e's blog

Deeeeep South Racin’ I haven’t done the Mississippi Grand Prix in several years but this year the stars aligned and I was able to make the trip. The race is in Brookhaven, MS about 55 miles south of Jackson, MS, basically my old stomping grounds from when I first started racing in Baton Rouge, LA. The race has always been well run and on good courses and it’s always great to see the people that were around when I first got started. LA, MS, and AL tend to have really good races with decent money and low entry fees, making them more than desirable to do. The Brookhaven Grand Prix boosts a 12,000 prize purse for a 4 stage timed stage race and an entry fee of only 65 dollars, and is run on some beautiful and challenging courses. I made the trip with AEG-Toshiba-Jetnetworks sister or “feeder” team Myogenesis Nutrition Cycling Team, joining me were Cleve Blackwell and Casey Magner. We figured it would be a small field and with a good sprinter (Casey) and two very good all arounders (Cleve and I) we would have a very good shot at taking home some wins. We were a bit surprised though when we got to registration and saw that it was a pretty stacked field with the likes of Jason Snow and Dan Larson of Cyclescience, Compliance Depot from Dallas, TX, a full Herring Gas team, Memphis Motorworks, LA’Sport, and others. One of my favorite things about bike racing is the aspect of strategy and seeing such big hitters put my gears a churnin and all original plans had to be rethought. The first race was a crit at twilight in downtown Brookhaven, a very typical small town city center with Historic 2 to 3 story buildings and a sprinkling of life. I did notice that the town has grown a bit since my last visit, as there were more stores and less vacant buildings. Our plan for the crit was to lay low and let the other teams do as much of the work as possible. Only go with moves that were represented by all teams otherwise let the teams that missed out do the chasing. I wasn’t sure about my fitness as I had missed about 8 days of training the week before so I wanted to ride myself into the race hopefully be strong by day two and three. The race started extremely fast and never really let up. We averaged around 28mph, which for this region is blazing fast. Everyone did their jobs well and towards the end of the race Cleve was in a 3 man break that included Frank Moak of Herring Gas and fast man Nathan Rogut of Compliance Depot, both very fast sprinters. With 2 laps to go Dan Larson hit the front to try and bring the break back for Jason Snow who is probably one of the best sprinters in the south. I told Casey to stick to snow like a fly on poop because I knew he would be trying to get across to the break. With half a lap to go I saw Snow fly past the peloton and a split second later Casey was on him. The drilled it across to the break but caught them in the last turn causing a bit of hesitation. Casey managed 4th, Cleve 5th, and I took the field sprint for 6th. The next morning was an 80-mile road race on an amazing 25-mile loop. Super narrow and twisty roads, with rolling hills, and a section that zig zagged through a small town and another through a small community college. It felt like a European race. The plan was pretty much the same as the day before… lay low. We were not in the leaders jersey therefore it wasn’t our job to defend or chase breakaways. The race was fast and I questioned my fitness throughout as on climbs that normally would be easy I was suffering a bit. Luckily as the race went on I felt better and better, and thanks to Myogenesis’ new Podium drink mix I never felt a twinge of a cramp or any signs of lack of energy. Late in the race breaks started to look like they might succeed as many riders were getting tired. Close to the end of the 2nd of 3 laps a few riders including Casey had gotten up the road and we were approaching the longest hardest hill of the course. I knew I could get across on the hill and not risk bringing many if any riders with me. I attacked and it worked, myself and maybe 2 others bridged to the leaders and we had a break of 7. We floored it knowing we had 25 miles to go and opened up about a 1-minute gap, which on this course put you out of sight. Eventually we settled into a slower pace and with a couple teams chasing hard in the field we started to get caught from behind. I started taking long hard pulls, I had told Casey to sit in and not work much to save himself for the sprint but now told him to start pulling until we got the gap back. We eventually were back out of sight and nearing the finish. Ryan Saylor of Cyclescience had been sitting on the break the entire time and I figured he would attack sometime before the finish so I lined up on him at the back of the break. As we approached the line no one attacked knowing the uphill finish would be more about power than a sprint. The spring started at about 300 meters and Casey quickly jumped ahead but then pulled out of his pedal, he re-clipped in only to come out again, upon seeing this I dug really deep as I thought our win was in jeopardy, but he managed to still win the sprint and I got 3rd. Later that day was a 4-mile time trail and Casey went into that stage as the leader and myself 4th overall. I borrowed a disc wheel and tri spoke front and set my sights on trying to win the TT. The course was rolling and although not ideal for me it wasn’t too bad either. My 30-second rider was Casey and I knew if I could use him as a rabbit I would be doing a good time. I felt good throughout the TT, staying smooth and keeping my effort high but without blowing up. I ended up 3rd in the TT putting myself into the overall lead for the following days criterium. Casey slipped to 4th overall. The criterium plan was pretty straightforward, don’t let any of the 4 riders close to me in time get up the road, let any non-threats get away and take time bonuses and even the win so that I wouldn’t have to fight for time bonuses. If Casey could get away with non-threatening riders that would be good too as he could move into the overall. The Myo boys did a good job of keeping the race together and Cleve shattered himself at the front of the race for me. We were all together for the first time bonus and I had to que up on the guy in seconds wheel and make sure he didn’t get it, as it would have tied us. He had a killer lead out from his sprinter Nathan Rogut but I managed to come around him and take 2nd while Nathan got 1st, thus solidifying my lead. The rest of the race saw lots of attacks and several moves getting small time gaps but coming back. We went into the last lap all together for a field sprint. I had great legs for the uphill sprint but bad positioning had me start the sprint in about 12, I managed to make my way to 4th in about a 100 meters and Casey took 3rd. It was enough to keep the overall win and Casey stayed in 4th.

