Where's Andy Steves?

Andy Steves, the most winningest cyclist in Notre Dame history has been notably absent from the team. The rising star's hiatus from cycling has not been well explained by even him. Various reasons, from travel to skirt chasing, have been given for his lack of riding this year and his decision not to participate in the up and coming race season. His next moves were unpredictable, even by his closest teammates. "I thought I knew him well," teammate Tim Campbell said, who was his bedmate on race weekends. "I thought we shared a special bond, I mean, we shared a bed on almost every race weekend for two years. The fact that he held this out from me, well, it really hurts our relationship. It hurts. I never saw it coming."


That thing the Irish never saw coming was Steves new foray in the male cheerleading and a short stint as a model. The above picture is Andy as a skirted male cheerleader for the Notre Dame Marching Band, the oldest university band in existence. In traditional bands, scantily clad women (that often times are kinda overweight/not attractive...they were too big/not attractive to be cheerleaders) that twirl flags accompany the band. For Notre Dame, tall skirted men march around the band. While considered somewhat of an honor to be a part of the so called Irish Guard, it still is a group of male cheerleaders that wear skirts.



He also made an appearance on the cover of "EuroCyclist" magazine. Steves was able to make a short comment on his foray into modeling: "You know, I always thought that I was sexy and I always bought into the EuroCyclist mentality. I always had a doubleshot before the race. I always looked good. I had a ridiculously good bike. I talked to soooooo many women after races in hopes of meeting up with all of them at some point in time so they could take care of my massage needs. I was Euro, and the magazine was a good fit. I'd do it again in a heartbeat - its way more Euro to act like you are a hardcore good Euro cyclist when you really aren't than it is to be an actual cyclist that is Euro. Its an attitude, and to be completely Euro, you need to be 100% focused."

While the team wishes Steves the best in his modeling and cheerleading and will miss the guy not only for his pure sprinter mentality, but also for the antics that will be absent from race weekends. On behalf of the team, good luck, and come on, modeling and cheerleading? Couldn't you at least be doing something manly?

Ironman 70.3 World Championships.....

I got back from Clearwater Beach Florida this afternoon, from the IM 70.3 World Championships. Just thought I would post a few pictures and give my story of how it all went down. ( sorry for the black spot on all the pictures, my shutter is broken)

My goals for the day were to go as fast as I could, and hopefully that would place me well in my age group. I was shooting for 4:10, which seemed doable, since the bike course was super flat.

1.2 mile swim: The swim was my first open water swim in salt water. I was in the last swim wave of the day, which I wasnt pleased about. The swim start was rough as we all ran in from the beach, but I found a good draft, and made it out to the turn bouys in no time. I lost my draft around the turn bouy in the chaos and conjestion, which killed my momentum. The way back in to shore was directly into the rising sun, making it hard to navigate, and I felt like I wasnt making any progress towards shore. I eventually hit the beach in 29 min, not my best swim, not my worst. I didnt think twice about it, and just booked it into T1.

56 mile bike: This bike course was ridiculous. Sooo fast. The lack of hills also meant that there were huge packs of people drafting/blantantly cheating. It was frustrating to watch, and I did not see one draft marshal handing out penalties. Anyways, my legs felt awesome, and I pushed it harder with every mile. I was flying, only one guy passed me. I hit the 40 mile mark in 1:29, and finished the bike course in 2:11, for a 25.6 mph average! I feel like I could have ridden 3-4 minutes faster, but at times when the course narrowed down to one lane, I would get stuck behind these massive packs that took up the whole course. It was still a blast to go so fast.

13.1 mile run: I made it through T2, and my stomach immediately felt odd when I started running. It wasnt pain, just a mild discomfort that I hoped would pass. My plan as always was to take it out at a comfortable pace for the first lap, and then push it the second lap. The first mile came in 5:54! The second mile (which had a pretty steep/long causway hill) was 6:10, the third mile was 6:40 (which included a pee stop) .... my legs felt great. I was hoping to run a 1:20, and I was on my way....

The fourth mile, I puked. I think I swallowed a lot of salt water in the swim. I tried so hard not to, but sometimes you get water in your mouth during the chaos, and its just a natural reaction that happens before you can do otherwise. Miles 5-8 were 6:40-7:30 survival pace. I downed a caffinated Gu at mile 7 in hopes of picking up the pace, but instead I puked again at mile 8. I started running again, ditched all my remaining Gu's, and surprisingly, I felt a lot better. I managed to start running 6:30's again. At mile 11, some fast guys caught me, and I latched on, and ran 6:11 and 6:05 final miles. My run split was 1:27 - This year I have been good for 1:23's on hilly courses, so this was a bit disappointing for a pretty flat course, but it wasnt due to lack of fitness.

Overall I finished in 4:14 (still a big PR for me). I was 17th of 47 in my age group, and 110th overall of 1433 competitors. It was a bitter sweet day. I dont want to blindly accuse others of cheating, but when there are a whole slew of guys in my age group that exit the bike together, with really fast times, that are almost exactly the same, and only minutes slower than those off the top pros, it makes me suspicious. Not that I am saying I could have won the age group, I just dont think this is the type of course to separate the best from the rest. I rode a clean race, I'm proud of my bike time, and overall, it was a fun weekend in the sun.

Time for the offseason!

~Mike

In Andy Steves iPod prerace...

"Dudes, can we get some music going? Ya know, like some Savage Garden. Savage Garden gets me so pumped up..."

-Andy