Volunteering at Masters Track Nationals

Glenn Kubacki and I (Edan) had a nice conversation today at the bike shop. He explained to me that he had some good photos of the juniors volunteering at Masters Track Nationals. I gave him my email address and this is what he sent me. It was very nice of him to take the time to do this. Thanks Glenn!

-Team Specialized Racing

Team Specialized Juniors volunteered to hold for team time trial events at Master Nationals, but before the event they got expert advice and practice with Leonard Harvey Nitz, multi-time National Champion and US Olympic team, and multi-time Masters World Champion Earl Henry.

Edan secures the bike as Earl Henry climbs on. One way to begin a hold is from the side with a foot under the rear wheel to keep the bike from rolling, and a hand on the bars to keep them from flopping.

Edan supports rider Earl Henry securely against his hip as both rider and holder find a good balance point before Edan moves to the back of the bike.

Earl Henry explains his preferences to holder, Edan

Nitz goes over fine points of holding for Daniel.

Joel holds Earl Henry and LaBerge holds Nitz as Specialized Juniors get pointers prior to team time trials at Masters Nationals, August 7^th, Hellyer Park Velodrome.

Nitz explains to hold the rider on a balance point and adjust side to side position, but to leave your hands open so as not to restrain forward or backward motion. If a rider false starts… let ‘em roll away from your hands.

2008 Masters Track National Championships

Two more Stars and Stripes jerseys for Team Specialized Racing Masters

Friday Results:
Kevin Metcalfe - 1st 45 to 49 3KM pursuit (finally standing above Thurlow Rogers on the podium)

Mike McCarthy - 1st 40 to 44 3KM pursuit (ripping up the track with a super fast time 3:33.4)

Self explanatory...

2008 Master Track National Championships

The medals and results are rolling in for Team Specialized Masters

Tuesday Results:
Vic Copeland - 1st 65 to 69 500M TT
Larry Nolan - 1st 50 to 54 1KM TT
Kevin Metcalfe - 4th 45 to 49 1KM TT
Craig Roemer - 7th 40 to 44 1KM TT

Wednesday Results:
Vic Copeland - 1st 65 to 69 2KM Pursuit
Larry Nolan - 1st 50 to 54 2KM Pursuit
Kevin Metcalfe - 1st 45 to 49 Points Race (lapping the field solo)
Mike McCarthy - 2nd 40 to 44 Points Race (one point separated 1st and 2nd - exciting race)
Billy Innes - 6th 35 to 39 Pursuit (winning time for this age group was a blazing 3:33.8)

Never have I been around a group of such unheathly sounding fit people...

Well, track nationals has started and on the first day several of us raced in either the kilometer or the 500 depending on our age.

In the morning session Vic Copeland won his 500. Huge surprise since Vic has only won the kilo/500 about a million times at Masters Nationals and/or Worlds. He was hanging around during the evening session and it was great to catch up after not seeing him for seven years or so.

In the evening session, Larry won the 500 by .6 seconds in the 50-54 group. Another huge surprise... :-) On the other hand Craig and I are kilo novices and not really suited for it. Both of us did it mostly because we could and because it sounded "fun". I also had the alterior motive of trying to snag a few Best All Around (BAR) points with the hope that it would make a difference later in the week. It turns out that we both had pretty good rides (for roadies at least!) I rode a 1:13.2 and Craig was something like .1 seconds behind. That was good enough to put me into 4th where the winning time was a low 1:12. Unfortunately for Craig, the 40-44 group was FAST. Bobby Walthour won in a 1:08! That is a very fast time at Hellyer!

Afterwords, we all had "the hack", hence the blog title. Everywhere you walked in the infield it sounded like you were surrounded by a bunch of hard core smokers! I've done many a brutally hard road race or long training ride and they hurt a lot. But these short track events are a whole different level of hurt! Ouch...

2008 World MTB Championships

My most important race of every season took place this past Friday in the French Alps, the Master’s World Mountain Biking Championship. I’ve taken a bit of time to describe my preparation and the blow-by-blow of the race. As a forewarning, it is rather lengthy and I’m sure not something of whose length my good friend Mick Hellman would approve or probably have the patience to read. That said, I purposefully provide the detail perhaps to help our juniors see into the mind of someone competing in his tenth World Mountain Biking Championship.

I’ll call this story, “Eat from the other guy’s plate”.

I got to Pra Loup 13 days before the race, just the right amount of time to adapt to both the jetlag associated with 6,000 miles, 9 hours time difference and the slightly more than 5,000 feet of elevation at the start line. Arriving on August 17th in Nice came with the only problem I couldn't overcome on the trip, my bikes didn't make the connecting flight from Heathrow and wouldn't show up in Pra Loup for two days. It forced me to rent a road bike in a nearby bike shop the day after I arrived and put two 4 hour days indoors on the trainer instead of the trails of the race course. And oh yes, it broke my streak of 6 years and 7 months of consecutive days on the bike without
a day off. Oh well, I knew the streak would end some day. I feel lucky it didn't end because of illness or injury.

The accommodations at the ski resort worked well with plenty of room for me and my friend Cees Beers, who came down from Holland to help me with all things mechanical, training advice and friendship. As usual, I brought all my food with me from home to provide appropriate and controlled nutrition for the entire stay with exception of the daily trip to the local market for fresh broccoli and bananas.

I also brought two identically set up bikes, one for training and one for the race. Redundancy for any broken part is essential in my book when it comes to leaving no stone unturned for my biggest race of the season.

This year I decided to try something different in preparing my body for race day, very serious tapering in a way I'd never done before. No racing for the two and a half weeks leading up to race day and very easy days on the bike with the exception of 2 good hard laps (about 54 minutes) of the race course five days before the race. I also cut my hours on the bike back to about half my total normal for the four days immediately preceding the race. So training days leading up to the race were really about memorizing the race course like the back of my hand, deciding on every line I was going to ride in the race and trying to stay upright while doing it. I wore my crash pads for every pedal stroke I took on every training ride. I hit the ground twice in the days leading up to the race and my pads saved me from having to deal with injury recovery. The other significant change was racing five pounds lighter than I had ever raced before. At the start line of this year's race I weighed about 137 pounds (62.5 kilos and about 4 to 5% body fat) versus the 142 to 143 pounds I weighed at last year's race.

So with nutrition, equipment and physical preparation covered, it was also necessary to develop a race strategy. This had been going on in my head since the moment I got off the bike a year earlier in Pra Loup, finishing a somewhat disappointing third at the 2007 Worlds. I had been soundly beaten by a Swiss (who wouldn't do this year's race) and an Italian named Roberto Viviani, silver medalist in 2007, where he finished 3 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of me. A very bad start last year (not getting clipped into the pedals fast enough coupled with a serious elbow from a fellow racer in the first 50 meters nearly stopping me cold) left me 45 seconds off the front 5 minutes into the race and in 20th place going into the first single track, putting me on my back foot early. This all coupled with an over-the-bars crash two thirds into the race sealed my fate last year, all the things I was going to take all measures to prevent this year.

