Team Specialized Racing

Masters Track Worlds Day 4, 5 and 6

2009-10-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

I think I’ve sold 4 Specialized Transitions, as long as they don’t stop making the 2008 model. This road time trial frame has done wonders for my track racing. With rear track dropouts and aerodynamic carbon tubing this is one fast bike!

Masters Track Worlds Day 4, 5 and 6

When I did the sprint tournament in 2008 I felt like I had been in a 15 round boxing match by the end of my 9 full out intensity rides. I scratched on the sprints at the last minute and after watching these great athletes slug it out for two long days (Day 4 and 5) I have absolutely no regret.

Moving on to Day 6 and the final day of the 15th annual UCI Masters Track World Championships (Saturday, October 24, 2009) my head was all over the place for the upcoming points race. I was confident because I had won this event in each of my five championship attempts, I was relaxed because I had already won two titles and I knew the rest days would help me. That being said, I didn’t have all that much confidence with my new sniffly nose and drizzly shits, nor with the most competitive field I had ever faced.

Our morning qualifying ride was cancelled as there were only 23 athletes interested in points racing (lots of sprinters on the list were pulling out), so we moved straight into the final late in the afternoon. I snuck in a nice (very rare) nap and felt slightly better. Sixty laps or 15km in total with sprints every 10 laps. My plan was to not take the win on the first sprint (uses too much energy), not let Steve Daracott (Australia), Bernardo Figueroa (Colombia), Stephane Le Beau (Canada) or Robert Upton (Australia) get up the road without me.

We were rolling it pretty good from the beginning, and when the first sprint lit up I got in line but there was a surge over the top and I didn’t place. I made a silly move after the sprint and rolled away. What a waste of energy. 2nd sprint came up and I was out of position again. We’re heading into 30 to go sprint and I have one point! Time for a quick self-talk… okay, I can still win this if I take the remaining sprints –and- slow the pace so that I’m not attacked. Thankfully I wasn’t attacked by my main rivals and was able to mark the current leaders/ contenders (Stephane and Bernardo). I took the 30 to go sprint, was 2nd in both the 20 and 10 to go sprint, and 4th in the last sprint to win 13 points to Stephane’s 11 points and Jim Rutherford’s 8 points. That, teammates and friends, was one of the most difficult wins I have ever fought for!

Masters Track Worlds (Day 3) Oct. 21

2009-10-21T17:41:00.001-07:00

“Reunions” - that’s how some competitors describe these track championships and I have to admit that I have a lot of fun when I come to these things. The majority of the world would think us odd for taking vacation time to do something like this: race, eat, sleep, do it all over again the next day. I mean one comes to a beautiful place like Sydney and we’re racing in circles, not walking to see sights, sitting on our butts whenever we can and generally have a whole lot of fun doing it.

Two points to this lead-in. To be a world champion, which is one reason why a lot of people come here, one cannot be like the majority. We racers tend to go bed earlier, party a lot less and work a whole lot harder than most would think possible. We ride in the rain, dark and cold to get our aerobic base and we do more intervals than our competitors (at least we think we do!). We skip a lot of extra servings and steer ourselves towards the road less traveled, including walking stairs, not concerning ourselves with parking too close to a store and generally ride where it would be easier to jump in a car. What a strange lot we are. But, we’re a goal driven bunch that emits a positive energy that is usually contagious. It’s a great atmosphere to live in and around.

This is my 6th UCI masters track world championship. Former teammate Vic Copeland was the first to test the competition when he attended the first edition in Manchester, England in 1995. Vic won 9 championships and taught me a lot about being humble, thankful and working really hard for your goals. In 1997 former teammate Glen Winkel went to worlds and won the pursuit and points race. In 1999 I finally had a reason to get a passport though my work and squeezed in the September 1999 event, taking home my first (3km pursuit) and second (points) masters world championships. Our family lived in Belgium in 2001 so I just had to get to Manchester and scored two more wins in the same two events. I continued this two year pattern in 2003 with wins number five and six but was foiled of my pursuit bid in 2005 and “only” won the points race. I skipped 2006 and 2007 so that I could focus on 2008, my 50th year on this spinning globe and the 2km event, which as previously written is well suited for me. Well, it turned out that my myopic focus on the speed that I needed for the 2km win helped to carry me through the other events, including wins in the scratch race (new to the championships in 2007) and the sprints, which was quite the shock (but with 9 rides in 2 days it is an endurance event.

Yesterday (October 21) was scratch race and team sprint day. With a record breaking 430 athletes Day 2 was a 16 hour day of pursuiting. Yikes, no wonder the UCI wants to close down the event! Some groups had their qualifiers in the morning (we had thirty seven riders in two heats to pull 24 into the final). I qualified.

Next up was the team sprint where Reid Schwartz (Chicago, Ill), James Host and I did our best but only managed an 8th place finish.

