So, into the time machine we go. After my last year with Slipstream-Craddock I picked up a contract with Hagens-Berman U23. I spent the winter/spring of 2014 living in Pacific Grove, California with a teammate of mine on HB-U23, Eamon Lucas. It was a wonderful 4 month period. I had graduated from online high school in January (more on that in part 2). This allowed me to spend almost all of my time training and getting ready for the season. I was able to get quite fit and I was stoked for the season to begin. Flash forward to late March 2014 and HB-U23 had our second team camp. The plan was to spend a week training with the team in Oxnard, California before heading to the Redlands Bicycle Classic the following week. Unfortunately I caught a wicked stomach bug while at the team camp. This knocked me out for the first few days of training camp and I was not able to get healthy again during the team camp. However, I still made the team for Redlands.
Coming into the race I expected it to be no harder than any of the junior races that I had participated in while in Europe. I could not have been more wrong. There were a couple of factors working against us from the gun. First, we had a very young team, with 2 juniors, 2 second year U23's, and the rest being first year U23's like myself. Also, many of us had picked up the same stomach bug during the camp, leaving us a tad weaker than we'd prefer. I'm going to avoid going into detail about each stage so I'll just give you a little tidbit about each.
Stage 1: 100K Highland Circuit Race, dropped 20K in, made time cut (barely)!
Stage 2: 12.6K Big Bear TT, made time cut (there's a trend here)!
Stage 3: 200K Beaumont Road Race, spent a lot of time going back for water/food, dropped with 50K to go, still made time cut!
Stage 4: 60K Crit, First NRC crit, basically 'Days of Thunder' for 60K, pulled after half way.
Stage5: 160K Sunset Loop Circuit Race, dropped on the way to the loop, still made time cut!
So that was my introduction to NRC racing. Basically, it made the devastating experience of getting 26th in the Individual Pursuit at junior track worlds seem like a gift compared to the results I had at Redlands. One of the few fond memories I have of Redlands is going back to get bottles for my teammates. It was awesome to see that even though I was having a garbage week on the bike, I was still able to contribute somewhat to the efforts of the team.
After Redlands I drove up to Seattle in the HB-U23 team van with our mechanic, Tre, and three other teammates. The drive was your standard 20+ hour jaunt up the west coast. Typically spent on your phone or staring blankly off into the horizon. I was really looking forward to getting back into the groove of things in Seattle and getting some training in before doing some local races in the Sea-Tac area.
Once we arrived in Seattle I got all settled into my host house and set about training. This year with HB-U23 was my first experience with true "host housing". Basically, to save money, domestic teams like HB-U23 will stay with families that offer their houses for us to stay. Don't get me wrong, this is an incredibly generous gesture by these families to open their house to us, but it still feels weird staying with strangers. It's was fairly hard for me to get comfortable at a host-house as I always felt that I was intruding in one way or another. For instance, the day we arrived it was around dinner time when I rolled in. My host family was already sitting down for dinner and my arrival interrupted dinner. In reality, this is only a minor convenience, but it still felt a bit off-putting to me personally that I had to interrupt a family that was opening their door to a 19 year old stranger.
I was able to get three or four solid days of riding in while in Seattle before, sure enough, I got sick again. This time it was just a cold, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was slotted to do Joe Martin and Gila in the coming weeks but I sat down with my director and told him there was no way I would be in good enough form, mentally or physically, to race. Without going into details, my director was not at all pleased with my decision. Luckily I didn't really care if my director wasn't pleased at this point, so I flew home.
It's worth mentioning that my experience at team camp, Redlands, and Seattle led to my decision to stop "chasing the dream" of riding with a top tier team. The amount of sacrifice required versus what I thought I could get out of the sport just wasn't worth it. I decided that after my year with HB-U23 I would go to college and race locally only.
