Monday, December 29, 2008

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

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

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