Virtual Visitation in the NY Times

Dave says: Yesterday I was excited to find out that my article on Virtual Visitation was quoted on the New York Times web site by Lisa Belkin in her parenting blog. An attorney at a local firm read the article and forwarded it on to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs who emailed me with the good news. Today the law school did a little story on my article and posted it on the school's web page. I'm excited that my first publication has received a bit of attention and I'm a big believer in virtual visitation technology so I hope it can make some influence in the legal community as well.

I think my parents were also excited to get some good news that wasn't cycling related. My blogs always seem to focus on the weekend's activities, but there's a lot going on Mon-Fri and I'll have to do a better job of mentioning this as well. My most recent paper on racism and the law is being edited by the Journal of Law and Family Studies. In addition, I'm in the process of writing a review article of the last 35 years of legal scholarship on procedural justice (thanks to yesterday's record cold in SLC, I've had plenty of time to sit inside and type). Finally, I've already started working with a Ph.D. student and friend on a totally non-legal paper examining the role of the "glue guy" in men's basketball. With all the individual superstars nowadays, we want to look at the growing importance of the guy who is the team player or the "glue" on the court.

The Move

Dave says: This Easter weekend was the Tour of the Depot stage race in Tooele, Utah. There was some good competition with 25 in the 1-2-3 women's including some national pros and 45 in the Men's Cat 3. After a mostly downhill TT, I was sitting in 10th. Without a lot of climbing and with some downhill finishes, I knew that the next two races would require busting a move on whatever little hills the course had.

In the circuit race, I spent six laps on the back before moving to the front on the final lap. Spence (Ski Utah) was drilling it on a hill and riding people off his wheel and when I attacked and yelled at him to come with me, we got a gap on the field and held off the charging field by five seconds. In the sprint he led out and I won. However, it was only enough of a bonus to move us up a couple spots.

In the road race, I talked to Spence before and told him that we should do "the move" on the last hill of the day. I gambled that the whole peloton would be together on the last climb and sat at the back eating cliff blocks for the first 70 miles. On the last hill, riders were driving the pace and things were getting spread out pretty good. Spence was right on my wheel and I gave him the look and we attacked off the front with 5 km to go and got it by 25 seconds. I told him it was his turn to win and didn't sprint him. Maybe I should have. If I had won I would have won the GC, instead I finished second in the RR and 4th in the GC. Oh well, it was still a sweet weekend of racing. We also hung out with my teammate Tyler who worked hard through all 3 stages and took 3rd in the GC.

Alisha says: The womens field of 25 was a bit intimidating with several big names showing up. I was happy with my 7th place finish in the time trial considering about six of the nine miles was descending. It was fun to have my Dad and Mom there to watch the circuit race as Dave and I both had great results. In my race the group stayed together and played games for the first four laps.

When we came around starting our fourth lap I think I was in last place and Dave commented to my parents that I needed to move up. Starting the last lap I had moved up in the group and with half a lap to go there was an attack and once we closed the gap I decided to attack and drilled it. I checked behind me and Nicole Evans was right there but we had gapped the field. We then worked together until the last 1K where she dropped me but I sooo excited to have been able to hang on for 2nd!!

The 50 mile road race was mainly flat so the group stayed together. I somehow ended up in the dirt twice and was super lucky to have stayed on my bike. 5K from the finish there was a little hill and I knew if I had any chance that I had to go for it. Once again when I looked back it was Nicole Evans who was on my wheel. She is super nice and strong, we worked together until about 2K from the finish when I couldn't stay with her anymore.

That was the longest 2K of my life as I kept checking over my shoulder and seeing the charging chase group of Nikki Wangsgard, Tiffany Peluzzo, and Kris Walker getting closer and closer. I passed the 1K sign, then 500m, 200m, I could hear them coming but luckily the finish line came just in time as I was able to snag another 2nd place by only inches. I ended up finishing 5th in the GC. It was a great weekend hanging out with the PCIM gals and all of the other women racers!!

Cholla

Dave says: "In the Men’s race everyone seemed to be watching the Monavie-Cannondale team. The race today would complete a week long training camp for the team which began last Saturday with the Fontana City National... Right from the start, Monavie riders Gillespie, Alex Grant, Jeremiah Bishop, and Bryan Alders charged to the front. David Welsh (Kuhl/Scott) tried his best to ruin the Monavie party. Welsh even briefly took the lead on lap one but the Green Machine would not be denied today." (MTBRaceNews.com)

This was the best version of the Cholla that I've done in four years with a somewhat pleasant desert course and only a moderate amount of wind (compare to weed whacker-made single track and sandstorms of years past). The weather was cold and snowy on the way down from SLC, but I think it was Mona-Vie who warmed things up with their stacked team. When an Olympian steps out of the van on your local race scene, you instantly know that it's time for a little humility lesson. My legs were burning on the first hill and they were gone.

