Jordan 2nd in Junior Nationals Time Trial

Flying the Flanders colors proudly at Junior Nationals

Jordan had another Silver performance at USA Junior Cycling Nationals, this time in the 13-14 Time Trial. He was just 9 seconds from the top step, taken by Michael Dessau. Logan owen was 3rd, 2 seconds behind Jordan. Jonathan Shilling was 4th and Max O'Neal (who was 2nd in the Tour of Idaho to Jordan) was 5th. In fact, the podium was the exact same order as the road race, except for 5th place. So very proud of you Jordan!

A special shout out to HED Cycling and Tim Mulrooney for setting us up super fast wheels. They worked great!

USA Cycling Junior Nationals Coverage

Story from usacycling.org

With the sun directly overhead, a strong field of 60 riders toed the line for the men’s 13-14 race. After seven laps on the hot course, the riders were fairly spread out with two young men setting the pace up front - Michael Dessau (Boulder, Colo./5280) and Jordan Cullen (Hudson, Wis./MBRC Flanders). With a national title on the line, the pair was going head-to-head by the time they reappeared to the crowd near the start/finish area. Dessau won the sprint finish and slipped into the fourth Stars-and-Stripes jersey of the day with Cullen crossing the line right behind him for the silver medal. Logan Owen (Bremerton, Wash./Hagens Berman) was the next rider to complete the 40-kilometer contest, pedaling into the start/finish about nine seconds off the winning pace for the bronze medal. Twenty seconds later, a group of four entered into a battle for the two remaining podium spots with Jonathon Schilling (Grover, Mo./Mesa) besting the others for the fourth-place step and Austin Clevenger (Bellingham, Wash./Rad Racing NW/Hagens Berman) claiming fifth place.

Jordan 2nd at Junior Cycling Nationals Road Race

Jordan finished 2nd in the 13-14 Road Race at Junior Cycling Nationals in Bend, OR. The 40K race was one of attrition, with 65 starters. 8 riders were left in the front group half way through the race. Jordan attacked in the final 3K to narrow it down to 3 riders, and finished a close 2nd to Boulder, CO phenom Michael Dessau. 3rd place was 4 time Junior Cyclocross National Champion Logan Owen from Bremerton, WA.

Scenic Ride in Bend, Oregon

Dylan with Mount Bachelor in the background

Dylan with the Sisters in the background

Rode up to Mount Bachelor from Bend today with Dylan. Jordan stayed behind and did a short ride in preparation for his first race on Tuesday.

The ride is a long grind of 4000ft of climbing over 20 miles. The reward at the top is the ski area on Mount Bachelor, and views of the Sisters to the north. All are 10,000ft snow capped peaks. They are all dormant volcanoes on the Eastern edge of the Cascade mountain range. Absolutely breathtaking views.

Best place to stay in Boise, ID

Mark Stolpe was kind enough to take us in during our visit to Boise, ID. What an incredible host. His bachelor pad was great. He cooked several meals for us including frying up some famous Idaho potatoes. He has 2 friendly Birmin Cats, Eli and Eddie.

Thanks for the great visit Mark. Your hospitality was the best part of the visit. The second best part was our tubing voyage down the Boise river. Can't get the hilarious image out of my head of Jordan flipping out of his tube.

Representing in Idaho

Both Jordan and Dylan took the top step on the final GC podium for their respective age category at the Tour of Idaho. Jordan did it by winning the 13-14 circuit Race, TT, and Criterium. Dylan did it with consistency, finishing 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd in the 3 17-18 stages.

Jordan's margin of victory was 3min 14sec. Dylan's margin of victory was a scant 8 seconds. Deja Vu back to the 1989 Tour De France?

This morning's TT was uphill. 4.2mi, 638ft vertical, 6% ave grade. Jordan was the only rider to choose his TT bike (with his lightweight HED setup, of course). Everyone else rode their standard road bike. Jordan smoked the TT, with the 2nd fastest time overall, 1 second slower than the fastest. He had a GC lead of 2.5mins going into the crit, and got away solo half way through, and gained close to another minute. Well done Jordan.

Dylan went into the TT 8 secs out of 1st in GC. He gained 16 seconds in the TT, to move into 1st on GC, and was able to keep his lead in the criterium. They worked him over good, but he persevered. Excellent riding Dylan.

Tour of Idaho Road Race

Great success at in Stage 1 of the Tour of Idaho today. Jordan won the juniors 13-14, and Dylan finished a close 2nd in the juniors 17-18.