Of course my most serious threat to victory was going to be Janes Silvano, a six-time mountain biking world champion and a two-time road world champion. I later found out that Janes has won 41 Italian National Cycling Championships, including mountain biking, road, time trial, track and cyclo-cross titles.

As fate would have it, I ran into Janes and his wife Christina at registration two days before the race. We exchanged a hug and said hello. He speaks little English and I speak even less Italian but he managed to let me know that his stomach problems during last year's race, that allowed me to beat him in a race for the first time ever, weren't going to happen this year and that he was very serious about winning his 7th World Mountain Biking Championship. He also told me that he had just won another Italian National Mountain Biking Championship, beating Roberto Viviani by more than 5 minutes. So it was now obvious to me whose wheel I had to hold.

Race day arrived with glorious sunshine and perfect racing conditions for me. I was now going to see if my altered approach to race preparation was going to work. I warmed up indoors with a good 40 minutes on the trainer with 2 hard five minute intervals. I then put my racing kit on and jumped on the race course to get another half hour of warm up while also getting a last minute feel for the dirt. Cees would meet me at the start line to take my warm up clothes then head off to the tech zone to support me. It was great having him there.

As last year's bronze medalist I got a call to the front line, very important for my head. I was focused on two things; a perfect clip in, and knowing exactly where Janes was. The start gun went off, and, as usual, all hell broke loose. I clipped in on the first pedal stroke. Perfect! Viviani was off like a shot putting a quick 50 meters on the pack. I wasn't concerned with him, where was Silvano? He came by me in a blur but I jumped on his wheel just as we hit the steepest part of the first climb. It was now me, Silvano and Viviani off the front and, as far as I could tell, it was now about in which order the three of us would finish.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was holding Janes' wheel on the climb. The last and only time I managed to hold his wheel was three years ago at the Sun Peaks, British Columbia World's. I was with him at the top of that first climb too but he gapped me on the following descent that year and the next time I saw him that day was after the finish where he beat me by 2 minutes and 43 seconds. I wasn't going to let that happen again this year.

We hit the course's only serious descent, about 600 feet to the base of the course over the next one and a half kilometers. It was a bit dusty so I stayed about 15 to 20 yards behind Janes so I could see the lines. At the bottom we were a good 30 seconds behind Viviani but I assumed Silvano knew what he was doing so it didn't really matter. The next 4 1/2 kilometers to the start finish were short climbs and traverses with one quick half kilometer fire road descent that dropped 200 feet. About two kilometers from the start/finish was a kilometer of serious technical climbing with mud, rocks and roots.

I was 10 bike lengths behind Janes as we started this part of the course and quickly got to his wheel. I remembered a little saying Cees said they used in Holland before the race, 'eat from the other guy's plate', so I stayed on Silvano's wheel although I found it easy to do and had to fight the temptation to attack. Janes kept looking over his shoulder to see where I was and I thought he looked a little on-the-edge. As we hit the twisty single track before the steep climb he didn't look smooth and seemed to be fighting it a bit. As we came out of the single track and approached the climb I just couldn't resist it any more and I let my nature take over, I lost the discipline of Cees' advice. I jumped by him and hit it hard. Once out of the technical stuff we did a 180 onto the fire road home, a very gentle climb that culminated in a switchback and 40 yards of straight up, loose gravel that took a lot of energy and balance to navigate.

As we started onto this fire road, I looked back and he was about 5 yards off my wheel. I gunned it thinking I had him on the rivet. Two minutes later I looked back and he was glued to my wheel. It was then I noticed the gentle breeze blowing in my face. Uh oh, a head wind. A thought crept into my mind; he was ‘eating from my plate’. We were just about to hit the switchback-straight-up-climb and I was on the rivet. Suddenly Janes jumped by me and exploded up the climb. I couldn't respond and 500 meters later, at the start of the second lap, he had 10 seconds on me.

It was time to dig deep, find some strength and fight to get back. I could see him slowly extending the gap and felt powerless to change it. By the time we finished lap two the gap was 45 seconds. What to do now? The answer was easy, put my head down and bury myself.

At the bottom of the long descent on lap 3 and into the tech zone there was Cees, but for some reason he was very excited and screaming at me but I couldn't make out his words. As I turned to start the long climb home I could now see why he was excited. Viviani had cracked and he was 50 yards in front of me. I drilled it and within a kilometer I was by him. But where was Silvano?

I got my answer about 2 minutes later as I could hear the fans ringing cow bells and beating drums at the top of one steep climb about 3 kilometers from the finish and I was a good 50 seconds to a minute from that point. They were screaming for Silvano. It was never-give-up time! You never know what can happen in a race, a mechanical, some cramping, a crash. So I gave all I had to the finish but, as I topped the switchback climb 500 meters from the finish, I could hear the announcer speaking French proclaiming the new world champion. So it was silver for me and gold for Janes.

He was 60 seconds faster than me today and had out-smarted me to get it. Close but no rainbow stripes this year!

At the awards ceremony later in the day, Janes and I had a fun chat and he said he needed to be tactical today to beat me, something he never needed to do before in the seven prior World Championships against me. He said it wasn't about whose legs were stronger, but who made the right move at the right time, something I seldom think of in a mountain bike race. One thing is for sure though, the next time we square off (probably at World's next year), I'll remember what happened today and try to eat from his plate.

Nationals

Right from the beginning, the road race was extremely fast. I was spun out for nearly the entire race and big ringing it even on the uphills. There weren’t many inclines which made the race very boring. It was impossible to drop people. Charlie and I had decided that he would help me in the criterium and I would help him in the road race. Well, I didn’t feel too hot from yesterday’s time trial so the crit was basically a disaster. I was caught behind many crashes and frankly was not feeling good. I was happy to get some rest and recover for the road race. I did exactly that and the day before the road race, I was feeling extremely good. When I got to the start line of the road race I was so happy for the race to start I could barely contain myself. I was feeling really good. During the race I was following Nathan Brown for the first half and almost got into the break with Nick Bax that stuck until the end. After the frustration of trying to get into a break, I decided it was time to talk to Charlie and see if he needed anything. He told me that when a chase group gets back that I should counter. I did exactly that. Unfortunately for some reason, I had a tremendous pain in my back and quickly fell back the pack. I was barely hanging on. It was the most frustrating thing in the world because my legs were feeling amazing but my back was preventing me from pedaling. Anytime my back did feel ok for a minute, I would immediately cherish the moment and attack the field. One of the times I attacked I got into a chase group of three that stuck for a while but eventually got caught. In the end, I completed most of the road race and was a very frustrated person. It was probably the most angry I’ve been in a long time. So much work for so many months for such a little result.

I am going to get a bike fit and strengthen my core and back muscles. I do not want anything like that to happen ever again.

Aside from all the negativity, I had a good experience at nationals. It was fun to learn how to race in a new age group. A much different experience from the last year. You do not even need to know how to shift because you are always in your biggest gear. That’s a plus. So in a way, it’s easier. But it’s also harder because you are in your biggest gear the whole time! It’s a funny situation.

