Here is how the last two weeks of racing have gone for me:
Holderness Road Race: 4th
Gould Road Race: 15th
KUA Points Race (track): 1st
Exeter Time Trial: 1st
Do you see a pattern?
The pattern is that I really only get by in cycling because of my capacity to be in a lot of pain and oxygen debt and still work harder. I finished well in the Holderness Road Race because I was able to claw my way back on the last uphill section before the finish line and almost catch the lead group of three.
In the Gould Race the team from Exeter used their four team members to somewhat of an advantage…one of them would attack right after another and when they got caught they would just tuck in out of the wind and rest. By the uphill section to the finish line I just got mad and wanted to break some people, so I pushed the pace quite hard and dislodged two of the Exeter boys from the pack by the time the finish hill came. At that point I just didn’t want to go at all for the finish, so I let the guys who were still on my tail pass me and took last in the pack sprint. Someone asked me later why I went so hard and I couldn’t give them a straight answer other than that I wanted to hurt people. I thought that maybe physical contact would be inappropriate in a race setting, so I decided to hurt them using my legs and my bike.
The last two races have been more fun than the road races. At KUA, I was once again a loner in the A division, so I tried to figure out a way to play that to my advantage a little. I knew based on the Gould race that no one other than me was willing to actually pull the pack at all, so I decided on a strategy that worked for me and another teammate last year. The race takes place on a 1/3 mile race car track near KUA, and every 5 laps there is a sprint for points. As we were gearing up for the sprint, I stayed at the back of the pack and just watched. I took about 7th across the line, and then moved to the right (the outside) of the track, watching patiently. When I saw an Andover kid take off, I hopped right on his wheel and soon there were three of us, and we had about a 2 second advantage. I was a little surprised the group had given us this much berth, so I got excited and began to sprint, yelling something like, “WE HAVE A GAP, LET’S GO GUYS!” and they looked at me like I had three heads. So about half a lap later I looked back and the two kids were sitting up! The pack was still behind them. I made a decision right there to stay away as long as I could. 5 laps went by, and I won the second sprint. Ten laps, fifteen. I had about a ten second gap when the lap-20-double-point sprint happened, and it was increasing. Every sprint lap my lead on the pack would go down by a few seconds by virtue of the fact that I was time-trialling at a constant pace and they were sprinting to the line. Then they would slow the next two laps and I would be able to gain those couple seconds back and add a couple on my own. I think my average speed for the race was 24.3, basically because I was in the drops in the aero position the entire time producing a steady hard effort. My lead got up to 24 seconds at one point when the pack and I were on the same straightaway but I was not able to catch them by the time the 40-lap race ended.
The Exeter race was a little less exciting because of its time trial format, but because of Nordic I am well-acquainted with the concept. I was the only boy in the Boys A division not to have a teammate, which meant that I did the time trial on my own instead of with a partner. It was a very technical course, with four 90 degree and two 180 degree turns. The trick to the 180 degree turns was to actually approach them really fast, break really hard, turn slowly, and then accelerate with everything you had. Doing the 90 degree turns well was just a question of picking the right line through the manhole covers and drain grates, and not hitting the hay bales at the end of the turn. We saw a bunch of crashes, luckily none of which happened in boys’ A, so I was safe. I ended up winning by almost 15 seconds over the team from Andover. What made me happy was that I started last, so I could pick off the teams as I moved up. I passed everyone except Andover and Exeter team 1, but I could see them as they passed on the other side of the road after the 180 turns, so I knew roughly how I was doing based on at what point on the road we passed each other. The rest of our team also did well. We had several podiums, one from Nate and Jordan, one from Lily, and one from Betsey and Lane, and one from Ethan and Julien.
My training log proudly displays 36.5 hours now, after over 4 weeks of training. I’m on track! Damn, that training month went by quickly. I’m moving on from the “Patience” period to the “Patience and Buildup” period and entering phase two of training for Williams Nordic 2010. I just thought I’d say that cause it sounded cool.
In other news: there are 19 days left of school. It’s bittersweet, but when I think about it, I’d much rather be out of here corresponding once in a while than still be here. It’s been a hard three years for sure, and believe it or not, this spring has been the hardest semester of high school I have ever had. I keep reminding myself it will be over soon.
My final bit of news: I joined an athlete sponsorship website recently, not thinking much of it. A couple weeks ago I submitted an application for sponsorship by Rudy Project. They emailed me back today saying I my application had been accepted! I was thrilled to hear that, so now whenever you visit my “About” page, you’ll see the proudly displayed Rudy logo and link. Here it is again just for good measure. 
Soon you’ll see me wearing awesome sunglasses and possibly a helmet to display my sponsor’s name. Thank you Rudy Project!
Ian
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