Valley of the Sun Stage Race

Valley of the Sun was a great experience for me. I have never done a big stage race before and I learned how to work and communicate with my teammates so that we could dominate.
The race started off with a 14.2 mile time trial in Buckeye, Arizona (which happens to be in the middle of nowhere). The weather was perfect for a TT because there was not a lot of wind. Team Specialized dominated the entire TT podium with Eamon Lucas 1st, Andrew Lanier Jr. 2nd, and I 3rd. Daniel Farinha was only 6 seconds behind me so I knew that he would be aggressive in the road race and try to take 3rd place from me.
The next day we headed to Casa Grande, Arizona for the road race. The course was a 16.4 mile loop in the middle of the desert with a small climb. We raced 3.5 laps (about 57 miles) in the afternoon. There were many attacks during the road race. James Laberge put in an effective attack and stayed off the front for a while but eventually got caught. About 32 miles into the race, Andrew told me to attack so I went off the front and bridged up to a rider from SC Velo. I worked with him for a couple minutes and then he dropped off and went back to the peloton. I ended up riding 24 miles solo all the way to the finish! I would have never been able to accomplish this without the help of my great teammates. The time bonus for 1st place also helped to reinforce my spot on the podium for overall classification.
On Sunday, we went to Phoenix for the criterium. Our race was 30 minutes and the plan was to lead out James Laberge. With 5 laps to go in the crit, Specialized was all at the front keeping the pace high. With 1.25 laps to go, I started the leadout. Going through the chicane, I almost collided with a lapped rider who swerved right in front of me. I pulled off and Andrew lifted the speed up. The sprint began after the final corner and Eamon crossed the line first and James finished third!
Team Specialized dominated the whole podium for the overall classification in the 17-18 category and also won every stage. I’m looking forward to next stage race with the team!

-Torey Philipp

Cherry Pie

This years Cherry started off the same as the previous two years have done. Cold, but sunny and dry. In case you do not know the course, it is a "p" shaped with a slight uphill finish. I did my usual routine of getting ready/warming up and headed for the start line about 10 minutes before the race was set to start. As the last few times, roll out took a while, in fact we started the race about 8 minutes late. That resulted in the race being 21 minutes long (or should I say 21 minutes short) From the gun there were a few attacks. Cody Tapley (DBC) tried going off a few times, but no success. About halfway into the race, Peter Taylor and Andrew Lanier were off the front. They were obviously working great together and took a 1-2. Knowing we could still fill one of the podium spots with a big "S", we now all looked to James Laberge to take the field sprint. Half way into the last lap, the pace slowed, not the ideal situation before a sprint. I decided to hit the front knowing I could carry James all the way through to the last 250m. As I pulled off at the beginning of the hill, James initiated his sprint, but disaster, he overshifted and his chain fell of his big ring. Luckily, Eemon was still there to take the sprint and James managed a top 5.



The Cat 3's was a whole different story. It started off pretty slow the first few laps, but then attacks came flying from everywhere. A nice break with Andrew and Eemon formed and stayed off the front for a few laps. With about 3 laps to go, Marcus bridged. Unfortunately for them though, they got caught on the line with 1 lap to go. I knew it was my time to shine. I held 5th wheel through the whole last lap, and coming out of the chicane into the last few hundred meters I had the perfect line. With about 200m to go the fellow racer on my left elbowed me out of his way and almost into the curb. This had messed up my plan because I wanted to stay in the draft as long as I could and then pop out at the last second. Anyways, now that I was in the wind, I put it into gear and went. I held on for 5th place. Not bad, but I know I could have done much better.

Peter Taylor was the real star that day. He raced the P/1/2's and bridged to an 11 man gap with Adam Switters. As he was sprinting for second place, he and Ryan Eastman collided and they both went down. Let's all hope he heals soon from his road rash to bring in a great result like that!

Thanks for reading
David Benkoski

EB 1,2 & 3

The EB's have been a great experience. Mentoring was tons of fun, as well as racing with Matt. The camp was AWESOME a lot of bonding time and good riding. EB 2= Good day, perfect weather for racing. Some good racing too. EB 3= Wet, cold, muddy. Good day though, tons of fun. Some crashes(Eamon). It took three cycles in the wash to get my clothes completely clean. Overall the EB's have been a great learning experience, and a time to have fun with the team.
~Jack

camp #2 and early birds

This months camp was filled with lots of fun and riding, thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Larry & Mrs. Nolan for hosting. We went over lots critical teamwork tactics because we will always win as a team not individually. When it came to race day at early birds we all rode there as a TEAM and mentored all the races we could do. The last race of the day was cat 4's which Jack and I planned to do well in  and we did. 

