Qualcomm / SD Bike Racing

From Drop Box

Well it's been a while since I updated this and a lot has happened. I finally found and have subsequently started a job at Qualcomm. Its not a full engineer position but its a foot in the door at one of the top tech companies in the world. My position right now is running ATE (automated test equipment) for Qualcomm's QCT division. The hours aren't the best (nights 10pm - 6am) and has put a hamper on riding the bikes.

From Drop Box

I have however still done a few races while working the night shift. One a cross country race in Florida Canyon near Balboa Park here in San Diego. A few of the guys I ride with on Wednesday nights did it as well so it was good to have some people at the race I knew. This was the first cross country mountain bike race in San Diego in quite a few years so it was fairly big news in the cycling community.

From Drop Box

The start to the race was crazy, they started all CAT 2/3's together, which was well over 100 people. Luckily the beginning was fire road with plenty of spots to pass but it still made you burn your matches passing people. I was feeling alright and was in the top third of riders when we hit the singletrack. It was hard to tell who was in your division so I had no idea of placing until the end. The course was pretty tame and a few guys were racing cross bikes.

From SD Mtn Biking

I made a big mistake in the race though and forgot how many laps I had done, and ended up doing an extra. The people doing the timing didn't catch it either and my final time was with doing one extra lap, the same amount the pro's were doing. I wasn't close to winning this race though so it didn't matter, I just got in a little more of a workout.


I have gotten to do one more race in as well since being employed, and that was a 12 hour race in Temecula, CA at Vail Lake. The San Diego area had been hit by a ton of rain and I was expecting the race to be canceled but due to the sandy nature of the course and some reroutes the race was still a go. The course wasn't that bad either but it was a little sticky and muddy in a few sections. I was part of a 4 man team with guys I ride with every Wed. night. Most of the people seemed to love the course but it just wasn't my style of riding.

From SD Mtn Biking

From SD Mtn Biking

We were all planning on doing 3 laps giving us a total of 12 laps but on my last lap I had 2 flats and had to bum a tube off of one of the guys at the aid station. I was too worried to keep going and get another flat so I cut the course there to tag my other teammate. We ended up with 11 laps dropping us to 14th place out of 20.

Beechwood

From Beechwood

From Beechwood

This last week I was up in the family hunting cabin in St. Mary's, PA. However the hunting would not be done by me but my Dad, cousin Bill, and Uncle Carl. A few other people made there way in and out of the camp (Gary, Art, and Ken) but my Pop was the only one not hunting who stayed the whole week. I was lucky enough to bring my bike to Pennsylvania for some mountain biking and I was specifically looking forward to the R3 ride in RothRock State Forest in State College and the Allegrippis Trail in Raystown Lake. The local bike shop here in town El Camino Bike Shop was kind enough to let me borrow the Swami's bike travel case for the trip free of charge. The shop also helped me out as 2 days before leaving as I ripped my rear derailleur of my Merlin on my weekly Wednesday night ride along with breaking the rear derailleur hanger. I had a spare derailleur hanger and was able to find a XT Shadow derailleur in town and they got me running up in a couple hours, so big thanks to Will at El Camino.

From Beechwood

My Dad and I flew into Buffalo, NY rented a car and drove the 3 hours down into Beechwood making it there at 3 in the morning. The next day nobody was allowed to hunt being Sunday so the 3 hunters went out to clear the old logging trails they used for there 4 wheelers. I put my bike together and planned a route out on some of the maps on mostly old logging roads, putting in about 20 miles. The next day everyone was up early to eat breakfast before the hunt and I decided with the good weather I would head down to ride the R3 route. I arrived around 10 am and looked for the local shop that IMBA had listed (Mount Nittany Wheelworks) but it has closed down. I tried some other bike shops listed in my GPS but to no avail I guess I would have to go mapless. Luckily when I got back to the trailhead a guy riding a cyclocross bike on the dirt roads was kind enough to give me his map. The trails aren't well marked so having a map is key to ride here, this is the map I used. Even with the map I was having a tough time following the R3 route. The first bit of the trail (Lower->Sand Spring->Balk Knob Ridge) I got on was extremely wet and at most times the trail was a creek. After finishing the first loop I headed back up to the road and climbed up to where the Mid State Trail intersects and descended onto Little Shingletown trail. It got tricky on the Sand Spring trail descent off of Little Shingletown especially with all the leaves covering the rocks. I did a superman on the descent as a rock hidden under all the leaves surprised me. I heard the Stan's sealant tried to seal up my tire as I put a hole on a knob and rolled the tire of the rim. It sealed it up but not after losing quite a bit of air pressure. After pumping the tire back up it looked as if my rim got tweaked from my tumble. So I decided to call it quits to prevent anymore damage to my front wheel and headed to a bike shop the guy who gave me the map called appropriately The Bicycle Shop. They inspected the wheel and determined I messed up the tire and the rim was fine. I was disappointed to not be able to finish the whole route but was glad that I didn't break another part on my mountain bike.

