Saturday, May 30, 2009

Edgar Soto Memorial Cycling Classic - Day 1

Today was the 18k time trial. It is the 17/18's qualifier for the world championships. The race started at the bottom of an on-ramp with a uphill right hand turn about 100ft. from the start. The course then went up hill most of the first half of the race with a downhill in the middle. At half way we went through a parking lot and did a turn around. The way back was mostly downhill, except for two rollers. The first one went up and went flat and went up again. After the last roller there was a fast left hand turn followed by a even faster right hand turn and then about 200m to the finish.

Marcus, was the first to go off at 4:23 with David at 4:25, myself at 4:28, Joel at 4:45 and Charlie at 4:59. All of us pre-rode the course earlier in the morning, which helped decide how to pace myself. What was tricky was the way back being mostly downhill. My dad and I decided that I should start out at 300 watts, and then go up to 350 and after that all out. Once that was finalized, what worried me were the two people behind me. Matt Lipscomb was the person after me (1 minute starting intervals) and behind him was Ben Gabardi who dominated nationals as a 13/14 year old and Matt was 8th in the TT at nationals last year. On the way out I was able to pass my minute man, but I did not see anyone in front of me until the turnaround, where I also saw Matt Lipscomb, a bit close to catching me. He ended up passing me on the last roller before the finish. I could not keep at his pace going over the hill, but I was able to close the small gap a bit on the decent that followed, but the finish was to close and I finished right behind him. Matt won the 15/16s with a time of 26 min. 2nd went to Ben with a time of 26:30 and 3rd went to Jack Funk with a time of 26:58 and myself 4th with a time of 27:01. David and Marcus finished 9th and 10th with times of 28:13 and 28:31. Charlie flew with a time of 24:26 and Joel put in a fast time too of 27:13.

Tomorrow: 55.3 mi road race for the 15/16 and a 76.75 mi road race for the 17/18. Photos coming soon.

Monday, May 18, 2009

State Championship Road Race

10 things to do when its 105 degrees outside:
1. Go down to Panoche to race the Northern California State Championships. This race is one of the more important ones on the calendar, because you get to wear the jersey for the next 12 months and race fees are almost non-existent for the state champ.
2. Ride around with teammates Daniel and Joel before the race to come up with a strategy for the brutal 4500 ft of climbing 67 mile course.
3. Eat lots of food and drink lots of Cytomax to avoid bonking, dehydration and cramping. Also, grab three bottles at every feed zone to pour over your head.
4. Rest, recover and block for teammate Joel who is up the road a third of the way into the race. This move helped me get a lot of rest, and I think this is why I felt so good on the climbs later in the race. Thanks Joel!
5. Ride hard on the hill right before the half way mark. I got a gap several times, but no one really responded; everyone paced their way back to me and it was too far to go alone.
6. Ride a hard tempo up the other side of the same hill trading pulls with Nate (swift), to reduce the field size to six. This lead group which included Andreas (Davis), Cody (Davis), Nate (Swift), Adam (Tieni Duro), Sam (ride for a reason) and myself then rotated on the flats for about 5 minutes to make sure no one else would catch us.
7. Attack on every hill. The original plan was for me to get away on one of the hills later in the race. However, on the way back the headwind had really picked up and I realized there was no way I could stay off the front alone. I felt the strongest on all the climbs in the second half of the race and attacked continuously to try to get away with one other rider. I was a bit stupid; I became too predictable, and didn’t really go all out on some of my attacks.
8. Rest for a field Sprint. Once the climbs were over, I rotated a bit with the group I was in and followed moves from Nate and Sam who both wanted to get away. I was a bit nervous because Andreas, who I think is a really good sprinter, was marking my wheel the entire way.
9. With one kilometer to go stay patient as Adam Hodes puts in a solid surprise attack from the back. Andreas reacted and I used this opportunity to get on his wheel.
10. Accelerate off Andreas’ wheel with 150m to go to get the win!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

NCNCA Junior District Championships



Sam Bolster, Andreas Freund, Peter Taylor, Nate Geoffrion, and Adam Hodes, Podium Photo by Glyn Taylor

Junior 17-18 won by Peter Taylor, Team Specialized Racing with assistance from teammates Joel Shaffer and Daniel Tsidell

Junior 15-16 won by James Laberge, Team Specialized Racing with assistance from Chris Laberge, Marcus Smith, Andrew Lanier Jr., Alistair Eeckmann and David Benkoski (2nd place)

M35+ (non-championship event) won by Billy Innes, Team Specialized Racing with assistance from teammates Rob Anderson, Steve Cassani, Dean Laberge and Kevin Metcalfe (2nd place)

stories of the Panoche Road Race in 100+ degree weather to follow....

