Home  Race Reports Day 6 Criterium The final day's criterium went around the Full Sail Brewery (title sponsor) facility.  The weather continued to be unseasonably hot (90 degrees) and the course had absolutely zero shade.  The course featured two climbs per lap and multiple turns, including a 180.  Mike was well positioned in the general classification at 11th place.  He was 25 seconds outside of 9th place.  An early break got established.  The entire Healthnet Team rode tempo at the front to keep the break in check.  During the final 20 minutes of the race, Healthnet increased the pace and began to real the break back in.  Mike's plan was to attack as soon as the break was caught.  However, Healthnet was content to let the break stay away.  They just wanted to reduce the time gap to ensure their man remained in first place.  After the criterium, we all partied at the Full Sale Brewery and racked up a nice sized bill.  After all, it was hot and tiring watching Mike race.  The waitress was fortunate enough to get Sam's phone number in addition to the 20% gratuity.  We are fortunate enough to have many wonderful sponsors that allowed us to experience this fantastic atmosphere in Oregon.  Without our sponsors-Marx and Bensdorf Realty, Tristar, Orbea, Alpha Q, Two Men and a Truck and the many individual sponsors that have helped us, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to attend this event and bring along our wive's, girlfriends, and friends.  Thank you for your support and thank you for reading. Day 5 Road Race 101 miles.  Several long climbs. The lone standing rider on the team is Michael Olheiser.  Mike is the the top placed amateur in the g.c.  He is currently sitting in 14th place.  When we arrived at the staging area, it was blatantly obvious that Mike was getting no respect from the race officials or the promoters.  In order to get into the caravan, you must have a caravan pass and a number.  The numbers are based on over all placings of your riders.  I went to get the caravan pass and the number and the official said "I didn't know you guys had a rider in the race".  My reply was to check the top 15.  Mike was surrounded by pro riders and the officials didn't bother to notice.  So, I had to make a number because they didn't have one made up.  Then, during the race, when a rider wants a bottle he radios the team car that he wants water.  We call up to the head official for permission to move out of caravan order and go to the back of the pack.  Then, the rider drops back 15-20 feet, gets the bottles and then easily rejoins the pack.  However, since Mike is amateur, we weren't getting that kind of respect.  Mike would radio back that he needed bottles.  I'd radio the head official to get permission to break caravan order and we'd get radio silence.  However, the Healthnet team car or the Toyota United team car would radio up and the officials would instantly reply for them to go ahead.  Because of this, Mike was forced to drop back 15 cars to get his bottles and then pedal like mad to get back to the group before the hammer was dropped. The stage was hard, even riding the course in the car.  To put the stage into perspective, I'll attempt to do it justice by comparing to local climbs at home.  The race started out at 40 mph with B.M.C. driving the pace.  The first climb was approximately 4 miles, which I'd compare to climbing up 78 in Birmingham.  A few miles later, the second climb was another 4 miles or so, about the grade of Karl Daly.  There were several other climbs of this stature thrown in.  The "real" stuff happened at 55 miles and if you looked at the profile, the road steadily went up for the remaining 45 miles.  I'd basically describe this as a continuous stream of 30 Karl Daly climbs and 10 Belmont climbs with a few descents. The final climb was insane.  The final climb went up to Mt. Hood.  As little as two weeks ago, the D.O.T. was still spreading sand and salt because of the snow.  The road was dirty.  The final climb was about 10 miles and it was steep.  Guys were coming off like crazy.  The pack was quickly reduced to about 30.  I was driving the team car and attmepting to get around all of the riders dropped on the climb.  This is basically what is was like.  Climb, climb, climb...Baldwin (Toyota) dropped, Freddy Rodriguez dropped, Ivan Stevic (world champion) dropped, Bissell team all dropped, Successful Living all dropped....  We looked up the road and tried to pick out Mike.  He wasn't in the main group!  Where the heck was he?  Over race radio crackled, "Rider 191, Michael Olheiser has gone off the front".  The group exploded as what remained of the pro teams set a hard tempo to real Mike back in.  He was caught, but the damage was done. Now, during this time, we were trying to get up to Mike in the team car.  The officials let all the pro team cars go up to the main pack, but when we came through, they yelled at us to stop.  