Twelve hours after the qualifier we’re back on the track for the final. I’m exhausted as this lack of sleep is catching up to me (the awards ceremony for my pursuit win ended around 11:30pm and I was up at 5:30am, simply wide awake with my mind racing about all this racing. I got up and worked. Okay, so I’m tired and I cut a deal with myself. If I win the scratch race I’ll pull out from the sprints and reward myself with two days away from racing. Sold! But, winning is tricky with this BIG S on my back! Americans James Host, Aubrey Gordon and I talk about not chasing eachother. That’s sort of like teamwork, right? James gets into the early move and it looks promising with the 2nd (James) and 3rd place pursuiters (Stephane Le Beau) up the road. Well, Didier Ramet from France bridges across and now the trio is rolling away. After a hard chase by Bernardo, Upton, Rutherford and others the trio is caught but thankfully almost everyone is gassed. I’m talking 30 laps of almost 30mph speeds. 50 year olds can motor! The group is caught with about 8 laps to go, we do our little slower speed dance, I get a close encounter with a guys rear wheel and with 3 laps to go I hit the front. I can’t wait to see this video but for some reason no one attacked and I was able to razor my sprint to the line for the win.

check out: http://photoaction.net.au/site/#/gallery/uci-m5-scr/uci-m5-scr-8107/
for a nice shot of my vee!

A full night of scratch racing, some of the best I have ever watched.

Larry

- note: Rumor has it that the 2010 championships will be held in Lisbon Portugal. Now, there’s a place I’ve not been! Reunions… I love them.

Masters Track Worlds (Day 2) Oct. 20

2009-10-21T09:01:00.001-07:00

2,000meter pursuit is on the schedule. I've been waiting for this event for 6 months (when I decided to return to Sydney) and I've been training for this one for something like forty years. I say that because the 2,000 is optimally suited to my physiology. It took me years to learn that and it’s also one of the reasons why I like to coach people. So that they might reach their goals sooner than later.

For those that didn’t know (but care enough to read this), my athletic background has very humble origins. I ran in high school, college and during the “running boom” but never won a race. I took up triathlons and did pretty bad in the swimming and cycling portions… but, I’m a persistent bloke and slowly got better at cycling. Slowly! I’m talking about 5 years of slow progress and then another 5 years before I found that track cycling suited me well. That’s a long time! How many athletes do you know that are patient enough to stick out 10 years of slow progressive growth? How many give up after one month? One year? I found the track in 1992 so add another 17 years to that 10 and you have a pretty patient athlete!

Onto the race: As the defending champion I’m in the last heat. I not only have the advantage of seeing all the times to beat but I also get the adrenaline rush as the times start to fall. I received another gift when the organizers placed last years 2nd place finisher James Host (Chicago, Ill) in the 2nd to last heat, so now I get to see his time and only need to beat either the competitor across the track in my heat or the most current best time (top two go into the gold ride). Save something for the final, right? Well, it turns out James has a 2:20 in him and sets a very high bar. Yikes, I did a 2:20.119 last year. Do I have a 2:20 in me today just 30 hours after arriving in Australia? Let’s find out, shall we?

As I mentioned, the 2km suits me well because I have a weakness in starting out too quickly and that’s a price that you can not pay back in a 3km or 4km event. But, in the 2km the penalty for starting out too fast is not as great. Yes, I started off too fast. Wouldn’t you? This is the world championships!

Kenny Williams is coaching me through this ride but its his wife Annette that I am thinking about. Wait, that doesn’t sound right (he he). Seriously, Annette set the world record for a 45+ year old woman for 2,000m at 2:31. That’s a smoking time and she would have placed 11th in the M50-54 age group. Back to the story: before the ride Annette is telling me about her new tactic with 2kms. Simply, when she is going out too fast, just continue to throttle it! Instead of backing off, she drives it and hopes the blowup will hold off until late in the race.

So, when I hear “six-oh” from Kenny I know that I cannot hold this speed for the whole eight laps but I stay on the throttle. Turns out that I am up on my schedule (to qualify) and simply decided to roll with it. I qualified first in 1:17.051, a new 50-54 world record.

Okay, I don’t want to sound too petty but here’s the inside scoop. I was in Manchester England when Ian Hallam set this record in 1999. It was an amazing ride to watch and Ian was a great rider, for sure (professional) but what crawled under my skin was that he “retired” from work for a year to win his road and track world championships. Heck, I was laid off in July and decided to start my own financial consulting business. Just last Friday I was at a client for 14 hours. That’s not how I define retirement.

James Host (who is a leap-year baby just like my son Andrew) and I face each other in the final. He appears more nervous than me but he doesn’t realize that I’m exhausted and wondering what’s in my tank! I thought Jim might set out for a scheduled ride (consistent is better than blazing) but he decided to go blazing and hit the first four laps really hard probably hoping to throw me into his game but I stuck to my pace and ended up with a fast ride, a Kookaburra stuffed animal, my gold medal and world championship jersey,

Thanks for reading. Larry

Masters Track Worlds - Day 1 (Oct 19)

2009-10-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Fags... we'll get to that later.

14 hours of flying to Sydney for the UCI Masters Track World Championships and very little sleep (how do people sleep in an upright position? I can't!). I arrive at 7am, get to the hotel at 9am, build up my bike and get on the veldrome by noon. The 500m (aging does not suit all of us!) is the first event and I've signed up not expecting to do well but to a) gain valuable experience with the start gate, b) to do some opening efforts for my goal event the next day and c) improve on my horrible start in 2008.

Since I had not signed in until a few hours before the event the organizers popped me into the first heat to make it easier if I was a no-show. My 35.8 second effort was the time to beat until the last two heats and then it was crushed. Dave LeGrys from Great Britain won in a world record time of 34.4!

Awards ceremony time and he's not to be found... he was outside smoking! Yes, he's a chain smoker and a world record holder too! "Fags" are slang in both Australia and England for cigarettes ;-)

51

2009-10-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

To commemorate your fifty one years of age,
A poem I lay upon this page.

A year since last a celebration held,
It was of no grand occasion
Just friends and bikes and beer for all
Gathered in Australia nation.