Congratulations to the whole team for such great rides. You guys did an amazing job. Next year is going to be so much fun with all of us in the 17/18’s.

Thank you to Billy for checking our equipment and helping us warm up for our races. It made it feel like a pro team which was a fun experience.

Also, thank you Mick for letting me use your time trial bike. It was super fast!

Thanks for reading.

-Edan

National Road Race 13-14

On Friday we had the National Road Race. I was a very hilly course. Everything was either up or down. The only bad thing about it was that we only did 15 miles. The group stayed mostly together for the entire race. On the last lap going downhill around 2.5 km out John Funk attacked, but he was chased down. I was in the top 5 going into the 180˚ turn 1 km out. From the turn it is straight and around a 3 % grade. I battled some kids for John Funk's wheel. We were around 30th in the pack. There were 2 crashes on John's wheel. He was moving up on the right side of the back but a kid swerved and ran into him. but both of them stayed up. He pulled me up to around 10th but then there were people in-front of him. Then I sprinted from 150m. But 4 people had already started their sprints and I couldn't catch up to them and I finished 5th.

National Crit 13-14

Last Thursday was the National Crit. In was in Angels' Stadium parking lot. On the internet the course didn't look good because there were few turns for the amount of straights there were. When I started racing I realized that the course was great. The course was big but for the first half there was a tail wind and then there was a 180˚ turn which went under the giant A in the parking lot. When the group finished the turn you went right into a headwind from 400m out.

We did seven laps. I was in a break of 3 with 3 laps to go but was caught. John Funk was the strongest. He had just won the TT the day before and 2 years ago won all 3 events. He attacked with a lap to go but was caught. at that point in the race I was in the top 10 but the pack swarmed us. I was in 30th. I tried to move up the last lap and caught the front by taking the inside through the 180˚ turn. I got in the group with 400m to go. The group started to sprint. I followed wheels but when I started my sprint the guys were going too fast and I finished 7th.

Daniel Tisdell rocking out a second place at the scorching hot Junior National 15-16 road race- Nice one!!

Tour of Idaho

Last weekend I went to the Tour of Idaho in Boise. The first race was a circuit race the length of a crit but for some reason they didn't give free laps. I wanted to save my energy for that night when we had a hill TT. In the circuit race I stayed in the pack and saved my energy. With two laps to go Casey William attacked. My main competition, Jackson, Long, chased him down. Casey was caught with 1 lap to go but does mostly mountain biking and didn't know he was caught. He pulled for the next half lap until another rider attacked. I got on Jackson's wheel and he started his sprint even though we were still 350m out. I stayed on his wheel through the last turn and then sprinted at 200m. I won by 3 bikes lengths. There were no time bonuses and they gave us all pack time. This race is awesome because the leader gets a yellow jersey to keep.

That night we had a 5k hill TT. I started out a little to strong and slowed in the middle but finished fast. I finished 23 seconds of Jackson who won and 2 seconds off Travis Monroe.

On Sunday we had a crit. The first thing I did when I got there was to find out who Travis Monroe was. I knew I needed to attack him and get 2 seconds on him. We had a 40 min race. I attacked at least every other lap. I had two attacks that stuck for a while. One of them I sat on Jackson's wheel while he sprinted for a prime and right when he slowed down I attacked. I stayed away for half a lap. Another time Casey attacked and Jackson chased him and then I attacked. That time I stayed away for a lap. Through all my attacks Travis helped pull Jackson up to me. I talked to them after the race but they weren't working together. I think Travis's plan was to race for second. With 8 laps to go I knew I couldn't get 23 seconds on Jackson and got him to attack with me but when had a gap he didn't pull through. For the last two laps Travis was just looking at me. I slowed down to get on his wheel to jump him but he slowed down also. With half a lap to go we were both 10m  off the back of the pack. We were coming up to the last turn which was 400m from the finish. I attacked going into the turn on the outside. There was only a few inches between my handlebars and the pack and a few inches between my wheel and the curb. When I was equal with the pack I yelled right so the field would swarm behind me closing the way for Travis. The group sped up into the turn and Travis tried to take the inside. He was going to fast on the inside through the turn and had to slow down almost locking up. I led the rest of the way and won. There were definitely some gap between riders and I think I got a little more than a second on Travis but the official gave everyone pack time. I was confused about making it pack time because we had timing chips and it wasn't any extra work, but who cares I had fun and won 2 out of the 3 stages!

Stage race in Belgium

After Wednesday’s race, we had three days to get ready for our 2.17 ranked race and this one was really tough for me. It was three days that separated the good from the best. The first stage was 63 kilometers had KOM, sprint, best young rider, and the yellow jerseys which seems really cool to me. Unfortunatly, we didn’t have anybody finish where we wanted them to. Lawson Craddock crashed after the first lap, but Alex Battles-Wood and Anders Newberry were on the front following and making a few of the attacks. Joel sat in the pack and placed second in the team just behind Alex. Good news was that we had three guys in contention for the overall jersey. Peter got dropped about 2/5 of the way through the race, and I got dropped half way through the race and after the race, Peter and I figured out that if you are in like the top 15 guys in the group you won’t get dropped and we tried that on the second day. Our average speed was 32mph!!
The next day was much better than our first day because we all learned a lot yesterday. This course was challenging because right after the finish there was a hill climb for the KOM and this made the course so challenging and to make it more, right after that there was a nasty cross-wind and no matter where you are, you would get guttered and have no where to go. Just like the first race we had the same guys on the front, except this time Peter was on the front in the beginning and I was right behind him. Joel hung out in the group again and made it to the line with the group. On the last lap, on the climb, I got dropped, but once I got back to the cars I started moving back up, but still didn’t catch the group, but I was in the first group after the field to come in. Despite a few crashes o the last lap, we only had one guy crash, but still finished the race and still got the same time as the group because of the 3 km rule. By the end of the second day, we still have three guys in contention for the yellow jersey for the last day!
On the last day, the course had a lot of turns and that made the pace slow down. In the beginning of the race, we had Anders and Lawson in a break for the whole race except the last lap and Lawson was done for the day, but for Anders, he was still in contention for the yellow jersey and was still able to pull off a 23rd place. Joel was consistent and was able to get through all the crashes on the last lap and finish in the group. Alex tried to make things happen, but he almost got caught with another team something that he did during the race, luckily our coach, Tim was right there to back him up. For Peter and me, we were at the front the whole race until the last lap. During the last lap with 2km to go, all of a sudden the fast pace to the line stopped and I had the guy on my left sliding over and I started moving over and the next second I am in the air and I flipped and landed on my helmet and peter was right behind me and he was in the crash too. I was so frustrated after the race because I was sitting perfect for the sprint but I got over it and it is part of racing.
Today we went to a nearby track and had some fun on it and we also visited Brugge, which is an old famous place for visitors. This stage race taught us a lot of mental and physical things in races and we will share and use them with our team so we can a better team. Just so you guys know, this stage race was the one race that we can call ourselves as the National Team which is really cool! 6 more days!

