TJ Woodruff ONLINE

The AMBC race near Buellton was a good one today. The pro men’s field featured some heavy hitters; Wicks, Treefarm, Burry from South Africa, Walker, and Matt Kelly were the World or National Champions to mention… I knew with this lineup we were in for some fast racing and I wasn’t let down when things got started.  Dangling off the back of this lead group for about twenty minutes got me into race mode quickly as I found myself in what became the chase group. After a pretty hard start I was really feeling the effects of my effort until about 45 minutes into the race. At this point I was able to drop a couple of guys on the longer climbs and eventually rode most of the second and final 16 mile lap solo. For the last twenty minutes I could see two racers working together up ahead, but I wasn’t able to reel them in. Still, I was very happy to close out the top ten in this one; my best pro result to date. The legs were snappy, the Litespeed dialed and flowing, and lungs strong. All in all, it was a very good day of hard racing and a great confirmation of my fitness leading into next week’s Norba opener.

This was one of the coolest mtb race courses as it offered endless amounts of fast flowing singletrack through pastures and vineyards. A couple of the climbs were steep grinders, one that took about four minutes, but most were big-ringable out of the saddle; just my style! Near the end of the lap we dropped down a bank into a stream of about five inches depth. Of course your eyes start looking around to find the opposing bank to ride up and out. Nothing was to be found and we actually rode down the stream for about 20 yards before exiting. The splash of cold water felt so good since race temps were about 80 degrees with full sunshine and plenty of humidity.  The open course left us out there to bake, but fortunately I kept well hydrated and didn’t suffer from the warmer weather.

Tomorrow will be an easy spin since the four days previous to today’s race were all 3+ hour rides on the mtb. There’s some fun stuff to ride in this area, so fighting traffic to and from the trailheads is the only bummer part of the deal. All in all I’ve enjoyed the rides and have really expanded my trail library. I’ll be scouting out the Fontana course this week, so I should have all the lines dialed by the weekend. Expect some race course reports and perhaps some pictures from Fontana. Keep it Real,  TJ

For the remainder of the week I’ll be riding the mountain bike. I’m staying ‘in the valley’ through the weekend and Chris is showing me his personal stash of mountain bike rides in the area. It’s been since CO Springs that I’ve had so much fun off road; so far so good here!

Yesterday we rode some canyon trails up into the Santa Monicas to hook up with the Backbone trail. Let the good times roll! This tight singletrack is amazing with lots of fast flowing corners, pretty good traction all around and of course spectacular views of the Pacific and the surrounding mountains. All things said and done, this area could have the potential to be my new ‘favorite’. I’ll have to give it a couple more days of riding to make that call however.

And here’s Chris, ripping in it up. Thanks for bringing an ‘outsider’ out for some awesome riding! This fix of mountain biking was necessary since I’ve been spending a huge proportion of my time on the roads lately. All part of keepin’ it real… Later, TJ

As promised here are the views from ‘Sacred Path’. No joke, this is what the road sign said. Once at the top it was one of those moments where you just have to stop, enjoy a Powerbar, and soak it all in. Enjoy.

If last week’s road race was a lesson, then today I totally aced the test.  For the first time on skinny tires I brought home the W. I used the same game plan, but this time no one was going to take advantage of any tactical mistakes. Here is the recap:

So we have a couple mile roll-out to the 7.5 mile course. We did six laps which equated to about 50 miles of racing total.  Halfway through the loop there was a mile long climb at a 5% grade. Other than this single climb, the course was rolly and divey with a lot of fast cornering. The final 1000 meters to the finish was quite technical with a hard right turn downhill followed by a fast 90 degree left turn, setting things up for a 200 meter downhill finishing straight. So now that you know the general layout, here is how it all played out.

Laps one through four were all quite chill. Each lap I’d sit in the bunch only to ride at the front on the climb, setting the cruise controller at about 350 watts. This was just enough to hear some bigger dudes breathe hard while some pretenders fell off the pace. By the end of lap four, the lead group was down to about 18 guys after this consistent pace setting on the climb. On a flat section of lap five one guy rides off the front and we let him go. I haven’t seen him near the front on the climb, so I wasn’t too concerned. We get to the climb and I stomp on the gas to get things going as usual. All of a sudden a younger rider from Bakersfield totally got on the throttle, going wide-open. I was there to grab his wheel as we rocketed away from the field. After about five minutes at 400 watts we summated the climb. Somehow Mitchell, the GC leader and pro Devo racer, also bridged up to make it a three-man group at the top.

