Check out my video I did for Athens Twilight! First time I have used this new GoPro camera so still trying to figure it out. Pretty cool perspective of the opening laps. enjoy!

First Race of 2012... Gettn my feet wet

I found myself in Austin, TX and luckily Dave Wenger told me about a nice Thursday night race they have down there. I figured it was a training crit but when I showed up I saw a big blown up finish line and the music was pumpin! This was no small race.

The Driveway Series is totally badass. Better than some weekend races I attend. Great field, great course, venders set up and FREE beer... Yes I said free!

John Grant was also in town for some reason so atleast I knew a couple guys there. I was fresh off the plane with heavy legs and with being able to count the times I've ridden outside on all my fingers, I was just looking to get my feet wet.

Guys have been riding and racing a lot down there so I was looking for a good workout and to hopefully not embarrass myself.

The race started out quick and I was just trying to remember how to turn my bike at high speeds. Wenger got in a pretty dangerous 3 man move and I thought I shouldn't let that go. I followed a move with John Grant and 3 of us rolled away. We worked well together and caught the break in about a half a lap. We were 6 strong now... Well really 5. I was way in over my head but my mind is a lot stronger than my legs right now. We rolled along pretty good. They were killin me and it started showing with about 6 laps to go and one of the guys attacked hard on the hill and I was cashed. It split the move in half and I just went back to the field half cracked. I surfed a lil and still was 4th in the field sprint. I was pretty happy with my ride knowing my fitness is behind but glad I read the race right and got my feet wet. I definetly felt out of shape and like I traveled all day on a plane but it's good to see where I am. Dave ended up winning which was nice.

Austin is a blast and I met and hung out with some great people. Not to mention I got to attend SXSW finally and got to see one of my fav old school bands Candlebox.

Thanks Austin and I'll see ya again someday!

Oh yeah, and got to hang out with my man, the legend, Johnny Sundt.

My New Ride....and an update

Super ecstatic to be on a Felt this year. Last year I had a ton of issues and I didn't get to ride one but this year I am all set and dialed in on my new bike. Have a few more bling details to dial in but it's ready for the most part.

Training has been progressing nicely and it looks like my first big event will be April 21st at Sunny King. Love that race and look forward to heading back there and Athens Twilight the next weekend. Both races I missed last year.

Cleveland Clinic p/b Felt Bicycles Cycling Team has bolstered the roster nicely adding some fire power in Andy Crater and retaining all of its strong riders from 2012. We have also added some young talent which will help a lot.

Looking forward to the 2012 season to kick off soon! I will be doing some smaller races prior to the big events so stay tuned for updates on those.

Till next time!
M@

Not much cycling to update so how about pizza...

Getting back in the grove of training after battling a cold from vacation. Been riding but finally getting some real training in. More to come on the upcoming season but for now I had a little pizza taste test this week.

I worked just over the Ohio River in Kentucky this week and had tons of people suggesting different places to eat... Mostly pizza. My fav!

I hit up my old fav Larossa's and it was just as good as I remember. After tweeting about it I had a lot of locals telling me Dewey's Pizza was just as good or better. So I had to see for myself.

Hit up Dewey's and got a half pep and a delicious specialty pizza that had goat cheese, tomatoes, mozzarella,, garlic and olive oil. Also tried their own micro brew. That was pretty good as well.

I will have to say that they were both very good but Larossa's still gets my nod as the better pie.

Next time I will have some cycling news. I promise.

I hope you enjoyed my blog Casey and thanks for staying on me about it:-)

Larossa's on the top and Dewey's is on the bottom.

Some good eats

Not much to talk about on the racing front except that I have re-signed with Cleveland Clinic for 2012. More on that to follow.

Since not much to talk about I decided to add some posts on some thing's I'm doin while traveling for work. I am in Ann Arbor, MI right which is rough the week after Michigan beat Ohio State in football.

Anyway got a ton of recommendations on places to eat and tonight I checked out Blimpy Burgers. Heard a lot about it and saw it on DDD and man vs food.

I ventured into the U of M campus, sporting my Ohio State hat of course, and found this little dive type place. Pretty straight forward... What do want in the deep fryer? How many patties? Anything grilled? Cheese? Toppings? And that's it. I went with the triple with cheese and an egg. Couldn't decide on fries or rings so went with both.

The burger was super good. Just one of those messy yummy type burgers that you want more of after your done. The fries were average but the rings were excellent. I recommend it for sure. Would be better if it was on Ohio State campus but what can ya do.

If you go make sure you study their ordering procedure online. They are pretty strict and people give you shit if you don't follow the rules. Nothing like having an Ohio State hat on and holding up a line full of people with Michigan gear on.

Hi everyone!

Its the off season again and if you know me you know I am enjoying it.  I have been busier than normal as I started a new job a couple months ago and its been a blast so far.  Been working on my public speaking/presentation skills and am loving every minute of it now.

Looking forward to The 2012 racing season already.  Some exciting stuff on the horizon.  Will update you as I go and hopefully I remember to update this before this time next year.

Hope all is well and I will see you soon!

Marco

Back on track!

The past couple months have been a bit rough. Slowly getting back into racing after Dylan was born but I haven't been very consistent with my training.  Seems like I would get going and then get sick.. or something would come up..  I was planning on using Memorial Day Weekend as a "get me over the hump" weekend of racing.  4 races in 4 days including a 100 mile road race.  The weekend was a great success from my standpoint even though the results weren't great.  7th in the road race and 16th at Rock Island and some bad luck in Muscatine with 1 to go.  But the legs were pretty good and I finished the weekend strong and not totally smashed.  So things were on the up and up heading into last weekends Huntington Crit.

