2009 Team Specialized Racing

We are pleased to announce our team roster for the 2009 racing season. Overall, we have 10 juniors and 19 masters on Team Specialized Racing. We want to thank Specialized, Thomas Weisel Partners, Russel Hirsch, SRAM, CytoSport, Vermarc, Stanford Human Performance Lab and the Northern California Cycling Foundation for their continued generous support.

For the 2009 racing season we have added three juniors and one master. 2008 NCNCA 15-16 junior points series winner Peter Taylor (17) joins us from Tieni Duro; David Benkoski (16) moves over from AltoVelo and Alistair Eeckman (15) comes to us unattached. Chris D’Aluisio (46) joins us from the Morgan Stanley Specialized Team.

We will have four departures as well. A teammate for 20 years, Victor Copeland has deciding to retire from racing; Edan Levanton deciding to take his racing less seriously; and both Davis Bentley and Jeff Angermann deciding to focus more on Mountain Bike racing than road racing.

2009 Specialized Junior Cycling Team

Charlie Avis (18) Palo Alto, CA
David Benkoski (16) Menlo Park, CA
Alistair Eeckman (15) Berkeley, CA
Chris LaBerge (15) Napa, CA
James LaBerge (16) Napa, CA
Andrew Lanier (16) Gilroy, CA
Joel Shaffer (17) Los Altos Hills, CA
Marcus Smith (15) Pleasanton, CA
Peter Taylor (17) Walnut Creek, CA
Daniel Tisdell (17) San Jose, CA

2008 Specialized Masters Cycling Team

Rob Anderson (54) Mill Valley, CA
Mike Audley (47) Berkeley, CA
Ken Carpenter (45) Orinda, CA
Dylan Casey (38) Palo Alto, CA
Steve Cassani (43) Portola Valley, CA
Chris D’Aluisio (46) Corralitos, CA
Marco Hellman (48) Kentfield, CA
Billy Innes (38) Menlo Park, CA
Steve Johnson (59) Larkspur, Colorado
Dean LaBerge (39) Napa, CA
Mike McCarthy (41) Mill Valley, CA
Scott McKinley (41) Mill Valley, CA
Kevin Metcalfe (48) Pleasant Hill, CA
Leonard Harvey Nitz (53) Rocklin, CA
Larry Nolan (51) Fremont, CA
Craig Roemer (44) St. Helena, CA
Fred St. Goar (52) Menlo Park, CA
Thomas Weisel (68) San Francisco, CA
Wyatt Weisel (38) Menlo Park, CA

Competitive to the end (of the year)

The results are in and our Specialized Junior and Masters Racing Team did not win the USA Cycling "Club of the Year" award. We're okay with that because, like all great competitors, we're taking the time to learn from our experiences.

We thought we had a stellar 2008 for a team of 29 members. In addition to coaching and mentoring our juniors we help the sport grow through our Coaching (5 clinics and the western regional development camp), Mentoring (Early Birds), and Promoting (29 Tuesday nights of Track Racing and Training).

102 team wins including a stage in the Tour di'labitibi; 4 UCI Masters Track World Championships; 14 Masters Track Nationals Championships; Jr 13-14 and Jr 17-18 Series Points Champions; M35 NCNCA Best All Around Team; 18 NCNCA District Championships; Mt. Hood Stage wins and overall.

We're already gearing up for 2009, not only to continue to help the sport grow, to win races, but also to win the 2009 USA Cycling Club of the year award!

Merry Christmas

Masters Track Worlds - reflections

A 16 year old tradition of hanging medals and jerseys over the motel/ hotel lampshade.

I wanted to close out this world championship diary with a few additional thoughts.

While four world titles seems excessive please remember that I was shooting for a world record in the 2km pursuit. While I fell short of Ian Hallam's 2:18.371 record, training for that high mark proved to be the best thing I could do to prepare for worlds. Besides, I remember the battles that Kent Bostick, Ian Hallam and Danny Clark went through in 1999. Basically, I didn't know what the competition would be like but I chose to prepare for the 2km world record. I was also helped along when the 2007 sprint and scratch race champion pulled out of the competition.