James

Week 2 in Belgium

The morning of a race day is always a little tense in the house. Whether it is just us Nieuwelingen or the Espoirs, anyone could predict what is coming later that day from the tension. We were able to sleep in, especially compared to a typical race morning in the US where we would get up around 5:30 AM. By the time we finished breakfast in the crowded dining area it was almost 10:30 and it was time for us to get ready for our morning spin. Since we weren’t going to be riding very long and the weather didn’t look very promising, the coaches decided we would stay inside for the morning ride. Everyone set up a trainer in the cold musky garage and hopped on their bikes. Forty five minutes later everyone was finished with their ride and made sure that their bike was in working condition.

For this race Yogi came along to help out and translate as needed. He and his father packed the car with our bikes, all the race food and the water. After a short 30 minute drive, Yogi said we were near the race course. We started seeing course marshals and course markers, but we didn’t know the location of inscription or the start / finish line. Yogi spoke to a few course marshals and thought he knew where everything was. We parked and started walking to where we thought inscription was located. Sadly, it was not where the marshal had told us, so we began to walk further and further from the car. Eventually we found the bar that inscription was in and got in line. When we got to the front of the line the race promoters and the officials asked to see our race permission but Yogi did not have it with him. He ran back to the car to grab the form then rode back to the bar. By the time we made it back to the car with our numbers we had less than 30 minutes to get ready. Everyone got dressed and headed towards the start.

We began to line up, trying to get spots near the front. A few of us succeeded, until the promoter approached us and told us that he needed to see our licenses again. I rode down to our coach and made sure that he had the licenses with him when he walked up to the start. After that was resolved, all the US riders were at the back of the pack for the start. As the whistle blew, we knew that we needed to get to the front soon. The course started out with a fairly fast straight downhill, went into a flatter section, turned up a really windy hill, flattened out, went over about 200m of cobbles and headed back down the hill.

The first lap was pretty slow and we were able to get to the front by the start of the flat section. A few weak attacks went off but they were brought back easily. This continued for another half lap when the pace began to stabilize, but as the pack came through the start / finish area I saw one of my teammates standing on the side of the road. After getting a good look, I saw that Peter had flatted. Each time up the hill riders were strung along the gutter preventing the rider behind them from getting any draft. On the second lap, Lawson got off the front with one other rider by sprinting hard out of a particularly slow corner. On the third lap Lawson was out of sight and I was riding at the front trying to find someone to bridge up to him with. As we started up the hill the third time I was sitting in the second row of riders when a pretty strong rider started to attack. I saw him winding up so I jumped on his wheel. Going up the hill it was clear to me that he was significantly stronger than me. We made it up to Lawson pretty quickly and lost sight of the pack within a few minutes. A few more riders joined us over the next lap until we were seven riders strong. Unfortunately, the break was very dysfunctional; it was almost as if the other riders didn’t want the break to succeed. At any given point there were at least 2 riders not taking pulls, just sitting at the back. There was also a surprising amount of yelling and shouting, it seemed they were always yelling at each other, at Lawson, or at me.

With 4 laps to go I began to have difficulty staying with the group. The lack of protection from the wind and the disorganization of the group made it hard to just sit in. On the downhill, just after seeing 3 laps to go, I was dropped. I chased for an entire lap, but the gap between the break and me kept growing. I sat up for a bit and saw the pack that had dwindled in numbers come up on me. I jumped into the front of the pack but going up the hill that time I could not keep up with the hard chase pace. I started going further and further back when I saw James with another rider. I tried to stay with him, but yet again I got dropped. A few minutes later I also saw Lawson coming backwards and realized he too had been dropped. We came across the line expecting one lap to go but instead were flagged off the course. After the race when we turned in out numbers they gave us our placing. It turned out that I got 26^th, Lawson got 27^th and James held on for 21^st. I was very surprised by this; the field of 75 guys, all who seemed very strong, shrank to less than 18 guys by the end of the race.

After the race I found the rest of the team and heard that Anders had bridged up to the breakaway in the last lap and took 7^th in the sprint. Alex B-W, who spent most of the race blocking for Lawson and me, broke his rear shifter and then flatted out of the race with three laps to go. After cleaning up and getting some food, we packed up and began the journey home, stopping briefly at a section of cobbles that was being renovated for next years Tour of Flanders. It was a really hard race but I felt good about being in the break for as long as I was; this was the hardest race I've done all year and the course had a lot of challenges that we don't face in the States.

The first few days in Belgium

James and I began our trip to Belgium early Monday morning at SFO. After catching our relatively short flight to Minneapolis, we almost had to run to our next flight. We arrived at the gate just after they started boarding the main cabin and hopped in line. About an hour later we were airborne and headed for Amsterdam where we would meet the rest of the team, which included Lawson Craddock, Alex Battles-Wood, Peter Taylor, Anders Newbury, and our coach Tim Redus. After a few hours in Amsterdam and a delayed flight, we took off for the final leg of our journey. This time our flight time was significantly shorter than our taxi time; we spent about 20 minutes in the air after driving around on the tarmac for close to an hour. We finally got our bags and began our drive to the house in Izegem.

After a quick equipment check we were off on the first ride of the trip. We were lead by the fearless Yogi, son of Erly who helped last year and will be working with us again this year. The ride started out great, some of the guys got their first ever taste of cobbles. However, our ride ended with a bit of a fright; our group began to go around a parked truck as another truck came speeding by us in the other direction. Yogi made it through all right but the 6 of us began to ride into each other as Anders slammed on his brakes. We checked our bikes and headed home to call it a day.

The next morning we were allowed to sleep in as most of us had only a few hours of sleep in the past 30 hours. Our first race was that day so we took it easy in the morning. Everyone hopped on their bikes just to make sure everything was setup correctly. I checked my power meter setup – fortunately, it made the cross Atlantic flight just fine.

Our race was further away from the house than most of our races will be, so the coaches decided we would drive. After inscription (similar to registration, but it always takes place in a smoky bar and is much faster) and explaining the European rules for pinning numbers on to my teammates, we went to the line to wait for our start with the other 45 guys that we would be racing against. The race started out pretty quick compared to most races in America but settled into a reasonable pace for a race in Europe, about 25 mph. Just like last year, the group slowed to 10 km/hr into every corner and then sprinted out of the corner back to race speed. This, the easy gears, and the long races make for very difficult races. Our race was a total of 63 km and consisted of 12 laps each with a prime. We started on the main street in a small town, turned out towards the country onto roads narrower than any roads at home then came back on the main street into town for the finish. Coming into the finish was slightly downhill which made it particularly hard for us Americans because many of us were not used to the small gears of 52-16.