The days were long, for it was spring,
(and what beautiful days they were)
So your daughter you thought so nice to bring
(quite generous gift to her)

Above the pacific sea you flew for hours
Alone with your planning of races
While she enjoyed Sydney’s spring showers
And dreamed of seeing new places

You rode like the wind (if it possessed wheels)
And fought the champions title
Challenged the competition, never kicked up your heals
For success was extremely vital

Hard work produced a medal and cheers
A new jersey and a nice koala
So we settled in for birthday beers
Too bad nothing rhymes with koala

You biked that day and the days before
Worked too hard and got kind of sore
You donned tight pants and a silly little hat
We all know you enjoy walking around like that

On that day it was fifty years
Since you joined this messy place
Fifty years of sweat and tears
Created a champion in that race

It was a birthday to remember, yes
But from last years story I digress…
For this year you are fifty ONE
And when you hear that starting gun
Think of family, think of Joe
Think of a squeaky “go-daddy-go”
And while you are so far away
Remember these wise words I say
You should hold every single birthday dear
Whether north or southern hemisphere.

Aubrey Leigh Nolan, our 23 year old daughter.
I love you girl!
Oh man am I ready for worlds...

2009 ain't over yet

2009-09-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

iPhone over the helmet shot of the group ride yesterday. Our team gathered for a ride and eats and fun.

5 potential 2010 recruits + 3 parents + 8 juniors + 7 masters = motivation to push the pace on Palomares which is one of my favorite climbs with a new personal record of 17:43. 261 recorded climbs since 1991 and yesterday was my fastest! Getting old does not have to mean we slow down (although Peter Taylor beat me to the top!)

How is your off-season going? I won't know until after Master Worlds in Sydney (Oct 19-24) but our team is SOOOOOO looking forward to 2010.

Madison Camp (Sept 5-12) summary

2009-09-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

Look, no one is sleeping!

Okay, so I ran out of time and didn’t post updates while I was in Colorado. Overall, I had a great time over the 10 days that I was away from home. Coaching at a National Camp has been my dream for many years and I hope to have more opportunities in the future. I learned a lot from Clay Worthington and from the athletes too. The other coaches were inspirational - Colby Pierce (Livestrong) joined us on days 6 though 8, and Cari Higgins (Proman) was there all week.

“That’s an accident waiting to happen” was my very first reaction when I saw a Madison about 15 years ago. If not schooled correctly, it’s easy to see most Madison races that way. It has been Clay’s ambition to change Madison races to be run off more like points races than shattered fields of riders. Obviously, I’m not the best Madison rider around (although I’ve won 6 state championships with 5 different partners ;-). Even still, I now fully appreciate that Clay tossed these national caliber athletes into the most sophisticated of cycling events and that the athletes responded without fear and with confidence.

Day 5- day after the rest day and you begin to understand why stage racers work their rest day! The group looks groggy and out of sorts.

Day 6- energy is back up as we have a morning session and then an option to race at night. It’s the final Madison event of the year in COS. We’ve got 4 junior teams duking it out with Colby and his teammate. The juniors score 2nd, 4th and 5th in the 40L chase, 5L scratch, 15L scratch, 80L chase format. Yours truly was DQ’d for dropping back and helping out one of the junior teams. Doh!

Day 7- 30mph winds kept us off the track so we were back in the classroom and then on the road in the afternoon.

Fast forward to Day 8 (Saturday, September 12) and we are looking at 12 teams of two riders exchanging in harmony, so much more coordinated than back on Day 2. Riders are staying on the pedals before and during the exchanges, relief riders better understand their roles and drop down with precision, exchanges are made powerfully and the speeds are up! Wow, what a week!

577km (358 miles) in 8 days! Great memories.

Madison Camp (Day 4) Garden of the Gods

2009-09-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Clay, Zack, Austin, Matt, Andrew, Colton

Junior National Madison Camp, Colorado Springs, CO – Day 3 and 4

2009-09-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Teammate Andrew Lanier Jr. and Matt Baranoski (Buck’s County, PA) hamming it up next to the USA Cycling that I’ve been driving all week.

Day 3 – another 4 hours at the track. 30 laps warm-up around 25mph in an 86 or 88 then 10 laps full gas burning most of the riders off, BUT today more stayed on longer than the first two days so we’re seeing progress.

We moved immediately to a Madison paceline warm-up and we’re seeing huge progress with the group of 13 teams of riders and their exchanges. That’s 26 riders on the track at the same time! The chaos is becoming organized! Two - twenty minute sessions with some solid instruction has these kids improving every hour.

Then the fun began. We stayed with our partners and did a flying 2km test. 3 weeks ago I broke my old national record at this distance (the 50+ year old pursuit distance) here at the Springs so this distance is obviously one of my strengths. But, we’re not talking about aero equipment, we’re talking about two riders slinging each other maybe 4 to 6 times in 2km. This is a real test because the higher speeds accentuate any exchange flaws the partners may have. It’s a great learning tool. About 10 of the 13 teams went under my 2:19.661 record with the winning time of Matt Baranoski (15-16 National Omnium Champ) and Colton Barrett (17-18 National Spring Champ) just around 2:08.5. That’s a respectable time, around 57.5kph!

Day 2 – afternoon and we were in the classroom to learn more about the fine intricacies of the Madison and to hear about the USA Cycling Track Endurance Program. We shuffled some kids around and then sat down for a 3 hour dinner with Clay. I am fully supportive of his initiative to improve Madison racing in America. So much so that I’m going to change my Tuesday night format to Madisons. Initial thoughts: Partner match-ups at 6:30pm, Madison warm-up at 6:45pm, two Scratch races, Miss and Out (together), two points races, final Madison, with all scoring done as a team. Feedback is encouraged.