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Course de la Paix Junior, 2009

I ended the Peace Race in 2008 by hitting the pavement and consequently smashing into a house.

I ended the Peace Race in 2009 by laying on the pavement thoroughly exhausted after finishing the last stage in the lead group.

The Peace Race is often called the "Tour de France" of junior racing because it is long, hilly, and extremely fast. After my ordeal last year, I came in to the race with the mindset of holding on and finishing. This strategy did not work especially well and I ended up finishing in the main group every day, never giving myself the chance to move up on GC. Below is a stage-by-stage description of the race: I apologize in advance for the length, each stage was very interesting!

Stage 1: Litomerice-Litomerice; 90km, 1540m of climbing
After a short 20 minute ride in the morning, stage one started at 2:30 in the town centre of Litomerice, Czech Republic. The roads were wet and rain was threatening all race, but that did not stop the 120 rider field (comprised of 20 national teams, 6 riders per team) from drilling it at the gun. There were three KOM sprints on course, one per lap, the first coming 15km into the race. Going up the first climb (a 5k drag with some steep pitches), I felt terrible and was at one point terrified of being dropped. I concentrated on spinning the lightest gear possible and once over the climb, I made sure I ate and drank regularly to try and recover for climb number two. My conserving tactic worked and I felt better up the second climb and as we hit the third and final climb, it was gruppo compacto. I followed a move by an Italian at the bottom of the climb, but we didn't get anywhere because I was still in the conserve mindset and didn't want to work too hard. Attacks were flying from all teams, but the tempo was fast enough that no one got away. With 1km to go to the top of the climb, a Czech rider attacked and got a gap with 10 other riders. I jumped hard with 500m to go and bridged the gap with a Belgian rider and all of a sudden we had 15 guys off the front and a 30 second gap. The Russians and Portuguese drilled it at the front of our group, but with 10-15km to the finish, we were brought back. Soon after the peloton was back together, a group of six riders snuck off the front and finished 30 seconds up on our chasing peloton. I should have anticipated the counter and I had the legs to follow, but none of the USA riders were in position to follow the move and we were unable to bridge. It was a hard stage, but all 6 USA riders finished in the group and none of us blew fuses for day two.

Stage 2: Most-Most; 93km, 1405m of climbing
Wow, what a stage. After 18 flat and rolling kilometers, the road turned up and climbed close to 600m in 9km. There was an intense and sketchy battle for position on the run in to the climb. I was sitting in the back third of the pack throughout most of the 18k run in, which I knew was terrible position, but I managed to hop onto a sidewalk and jump up to the front just as the road turned up. A break went from the bottom of the climb with the polka-dot jersey and a Russian, so I sat in the top 5 riders and rode as steadily as possible. The climb just kept going and going, but I had good legs and managed to stay in the front group of 25 riders over the top of the climb. The rest of team USA was missing in action, however, and unfortunately my teammate Andrew Barker, who had been riding strongly, crashed 10k into the race (going 65k/h!) and was out of position going into the climb. Since I was alone, I sat in and did no work, until Ian Boswell managed to catch back on to our group which eventually ended up being 42 riders. I followed some moves in the rolling section of the course (the course rolled after the climb before dropping back down to the start city), but again kept holding back from overly exerting myself in the breaks. Looking back, I was too focused on feeling good rather than racing hard. I had much better legs than I thought and even after a hard stage and following a lot of attacks, I was relatively fresh. Like yesterday, a group rolled off the front with about 10km to go and USA missed it. Boz and I finished in the main field, moving up to 27th and 44th overall. A good time trial could put us in the top 20.

Stage 3a: TT; 12km
Unfortunately we did not put in great TT's. I went out too hard up the climb and finished 34th, 56 seconds down on the leader. My time was decent and last year I would have finished 13th with my time, but the field this year was much deeper than last year's. I moved into 29th overall though and was really happy with my improvement from last year at this time, when I was 79th, 19 minutes down! There were still opportunities to move up with three more road stages left.

Stage 3b: Roudnice-Roudnice; 100km, 1100m of climbing
Not a hard stage, but it was the afternoon of the TT and I was tired. I tailgunned most of the race because I knew it would not split up and, as I said, I was tired and with this field it was always a struggle to be at the front. I finished in the main field, but unfortunately a gap opened up in the field and I lost 5 seconds; I thought nothing of it at the time, but now I'm kicking myself for losing focus and not being at the front! Keep reading and you'll see... Another important part of the day was that I cramped really badly in the last 500m, which made my legs really sore for the rest of the trip. It was my only cramp of the whole race, however, which I see as an accomplishment!