Alex, Anders, Lawson, and I started the race at the front and got a good sense for the racing. Nothing seemed to be getting away in terms of breakaways or solo attacks, so I decided to move back in the pack and save some energy. I was able to take advantage of the slow cornering and stay near the front easily enough. The last few laps started to speed up a bit but nothing particularly challenging. The last corner was about 700 m from the line and I was sitting in the top 15 coming into the last corner. The group began to get a bit squirrelly after the last turn and there were riders on both sides of me. As I began to move to the left of the group to setup for my sprint, the group started shifting to the right side of the road. The two riders in front of me slowed as I continued to move to the left when suddenly my front wheel was hit. With the road slick from the heavy sprinkling and the sketch group, I was unable to stay up. Sliding along the pavement with less than 300m to go I was angry that I didn’t get to finish my race with the pack. I rolled across the line after fixing my brakes for a disappointing end to a great race. The rest of the Americans came into with the finish with the field, including James who place 26^th. The first race back was a great learning opportunity and I look forward to learning more in the coming weeks.

The next day was supposed to be a recovery ride, but when you get 6 new riders together everyone has to prove themselves. So our easy hour and a half ride became a 2 hour ride with a few sprints at the dozens of city signs, of which there are many more in Belgium than at home. The rest of the day we were on our own except for a short team meeting where we discussed the next days activities, which were going to include grabbing musettes, grabbing water bottles, riding behind cars, and moving up through a caravan. We had an amazing dinner to top off the night, complete with homemade pesto sauce and a seemingly bottomless pot of noodles.

I’m looking forward to our next race on Sunday which is part of a Belgian series, so field size is expected to be double that of our first race. The course also includes some of the short steep hills that are a part of the many classics that come through Belgium; sadly no cobbled climbs though. More from Belgium next week…

Masters Nationals (so far)

So far we've raced in the time trial and the road race. Rob, Billy, Craig and I did the TT. I rode the course on Saturday and Sunday while Craig and Billy arrived on Sunday and rode the course then. Rob also arrived on Sunday from Canadian road nationals (where he won a bronze medal in both the TT and the road race). Unfortunately his bikes did not arrive with him! He was able to drive the course to check it out and luckily his bikes arrived late that evening. The down side was that he was up until 1:30am putting his bike together.

The TT course was a nice course. It was very "lumpy" with a lot of small little rollers. Nothing really of significance except that there were a lot of them. Even still it was a pretty fast course.

Working on four hours of sleep Rob was able to manage a 7th place finish. Craig finished 7th in the 40-44 group which turned out to be the most competitive group of the day. Billy and I rounded the day out with two bronze medals in the 35-39 (Billy) and 45-49 (Me). As usual in my age group Thurlow slayed all and in fact was only beaten by the 30-34 winner and only by about 10-15 seconds.

On to the road race where Rob was off first.

The road course was a short loop of just under 5 miles. It had a number of small hills. The longest probably only took around 45 seconds to climb, but the course slowly wore on you. There were also a number of sharp, technical turns. This was very much a course where you wanted to ride near the front.

Rob rode a very aggressive race. In short order he was off the front with another rider. We arrived just before he came to the line with two to go. He had already been out there a while with another rider, but it didn't look good as his gap was only around 15 seconds. But, the next time around he had dropped the other rider and opened the gap up to 30 seconds. We were all very excited hoping that he could hold on for the win. Unfortunately though, the pack sped up and closed part of the gap towards the end. Close enough so that one rider was able to jump away and passed Rob 200 meters from the line. A tough way to not win a race!

Thursday was a busy day with the 35-39, 40-44, and 45-49 road race. The 35's were off first with Billy, Wyatt and Dean. Billy bridged up to the break that included last years winner with a few laps to go. In the end though he was unable to come around Paul Martin who won for the second year in a row. Billy finished second.

In the 40-44 race the break went off without Craig and he wasn't able to close the gap and finished in the pack.

In the 45-59 race Thurlow was again the rider to beat. He also had two strong team mates with him so it was going to be tough. About four laps into our ten lap race, the rain that had been threatening finally arrived. It was a light sprinkle, but enough to make the road wet. AND SLIPPERY. I watched a number of riders dive into wet corners only to slide out and crash. I have no idea what made them think that they could safely navigate those wet corners at that speed... As for myself, even being careful my back wheel was sliding all over the place. I didn't go down, but had a few exciting moments!

With about four to go Thurlow made his move and got away alone. We tried to close the gap, but with his team patrolling the front it wasn't meant to be. With less than two laps to go, and group of four meandered off the front. I was being marked by Thurlows team mates and chose to play a little game of chicken, hoping that somebody would speed things up to bring them back or at least close. When we got to the biggest hill on the course I was able to attack and with two other riders and get away clear, but unfortunately the gap had grown too large. Another attack on the last lap brought our group down to me and another rider who ended up beating me in the sprint for 6th.

I'm on my way home, but Wyatt, Billy and Dean will be racing in the criterium at Churchill Downs on Sunday. The criterium course is inside the horse racing track and there will be horse races that day with thousands of spectators. How cool is that?

Junior Point Series

On Sunday the Junior points series ended. It was made up of 8 races. Charlie and I won in our Categories. Alexander had a high chance of winning until I won at the Memorial Day Crit. On the final race up Mt. Diablo I finished  3rd and beat Alexander to win.

Napa Crit Ms 35+ Points Race

“I can’t admit to ever doing a points race crit..”
The format was 1 point for the winner of each lap, every third lap 3-2-1- points for the respective placing, and 20 points for lapping the field.
The plan was to win by getting into a break-away. Between Billy, Dean, Dylan, Scott, Wyatt, and me the odds favored Team Specialized Masters.
Straight away Dean went to the front and started competing with Andrew Barlow, of Nor Cal Velo, for points. During their battle Andrew went away solo. With Joel Robertson, we joined Andrew and formed the first break-away. Now, it was my turn to start amassing points. Joel crashed in the crazy “P” corner, and our break fizzled. After that, the real break finally surfaced: Billy and Brian Bosch. Two of the best all around masters racers. It was great sitting back in the field watching these two vie for points. They eventually lapped the field. Just prior to the lapping, Dylan broke away with Tim Granshaw and another great battle for points unfolded. At this point, Billy had locked up the win with points, and the race was for third place. When all was said and done: 1st – Billy Innes, 2nd – Brian Bosch, 3rd – Dylan Casey, 4th – Tim Granshaw, 5th – unknown winemaker who didn’t want his wine prize , 6th – Andrew Barlow, 7th – Me, and 8th – Dean LaBerge

Weather note: my SRM read 109F at the start line.

Just before our points crit, we watch James LaBerge, Team Specialized Junior , battle it out in the senior 3s crit for a 7th place finish. That boy can sprint... Great effort James!

Putah Creek Smack Down

Craig and I went to the Davis Time Trial, aka Putah Creek Smack Down, aka PCSD on Wednesday. Due to traffic concerns the course has been moved from the course they have been using for over 20 years on, wait for it.... Putah Creek Road. They moved it to South Davis on a portion of the new Dunlap TT course. The new course is on Bulkey Road and goes straight south for 5 miles and then returns. Dead flat.

