EB#4

Hey guys,
Today was Early Bird #4. It was a wet day, with only one crash. The weather was excellent until the middle of the 1,2,3s race. It started to pour, and Larry went off the front with David McCook. We were very active at the front and launched some strong attacks. Today"s race definitely clarifies why "Fast" Freddie is called "Fast Freddie". It was 2 to go and Freddie started to drill it on the back straight away at approximately 50km. WOW, he is one fast guy. It was a good race. Thank you Freddie for coming out today. You RIPPED the legs off the field, including me. I look forward to watching you destroy pro races. Again thanks for coming out, good to see you, Larry, Torey and Andrew.
-Jack Maddux

Early Birds #3- Racing with Fast Freddie

Making it to the ProTour level in cycling is a great achievement and certainly the dream of anyone who has every pinned on a number with intent to win. Now being at such level, competing in 10 grand tours, winning stages in the Giro D'Italia and being runner up to non other then Mario Cipollini is legendary. When I learned that Freddie Rodriguez was to join our team for the 2011 season, I was ecstatic. Already having former USPS ride Dylan Casey mentoring us with all his knowledge was incredible, but adding on Fast Freddie would be just a dream.

The third Early Bird training race was the first time I was to race in the same colors as Fast Freddie. As we lined up, I had no intention of repeating last weeks win in three man break. I knew it would be nice, but I was also realistic in thinking the pack was not going to let another breakaway fly with me in it. After an unfortunate crash about twenty minutes into the race, the field was neutralized while the rider was cared for. This was when Freddie, James Laberge and I came to the conclusion I would be the one to sprint for the victory. With three laps remaining, I was just trying to stay among the top twenty spots in the pack. On the penultimate lap, Larry Nolan put in a great pull on the start/finish straight which helped string out the field. After turn one with less then a lap to go, Dylan Casey took the lead with Freddie on his wheel, and I on his. I was thinking to myself, "how are two guys going to last a combined kilometer and a half?" Turns out being in the ProTour teaches you a few tricks. I knew all I had to achieve was to stay on Freddie's wheel, and he would bring me into perfect position for the win. As we came around turn two, with about 1k to go, the pack began swarming around me. That is when Freddie yelled "jump" and Dylan gave one last ditch effort to whip up the pace, which in tern brought Freddie and I into perfect position. (Freddie behind a Cliff rider going all out and me on Freddie's wheel). The mixture of excitement that came over me when reality set in that I was truly being led out by one of the formerly fastest sprinters in the world was overwhelming. I knew I had to stay on Freddie's wheel or die trying. As we approached turn three, Freddie swung around the Cliff rider and dove into the turn. From there, I knew it would just be up to me to stay on Freddie's wheel while he launched his acceleration to the line, and from then all I had to do was come around. With a 52x14, I must say, it was a tough task, but when the thought of me making Freddie, Dylan, and the whole rest of the teams work for nothing, a rush of adrenaline came through, I got out of the saddle, and stomped on the pedals to come around for the victory.

After the race, Freddie and I took a cool down lap. He gave me specifics on how he managed to stay up among the top 5 wheels in the race, and how to keep a great lead out going even when you are short a few riders. It was wonderful insight only someone of that caliber could give. We ended up back at the team tent near the start/finish of the race. There, with the whole team, we had a great debriefing. I received congratulations from teammates, when I should have actually been congratulating my teammates for setting me up so perfectly. I could never do it so well without them, and I look forward to returning the favors!

Early Bird Mentoring 2011

Mentoring races this year has been so much fun, we all get a chance to help new riders. Teaching new kids is fun because they will be racing soon. We have been teaching kids how to corner safely, be comfortable taking their hands off the bars, and what to do in real life situations with cars on the road. We are teaching kids the basic fundamentals to be safe and how to race. But when were done with mentoring we race the Pro 1,2,3 race. Racing with the team has been a great experience with learning how to race as a team. It was also fun racing with fast Freddie because he was giving me tips during the race.

-Matt Valencia

Early Bird Mentoring

For the past three weeks, the team and I have been mentoring 400+ new riders. It has been a great experience because we get the opportunity to help grow the sport of cycling and have fun in the process. I have been working with new juniors and we have been having a ton of fun. We started with simply riding a pace line to now bumping and no-handed drills. The new juniors are picking up skills really quick.

I have been mentoring the clinics and races during the morning and then getting mentored in the afternoon by our Master teammates. They are teaching us skills and tactics throughout the P123 race. The Early Birds is a great race to learn from them, because they are racing next to you and they see what you see.

Props to David for winning the last two weeks.

2011 season

What a great way to start a new season by winning 2 of the 1st 3 training races of the year! It is truely remarkable to look back at who we were and how strong of a team Team Specialized Racing was just a mere 3 years ago. We had about 7 jrs, all split up in the junior ranks and hardly any of us were cat 3's or even cat 2's. Today, we have 14 juniors on the squad and have expanded nationally not only on the western states but as far as GA (5 cat 3's, 8 cat 2's, and 1cat 1). I've been on this team ever since this junior program has started and it is almost unbelieveable of what kind of turn around we have had and the big learning and physical jumps we have made each and every year.

