Before diving headlong into my first entry, I guess I should give everyone a little background about myself and my cycling history.  As a junior, I spent the majority of my time racing and training in Trexlertown. I was a half decent track sprinter and ended up my final year as a junior with a handful of second places at Junior Track Nationals and a ninth place at Junior Track Worlds. The transition to the elite world of track sprinting was a huge slap in the face and I quickly realized I was best suited to the demands of endurance racing. Since I made the switch to endurance track and road racing I spent a couple of seasons racing over in Europe. One season I raced for a Belgian squad while my second season was spent with an amateur team out of Bretagne in France. Last year I returned to the States and resumed school at Columbia while racing for Sakonnet. Basil and all the guys at Sakonnet provided me with the opportunity to further my cycling career and this year I was picked up by the Nerac Professional Cycling Team.

The season has been a mix of ups and downs  and has been accompanied by a big learning curve. Learning my role within the team and how to execute it properly has been a challenge that Im just starting to understand. Adam Meyerson has typically been the go-to-rider for the sprints while I have been one of his last leadout men. Adjusting from the role of designated sprinter to leadout rider has been a big transition, but one that Im starting to finally get my head around. Regardless of who it is on the team that is getting the results, it is a good feeling to know that Ive contributed to it in one form or another.

As for immediate, and Im sure more interesting, things I raced at Park Ridge this past Sunday. I havent done the race in at least three years and I forgot how hard that course is! The heat definitely didnt help matters but Id be lying if I said that hill wasnt gut-wrenching. I tried putting in a few digs during the race but just didnt have that last bit to maintain the necessary intensity. I got away with Tyler Wren from Colavita but was dropped after three or four laps with him. A bit frustrating considering he ended up finishing fifth. In the end, I dropped my chain going into the hill on the last lap and that was that.  All I could do was furiously pedal the air while trying to throw the chain back onto the bike while everyone else rode away. Not exactly how I wanted to finish the race. Either way, relatively happy with day but not the end result.

I use an SRM and thought Id include my watts from Sunday.

Numbers from Park Ridge:

Peak 1 min. – 580 watts

Peak 20 min. – 343 average, 469 normalized

Peak 60 min. – 271 average, 412 normalized

Peak Wattage – 1093

Well that is it for now. I have included a handful of photographs from the past couple years of racing. The photos of myself in the orange, white, and black kit was when I was racing for EC Mayenne in France. The other cyclist in that photograph was my housemate and was racing for Luc LeBlanc’s espoir team – UCSL Lotus MBK. THe Nerac shots are from Harlem and a team training camp at the beginning of the season. Finally, the dingy looking apartment was where I was living in Brittany during my season in France. If anybody has questions, etc. just post them on the site and Ill get back to you with an answer. Good luck with the riding and racing.