At the end, it was a fight with Chris Holley and a guy named Drew from Colorado. Drew attacked, then I countered and pinned it for the last mile or two to the finish. I turned myself inside out in the process but took fourth and had a good race overall. It was fun times with the Kuhl/Scott crew as usual. Today I went road biking with Alisha and she mopped the floor with me as I cracked after a couple sets of intervals and couldn't even hold her wheel.

Nothing

Alisha says: Dave is complaining that he has written the last two posts and that it was my turn. I don't really have much to say, this week was just a regular week. The weather wasn't good, we raced the RMR crit on Saturday in the oval (not my fav), and I can't believe it's almost April. Time flies when you're loving life!!

Spring Break

Dave says: Spring break was a lot of fun and was way too busy to be considered a break of any type. With beautiful weather, I spent all of Monday on the road and mtb with Kurt and Tyler. On Tuesday, I taught my high school class about mediation and negotiation using one of my favorite clips from the TV show "The Office".

On Wednesday, I headed to Switzerland. Just kidding, I headed to a Swiss-styled resort called Zermatt in Midway, Utah (less than an hour away) for a conference with the Western Academy of Management. The conference had a friendly and informal feeling to it and I learned a lot from other students and faculty. I also had one of the top five fanciest dinners of my life at the resort.

Then, Alisha and I headed over to Grand Junction, Colorado for the weekend where we competed in a hill climb, crit, and road race. The hill climb was an epic trip up a winding cliff side road up onto one of the mesas in the national monument. Alisha's hill climbing is unbelievable as she almost beat me and threw down the best women's time of the day by over a minute.

Probably on of the best things that I can say about the crit is that we both came through unscathed. It was on a go kart track with lots of hairpin turns that caused crashes in every race. To make matters more exciting, my group raced in the dark under the lights.

Finally, the road race had enough hills to make things exciting. A small break went off the front early and I soon found myself in a group of a dozen riders that had split off the main field of fourty-ish and was trying to haul it back. Seventy two miles later, we had pulled back all but two riders and had lost most of our own group. I had a pretty good sprint at the end and took fifth.

The wind was really blowing by the time Alisha raced. On the last hill, she busted a sweet move and drilled it solo for another ten miles to the finish for the victory. On the whole, it was a fun weekend as we hung out with Alex, Brian, and Parker from the U Cycling Team and enjoyed some sunny racing.

Rampage

Dave says: It was finally time for some sweet mtb action at the ICup's first race of the season in St. George. I drove down on Friday night through a blizzard with Taylor, Mary, and Trevor. However, on Saturday morning it was perfect conditions for racing and a stacked field of 28 pros was ready to bring the heat.

It was no surprise that Utah's three fastest riders absolutely shredded this course. However, I was pleasantly surprised to have been able to hang with them during the first lap. With these guys setting tempo, the field was blown to bits within a half mile. Then, it was up to Bart Gillespie to stamp his authority on the race with another win marking several years in a row for him. However, he had some competition as he had to out-sprint Junior National Team member Rob Squire (who cracked me with his fast uphill accelerations on the second lap). In third was Alex Grant who after winning the overall series last year is now the man to beat in 2009. Finally, I was no match for Travis Brown who caught me at the start of the third lap because he can still ride downhills like an Olympian.

Fifth felt pretty sweet and I was much faster than last year. The new bike was dialed in and rode great. We spent the night at Coral Canyon and shredded some trails (Goulds/Jem/Canal) the next day before driving home. The Kuhl/Scott team has a lot of talent this year and I think everyone had a lot of fun.

Sunny Southern Nevada

Alisha says: Last weekend Dave and I kicked off road race season at the Callville Bay Classic. It was a three stage, two day event in the Lake Mead recreational area. My favorite stage was the TT prologue. It was 4 mile climb and I finished 30 seconds faster than the rest of the women 1-3 field (Dave adds: and only 9 seconds behind me and my time was good!).

I lost my 30 seconds plus another 12 minutes in the road race later that afternoon. They raced us with the men cat 4's which was okay until some of the stronger men busted a move on a descent and I was dropped only to ride the last 35 miles all by myself, but a couple of the women were able to hang with them. I finished fourth. The crit was really fun with everyone staying together so it didn't change anything in the general classification. I was happy with my 4th place GC finish and a sun tan on my arms and legs.

Dave says: It was nice to get some race miles in the legs and I raced 3's with Kurt and Tyler who have been training in Texas and are crazy-fast for this time of year. Kurt won the TT and Tyler and I tried to get a break going in the RR. Eventually, a break did go off and we were in it, only this was a very fast break that eventually cracked us and gave a 3 minute advantage to the four who survived. The crit had a little hill in it which made for a good time and I was able to finish 6th and win a prime along the way.

We stayed with Alisha's Aunt Lorrie and Uncle Robert who fed us some awesome meals and we made the entire trip without having to buy food. On the way back, we spent an extra day in St George and did some riding before driving back to SLC and arriving only minutes before my evening class started.