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.