Bahati, Captain Kirk, and a Threepeat…

The LA Circuit Race holds a special place for me as it takes place in my “backyard”, and I’ve won it two years in a row. Sponsored by Bahati Foundation, the LA Circuit Race is a designated LAJRS race and was paying out over $2,000 in cash prizes for juniors, along with a custom made jersey for the winners! Rahsaan Bahati, a pro cyclist and founder of Bahati Foundation, travels the country to speak to inner city youth in underserved communities. The Foundation’s mission is to motivate and empower kids toward higher achievement in education, music and cycling. He also offers cycling skills clinics for inspiring bike racers. Bahati is a great mentor and is giving back to the cycling community.

Back to the race...as soon as I jumped on my bike that morning, I noticed my legs were flat. Two days of hard racing at Sea Otter had worked my legs. Without any teammates in this race, I knew I would have to ride conservatively and smart. No heroic attacks today! My plan was to ride in the front quarter of the field and be ready to follow any threatening attacks. Otherwise, I would hide in the pack and sprint for the finish.

LA Circuit consists of four laps of a 4 mile, two turn paperclip-shaped circuit. There is a small rise and headwind in your face going out. Coming back it’s a tailwind with a slight uphill finish.

I'm hiding in the pack.  Can you spot me??

I hid in the pack so well that my mom later said that she had been trying to take pictures of me but couldn't find me. So this is what would happen, every lap we would go really fast with the tailwind then slow down to a crawl into the U-turn then full throttle into the wind then crawl into the other U-Turn then full throttle as we came out of the turn with the tailwind. Repeat this for four laps. Ouch! My legs were worked and it became very apparent that sitting in was more important than trying to be a hero today. So I sat in until the last turn. With about a mile to go the pace really picked up. SC Velo had a train going and I jumped on the back of it. With 250 meters to go they were going full for their sprinter. At that point, as Captain Kirk would say, “Scotty, give it all you’ve got!” I started my sprint, put my head into the wind and put at least three bike lengths on the field for my third consecutive win of the LA Circuit race.

I won $80, a Bahati winner’s jersey, and got to chill the rest of the day after three straight days of racing.

Next stop, Devil’s Punch Bowl. Thanks for reading, Diego Binatena

My Euphoria

"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road without thought on anything but the ride you are taking." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


Why do you ride your bike? For exercise? To interact with friends? To be like the pros you see flipping through the channels? Well for me, riding is my euphoria, my place to relax and let all the troubles of the day skip my mind. The common question is asked, "Why do you ride bikes? It's so hard!" All I can say that it's my football or my baseball. I ride for my teammates, so I can perform well for them in every single race. I ride for self pleasure. I ride because there is nothing else in the world I would want to do. So next time you are having a horrible day at work or school, or you just don't have leg speed, ask yourself why you ride your bike. I can tell you from personal experience, this sport is so much more fun and rewarding when you are passionate and have a burning love for it.So next time you are riding, take the rest periods between your hard intervals to appreciate the landscape and beauty of the day. Have a great ride everyone.

~Jack Maddux

Chico Stage Race

Last weekend I drove up to Chico for a fun weekend of racing.

Saturday was the 90 mile road race which included a brutal 4 mile stretch of gravel. After the start the pack rode pretty fast while riders tried to break away. After a few miles everything died down, a group of three riders were established off the front and the pack seemed content to ride slow and chit chat. I was happy with this since for some reason my legs felt like jello.

After around 37 miles of riding everybody became serious and we dove into the gravel section with around 65 riders, I was at the tail end with my legs still not coming around. Somehow I dug deep and made it out of the gravel with the group which had lost almost half of its riders. I decided to sit in the back and rest up before people started attacking the group again. After the feed zone hill we headed into a nice down hill. I became spun out and had to get aero in order to keep up. Then I heard bikes crashing and next thing I know I am flying over my handlebars. I broke my rear wheel and bent my derailur, but my body was fine. I received a ride to the finish and masters teammate Bubba Melcher helped clean up my road rash since the med kit was not equipped for riders with road rash. Thank you Bubba!

