Sunday, September 26, 2010

2010 Season

3 weeks ago was my last race of the season, which was the Giro Di San Francisco on Labor Day weekend. I finished 13th in the pro/1/2 race, that was very challenging. A group flew off the front about 15 minutes into the race and ended up lapping the field. Teammate (and father) Dean LaBerge was one of the 8 and was able to hang out until he lapped the field. He hung onto 8th overall and I placed 13th overall; 5th in the field sprint.

I raced so much this season and I have achieved so many accomplishments and learned so much. We worked very well as a team the entire year and we had fun in the process. We were able to capture all state championships and picked up a silver in the National Time Trial from Eamon Lucas. We then went to Canada for Tour De L' Abitibi in July and were very successful. We won the 1st stage (myself) and had the brown jersey! Unfortunately, I crashed the next and lost the overall, but I still held onto the blue jersey (best young rider). Meanwhile, Eamon, Peter Taylor, and Torey Phillip were all sitting good, waiting for the Time Trial. After the time trial, Eamon ended up being our GC guy, sitting in 3rd place overall. I slipped down to 29th overall. That afternoon, we had a short 50-KM race. Andrew Lanier and I were able to get away about 10KM into the race, and got in a break of 11. We stayed away barely, but we all picked up 30+seconds on GC. I then moved up to about 15th overall, and only about 30 seconds out of best young rider. Satge 5 was the longest, and a wet stage. The roads were slick and at one point in the stage, about 1/2 of the 155 man field fell down due to the slick roads with oil. Eamon and I had crashed. Eamon had a scuff on his chin and was fine, but I wasn't as fortunate. I had a couple really deep cuts and got 5 stitches that evening. I was able to start and even finished 15th on the fifth stage. Eamon was still sitting 3rd overall and only 1 second out of 2nd (1st place rider secured his placing). The last stage was a true smart man's stage: crosswind for first 30km and straight headwind for the next 45km before doing 9 laps in town. I was able to help Eamon pick up those valuable seconds on the road on a sprint point and he placed 6th on the stage. Overall, Eamon finished 2nd, I finished 11th, Peter and Torey were right together about 15-20th, and Andrew and David devoted their results to the team.

After the Tour, I came back home and did some local crits in Suisun, and Santa Clara, and Vacaville. I also won Sea Otter this year in April and upgraded to a category 1 cyclist on the road! I couldn't have done this good this year if it weren't for the fact of my great teammates and support of staff(all of the masters) and supporters and sponsors. Thank you everyone for an amazing year! I'll be back next year for 2011! See you at the races!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Next stop, Giro Della Basilicata!

Torey Philip is racing with the 17-18 USA National Team in Italy.

The Giro Della Lunigiana was my first ever big European stage race. There were 172 riders competing for the green leader's jersey. The course for stage 1 was 95 km and had one small climb that we rode up twice. In the first half hour, we averaged about 50kph. A rider from Kazakhstan won solo. I finished in the peloton.

Stage 2 was 101 km and had a steep 2 km climb in the middle and finished on a brutal 4 km climb. After about 20 km, my teammate, Austin Boswell, went down in a crash. I stopped to give him a wheel because he was one of our protected riders but we found out the derailleur hanger was broken so he had to wait for a spare bike. I remounted my bike and worked my way through the caravan to get back into the peloton. After the climb, some teammates and I moved to the front to chase down a breakaway. We caught the break and a couple minutes later, CRASH! A rider a few spots ahead touched wheels and took down me and two of my teammates, Matt Lipscomb and Kristo Jorgenson. Luckily I just landed on bikes and people so I was able to bounce back up quickly. I got back to the lead group right before the finishing climb. I was amazed at how fast these European kids can climb. I can climb pretty well back in the US but over here, I finished 81st about 4 minutes down. After the race, Austin and Kristo took a little trip to the hospital to get their injuries checked out.

Stage 3 was the hardest stage. It was 117 km with 3 climbs out on the course and a 7 km climb to the finish. The pace was fast the whole race. On a descent, an Italian rider ran me off the road and into the grass. Luckily I didn't hit the deck. Matt got into an early break so Kristo and I did some blocking at the front. The break eventually was caught. On the way to the finishing climb, a crash split the peloton and once we hit the climb, I tried to bridge up to the lead peloton but they were just to fast. I finished 69th at 5 minutes down.

Stage 4 was definitely the fastest. It was 100 km and we did 2 circuits with 1 big climb and 1 small climb. Each time up the big climb, I got dropped and had to ride through the caravan on the descent to get back to the peloton. On the second lap, the peloton split in two. I finished in the second group 4 minutes down. Overall, I ended up 71st. This was probably the hardest race I have ever done and probably had the hardest climbs I have ever ascended. I learned a lot and hopefully, I will eventually be able to climb as well as these guys!

posted by Larry for Torey