One of the most likable guys in the peloton, Matt Shriver’s been a fixture in professional cycling for many years. Matt has raced professionally on the dirt, on the cyclo-cross circuit, and on the road. His incremental success has been due to years of hard work, perseverance and making a choice to live his passion for cycling. |
|
Maybe a visit back to the Tetons this fall is in order for a recharge
The last couple races have not been much to write about. No excuses, just creeping right now. That is what happens when you try to hold good form for too long. At some point, you have to hit the reset button and do some serious rest, followed by some good training. I have been resting after races and training, but no real good blocks of rest followed with a hard long block.
Here we are once again in Greenville readying for one of the last races of the season. The racing season has flown by again. It feels like we were just here racing our brains out to get Neil on the podium. Just a few more weeks of racing left in the road season before making the transition to Cyclocross for some of us and the rest will do their off season thing.
The Tour of Utah will begin next week on Wednesday, the 13th. It is going to be a very difficult race with the higher altitude and the hot dry heat. It has been reaching the mid to upper 90’s each day for the past month. Growing up in the West, I can say that I am used to this kind of heat, but haven’t raced in it much lately. This race is going to favor the riders that are good climber’s at altitude on long climbs. The second stage has over 10,000 feet of climbing in it and will be the first real shake up in the overall. Then the last two stages, stage 4 and 5 will surely decide the winner. Stage 4 has nearly 15,000 feet of climbing. Follow that with a flat windy time trial the next day and it should be an good exciting race.
Out here in Chicago area at the Tour of Elk Grove. I went down in the road race doing about 50kph. Somehow I didn’t even get a scratch on me. A few bumps and bruises along with some stiff muscles, that’s it. Lucky! I landed on top of the Inferno guy that overlapped wheels with Ivan Dominguez. As I was watching it happen I knew it was going to be close. At first I thought I could shut it down and avoid him, instead I landed on top of his bike and I think that is what saved me. My bike was tangled in his and fine, just a bent deralier hanger and the wheels were a little wobbly. No worries, just pace back up right? Wrong! They left us for dead. The race was going so fast that by the time we got everything changed and going the official just left us. My Inferno friend and I were moving up quickly, then the official told the car to go up ahead and that he would bring us up. What? There was no way we were goin to make it as the course was flat and the race was going flat out still. I yelled at the official and he said he would go up to the car and tell it to come back and bring us up. Never saw it again!
I posted a bunch of Photos from B.C. Super Week taken by Photographer Greg Descantes. www.descantes.com. Check them out on the flickr page or on my photos page.
Our man Matt Shriver (JIttery Joe’s Cycling) just took the overall title at Tour de White Rock for the most points across the weekend’s events. This is a major victory for Matt, demonstrating how well he stacks up against some of the best cyclists in the world. Expect big things from Matt in the months and years to come. Congrats, Matt. Nobody deserves a big win more than you!
We have been racing every night since Wednesday. Tour de Gastown went pretty good for us, but still no victory. The Symmetrics team is riding super strong. We have been so close. Evan finished 5th at Gastown. The following night was Giro de Burnaby. We had a decent evening but the leadout got pinched on the inside and that was the end of it for our sprinters.
I had an awesome trip back home to Idaho and Wyoming. Did some really good training in the Tetons and the mountains surrounding Pocatello. I saw some good friends and made some new one’s as well. I even got to do a race in my old hometown of Poky and got my butt kicked. The Gate City Grind, which I hadn’t done in 9 years. Bottom line, I missed the break and was playing chase. Didn’t catch up, rookie mistake! I didn’t have my time trial bike so raced it old school on the road bike and ran 6th. Then lapped the field in the crit and took the win, moving way up in the G.C. It was a great week of training and racing, and visiting the family.
I have made the long haul from Durango back up North to Pocatello, Idaho and my old stomping grounds. I have a couple of weeks inbetween races and decided that it would be a good time to get up here for some training with no distractions. Durango can be to much fun after a block of racing. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy having a good time, but sometimes I get carried away. One night of fun turns into a week long bender and some road rash from crashing on the town bike.
