Whitey DeBroux

Sorry for the lack of updates. After Vegas I felt really unhealthy and had the horrible idea of going on a juice fast. For four days, I had nothing but juiced vegetables and fruit. It was terrible and I hope I never get the urge to do it again. So the fast thing pretty much wiped me out for the remainder of the week and I haven’t really trained until today. The juice fast wasn’t the only great idea I had last week. I decided to grab a six-pack, dress like a mad man and put on my wig to cheer for the guys I normally race against.

For the last two seasons I have raced on the road for Team Einstein’s and cyclocross for Primus Mootry. This cross season I’ll be sticking with Einstein’s and racing a Giant bike instead. Primus Mootry has decided to downsize the team efforts and stay local. I was bummed when I first heard the news because Joe, Chris and the crew at Primus Mootry were, in my opinion, the best cross team on the circuit. I was worried that I would have no support at all, so when Einstein’s stepped up to the plate, I couldn’t refuse.

I finally checked the official results from the Nature Valley Grand Prix and Team Einstein's did some pretty big things. The biggest being that we had three riders in the top ten of the Best Amateur Rider division. Cory Collier took 1st, Jared Berger 7th and Ryan Hamity 9th. Jared also wore the Best Amateur Riders jersey for two days during stages 3 and 4. The team as a whole finished 9th in team GC beating a few big budget teams such as BMC. Whitey DeBroux (me) accidentally won a sprint point and finished 28th in the Sprinters competition.

A nasty storm system moved in during the pro womans race and they called it early due to lightning. Unsure if the pro mens race was even going to happen we still warmed up on our 15 pound lightning rods like normal. The race started just 10 minutes late and all 120 riders went fast from the gun through the fan lines streets of Tulsa. Prime number one was $50 and Team Einstein's rider Brad White took it. Prime number two was another $50 and Brad White took that as well. Then I attacked and went solo for awhile taking a $100 prime in the process.

The rain has been coming down like crazy here on the Front Range. There is flooding all over the place and I sure as hell wasn’t riding outside. You know, one of those days your glad not to be a bike messenger. So like usually, when the weather is bad I head down to MOB Training Center and chase the Euro pro’s on the big screen. Although I was doing some really intense intervals, I still couldn’t get any closer to them. It’s like I was mounted in the same place or something. Oh wait, I was. The workouts always feel harder inside than they do outside and my butt gets sore way faster.

No I didn’t go snowboarding and it didn’t snow, but today’s 16-mile descent was as close to a powder day as you can get on a bike. For starters, the street sweeper ran almost all the way up to Ward and left the road sand free. Nothing better than knowing you can rail every corner as fast as your scared little mind will let you. Now throw in a really strong tail wind and you’ve got one sweet descent. Man I was going fast! In fact the first thing I did when I got home was renew my health insurance for May. At one point the tail wind in the canyon suddenly switched and slapped me in the face from the side as I was coming out of a tight corner.

The last two days of training have been really hard and I have two more to go before I get a break. The easiest of the four is tomorrow which is 3 hours and includes 10 short intervals. I’m starting to feel a little better during the intensity which is a nice change. I missed my entire interval training last season due to the crash in Mexico. I basically raced myself into shape. That method works in a pinch but not as good as training specific zones individually. Last year my legs felt flat most of the time and my explosive power was lost. If I can make it through this week and recover properly I should see some big improvements.