Well it happened, as I was hoping it soon would. I finished off a race with a W. It wasn't easy, but it never is. But other then the fact that I won, what a pretty cool race.

with little to no traffic and basically use of the whole road. I hope this race is able to stick around, and I bet if you had the right weather conditions you would have a lot more spectators right there in The start/finish area right in downtown Frankenmuth, then heading out into the back countryFrankenmuth near the start finish.

Not only was there a bike race the same day in Frankenmuth there also was a Lumberjack competition, a dog jupming compition, and a sand sculpter competition. I was glad we were able to find the right spot and not end up at the Lumberjack competition, and at first glance of Papa Tony I thought we had made that mistake, but dont be confused he is a bike racer, and not a Lumberjack.

Right from the start the questions were flying. Shouldn't you be doing something bigger and better? Is this your Philly prep? Do you know this race is only half the distance of Philly? My answers to those questions were there is nothing better going on then the Tour of Frankenmuth this day, yes I am using this race in prep for Philly, and yes I am well aware of the distance of the race at Philly, but thanks for making it somehow seem longer as if it didn't seem long enough.

This race was fairly aggressive with riders going up the rode right from mile one, with James Knight going up and off the course as the lead motos took him off course. We on the other went the right direction, but then slowed and waited for him to catch back on. Soon enough some others attacked into the crosswind section.

Well one after another break went and was reeled back. I spent a fair bit of time following moves, and bringing things back. Even were in a few breaks, but a few guys didn't seem like they wanted to work with me. It was on lap 3 where a group of 7 or so had gotten up the road and I was able to get up the road with 2 or 3 guys on my wheel and make it to the front group. I didn't know we had separated from the main field, but when we caught up I glanced back and saw the split and went hard for a while to keep the field back.

I was hoping the group would work better then it did, but some guys were either a bit fatigued or didn't want to work in the group that was this big, or that had me in it. A few guys worked well with me and would roll through, but then we did still have the few were on the back that had me a bit concerned.

Halfway through the 4th lap everyone was sitting up again and not pulling through so I rolled to the very right side of the road and rode hard for a km, then made the left into one of the headwind sections. I glanced back again and nobody had got on my wheel and I opened up a gap. I then hit it just before being joined by Ben Whitehead of Priority, and I drilled it for the next half lap, while Ben did what he could. Into the final lap I couldn't see anymore riders and figured our gap was big enough, so I let up a bit and tried not to take harder, or longer pulls then my companion and save it for the finish.

In the last km, I decided that I was going to stay behind him and make him lead out the downhill sprint. He had other plans and attacked before the last rain soaked corner and opened up a bit of gap as I took the corner a bit easier. He kept on the gas, but I was able to close the gap with 500 meters to go and with just under 300 to go I took off and went in for my first victory of the year.

Up next I think I've decided to do Tour of Gastown Light in Grand Rapids. So I will see you boys on Monday again. I really enjoy coming back to the local scene. Everyone is so friendly and the words of encouragement as I go out to the big races I really enjoy. Thanks guy

Thanks for reading
Breeze On

Oh yeah it was raining during the race.

Back in Bay City for the Tour of Frankenmuth. Maybe I can win a race this year. One that is close to where I grew up would be nice, like the Tour of Frankenmuth. We will see.

If not then I have three "chances" to win a bike race in the next two weeks at Lancaster, Reading, or Philly (if i make the selection). I guess I would take any of three. Im not too picky. I know Alejandro is going want to win and is capable of, so he can have two.

I wonder how everyone on the team is doing? Haven't seen them in a while. If you guys are reading this good luck in the upcoming crits. Take care of business and I'll see you all in a few days.

As you can see I don't have much to talk about.

Thanks for being borded with me,
Breeze On

Up next for me is another local race for me back near my hometown. The race is about 30 miles from where I grew up and travels on many of the roads I have ridden on numerous training rides. I think it's going to be pretty cool to actually have a race out there, in almost the middle of nowhere. And if you have never been to Frankenmuth or the roads around it, and are going to the race, you will soon know what I am talking about. Pretty much like Cone Azalia, only without the dirt roads.

After that I finally make it out to the "big" scene and start racing with the team. I made the selections to do Lancaster and Reading, and depending on my performance in Lancaster will decide whether or not I do Philly. So hopefully I go out there and have some solid racing. Although I think it would have been nice to do a few of the races leading into it to get a "feel" for that level again, but I'll just have to trust the training and at least I should be fresh.

So I did a few long rides over the past week and I was testing out my theory of being in the motorcycle wave club. So after getting that first initial wave I went a stunning 0-12 in the next few days.

Thanks for reading
Breeze On

Less then 2 months to the Tour De France. I feel like my preparation is going quite well. I have been able to do a ton of training, and even got out for 2 races so far this year to gage my fitness. Oh wait a minute I'm not Lance and I'm not doing the tour. It's a little different not doing races every weekend like in years past. I feel like a pro bike practicer instead of racer. Although soon enough I believe there will be almost more racing then I can handle.