Day 4- its our off-day today so we are planning a ride from the OTC out to the Garden of the Gods, followed by a nap!

Just to give you an idea of the quality of riders attending this camp:
Danny Heeley (CA) – Jr Madison National champion
Ian Moir (CA) – Jr 17-18 pursuit National champion
Matt Barnoski (PA) – Jr 15-16 Omnium National champion
Andrew Lanier (CA) – Jr 15-16 Points Race winner (part of omnium)
Zack Stein (CA) – Jr 17-18 Points Race National champion
John Tomlinson (IL) – Jr 17-18 Scratch Race National champion
Michael Dessau (CO) – Jr 13-14 ITT and RR National champion
Dave Kessler (CO) – Jr 15-16 RR National champion
Yannick Eckman (CO) – Jr 15-16 ITT National champion
Colton Barrett (MN) – Jr 17-18 sprint National champion
And, many more talented athletes! What an honor it is for me to work with these young athletes!

Speaking of young athletes, my 20 year old daughter Thea scored a goal for Fullerton yesterday!

Ain’t life wonderful?

Larry

Junior National Madison Camp, Colorado Springs, CO – Day 1 and 2

2009-09-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

A handful of cyclists in the Olympic Rings

Labor Day Weekend Hot Air Ballon festival just outside the COS Velodrome!

Clay Worthington is the USA National U25 endurance track coach and talent identification manager. He’s also responsible for all of the regional camps across the US. I met Clay when we were organizing the western regional camp. He came out to observe and help at our June camp. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to assist him during the Sept. 4-13 madison camp.

Teammate Andrew Lanier Jr was invited to the camp as was local talent Daniel Farinha (San Jose).

Neal Henderson (Taylor Phinney’s coach), Cari Higgins (Proman) and a few other coaches are here to help too.

Day 1 – Clay invited 22 of the best road and track junior athletes in the US. Clay laid out the rules and number one (as it should be) is safety. These kids are amazingly talented yet some had not ridden on a track before. The grand goal of Clay’s ambitions is to raise the level of Madison racing in America. The madison is arguably the most complex event in all of cycling. Guy East and Austin Carroll helped get lift off last year when they won U25 races in Europe. Daniel Holloway and Colby Pierce helped add credibility when they won pro six-day races. To raise skill and tactical levels of brand new track racers to these high standards seems lofty, but Clay dreams big –and- teaches in the detail so that these athletes simply “get it”. In today’s three hour session on the track we dove right into team pursuiting. Not the easiest skills (speed of pull, position in the draft, communicating while anaerobic, swinging off, latching back on, recovering to do it again) to aquire. All 22 riders raised their game in a relatively short period of time.

Day 1 afternoon road ride from the Olympic Training Center towards Pikes Peak (only 420m of climbing) helped to tucker these young athletes out (but only until they recharged their energy)

Day 2 – back to the track for 3 hours and we dive right into Madison exchanges after our paceline work. Amazing! I’ve been track racing for 17 years, I’m a supervisor at the San Jose Track and I’m the promoter of Tuesday Night Points races but until today I never would have thought that a rider with 3 hours experience could do a Madison exchange. These kids handled everything tossed at them. We practiced paceline Madison riding with 26 riders on the track repeatedly, with breaks for Clay to provide feedback, and the improvement with all of the riders was totally exciting to witness.

Day 2 afternoon road ride from the Olympic Training Center. No climbing but we did get rained on. When we turned to come back to the OTC we had the rain chasing us so the young men turned on the juice and throttled it for a nice 10 mile stretch into the wind. Like I said, these are some very talented athletes and I am very fortunate to be here to help. 80 miles in my legs today and I’m starting to eat like a teenager! Not really. Most of the OTC campers did 4 meals today (he he)

Good night!

Cheating Death

2009-09-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the Altamont Team Time Trial which was also the District TTT Championship. It was the same course that Larry, Rob, Mick and I raced on in the spring, with a few miles added on to make it 40km. This time around our team was Rob, Craig, myself and Mark Volkman who stepped in for Mick when he got sick this week. We raced in the 35+ group.

We knew it would be windy today. It was windy in the spring and well, they put the windmills here for a reason! But hey, it wasn't THAT bad in the spring.

What followed was probably the most frightening 59:50 I've ever spent on my bike! Every thing was fine until we made it over Altamont Pass on the way out. As expected we got going pretty fast on the back side. What I didn't expect was the HUGE side wind gusts. Let's just say that getting moved across the center line at 50mph is NOT fun. My max speed was 52.5mph. I spent one mile where I averaged 45mph!!! I certainly wasn't in the aero bars and I likely wasn't pedaling much either! All told I probably spent less than 15 minutes in the aero bars and on some of those fast sections I wasn't even trying to go fast, I was just trying to control my bike and not go down. There were a number of occasions where we'd get blow over, get a speed wobble and fight like hell to get back in control so we could go again.

Poor Rob at 135 lbs was getting blown all over the place. We finally had to leave him as it was just too hard to stay in the pace line for him while he was getting blown all over. It was bad enough at 165 lbs...