I'd like to encourage track riders to dream big and try to attend nationals or worlds. Hopefully it will change your perspective of the local races in a good way. In some respects the competition is better at worlds than at nationals, but not in all events. That should give one hope that on any given day, in any given event, the odds can swing in your favor. In that regard, travelling to Australia is not cheap, although I used miles for both Aubrey and me to go, and I mention this because the mix of athletes changes year after year. For me, I had not been to masters track worlds in 3 years I was an unknown to some of my competition. The defending champion from the pursuit and points race did not show and the sprint champion dropped out after his 200m qualifier. Had they both showed the racing would have been completely different.

The Dunc Gray (Australia's first Olympic gold medalist) velodrome is a world class facility and the organizers/ volunteers/ supporters put on a world class event. We are lucky to have events and venues like this but it was the efforts of a lot of people that helped to make this event a success. Thank you!

Finally, I would like to express a special thank you to my wife Debbie for her neverending love, Dr. Peter Block for the massages and chiropractic care, Peter Bohl for the super motor pacing sessions, Alan Farian and Fred Chang at the Bicycle Garage, teammates Mike McCarthy and Harvey Nitz for their years of advice, and to the whole Specialized team for pushing us to new heights!

Day 6, points race = 1st

USA Sprinters (l to r and home track) Roger Hernandez (Ft. Lauderdale), Michael Paulin (Colorado Springs), Rich Voss (Colorado Springs), me (San Jose), Chip Berezny (Trexlertown), Mark Rodamaker (San Jose), Andrew LaCorte (Trexlertown), Anton Quist (Trexlertown) and Brian Abers (Portland)

Points Race write up- 60 laps, 6 sprints, first place with 17 points. Bernardo Figueroa (Colombia) in second with 15 points and Didier Ramet (France) with 9 points.

Sorry, no color commentary on this one, I believe there is a beer out there with my name on it!

Thank you to everyone that has written, called and prayed for me. What a week, what a season, what a way to celebrate my 50th!

Larry

Day 5- semi-finals and final match sprints = 1st

Team win #100 for 2008! How is it possible for a time trial frame that has been raced in the Tour de France to also be such a sweet match sprint frame? I’m not sure of all the possibilities, but the Specialized Transition helped me to win the individual pursuit, the scratch race and the match sprints.

I like this new sprint format! With a possible 8 to 12 rides in two days this tournament format is well suited for sprinters with endurance. I originally signed up for the sprints so that I would have a shot at the “Best All Around” competition, but I had so much fun that I just kept riding until I found myself in the gold medal round. Earlier this afternoon I faced Steven Darracott (Australia) and beat him in two rides. Steve Cronshaw (Great Britain) outsprinted David Wilmott (Australia) in three rides so Steve and I met in the finals. I won the first ride, the second ride but was relegated for an overly aggressive move and then won the third and final ride. David Wilmott scored the bronze.

A shake of thanks go out to Kenny and Annette Williams, Warren Geissert (long distance call); Rich Voss and all the other Americans that pushed, prodded and lifted me up for this one.

Oh, and I was drug tested too ;-)

Coming up: Day 6, a 60 lap points race! Lar

Day 5, sprints = into the semis

Joe and Sandy took a vacation to Australia and New Zealand.

The morning session match sprint quarter finals just ended. I did two rides and won both over Paul Jackson of Australia. As the top seed I face Steve Darracott (Australia) who bested Rich Voss (USA). Last years winner Steve Cronshaw (Great Britain) goes up against Dave Willmott (Australia) in the other semi-final rides.

More to come, Larry

Day 4, sprints = qualified

I know, poor lighting on this picture but these cute little Koala's live in the trees!

Shortest post yet... shortest day at the track (yay)

Match sprinting, round one of five is the flying 200m time trial and I qualified first with a time of 11.387

I had a nice nap... hey, I'm on vacation!

Match sprinting, round two of five is number one seeded rider (me) against number twelve seeded rider and I won in a three lap match sprint.