Anyway, since it was a new course I reminded Craig that whoever won would hold the course record. For two weeks at least... So, besides the traditional glory that goes with winning the PCSD we had the opportunity to go down in history as a course record holder. Truely a momentus afternoon.

I went off a few minutes before Craig. The outbound leg was into a head wind. I tried to walk that fine line between going to hard and blowing up and going too easy. Probably not terribly successfully as we'll soon see, but I was going pretty good. The return leg was glorious. I averaged over 30mph on the way back and finished in 21:42. The best time by far at that point. A few minutes later Craig finished and gave me the bad news. He rode 21:00. I swear to God that no matter how fast or slow I go out here I ALWAYS place 2nd. Anyway, that was a pretty ripping ride considering the wind, so hats off to Craig.

Afterwards we rode around for a bit to cool down. When I got back to my car and took off my helmet I felt a sharp pain in my forehead. Turns out a bee was inside my aero helmet. Don't ask how it got there I have no idea. When I took the helmet off he stung me. As you can see below, I'm alergic to bees... On the other hand it has taken away a few wrinkles. :-)

IC3

In the IC3 race last weekend I out sprinted my competition and won the 13-14s. Then I raced the pro 1,2,3 race.  There were 140 racer. I stayed with them until the last lap. The average speed was 29.4 mph. Everyone has always told me to stay in the front. I stayed in the top 50. In the 5th lap I was following wheels and found myself in a short breakaway. I took a quick rotational and found the closest wheel to get a draft. There were 5 laps were I did very little work because I was positioned correctly then the next 5 laps I took alot of wind and used alot of energy. The race was very smooth. I had fun racing with them.

Memorial Day Crit 13-14

13-14 crit

This race was a junior point series race. I needed to beat Alexander Freund who rides for Davis and on the red bike in the picture. Chris and I tried to attack and get away from him. He kept chasing us down. There was a crash with 2 laps to go and they stopped the race. I told all the kids just to attack him. I think he figured what we were doing after the second to last lap. On the last lap he pulled the entire way. I stayed on his wheel. He almost dropped me on the back straight. I took the last turn wide and sprinted. I won by about a bike's length. This was the first race that I won in a field sprint.

Iron Horse Classic

Durango, Colorado

Over last weekend I was in Durango, Colorado to visit my Uncle and racing. On Saturday we  were going to go over two 11,000 foot passes. Over night it snowed 10 inches on the passes and they canceled the race.

The Crit was on Sunday. It was an 8 corner course with a short power climb. From the gun a 5280 rider attacked. I chased him down. He attacked me for the next few laps, but I stayed with him. I attacked him for a prime, but was caught after it. Then he pull the rest of the race. With around 400m to go I attacked before the downhill. I had a small gap on the decent and sprinted to the finish. I won. 

After the race I was breathing hard. I think it was from the lack of oxygen up there. It felt great to come back to California because the air is so thick.

In the Hood - Hood River Criterium

Since barring a mishap we had the GC sewn up the team plan was to launch Billy and Craig to go for the stage win. Since Craig was only 11 seconds out of the top 10, we were also hoping to move him up into 10th place. As an added bonus, my parents who have retired and moved to Oregon had made the trip to Hood River to watch the criterium.

The race started off agressively and in short order Billy was off the front with 45+ leader David Zimbleman and Rich Thurman. It had the makings of a successful break, but after a few prime sprints they stopped cooperating and were brought back. Craig made a number of attempts to get away but he was marked too closely.

With about 20 minutes to go they rang the bell for a $100 prime. I had good position and followed an attack by John Browning who was 4th on GC. I was unable to come around him for the cash but his accelleration had created a large gap and when he sat up I kept going. It was a low percentage move, but I figured maybe it would start something and I'd get some company or set up a counter by one of my team mates. What happened though was that every time somebody attacked or started a chase, my guys would follow the right wheels to discourage that chase. While I was going at a steady speed, the pack was alternating going faster than me and slower than me. But due to the efforts of the team, the net effect was that I got a 20 second gap and was able to hold it. My only thoughts were:

1. DON'T crash solo in the hair pin like a moron!
2. Keep it steady, don't dig too deep.
3. LABOR!
4. Did I mention don't crash in the hair pin?

In the end, I had the pleasure of winning in front of my parents due to the help of the best team that I could imagine being part of. I am truly thankful for their help and lucky to have them as friends and team mates.

In the end we won all four stages in the 35+ race with Rob and Billy winning the circuit race and the time trial respectively and 1st, 2nd, 5th and 11th on GC with myself, Rob, Wyatt and Craig. And we also had fabulous weather, which considering the past editions of this race was a welcome relief.

Already looking forward to next year...

In the Hood - Wy'East Road Race

This stage has been changed from last year due to the fact that one of the passes we would have climbed is covered with several feet of snow! It was shortened to around 70 miles, but still had 8000' of climbing. Early on was fairly uneventful until Billy flatted on a very fast, very long downhill. The worst place in the world to flat. I thought we had lost him for the day only 20 miles in. But Craig went back for him and brought him back. That was a great team effort and a big relief!

At miles 25 Craig followed Rich Thurman on the attack and went off on a big adventure. At about mile 50 he dropped Thurman and set off on his own. Meanwhile in the group I was sitting in like the princess that I am and getting an armchair ride through the stage. Mick and Billy did a ton of work keeping the tempo steady and controlling the field. The team made this tough stage almost seem easy. I can't thank them enough.

Unfortunately for Craig he got caught with about 5km to go. The end was strange. Since the race had been so steady we had a lot of guys left. On the final climb to the Mt. Hood Meadows ski area, 3rd place rider David Garcia set a lot of hard tempo. I wanted to have a go, but tried to be patient and bided my time until about 1.5km to go. At that point I attacked and was able to stay away for the win. Rob came in 2nd with Wyatt finishing 7th and Mick in 10th. Craig rolled in with Billy and after all that work he was a little tired. I can't imagine why. :-)



Here's a team photo before the stage with our destination off in the distance behind us. Rob is MIA, out warming up.

In the Hood - TT stage

No official results yet but this is what we know right now.

Billy ripped the TT. 39:59 by his watch. If I had to guess, that would be the stage winner.

There were rumors of a sub 40' ride by Zimbelman in the 45+ group.

I rode 41:24 which should be enough to take the jersey. Sorry Rob...

Rob is comfortably in second place.

I had bad luck with cars and got caught behind two of them. It probably cost me 20 seconds or so. Still a long way of off Billy's time though.

Tomorrow will be epic. 8000' of climbing in 75 miles. There are 120" of snow on the ground at the Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort where we finish. Our plans to take a few runs after the stage were squashed when they closed the resort after last weekend. Obviously not due to lack of snow!

Jeannie Longo was late for her start by about a minute in the women's race and still finished 4th at 18 seconds. The UCI didn't like her bike setup even though it was okay in the prologue... Oh yeah, and she's 51. I'm just sayin'...