We hit the turn around in 21:35 for an average speed of 34.7mph! On the way back there were sections where we were riding three abreast because the side wind was so bad. Where even in the "draft" I was putting out over huge watts just to stay on. This was the cross wind section. When we turned back into the teeth of the wind and started climbing back over Altamont Pass it was at least safe. But it was SLOW. I looked down during one of my pulls and saw that I was putting out 400W in my aero bars and going 13mph in my 39x21. Our return trip took 38:15 at 19.1mph.

We were the only team to break 1 hour. I have only once gone this slow in an individual 40km TT. Afterward, everybody I spoke to was in agreement that this was the scariest thing we had ever done on our bike. We all agreed that we spent far more energy on not crashing than riding fast on the way out. In retrospect a road bike with clip on bars and something like Zipp 404's front and rear would probably have been faster than our TT bikes today!

Happily as far as I know all the teams made it through and kept the rubber side down.

Specialized Junior wins Elite District Track Championships

2009-08-31T20:27:00.001-07:00

I've been racing the track since 1992, and I can't recall the last time a junior won the elite track championships. Certainly not a kilo or 4km pursuit. Maybe Daniel Holloway won a points race, but I'll have to check the records.

Our teammate Charlie Avis won the 4km individual pursuit on Saturday! Boy, did he look smooth out there. Not only that but somehow Ruggy Holloway talked him into doing a kilometer less than an hour before his targeted event. He posted a very respectable 1:10.84 in the kilo (good for 4th) and then took to negative spliting the pursuit. Check out this pace...

29.0, 25.4, 25.4 = 1:19.8 1st km
24.6, 23.9, 23.9 = 1:12.4 2nd km, 2:32.2 after 2km
23.9, 24.0, 24.1 = 1:12.2 3rd km, 3:44.4 after 3km
24.1, 24.3, 23.5 = 1.11.0 last km, 4:56.3 and winner of his first elite championship!

For those that care, 25.0 laps are 30mph and a 23.5 is 31.8mph! Sub- 5:00 on the San Jose track is respectiable. I'm thinking that Charlie could roll a 4:50 in his next try.

Not to sound boastful but Charlie was a great student. Robert Meyer (Metromint) had posted a 4:57.6 in the ride just before Charlie and Charlie responded very well to my shouting encouragement and asking him to pick up the pace!

Vacaville GP

2009-08-31T17:14:00.001-07:00

I showed up to the Vacaville GP not really sure of what I was getting myself into. I had overheard on local group rides that there was a hill in the course. When I got there my dad and I walked around the course once. The course itself is over a mile long! When I saw the hill I wasn't too worried at first as I knew that it was a straight up power hill. After walking around the course and doing the usual warm up/goofing around with teammates, we lined up at the start. I was already not feeling to well, I had a stomach ache and was tired and nauseous all over. At first I thought it was the usual stress you get at the start of any race ( I later realized that it was because I was sick). When the race started, the first lap was pretty contained with almost no attacks or surges. A few laps in a break of 4 including local junior Sam Bolster. I had watched the previous race and saw that the winning break went very early on. I decided to make my move and bridge up with 13 laps to go (out of 15). Within 1/2 a lap we got brought back. I stayed middle/front of the pack for most of the race until 5 laps to go when on the back side my bottle came lose and I had to slow down to fix it, this brought me to the back of the pack. With 1 lap to go I managed to move up to top 2o on the hill, but unfortunately I was pinched between two riders in the last turn who just could not hold their line. That meant that coming out of the last turn I had fallen back to about 30th. Realizing that sprinting for 25th would be stupid and dangerous, I just shut it off right there and drifted back to about 40th. Hopefully next week at the Giro di San Francisco I can do better and get some upgrade points!

Thanks for reading,

-David

First race in Belgium

2009-08-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Lovendegem, Belgium. The course was a 5KM loop with narrow roads and a 700 meter stretch of nasty cobble stones. The finish was near the end of the cobble section. We did a total of 12 laps, 60KM and I think 114 riders started. We went out really fast with everyone fighting for position on a road that could only fit about 3 cars; then we had a narrow right hand turn where you could barely fit 1 car. Right away a big crash happened right there and I was forced to go off road to get around them. I then had to stay in a group of riders trying to catch back up to the pack. When we got to the cobble stone section, it was the roughest and bumpiest road I had ever ridden on. I followed rider's wheels to save energy and eventually we caught the peloton. More crashes happened -there was a crash on every lap. I eventually cramped up after trying catch back on again and lost the peloton half way into the race. A small group of riders caught up to me and for the next 3 laps I stayed in that group as we caught rider after rider that had been dropped. At 9 laps done our group was pulled from the race because we had lost too much time on the peloton. Hopefully next week I will have a better race with no cobbles (thank God) and several climbs (in Ooike).

Alistair

15-16 National RR

2009-08-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

The road race was a long, hard, but also annoying road race. We started our 75 km road race. It was 14 laps around this 5 km loop, including a roundabout , that we had to take the long way around (I have no clue why they made us do that). 2 km into the race, Allistair unfortunately crashed, and we were hoping it would be a good day for him. Chris also got in the thick of this crash, so his race was over too. Then, 3 laps into our race, Andrew got a flat, and the neutral support guys took over a minute to change a front wheel! it was surprising for a national event! He tried to chase back on, but couldn't. then, it was Marcus, David, and I. 4 laps into the race, Paul Lynch attack out of the group and I followed him. Right after me, it was Yannick Eckmann, and David Kessler( both 5280 squad) followed me. We got into a break, and 3 km later, we got a 40+ second gap! We were flying! After about those 3 km, I could hold on. I popped off and went back to the field. Eventually, that was the winning break, with Kessler winning the road race.Then, about 5 laps later, there was a crash on the back stretch, and David got in that crash, so his day was done then too! After that group of 3 were up the road and gone, nobody wanted to do any work. with about 5 laps to go, somehow a group of 4 formed up the road, and so, I tried to catch them by attacking out of the group, but couldn't catch them, and nobody would help me catch them at all! It got really annoying! So, it came down to a sprint for 8th place, and I finished up there in 12th, and Marcus finished 21st. It was an okay day for the team, but there was some bad luck with 4 of our guys crashing, or flating, and with me not being able to hold on to the wheel in the breakaway.