Was looking forward to racing in Huntington as I used to road trip down there back in the day and spent some fun times down there. Training has been full fledge for Nationals at the end of the month so I was looking to smash it after a nice 2 hour training ride in the morning.

The course was tailer made for me.. flat 4 corner downtown crit with a bar on one side of the start finish and a Starbucks on the other.

The team wanted to be aggressive from the get go and I figured I would start the action 2 laps in and went on the offensive with Rolf (TRH). We worked well together and got a pretty nice gap. We could see a group coming across 7-8 laps later but couldn't make out who all was in there just yet. Once they got close enough we realized it was 3 RGF and 2 more TRH. The showdown was on and we had the upper hand with 4 to their 3. We all worked smoothly to gain 3/4 of a lap on the field and then the attacks started. Jim Baldasare followed Rolf again and they were the 1st to take a lap. We were pretty happy with this but we kept rolling to make sure we stayed out front. With 10 laps to go I sent the boys on the attack again to see if we could single out the Roadhouse guys. I sat tight and made sure John Grant (TRH) was held in check as he was their fastest finisher. A couple laps later we also took a lap and I sent Jeff on the attack straight away. This forced Roadhouse to chase and as he was caught I sent JC. He put in a HUGE dig as Grant tried to follow with me in tow. This split us away from the field again with Jon Shell making a nice move to get across to us. We had now singled out a TRH rider which was perfect. We held the gap and coming into the final lap I jumped down the back stretch and held on for my first win of the season. Great to be back! And the team rode great which is a great sign with Nationals on the horizon. They made my job easy today... thanks boys!

  Great Video of the Race:

Tri-State Criterium Huntington, WV from Bob Grimm on Vimeo.

Nice Article in the Huntington Herald:

Riders compete in Tri-State Criterium - The Herald Dispatch

RATL #2

Was a nice day outside today as I traveled up from rainy Columbus.  Had a good warm up with Jim and told him I wanted to smash myself today for him and that he was gonna win.  Well that worked out perfect.  We had a lot of guys so the key was to be active and aggressive and to make sure Jim, Jeremy and myself didn't miss anything.  We were in pretty much every move from the get go and the decisive move went about 10 laps in with Jim, Jeff and Josh in it.  Jeremy and I got away  but had a big gap to come across with just 2 of us working and 2 others sitting on.  We finally made it and kept driving the break.  As we got closer to lapping we started attacking and Jeff was the 1st to lap with Dan. We didn't like that so Jim and I chased and we finally lapped with the rest reshuffling the cards.  Eventually we started 1-2ing the group and with one to go Jim attacked a 5 man split and soloed to win.  Jeremy and Jeff out sprinted the others for 2nd and 3rd and I won my group for 6th.  All in all a great day or racing and the team rode great.

Vandervorts Road Race

Was a nice windy and warm day and RGF was 3 riders strong. Myself, Corey and OB. Our plan was to be aggressive and race to win. We didn't want to get wrapped up in defending the overall series lead as if we just race to win the overall will fall into place. We certainly weren't going to do anything to jeopardize the lead but we didn't want to race negative because of it either.
The race was pretty aggressive from the get go and OB finally got in a 3 man move on lap 2. I had Corey sit in and relax and I covered moves and kept things in check. We were hitting the last part of the crosswind section and I could tell everyone was feeling a bit torn so I told Corey to get on my wheel and I smashed it in the gutter until we turned into the tailwind. Only 1 other could follow me with Corey in tow and we set sail. Eventually we dropped the other and Corey and I were out in no mans land. OB's break was a good bit up the road so Corey and I were just cruising. A small group eventually caught us and a lap later i split off with another rider. With about 1.5 laps to go i hit something in the road and got a flat front tire with no race support and was SOL. OB rode away from his companions for victory and Corey scooped up 6th to extend his lead. Legs were great and we won so all is well minus a very fast front wheel.
 

My list...

Things are starting to come to form in the house. We have a ton on our plate right now and looking forward to moving forward on so many things. The season is on the horizon, the kitchen remodel is almost done and in less than 2 weeks our daughter will be arriving! Been trying to check off a lot of items on my list before her arrival and one of the most important ones got check last weekend.... her bedroom!

One of the great things about owning the house you grew up in is having the memories and history of the house. We chose my father's office for our daughters nursery. What a great place and a great vibe for her to grow up in... all the great thoughts and things my father drummed up in that office and now a new chapter gets to start.

We had some great help with the nursery along the way from my big sis, brother in law and mother. They got the ball rolling (to our surprise) one weekend when we were in Canada and my sis helped us paint once we were ready. So it made it feel like it was done in a flash. We basically stripped the whole room as it had the original shag carpet (house built in 1971) and the craziest wallpaper I have ever seen. It was actually pretty cool though and wish I could have saved it. We added some cool chair rails, 2 tone paint and some nice baseboards and molding and it came out better than we expected. Also added a nice chandelier for some bling factor. Tara has been spending most of her time in there organizing all her clothes which she seems to already have more then both of us and she hasn't even been born yet! crazy too me. Here are a couple pics but there are more on my facebook page if ya wanna see the whole thing.  http://www.facebook.com/marcoaledia

So I can check that off the list and keep rolling on my the other projects.. looking forward to checking everything off this list, but non more than the the last one: The arrival of our Daughter.