Monday, April 5, 2010

Sorry I have been off the wagon...

I have been hard time slackin' off! At least in blogging but not school! I figured I would post my race report from my first weekend of racing here in Colorado.

CU/UNC Crit

Starting things off, Ryan and I drove into Boulder early to get a ride in which turned out to be a complete change from Durango. We went with no gloves or leg warmers and felt fine the whole ride! Exciting stuff, right? Then, we waited for the truck and rental car for five hours after the Suburban malfunctioned, later to be replaced by the creeper van. All in all I am thinking what a great start to this weekend.

The Mens Cs were off first with our two C riders for the weekend, Chris Parker and Justin Putnam, representing FLC. The group was being sketchy as usual for a C race and our two riders had some bad luck in the 2nd half of the race, but definitely learning a lot and coming out with great experience as well as being so stoked to be racing! The next day they were able to work together at the technical UNC course and nab two top 15s in a hard charging, blown apart race. I have never seen anyone else be so amped for racing as these two.

The Bs only included 2 FLC riders, Robbie Jones and me (Sam Simmons). Saturday started off fast with attacks going left and right from CU and CSU who took up about half the field. With 3 laps to go, kids started bumping and caused a wreck that took out Robbie and provided a CSU rider (Matthew Miyamoto) to get a gap which I almost foiled in the closing feet of the race but came up short to slot into the second position. UNC fit my breakaway abilities better, being very technical and favoring smaller groups. I took off from the gun and later was joined by a CU rider and UNC rider (Ben Norris). We kept the gap open, but with one lap to go the CU rider attacked and took one corner too hot sliding out and causing Ben and me to go down. I did a front flip off the side of the course and smacked the curb with my arm, but using my cyclocross skills and determination I got up and on and won the race. Robbie got around tenth because the cold was hurting his circulation even more.

Missy was our lone woman for the weekend tearing up the As. She was a minority in a CU ran field. An attack from a CU rider and the blocking from her teammates let her sneak up the road and get about half a lap on the field. Missy brought it in for 3rd after burning a lot of matches charging on her own to bring back the CU rider. UNC was the same situation for her, a small field of probably 8 riders and 15 of them were CU. Last lap mayhem sent her sliding out but not down for the count, she got up and chased the CU girl from Saturday again and came so close but ended up nabbing second.

The only A men were Ryan Cleveland and Dana Alia, but they represented well and raced smart. Saturday and Sunday they bridged gaps, got in breaks, saved matches for the finish and did their best to mix it up with a pro filled As group. Unfortunately they were outnumbered, but the teams like CU who took up twelve fifths of the field did not get the win but the German Richard Geng took the win both days.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Back in the CO

I am officially back in colorado at my friends', Sassy and Sam, house outside of Dolores. Probably the most popular area for small towns around here. There is three towns between here and Telluride, one being Stoner. We went snowboarding today and I am going back up tomorrow then heading back to Durango tomorrow night. Well it is late so good night everybody. More to come!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Chip Off the Old Potato

Been a while since last here to tell you readers about my boring life that has no excitement ever. But hey at least I am riding my normal bike again and getting ready for my first collegiate season out in Colorado. For now I am home in Ventura visiting the family and friends and training, but of course its raining today, and if I ride in the rain, I get sick - no questions asked! I will be posting the adventures of my life, mostly riding and snowboarding, which will usually include guest star Ryan Cleveland. Speaking of Cleveland, I am thinking of trying Nordic Skiing, anybody have advice about that?

All For Now -
Sam

Monday, April 27, 2009

Wow this is a long time coming...

Sorry I have fallen off the blogging boat but I have had some hectic school times and will start reporting back soon.

Here is something for the masses:
Just so everyone is clear Andrew is a beast who has impressed me since I first met him. He is the nicest guy you can know and not afraid to suffer.

Here is my spin. We started out and about half a lap in Big J Court attacks and the best quote ever from my brother Ryan "Clevage" Cleveland, came into existence: "Hey, Sam is supposed to do that!" Well everything was together then Heeley attacks and we follow and Ramage Damage lays the most vicious attack of the race down. He is followed by two then Ryan goes to the front and Landman follows, so I gap them out front of the field by slowing myself down and they ride up to Damage. That was it. Chases followed but none stuck, so with two to go I went to the front and hammered and Dave followed, and we gapped off to take 6th and 7th after Damage and Clevage took 1,2. Josh led the field in at 10th.