We rotated nicely on the downhill and soon picked up the solo attacker. All of this time we are being chased by a fourteen man group which included about five guys from the Cadence team who had totally missed out on this break. Nice and fast rotations went on as we maintained about a 20 second advantage over the group to finish out lap number five. Through the start finish area I won the bonus sprint to pick up five seconds on the GC clock. More rotating and smooth pulling kept our break alive, but eventually our solo-attacker dude could only manage to sit at the back. “Whatever, we’ll ditch him on the climb if he can’t ride� I say to myself as we switch into a three person rotation. We are now on the climb for the final time and the Bakersfield rider gets antsy and goes on ahead by himself, riding super (too) hard.  I led Mitchell and the previously non-working rider up the climb. Somehow he dug deep to stick on, and even put in a few efforts to help pull back in the Bakersfield guy on the downhill.

With only about two miles to go we are four riders all together, really pulling hard now since the fourteen guys are literally just 10 seconds back and looking mad.  Somehow we hold them off until about 1000 meters to go and by this time we were really flying. Our rotation turned into each man for himself and I worked hard to get second wheel position as we approached the technical S turn descent to the line. A quick look over the shoulder confirmed that the group was now 18 riders once again. I really went for it up a little rise to get the holeshot before dropping into the corners. The Litespeed Siena was on rails as I totally pinned the line through the corners, setting me up perfectly for the 200 meter dash. I jumped out of the saddle and was in the perfect gear, laying out a healthy 1000 watts for the last ten seconds crossing the line in first.

Wow, that was awesome! The additional ten seconds for the win moved me into fifth for GC on the weekend and also added another $50 to my pocket. I’m really starting to like this road racing stuff… I honestly feel stronger each and every weekend that I line up and the power numbers confirm that this is true. For now I’ll keep a good thing rollin’! Keep it Real,  -TJ

This is going to be a brief update, but at least its an update. Today’s am time trial went well. I was pleased with how I felt and placed 8th in a tightly packed GC The circuit race was very uneventful. Going around a 2.2 mile triangular course at a good tempo pace within the peleton. No attacks or breaks were even attempted on this flat and fast course,k so I just tried to avoid the craziness amongst the group. The best part was when some dude nailed a tripod-freestanding road sign with about 500 meters to go. This was right in front of me so I was pleased to see that he kept it upright!

Between races I road some amazing canyons with spectactular views of the ocean. I took some pics from this adventure and will post them once the weekend is over and I have some time. It was some of the most incredible scenery that I’ve ever ridden through, all on a 10 foot wide ribbon of pavement.

Tomorrow is the main event, the road race, which features a sizeable, mile-long climb. I’m pumped about the fact that we get six rides up it! I may be able to get a recap on here Sunday evening, but if not then expect to see the details on Monday. Keep it Real, TJ

This Conquer the Canyons event looks to be pretty cool, and as in cool I mean tough… Starting things up with an uphill TT is just about perfect. This Saturday morning event starts right at the coast and shoots us up Mulholland for 1200 vertical feet of climbing over four miles of road in the Santa Monica Mountains. This course ought to suit me much better than last week’s flat out and back. After the TT we have about two hours or so to ‘recover’ before the afternoon circuit race. This will be a first for me, bike racing twice in one day… Better here than at the Joe Martin next month I suppose. Sunday is the road race which is done on a 7.4 mile loop and according to the race information there’s a mile long climb right in the middle of it. If I’m lucky this climb will be serious enough to split the field every lap.  Some tough racing ought to make for a great weekend. Stay tuned for the race reports.

Yesterday I got out on the Sewanee hungry to ride some singletrack. Unfortunately all I found were some two-tracks that were comprised of loose rock and sand for the most part. It’s tough to find quality rides here when you don’t really have a clue of where you should be going…. It’s not like Wisconsin where you can just jump on any deer or cow path and let it rip. I’m quickly realizing that trees are an integral part of a good mountain bike experience.

An unfortunate end to this trail!

Lancaster from above (notice the aquaduct carrying LA’s drinking water)

Good luck to everyone racing in Durand this weekend. Remember, go hard or go home!  -TJ

I pulled a twelve hour shift last night, sleeping from 8:30 until the same time this morning.  This was a necessary rest as I was feeling a bit ‘strange’ yesterday evening. All was good until returning from IN-N-OUT Burger. I’d heard rumors from various cyclists that this was the ‘holy grail’ of fast food and somehow acceptable because the beef is never frozen and the fries are cooked with vegetable oil. Freshness this, good potatoes that… Ok, whatever, a burger tastes good from time to time so I had to see what this place was all about while I’m in the area.

I can’t recall the last time I had a fast food burger, so perhaps unbeknownst to me my body was doomed from the start. The food was quite tasty, but it only took about ten minutes before my body started freaking out about the whole ordeal. A general chilled sensation with goose-bumps, slight headache, and a noticeably higher heart rate had me somewhat concerned.  I didn’t know exactly what was going on so I figure my body could use some extra rest to sort things out. Maybe I’m turning into a finicky cyclist, but it was reason enough for some extra attention. This was at 8:30 so I just called it an early night.