Mt Hood Cycling Classic 2008 - Cooper Spur Road Race

we're here, it's hot, rob won his first masters 35+ race, davis is banking up-grade point, billy has taken a liking to tea, kevin didn't burn any matches, wyatt beat me in the final sprint, and mick is focused on the TT.

senior 3s results and GC
7th Davis Bentley (only 23 seconds off the lead)

master results and GC
1st Rob Anderson (first masters 35+ win)
2nd Kevin Metcalfe
5th Wyatt Weisel
8th Craig Roemer
18th Billy Innes
21st Mick Hellman

more to follow...

the boys in hood

Berkeley Hills Road Race

At Berkeley Hills Road Race the 13-14s were put in the 15-16s pack. As 13-14s  we only raced one lap while the 15-16s raced 2. On the second bear the older kids went hard. I stay with them until near the top. I got into a chase group of around 6 riders. three on them were 13-14s. I knew from past experience that the final climb was very long. At the bottom of the climb one of the kids attacked. I kept a steady pace while the other kid attacked also. Now the two of them were up the road but one of them was fading. I caught him and the other one. then I went a few mph faster and got a gap. I caught Daniel's group of 15-16s near the finish and won out of my age group.

Course de la Paix Junior, Stages 1,2,3a

I left last Saturday from SFO with a travel itinerary like this: ten hours on a plane, 7 hours in Heathrow airport, another hour flight to Brussels, a 45 minute drive, a five hours night's sleep, quick breakfast, and then 10 hours in the car from the National Team house in Izegem, BE, to Litomerice, CZ. Factor in the nine hours sleep on Monday night, and thats just shy of 40 hours of doing absolutely nothing. We just spun for 1.5-2 hours on Tuesday, in preparation for the 95.5 km stage 1 that started on Wednesday. Six riders, Larry Warbasse, Jacob Rathe, Danny Finneran, Ryan Zupko, Rob Bush, and me, are representing the US and A in the "Peace Race", the second of five Nation's Cup races (junior equivalent to the pro-tour). Wednesday's stage was three laps, each with a 3km climb, for a total of 95.5km. I was very nervous before the start, as is natural when 15 countries send their top riders to this race. The first time up the climb was fast as the eventual winning break took off. I had no pop in my legs and suffered badly up the first time. By the time we hit the climb the second time, I just couldn't spin my legs any faster, and the constant surges in the field were too much for me to handle. I fell off the back with five other riders (three of them from the USA. yikes) and finished 5th from last in an unimpressive 86th place. Larry and Jake finished well in 18th and 26th respectively.
Stage 2 was a point to point race that was supposed to be 88.5 km, but was lengthened to around 97 km (no one knows why). The profile was relatively flat with a small climb at about 60km and a 1km drag up to the finish with a gradient of 10%. Since I was already way out of the general classification, my job was to be active on the front and try to get into an early break. For the first 10-20km, we averaged about 48km/h and I found myself in a couple of small moves, none of which stuck. A small group rolled off the front at about 45 km, but was caught at the bottom of the hill. On the climb, a sprint for the mountain points resulted in an 8 man break that built up a large lead pretty quickly. I followed some attacks in an attempt to bridge up to the group, but once again nothing stuck. The German Team went to the front with 10km to go and reeled in the break, so it turned into a large field sprint up the last climb. I finished safely in the bunch in 54th place, with Larry finishing 15th, Danny in 51st, Ryan in about 60th, and Jake a little farther back. Both Rob and Jake crashed, with Rob's coming in the last km, so he finished way behind, but was awarded to same time as the winner.
Day 3 has a TT in the morning and 97km stage in the afternoon. I am currently writing this post TT and pre-road race, so we don't have TT results yet, but I think I did a pretty good ride. My legs still don't feel 100%, but they're getting there. More to come once I have results from the end of today.

Cat's Hill 13-14 Win

The Course: For my age-group the course took around 2 and half minutes per lap. There is a climb every lap. For around 75m there is a 23% grade followed by a false flat. Next there is a short flat section and then the downhill. The finish is 150m after the last turn. About 1.4km each lap.

The Race Coaching: I was in the 13-14s and we only did 3 laps. I received some excellent coaching before the race from teammate Larry Nolan and from my coach, Clark Natwick. From Larry's experience with the race he told we that the first one into the last turn usually won the race. The plan was to attack every time up the hill until I had a gap on the field.

The Race: Alexader Freund from Davis attacked straight from the start. We caught up to him after the hill. On the second time up the hill an Above Category rider attacked. We caught him also at the top of the hill by the park. Throughout the race I never went further back than 3rd in the pack in order to avoid getting behind a slower rider on the hill. On the last lap another Above Category rider attacked near the base of the hill. He had a large gap. After the steep slope he had a 7m gap on the field which I was in. I chased him through the false flat and by the turn his gap was down to 5m. On the short flat section around the park I was going much faster than him. By the second to last turn the gap was down to 3m. I remembered what Larry said about being the first rider into the final turn. I went full blast down the hill and he veered right to avoid a bumpy section. I went straight over the bumps and passed him. I took the final turn fast and won the race. I thought they were on my wheel but didn't want to look back. It turns out that I had a 30m gap on the second place rider.

Some of my advantages:

I had Sram shifting which helped setting up for the turn into the Cat's Hill. The section before the hill is fast and riders need to shift quickly. With Sram I used the double tap system and shifted during the turn. This helped me not lose positions during the flats or on the slope.

On a hill like to Cat's Hill you know the difference between stiff bikes and whippy bikes. I used my Specialized SL2. The bike was solid under me as I went all out on the hill.

I had great coaching. If I wouldn't have received all the coaching from Larry and Clark I wouldn't have done as well. I went all out on the decent because Larry said that after the last turn it is too late to change your position.

Racing with Levi and Scott

Today I raced one of the grasshopper series event in prep for Mt. Hood. It was an epic 85 mile race with 8,000 ft. of climbing. In addition, 1/4 of it was off road. It was right up my alley. Levi, as well as Scott Nydam of BMC showed up. Once things got fast, only about 20 stayed with the lead group. Things split up even more, and the lead group became 5 riders, all cat 1's or pros. I was one of the riders struggling to catch that group. We hit a dirt descent, where I saw Scott on the side of the road, fixing a flat. I knew he would be coming up fast, very soon. Sure enough, I took a quick look back and saw him flying towards me. I knew I had to match his speed, then jump on. Once I latched on, I couldn't believe the speed he chased the group with. Also, I was shocked at his ability to maintain that speed. I gave it everything I had, just to hold on. It was the fastest I had ever gone to date. We actually caught the group, and there was Levi! I felt like a pro at that point, but it didn't last long. Another steep climb, and Levi and Scott were completely out of reach... maybe someday. Some hills were so steep, that a 39x27 wasn't even close to being the right gear. I finished 13th out of 80 and had a great day.

