Thursday, April 26, 2012

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

Friday, April 20, 2012

Winning isn't everything

Winning isn't everything.  No, I'm not getting soft in my old age.  Team Specialized has goals of winning many races, but expectations are different.  We expect every teammate to give their best effort and sometimes a best effort doesn't earn you the top step of the podium. 

Today, at the 23rd annual Sea Otter Classic twelve junior teammates gathered to flex their muscles and show their strength and smarts.  Four (Marcus, Kyle, Dean and Chris) in the 17-18 ninety minute circuit race and eight teammates (Jack, Matt, Diego, Jason, Jon, Oliver, Nick, and Sean) in the 15-16 seventy five minute circuit race.  For these young men they may not yet realize how special it is to race on the Laguna Seca speedway with the infamous "Corkscrew" 40mph+ descent.

Despite not winning today I was very pleased with the efforts of these young men.  In the morning race Geoffrey Curran (Surf City) put in an attack with two (2.3 mile) laps to go that set the remaining chasers gasping for air and wondering how they would bring him back.  Kyle hung tight to the chase and valiantly chased.  He put out such an effort that he was ever so slightly gapped on the final climb and soloed into the finish for 5th place.  Tyler Williams (Swift) was 2nd, Alistair Eeckman (Hammer) was 3rd and Ian Moore (Swift) was 4th.  Marcus Smith is coming off sickness and fought well to catch back on before being popped on the last lap.  Dean was in the chase group and could easily have been frustrated with those that would not help chase, but fought on to work hard and salvage his race.  Chris LaBerge is always willing to sacrifice his race for the good of his team and his teammates.  I'm always proud of his efforts to chase, get dropped and never give up.

Later in the day, under rare 80 degree weather eight junior 15-16 teammates contested the 75 minute circuit.  The plan was to lay low in the first half of the race and then light it up in the 2nd half.  Simply put there are few riders that will work, some that choose not to work and most that cannot work for fear that they will get dropped.  With that in mind we wanted to attack in the last half of the race.  Jack Maddux decided to fly early.  Off he went with 2011 USA Cycling National Criterium Champion Ethan Reynolds (BYRDS) putting over 2 minutes on the chase group.  Back in the chase group getting a free ride to the finish line were Diego, Nick, Sean, Jason and Matt.  Oliver and Jon had already been dropped.  From my vantage point in the SRAM support vehicle I was able to watch Jason help chase a group that splintered from our riders when they were neutralized, then I saw Jason go to work again when Nick threw his chain and was hauled back to the chase group.  But, Nick was a bit gassed by the next climb and was popped with Matt, but they never gave up and chased back on.  Finally, Diego directed Sean to lift the speed in the last 2km so Sean did a great leadout for Diego to take 3rd and Matt take 4th.  Nick was 8th and Sean was 12th.  Jason finished too after his sacrifices.

Up the road, out of my view was Jack and Ethan sprinting for the Sea Otter win.  Jack went a bit early on his sprint and Ethan won the race. 

All of our teammates should hold their heads high for the efforts they expended to help each other and trying their very best to win.  Winning is very sweet, but sometimes not getting on the top step helps to drive your workouts to the next level.  Maybe in time for Nationals?

Thanks for supporting Team Specialized.  Tomorrow we are road racing!  Cheers, Larry

Thursday, April 19, 2012

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




Wednesday, April 11, 2012

want drama? check out the weather

It's true, our California, Nevada and Colorado teammates are typically spoiled with great weather.  Warm, dry, and sunny conditions are common at most of our road events. 

However, 2012 racing has brought on some interesting twists with big winds at the Snelling and Madera Road Races, plus cold rain, and winds at the San Dimas Road Race, to name a few.

April weather seems to be serving up more cold, wet and windy days so I thought I'd share a thought with my junior teammates and with everyone reading this - it may rain at USA Cycling Junior Road Nationals in Augusta, Georgia this June. 

Hopefully this possibility gives meaning and purpose to your training and racing in the rainy, cold and windy days of April.  Why not train in the rain to be prepared for Augusta?

Cheers - Larry Nolan

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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 3rd 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




Monday, April 2, 2012




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