Stage 4: Decin-Teplice; 91km, 1800m of climbing!
I would not hesitate to say that this was the hardest 2.5 hours of my cycling career. Copperopolis was hard and getting dropped on a similar stage last year was hard, but this stage crushes all of those. The stage started in Decin, a city in a ravine, and within 1km we were climbing out of the ravine. 5km in to the race there was a KOM sprint (3km of that 5km averaged 12%!), but after the sprint the road kept climbing and gaining elevation for 25 more kilometers. Also after the KOM, the road turned westward and we were plummeted with a brutal crosswind. Uphill+crosswind=suffering in the gutter. I was completely red-lined for that first 30km, hanging on for dear life. At 30km into the race, we dropped back down into the ravine; the decent was crazy: smoke flew up from brakes on carbon wheels, guys crashed everywhere, and we hit a max speed of 90km/h! At the bottom of the 5k decent, we looped back around and climbed back up 400 vertical meters back to the top of the ridge. I was hanging on to the back of the 40 man group by the top of this second climb and was definitely suffering after three days of racing and a cramp. Similarly to the first climb, after this second KOM, the road kept climbing and the crosswind picked up intensity for 25 more km. Finally, with 20km to go, we descended back down to the valley. The descent was again completely insane. The road was dry and a break of 12 was up the road, so we bombed down the descent, reaching a top speed of 93.4km/h! Once at the bottom of the descent, there was an unmarked climb that split the field. I made the front split of 10 guys and my heartrate went through the roof as I hung on for dear life. With 4km to go, some riders caught back on and the group was 40-50 strong. I attacked with 4km to go, but I saw 3km to go while I was solo off the front and I knew I couldn't hold it. I slowed slightly and the pack caught me. The group had 4 USA riders, so we covered as many moves as we could and Jake finished 6th in the sprint and I finished 34th. Really tough day, but I moved up to 25th overall. Considering I was "on the rivet" from kilometer zero, I was very happy to have survived and it gave me new confidence going in to the last stage that I could do more than just finish in the pack.

Stage 5: Terezin - Litomerice - Terezin; 101km, 1850m of climbing
If Stage 4 was my hardest 2.5 hours on a bike, then Stage 5 was certainly close behind, but the course had more short climbs rather than the long crosswind "rollers", which offered more rest after the hard efforts. We did four laps of a circuit consisting of a 2k climb at 10% and a 5k climb at 5-6%. Like yesterday, I felt like crud for the first lap and a half, but my legs started to come around as the laps got harder. On the third lap, with three climbs to go, I took the right hand turn onto the 5k climb in third position and then punched it. Since that turn went from a larger two-lane road to a super narrow, steep, and gravel-covered section of road, the pack had to come through two at a time, stringing out the peloton. My attack out of the turn was followed by a Dutch rider, but the rest of the peloton had no reaction. Noticing our gap, I finally got over my fear of expending myself and stomped out the fastest tempo that I could. A Pole, Italian, and Portuguese rider bridged up to our group and, with 1km to go to the top of the climb, those three riders attacked and built up a 15 second gap. I was just riding my tempo as fast as I could and was unable to lift the pace and follow their attack. Little did I know that the Polish rider was 3rd on GC, so the pack was now hard on our heels. I made up time on the descent and had 45 seconds on the field (putting me top 10 on GC on the road), so I chased hard on the penultimate climb to catch the leaders. My little group still did not make contact with the leaders after cresting the climb, so we kept chasing. The Russian who was 2nd overall at the beginning of the stage then came roaring by us, screaming in Russian for us to help him get to the lead group. I did not do any work and let him pull me up, but the field was hard on our heels. Right at the moment I though we had been caught, the Russian and the Dutch rider jumped our group and managed to bridge to the leaders. I was pissed at myself for missing that move, especially since their group finished 51 seconds ahead of the peloton. However, I don't know if I could have made it over the final climb with the leaders. The last climb in the peloton was a struggle; a battle with my bicycle. I dug really deep and was very pleased to stay with the peloton even after my 15km breakaway attempt. I ended up finishing in the pack, but a crash split the group into three pieces. I was in the middle portion and lost 3 seconds to the front of the peloton. I ended up dropping to 26th on GC, missing out of top 25 and the prize money by 2 seconds! That's why I'm kicking myself for missing that 5 seconds on stage 3! USA finished 26th, 30th, 47th, and 55th on GC with 2 DNF's. Not terrible for such a hard race.