--James LaBerge

James's 15-16 National Crit

2009-08-07T12:44:00.001-07:00

After a little misunderstanding between James and I we each wrote entries about the National Crit. As you all know, two people never see the same race the same way. So here is James's view of the Crit.

After the race, this race was definitely the hardest, but the most fun race to watch throughout the whole day! Even USA Cycling said that our race was the most exciting race of the day! We had a field of about 70 guys, ans part of the course goes through a brewery, so the road was really small. The race started, and as I guessed, there was a huge pile up going around the first turn. This probably took out about a quarter of the field including 3 of my teammates( David, Chris, and Allistair)! Right after the crash, Yannick Eckmann(5280) attacked and had a gap. He had the field strung out for 9 out of the 25 laps on our 1km course. Our lap times were a speedy 1:30 about every time we went through those first 9 laps! Eventually, we caught Yannick, then Andrew put in some good attacks and brought back a lot of guys that would try to break away. While Andrew was doing all the work, Marcus and I were sitting in the pack waiting for the sprint or the right time to attack. The race settled down, and with one lap to go, there was either a split in the field, or a crash, but I do know that all the sprinters were up in the lead group , including me. Marcus then bridged up to my group of about 10, and went straight by us and attacked out of the group, and surprisingly, nobody jumped onto his wheel! Then, two 5280 guys were on the front, just keeping Marcus in striking distance with me right behind them and Cory Williams behind me. With about 300 meters to go, Marcus was still right in front of us, and I started my sprint! Unfortunately, as I started my sprint one of the 5280 guys started moving over, moving me into the sidewalk. So, I had to slow down. As I shad to slow down Cory Williams started his sprint, and there was nothing that I could do. I had to take the last bend on the very outside. Cory Williams eventually won the sprint. I ended up finishing in 4th, and Marcus 6th; best for 15 year olds! Congrats Marcus! As I look back now, I should have followed Marcus when he attacked because I could have started my sprint in front of everybody else and not have to worry about trying to get around anybody to start my sprint. In Conclusion, it was a great team effort, and this 15-16 squad received a medal at nationals!

Nationals Crit 17-18

2009-08-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

On the day of the Nationals 17-18 Criterium things were going very well for the team. Charlie had won the 17-18 Time Trial and Marcus and James both got close to the win in the 15-16s Criterium, not to mention that we had achieved a season long goal of shaving everyones head. Joel and I were the only two racing in the final junior event at Nationals and I hoped to continue the team’s success. The start was faster than I expected, but I soon found a comfortable place in the field. Joel moved me up on a couple occasions when I moved too far back in the field. This type of teamwork is rare at Nationals where everyone wants a good result for themselves. With twelve laps to go a break of three riders that would end up staying away was about 15 seconds up the road. And 10 seconds up the road was another chase group of three. I bridged up to this group, but our group was caught by the field with 5 laps to go. I recovered for the sprint and finished 9th to cap off a successful Nationals.

15-16 National Crit

2009-08-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had our 15-16 crit. The course was short with a small hill on the back side. I was called up to the line because of last year's results. David Benkoski lined up next to me. In the first turn there was a crash and David almost went down, but kept both of us up. We had to unclip and get around the crash before sprinting up to the pack again. For the rest of the race small attacks went up the road with Andrew and James, while sat in and followed the wheels. With two laps to go, Andrew and I were set up well about 10 back, but a crash pushed both of us in 20th. James was in front of the crash and I worked my way up to him. On the last lap a 9 man break with all the sprinters (including James) got a small gap on the climb. I jumped across the gap and caught the sprinters who were looking at each other to work. I attacked them and got a gap through some turns. James got in 3rd spot and waited for the sprint. I don't remember much more then with 50m have 5 riders pass me. I finished 6th and James finished 4th. It was great teamwork because Andrew and James early attacks set up my attack and James's sprint.

Tour of the Red River Gorge

2009-07-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Like most days when we have a local juniors race, we had an early wake up call, however this time it was to get to the airport for our early flight to Louisville, Kentucky. Upon arrival at the airport, the four of us who would be travelling together (me, Peter, and our two guest riders – Daniel Farinha from SJBC and Cody Tapley from Davis Bike Club) checked in our bikes and bags and began the trek though security. With time to kill, we found seats near our terminal and pulled out our various cycling magazines and breakfast foods. We hopped on the plane, found our seats (happily I got an exit row seat without a seat in front of me), and relaxed until we landed in Chicago. After an hour and a half lay over in Chicago, we were on our way to our final destination.