I argued with the officials that our guy was in the main pack and we had to get up there in case he flatted.  They wouldn't let us go.  I said to hell with it and opted to risk a $100 fine and went around the official to get behind the lead pack in case Mike had a flat. At the end of the stage, Mike finished 18th.  There was a small break that stayed away the entire day.  However, Mike made his way up to 11th on G.C.  The ride was impressive and it makes one realize how Mike is on a completely different level than any of us.  If Mike had a team worth a damn that could support him (I know I can't offer much help to him), he would do so much better. Day 4 Time Trial 18.5 miles.  Two long climbs.  Hot. Well, unfortunately, the U.C.I. officials decided on a 15% time cut instead of the 20% time cut.  This means, I missed the time cut by 5 minutes.  It wouldn't have mattered if I'd known the time cut was 15% or 20%, I was wrecked.  Actually, I probably would have accepted the "illegal" draft from the team car for the 8.5 mile climb, but I wanted to suffer alone.  In hindsight, I would of been glad to pay the $100 fine and the 30 second time penalty.  But, I didn't know they would be so anal at this race.  At the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, if you finished they let you race the next day.  Four other guys were eliminated by time as well, including a pro from Succesful LIving.  However, 13 people completely dropped out-including several pro riders.  The fact that I've never suffered like that on the bike before and the fact that I soldiered on and finished the race gave me a sense of accomplishment.  Today, several things ran through my mind as to what went "wrong" yesterday.  I guess the "what ifs".  What if I didn't wear my Coolmax under my helment to keep me from getting burned?  What if I carried bigger bottles?  What if I didn't try to storm down the mountain to get to the front of the pack?  What if I didn't block the wind for Mike and help shelter him?  Oh, well.  I overheated, I cramped and  I couldn't maintain the tempo up the climb.  As a result, I didn't make the time split that is normally 20%, but reduced to 15% for this stage.  Mike Olheiser (Huntsville), rolled the time trial today.  He finished about 20 seconds outside of the top 10.  At the time of this writing, the complete results were not posted.  So, the 20 seconds could place him in 11th for the day or 100th for the day.  The guys in the top 10 are all professionals that eat, sleep and breathe bike racing.  Mike works 40 hours a week at Huntsville Hospital.  Unfortunately, none of the pro teams are interested in picking him up and giving him a contract.  Mike has been consistently getting top 15 placings for the past 4 years at the biggest races in the country.  Mike has also won two master's time trial world championships, two master's national road championships, 2nd place in the elite road championships, stage winner of the Tour of Belize, finished 6 seconds behind Dave Zabriskie in the Tour of the Bahamas time trial, yet no one is interested. It was interesting watching Mike warm up for the TT.  He was set up on the trainer and he was in the "zone".  Ipod plugged in and warmup in progress.  A few minutes later, I smelled something funny.  I realized that he had so much resistance on the trainer and he was pedaling so hard the tire was getting hot and letting off a subtle burnt rubber smell.  No wonder he is a two time world champion. Day 3 Road Race 87 miles.  5 times up an 8.5 mile climb.  Strangely enough, the weather is hot. The first two days of racing were in Portland.  The weather was pleasantly cool in Portland.  We've now changed venues and made our way to Mt. Hood.  This area is the craziest I've ever seen.  There is snow on the ground.  The snow is piled around the cabin we are staying in.  There is snow on the mountain tops of Mt. Hood, Mt. Ranier, etc.  But, the temperature hit 90 degrees! The race started right on the climb.  So, the first 8.5 miles were up hill!  Toyota United, Bissell, Healthnet, Succesful Living, Jittery Joes, BMC and some other pro teams were present and accounted for.  They all brought their "A" teams.  The race started in a hurry, because the breaks were trying to get established.  I was comfortable on the climbs until the 3rd lap.  Going up the climb was like being in an oven.  It was friggin hot.  Yeah, but it's a "dry" heat.  Well, so is an oven.  Anyway, I helped Mike Olheiser stay near the front.  I was actually climbing well.  Because we were doing 5 laps on the course (yes 42 miles of climbing) and my attempt to keep the overall weight low, I went with some smaller bottles and relied on the feed zone to get the bottles.  The first time through, I was unable to get my bottles.  This was due to not knowing where the people feeding me were located, the fact they were not wearing team clothing to easily pick them out and the speed.  