Moving on to tomorrow and the sprint tournament continues (quarter finals best two of three rides; semi finals best two of three rides, then the finals best two of three rides). Since I'm not really a sprinter I'll see how my energy levels are because Sunday is my absolute favorite event: the points race!

Cheers, Larry

Day 3, 7500m scratch race = 1st

This poster was at the Yagoona train station here in Sydney. I thought it was appropriate for tonight’s scratch race. There was a good amount of aggression in this fast and furious race.

Numbers wise there are fewer Americans at this year’s world championships. Four women and twenty two men from the USA, almost 10% of the 278 riders from twenty two different countries.

Tonight the Americans beat the odds and won four of the scratch races. Mark Rodamaker (Alto Velo/CA) won the 60-64 category, Chip Brezny (Bike Line/PA) won the 55-59 category, Bert Glennon (BMG/ CA) won the 44-49 category, and while you were sleeping back home I won the 50-54 scratch race.

At 30 laps on a 250m track this one goes quickly. The 2008 USA criterium champion Aubrey Gordon (Squiggles/ NY) went up to Steven Darrmott (Australia) and Bernardo Figueroa (Colombia) and the breakaway looked good for the USA. James Host (PACT/ IL) and I clogged up the front but then Steven dropped Bernardo and Aubrey and was about to take his lap so I drilled it at the front, found myself with a gap and then went into purgatory in my attempt to catch the group. Fortunately the pack slowed so I was able to gain my lap. Unfortunately there was only 10 laps to go and I needed to take the sprint from Steven and Bernardo if I was to win this. I did, I’m a happy camper and now I’m off to bed.

Live stream and delayed videos are posted here: http://www.cyclingmasters.tv/stream.aspx

Sprints tomorrow and Friday. Aubrey (my daughter, not Aubrey Gordon) and I went on a day trip to Bondi beach today and she is going surfing tomorrow. I may drop out of the sprints on Friday to spend more time with Aubrey and to save my legs for Sunday’s points race. We’ll see how the day goes.

Cheers, Larry

Day 2, 2000m pursuit = 1st

Aub, Jolly and the old birthday boy!

What a way to celebrate my 50th birthday with a win at masters track worlds in Australia. I qualified first in the morning session and then came back in the evening to take the gold medal ride over fellow American James Host. Either way, the star spangled banner was going to be played at the awards ceremony. As far as individual pursuiting goes, this was an exciting race as we were evenly matched after 5 of 8 laps before I pulled out a close win.

I hope my teammate Dr. Steve Johnson (CEO of USAC) sees this post and I hope that my junior teammates read this too because this is the cool part. I wasn’t nervous tonight, and I wasn’t rattled by my lame start last night. You see, when I first joined this team back in 1994 Steve taught me some important lessons in cycling. He had already won a masters road world championship and many national championships by this time but he has always helped to keep things in perspective. While I am elated to have achieved my 2008 goal of winning, in the greater scheme of things this is not all that important. My wife doesn’t love me any more or any less. I’m not saving lives and I still pay about a buck to refill my double gulp at 7-Eleven. Keeping this perspective helps me to take cycling seriously, but not take it too seriously.

Cheers, Larry

Drug test me!

Sure, I’m competitive and like to win but I’m not a win at all costs kind of guy. Here are a few things that drive me to win.

In 1999 I won two world titles on the track and anxiously looked forward to reading the coverage of the event in the next issue of England’s Cycling Weekly (which was the events sponsoring magazine). Instead the once a year article focused on a former great rider that had put his dentistry business on hold to make a comeback, won a race and was now going back to work. This just rubbed me wrong. This is masters racing and while some folks are fortunate enough not to work, I have been driven for a good many years by my attempt to balance employment, family and sport. Focusing on just one never sat right with me. England’s Ian Hallam holds the world record for the event that I will compete in just a few hours from now. I am not sure if I have the fitness and speed to get the world record but I know that I get a lot of encouragement from riders that also work, spend time with their families and love to play hard.