That's the main moral of the story: every second counts. I lost focus for awhile and looking back it's really easy to second guess and wish I had done things differently. Overall, though, I am excited about my form and learned a ton about stage racing and about my own limits. Stay tuned for a race report on 3-Etappen Rundfahrt this weekend! Thanks to Specialized for supplying my bike, helmet, TT helmet, shoes and sunglasses and SRAM for the components. I did not have even a trace of a mechanical!

P-Town Crit, May 9



Saturday was Joseph Mendes criterium, which is part of the junior point series. In the junior race, it was David, Allistair, Marcus, Chris, Andrew, Daniel, Peter, and myself. Everybody had a huge part during the race and it would have been much harder if Larry wasn't there. He told us about the wind and he told us to get a little bit of cover against the wind and he said if you do that, it will help you out a lot. And boy, was he right!!! Everybody attacked and followed wheels and we were yet again, control of this race from the start of the whistle. We were all together with 1 lap to go and after a few hundred meters after the beginning of the last lap, Andrew yells out"James!!!", and I look back and here goes Andrew flying right past the field and I hopped on to his wheel and have to admit, it was really hard just to stay on his wheel. He started that lead out so far back, that with 500 meters to go, I had to go because Andrew was so tired. Daniel Farhina was right on my wheel, but when I jumped, he just couldn't catch my wheel and so I soared to victory! To add, David got 2nd in 15-16, and Marcus got 3rd, and Peter got 2nd in 17-18!!! I have to admit that this was probably the fastest junior criterium I have ever been apart of !

David, Marcus, Andrew, and I did the 3's right after, and we were all at the front most of the race. When, it came to 5 to go, there was a crash, and unfortunately, Marcus was apart of it, and I didn't see Andrew anywhere, so it was down to David and I. We found each other right away, and after every turn, we would yell out and communicate to make sure we were on each other's wheel. Then, it was 1 to go, and going around the 2nd turn, I was behind david ready for the lead out, but he got caught in a scuffle, and I had to go right past him if I wanted a chance at winning, and so I did. I moved up to 4th person in line going around the last turn and I past 1 person the sprint for 3rd in the 3's.

This was yet another great day for the Team Specialized Juniors squad, and hopefully, we can pick up a state championship in the Road Race next Weekend!! -James LaBerge

Monday, May 11, 2009

Joseph Mendez Crit Race Report (3's and Jr's)

The junior race started off pretty fast. I believe that I was one of the first ones to attack within the first 3 laps. I did so to try to see if either Daniel Farinha or Zack Wick had an eye out for me, which I believe they did. I eventually got back in the pack. Right after I got back, Peter went. Immediately Adam Hodes got on his wheel, and I got on Adam's. In order to get ready for Nationals and maybe Belgium for the next 25-30 min I tried chasing EVERYTHING down, pretending that all attacks were a big threat. Finally when Daniel Tisdell went I decided to sit in and rest a bit. (Iwas dead), and with 2 laps to go I moved up and on the last lap I saw Andrew leading Peter out, so I got on Peter's wheel and managed to hold it to the line. I got 4th overall and 2nd in the 15-16's!

The 3's race was a different story. Being completely out of energy from the Jr's earlier that day I sat in the whole race try to just hold my position near the front. With about 5 laps to go I started to move up. On the last lap I had 6th wheel with James Laberge on my wheel, perfect position! Unfortunately, on the first 90 degree right turn, some guy managed to "pinch" my out of my position. Luckily, James managed to come around me to get 3rd overall, but I was out of it. I had 25th wheel, so I decieded to just sit up and finish with all my skin.-Moral of the story , HOLD YOUR POSITION- If I had I might just have podiumed in the 3's!
Thanks for reading!

Berkeley Hills RR 15-16


The Jr. 15-16 Berkeley Hills RR covered 1.7 laps of the Briones loop, for a total of 33 miles. We started out with a promenade onto San Pablo Dam road before the race began. I stayed on Bjorn Fox's wheel on San Pablo Dam road as he attacked over and over again. The pack stayed together until the first hill where I went to the front to avoid slower riders. On all of the hills I put out between 250-350 watts.

When we went through the finish line the first time, there were only six other riders and me in the front group. After the descent onto San Pablo Dam Rd., we all started playing games and following wheels, barely hitting 20 mph. There were several attacks throughout the rest of the race but we basically stayed together until the last hill.

We caught the women's field at the feed zone near the bottom of the last hill. Just then Bjorn Fox attacked and Torrey and I followed his wheel, but we were having a hard time getting around the pack as some riders were grabbing bottles and others went wide.