Riding in the pack up the hill really increased the temperature.  There was no wind getting through.  I started to over heat a bit and because I didn't get a bottle, my electrolyte source was gone.  The 3rd time up the hill was "curtains" for me.  I've never had such severe cramping in my life.  I was reduced to clipping one leg out of the pedal and only "half" pedaling, because if I mad a complete circle, I'd cramp.  What I mean by "half" pedaling is that I'd push down on the pedal and when I reached the bottom of the stroke, I'd pull up.  I was able to get some bottles and I looked like a pack mule.  I had two bottles on the frame, two in my pocket and at Mountain Dew.  I had 8.5 miles up hill to the finish.  I had to make the "time cut" of 120% of the winner's time.  I estimated the time to be 3:45.  This means, I had to finish within 4:30 to go onto the next day.  I occupied myself by doing the calculations while riding up the hill.  O.K., 8.5 miles to go.  Approximately 45 minutes to get there.  Five minutes per mile.  O.K., just ride over 10 mph and I'm good.  At the time of the writing, I made the time cut. The really crazy thing about this area was when we turned off the 95 degree heat, we went in between two ice sheets and the temperature dropped to 50 degrees for a few moments. Mike Olheiser rolled the road race.  He finished 15th and he was the first amateur to finish.  He was comfortably riding in the pack and trading punches with the "big dogs". Riding with the guys at this level really put your fitness into perspective.  One can roll the Tuesday Ride and win a local race.  But, you race these N.R.C. events with the best guys in the country and guys who have ridden the Tour and won stages in the Giro (Freddy Rodriguez), you are quickly humbled. Day 2 Criterium 90 minutes with 130 feet per lap.  The course was actually closer to 250 feet per lap, but the race bible says 130.  The locals say 250.  Maybe it is actually 230 feet per lap and the 130 was a typo.  So, the people that did the 90 minutes did close to 4,500 feet of climbing in a crit. The "criterium" was more of a circuit race.  The course was .65 miles up and .65 miles down.  The course was more of a circuit rather than a true criterium course.  There was one turn that was about 120 degrees and uphill.  People not in the top 10 were forced to come to a stop to make the turn.  You'd think the decent would allow for some recovery, but not so.  Because of the turn, you had to bust tail to catch back on.  I haven't done a criterium of this caliber for almost 10 years.  So, I quickly learned that there is "fit", "Tuesday World's Fit" and "Race Fit".  Because of my trip to New Mexico and getting sick and all the traveling I've been doing, I haven't raced in a month.  So, my fitness for this crit could be ranked somewhere between "fit" and "Tuesday Worlds Fit".  My "race fitness" was definitely lacking.  Plus, it's spring time in Oregon, so the pollen is abundant and my allergies are kicking.  Nonetheless, I made it through a good portion of the race.  To go onto the next stage, I had to do at least 30 minutes of a 90 minute race.  I reached the 30 minute point and I think I let my guard down.  At this point, I was in survival mode and just tried to conserve some energy. Mike Olheiser was rolling.  He escaped and quickly built a 30 second lead.  He won a $200 prime.  Since Mike was only 15 seconds down on G.C., the Bissell Pro Team got on the front and drove the pace to real Mike back in. Day 1 Prologue Time Trial 1.7 miles Mike, Sam and I went out for an early a.m. spin for 2 hours.  The rain was coming down and the temperature was about 50 degrees.  The ride was all fun and games until we took a wrong turn and got turned around. We managed to make it home.  The time trial was in the evening.  We parked in the team parking lot and set up the bikes.  Unfortunately, flying to races limits the amount of stuff you can bring.  The expendable gear was the trainer.  The trainer would have been useful to warmup on.  I used my mad skills and talked to one of the Vanderkitten girls and she let me borrow her rollers.  I'm embarassed to say that I haven't been on rollers in three years.  So, riding rollers on uneven ground was a little unnerving at first.  But, riding the rollers came back to me and I managed to stay on.  Since the race is U.C.I. sanctioned, I had to get my bike measured and weighed.  Since I didn't bring my TT bike, the measurement wasn't an issue.  The atmosphere was cool.  I haven't done a N.R.C. stage race in 10 years.  There was an estimated 6-7,000 people watching the TT.  The effort was a fierce 3 minute effort.  So, by the time the body got adjusted, the effort was over.  Needless to say, I didn't post a time to brag about.  I used my standard road bike and I was just happy to start.