Just to pull the curtain back on what it took to be a mediocre cat 1 and race the NRC. During my time in Pacific Grove, California my coach at the time was $400 per month, rent was $600 per month (I know that is incredibly low for Pacific Grove). Right there we have a thousand dollars gone per month, but that's not counting the sacrifice of moving away for 4+ months. I missed a lot at home when I was gone, the biggest part being the death of the dog I had grown up with, Gulliver. Some of you may shake your heads at that, but he was a huge part of our family from 2002-2014. So that is the cost of those 4 months spent in California. On the bright side, I was getting paid by Hagens-Berman at the time, but it was only $250 per month. That is almost nothing, especially when you think about how much time was spent on the bike, but I was getting paid to ride my bike, so it was fine by me. Also, it should be notedthat my whole experience with bike racing, travelling, and racing in far off locations wouldn't have been possible without the unwavering support that came from my family. Jim, Carla, & Maren never stopped supporting my cycling from the day I started until the day I stopped, and I can't say thanks enough for that.
The next few months went by in a flash. I raced locally mostly, with my only result of merit being winning the LaCrosse TT up Grandad's Bluff. I spent most of my time just training in an effort to salvage the last half of my season. Another highlight of this time was welcoming a new dog into our family, Theodore. He's a great dog and getting him really livened up things in the Cullen household (even though Carla can't stand him).
Flash-forward to June and the NorthStar Gran Prix is coming up. I guest rode for Twin-Six along with some other local riders. I had a very good time trial and ended up 22nd after stage one, and second in the white jersey. Later that night we had the St. Paul crit. Upon signing in to the race I noticed an asterisk next to my name, indicating that I had a call-up. I had no idea why but I gladly took it. I was the last called up to the front two rows at the start. Without a doubt I would say riding to the start in front of a home crowd at a race that I had grown up watching is still one of the highlight of my cycling career. The crit itself went well, finishing in the lead group. The next day at the Cannon Falls road race the field exploded in the cross-winds. I was able to make it into the front echelon internally, but after I while I blew up and ended up in the groupetto with a majority of the race. At the uptown crit I was caught behind a crash, and rather than just take a free lap and I should have, I kept riding in an attempt to chase the field down. I did not make it back but I was still able to start the Menominee stage the following day. Menominee was a bad day for me. I wasn't super fresh and it was raining as well, two factors that set the day off on the wrong foot. I spent a little over half the stage in the caravan just trying not to get dropped. However, after a while the elastic snapped and I pulled out of the race in the feed zone. I still had a great time at NorthStar and I can't wait to race it again.
Next up for me was the Tour of Americas Dairyland. We were running a light squad for this trip, with just the mechanic, myself, three other riders, and good ol' JimmerC. I raced 8 days in a row of what my team and I affectionately called "Tour de Crit". The four of us really meshed together well and we were able to pull of results almost every day. Personally, I had a really good day at Schlitz Park, finishing second in a 5 man break. Because we had a string of good results I was able to leave the "Tour de Crit" on a high note and a bit of extra prize money as well.
Nationals in Madison was next. The road race and TT were nothing to write home about, a non-result in both races. However, the crit was something special. We had a very good sprinter on our team in my roommate from California, Eamon Lucas. The plan was to watch for the break to go, keep it in check, and then mass on the front with 3-5 laps to go. Eamon and I really knew how to read eachother on the bike so I was tasked with taking him from the bell into 100 meters before the final corner. Right away on lap 1 crashed with a bunch of guys, went over the bars, and jacked my hand up pretty good. I ignored my hand and took my free-lap. A few laps later I was able to get into "the move" with a handful of other riders. I took my light turns in the break and just tried to keep things moving, knowing that if it comes back together, we have Eamon for the sprint. Eventually it came back together with about 20 laps left. At his point we (HB-U23) all try to find one another and find our way to the front. We were line ourselves out on the front with 3 laps to go just as planned. The next three laps were like amazing. We were all riding perfectly and keeping the swarming field at bay. Coming into 1 to go it was my turn to give it up for Eamon. I took one last, hard pull for 3/4 of a lap before the sprint started. Eamon had to start his sprint a bit early but was still able to nab third place. It was a great day and the perfect way to end road nationals that year.
