Tour de L'abitibi

 I am currently in Quebec Canada with Team Specialized racing the Tour de L'abitib.  A six day seven stage race.  Yesterday was the first stage, 112km mostly flat.  I was able to make the winning break of eight riders.  Two New Zealand riders, three Kazakhstan riders, one rider from Thailand and one Mexican rider.  The break went clear about 70km into the race.  We all worked very well together.  I was a little surprised we stayed away as the French national team and the USA national team were not represented. 

We start stage two this afternoon I am sitting 5th on GC, we are sitting 3rd on team GC.  Looking forward to the time trial in the morning and a short stage in the afternoon.

Whats coming up!

Nationals is just around the corner!  I will be heading to Augusta, GA on the 20th along with the rest of the Specialized team.  We are anticipating a very strong showing in all 3 events.  

After Nationals we will have a team gearing up for L'abitibi held in Quebec.  This is known as the Junior Tour de France.  Held over the course of a week with 7 stages.  It is the only internationally recognized race on North America.  We will be targeting the overall as well as stage wins.  

   I will updating my new twitter account with more frequent updates from Nationals and L'abitibi.  My twitter name is willyzellmer.

Thanks for reading!

Very Quick update from the weekend

Here is a quick update courtesy of Marcus Smith on our weekend of adventures.  Just goes to show we might be a little bit crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjAq1fYoTQ8&feature

Whats new!?

              

                    Its been a while since my last update and a lot has happened!  The team raced very well at the Calville Bay Classic where all three of us were able to place in the top 5 in an event.  I was pleasantly surprised with how I raced with it being late February I had little expectations for myself.  After the race was over Jeff Perrin and I checked out the Vegas scene on Sunday night.  We walked the strip and had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant in the Cosmopolitan.
                 The next morning we started the drive to Palo Alto which was about 8.5 hours.  We had 2 days in Palo Alto before heading to Merced for the Merco Grand Prix.  I was hoping to be able to test my fitness in this race but unfortunately I was crashed out on the first day just 11km into the 132km race.  My shifter broke in half and for some reason all the support cars just drove past me so I caught a ride in the sag-wagon back to the start.  The next day David Benksoski and I headed back to Palo Alto for some training before leaving for the Madera stage race late the next week.
                   My bad luck continued at Madera with my seatpost slipping all the way down in the second time trial due to a stripped bolt, this was followed by an ill timed flat tire in the road race with 20k to go with the pace picking up.  I am very hopeful that this string of bad luck will end before the San Dimas stage race and Sea Otter.
                 I am currently back in Palo Alto with my first week without a race in over a month.  This will give me a little over a week to get prepared for San Dimas.  I am living with my team mate David Benkoski for the next month until he heads to Belgium for 3 weeks for the first trip with the National team.

One place to the Next.....

I have spent the last 3 weeks riding and racing in the Phoenix area.  While the weather has been great for most of the time the last few days it has been cold, windy and rainy!  A bit of a disappointment when you expect sun every day but it didn't stop us from riding!

With the first race of the season out of the way I will be on my way to Las Vegas in the morning for the Calville Bay Classic that starts on Thursday.  It is a bit different from last year where as at this time I hadn't even raced yet and by Sunday I will have 7 days of racing in the legs.

From Las Vegas I will be going to Palo Alto for a few days before heading to Merced for the first big race of the season.

Race Update!

The first race of the year started last Friday in the Phoenix area.  It was a 3 day 3 stage race.  All 14 of the Specialized athletes were there.   We had a very strong showing in the junior categories taking time trial victories in both the 15-16 division and 17-18 division.  I raced in the category race and suffered through it! My fitness is not there yet but will come in the coming months.  I unfortunately was part of the first pile up in our 90 mile road race on Saturday but was able to finish.  It was a hard way to start the season with such a long hard race.  The criterium was on a bit of a weird course featuring some tight "s" curves crossing over reflectors and some rough pavement.  From what I observed from the front end there were no crashes which was good!  I raced a bit of a lazy race just sitting in the field trying to stay out of trouble.  Although I had no outstanding results at this race the team as a whole sure did!  I can tell already this is going to be a season to remember!

Next week will be a good training week in Phoenix and Tucson with Jeff Perrin.  We will be heading to Las Vegas on the 24th for the Calville Classic.  Another stage race 4 days and 4 stages.  The whole team will not be able to make it but the majority will be there.  After this race I will be headed to my new home in Palo Alto!

More pictures of the racing coming soon......

Rough Going

My rides throughout the week have been great but the majority have been followed by car malfunctions on the way home.  Tuesday trying to leave my friend Jeff's house the battery seemed to be dead so I jumped it and it only died again once I was down the street.  After a spendy tow truck ride for about 30 miles it turned out the battery was completely bad and the alternator belts broke. Great!  Two days after driving home from packet pickup in Tempe to Scottsdale I started hearing weird noises from the engine and decided I should pull off.  As soon as I hit the off ramp the car died... yet again.  I waited again for another tow truck to come and had yet another expensive tow truck ride that was a bit longer than the first.  This time it turns out the engine is completely shot!  So as of right now I am kinda stranded in the Phoenix area.  I have team mates that are willing to drive and pick me up for the races thankfully.

The moral of this seems to be.... don't go to kendall 4 seasons unless you like getting ripped of big time!