Kenny van Hummel

I wanted to tell everyone about a friend of my family. His name is Kenny van Hummel and he is a professional bicycle racer for the Skil-Shimano team in Holland. He is a sprinter and he has had some very good results in the past month. He won two races in a row with the best being the first stage in the 4 days of Dunkirk!! My dad and I are really excited because his results should get him on the Tour de France squad. I can’t wait to watch this summer and actually know someone in the Tour. It will be crazy. I hope one day in the next couple of years to be able to go to Holland and get a chance to ride with Kenny. He says he will show me all the tricks!! If you don’t have a favorite root for Kenny!!

Training ride with my team

On this past Sunday I went on a training ride with some of my teammates. I was the youngest by a lot. I met a lot of the men that race for the All-Stars and they were all very nice. It was my longest ride ever. It was almost 50 miles and we averaged around 19 miles an hour. We rode just at 2.5 hours. I was tired, but very happy. This weekend is our team’s race and I am going to try the mens cat 5 race as well as my junior race. I like the course a lot and hope to ride well. I will let you know!!!

Working Hard

Well, I have been working very hard in my training and racing. I know I am getting better. Last week I did a power at threshold test. I am now using the same course that I used about a month ago. My goal was 4 watts per kilogram. I went out hard and really felt good. Near the end I think I bogged down with my gearing and did not keep up a good pedal cadence. But in the end I felt like I had done a good trial. When we got home and made the calculations I rode at 3.92 watts per kilogram. Man! Once again just under my goal. I was close though and after a few minutes of being mad I felt OK. My dad who rode behind me on the test thought that I lost some power when I was pushing too big a gear. I need to pay more attention to that. I also did the Dilworth criterium in Charlotte this past Saturday. It was a tough course and I did not ride well. I had a major problem with the corner at the bottom of the climb and lost contact on the first lap. I rode hard the whole race and felt pretty good. The pro race was awesome. Those guys were hammering up the climb every lap and it never slowed down. I love watching those guys ride and someday I will be in there too.

This week is my rest week at the end of my first training block. So I am not doing any intervals or really hard riding this week. Just some easy tempo rides and relaxing. Next week I will start my second block of training and I can’t wait for the Wake Forest Criterium our team sponsors.

My dad and I need to figure out how to put pictures here. We will put some on when we learn how.

Tuesday Training Race

My best ride ever!! I raced in the mens cat 5 race and stayed in the pack for most of the race. I was completely dead at the end and almost fell off my bike. I was really happy to be in a pack of 30 riders. I got to practice my skills in the pack and moved all over. I am psyched because my training is working! I am getting faster every week now and soon I will be able to get some good results with the older boys. I am not afraid in the pack at all anymore and can’t wait to race again. I don’t think I am racing this weekend in Sanford. So my next race is in Charlotte. I can’t wait because it should have a lot of really good pros and cat 1 riders to watch.

Racing in South Carolina

This past weekend I raced on Saturday and Sunday in Charleston, SC. My whole family went on the trip. It was great racing! There was a very high group of junior riders in my age group. I did not do so great on Saturday. That course is very technical and I still do not do well on those types of courses. On Sunday I did much better. I was racing with the pack until the older junior race passed ours. I did not have the speed to jump into that race like some of the other guys. I am not too worried about that. I am learning every week, and I am definitely getting faster. My teammates William and Louis Guillen were there on Sunday and we all raced very hard and were wasted at the end. I really liked having them in the race with me. South Carolina has some very good riders. Also, Thad Dulin rode a great race on Saturday and broke away to solo for the win in the pro race. Thad was a stud!

Power at Threshold Test

On Tuesday I did a time trial to test my threshold power with my power meter. I had never done a real test before and really wanted to average 3.8 watts per kg. We found the flattest road in my area which was really hard. I did the trial at my maximum and was pretty excited because I knew I rode well. When we got home and looked at the power numbers on the computer and then did the calculations I was shocked to see that I did 3.71 watts per kg. Man!! At first I was really upset because I did not reach my goal but my dad said that it was really good and that it showed that my training is working and coming along well. I will keep riding hard and try to get my power even higher.

Jefferson Cup Road Race

This past Sunday I did the Jefferson Cup Road Race in Charlottesville, VA. I went up the day before with my dad and we had a chance to ride the course. The first thing I noticed was how nice the country was. It was amazing and I told my dad that we needed to move there. The race was very hilly and there were some really good riders there. I was very good in the pace and only lost the leaders near the top of the big climb. I am getting better and faster every week. I don’t know my exact placing but I think it was 7th or 8th. I was a little disappointed, but still getting stronger every week. Now I know I can’t take off 4 months of training over the winter, especially when everyone else is riding hard. It was a really fun race.