tristan, Bryan, and Carlos did an awesome job representing for TX Tough nonetheless.
Tunis Roubaix was one of my personal favorite races. Not too far from home in College Station. usually a pretty selective race and not the best road conditions. Tristan and Bryan proved why they are 2 of the best mountain bikers and all around cyclists in the state by going 1-2. Thanks to a big effort put in by Carlos and Dan Opdyke who still finished 5th and 7th respectively (I believe).
After the race, Tristan, Bryan, and Carlos hopped in the truck with Barry and drove a few hrs. east to Louisiana for Rouge Roubaix. I have never had the opportunity to do this race (usually overlapping Lago Vista), but I had heard good thing. Similar to Tunis the day prior, the course called for a few big gravel road sections. With basically the entire cash purse going to the top 3, a good result was crucial. Of course the team didn't disappoint. At the finish of the 100+ mile race, Carlos won the field sprint for 2nd with Bryan and Tristan right behind in the same front group in 6th and 10th. The winner soloed the last 25 miles. From what I hear, there were about 100 starters and the field split into several groups.
Tyler and I are getting better. I should be back on the bike in a week. Tyler is already back on the bike but he probably shouldn't be. Were trying to talk him into taking some time off since he slipped a disc in his back. Fayetteville is this weekend and once again I will not be attending. Instead, I will be going back home to the new team house on Windsor and finish unpacking. We have some guys that are on pretty good form right now, or at least fast enough to win anyways. Fayetteville always has a solid turn out and being a stage race adds some extra difficulty. I'm sure the Team will have no problem delivering the goods yet again.
I have very high expectations for the year, not only for myself but the team as a whole also. Being one of the full time guys on the team I find it my responsibility to get results for the team, or at least do my part to get someone on the Team to get results. Since I have missed the past 2 weeks of racing, and will have missed the 3 weeks of racing by the time I'm back on the bike, the rest of the guys have done an awesome job of stepping up. Primarily Bryan and Tristan. I can not really praise them enough. They have had a very strong showing in the early season races.
Good Job to everyone for getting it done.
It's going to be a good year.

I will be able to post pictures and stuff once I get back home and on my computer.
Check race reports from Tunis and Rouge Roubaix at Tristan's blogspot and Bryan's website.
Thanks

See, what had happend was..

I would just like to fill people in on the recent incident Tyler and myself had with a deer this past weekend at Lago Vista. At least the people that don't already know.
Well first of all, it is true. We were taken out by a deer while on the bike. Whats even crazier is that it was on two separate occasions.
On Friday before the race, I had been moving into the new team house all day and hadn't been able to get a ride in yet. Since it was the day before a race it wasn't supposed to be a hard or long ride. Just a little spin to stay loose. After I made my last trip to the house with a load of stuff I loaded my bike and busted ass out to Lago ahead of the rest of my team to get some sort of ride in before it got dark. That was mistake number 1. When I was driving in I saw probably dozens of venison scampering across the roads. I was riding a loop of the course and half way through my ride I saw a small pack of deer. Probably 6-8 of them. The first thing that crossed my mind was, how stupid do you have to be to get hit by a deer? Apparently not very. I was descending down one of the final hills before the finish at around 35-40. I wasn't gettin it by any means but it was fast enough to feel a chilly breeze. As I'm going down the hill I see a lone deer running straight for me. Before I could react the deer was right in front of me and the only place I could go was where the deer was going to be. I hit my brakes and plowed right into the hip of the deer. According to the Moritz guys that were close behind me I slid down the hill probably 100 meters before hitting a decorative boulder on the golf course head first. Luckily I stayed concious the whole time and the ambulance was there in no time. To cut the length of this story down, I was out of Brackenridge Hospital by 11:30 with 4 stitches in my face and 2 in my knee. I also had a slight nick in my patella that kept me from walking or bending my leg. Its been 1 week off the bike so far, and according to Dr. Barber, my orthopedist in Plano, One week of physical therapy and I should be good to go. I'll be missing 3 weeks of racing (LagoVista- Fayetteville). Look for my come back at Belterra.
As for Tyler, I'm not sure of his condition. I talk to him daily and get all the updates and he seems to be in high spirits. According to him both of our bikes are in need of some work. He also has road rash in 9 different places on his body. Especially his back. He cracked his elbow and tweaked his spine a little bit. He isn't sure of the severity of his spinal injury but he still isn't able to walk comfortably. Hopefully he will be back at it soon and his injuries aren't any worse than expected. We were both pretty lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries.
If you haven't already, read Veggie's take on the incident. http://fcsvegg.blogspot.com/2008/03/news-flash-deer-extremly-attaracted-to.html

Thanks for all the thoughts and support.

The New THSJ.

The beginning of the season has started and this post is a little late.
A few big races have come and gone, including Pace Bend weekend and the Primavera at Lago Vista. There are a lot of stacked teams for '08. Velossimo is bigger and faster than ever and HealthCoach has added some horsepower and could be a threat this year. Same with the always strong Mercy squad. They proved they are back and ready to race by winning both days at Lago this year. Good Job to Mat Ankney and Stefan.
As for Team Hotel San Jose; we are totally revamped for this season. Adding new sponsors and several new, strong, experienced riders. We kicked off the season shaking off the cob webs with New Braunfuls, Castroville, and Valley of the Sun. Tyler scored a win in the crit at New Braunfuls, but other than that our results have been solid yet disappointing. A few top 10s at Castroville and Walburg and some decent top 5s at Lago Vista from Bryan Fawley and our newest seasoned Vet, Brian Sheedy. We had a huge win at Valley of the Sun in the Pro,1 road race with Tristan out sprinting Dave Clinger uphill. No one was more deserving of the win than him. Willy Ross put his wirey skills to work in the crit scoring a 4th against Rock Racing.
A strong start by most teams standards still isn't quite what we were looking for to start the season. With Fayetteville 2 weeks away, the team will be missing half of the core riders. This past weekend both myself (Andrew) and T. Jewell were taken out by a deer at Lago. Our injuries aren't too bad, but we are going to have to sit a few weeks out. I Missed the entire Lago weekend and will miss Tunis, Rouge Roubaix, and Fayetteville. Hopefully making my return the weekend of Belterra. Tyler will probably be the same, maybe longer. He is still questionable.
Along with our injuries, our Fayetteville roster will be a little hindered with Sheedy back home in North Carolina and Fawley opting out to do the mountain bike race in Waco. Luckily Tristan is riding like a man child and Carlos, Geoff, and Nick are all coming into form.
Look for strong performances out of us this year. Its only just begun. Pretty soon our team will be healthy and working like the dominate team we are used to being.
Look for periodic updates from Tristan and Nick. The TxTough.org team website should be up and running soon also so be sure to check that out in the next week or so.
The 2008 Tx Tough roster:
Barry Lee
Geoff Godsey
Brian Sheedy
Carlos Vargas
Nick Keirnan
Brett Crosby
Andrew Dahlheim
Tyler Jewell
Tristan Uhl
Bryan Fawley
Will Ross
Chopper Kincaid
Dan Opdyke
Andy Wilson