This past weekend me and my family hosted Team Specialized Racing for the San Dimas Stage Race at Casa Castellano. The team arrived Thursday night and left Sunday after the Crit. Most of the team stayed at a hotel in Upland near my house due to the fact that there would be no room for 12 Juniors in one house. So our house was instead better suited as a place to have team dinners and meeting. It was a lot of fun having all the teammates together once again.
The first stage was the GMR TT on Friday. It would be my first real test of the season on how my climbing legs really are, especially riding on a new team issue Specialized Allez and team Zipp 202s. At the end of the day, I clocked in the 3.80 mile climb at 16:10, good enough for 17th place and a new PR in the Cat 3 field of 100. Teammate Diego turned in an impressive time of 15:35, sitting in pretty at 4th place. Right off the bat me, Jon, and Jason knew we would be protecting our GC leader for the weekend and we would be gladly playing the role of domestiques. After the TT we all headed back to my house for our first team dinner of the weekend. The Lansing Family (Diego's parents) took charge of that nights delicious and nutritious Italian meal while all the other parents were there to help out with whatever cooking they can do. That dinner was the perfect meal to have before the next day's epic circuit road race. It was also a good time to wind down with the team.
The next day was the Stage 2 circuit road race around Bonelli Park. We had brutal conditions with rain, wind, and chilling temperatures all day. The last wave (Cat 2, 3, and Pro1) of races probably had the worst of that days weather. This was the perfect day to put the new Zipp 101s and Tangent tubular clinchers to the test. I'm happy to report that they performed flawlessly and were the right choice of wheel for that day.
We started in a light drizzle and eventually raced the majority of our race in a downpour. We had 8 laps (56 miles) of racing. The first 5 laps were steady and controlled even though the weather still put our bodies through the test of will and determination. Our team stayed together near the front safe and out of danger. The front was by far the safest place to be. With 3 laps to go, the weather finally hit everybody. The rain came down extremely hard (with some hail), winds at about 25 mph, temps at mid to high 40s, and rising oils on the road causing riders to have some nasty spills if they weren't cautious enough. I doubled up my gloves and that still wasn't enough to keep my hands from freezing. That made it hard to eat, drink, shift, and brake. The temps were so cold my legs were not functioning as I would have liked them to. I sucked it up and kept going. A solo rider had broken off the field and opened up a 3 minute gap. During his time out front, the field was neutralized due to the Pro field passing. As we were neutralized, Diego came beside me and Jon telling us to chase after we were done neutralized. We did just that with very little help from the field with 2 laps to go and gave it our all with the chase.
As we kept chasing to minimize the time gap, we crested the second to last climb, Diego was on my wheel while I was at the front pushing the pace. I pushed the pace as hard as I could and eventually caused a split in the field with about 20 guys in the front group containing me and Diego. We made it back around to the final climb of the race and my body finally told me I had done all I could for the day. That effort kept Diego that lead group and ended up with a solid finish. I came in exhausted just behind the main group. Jon made the time cut and was able to start the help us out the next day. Immediately after finishing, we jumped in the team van, shivering and wanting to warm up. It was nice to get home to a delicious Mexican meal waiting for us and the rest of the team.
The last and final stage was the Old Town San Dimas Grand Prix. Our plan was to go for a stage win and help Diego move up a couple of spots in GC. All race we were attacking, being attentive of other riders, and staying at the front. Each time one of us attacked or someone else attacked, the whole peloton would chase, especially the team holdin the yellow jersey. With 2 laps to go it looked like it was going to finish in a field sprint. Me and Jon stayed at the front keeping Diego safe and in good position. With one lap to go, Diego maintained position up at the front as me and Jon lost position with a big swarm of riders. Diego ended up coming out of the corner 2nd and sprinted away for 2nd place. He was one second off of being 5th in GC for an overall podium which was a bummer but still an amazing job by him and the team for finishing high up in GC.
The weekend turned out to be a good race for Team Specialized and a great weekend of teamwork with a GC win by Jack Maddux in the 15-16 and Marcus Smith winning the 17-18 Circuit Race. A special thank you to Billy Innes for building up this beauty of a bike. It performed solidly. Thanks to Smith Optics for providing eye wear and a clear lense for the brutal rain conditions! Thank you to my parents for hosting Team Specialized and the NCCF for all the support. Also, a special thanks to Team Director (and coach) Larry Nolan for his time in helping me and the team prepare for this important race.
Until next time, Thanks for reading.
Nicholas (Nick) Castellano
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