The Hell of The North (Bladen County)

Well, it was a truly epic day at the Queen of the Classics that is the White Lake Sprint. With epic rough road sections and epically cold water temperatures, Oxford English will have to add White Lake Sprint to their list of definitions for epic. For decades to come, old men in taverns from here to Burgaw will wax poetic about the 2013 edition of l'enfer du Nord or, The Hell of the North Bladen County. Middle-aged men will pay thousands of dollars to ride guided tours across the fabled White Lake pavé.

We are so le epic

As I said before in my last post, White Lake Sprint has usurped that little bicycle riding race in France, officially laying claim to all of the aforementioned nicknames. Nobody told Fabian Cancellara until he crossed the finish line at the Roubaix Velodrome. Realizing how lame he was, Fabian pulled a ninja suicide right there in the infield.

 Why didn't I listen to Boonen!

Ok, so I lied. Fabian is still alive after his victory at Paris-Roubaix (if you can call it living, poor guy). If he had only taken Tom Boonen's advice to go race White Lake Sprint, he might have captured the coveted cobbled textured beer mug.

The chalice in all its glory 

But alas, it was not to be. I am pleased to say that I was able to secure the title for the second year running. What made this victory even better was that I was able to share the podium with my good friend and teammate from Germany, Lukas Kampkotter. Lukas is from Hannover, Germany, but has been here in North Carolina for the past month visiting relatives and training. Last year, I had the privilege of racing with Lukas on the Hannover 96 Bundesliga Triathlon Team. For those who don't know, Bundesliga is the German national triathlon organization, which is comprised of different tiers of racers. The first division is the premier division, and the division we competed in while I was there. The first division is comprised of teams from all over Germany, but the teams are usually a mix of domestic and foreign professional triathletes. For example, our team was comprised of several local athletes from Hannover as well as pro's from Denmark and Australia. The races are primarily contested in the draft-legal format in either the sprint or olympic distance. They are quite competitive with former olympians and top World Triathlon Series racers toeing the line on a regular basis. On top of that, the courses are typically quite technical, with some lovely cobble sections sprinkled in just for fun.

19mm Tires should do the trick 

The race itself was a bit more painful than I was expecting. Fatigue from hard training made it difficult to find a rhythm. The only thing that really got me through it was a healthy dose of caffeine. I don't drink coffee or any caffeinated products on a regular basis, so it always helps give me an extra boost on race day. Caffeine is great because, it's a proven ergogenic aid, and, as Towelie would say, "it's not illegal b!#@$!"

Don't forget to bring a towel

It's Classics season and it smells like crap

Its getting to the end of March, and that means the spring classics season is in full swing over in Europe. We are finally getting our first taste of spring here in the Cape Fear. Unfortunately though, I'm not talking about the weather, which has been quite disappointing thus far. I'm talking about crap. Dog crap to be specific. All the fair weather runners are coming out of the wood works, and they're dragging Fido along with them. What they always forget is that Fido isn't allowed to use public restrooms (when will the discrimination end), so he is forced to go on the grass (or the sidewalk, always my favorite). And surprise, they don't have a bag, even though  in many areas, such as the loop at Wrightsville, there's bag dispensers everywhere. So now the rest of us are left dodging landmines as we try to get in a run. And as water warms up, we'll soon be swimming in the channel and the ocean. To help illustrate the problem here, I have included a intricate diagram of a watershed, not unlike the one we all live in.

It always floats downstream

As we can see, the swimmer in the diagram is particularly nonplussed at the sight of poo flowing into the very water he is swimming in. So for the love of god, bag it, scoop it, hell, eat it thats what your in to. 