Jr. Wente Crit

On Saturday we had the Wente Road Race. On the flats near the end of the first lap of two, Joel had James and I counter-attack each other to wear down the group. Then Joel had the two of us pull the group up the lower slopes of the climb to set up Joel and Davis for attacks on the steep section of the climb. After Joel and Davis attacked I never saw the group again. We ended up finishing 3rd and 4th with Daniel taking 3rd and Joel taking 4th.


On Saturday I gave my race up for the team and on Sunday during the crit the team gave their race up for me by not attacking and waiting in the pack.


On Sunday in the 15-16 race we raced around 15 laps. On the sixth lap someone attacked on the finishing straight. We caught them half way around the course. Then Zac Wick, a 16 year old from Davis attacked on the left and I was on the right. I called "Left." No one covered the attack so I chased him down. I followed him for a lap then I looked back and saw that we had a large gap. I pulled through. We worked together for the rest of the race. He did about 80 percent of the work. The break stayed because we were the strongest team there and Davis was the second strongest. Both teams were following all the attacks from the peloton. Our gap continued to grow until they neutralized us with 4 laps to go. A rider crashed early in the race on one of the first laps and then later called the ambulance. This gave us a chance to get our energy back, which I much needed. When they stopped the race and we had a minute gap. When we started again we went hard from the gun and stayed away. I died on the last lap and he beat me in the sprint. I finished second.

Um.... Can we slow down a bit??

We had a good crew at Wente Brut today with Rob, Billy, Dylan, Mick, Craig, Steve, Wyatt, Jeff and myself. We decided that we would make sure to cover the early move to take the pressure off the team. When the group went on the first lap, Rob was our guy on the spot. He was part of a four man group that included last year's Wente RR winner, Chris Wire of Team San Jose, Brenon Daly from Team Spine, and Dan Bryant from Sierra Nevada. Their gap grew quickly and next thing we knew they had three minutes.

With two laps to go on the Flynn Road climb, Chris Phipps put in a hard effort from the bottom. Icouldn't follow him and rode a hard tempo at the front so that I could close him down when it flattened out. You've got to know what you can and can't do... Billy came by me and quickly closed on Chris. So, I gave it a bit more and was able to claw my way up to them by the finish line. That one hurt. A lot. Billy was looking as smooth as ever and kept the pressure on big time as we crossed over 580 through the false flat section. I knew I was in trouble because Billy looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll and Chris was talking away behind me. Finally I had to ask Billy to back off a bit so that I didn't pop. I didn't count how many times I had to ask him that, but it was more than one...

Coming up Flynn Road to get the bell we were getting close to Rob's foursome. The pace wasn't as bad for me this time, but Billy was still doing a ton of work. Finally on Patterson Pass we caught the break. Things were looking good, we had three guys out of seven. Rob and I monitored the group and made a series of attacks and counter attacks. None of them really got anywhere until Rob went again with about 4 miles to go. Brenon joined him and they got a promising gap. Dan Bryant drove on the front while the rest of us sat on. Rob and Brenon were doing well and kept their gap until we got to the hill. Again it was Chris Phipps who nailed it at the bottom. I jumped after him to cover for Billy as best I could. Luckily Billy was right there and came around me to get on Chris' wheel because I was done after about 10 pedal strokes. Chris and Billy rode away on the steep section. Chris knew that he had to get rid of Billy on the steep part or he was doomed. Billy had other ideas and stayed on the wheel and easily won the sprint. I tried to come around Dan Bryant for 3rd but ran out of gas and settled for 4th. Rob finished off his long adventure by placing 6th.

All in all, it was a good hard day of racing! And toasty warm too. FINALLY!

Sea Otter

Sea Otter: Day 1

The road race at sea otter was very hot and hard. I had no teammates so I had to do whatever I could to conserve as much energy as possible. We did 5 laps and each time up the climb more and more people got dropped. Luckily, I was not one of them. In fact, the first few times I was the one setting the grueling pace up the climb. After that I sat in to conserve energy for the finish. It was hard to conserve energy because it was so windy. But I did as best as I could. I felt fine towards the last climb and I was still with the lead group. So I was happy. I was climbing fine on the finishing climb and of course, I get a cramp in my right hamstring. I thought to myself “why is this happening? I ate enough and drank almost 4 big bottles during the race” so what could have gone wrong? I don’t know. After the race, I was really upset because I made sure to hydrate and feed myself so I purposely wouldn’t cramp up. I ended up finishing 13^th but the good news is that I was the 2^nd 17 year old; meaning that everybody who beat me was 18 except one kid. That was something positive to look at.

Sea Otter: Day 2

I felt much better at the circuit race. The pace up the climb was very hard each lap. I was able to stay with the lead group the whole race. I barely did any work to save energy for the finish. On the last riser before the finish on the last lap, a kid attacked and I went with him. We had a tiny gap and when he was a little tired I countered his attack and next thing I knew the whole group was on me. I made the mistake of going too early. And it cost me a spot on the podium. I ended up 7^th. And again I was the 2^nd 17 year old. I was happy.

Although my results are not the best, I am still satisfied for one very important reason. First of all I had fun at Sea Otter because that event is always so lively and has so much energy and diversity among cyclist and also my improvements. Compared to two years ago when I was at the bottom of the age group, I finished 14^th in the road race and 10^th in the circuit race. Two years later, at the bottom of the age group again I finished 13^th and 7^th. As you can see I improved which is something good to look at aside from getting the best results although next year I would very much like to have a team at this event as it is very tough to compete against such strong riders without a team.

High Octane Billy Powers Another Team Specialized Win at Laguna Seca – Sea Otter Classic Part 2

“OK guys, I’m starting to worry about this not winning thing...” This set the tone for our race strategy: Billy has to win. Our race was a 90 minute test around the 2.238 mile circuit of the Laguna Seca raceway. With the 11 turns, 230 feet of elevation gain per lap, and the infamous Monterey Bay winds this was not going to be an undemanding event.
On the first lap, during the climb up to the top of the corkscrew, two riders broke away. So early in the race their efforts seemed futile, so we let them go. Marcus Smith, member of our junior team, was on the course cheering for us. Around lap 5 or 6 he called out, “there’s a break more than one minute up the road, what are you guys thinking?” His tone of uncertainty ignited our fire and we picked up the pace. The next time around, we sent Billy away with four other riders. They eventually caught the original break. Sensing sucess, Billy strategically rode away from the others and wound up winning in grand style. He crossed the line solo and more than a minute ahead of second place.
How he fueled the furry: one cup of ordinary hotel coffee, one medium cup brewed starbucks coffee, and one freshly drawn espresso shot (courtesy of Rob Spear) minutes before the start of the race.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is obvious what Billy is saying, "I finally got this monkey off my back, and I got me a jersey to replace it". For many of our early season races, Billy has been quintessential in supporting the victories of other teammates. For him, Sea Otter was a well deserved victory. Cheers!



M45 podium (4th Paul Gossi - Reno; 2nd Rob Anderson TeamSpecializedRacing; 1st fomer teammate Wayne Stetina- Amgen; 3rd Larry Nolan TeamSpecializedRacing; 5th broken derailuer Cynergy rider)