From Beechwood

The next day with the weather still cooperating I headed down to Raystown to ride the Allegrippis trail. These trails were very well marked and didn't require a map as out on the trail at some intersections that had maps posted. The trail was extremely fun but a lot less technical then the R3 trail I had ridden the previous day. They flowed extremely well and I was able to ride everything they were to offer.

From Beechwood

The next few days were rained out and I only got out on the dirt one more day following my Pop and Uncle Carl on the logging roads behind the camp on there 4-wheelers. The roads were still pretty soft and the descent back down to camp was very slick. It was a great trip and it was good to ride my mountain bike in the woods for a while as compared to the desert here in So Cal.

From Beechwood

Levyland Wedding

From Wedding

From Wedding

Well the day finally came 2 years after getting engaged and it came pretty fast. It ended up being perfect weather and almost all of the Ellsworth's made it from the New England area and so did the Holmes' from Canada. Sarah and I stayed at Levyland the first night before any family or friends arrived. It's a very eccentric house and would be a very weird place to live by yourself or even with another person. It made for a great location though and a lot of my family used it for a base station when going to the beach.

From The Manimal

Corey arrived on Wednesday and we tried to climb Mt. Palomar but I had to bail about half way up as I wasnt feeling it that day. The next day Todd arrived and we (Corey, Wyatt, and Chase) all went to K1 to try our hand in some serious Go-Kart racing. Todd ending up spinning out on one of the S curves and I ended up colliding with him head on, sending my camera and his Iphone out onto the track. We picked them up after the race and luckily neither were broken just some minor bumps and bruises. Chase also ended up shutting down one of the races on the same S curve as he pinned himself underneath the barriers. It was a lot of fun and I think we all had a good time with lots of wisdom disposed on little Wyatt.

From The Manimal

I also conned Todd into doing a short mountain bike ride up La Costa Canyon, a local trail that I ride frequently since its a bike ride away from the house. Todd hasnt spent much time riding so he was hurting climbing all the way up the mountain but we all made it up to the top for the fun descent back down. I think it was just the right length for all of us and we celebrated with fish taco's from Rubios.

From Wedding

On Saturday was the big day and most of the day was spent lounging around. I wasn't really nervous at all except when I was standing in front of everybody waiting for Sarah to come down the aisle. Levyland turned out better then I thought with the exception of the ant invasion and a few uninvited guests (luckily not on the wedding day). We did have a few hiccups with the song for our first dance skipping and the party being shut down at 11 pm due to noise complaints. I think everyone still had fun and we all got to dance for quite a few hours. It was something Im glad I did as it brought of all our families together and will be a day I never will forget.

From Wedding

From Wedding

From Wedding

Engagement Photos / Back in Encinitas

Well not much has been going on since graduation, still looking for a job for a year and then try for grad/med school. I have interviewed a few places one of them being pretty exciting as a project manager on Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA. I have been riding a bit too with a local club / race team here in North County called Swami's. It's been tough going though riding with them, as I came in with pretty good fitness and high expectations of being able to stay with the group, but the hills have had other ideas. Its almost like I have moved up from the minor's into the big league with the quality of riders here as compared to Lafayette. Hopefully it makes me faster as well.

From Engagement Photos

Its been pretty boring with little to no income. I try not to drive anywhere and keep any other expenditures to a minimum. The wedding though is slowly draining our account with all the little stuff needed for it. It is almost completely planned and paid for as we have met with our caterer, DJ, and photographer. We have one last meeting with the caterer on Monday to do a walk through of Levyland to figure out placing of our buffet stations and tables.

From Engagement Photos

Last Wednesday we had our engagement photo session with our photographer, Katy Regnier. Comes to find out she is an architect and gave it up to become a photographer. She seemed very intelligent and artistic to boot. After seeing the photos we aren't one bit worried about how the wedding photos will come out. Here are a few of my favorite.