Jordan's race was much shorter than Dylan's, but both had to finish up a grueling 2 mile climb known as Old Freezeout.

Jordan's Finish

Dylan's Finish

A shot of the finish climb from the top.

Big Sky and Yellowstone

Lone Mountain is just as impressive in the Summer as it is in the Winter.

Chillin, watching Old Faithful erupt.

A seriously amazing ride through Yellowstone.

Leg one of Western Road Trip Complete

Drove from Hudson, WI to Timber Creek, MT on Wednesday.
Drove from Timber Creek, MT to Boise,ID on Thursday.

Thursday we did some sight seeing. Drove up to Lone Mountain to see what Big Sky looks like in the summer. Pretty cool.

The highlight was going to Yellowstone, and seeing Old Faithful erupt. The boys (Jordan and Dylan Knutson) got the opportunity of a lifetime to ride their bikes in Yellowstone. They'll never forget that.

1600 miles, 23 hours of driving.

Tour of Idaho starts today.

Junior Nationals Bound

Starting our trip today to Junior Nationals next week in Bend, Oregon. Jordan is doing the Tour of Idaho in Boise, Idaho on the way out. Local junior Dylan Knutson is travelling with us.

Jordan's TT Rig - HED Stinger Disc Rear, HED3C Front
Jordan's Road Rig - HED Ardennes
Thanks to Timmer and HED for equipping Jordan with Wheels for Junior Nationals.

Jordan takes 2nd win at Superweek

Jordan won the Juniors 10-14 Schlitz Park Criterium at Superweek. He soloed away early in the race and lapped the entire field except for the rider who finished 2nd. Congratulations Jordan.

Jordan wins at Superweek

Jordan won the Cat 4/5 Tour of Holy Hill Road Race at Superweek in Milwaukee, WI Friday. It came down to a field sprint, which he won by a bikethrow.

The name of the race led me to believe it was a difficult circuit. It was not easy, but certainly not hard. Apparently the race used to go up "Holy Hill" which was a serious challenge, but no more.

The wind was a factor. On the tailwind stretch, Jordan said he would start on the front, and by the end, he was all the way at the back. Tough to spin the 52x14 up to 40mph. On the crosswinds, Jordan would attack and gutter it at the center line, and the entire field was across the center line.

Jordan attacked right from the gun, and was solo for a few miles, then another XXX racing rider bridged, but couldn't help Jordan much, so they were caught. Jordan said he attacked like 20 times, but they didn't give him any leash at all.

Coming into the finish, Jordan was up front coming into the final turn with 300m to the finish. With a cross wind on the finish stretch, I thought he went to early, but only 2 other guys were able to draw alongside him, with Jordan holding them off with a bike throw. The video showed it was a matter of an inch or two. Huge congrats are in order Jordan.

In the parking lot after the race, I kept hearing other Cat 4/5 racers talking about Jordan, and how they couldn't believe how aggressive he was, and then won the race. I kidded them about talking about my kid, and one guy said "Is he your son? I was sure to get his name, so I'll remember it for the future."

New PR at Black Dog

14:33 is my new milestone at Black Dog, breaking my old PR from last year of 14:35. To put in perspective, that is an average speed of 27.9mph. Conditions were my favorite: Light cross wind on the way out, with a light push on the way back. My time at the turn around was 6:58, returned to the finish line in 13:35 (21 seconds faster on the return) and 14:33 at the finish (58 seconds for the last section). Ave HR 171bpm, Ave Cadence 91rpm.

Jordan continues to find the 15 minute barrier a challenge to break, recording another close time of 15:04. He was happy with his ride, and knows it's just a matter of time.

Top 10 Times of the night:
Jonathan Toftoy - 14:23
Dan Casper - 14:24(fixie)
Tim Mulrooney - 14:24(fixie)
Jim Cullen - 14:33
Andy Toftoy - 14:45
Nick Vetter - 14:45
Jordan Cullen - 15:04
Hollywood Henderson - 15:04
Greg Kostik - 15:07
Jeff Ingham - 15:13

A New TIME in my life

My replacement ride is ready to go for Superweek.

Thanks to the Flanders Bike Shop for helping me get a new ride so quickly.

Boy that was a sweet ride.

Thanks to Zuni Sturla for the great action shot from St. Cloud.

Hopkins Crit

Jordan and I both doubled up at the Hopkins Crit. Jordan won the Juniors 10-14, and finished in the pack in the Cat 4/5. I played a teammate support role in the Masters 35+ and Cat 1/2.

