This about sums up the pace at the Gastown Criterium. That is not my happy face.

Yes… In my world July comes right aftere April. Vancouver has given me a burst of inspiration to write about whats going been going on lately. The team and I are spending a couple of weeks in the Vancouver area for BC Superweek. Already finished up with the first portion, the three day Tour de Delta. Not a bad intro to BC but now that we are closer to the actual city of Vancouver, I can see why this place is rated in the top 5 of the best places in the world to live.

Now, from where we are at, it only took a ride through three lanes of traffic (without a bike lane), on through what seemed to be half the population of Asia, then to the real China Town(totally recommended riding), sketch town Canada (think The Wire), then all of a sudden we pop out and there are yachts, rugged snow capped mountains and foliage as far as the eye can see… weird. Well worth the ride though as I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Weve got another couple of days of racing here in Canada, then its back to Tucson to put the final prep in for Nationals out in Irvine, California. If all finishes well here, I should be coming into nationals with better race form than last year. Im excited about the idea of some nice form, as I could really use the results.

But first, Tour de White Rock…

So, on my last post I was pretty worked over by the Redlands Stage Race. Well, that Sunday while the brutal Sunset stage was taking place, there was another opportunity to race with the Redlands criterium. A single day race, the Redlands crit did not have the fire power that the stage race did, but by no means lacked in quality. Toyota, Rock and misc other groups of pros came out to play with a total field of 90 riders.

Sean and I decided to take a stab at another chance to go after our early departure from the stage race. This wasn’t my first experience at this crit, but what was different was a couple more years in the legs and ability to compete. With good positioning at the start I was in the mix in the early breaks, but sensing that Rock was looking to keep things together I pulled the reins back in a little. It turned out to be a good decision because the pace only got faster. About 45 minutes in, I took another go with a Rock rider to bridge to a small gap to Hilton Clarke (Toyota) and Jonny Sundt (Kelly Benifits). The gap widened as Matt Shriver (Jittery Joes) came flying up and rounded out the group. Once the gap was open, we managed to get a second or two every lap before the ‘elastic band’ broke and we got some breathing room from the field. The group of us worked well together and with 10 laps to go we lapped the field.  We immediately pushed to the front and found our respective teammates. The last couple of laps were super dicey as Socal crits can often be, but I managed to hold my own fairly well till just before the second to last corner. All the work for positioning went out the window when a Kahala Lagrange rider blew up and opened up a massive gap. It was ultimately my mistake as I was the only one from the break that was caught out for the sprint, but I will certainly take my 5th place. After a less than desireable weekend, the effort and result made for a nice bit of redemption.

This week we are back in Phoenix getting a little rest and gearing up for the State Championship criterium this weekend. After the past two weekends of full gas racing Im thinking this weekend could be sweet. I’m certainly enjoying this couple of days of light riding and had a blast yesterday doing a 3.5 hr ’Humbolt’ ride with TD. Check out his site TimDoud.net, where hes got the ride well documented with killer videos and pictures.

I think its time to mix it up here at ronjensen.net, so check back in over the next couple of days for a cool Q&A session with former teammate and aspiring Navy SEAL Justin Hale. Talk about someone living an incredible dream, Justin is taking on the monumental task of training to become a SEAL. I have been getting a lot of questions from yall on how he’s doing, so soon I will get his interview up on the site. Crazy stuff, check it out!

Thanks for reading!

-Ron

… about sums up my race at Redlands. Started with a tough cookie of an uphill TT and although I didn’t pull a desirable finish, I had one of my best readings from the power meter. I gave it everything I had and thats all I could do.

For the Stage 1 Road Race, there was no order or pacing going on, just straight up going hard right outta the blocks. I managed to knock out just about 4 out of the 5 lap race and when I blew up, I blew up… hard enough to go from what was left of the main group to just past the time cut… in a little over a lap… ouch. Not a good day, but I cant spend too much time on a rough ride, gotta take some good experience from this race and look to the next round.

I am glad to see Kiel an Alex holding their own and showing some good form in the criterium stage today. Tomorrow is the Sunset loop day and this course is not as pleasant as the name sounds. One thing is for sure, like every day this far, these guys are going to race their hearts out.

Also watched Heather ride her butt of with a cold in the crit today. Wanna talk about something that doesn’t look like a lick of fun! I was very impressed at her ability to tough it out for as long as she did. Very proud!

Monday its back to Phoenix for a couple of days of training and odds and ends. State criterium championships are on saturday, so at least we should have some form from the last few weeks of racing. For the immediate future… dinner!

-Ron

Yup, still here! Finished up with my San Dimas fun at the crit last weekend. It seemed like one of the faster crits I’ve ever done, and Rock was back on the front again keeping the pace high. Unfortunately not quite fast enough as Sevilla was knocked out of the overall lead by 1 second. Gotta give it to those guys though, they put some solid work in and worked well as a team… tough way to lose it.