The criterium was fun and fast. It included five 90 degree left corners and one 90 degree right corner on a 1km course. I tried my best to go off the front but the biggest gap I ever had on the pack was only a handful of seconds. I managed to take second in a 2 man prime early on. About 20 minutes in there was another prime and a friend helped string out the pack so I could take the sprint. After trying to smash the pack to bits for 20 minutes I knew I needed to recover and moved to where I could be in the best slipstream in the pack. With 5 to go I tried to make sure I moved to top 5 and stayed there. With half a lap to go riders became really agressive and a crash happened. This unnerved me enough for riders to start taking the wheels in front of me and I finished near the back.

Thank you for reading,
Jonathan Christensen

One Step at a Time

Greg Lemond once said, “Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time." I am now on my 3^rd year of racing with Team Specialized and have been attaining the skills to develop into a serious and dedicated cyclist. Racing nearly 70 races in 2010 and 2011, and 20 races  so far this season, I am learning from every race, especially since I upgraded to a Cat 2.

Development is a key part of Team Specialized. Team director Larry Nolan has always stressed the importance on how his personal goal is to help all juniors succeed and evolve in the world of cycling. Part of my development is experiencing the highs of cycling, like winning Track Nationals at 14 years old, and the lows, crashing on the last lap of a crit because someone rolls their tire or not having the strength to finish a road race. Whether I win or lose a race, I know there is always a lesson to be learned from the experience.

We, as a team, are also learning how cycling isn’t an individual sport, but a dynamic team sport, which means you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of the team.  Because we understand and apply this in the races we participate in, we’ve been successful in winning a few stage races, like San Dimas two years in a row.

My fellow 15-16 teammates will be brought together as a full squad next week at Sea Otter Circuit and Road Race.  I’m looking forward to having everyone together again and showing others what we can do as a team.

Thanks for reading.  ~Matt Valencia



LIVING MY DREAM


I started riding a bike at a pretty young age, I really don't remember if I ever thought of being a cyclist at a young age, for me it was more about having fun and spending time with my dad and visiting our ranch. As I got older me and my parents really tried to get me into sports such as: gymnastics, basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis. I didn't like sports that much because although I was good and had potential in most of them It wasn't really something I liked, I would just do it because I loved the sensation of winning. I would cry if I lost.  I was a very sore looser. A couple of seasons in those sports went by until I found a sport I was actually interested in - cycling. I started in a small team in what I believe is the 3rd smallest state in Mexico. Team Colima in Colima, Mexico.  I still remember when I went to meet the coach on the first day. "Leader" is what we would all call him although his name was Arturo Courtney, we never called him that. He is a man with lots of knowledge about mountain bike, he also knows lots of history behind cycling. The first thing he told me was "se ve que pintas a ser bueno" which translates to "you seem to be good".  He told me to ride the course we were about to race.  We were about 25 kids in a 1 mile course all taking turns and racing our peers, forgot to mention this is a mountain course and the kids go from 4 - 16.

I lined myself up with the big kids (12-16).  At the time I was 13, and the coach said "you're racing with the younger kids.  Your peers will smash you".  I ended up racing with the 8-12 year olds and they gave me the nickname "Gulliver" they were all looking at me thinking "who is this kid in tennis and shorts?"  Our coach told us we would start in 1 min for 3 laps around the baby coarse only 700m long, I sprinted all the way then crashed and got back on to still win but I was very embarrassed I was all covered in dirt.  From then on I bought myself gear and jumped with my peers it took me a while but after 4 months I was one of the best of our squad. which still wasn't very big since it  was recreational, even though we would race every class and compete once a month. From that team I moved to the US, with hope of becoming a "star".  I looked up phones and contacts to call or join a team. I thought I was great so I decided to look for big teams, and first team I called was Specialized.  I called Larry's house and I can't remember who picked up but it was not Larry, he was racing the 2010 giro di San Fransisco, which i think he won.  To make a long story shorter the person explained how the team worked and how certain results could get you on the team.

I had a goal for 2011.  I was going to get on a team, win, and get called up to Team Specialized. 2011 was a great year of learning for me.  I started off on Team Fremont a team which Larry coaches on Thursday's.  My teammates and Larry taught me so much and got me up to a good level.  My first road races were the early birds which came with early success, followed by other races which together made a decent season:
highlights of 2011:
3rd cherry pie (first real race)
2nd snelling
5th state championship crit
Now in 2012 I was blessed to find out I was starting a new era with the best team in the nation, and also blessed to start to work with a great coach in Larry. And so far we are having a pretty good season and it only will get better, all thanks to are awesome team and sponsors who care for us.

thanks for reading
- Oliver Barajas