Alright enough of that s*&%. Getting back to the classics season, which is really heating up with the Tour of Flanders today (warning: minor spoiler ahead). However, many of these riders will have there sights set on the true Queen of the Classics taking place next Sunday. No, I'm not talking about Paris-Roubaix. Nobody cares about that antiquated race anymore. I'm obviously referring to the White Lake Sprint Triathlon. A true test for the specialists, the White Lake Sprint always brings out the hard men of the sport. However, due to an early crash at Flanders today, one of the favorites, Tom Boonen, is questionable for the start on Sunday. 

"I should've just rested for White Lake!"

I wish Tom a speedy recovery, but it will be nice having one less person to worry about.

Sarasota Pan Am Cup-O-Noodles - Now with flavor

 Another weekend, and another race. Although this one can't quite match the clout of the AFWC, it was still fairly competitive. I did have to drive a bit farther though. This weeks adventure took me down to Sarasota, FL for the ITU Sarasota Pan American Cup (the ITU is very creative with their names). For those of you unfamiliar, ITU cup races are contested in the draft legal format and primarily over the international/olympic distance. These races are also known for having the worst prize money to depth of field ratios in the entire sport. For most, these races are used to garner ITU points to build their way up the food chain of races from the Continental Cup level all the way up to the Olympics. For others, it's a great way to get your ass handed to you as the draft legal format can be brutally unforgiving if you make the smallest mistakes.

Unfortunately, this weekend I fell into the later group.

Poor basterd

 If only I could go back Marty McFly style and warn myself. Better yet, I need Marty to go back and hook me up with some of these:

Power laces, truly the future of the sport

 Hell, just give me a damn Hoverboard while we're at it. Seeing as they haven't been invented yet, I could probably talk my way out of a penalty.

Gimme the damn board kid, Matt's in trouble!

 Ok, so I guess the Delorean broke down, because Marty never came to my rescue. Therefore, the following events were allowed to occur.

 After a solid swim, I found myself in postion to easily make the first chase group behind the breakaway of three that had got away. As I made my way through transition, I struggled a bit to unzip my wetsuit. My transition was about 5 seconds slower then most of the other guys, but it was just enough to put me in no-mans-land heading onto the bike course. I formed up a chase group with 4 other guys, but we just couldn't match the fire power of the lead group. We were eventually caught by the second main pack on the road about half way through the bike leg. With the help of the extra horsepower, we managed to mitigate our losses, but still came into T2 with a 2 minute deficit. I tried to channel Jens Voigt, and tell my legs to shut up, but they weren't having any of that. They kept on being like "Dumbass, why'd you bike so hard? Don't you know we aint ready for that kinda crap? Its friggin March man!". Couple of whiny bitches they are. So, with the lower half of my body in full protest, I slogged through the run as best I could. Come to find, my run was not too terribly slow, most everyone else just decided to run fast as hell. I managed to finish 25th on the day, which wasn't so bad, but could have been a good bit better had it not been for a few poorly timed mishaps.

 There were a couple of good takeaways from this weekend though. I was first off the bike and first out of transition from my chase group, which has never happened before. I also managed to not completely crap the bed with my early season fitness (or lack there of). On the other hand, I was also pretty stupid. Instead of being smart and applying sunscreen on my shoulders once I noticed that there wasn't an ounce of shade on the course, I chose to just get fried.

Yeah, too much surface area on those bad boys to ignore.

 Now I'm left with what can best be described as a combination wife beater and deep v-neck tan line on my back.

So Marty, if your reading this, quit playing Huey Lewis and save my ass. 

Yes, I am still alive

I would like to take this time to let everyone know that I am indeed still alive and well. Any rumors of nefarious acts should be treated as false, unless you saw me do it, in which case I will discredit you with the fury of 1000 Lance Armstrongs! 

But in all seriousness folks, I have good news. The road to recovery has been long and frustrating, but I can finally see the light. I have been dealing with a nagging lower leg injury for the past 2 years now that has prevented me from training at full capacity. To make a long story short, I did a little tweaking with my run form and some insoles, and now I am feeling great. Its a wonderful feeling to be able to do some kind of speed work again. 