The past two days have been all about prep for Redlands and unload massive amounts of jelly beans to a some grade school classes. We went to a local Redlands grade school to talk about cycling and the upcoming race, followed up by a Q&A session with the kids. It was all good until Sean announced: “if anyone else wants jelly beans, come get em!”

My god… School kids will skin eachother to get at a pack of jelly beans. Thought someone was gonna die…. A lot of good questions and was certainly a great deal of fun.

Today we start with an intense uphill TT, kicking off the Redlands stage race. Still looking for a good result on this type of TT…. Wish me luck!

-Ron

Wanted to give a quick update on what I’ve been up to the past couple of days. We are out in San Dimas (LA), California for the San Dimas Stage Race. With a stacked field of the likes of Oscar Sevilla, Tyler Hamilton, Healthnet, Toyota and all the big teams, this thing should very well be rated a National Calendar Race.

Starting with a 4 mile uphill Time-Trial, the obvious winner was Mr. Sevilla himself. As for myself, I completely bombed the TT. Historically, a straight up climbing TT has never been my forte, but I certainly did not have the legs for this one… so it goes.

Yesterdays 84 mile, 12 lap Road Race went much better for me. The course had a sweet KOM climb in every lap as well as enough ‘road furniture’ to make me think I was back in Europe again. It was a fast and aggressive race that rarely saw the pace drop and Rock Racing kept the breaks in check. With every lap, the field would slim down considerably to either tension through the technical sections or just plain out fatigue from the race itself. I managed to make it to the finish right off the front group and as second amateur, and Kiel knocked out a solid finish for 11th and 1st amateur. Kudos to TD for hangin tough and for his timing abilities.

Today we finish up with a technical 90 minute crit in what looks to be dismal skies. I will update on how we finish up this afternoon.

Thanks for reading!

-Ron

It’s our triumphant return to Garbage trucks and film again this week, but this time in Sunny Paradise Valley!

Part two of some filming for WM where a group of us spent a the better part of Monday doing some cool stuff through the streets of PV. Mostly to get some shots of on the road kind of stuff, lots of rollin around the hills and lots of time bombing descents and corners… not too shabby.

Hopefully we will have the final product some time around the middle of April… then on to American Idol. Also got a variation of the white stuff at both the Tumacacori Road Race and here at the house…

Believe it or not, this weather complemented the road race course quite well. As it also complemented my sweet sidewalk surfing skills. Ahh, reminds me of my days as a wee lad at the Cycling Center house!

Coming up on another trip to Cali this week for the San Dimas Stage Race. I’ve never been, but the field is stacked and should be the perfect warm up for Redlands. Just a few more days of training and rest, then I’m ready to get down to some serious racing.

Back to joining Heather in our quest for anything that might resemble quality on Saturday afternoon television… The afternoon premier of The Hot Chick just isn’t cutting it. Chat at y’all soon!

-Ron

 In light of all the solid rides that Cozza and the Slipstream boys have been pulling out at Cali and over in Europe, I’ve decided to add the latest and hottest weapon to my arsenal:

It may be a bit hard to spot due to my amateur ability to grow hair … but yes… the beginings of a sweet racing moustache. Tried the 2 week Training ‘Beard’, but the boys in argyle have proven the undeniable powers of the Racing Stache… as tested in the wind tunnel.

Got the good word on our acceptance into Redlands Stage Race and even bigger, WM’s spot in the heavily anticipated Tour of Pennsylvania. Time to play bicycles! 

 -Ron

 So, the trial run of our soon to be weekly sunday afternoon cookout started off yesterday, and I’d say we managed to do pretty well for ourselves.

Here we are, successfully abstaining from burning the house down… and from the looks of it, about ready to battle over a lone piece of chicken. Hopefully this is just the start of a continued cookout Sunday tradition, as it’s a good way to relax and enjoy the end off the week. Who knows, maybe I will venture out from my standard pasta and chicken dish?

Really feeling the training in the legs now. Still waiting to hear back on our acceptance into Redlands and keeping the fingers crossed. Either way, keeping the nose to the grindstone.

-Ron

To quote the loveable Jonah Hill in Knocked Up: “Just another day at the office.” That’s my day on the bike in a nutshell and I’m damn happy to be able to say that. Solid day involving a trip up the 27 mile climb to the snow covered Mt. Lemmon Ski Lodge, good legs and a impromptu support team keeping us hydrated.

Introducing Bill Maxwell and his daughter Sam. With a couple of motivating, smiling faces like this, I think a guy could get used to this kind of stuff!

Also, it’s Training camp time here in Tucson… and I’m fairly sure every last training camp group was on the mountain today. Ive never seen so many cyclists…err… I mean, cyclists climbing in aero bars. Good stuff.

Continuing with a solid training block over the next couple of days, so I will do my best to come up with something that doesn’t pertain solely to riding my bicycle… but most likely still going to be something about cycling! Days like this, I’ve got a single track mind.

On a final note, Congrats to Jon Parrish and all the WM boys for the multiple wins at the H-Dog crit today! Y’all raced hard and certainly deserve the top spot!

-Ron