JP Murph

Last month as USA Pro Crit Champ= COFFEE SALE!!!

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:47:01 +0000

Until August 14th, I will be discounting JPMurph Roast by Cafe:ine to $9.99. As always, free shipping with the purchase of 3 bags! Order now and enjoy fresh roasted JPMurph Cycling Coffee!!!

Back in Euroland

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:28:46 +0000

I’m back in Gent, Belgium after an extended period in the US. It was good to be in the US and decompress a bit, race a bit, and even train a bit. Now it’s time to grit my teeth again though and hit some more racing hard. I’ll be doing a few Kermesse races in the upcoming week before Tour of Wallonie(belgium) and Tour of Poland the following week. It’s been a little bit since my last race since racing in the US is almost impossible for a pro conti rider. I feel good on the bike, so I hope for some good luck and maybe results too.

I’m finally moving into my homebase in Gent after spending the spring in Tyler Farrar’s upstairs studio. He was awesome letting me crash there for a couple months while I got my bearings on Gent. Now I have my own flat that I am stoked about. There is so much activity and life in Gent. Reminds me a lot of athens, ga. Just super old and awesome! And as everyone know, if you don’t you should, the best beer and chocolate in the world. No doubt about it.

So here we go about to wind up the second whirl wind of racing for me this year in Europe. I’ll try to be a bit better about updating the site, but even now I don’t have internet and am after hours at a coffee shop outside there door for it! I’ll work on some pictures from the upcoming weeks festivities. If you not from Belgium you wouldn’t know it, but in Gent, Gent-Fest is about to begin tomorrow and it’s a week long festival where the city doesn’t sleep. Or so I’ve heard. Should be interesting…

Back to racing.

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:41:28 +0000

After a break after the Giro(part of it at least), I’m getting back to racing again with Philly and now Tour De Beauce. After Philly got a spend a week out in Northern California with my girlfriend in her small hometown of Etna. It was awesome with some great mountains all around. Did some good training and some good relaxing as well. There was still snow on the ground up in the mountains!

I was pretty wrecked after Philly so it took me a few days to be able to do any real training. And now in Canada where the stages are relatively early, which means early wake ups everyday(around 6am). I hate waking up so early so it’s definitely making the race even harder. It’s been good though, despite losing time the first day when I should have been at the front for the sprint. I was in the break all day yesterday and that cost me some energy today. I made it to the base of the final hillclimb with the group but then just rode up my own pace. Tomorrow is the TT and then two more days of circuits. I get to head back to Athens for a bit after this so I am pretty stoked about that. Hopefully I can make something happen here this weekend. Wish me luck.

stage 2- Wow Craziness

admin — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:46:38 +0000

Stage two started out low key, the break went almost immediately and we settled into a nice temp. But after a couple hours, all hell broke lose. The roads of the netherlands are known for the “road furniture” and what have you, which made for an insane amount of crashes and close calls. At one point there was a crash from one side of the road to the other, I locked my brakes up, flew off my bike and miraculously landed on my feet! I couldn’t believe it. I ran back to my bike hoping it was ok, and began the chase back on. In the final I 10km I was right where I wanted to be to give the sprint a go, but I got a rear puncture. I got a quick wheel change from Nick but it was full gas and I couldn’t get back. I got close several times but as soon as I was just back on a big crash would split the field and I would find myself once again chasing. I arrived at the finish to see my buddy Tyler Farrar had won the stage and Cadel had earned himself the Pink Jersey! So tomorrow you will be seeing the BMC boys on the front. Looking forward to it.

Bookwalter crushes for 2nd and Cadel 3rd in first stage of Giro!

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 20:53:50 +0000

I cruised in for 28th, 20 seconds down. I had what we say, good sensations. Just obvisouly a little bit short… Brent had an amazing ride just 2 seconds of the pink!!! Cadel wasn’t even a second behind him. It was a generally damp day, with light rain off and on all day. I was a bit timid into the turns but all in all I think I rode pretty aggressive. I just lost a bit of gas in the final couple kilometers. I’m still blown away thinking about how fast Brent took the last two corners while in his aero bars. I’m pretty sure he was the only guy to do that! It was impressive. That guy can ride a TT bike.