 Today's early birds was cold and wet, our team mentored many races and then hid under the tent for warmth. I figured that this is good for all of us because one day we will have to race in these conditions.  

Watch out America!

Watch out America! Here comes the next generation of the LaBerge's! Welcome Dylan LaBerge! He is yet another sprinter and with his maximum energy, he will be able to out sprint any of his competitors and put them into the dust! Once again, Welcome Dylan LaBerge and watch out America!

Look behind you dummy!

2010 marks my 26th year racing. I like to think that I'm pretty tactically astute, but every once in a while I get a reminder that there are still lessons to learn or re-remember. For me, the Jan 1st San Bruno Hill Climb was just such an occasion.

I'll save the play by play and cut to the chase. Once off the main road and into the park Chris Phipps surged and I was able to follow along with Menso De Jong of Metromint. This separated us from the rest of the pack. A bit later there was another surge and we parted company. Chris and Menso were off to the races and I was doing just fine in between them and the chasing group. I looked back a couple of times and had what looked to be about a 10 second gap to the chasers. That should be plenty is what I though to myself.

One thing that gets drilled into your head over time is "don't look back". There are valid reasons for this. If nothing else I try not to look back too much because I don't want to give the impression that I am dying and praying not to get caught. The LAST thing you want to do is give them more incentive to chase you down!

I probably looked back for the final time at around 400-500 meters to go. Huge gap. Plenty of time. I kept my effort level high, but there was no point in making myself puke, right? Coming up to the line the few spectators were yelling and I kind of tuned it out as just your general kind of "go, go, looking good" encouragement. Or so I assumed. Then, about 10 meters before the line I saw somebody's front wheel under my arm!!! I punched it, but of course it was too late and I got nipped by about 6"! Connor Spencer (Metromint) had attacked out of the chasing group at around 150-200 meters to go and closed the gap while I was riding around with my head up my nether regions. It was a great effort on his part to close that gap, but I had plenty in the tank to hold him off so that it wouldn't have been that close.

But of course I wasn't paying enough attention and it will be a looong time before I am able to swallow that bitter little pill. In the grand scheme of things this doesn't really mean much, and I guess I would rather relearn this lesson at San Bruno than say District's or Nationals. So, I guess I've got that going for me.

Did I mention the person I heard laughing as I got caught at the line??? No, no bitterness here. :-)

Look behind you dummy!

Favorite race of 09

Looking back at 09, I definitely have a new favorite race, Landpark Criterium. For those of you who don't know this race, it is a flat course with a couple very sharp turns. This year I started the jr. race in hopes of getting a good result. First few laps of the race started off as any junior race, many attacks, but most insignificant. I tried launching a few ones, but none succeeded in a break. Eventually Daniel Farinha (SJBC) Zach Wick (Davis Bike Club) and Miguel Henderson (Tieni Duro) were off the front with a significant gap. With about 10 laps to go in the race, I decided I would give it my all and bridge. I went about 600m before the Start/Finish and caught up to them about 3/4 of the way through the next lap. When I hooked on I caught my breath and decided to help rotate through as I saw that our advantage over the pack was increasing. With about 1 laps to go, I put my tired face on and skipped a turn. Henderson went with about 1/2 a lap to go and immediately got about 60m on us. This made Zach Wick try and give a chase, but both Daniel and I were still on his wheel. We eventually caught Henderson and Wick decided to keep drilling it in hopes of powering away, with 200m to go, Farinha came around and launched his sprint to my right, I decided to go to the left, but right as I jumped out of the saddle, Wick closed the narrow gap that I had chosen as my path and I was forced to back off giving Daniel Farinha the win without much challenge, but I still got a decent second place.

This was a great race for me and I hope that my 2010 season will be filled with great results that I will be able to help out teammate to win many races as well.

Happy New Year and Thanks for reading,

-David Benkoski