Not only did we win yesterday at the EB crit, but we worked as a team at the front, countering each others moves and did a successful leadout on the last lap. It wasn't necessarily just a jrs team win or a masters getting a work out in, but it was a TEAM win. And this is exactly what we love to see in the sport and I am very proud of all the guys on the team whether they were there racing with us or not, I can already tell this will be a memorable year for me not only because it's my last junior year, but I can see the fire in everyone's eyes and see how much they want to succeed and perform to the best of their abilities this year.

Looking forward to the 2011 season with all of my teammates! Thank you for reading.

How Team Specialized Racing is living up to Innovate or Die.

Mid-January, 90 rider field with some riders on race wheels, former Giro de'Italia stage winner Fast Freedie, and former US Postal rider Dylan Casey. Thankfully for us, Fast Freddie and Dylan are both teammates so when they ride us off their wheels it is not too bad, more importantly they are not only able to talk to us but also show us how to race as a team and show us how to do a lead out, how to chase a break down as a team, and many other of priceless bits of information. To have riders like these available is truly a great experience, especially when you see them lead out your 17, soon to be 18 year old team mate for the win! Definitely an extremely cool site to see. It is even better when they talk to you and show you how to do it and are willing to be there and do it with you over and over again, and that is how Team Specialized Racing is living up to the challenge set by Specialized, Innovate or Die. We are taking those who have lived the dream and raced in Europe, done and won the big races and putting an eager to learn group of juniors with them and learning how to win cat. 1/2/3 races even in January. We are taking junior racing and transforming it from a race of individuals and making it a race of teams. We are taking control of not only our junior races but also elite races with our master teammates who are truly masters of the sport!

EB#3 with some FAST guys.

Yesterday, was the Early Bird#3. The second one I attended. It was overall a fun day, mentored a bunch and raced the 1,2,3's. The 1,2,3's race was erratic, we were neutralized for most of the race and then they started us with 4 to go. This definetely made the race more interesting because when finished with about the same starters. Although, there were some important assets to this Early Bird. We had a new addition to the team, Freddie Rodriguez. He's great to talk to, gave me some great tips while racing. Thank you for coming Fast Freddie, you definetely made the race more interesting! Also thanks to Dylan for the tips during the race, will help in races soon to come!
-Jack Maddux

Early Birds 1/23/11

Last Sunday was the third Early Bird Criterium of the year, second for me. That day we all raced in the pro 1/2/3 field which contained around 90 racers. That was a special race because we all got to race with our new teammate, Freddie Rodriguez. During the race I got to talk to Freddie Rodriguez. It was a good talk and a fun race. I can't wait to race in a similar field.

Chris LaBerge

Memo to self: it's always better to start a race with everyone else.

I did the EB road race today and stepped where I thought I would never go. I now know how my friend and teammate Larry Nolan felt.

I dragged myself out of bed at 4:45 this morning and decided to give it a go even though the lung infection I picked up I think in Brazil in September reared its ugly head on Wednesday night. When it hits, at times I feel like I'm suffocating, I'm guessing it's what asthma feels like. The weather was perfect for racing today and I just couldn't resist. The 45s started 55 minutes after the 35s so it was an easy choice to get an extra hour of sleep.

My race plan didn't go quite the way I drew it up in my head as for the first time in my life as a bike racer (maybe 500 races), I missed the start. No need to explain why, it just changed my day significantly. The race was 3 or 4 minutes in front of me when I figured this out so, my lung condition aside, I did a individual time trial for the first half hour into head and cross winds for 19 km before I finally made contact with the peleton. It was all out and I was wiped when I finally caught them.

It gave me about 12 km to recover before we hit the climb. My original plan was to sit in until we got to the climb then hammer it, maybe get away on my own and solo the second half. Well "the best laid plans of mice and men ...", you know the rest.

When I finally caught up to the race, instead of looking forward to the climb, I was now starting to dread it to some degree, likely having to hold on as best I could and see what happens, forget the idea of attacking. I managed to stay close to Cale Reeder, Carl Nielsen, Clark Foy and Arthur Jones up the hill and made the turn around about 20 to 30 seconds behind them. Hunter Zeising and Jan Elsbach were stuck to my wheel and we hit the turn around together and ripped the descent. One problem though, 3 guys were now chasing 4 and both groups were going all out in rotation. Strangely enough, Hunter pitched in with Jan and me for the first half of the chase even though Cale, his teammate, was in the front group, my cajoling seemed to work. That stopped with about 10 to 12 km to go and he started to sit in just when we were agonizingly close to catching the front 4.

There wasn't much choice for Jan and me and we stayed in rotation going as hard as we could. I finally got sick of Hunter sitting in and told him if he didn't take a pull I would sit up. I really think he wanted to win the race so with about 5 km to go he started to work again. This happened just when the front group started to splinter under the pace, first Carl came off and then Clark. Now Hunter was really done pulling and Jan wasn't interested in towing him anymore either. Cale and Arthur were only about 75 meters in front of us with a kilometer to go but I was the only one interested in still trying to catch them. An exercise in futility on my part which doomed my finish. Hunter and Jan jumped past me with about 100 meters to go. Cale won, Arthur second, then Hunter, Jan and me.

One hell of a workout especially that first 19 km time trial. Man I love racing my bike.

2011 Winter Team Camp

With the 2011 season coming fast, the junior team spent last week training together, touring Specialized, a day in San Fransisco and a ride with Fast Freddy among other activities. Below you can find some videos of the week, however they are not as professionally created as the one posted by Marcus.