I’m also okay with being a weirdo. I’m not like other people and that’s okay by me. Not many people choose to wake up early on a cold and wet morning for a long ride before a long day of work. But, in doing so the workout gives me energy for the day and helps to fuel my next workout or my next race. For my 2008 training year (Oct-Sept) I had only two days where I didn’t get at least 30 minutes of exercise. Some would call that obsessive or silly, and I’m okay with that.

Twelve months ago at masters track nationals I was crashed, dislocated and broke two bones in my shoulder. It took over four months before I could put my arms above my head. Regardless of racing I wanted to be healthy again. I started taking Yoga with Debbie. Even though it was a long recovery the classes were of great help to my strength and flexibility.

I’ll write more about this later but being on Team Specialized for the past 15 years has been a wonderful experience. I have former professional and Olympic teammates as well as accomplished masters and junior teammates. World and National events have always been a goal of this team which has helped to keep my racing in perspective. When you shoot for a big event like worlds all of the races leading up to it serve a different purpose. Our team training for the masters nationals team pursuit was any absolute treat and a great training tool for our individual events as well. But mostly, I’m driven not to let my teammates down. Our sponsors have come to expect our winning ways but it’s my teammates that help to hold such a high standard of performance that I would never want to let down.

Finally, I’m driven to shoot for the highest honor in the sport of cycling, WORLD CHAMPION. But, I’ll not compromise my integrity by taking drugs. I had a fellow Nor Cal competitor accuse me of taking drugs earlier this year. He just did not understand how consistently hard people just like me work to achieve their goals. It was easier for him to assume that people that beat him badly were taking something than it was for him to get on his bike and train… year after year, hour after hour visualizing winning a world championship. It may not happen today, on my 50th birthday, but winning worlds is a goal worth shooting for. Hopefully, I’ll give the UCI a reason to drug test me.

Peace out, Larry

Day 1, 500m time trail = 6th

Well, my throwaway event was just that. I either false started or was held up at my start. Since this is an electronic gate the officials didn’t see the later but I didn’t think I jumped early either. As you can guess when this mechanical start gate is holding your wheel and frame and you jump away from the machine it won’t let go of you until the start time. I wanna see this one on video.

I had a nice second lap so I’ll take some confidence into tomorrow’s 2km pursuit. I finished sixth, 6 tenths of a second slower than my ride at masters nationals (38.3). Steve Cronshaw (GBR) won the event with Australians David Wilmott in second and John Kennedy in third. Americans Jim Host (Chicago) was 5th and Rich Voss (Colorado) was 7th.

Nor Cal riders Mark Rodamaker (Alto Velo) placed 4th in the 60+, Lorraine Jarvis (Proman) took 7th with the women and I'm not sure how Craig Parker (ZTeam) faired.

Pic of Aub in the harbour. Hair blowing in the wind was a requirement to be in the photo!

2008 masters track worlds- Day 1

I’ve been in Australia for 48 hours and I just got connected to the internet. The direct (14 hour) flight was uneventful, just the way it’s supposed to be. On Sunday, Aubrey and I took a train to downtown Sydney, had a nice dinner and caught the bat show at sunset which was quite exciting to see as they make their nightly run from the botanical gardens to centennial park. Yesterday we took the bus/ train/ ferry/ bus/ ferry/ train/ taxi to the Sydney Zoo and back w/ Joe and Sandy Fineman. We enjoyed another nice dinner in downtown Sydney.

My first event, the 500m time trial starts at 1pm today. This event is not my specialty because I don’t have the explosive power that is required to go from a standing start to a full speed as quickly as possible. That being said, last years winner (Dave LeGrys from Great Britain) is not here to defend his title so the game is wide open.

I feel NO PRESSURE for this event. I signed up so that I could get in a good warm-up on the track, dial in my bike and practice that electronic start gate. And since this is a time trial then the whole event, the whole day is quantifiable. I mean, if I do the absolute best ride that I can and I don’t win I’ll still feel good about my ride. Conversely, if I don’t even do a personal best (35.7 seconds in San Jose at USA track nationals, in my one and only 500m ride ;-) and still place well, I won’t necessarily feel better. Today will also be a test of my eating, warm-up, cool-down routines, as well as my mental preparedness for a week that I have been targeting for three years.