The threes was usual. Attacks and chases all the time and a few cuss words were thrown around like a hot potato. Two laps in a NOW (No One Wins - except Kit haha Just kidding) guy hits Little Dom's wheel and goes down causing a pile up taking out D Court and shattering someone's glasses in their own eye (I found out today that the culprit blamed Dom and called him Chubby which we all know as bogus). With about nine guys from Super Cool Velo in attendence, we were well represented, but I felt like chasing dangerous breaks and getting in a few moves. The plan from the start was that I was to attack with two corners to go, so I stayed near the front to assure a chance. Two corners to go I start accelerating on the right side, but as I did this a Cat 5 disguised as a 3 flew across half the road putting the Soloist (Sam) into the curb, so I backed off and went in between him and an IRun+Fly (Ironfly) guy and get to second wheel with one corner to go heading down the straight at about 60-65 Km/h. I was left for dead in my mind and thought top ten is good, but then I get a second wind and stand up to sprint after being passed by a few including my best bud Ryan taking fourth. 1st place is mine next weekend.

All for now!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

I am Mentally Insane!

Well this may throw you for a loop but I have some weird ticks and its hard to describe them but I am not literally crazy. One of them is I have to write whatever I do down to acheive a goal. Like for general fat loss to start riding faster, I have to keep a journal of everything I ate and how many calories I burned and how many miles I rode over which terrain. Since I despise writing, I just cut back on my food a lot. Within about two weeks from now I will be around 140-145 which is my goal weight as I am 6' tall.

Monday, March 9, 2009

CBR Dominguez Hills.

I woke up nicely to pancakes, eggs and sausage made by none other than my wonderful momma. I didnt really have to pack the car due to tiredness the night before so i just drove to the race around 10 and got there around 11:30ish. I got registered did some normal trash talking as per usual and then met up with the team and got ready to go. I rolled up to the line and the race got going and without even trying i had a rather large gap. I put in an effort to get the legs going then let the field catch me. I won a few primes and raced around in circles for a while being myself. With about 5 or 6 laps to go I was off the front by about 20 seconds with Erik Volotkzy. He had a little trouble staying up with me but I made sure not to drop him because he is a great kid and progressing very fast. With two laps remaining we were finally caught and I just stayed near the front but the last lap turned really sketchy and I got boxed in then shut out...By my own team mate! haha. Kit Karzen ended up winning his like 1 billionth race in a row. If you read this you need to upgrade. Just letting you know haha. The normal chitluns were out there including fake-jew-baby Ryan Cleveland, Nate "My Glasses Make me Captain" Swift, Andrew "Motivational Speaker" Bosco, Patrick Torr-mylegsoff-es, Big Kevin "K Mil" Miller, and the buff arm of the law Dave Jacobson. Not sure where we all ended up but as a team we raced "better" than the last race. We still have many flaws to improve on but that will hopefully come with time.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Island View Crit

Well I started off the day with a nice stuffed blunt - wait I mean group ride. Been listening to too much Nickatina. Felt ok and spent half the time trash talking with Ryan Yee about how I didn't want to race for his "Fly V Australia" team (after I asked about it and he said no, haha). I got home then ate and cleaned up then drove to the research park, registered, skated, trash talked some more, got dressed, warmed up and rolled to the start line. Right from the gun a break goes with a bunch of dangerous cats like Cody O'Reilly, Eric Bennett, and Danny Finneran. I was in a bad start spot and didn't get in that break that lapped the field in a matter of about 15 minutes. I hung in and got some primes and with 6 laps to go I shift and BANG! mechanical. Chain goes around the dropout and stay, but I assess the situation and fix it then roll to the pit where they push me back in after a free lap. If that would have happened one lap later I would have been finished. I rode the last laps in a 45x13 spinning about 150 cadence. Sprinted in and got spit on by some idiot, so I raised my hands and came across the line with the infamous female dog lady right there.

James rode a very aggressive race and was in the front 1/3 the whole time killing it and best of all was really helping me out with advice and guidance on where to be and what to do. He really is a great friend and teammate no matter how much we joke around with each other. Well they did not put James on the results but I guess I got 30th.