Blistery B’ham! While the bulk of the AEG-Toshiba-Jetnetworks Professional Cycling Team was racing in blizzard conditions at the US Open of Cycling, Eric Murphy packed his bags for what he calls home away from home, Birmingham, AL, for the Ride to Live Race at Barber Motor Speedway. “I was excited to come do this event because it gave me a chance to race, see some of my best friends, visit one of my favorite cities, and help support the Ride to Live charity which helps fight cancer and support victims of cancer”. Extremely windy and cold conditions and the demanding course took a quick toll on the field and Murphy found himself in a group of 5 within 2 of the first 10 laps. Soon that group was reduced to 3 including ex pro Terry Duran, Myogenesis Nutrition rider Cleve Blackwell, and Murphy. Heading through the start/finish line with one lap to go Murphy attacked leaving Duran and Blackwell to chase. Duran put in a strong effort and when he looked for Blackwell to help with less than a kilometer to go he was attacked and left for third. Blackwell made a strong effort to catch but Murphy had enough real estate to take the win. For more information on Ride to Live check out www.ridetolive.org

Mud In My Eyes! Here it is several days after the Knob Scorcher Mountain Bike Race at Tsali, NC and I am still finding mud and feeling the effects of the mud that littered Sundays race course. A constant barrage of rain Saturday night and all day Sunday morning made an extremely fast trail and extremely treacherous one. Saturday was the first time I have ever ridden Tsali and I was stoked.. lots of climbing, only a few fast technical downhills (I don’t like those), and lots of fast single track. I felt confident in maybe taking home a win, especially coming off of a win at a few weeks ago in Macon, GA. After pre-riding we found out our host for the weekend had bailed on us so we had to find a hotel, which fortunately was pretty easy and only 50.00 bucks a night. We met some friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant Bryson City. The owner/chef was a large Italian guy so I expected the food to be really good…. It wasn’t. My grilled trout was okay but my pasta was overcooked and the sauce just OK. How does an Italian overcook pasta? Back to the hotel I sacked out pretty quick as I had spent the previous two days and nights in Athens, GA, which many of you know translates to out late having drinks two nights in a row. Throughout the night I heard the sound of thunder rolling through sky, the crackle of lightening, and the pittar patter of rain. These sounds are nice for sleeping but are a recipe for nastiness when it comes to mountain bike racing. We had learned of a local coffee shop so when we awoke we made our way to downtown Bryson City to have coffee and pastries, only to find that the coffee shop was closed on Sundays. Isn’t Sunday one of the best days to sit around drinking coffee? Fortunately I had scoped out the cities eateries on the way to the coffee shop and had noticed a bustling little diner called the Everett St. Diner, which we decided patronize. It was amazing… some of the best grits I’ve had in GA, awesome pancakes, and homemade muffins that would make you slap your momma! Stuffed and bloated we headed to the race. We had a good 3 hours before we raced and I spent most of that time sitting in the car listening to music as the rain came in 10 minute increments. As the race start approached I slowly got ready and got what would be a very inadequate warm up, it’s just plain hard to get motivated with such nasty conditions and before you know it you go from “I’ll get a good 45 minute warm up” to “ahhh I’ll just use the first 10 miles of the race as a warm up”… the later never being a good decision. Our start was delayed due to a rider that was injured and having to be taken out of the woods via a four-wheeler. This allowed for more, much needed, warm up time. About 45 minutes later we were still delayed and the officials decided to change the course, which ended up being good news for me. Now instead of a short dirt road climb that dropped into a downhill single-track section we would climb for over a mile before hitting the single-track. This was good because it would allow me to try and get somewhat of a gap before descending on slippery muddy trails (if you can’t tell by now I’m not very fast on downhills, too many years away from the mountain bike). We finally got started and as we ascended the fire road climb I sad in and waited to see what kind of pace the others would set. I found myself riding very comfortably when the climb really started to go uphill I decided to hit the front and lift the pace. Within a few hundred meters I was alone with my teammate Cleve Blackwell in 2nd. I kept the pace high all the way up wanting to build as big a gap as possible. By the start of the 2nd lap I was still alone with at least a 5 minute gap. I felt awesome buy my bike was starting to feel the effects of the nasty conditions. My tires were some of the worst you could use in muddy conditions (this is being fixed with my new Maxxis Tire sponsorship), my rear brake no longer worked, and my eyes were absolutely trashed from a constant spray of muddy water and chunks of mud. The worse my brakes and eyes got the slower I went. I put in another hard effort on the start/finish climb and any other climbs I hit, but the downhill sections I had to take pretty easy. Only having front brakes and a dry weather tire I started crash anytime I hit my brake and wasn’t going in a straight line. After several crashes I was ready to through my bike into the woods and began to get very frustrated.. I wasn’t even going hard or fast and was crashing. My vision was pretty blurry by now and I figured the guys behind me would probably start to catch me but at this point I just wanted to finish the race without any broken bones. As I neared the last couple of miles of the course a guy informed me that the race had been cut short and we would finish on this lap. Better news couldn’t have been heard! I could put it in cruise control and win no problem, another lap may have been a different story. I crossed the finish line and immediately ditched my bike. Several people were there to help me out as I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. My sinuses were also flowing like crazy trying to flush the barrage of mud that invaded my whole head. A huge thanks to Jackie Soladay and the others for helping me after the race…. I was a mess! We hit a killer little restaurant after the race and I pounded 2 beers to help me sleep as my eyes were still very irritated and sleeping was the only cure. My eyes are better and thanks to my neighbor Drew that works for The Bike Center in Peachtree City my bike is better too!