Saturday, February 21, 2009

Snelling Race Report Jr. 15-16

The race started with a 3 mile neutral ride to the course. When we got to the course, Andrew Lanier went from the gun attacking over and over again with Alistair for the first 2 laps. This was part of the strategy. At about 1/4 of the way through the 2nd of the 3rd lap, I attacked. I stayed out front alone for about 1/4 of a lap. Right after the feed zone, James caught up to me, and about 1 min after that, we saw the pack on our tail and decided to give up on our attack. As I got back in the pack I saw that Alistair and Andrew kept attacking over and over again to make the competition more exhausted, but I noticed, the "stop and go" of this was wearing me out as well. I went to the front to tell both of them to take it easy for a while. As I was doing that I saw Bjorne Fox attacking at full throttle, I was warned before the race that he would be my biggest competition. As tired as I was, I decided to get on his wheel to bring him back. After about 1 min on his wheel I saw how strong he was, and it made me think that we could stay away, I therefore pulled through and started to work a bit. Eventually the ref moto, told us we had put 50 seconds on the pack in about 1/2 a lap. This drove us to go faster. We kept an about 1:15 gap the whole race, and with 2k to go I decided to start the attacks. I went right as he was telling me to pull through. He managed to stay on my wheel so I slowed a bit, and we started the little games of attacking and slowing. Finally with 1k to go I went again, saw him on my wheel again, I slowed again and he passed me, I got on his wheel. He thought he could power me off to the finish, and with 200m to go, I went again giving it all out, and I won!!!
Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Four 2009 Cherry Pies!!!!



Tiger winning his 5th in a row... photo used without permission.

Our team had a great day yesterday in Napa at the 34th annual Cherry Pie Criterium.

Joel Shaffer did a great job to deliver Peter Taylor to the final corner so that Peter could unleash his sprint to a Jr 17-18 win, while David Benkoski made a great bridge effort on the last lap to grab onto the back of the lead group and also receive the benefits of Joel's sacrifice, taking 3rd overall and 1st in the Jr 15-16 race (combined fields). Teammates James Laberge, Chris Laberge, Marcus Smith, Andrew Lanier, Daniel Tisdell and Alistair Eeckman all got to enjoy a slice of pie after the race.

Kevin Metcalfe started a break early in the M45 race that never came back. I was able to bridge across to him and through his efforts I counter attacked and was able to solo away for the win. Kevin held on for 6th against 100 starters.

In the M35 race Dean "Tiger" Laberge and his 4 win streak on the line was a marked man throughout the race but Kevin and I did what we could to help Dean, including Kevin's great efforts to lead Dean out on the last lap (after being a break that was caught on the bell). Into the last lap we had gaps opening up throughout the field as Kevin drove the front and I followed wheels back to the group. Kevin takes Dean to the final corner where its difficult to describe Dean's acceleration but suffice it to say that when a rider can put 4 bike lengths on a pack that quickly you're looking at something special. What a sprint!

Four cherry pies!

Local Napa write-up here.


I didn't want to jinx the team with this information before the race but check out these team results (14 years of winning Cherry Pies!)

2009- Peter Taylor (Jr 17-18), David Benkoski (Jr 15-16), Dean (M35), Larry (M45); 2008- Dean (M35), Larry (M45); 2007- Ben Barsi-Rhyne (Jr 17-18), Dean (M35); 2006- Larry (M45) - Dean (M35) on Lombardi's; 2005- Peter Allen (M45) - Dean (M35) on Lombardi's; 2004- Larry (M45); 2003- Larry (M45); 2002- did not race; 2001- Larry (M35); 2000- did not win, Kevin 4th (M35); 1999- Larry (M35); 1998- Glen Winkel (M35); 1997- did not win, Larry 3rd (M35); 1996- Kevin (M35); 1995- Glen Winkel (M35); 1994- Larry (M35); 1993- Larry (M35)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tiger Woods in Napa Sunday, Feb. 8th

By Tiger, we mean Dean! Article about the annual Norcal season kick off race. Let's hope for a repeat.