My race write-up will be short… coming soon. Peace out, Larry

2008 UCI Masters Track Worlds log

My father accompanied me to Manchester for my last track world championship in 2005. Well, I am hoping that it will not be my last, which is one of the reasons I want to send a few updates from my travels to Australia.

Firstly, we have nine juniors on our team and I hope if they read this they can learn a few tricks.

Secondly, instead of sending post cards, which would arrive after I fly back, I'll update our team blog so that friends and family can see what Aubrey and I are up to.

Thirdly, my daughter Aubrey will be joining me in Australia. Huh? Yes, Debbie and I have been happily married coming up on 27 years but she's also had her fill of bike racing. Debbie doesn't join me on these trips because I'm going to Australia to do my absolute best. For me to do that its not likely that I will play tourist while in Sydney. That means a lot of time at the 2000 Olympic velodrome (indoors) and in the hotel room. Boring? If that's what it takes to win... I think its worth it. Like every one else, I travel for the memories, so I'm hoping to make some fantastic new memories!

I fly in a few hours. Its a 14 hour direct flight. Hopefully I don't break my personal record when it took 24 hours to fly from San Francisco to Birmingham, Alabama in 1996. Wait a minute, our team went 1-2-3-4 at Cyclismo, so I think it was worth it!

Finally, I want to thank everyone that has lifted me up. After track Worlds in 2005 I was bold enough to put out my goal of winning a world championship for my 50th birthday present. About 4 months ago I found out that the one event that suits my physiology the best will be contested on my birthday. That is so cool but what is even better is how many people have held me accountable to my goal, how many have pushed me to my limits and given me an encouraging word. Thank you all. Larry

last race of 2008... not yet

It's early October and the team has been racing (and winning) since the Mount San Bruno Hill Climb on January 1. Kevin, Craig and I braved the light rain last Saturday during the 10 mile Calaveras time trial and scored a first, second (both in the 1/2/Pro event) and a first (in the M45 event). Time wise, Kevin set a new course of 23:21 (with 400 feet of climbing on this out and back course) besting Craig by 2 seconds and me by 15 seconds.

I'm heading to Masters Track Worlds in Australia where I'll be competing in the...
- 500m on Oct. 14th (too short of a race for me but I'll get to train and practice on the 2000 Olympic velodrome in Sydney, including the electronic start gate)
- 2000m on Oct. 15th (what better gift to give myself on my 50th birthday than a gold medal in this event?)
- 7.5km scratch race on Oct. 16th (anything is possible in this relatively short mass start event)
- match sprints on Oct. 17th and 18th (I may go to the beach instead!)
- points race on Oct 19th (ah yeah!)

If I have a good internet connection I'll send updates from Sydney. Cheers, Larry

Giro Dell Istria

Charlie is racing in Croatia at the UCI Juniors Nations Cup. Check out: www.krozistru.com. You don't need to be fluient in Croatian to understand that Charlie is #32 (Kroz Istru 2008 --> Startna Lista) or that he has placed 37th in the 1st stage and 68th in the 2nd stage (Kroz Istru 2008 --> Rezultati). Today is the last stage... tune and and find out how our teammate is doing.

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.

thank you NCCF

The Northern California Cycling Foundation stepped up to help out the San Jose velodrome with its need for track sponges. They look great and they are much needed. For those that don't get to the track much the sponges are used to mark off the track so that riders in the time trial events do not cut the course short. These new sponges look so much better than what we had. Just in time for masters track nationals too!

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!!