I nearly hit a volunteer's arm when they handed a bottle to a rider. That caused me to lose some ground on Torrey and Bjorn. I chased to make up lost ground, but Torrey attacked just before I could catch them. I chased and caught Bjorn and then started chasing Torrey but I ran out of hill before the finish. Torrey won by five bike lengths. I was second and Bjorn third.

Picture:
Even near the finish we had to go around the women. The picture shows us very near the finish line and I am on the right with Bjorn on my wheel. Torrey is about five bike lengths ahead of me here, but you can't see him on the picture. The lead women are on the left. We had to be careful not cross the center line so close to the finish.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Pro 1/2 Berkeley Hills Road Race


Today I rode my first pro 1/2 field at the Berkeley Hills Road Race. Crazy or brave I don't know. At 95 miles with lots of climbing I would be happy just to finish, considering I haven’t ridden over 85 miles yet this year. For the first three laps I cruised in the field. It was great having Kevin in the race reminding me to get near the front before the climbs, at which point I would gradually drift back to stay in contact with the field. At 65 miles, I was finally popped. I kept working hard over the next couple of hills and was surprised to find that I didn’t lose anymore time to the lead group. I worked with a group of about 10 riders for the next 15 miles, before we fragmented again on the climbs at which point I rode the last fifteen miles solo. Although I don’t expect to contend in races like this for a couple of years, I can't wait to race my next one, because races like these will get me ready for Nationals.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Juniors at Cat's Hill (1-2 in the 15-16 race)



Photo by Larry (not the best shot, but I wanted to show the climb)

Check out James LaBerge's race write-up. The 36th annual Cat's Hill Classic is part of the Lance Armstrong series and the top 5 riders qualify for the 2009 Regional Development Camps (I am the head coach at the June 21-26 camp at St. Mary's College). Cat's Hill is more than a 6 corner critium because the town of Los Gatos gets behind this race and allows the athletes to race along the one mile loop that includes a brutal 23% gradient climb and a fast finish along tree lined streets. Here's James report:

Well, today was an interesting day with the weather and it ended up dry! Joel finished with a solid top 10 finish in the 3's (7th) and he did the juniors right after. It was Joel, Alistair, Marcus, David, and I for the junior race and I think we used our numbers effectively, but not as good as last week at Wente. Anyways, during the race, there were always attacks during the 1st half of the race and I got in one of them, but didn't succeed. With about 5 to go, two 17-18 year olds (Daniel Farinha- SJBC and Nick Kinney- Team Swift) went up the road without Joel. People tried to catch the break, but we never caught them and that was 1-2 for the 17-18 age group, but the 15-16 age group was still wide open. There was attack after attack in the closing laps, but I just kept following wheels and on the last lap David gave it his all up the hill and drove it to the park and looked like he was done, but I said to him to keep on going to not let it slow down going into the downhill. And so he did and made my attack, just like last year on the down hill and David got on my wheel (or 2 back) and we went 1-2 in the 15-16 age group. Marcus goth 5th and Alistair helped us with some attacks. Great job juniors and let's keep it up and do it again next week at Joseph Mendes Criterium (EBC)!!!! -James LaBerge

sucked beyond suckage

1998 photo of me on Cat's Hill... I needed something to boost my confidence after yesterday's debacle



photo by Ken Papai, who was on the start list but I did not see at the race

I still love the Cat's Hill but yesterday was a day I want to forget, or at least help our juniors to learn from.

In 2008 our masters team went 1-2-3. You can not beat that! This year I threw my chain not once but twice. Yikes, what a rookie! Worst of all is that I was "mentoring" the junior fields in the morning and we talked about this. This was my 10th year of racing at Cat's Hill, a truly classic race that has been going on for 36 years, and I had won on 5 previous occaisions so its a race I can easily get up for. But, to throw your chain twice in one race is silly. I think I'll fire my mechanic!

So, I was telling Laurel Green (2009 assistant camp coach) what happened and she coined the "sucked beyond suckage" phase. No words are too harsh for this one! My crappy race (the officials let me finish at the back of the pack) didn't help teammates Craig Roemer or Dean Laberge, but Dean did salvage a 6th place. Dan Martin (Safeway) and Chris Phipps (Morgan Stanley) did their normal anti-social thing and jetted off the front. Steve Palaez (Lombardi's) took the field sprint for 3rd

Thankfully, I learn from these things, AND the juniors ripped it up again. Check out James' write-up.

I'm already planning my 2010 attack on Cat's Hill (dang, I'll be 51-1/2 years old ;-)

Lar