From Engagement Photos

From Engagement Photos

Graduation

After 4 years of studying Electrical Engineering I have finally finished.  Sarah's parent's came out to help us move back to Encinitas and see my graduation.  They got here on the Thursday before and helped us pack and load up the Uhaul.

From Graduation / Road Trippin'

We took them to New Orleans on Saturday to eat some beignets at Cafe Du Monde and check out Bourbon Street.  They didn't seem to like the city that much with the exception of the architecture.  

From Graduation / Road Trippin'

Sunday was my graduation and at this point the Uhaul was completely packed with the exception of a few bikes that I had to ship.  It was kinda of bittersweet to graduate as I had made a lot of good friends in Louisiana and good ties to the local bike shops.  The last 4 years were probably the best of my life, even though money was tight, we always seemed to be able to still do plenty of things.

From Graduation / Road Trippin'

From Graduation / Road Trippin'

The road trip was pretty uneventful except for the stop in Austin where we stayed at the Hotel San Jose which was a quirky little hotel in the SoCo district.  We walked down to a tex-mex place just down the street (Guero's) that was quite good.  The next day I headed down early to check out Mellow Johnny's which was fairly impressive with all the Lance memorabilia and quite a nice selection of bikes.

From Graduation / Road Trippin'

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful with us stopping at Ft. Stockton, TX and Tucson, AZ for the next two nights.  It was good to finally make it back to Encinitas except for the unpacking.

Bike Camping in Alexandria

From Camping in Alexandria

Since I had the week off of school before graduation, myself and 5 of my buddies decided to head to Alexandria to do some camping biking in the Kisatchie national forest.  One of the guys had just bought a BOB trailer so he was itching to try it out.  The plan was two head out from Evangeline camp ride the bikes for a mile or so to a nice campsite by the creek and get up the next morning for a ride.

From Camping in Alexandria

We setup camp and the weather called for some light rain that night.  Two of the guys didnt have any sort of rain protection so they built a lean to out of some downed trees and branches.  After starting a fire and sitting around we all got pretty bored so we decided to get on our bikes and go buy a couple of cases of beer to pass the time.  Unbelievably I could fit a whole case in my Osprey talon pack.  

From Camping in Alexandria

I ended up not taking my sleeping bag on this trip as the low was going to be in the 70's but that night I found out that I should of brought something such as a blanket.  In the morning we all woke up to bike over to Lake Valentine for a swim as the day was quickly heating up.  We made it over there and the water/campground was closed which was a bummer as we were all hoping to fill up once we got there.  The swimming wasn't too good there so we decided to head over to the west boat ramp of Lake Kincaid.  We all jumped in a cooled off and a few of the guys were spent so I headed back to the truck and picked them up and drove back to the trailhead.

From Camping in Alexandria

We were all pretty tired at this point so we all just lounged around and cooked dinner.  The next morning we went down to the east boat ramp of Lake Kincaid and setup our ramp at the end of the dock.  We all took turns launching off the ramp into the lake on a dumpster diver bike that one of the guys had gotten just for this purpose.

From Camping in Alexandria

From Camping in Alexandria

Mississippi Gran Prix

The Race of the South or MSGP was my first foray into stage racing and only my second road race (the first being the Rouge Roubaix).  I wasn’t too nervous with the exception of the criterium.  Watching the 1,2,3’s on Friday night navigate 90 degree turns at speeds in excess of 30mph and hitting bumps on the road causing there wheels to leave the safety of the road wasn’t helping my confidence either.  There race wasn’t much different then a NASCAR or F1 formula event with the sounds of motors being replaced by the sound of deep dish carbon rims.  The ability of Glenn, Jacob, Jeb, and Brian to hang on to World and National champions wheels gave me a new found respect for the type of athlete’s these guys are. While not all of our team was able to hang on for the full 60 minutes there ability to compete with guys of this caliber is nothing short of spectacular.

