Tour of America's Dairyland: Carl Zach Cycling Classic

Report Date
Sunday, 18 Jun, 2017
Report
It's not easy to race after driving 20 hrs! That's just how I want to preface this report. This was a Cat 2/3 combined race featuring many national caliber teams and even some international squads. It was a fast paced, 281 weighted average watts, 184 bpm, 50 min sufferfest through beautiful downtown Waukesha, Wisconsin. The course was phenomenal, featuring beautiful pavement, and a brief uphill, and then a blistering hairpin turn back onto the finishing stretch. I held my position in the middle of the pack the whole race, despite having to unclip and put my foot down behind a crash after about 15 min of racing. At the start/finish line on the bell lap I took a flyer from the group and went into the next three turns first but didn't get much of a gap. Heart rate for the last lap averaged 199 bpm, and after that acceleration I didn't have anything else left in the tank for the finishing sprint. I ended up mid pack, but still on my bike, which I will call a success.
 
Cyclist
I grew up in Davis, CA the home of the Cycling Hall of Fame and a hotbed for cyclists. As a Junior racer I was mentored by Steve Larsen, a former Team Motorola team member. Training ... moreand racing from a young age against cyclists many years older I developed my tactical racing intuition. And while training in the flat central valley of CA I developed my sprinting kick. However, it was in the hills of the coastal range, and the infamous Cardiac Hill in Napa County where I was truly in my element as a Junior racer. I took 10 years off from racing to compete as a NCAA collegiate swimmer for Stanford, where I was on an American Record setting sprint relay, and became an 8 time All-American in the pool. I never gave up my passion for cycling though, and utilized my power to weight ratio to crosstrain up Old La Honda climb outside of Palo Alto. I am currently in grad school at the University of Texas at Austin, studying to get my PhD in Exercise Science. My research and interest involves power training on the bike and I love being able to apply my studies to racing. I returned to racing last year and am excited to see where I can go with it!
Speciality:
All Around
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