"Howdy y'all" greeted us over the PA system in the Louisville. All the luggage made it with the exception of Cody’s bag of clothes. Picking it up the next day was not a problem as another trip to the airport was required to pick up Daniel Tisdell. Billy and Craig, who supported us on the trip, picked us up and took us to our hotel in Lexington. In an effort to get us accustomed to the time zone, Billy and Craig gave us a strict 6 a.m. wakeup call, and boy was that tough. Little did they know that after a 6:30 breakfast we all went back to sleep for two hours. We spent the next day and a half riding the TT course a couple of times, driving the two road race courses, and taking in all the glory that Kentucky had to offer. Tuesday was our first day of racing, a double day – a 1 mile prologue in the morning and a 100km road race in the afternoon. Cody was first off and his TT bike did not pass the newest UCI rule which had apparently become effective only two days before the race. So he, like many others, were on their road bikes. One by one we went off and came back, none of us knowing exactly what our times were or how we stacked up against the current leader. Finally it was Charlie’s turn. He headed out and came back with the winning time! (at least that is what we gathered from the excitement in the announcer’s voice). Charlie’s time held through the few remaining riders.

Team Specialized was in the yellow jersey and it was time to defend it. As many of us expected, stage two began fairly fast. The riding was sketchy further back in the pack, so the team tried to stay near the front without putting our noses into the wind. After a few weak attacks from the pack, our very own Daniel T was able to get into a small breakaway that stuck for almost the entire race. The other five of us had our own jobs and team goals for the race, but it relieved some pressure by having a teammate in the early break. Going through the feed zone the pace began to pick up and continued hard into and through town to the intermediate sprint point. As we made our way out of town a group of about 12 riders went off the front and got a gap on thepack – but no Specialized riders were in the group. We spent the next portion of the race getting to the front and pulling back as much time on the group as we could. However, with so many teams represented in the break it was hard getting enough riders to work and the group ahead began to gain time. Charlie tried to follow wheels up to the break but was unsuccessful. Daniel F tried the same later in the race but was also unsuccessful. It was a very hot day and we were in desperate need for more water. I made one successful trip back to the team car for water but when I went back again, my bars turned into the car door, I bounced off the car and went flying across and off the road. I stayed upright but every single muscle in my legs cramped. Eventually I got back on my bike and had a mechanic give me a push, but it was too late to catch back on to the pack. I rode the last 15 km with one other rider who was dropped from the group. We finished the day with five of our six in the main group about one minute back from the new leader. And so we began our recovery for the next day.

Wednesday was the longer time trial, a 23 km out and back course with a few big rollers. Both Cody and took it easy today as there was no time cut and neither of us were in contention for the leader's jersey. Once I was done with my recovery ride/TT, the bigger namesstarted their rides. We were unsure how our guys would stack up and it became a waiting game. We waited and waited and were still unsure of the results as we packed up and headed out, but we did know we did not reclaim the leader's jersey.

Thursday was the much anticipated, very hilly, final road race stage of the tour. It was 115 km long with supposedly 8000 feet of climbing. The race started out at the bottom of the Red River Gorge – this was actually the first time that we saw the Red River. The pace was fast from the gun and continued fast over the top of the first climb, but then settled in to an easier pace over the next 20 km of rollers. As we made our first descent Daniel T. had a flat tire and had to drop pretty far back to get a new wheel. Just as he was catching the pack on the same descent there was a big crash, caused by the stupidity of a few riders. Daniel ended up going down, while the rest of us were comfortably ahead of it. A few kilometers after the feed zone we turned up the second of the four major climbs. The most steady of the four, this climb had a tunnel at the top for the riders to negotiate before making a descent into yet another section of rollers. While there was very little separation in the field on the climb, once the group got to the tunnel everything split. Unable to see more than 3 feet in front of ourselves, we were forced to ride at a very slow rate, while the front of the group cruised right through. After making it safely out of the tunnel we began the descent. Trying to chase back to the lead group there were a number of riders who completely missed turns. Watching riders go shooting of the road I began to descend more cautiously. With the help of about 5 other riders we made it back to the group just in time. After making it back up to the front third of the group there was yet another crash at the back of the field. This time it was Peter who had the unfortunate luck to be caught in the crash. A little cut up and completely covered in mud he began his chase, but was unable to catch the group. With about 45 km left we began our ascent up the third climb. At the base of the climb an HPC/Garmin rider attacked and Daniel F attempted to follow. After getting swallowed back up by the group, both he and I started to drift further and further back. Just as Charlie and Billy had predicted, the split was occurring on the third and hardest climb. Cresting the steepest section of the climb Daniel and I formed up with a group that quickly began to grow. As team cars came around our group, I knew that the selection was going to stick, and that Charlie was the only Specialized rider to have made the split. The next hour and a half of racing was quite uneventful in our group. As we came into the finish line Daniel F. was able to get 2nd in our group sprint, finishing around 20th overall on the stage. We later heard that from the lead group of about twenty, five riders broke off, then dropped one, and came to the line together. Both Cody and Peter rolled in more or less by themselves, with Peter coming in just minutes before the time cut. We would be starting the crit the next day with five of our six riders, as Daniel was unable to finish the stage.

Friday night was our final race, a downtown crit in Lexington. A six corner course with strong
winds on both the uphill and flatter sections was going to make for a very hard race. With nothing to lose our plan was to be aggressive and try and get in an early breakaway. When we got the whistle to start the race there seemed to be plenty of guys willing to make it a hard race, which meant it was tough to even get to the front. Both Charlie and I were fairly active for the first half of the race, but were unable to get in a break. With about 30 minutes left in the race a few riders got off and were joined later by another two. That break stuck for the remainder of the race and took the podium. Charlie attempted to take a flyer with two laps to go, but as was the case for the entire race, he was a marked rider and the pack did not let him escape. Riding on the leadout train of Hot Tubes I was able to go into the field sprint with great positioning and finished 5th in the field sprint and 9th overall.

