A look Back at a Great Season

While on my ride today I was looking back on what an amazing experience I had this past season living in California with teammates and racing for Specialized.  One of the greatest parts about this was not just being able to leave high school a semester early but all of the great people I have met that have helped me along the way this year.  I want to say a special thank you to some of the people that made this year possible.  Larry Nolan, Wyatt Weisel, Steve Cassani, Dylan Casey, Specialized and last but not least my parents.  I couldn't have made this happen without any of these people.
Plans are starting to work out for next year and will be announced in about a month.

College!

With my season wrapping up I have started college.  I am attending Fort Lewis College in Durnago Colorado.
It is going well so far.  I have some of the best room mates I could ask for Payson McElveen and Kyle Amberman.  Payson is one of the United States top mountain bikers in his age group.  With him here it makes training a bit more exciting as I am not always riding alone.
  I am majoring in exercise science.  Coincidentally so is Payson, of my five classes we have four together.
As for the racing next year I am still undecided on which team I will race for.
I am planning on doing a much better job of updating the blog in the future!
Thanks for reading 

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.