After nationals I convinced my director to put my on the team for the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. Cascade was one of the most scenic races I have ever done, with gorgeous views of the Cascade mountains and great racing on top of it. My results at Cascade were fairly lackluster. I was able to stay with the peloton for much longer than I was at Redlands or NorthStar, but when the going really got tough, I was unable to stay with the lead group. I made time cut every day here before abandoning on the final stage. At the time, I thought this would be the last NRC stage race I would ever do. On top of that, Bend was the first place where I had a big result, finishing second in the Time Trial and Road Race at junior nationals in 2009. It was interesting to think that Bend was the place where my "real" racing career had started and where it would end as well. All-in-all, leaving Bend was bittersweet to say the least. Once I was home from Cascade I spent the rest of my summer just riding for fun, racing at the track in Blaine, and getting prepared for my first semester of college at the University of Minnesota.
That's it Part 1. I hope the handful of you who read this enjoyed it! The next part that I'll post some time in the coming weeks will be focused primarily on my first two years of college and the decision to quit racing. Thanks for reading!
So that was my introduction to NRC racing. Basically, it made the devastating experience of getting 26th in the Individual Pursuit at junior track worlds seem like a gift compared to the results I had at Redlands. One of the few fond memories I have of Redlands is going back to get bottles for my teammates. It was awesome to see that even though I was having a garbage week on the bike, I was still able to contribute somewhat to the efforts of the team.
After Redlands I drove up to Seattle in the HB-U23 team van with our mechanic, Tre, and three other teammates. The drive was your standard 20+ hour jaunt up the west coast. Typically spent on your phone or staring blankly off into the horizon. I was really looking forward to getting back into the groove of things in Seattle and getting some training in before doing some local races in the Sea-Tac area.
Once we arrived in Seattle I got all settled into my host house and set about training. This year with HB-U23 was my first experience with true "host housing". Basically, to save money, domestic teams like HB-U23 will stay with families that offer their houses for us to stay. Don't get me wrong, this is an incredibly generous gesture by these families to open their house to us, but it still feels weird staying with strangers. It's was fairly hard for me to get comfortable at a host-house as I always felt that I was intruding in one way or another. For instance, the day we arrived it was around dinner time when I rolled in. My host family was already sitting down for dinner and my arrival interrupted dinner. In reality, this is only a minor convenience, but it still felt a bit off-putting to me personally that I had to interrupt a family that was opening their door to a 19 year old stranger.
I was able to get three or four solid days of riding in while in Seattle before, sure enough, I got sick again. This time it was just a cold, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was slotted to do Joe Martin and Gila in the coming weeks but I sat down with my director and told him there was no way I would be in good enough form, mentally or physically, to race. Without going into details, my director was not at all pleased with my decision. Luckily I didn't really care if my director wasn't pleased at this point, so I flew home.
It's worth mentioning that my experience at team camp, Redlands, and Seattle led to my decision to stop "chasing the dream" of riding with a top tier team. The amount of sacrifice required versus what I thought I could get out of the sport just wasn't worth it. I decided that after my year with HB-U23 I would go to college and race locally only.
Just to pull the curtain back on what it took to be a mediocre cat 1 and race the NRC. During my time in Pacific Grove, California my coach at the time was $400 per month, rent was $600 per month (I know that is incredibly low for Pacific Grove). Right there we have a thousand dollars gone per month, but that's not counting the sacrifice of moving away for 4+ months. I missed a lot at home when I was gone, the biggest part being the death of the dog I had grown up with, Gulliver. Some of you may shake your heads at that, but he was a huge part of our family from 2002-2014. So that is the cost of those 4 months spent in California. On the bright side, I was getting paid by Hagens-Berman at the time, but it was only $250 per month. That is almost nothing, especially when you think about how much time was spent on the bike, but I was getting paid to ride my bike, so it was fine by me. Also, it should be notedthat my whole experience with bike racing, travelling, and racing in far off locations wouldn't have been possible without the unwavering support that came from my family. Jim, Carla, & Maren never stopped supporting my cycling from the day I started until the day I stopped, and I can't say thanks enough for that.
The next few months went by in a flash. I raced locally mostly, with my only result of merit being winning the LaCrosse TT up Grandad's Bluff. I spent most of my time just training in an effort to salvage the last half of my season. Another highlight of this time was welcoming a new dog into our family, Theodore. He's a great dog and getting him really livened up things in the Cullen household (even though Carla can't stand him).