I was relived to feel 100% normal this morning when I woke up. Chances are I’m officially done with fast food burgers! IN-N-OUT is now on my ‘banned-list’ of restaurants.

So aside from this minor event, I’ve added some hyperlinks to the race calendar in the right side column. You can now link yourself around cyberspace and see all about the races I’ll be doing this season.  Events without hyperlinks are races without much information posted on their sites so I just left them without for now. Word on the street is that NORBA #1 has some technical rocky singletrack. Who really knows for sure, but it could be fun.  Keep it Real,  TJ

Today’s crit was rather uneventful. It looked like any other office park crit with some early breaks that led to nothing before forty crazy guys dashed for the line at the end. Of course there were the tee shirt primes that had guys going full throttle, so at least the pace was kind of fast at times… I always get pretty sketched out with so many riders going full tilt around the last corner and today was no different as I rolled across the line in 20^th, collecting 1 GC point.  Maybe someday I’ll stick my wheel in there better, but it wasn’t happening today.  I finished the weekend 6^th for GC so at least I had my gas money covered with a bit of cash prize. And honestly, yesterday’s road race was worth the entry for all three days combined; I had so much fun out there!

Once the racing was done I was able to jet up to Granada Hills to celebrate Easter with the Goddard portion of my family. Of course we had excellent food and it was good that I could meet some relatives that I haven’t seen since I was about two years old. Some frisbee with the kids made for some exciting active recovery out in the yard. Family has always been something that keeps me balanced, so today was great.

So another four consecutive days of hard riding are in the books and I was riding stronger than ever before.  I guess that means I can rest these next couple of days like never before. I’m really starting to like this all or nothing approach to training. I know for certain that last year I’d never feel so strong after consecutive days of racing, so something must be working right… Enjoy the week.  TJ

Today was a good day of bicycle racing. The climb was tough, the winds strong, and the race was mine to win or lose. It’s always nice to inflict pain upon the competition and today I got to every trip up the climb. Pulling a rookie mistake I got a little too excited and lost the win in the last thirty seconds…

Right from the start I pinned it up the long climb and at the top only about a dozen or so of us were left. Next lap I went to front and full-throttled it once again and now only six or seven of us are left. On the final lap I did the same trick and broke the race down to four.  I felt very strong as we rotated it in towards the finish line. As we neared the finish some cat and mouse games gave the other three a bit of a rest, something I forgot to consider in my decision making. I initiated the final sprint for the line, but went too early. I was caught off guard when one racer was able to keep my wheel. I had gone too early and I new it. So I finished second.  If only I had two cents worth of tactical aptitude I would have jumped second and won today, but I let my excitement and inexperience spoil this one. Maybe this happens to every road racer once, but it certainly won’t happen twice!

All in all it was a great day on the bike and awesome training. I’m convinced that there is no way to replicate the intensity of a race on a training ride. Perhaps tomorrow’s four corner criterium will go equally well as I’ve moved up in the GC with today’s result. It would be nice to finish out the weekend strong, so I’ll give it another go.

Next time you are the strongest in a four person break, think of me before jumping at the line first… Maybe you’ll earn that W and be able to thank me. Keep it real,  TJ

I woke up to find some dark skies and hard blowing winds outside. It was going to be a tough day for the flat out and back TT. The course is just about 15 miles away, but I still drove there since the wind would have been at my nose the whole way there had I of ridden. A quick warm-up felt pretty good and I was ready to go. As I was rolling to the start area some guy riding a spaceship-like TT machine says, “Hey your seatbag!” “Oh yeah,” I reply as I spin back to the car to shed my tools along with my frame pump.

Without these un-necessaries I was in full-on TT mode, as much as a MTB Pro can be… Of course I was the only guy on a full stock road setup, but that didn’t prevent me from placing sixth in the pancake flat, 20k event. Even with fancy equipment no one put too much time into me and since the weekend is based off of points rather than time, I’m still in pretty good shape for the GC.

Yesterday I drove out to the road course and found it to be a real gem.  The first twelve minutes is all uphill at five percent or more; sweet. A section of rollers goes for a couple of minutes before there’s a ripping fast downhill for about ten minutes. This is followed by a flat section that lasts for about fifteen minutes. Finally there’s a six or seven minute stretch to the line that’s at about three percent gradient the whole way. Apparently last year some MTB racer took off from the start and soloed the whole day for the win. We do three laps which works out to about 48 miles, so the thought of pinning it from the gun sounds enticing… You’ll have to check back tomorrow evening to see what unfolds. Good luck to everyone racing the Oxbow back home. Keep it real. -TJ