I did do the local crit in town this past weekend like I mentioned, but it's hard to do much with two teams that have 10 guys a piece in the field, without a very selective course. I did what I could. Now I know how Obee felt the past two years at Rockford. Its a bit rough on the other side.

So anyways I was riding today and for the first time I received an official motorcycle wave. You know the one where the guy puts out his hand facing down. I think I'm officially in the club. We are both on bikes so its pretty much the same.



However my engine is bigger of course. Although I can't even put out the same amount of horse power as the motorcycle can. Heck cyclist don't even measure power with horsepower, we use watts. To top that off that is the same measurement used on light bulbs.



So how fast do you feel now?

Thanks for reading
Breeze On

I really don't have much to report on. I've hit a bit of down time in my season and there will be no racing till the end of the month, but once we get towards the end of May it will be full on racing. Not exactly sure what races I will be doing yet, but I imaging there will be some criteriums on the east coast followed by one, two, or all of the races in the Commerce Bank Triple Crown.

Im pretty excited about the Commerce Triple Crown races this year because I believe I truly can be competitive this year, and I know my team is strong and we all can do well.

This is how bored I am right now, I'm talking about races 3 weeks away.

Tomorrow i am doing the Eagle Creek Traditional Criterium here in town and that should be fun. Maybe I will actually have something to write about then. Till next time...

Thanks for reading
Breeze On

The Breeze Journal

Thursday, May 7th, 2007

This years Cone Azaila greeted riders with sunny skies, cool temperatures, and what most would call blustery conditons. With the wind blowing and the dirt roads on course it was going to lead up to yet another exciting addition of this event.

The race is held on a 18km loop with 7kms of dirt each of the 7 laps. The longest section coming a km after the start finish line was 4kms in length with a strong crosswind blowing left to right across the farmfield landscape. At 10:30 in the morning 70 plus riders took to the roads and along with batteling each other the riders delt with the roads, wind, and flats.

Almost straight from the gun attacks went up the road as the riders entered the first dirt road sections. A group of 5 quickly opened up a gap of which included Texas Roadhouses Albers and Martin, along with Greg Christian of WCMR, and a Priority Health rider. Soon after a slue of riders were looking ot make a charge off the front and open a gap. A few Abercrombie and Fitch riders with a few others where trying to form a chase group coming off the first section and heading to the second section.

As we hit the second section, which was much rougher covered with holes, more gravel, and just after the first lap many waterbottles, some more guys found themselves stretching out thier legs to get up the road in the 1 mile of tailwind section on dirt. Josh Tarrent was the first to go, and relizing that there seemed to be a good amount of strong riders heading up, I decided it was time to go. I jumped away with Ben Whitehead of Priority Health on my wheel. We were moving pretty quickly as we passed a few unfortunate riders who had already been casualties on the day with flats and caught up to what would form as the chase group.

Now there was 4 or 5 up the road and 6 in the chase group after only the first lap, and this would turn into the race. The second time through the dirt I put it in the gutter and hammered to try to catch the front group. I found myself in between groups in pursuit of the front group which had a 25 second gap. After spending half a lap chasing only being able to get within 15 seconds and the others still hanging right behind me by 10 seconds, I decided to wait and hope that we could all do it together more effectively.

All that seemed to happen after this is that the gap went up to almost a minute heading into the 4th lap. Senseing the urgency of the race rolling away I once again decided to hit it on the long dirt road section. The gap came down fairly quickly and the chase group had shrunk. I decided just to keep going hard and see if we could get them back. I ended up making it across shortly after the second dirt road section with just one other rider on my wheel, Jeff Kock of Priority. Now the front group was 6 riders with a few riders not to far behind.

All of us continued to work and once again began to pull away. I found myself putting in another effort the next time around to get a feel of the other riders. I ended up pulling off the forn wtih Paul Martin, but he didn't seem to interested in giving it ago so we were caught by his teammate and Greg, but in the process loss the two Priority Boys. Paul, Greg and myself continued to work together taking even pulls and Albers spent much time sitting on.

The last time through the dirt section saw the last of the attacking to the finish. I gave it a go twice, but wasn't wearing out the other riders as they were riding well, and after taking the previous lap fairly easy. Then each of the others took their turn in countering and coming off the first section of dirt we were all together.

The finishing stretch was a 2km drag staight into the wind. I knew if it came down to a sprint it would for sure lessing my chances of winning and anything can happen. I was worried about going early because of the head wind so I wanted as many riders in front of me and was hoping I could go around in the last 100 meters. Plans changed as Albers attacked just inside a km to go and Greg jumped on his wheel. I was going to jump on his Gregs wheel, but Martin was looking like he was going to so I was going to let him and then come around like planned. Unfortunelty for me he let up and a gap opened to the other two. I decided I had to jump and go for. Just as I started Greg caught Albers at the 500 meter sign and took on glance back very wisely countered and kept going. Greg rode strong in the final 500 and I was unable to close the gap, and he rode away with a very nice victory. I came across in 2nd. I knew a sprint would be a bad thing, but the others where riding well and thats the way it ended up.

Thanks for reading
Breeze On

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