Not a bad start for the first grand tour for the BMC Racing Team. The next two stages in Holland wil be flat and fast. Likely a sprint tomorrow, we will be looking to continue our success as well as keep our guys safe and out of trouble. Maybe I can mix it up in the sprint? We’ll see. Oh, and our team is 2nd in team GC, not bad at all!

Giro- One week away

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:53:25 +0000

The Giro is one week away. My first grand tour. I did a good 5hr ride today up some climbs and I’m actually feeling good. So I got that going for me, which is nice…

On another front, I’m a bit sad that I have a brand new bag of my own personal blend coffee, but no grinder. Anybody know any tricks to grind whole beans without one??? I’m really gonna need this next week. So please feel free to comment. Thanks!

Lucca Mornings

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:40:23 +0000

Another morning here in Lucca getting ready for the day. What’s on the plan today? 4 hrs in the mountains. Should be fun. It’s actually been really good being here the last few days, Reseting the body from racing and actually getting out for some training rides. It’s crazy when you start racing in February and push through the spring really hard, a few days of “training” really refreshes things. Just not the stress of having to pin up a number and roll along with 150 others makes things for lack of other words, simpler. The giro starts in a little over a week and I have a clear goal for it. The TTT is very important and it’s where I can hopefully help the team on the flat course. Should be fun. Ok that’s it I got stuff to do. I’m very busy…

Some Giro trainin’ in Lucca Italy

admin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:49:40 +0000

Sitting here in my hotel inside the famed wall of lucca, I’m getting my mind wrapped around the idea of my first grand tour in less than 2 weeks. From Qatar to roubaix to Italy… it’s been a solid campaign so far this year. I will admit my legs are feeling all the racing. So I made the trip to Lucca to get some riding in the mountains for the first time this season. Time to go have a coffee so I can think straight.

Trentino

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:31:56 +0000

Giro Del Trentino- First of all its not easy to get to Itay from belgium right now cause all flights are pretty much cancelled. Been driving most of the day today and yesterday to get there. So the race better go well after all of this. There are some big climbs here so I’m hoping for some luck and maybe sime magic form…

I got through with the classics a little beat up. Not from crashing mostly just getting smoked in the hard sections. When the races would truly get hard, like Harelbeke, Gent Wevelgem and Roubaix I was just lacking the power at the critical moments. It will come but I definitely got great experiences and will be ready to fight for them next year for sure.

After Trentino I’m heading back to the states is the volcanic ash allows. I look forward to getting back for sure. Maybe ill see you out there at athens twilight!

Groene Hart 1.1(Green Heart)-Holland

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:11:36 +0000

Groene Hart aka Green heart was another race in Holland summed up like most of them are, Heavy Wind. So we were fighting for the first 50km to stay at the front of the group when the echelons split it all up. Unfortunately at the very moment the group split, we had no rider in the first 33(the first echelon). I made one huge jump to get to the front group. I was about 5 meters off the back but just couldn’t do it. That’s the worst. Your so close yet so far away. That’s how it goes sometimes. If I had been in the front like normal it wouldn’t have taken a superhuman effort to make it. So Jackson, Kristoff, and I chased in the second group for about 70km before we caught the shattered front group. Once we finally caught the front group, it had split and there was another group of 15 off the front! So we had to keep chasing. This was one of the hardest days I’ve had on the bike since I can remember. I came apart so hard in the last 30km of the 207km race. I cramped so hard and it was all I could do to ride in with the last group. I must not have eaten enough but since we spent so long chasing I just lost track of time. Bad news. So the day ended with the 15 rider break staying away. Kristoff had a go at the sprint for 16th and took it. Hopefully this race will prove as a wake-up call that we have to be riding at the front at ALL times and always be ready for the race to shatter.

Now we have a week until the next race, E3 and Gent Wevelgem this weekend. We are staying in Izegem which is my old stomping grounds from my U23 days. We’ll do some reconnaissance of the upcoming races and also visit the good old canal a bit too! Time for some rest now lots of big races coming up.