The Masters 35+ race was fast and hard. Every time the pace relaxed at all, there was an attack. I spent many a lap riding soft tempo of the front of the field, with teammates ahead in breakaways. I got in a break with Sedgewick and Binkowski, but didn't get far. Skarpohl and Townsend has a good gap late in the race, but were also caught. The race was too fast, and the field was too strong for a break to stick. Hanna took the win, with teammates Woller and Scott Flanders 4th, and 5th. I had the average speed of the Masters race at 27mph.

The Cat 1/2 race was even harder. The averages speed was in the mid 28mph range. Groups tried to get away, and some lasted longer than others, but it kept coming back together. With about 10 laps to go, coming out of turn 4, a bunch of riders in the tail of the group got pinched by a curb, and several guys went down, me included. I was OK but my bike was broken in half. Everyone else seemed be able to walk away as well. In the end, Teammate Woell gave teammate Zim an awesome lead out on the backside in the last lap, and Zim took the win. His second year in a row winning the race. Woell held on for 6th. Well done Zim, and way to go team Flanders!

Death of a Beauty

It was a beautiful bike, but no longer. A late crash in the Cat 1/2 race at Hopkins ended her life. She sacrificed her life for me, as I came out almost unscathed. A small scrape on my knee. She'll be hard to replace.

Pursuits

Got up to the track for the Wednesday Timed Events last night. No fixed gear bike, so I rode my road bike. The key to doing a good pursuit on a road bike is to pick a gear, and ride it. Shifting just screws up your rhythm which is critical in a pursuit. I opted to do a 2K and 3K. The events were run 1-up rather than pursuit style, since they could only manage 1 timing strip. Conditions were less than ideal, with a brisk ESE wind.

2km pursuit:
Chose the 54x15, or 96 inch gear. I made the common mistake of going out too hard, and the gear was on the small side for me. I rode a 2:37 for an avg speed of 28.5mph.

3km pursuit:
Decided to move up to the 54x14, or 103 inch gear. That's a large gear for a pursuit. I started more sensibly, and held a fairly steady rhythm throughout. I rode a 3:52 for an avg speed of 28.9mph.

While waiting to ride at the track, most people ride their trainers while they chat away. Carla was with me too. I must have been on the trainer for nearly 2 hours.

Colton Barrett is National Champion.

Local junior racer, Colton Barrett, won a National Championship in the Match Sprint. Congrats Colton! He also made the podium in the Points race, finishing 4th. Junior Track Nationals were held July 2-5 in Los Angeles, CA.

Northfield Recap

Jordan in the Cat 4's

Jordan won the juniors 10-14, and finished 8th in the Cat 4/5's. Northfield was Jordan's very first race ever (2006). He said they were banging shoulders quite a bit in the Cat 4/5 race, and the light rain didn't help things either. It came down to a field sprint of about 30 riders, which was new to Jordan, so great experience. He got a little taste of field sprints at quad cities this year, but it's still pretty foreign to him.

I did the Masters 35+ and Cat 1/2 races. In the Masters, I planned to ride in support of teammates Scott Flanders and Jay Woller. All 3 of us got into breaks that never stuck, but Scott and Dan Casper got in a 2 separate breaks that stayed away for several laps each. In the end in came down to a field sprint, taken by Scott Flanders, helped by a strong last lap pull on the front from Casper, who finished 3rd himself. Koeneman was 3rd. A huge congrats to Scott for scoring the win in a very tough race.

Only 1 of my teammates started the Cat 1/2 race with me (Yorgos). I tail gunned most of the race with a couple exceptions where I moved clear once for a prime, and bridged up to a break that contained Casper and Brabbit. Casper and Yorgos got away late in the race, and looked like they might pull it off, but they were caught on the hill in the last lap. Dan Swanson won the field sprint, followed by Tony Olson, then Ian Stanford.

I took a look at my Garmin data from the race, and both the Masters 35+ and Cat 1/2 races clicked off about the same lap times. Average speed around 26mph for both races.

Northfield Crit Results

Stories of the day:
Dan Swanson bagged his first Northfield crit win since 2006.
Dan Casper was hands down, most aggressive rider, in both the Masters 35+ and Cat 1/2.
The Flanders ladies took it up a notch from last week, taking the top 5 spots in the women's open race.
Hollywood is by far, the best announcer around.
Jake Boyce and Milltown Cycles put on a class event.

Diane Ostenso National Criterium Champion

Way to go Diane! Gordy finished a close 2nd in the Men 55-59.