From Road Biking in the South East

Saturday morning was the beginning of my race weekend beginning with a 25-mile road race on a rolling hills course.  The CAT 5’s were the last to start and I tried to go over in my head all of the advise and tips that everyone in the team had given me especially Jonathan Falgout and Matt Billeaud who had gone one, two in this road race the previous year.  As I pulled up to the line I saw a group of about 10 guys from Absolute Racing at the front all looking pretty strong.  I settled near the back of the group but wasn’t planning on being there very long as I was hoping to avoid any crashes that I have heard are prevalent in CAT 5 races.  The race actually started pretty mellow and I quickly worked my way to the front of the peloton.  My teammate Tony Morrow was just in front of me when someone clipped his front wheel and I thought for sure he was going down taking me with him.  He was able to keep himself vertical luckily for me and I thought to myself not bad for a roadie and especially a tri-geek.  Soon after Tony moved to the front and pushed the pace for a while, after he dropped back I didn’t see him for the remainder of the race, as come to find out he flatted shortly after.  The rest of the race was spent covering attacks made by Absolute Racing by myself and 5 others.  With 5 miles to go Absolute Racing made there way up to the front and we all knew what was going to happen next.  They launched an attack with three of there guys on the second to last hill and I tried to follow the rider’s wheel in front of me but he was unable to hold the person’s wheel in front of him and I wasn’t strong enough to bridge the gap.  I stayed with a group of three riders all the way until the finish line beating them in the final sprint for a 9^th place finish.

From Road Biking in the South East

From Road Biking in the South East

Later that day was the time trial and would be only my third time on a time trial bike.  Don Kent let me borrow his bike for the event so a special thanks goes out to him.  I knew that my chances for a good placing in the TT wasn’t going to be easy as the guy who won the road race was some big shot triathlete (Ben Hall).  Luckily it was only 4 miles long so the suffering was hopefully going to last less the 10 minutes.  I knew my teammate Tony Morrow would have a strong showing as he spends most of his time on his TT bike.  I ended up with a time of 9:39 for a 10^th place finish and Tony ended up beating me by 10 seconds giving him a top ten placing as well.

From Road Biking in the South East

From Road Biking in the South East

Sunday was the last day of racing being in the form of a 30 minute criterium.  The rain from the previous night left the streets wet with a few puddles under the overhanging trees.  The race started off pretty fast and I stayed in the middle of the pack trying to stay out of the wind and from taking any pulls.  After a lap or two the pace picked up and when I looked up to see who the culprit was low and behold its my teammate Tony pulling us around the course.  I stayed with the lead group a few more laps until someone attacked and I was unable to go with them and settled into a chase group of 4.  We were never able to catch back up with the lead group and I ended up winning the sprint out of the other 4 in my chase group to end up with 8^th place.

Oak Mountain

While on spring break I decided to head to Oak Mountain State Park with Peter, Philip and James for some mountain biking.  I had the MSGP coming up so I wasn't going to push it this trip but decided to bring the Rig since my next big mountain bike race is Syllamo.  Peter and I headed up Tuesday afternoon to camp do a quick ride Wednesday morning then head back.  James and Phillip were already in Hunstville so they just drove down in the morning to meet us.  I cooked up some breakfast burritos in the morning and go ready to ride.

From South East Mountain Biking

We got on the trail about nine and started on the North Trailhead where the fire road climb is.  This was the first time I had done any extended climbing on the Rig and it did a fairly good job even though I felt faster climbing it on the Merlin the last time I rode this trail.  We hit the bmx track for a while too which was a ton of fun especially when I locked out the fork.

From South East Mountain Biking

Ouachita Callenge -80 Miler

From South East Mountain Biking

I had originally planned on doing the 60 mile version until the Cohutta fell through due to my FE or EIT test was scheduled for the same day.  I was pretty bummed about this as I was hoping to do something big this year being my last semester of undergrad.  Luckily one of the guys on my road team had signed up to the 80 miler but due to conflicts was unable to go.  I took his spot and was able to find Phil who I was car pooling with someone to transfer with.  I knew the OC 80 was going to be harder then Cohutta as the OC has about 10-15 miles of roads with the rest being singletrack as where the Cohutta has about 65 miles of road and 35 miles of singletrack. 

We arrived in Mena, AR Saturday afternoon and explored the Talimena Scenic Drive something I had been on before on my bike camping trip but not the section we explored.  The race had quite a few pros coming out from Colorado as the race is making quite a name for itself.  The hotel parking lot was littered with Texas license plates as a bunch of Texans come up to do this race also.  

Sunday morning on the way to the race a little drizzle started to fall and the winds started picking up.  Looking at the weather forecast a front was moving in and going to cause the temperatures to drop considerably.  I picked up my number and packet and got my bike ready.  I setup near the back of the pack so as to not go out to hard as we were starting the same time as the 60 milers.  When we started I rode up to the middle of the pack and stayed there for most of the road.