34th annual Cherry Pie Criterium will be contested on Sunday



Dean "Tiger Woods" Laberge winning Cherry Pie in 2008, led out by Scott McKinley
Photo by Mike Nachtwey, rights purchased by the team

Monday, February 2, 2009

Just Pedal a bit Longer

One aspect of being a competitive cyclist that I have always thoroughly enjoyed is when I get to do physiological tests on the bike. I did my first test over three years ago at a USA Cycling National Talent Identification Camp and have looked forward to every test since. Tests provide reliable, comparable, quantitative data that is hard to get otherwise. This year our Junior team has the luxury of being tested at the Stanford Human Performance Lab, a cutting-edge lab that does both physiological testing as well as research in a variety of sports.

The most common type of physiological test that is performed on cyclists is a Lactate Step Test. In a Step Test athletes start at a given wattage and increase every few minutes. Their blood lactate level is taken at the end of each "step" and is then used to determine a number of things including their Lactate Threshold and their wattage at OBLA (Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation). But, before I got to hop on my bike for the Step Test I got to have a body scan. Most body scans are done with either a hand held apparatus that sends shocks through the body to determine percentage of fat among other measurable things or with skin calipers. The machine at Stanford however is quite a bit more advanced. After getting dressed in my riding clothes I lay down on the scanner, when the scan began a large camera went back and forth taking pictures of my body. After about 6 minutes of lying there and having hundreds of small photos taken of me I was done. I then looked over at the computer screen and saw the image of my body. It was quite amazing to see a full picture of my body that measured density and showed my skeletal structure.

On to the physically demanding part, the Step Test. I did a good warm-up on the compu-trainer that had been set up and after a few calibrations we were ready to go. My first wattage was relatively easy, which was to be expected. Every 4 minutes the wattage increased by 35 watts and every four minutes added more and more pain. It is THAT pain that I enjoy about physiological tests; pain that builds and builds until you just can't take it anymore. Again, a blood sample was taken from my ear at the end of each 4 minute step so that my blood lactate level could be measured. The goal was to complete as many steps as possible; the longer the test is the more likely you are to have a high threshold or OBLA which are good indicators of endurance.

After cooling down on the trainer I had the chance to discuss the results of the test with the Exercise Physiologist that had been testing me, Phil Cutti. Phil helped to explain what was going on in the body at every lactate level and how that related to training and racing. I continue to be amazed by the amount of information that is gathered during a test such as this. With Phil's help, the help of my coach and others I am able to improve the quality of my training and hopefully my racing.

The best cycling shoes I've ever worn...



2009 is my 22nd year of USCF racing and the Specialized BG S-works road shoe is by far the most comfortable, lightest and best fitting shoe I have ever raced with. Period. Highly recommended.

A quick tip - don't toss your old shoes. These are my racing shoes, which is to say that when I get new shoes I use them only for racing and my old shoes become my training shoes. That way I don't fret about riding in the rain in my old shoes, I get to race in the best cycling shoes I've ever worn and my racing shoes last a long time. Lar

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Early Birds lead out drills

Week 5 of 5 of the Early Bird Criterium Training Race Series went well for the sport of cycling, for Nor Cal and for our team. Temps climbed into the 70's today so the racers held off their Super Bowl plans and made their way to Fremont for the flat and fast crits. During the 5 weeks the promoters and the beginner and advanced skills clinics brought in about 350 racers per week, a new 21 year record for attendance!

Ironically for today's "advanced skills clinic" we talked about, demonstrated and then let the riders practice lead outs. Little did we know that we would be practicing this as a team later in the day!

It's against team tradition to write about your own victory, but today's 75 minute race with 100+ starters has no prizes whatsoever so not all riders even care about the finish. We did. That's because in last weeks race a trio of riders escaped and we were forced to chase for a long time, not catching the group and learning some big lessons. Today we had juniors James Laberge, Marcus Smith, Peter Taylor, Joel Shaffer, Daniel Tisdell racing with Dylan Casey, Kevin Metcalfe and myself in the Pro/1/2/3 race. Alistair Eeckman, Chris Laberge and David Benkowski raced earlier in the morning with the 3/4 field with James, Marcus and Peter.

Into the last laps of the Pro/1/2/3 race and we had Dylan guiding us through this two lap leadout with Joel, Kevin and Dylan doing great work up front while I had Peter glued to my wheel for the sprint. Dean Laberge had flatted. Keith Miller and then Patrick Briggs (both Cal Giant Strawberry) and then Joel Robertson (Sierra Pacific) took over the lead out coming into turn two but when they swung off with 300 meters to go Dylan was still there to give me a sweet leadout for the win. Thank you teammates!