As we speak, I am planning out my schedule for 2013. It will include the usual local races, in addition to a focus on the Rev3 and 5150 short course race series. Thanks to Shawn and Bike Cycles (I'm still working there a bit by the way), I will be riding a very nice all black 2013 Specialized Shiv Pro with some cool custom features that I rigged up (pictures to come). I am very excited about being back on a Specialized this year, as I really enjoyed my Transition from 2 years ago. I also broke down and got fitted by Jon (him and Shawn are our Specialized certified fit gurus) and I am very pleased with the results. Lesson learned from that experience is to never take your contact points (i.e. saddle, pedals, handlebars) for granted. I preach it every day, but I am still amazed at how big a difference proper insoles and cleat placement can make.

Stay tuned for more as the season draws near. But its still winter time, so for now, take a cue from Mimsy and enjoy a cold one while ya still can... and yes, pants are always optional.

St. Anthony's Tri

After a brief hiatus, I am back online. Really going to try and keep up with this thing.

St. Anthony’s is a race I look forward to every year. It was my first pro race four years ago, and I have done it every year since. The flat fast course suits me well and I always seem to have a good race. Unfortunately, this year, due to rough water conditions, the swim had to be relocated and shortened. I still had a great race, and beat my best bike split on this course by about 1 minute. Though, it sucks when you get passed by guys knowing that you usually have a 2 min lead on them out of the water in a normal swim and only had about 30-40 seconds on them with the abbreviated course.

They had told us at the pro meeting that the course change was a possibility, but that they would still try to maintain a 1.5k swim course for the pro’s. However, on race morning we got the word that the course had been changed to a roughly 1k swim to the north of the transition. I would say that given our times, the 50 meter run in, and the ~200 meter run out of the water to the timing mats, that we maybe did about 800 meters of actual swimming. Following the long run out of the water we had about a half mile long run on the concrete sidewalk to get to transition. I was running at a good clip, and my T2 time was still over 3 minutes! A few athletes cut their feet up pretty bad running on the sidewalk. I had a few pieces of skin missing, but nothing major.

On to the bike course, I almost screwed up real bad in the first few hundred yards. Coming out of transition, there is a nasty stretch of road made entirely of brick pavers (think Paris Roubaix on a tri bike). I only carry one water bottle when I am doing an Olympic distance race, which I mount in between my aerobars. I hit a few rough patches right off the bat and my water bottle bounced out of the cage. I caught it with my left hand just as it rolled off my aerobars! Had I dropped it and not recovered it, not only would I not have my sports drink, but I would have been given a 1 minute penalty. In the pro division they make you serve penalties on course by pulling over and unclipping for the full minute!

So, with disaster averted, I settled into my rhythm and got down to business. I knew I was feeling good when I was keeping up with long time pro Brian Fleischman.

Me and Brian rode around each other the entire way, with a few other guys that eventually pulled away towards the end of the bike. I came out of T2 in 18th place and was feeling fairly good. I knew I had pushed the bike hard, but I still had some spring to my step. Kaleb Van Ort and Brian ended up passing me around mile 2 on the run. I wanted to try to stick Brian, but he had picked up his pace dramatically and I could not match him when he went he passed. Kaleb is a sub-4 min miler who ended up running a 31 min 10k, so I did not feel to bad about letting him go!

Once we reached the turn around, I could see that there were several guys all within striking distance of me. With the aid of a tailwind, I started feeling better and picked up the pace a bit. I wanted to maintain my top 20 position, but I was passed at the 5 mile mark by Sean Jefferson (another crazy fast low 29 min 10k runner). I fought to stay on him as the road turned a bit into a head wind, but my legs started to cramp up on me. I almost caught one more guy towards the finish, but just ran out of room. I finished 21st overall on the day about 6 min back from race winner Filip Osplay from the Czech Republic. He sealed the deal with a race best 30:53 10k. This was not my best finish here from a placing perspective, but I was about 1 min faster on the bike and only 30 seconds off my fastest run split. Also, this was by far the most competitive field I have seen at this race in my four years, and by all accounts, the strongest field ever at this race. Of course, had the swim been the normal distance I would have faired better, but I’m not going to dwell on it.