Flash-forward to June and the NorthStar Gran Prix is coming up. I guest rode for Twin-Six along with some other local riders. I had a very good time trial and ended up 22nd after stage one, and second in the white jersey. Later that night we had the St. Paul crit. Upon signing in to the race I noticed an asterisk next to my name, indicating that I had a call-up. I had no idea why but I gladly took it. I was the last called up to the front two rows at the start. Without a doubt I would say riding to the start in front of a home crowd at a race that I had grown up watching is still one of the highlight of my cycling career. The crit itself went well, finishing in the lead group. The next day at the Cannon Falls road race the field exploded in the cross-winds. I was able to make it into the front echelon internally, but after I while I blew up and ended up in the groupetto with a majority of the race. At the uptown crit I was caught behind a crash, and rather than just take a free lap and I should have, I kept riding in an attempt to chase the field down. I did not make it back but I was still able to start the Menominee stage the following day. Menominee was a bad day for me. I wasn't super fresh and it was raining as well, two factors that set the day off on the wrong foot. I spent a little over half the stage in the caravan just trying not to get dropped. However, after a while the elastic snapped and I pulled out of the race in the feed zone. I still had a great time at NorthStar and I can't wait to race it again.
Next up for me was the Tour of Americas Dairyland. We were running a light squad for this trip, with just the mechanic, myself, three other riders, and good ol' JimmerC. I raced 8 days in a row of what my team and I affectionately called "Tour de Crit". The four of us really meshed together well and we were able to pull of results almost every day. Personally, I had a really good day at Schlitz Park, finishing second in a 5 man break. Because we had a string of good results I was able to leave the "Tour de Crit" on a high note and a bit of extra prize money as well.
Nationals in Madison was next. The road race and TT were nothing to write home about, a non-result in both races. However, the crit was something special. We had a very good sprinter on our team in my roommate from California, Eamon Lucas. The plan was to watch for the break to go, keep it in check, and then mass on the front with 3-5 laps to go. Eamon and I really knew how to read eachother on the bike so I was tasked with taking him from the bell into 100 meters before the final corner. Right away on lap 1 crashed with a bunch of guys, went over the bars, and jacked my hand up pretty good. I ignored my hand and took my free-lap. A few laps later I was able to get into "the move" with a handful of other riders. I took my light turns in the break and just tried to keep things moving, knowing that if it comes back together, we have Eamon for the sprint. Eventually it came back together with about 20 laps left. At his point we (HB-U23) all try to find one another and find our way to the front. We were line ourselves out on the front with 3 laps to go just as planned. The next three laps were like amazing. We were all riding perfectly and keeping the swarming field at bay. Coming into 1 to go it was my turn to give it up for Eamon. I took one last, hard pull for 3/4 of a lap before the sprint started. Eamon had to start his sprint a bit early but was still able to nab third place. It was a great day and the perfect way to end road nationals that year.
After nationals I convinced my director to put my on the team for the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. Cascade was one of the most scenic races I have ever done, with gorgeous views of the Cascade mountains and great racing on top of it. My results at Cascade were fairly lackluster. I was able to stay with the peloton for much longer than I was at Redlands or NorthStar, but when the going really got tough, I was unable to stay with the lead group. I made time cut every day here before abandoning on the final stage. At the time, I thought this would be the last NRC stage race I would ever do. On top of that, Bend was the first place where I had a big result, finishing second in the Time Trial and Road Race at junior nationals in 2009. It was interesting to think that Bend was the place where my "real" racing career had started and where it would end as well. All-in-all, leaving Bend was bittersweet to say the least. Once I was home from Cascade I spent the rest of my summer just riding for fun, racing at the track in Blaine, and getting prepared for my first semester of college at the University of Minnesota.
That's it Part 1. I hope the handful of you who read this enjoyed it! The next part that I'll post some time in the coming weeks will be focused primarily on my first two years of college and the decision to quit racing. Thanks for reading!
nice to read. Luv Skibbalicious
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