I moved up on the initial singletrack climbing as 20 or so riders were on the side with flats already.  I tried to climb smooth and easy as I knew I would be in for a long day of riding.  When we first hit the Womble we had a bottleneck and I was forced to get off my bike and walk a bit, but everyone was very cordial and the road did a much better job of separating everyone as compared to Syllamo.  Checkpoint one was 20 miles into the ride and I stopped and notice my QR rear skewer was loose which has been a common theme with the Ellsworth skewers.  I tightened it down again ate some of my energy bars and started back up on the Womble.  This is where the 60 miler's turned off and took the road skipping the best part of the Womble.

From South East Mountain Biking

I started feeling cramps coming on just before the second checkpoint so I slammed some Endurolytes and kept on moving along.  I got my first and only flat and had about 10 riders pass me while changing it.  It was great to see the second checkpoint at roughly the 40 mile mark and the volunteers there were great filling my camelback and waterbottles.  While I tried to down some food and stretch out my legs.  

A few miles into the checkpoint we came up on Reed mountain that I don't believe anyone could bike up.  The hike up it about did me in as my legs were feeling like jello at this point and I was starting to get foggy upstairs.  It was slow going at this point and had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to make the cutoff for the next checkpoint.  I was completely wasted physically at this point and made it to the 3rd checkpoint with 5 minutes to spare but didnt want to continue as the 4th checkpoint was 10 miles away and I had an hour to get there.  I decided to take to road back which was tough with the 20-30 mph winds.  About 5 miles out somebody in a truck picked me up with two other riders and gave us a lift back.

According to the results 100 people started the 80 and only 33 finished which means 66 people DNF'd including me. 

NOBC 2-Man TT

This race was up in the air from the beginning as I was suppose to do a bike camping trip along the Natchez Trace with a few buddies for the weekend.  Some stuff with school came up, so I had to bail on the trip which I was pretty bummed about but thats life.  Hopefully we can reschedule the trip for a later date as its something that I really want to do.  

From Road Biking in the South East

Anyways when I had to bail on the Natchez trip one of my team members (Jonathan Falgout) had asked me to team up with him on a 2-man time trial in LaPlace, LA.  He's a CAT 4 so it wouldn't help me out point wise but we were about equal in terms of bike strength so we thought we would make a pretty strong team.  I borrowed a bike and helmet from his brother Adam Falgout and Jed Darby's wheels and did a time trial test with the team on the Tuesday before the race.  This was my first time ever on a TT bike so it took a while to get used to the position and handling characteristics.  My teammates switched though as the rules were a little hazy with me and Jonathan being able to race together since we were in different categories, so I got teamed up with Smitty Smith.  Smitty Smith is about 5'3" and 120 lbs so drafting was going to be a questionable.  He ended up being a great partner as he was much more experienced then I was so I learned quite a bit from him about time trialing. 

The day before the race I rode with the Pack & Paddle group and decided to do another 40 miles after with Brian and Jeb for a total of 80 miles which wasn't the best idea when I was racing the next day.  I had bigger races in mind though as I recently switched over from the 60 mile Ouachita Challenge to the 80 mile version so I needed some more miles in my legs.

From Road Biking in the South East

The next morning I woke up a 4:15 ate a bowl of grapenuts and some english muffins with almond butter and met over at Precision bikes to carpool over to the race.  My legs were a little stiff from the previous day's ride but no enough to slow me down.  During the warmup I felt good with a slight tailwind on the way out I was easily able to hold 26 mph.  After the warmup when we were all sitting around we noticed the wind was shifting back & forth.  My goal for the 40K TT was to get under an hour.  I had Smitty pull first as I was worried about going out to hard especially after reading about negative splits.  After my first pull I knew I was going to be in trouble and the turn around couldnt come any sooner.  When I was drafting off of Smitty I was still basically at my threshold so I knew this was going to hurt.  Looking down at my GPS I knew that hitting my goal of under an hour was not going to happen.

From Road Biking in the South East

We ended up finishing in an 1:03:37 (23.3 mph avg) in 5th place out of 10 teams.  Not too bad especially since a couple of our teammates won our division.  Brian an Jeb also won the CAT1/2 race with a time of 53:38, now thats fast.  I had a good time and hope to improve my time trial abilities for this race season.