Next up, New Orleans 5150 in on May 15th. Like St. Anthony’s, this race is part of the 5150 Olympic distance race series this year. The course looks flat and fast just like St. Anthony’s, so I’m very excited.

Did I say I was going to update more often?

Wow, keeping up with this is harder than I thought. Every time I want to write something, I have to create a new password because I forgot the old one. But I'm really going to try from now on.

Well boys and girls, let me tell you what I've been up to. I've been done racing for the season for some time now. I finished up with the season with the Amica Tri series race in Phoenix, AZ back in November. It was a first year event that was putting up some decent money, so I figured I might as well go for it. It was also a great excuse to visit Holli in San Diego afterwards. The race eneded up going well. I finshed 6th overall which saw me going home with a decent little check. That check was quickly spent the following week on my little side trip. The week went by way to fast, and I quickly found myself back in wilmywood. But if the picture below is any indication, my journey left me with a comforting feeling of things to come.Yeah, it was quite nice!

So what have I been up to lately you might ask? Well, due to my deep hatred of laundry and my inability to properly fold a shirt, I'm finding new ways to put together an outfit that is suitable for public consumption. Also, I have let my facial hair roam free for the past month or so and you know what, it 'aint half bad looking. Now I know what your saying "damn Matt, you really let yourself go in the off season, huh". Not so. I will have you all know that I actually got my hair, yes my hair, cut not to long ago over Thanksgiving. "gee Matt, is that cuz your mommy made you go". Oh well you can just go to hell! I mean...she might have had some say in the matter.

In other news, I have also taken up the position of super stoker on a competitive tandem bar hopping team. For those of you not familiar with tandem riding, the stoker person on the back of the bike. So whats a super stoker you might ask? The super stoker is the person on the rear most position on a tandem kids trail-a-bike that is attached to a tandem bicycle.
That's our team ready for battle on the highly competitive tandem bar hopping circuit here in Wilmington. Notice I am wearing my compression socks, so you know I mean business. If it looks like fun now, just wait, it gets even better after 2 am. That's when the real competition starts.

That's all for now. Tune in next time when I will unveil my 2010 schedule as well as some other super special exciting stories from my off season adventures including the Worlds Greatest Talon.

So it's been a while...

Due to lack of internet access over the past month or so, I have not been able to update this page. I reporting to you today thanks to the awesome guest computers at the UNCW library. Unfortunatley, I only have an hour a day on these computers, so I have to make every second count. Forgive me if I am brief.

So, I won the Wilmington Tri for the second time 2 weeks ago. I did not feel to great having just come off a long wedding weekend on the outer banks. Basically it turned into 4 straight days of surfing and partying with no training at all. Luckily though, I felt good enough to pull out the overall victory. The win was all the sweeter due to the fact that my girlfriend, Holli, was able to watch me race. Little did we know that a photog from the Lumina News was snooping around at the finish line at caught us in a rather candid moment shortly after I crossed the line. Needless to say, the photo ended up in the paper that week.

Due to my victory at Wrightsville, I am now poised to take over one of the top spots in the NCTS as I get for the final race in the series at Pinehurst this weekend. It certaintly won't be easy with the likes of Tom Clifford, Eric Bean, Tim Surface, and Richard Armstrong racing, but at this point I have nothing to lose. The way I see it, everyone should be worried about what I'm going to do and we'll see how everything pans out when the dust settles.

Ok, only 4 minutes left on the computer. Going to Phoenix on November 1st for the Amica Championship Race. $20,000 up for grabs in this first year event. Afterwards, I'm flying out to San Diego for a week to see my girl for some good old fashioned r&r.