Nationals Jr. 15-16 Road race

Posted for Daniel Tisdell

Going into the race, I went in really focused. I was kind of mad for not doing so well in the time trial. When we started, I got in the top 10 riders almost instantly. I was somewhat familiar with the course, and sat in the front of the group the first lap. One attack got off the front towards the last part of that lap, and held about 20 seconds on the field. The next lap, I started looking for a way to get into the break, or see if the pack would catch it. Twice, they closed it down to 8 seconds gap, but never went the final gap to catch it. I figured if they could hold off the field, they could have a good chance of staying away. On the third lap, my main goal was to bridge that gap, and not take many riders with me. This proved to be difficult. Everyone would respond to the slightest attack. I sat up until I got to the hilly area of the course, then did a attack, and got a gap on the field. I started to bridge the gap on my own, and after a few hard minutes, I caught them at the steepest part of the course. After a moments of rest, and draft, I integrated myself into the group. After a few pulls, I saw that the were really disorganized. A minute later, two other riders bridged, while one guy fell off. Almost instantly from the time the two bridged, a rider attacked our breakaway over the top of the hill. That attack caught me in a weak point, after I had just pulled in the wind. I fell off in a few seconds of the attack, and submerged into the pack again. Soon I was on my 4th lap, seeing if the break would be caught, and seeing if anyone was going to try to bridge. Larson, this years TT champion went off a few times, only to be sucked back into the pack. I sat in the top 15 riders seeing how the field was trying to catch the breakaway. As we went through to start our 5th lap, even though the pack started chasing the breakaway, the pack was 28 seconds back. I sat in that whole lap, waiting for the opportune moment, but it never came. As I went into the 6th lap, I was really eager to do something, but no opportunities ever came. The pack did manage to close the gap to 24 seconds though. As I came about 5k from the finish with 1 more lap to go, I saw Larson and Adam attack, getting 5 seconds on the field. I immediately attacked, and easily got away because it was on a hill. I caught onto them, and started rotating with them as I started out on my last lap. From there, it was grueling hard, and took a crazy amount of effort to try to close the gap. Just a minute after we started our last lap, Adam was dropped from our chase group. I knew I could not get there alone, and hoped that Larson could bridge as good as he could time trial. Only a few minutes later, I knew we had a good chance working together. He and I pulled strong, and took equal 15 second pulls. About halfway through the last lap, we bridged to the lead breakaway, making the break 5 riders. Just a second after we made it there, almost the same place that I fell of last time, someone attacked. I was ready this time. I sucked wheels, and everyone soon came back together on the downhill. I encouraged everyone to work together until the turnaround up the hill. After we went around it, no one wanted to pull. I watched the pack sitting a dangerous 20 seconds back, as no one would pull. We had 2k to go, and less than 15 seconds on the field, but still no one was pulling through. I waited 1 more kilometer, and our gap came to 8 seconds. From there, I attacked, and dropped everyone but one guy. He ended up sprinting around me right at the finish, and I took second place.

Charlie Avis rips up the Tour de l'Abitibi

photo from the http://www.tourabitibi.qc.ca/ website... Charlie (on the left) is called up to the line after winning the time trial.

From the www.USACycling.org website

Avis just misses overall win at l'Abitibi; JR squad wins team GC

Colorado Springs, Colo. (July 30, 2008) - After winning the stage three individual time trial, the USA Cycling Junior National Team’s Charlie Avis (Palo Alto, Calif.) took second place overall in one of the world’s most prestigious junior stage races, the Tour de l’Abitibi. Avis and all five of his teammates strongly represented the United States, each claiming spots in the top 13 of one of the six stages and four placing inside the top 10 overall.

Avis posted a time of 21:09 in the 15-kilometer individual time trial to earn the stage three victory and jump into a near deadlock for the overall lead. The 17-year-old American went on to finish a strong sixth place in the fifth and final stage, but fell just short of overall winner Arnaud Jouffroy of France and was awarded second place by just 28 hundredths of a second. Although Avis wasn’t able to keep the brown jersey (overall winner) in the U.S. after Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo.) secured it in the 2007 edition of l’Abitibi, he comfortably earned the blue jersey which is awarded to the top first-year junior.

