Season of the Apocalypse... Grant's Tomb Criterium

Heading to NJ before NYC.

The season of the apocalypse is upon us.  While the first two months of 2012 have managed to whip by, the cycling season has just begun.  The riders this seasons are looking to follow the trend of the year thus far,  whippin' on by fast as hell.... one might say, they've gone plaid?


Friday evening, Joe, Chebbi and I piled in the car and took to the road towards New York City.  We spent the 5ish hour drive to our hotel in Fairfield, NJ chatting strategy and exchanging racing stories.  Being my second full racing season, I only had reminiscent and top secret stories of tom-foolery from last seasons time spent among UVM Cycling.  After hearing stories of pro riders from the 7/11 and Stowe-Shimano days, I was more than excited to get on the bike and start the season off on a powerful stroke.


Saturday morning started early.  We packed up our trainers and bikes from the hotel room where we had managed to squeeze 30 minutes the previous evening before sleep.  Once we got on the road, finding the race was as simple as navigating a cheese maze.  As all know, mazes become much easier with a prize at the end, and with the scent of a race at the end of our NYC maze, the path was an easy one to follow.

Opening the season with a 31st in the 3s.  A good gauge of
things to come....

The cheesy finish was a good one... the course before us had 5 corner and a long straight away.  Cross winds plague the hardest sections of the course.  Riders with tasked with three corners before a brief 50 meter climb into a straight away before a gentle corner into the finish stretch. Now riders, remember, 45 minutes, rinse and repeat.  Going into the race, Joe and I planned to try to simply stick in the field and set each other up for a sprint at the end.  Being the first race of the year, and trying to get a gauge for the season, this seemed like a very reasonable goal.

Hopping back into the field
takes some adjusting.

Once the race went off, tactics changed.  Fitness levels were not as expected for some riders, and I lost site of teammates and friends in the field.  Once I realized the position I was in, I was able to jockey a little and play with the field for positions.  It eventually became apparent that riders hammering the brief climb were wasting energy, as they would end up in the same position they started the climb on.  It was more beneficial to hit the climb with energy enough to clobber the back stretch.  As the race went on and laps counted down, I felt my legs warm up to the point where I could stick in the peleton without straining efforts.

2012 here we go....

Coming into the final 500 meters, I was able to move myself through the field quite easily.  At least 30 positions were gained from an in the saddle effort at the line.  Because of poor planning I wasn't able to get a top 10, but the power showcased this early in the season are what I see as good things to come.  With a little better planning, this season could prove to be one with a view from the top.


Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Profiled In Bicycling Magazine, Readers Choice Edition

Check out the recent profile done by Bicycling Magazine for the March 2012 Readers Choice Edition...

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/joshua-saxe-burlington-vt

http://www.bicycling.com/sites/default/files/uploads/bicycling-readers-choice-12.pdf

Since NE Championships and Looking Ahead...

Since I last blew myself up at the New England Cyclocross Championships in late December, I took some time off to get my legs back under me and recover from 51 races over 9ish months. Now late January, I have begun building base miles for upcoming 2012 season. There are a lot of projects and plans in the works this year.

With no collegiate season ahead, I have turned my focus to a few early races after a pre season venture to South Carolina for training.  In addition, I have teamed up with Bobby Bailey of 1K2GO Sports to build speed and gain my place on top step of the podium.

January thus far has been building as many base miles per week as unreasonably possible.  In other words, hours and hours on the bike.  Additionally to time spent on the two wheeled battled axe, I have managed to squeeze in some time skiing slalom at Cochrans for two evenings during each week.  The quick and twitchy movements from skiing slalom have managed to make their way in to my cycling.  Cadence has increased with proportional power increase.  Each slalom has had huge benefits to what will be climbing and sprinting muscles.  Come time for racing, I can only hope to hold on to, and build on the new found quick twitching muscles.

Looking ahead to the season, I have my eye on the podium for as many races as I can enter.  A large goal, and a tough one to meet.  Building off of last season, up seems like the right way to go.

On equipment; I have a new battle axe for... well, racing, riding and anything else you'd do with a bike.  Based off some awesome new designs, Flahute has released a brand new more aerodynamic sprinters bike.  Tubing shape has also changed, in addition to a new cut out which allows the stem to sit lower and shrink the effective steerer tube, creating a stiffer cockpit which reacts to all movements that make up that minuscule amount at the line.  Full specs on the new bike to be released in late February after on road testing has been completed.

New England Cyclocross Championships - Fitchburg, MA

Remounting and riding away after the barriers for now.

The latest and last race of my 2011 season was this past Sunday.  While many teammates traveled home for winter break, two UVMers made their way to compete at the New England Cyclocross Championships in Fitchburg, MA on a rather cold Sunday afternoon.

With temperatures not rising above 28 degrees, the course remained frozen for all but 2 or 3 laps of the Elite Men's race.  The track was long and flat, twisting and turning over athletic fields and around trees.  Two sets of barriers, a sandpit, and a flyover were laid into the track to test the best of the best.  Being so far into the season, I only made it through 2 1/2 laps before full system shut down and resulting in the first DNF of the Cyclocross season.

Aaaand BONK.

That said, leading up to the full system shut down, I cannot say things felt great.  In warm up, I was able to rip through on my bike, everything was comfortable and I felt powerful from the weeks preparation of both running and riding.  By the time the race came about later in the afternoon, I had lost the sensation of speed and comfort lingered back to the warmth of the van which I would estimate remained at about 50 degrees throughout the day.  A warm refuge after a massive debacle of a race.

Arc hard...

Closing out the season with a DNF is not my idea of finishing on a high note.  However, I think it is myself telling me (confused? good.) that it is time to take a break and let things recover before building for speed in the 2012 spring, summer and fall seasons.  I will be taking the next few weeks (until January 1, 2012) to rest and just futz about with whatever Tubular Adventures come my way.  Rest assured, skiing will most definitely be a good portion of said Tubular Adventures.

Until 2012,  Arc hard, ride fast and go plaid!