Each member of the USA Cycling Junior National Team competing at l’Abitibi contributed to the squad’s overall win. Iggy Silva (San Diego, Calif.) earned himself a spot on the podium in the 95-kilometer stage one from Preissac to Val and finished sixth in the 91-kilometer second stage before going on to finish 13th overall. Andrew Barker (Lakewood, Colo.) finished a mere 18 seconds behind Avis in the stage three ITT to earn fourth, while teammate Taylor Kuphaldt (Yuba City, Calif.) finished sixth with a mark of 21:30.

Kuphaldt then went on to take fourth place in the stage four criterium on July 28 and Silva sprinted to ninth. Also riding strong for the U.S. team was Larry Warbasse (Traverse City, Mich.), earning several top-20 stage placings and finishing inside the top 10 in the overall. Ian Moir (Long Beach, Calif.) rounded out the USA Cycling Junior National Team riders, making several important team contributions and finishing 79th overall.

For more information on the 2008 Tour de l’Abitibi, click here.

2008 Tour de l’Abitibi
July 25-29, 2008
Quebec, Canada

General Classification Results
1. Arnaud Jouffroy (FRA) 8:39:08
2. Charlie Avis (Palo Alto, Calif.) s.t.
3. David Boily (CAN) +0:08
5. Andrew Barker (Lakewood, Colo.) +0:20
6. Taylor Kuphaldt (Yuba City, Calif.) +0:23
9. Larry Warbasse (Traverse City, Mich.) +0:46
13. Iggy Silva (San Diego, Calif.) +1:03
79. Ian Moir (Long Beach, Calif.) +7:26

Team Classification
1. USA Cycling Junior National Team 25:58:05
2. Quebec +1:31
3. Australian National Team +2:03

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

We all scream for ice cream!

After celebrating my son's 24th birthday back in February a bit too aggressively my weight swung over 200 pounds, so I swore off ice cream. Ice cream is definitely my biggest weakness. Then I started to come up with some "rules"... for me to enjoy my favorite dessert again I would only have a bowl when I won a race or when my weight dropped below 193.

When my weight finally dropped below 193 I set a new goal: ice cream when a teammate or I won. Sort of cheating... but this is a team sport!

Brian Bosch (Pacfic Sierra) denied my appetite at the 4th of July Crit in Davis when he turned our team leadout (Dylan Casey, Mike McCarthy and Scott McKinley... me, racing with our former professionals!) into his win.

Redemption came up yesterday when teammate Kevin Metcalfe soared off the front at the M45 Lafayette Criterium, formed a 4-man break and then attacked Rich Juarez (VOS) in the last lap to win. I took 3rd. Ice Cream! Thank you Kevin!

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.

USA Cycling West Coast Development Camp

The original intention was to get this photo (courtesy http://www.kateburgess.com/) and one of the 30 rider diaries up on the Pez website. This note should have been posted weeks ago but our June 15-20 camp was followed by a camp for women riders and then Claire flew off to Australia for an extended vacation. Unfortunately Claire has the majority of those stories. Fortunately, I had Eddie Zhang (San Jose BC) and junior teammate Marcus Smith send me theirs directly. Eddie's write-up has been sent to USA Cycling for posting to their website while Marcus's will be posted here in the comments section.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at camp. These 30 young athletes all exceeded my expectations and give our sport a whole bunch of hope for our future.

A big thank you goes out to teammates Mike McCarthy (1988 and 1996 Olympian, 1992 World Champion) and Leonard Harvey Nitz (1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympian) for their inspirational talks with the riders. I would personally like to thank Paul Craig at Rudy Project (http://www.rudyprojectusa.com/) for supplying us with 22 sunglasses and product for the General Classification leaders. Thank you also to the Northern California Cycling Foundation (www.NorCalCF.org) for the generous cash donation which helped to purchase gift certificates for the GC leaders. The GC was a week long competition based on all of the events that were held during the week. The two USAC field tests were weighted more than the other events due to their importance, but as you read Marcus' and Eddie's diaries you will learn of the other fun events we held during the week.

Points Race Clinic @ the San Jose Track - July 13 (4-7pm)

Points Race Clinic notes will be posted in the "comments" section.

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…