Overall, the race was a great learning experience for everyone. We got in some good hard racing just in time for nationals. It was also a really fun trip and I look forward to returning next year and putting in a strong team performance.

Watsonville 3's

2009-07-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

Watsonville for me was supposed to be more of a "training race", something not too important, but once I smelled the finish line and thought about winning, in my head I had to give it all. The race started as usual, the whistle blew and we were up the hill. The course at watsonville has a hill that resembles the one from Cherry pie. It also has 2 near 180 degree turns and three 90 degree turns. Since I had already won at Cherry Pie on a similar hill, I knew I would have an advantage in the sprint. That idea was soon gone when a 2 man break went only 4 miles into the 24 mile race. My dad was yelling the time gap (in french) and it soon got to almost 30 seconds. A few guys brought the gap down to around 15 seconds, and I decided to jump across. It took almost 3 laps for me to catch them. We held off the front with about a 20 second gap until about 4 laps to go ( a little over 4 miles). Our lead was wipped out in less than 1 lap. With about 3 laps to go I knew it would come down to a sprint. I sat in and recovered as best I can knowing I would try to contest the sprint. With 1 to go I was 3rd wheel. A rider from SJBC (who happened to be about 6'5" tall-best draft) decided to lead it out for all of us. I very aggressively fought to get on his wheel. Coming around the last turn I was 2nd and with about 300m to go I went. I started my sprint with the best pop I think I ever had, slowed down a bit, and then had a second kick of acceleration with about 75m to go which gave me a clear lead over everyone. I went across the line first. I was so happy. I know that having a pair of Zipp 404's and my Tarmac SL2 frame definitely helped with both aerodynamics and stiffness.

Hopefully I will pull the same result at nationals!

Thanks for reading.

Track Nationals

2009-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sprints

One of my weakest events of all the four events in my omnium, the sprints are actually two events but count as one. The first event is a flying 200 meter time trial. In my warm up I was able to do a 13.2 sec

ond 200. Although that sounds slow, for me that was a personal best and I did it even with a lot of other people on the track. This was good news to me. I was hoping with no people on the track and the legs fully warmed up, I would be able to go even faster. Once I was on the track for the real deal, I had three laps to wind up and do the 200 meters. I felt that I had a g

ood wind up, but when I stood to jump, I had the jitterbugs,I tensed up and sat down too early. I was not able to get up to max speed and did a 13.7. The flying 200 is used to seed people for the match sprints (a two or three lap (depends on the track) race between two people) but only the top eight from the flying 200 were chosen to move on to the match sprints. So I did not make it onto the match sprints, which was a bummer but I still had three more races: the scratch race, points race, and 500 meter time-trial.

Scratch Race

My next race was a 32 lap scratch race, but before that I had to place in the top eight of my heat that morning. I was able to make it into the final and decided that I wanted to try and break away to get some omnium points. In the race I tried attacking repeated times, but was unsuccessful. One group of about four riders was able to get a gap and get away, but they were pulled back in. By now I knew it was probably come down to a sprint and I also knew that I could not out sprint the top guys, but I could hang onto their wheels and still get some omnium points. With a little over two to go, the pace started to pick up and lucky

for me I was toward the front with the top guys. When we hit the back side of the track with one and a half laps to go, the sprint started. My legs were now feeling my attacks from earlier in the race, a

nd I was not able to stay with the leaders and was floating towards the back of the group. I ended up finishing 12th place with no omnium points.

Points Race

See video.

500 Meter Time Trail

My last event for my omnium, was a 500 meter time trial. Not one of my strongest events because of the standing start, but I was hoping that I would be able to at least hold onto my podium position for the omnium. I had been working on my start for most of the year, I was just hoping all the work would pay off. When I got to starting block, I was informed that the other rider that was starting on the other side of the track was warned for delaying the start, and the official also told me to just relax. I was not even clipped in and the 20 second count down went off. I guess the starter thought both myself and the other rider were ready. Lucky for me though, I was able to get clipped in and all set before the last ten seconds of the count down. My form was okay in my start, but I just could not get as fast as the top guys. I ended up doing a 39.668 second 500, which was a personal best for me, but Corey Williams won it with a time of 36.025! This meant he had 10 omnium points and I only had 7. Thankfully I was able to hold onto 5th place and still make it on the podium.

Team Sprint

Just for fun, and hopefully another medal, Joel and myself decided to try and find another person and do the team sprint. We did the event last year, with Daniel Farinha (SJBC) This year Daniel was doing it with two of his teammates (Eddie Zhang, and Vincent Juarez both on SJBC) We were able to convince the 3rd place rider in the Kilo, Danny Hiller (5280 Magazine) to be our 3rd rider. We decided to have Joel first, myself second, and Danny third. We qualified 2nd place with a time of 54.947 seconds. This meant that we moved onto the gold round in the final and could possibly win a gold medal. We just needed to go four seconds faster to match the first place team’s qualifying time. In the final we improved our time by a 1/2 of a second to a 54.443, but the first place team did a 49.724! So we got a silver medal, but we were not complaining, it was much shinier than the bronze medals!

15/16 overall omnium
Points Race Final
Team Sprint

Bouncing back 101

2009-07-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I broke my collarbone at Nevada City. Dylan was 1st and Kevin was 3rd in the M35 race and I was in position to win the M45 race (we started together) when I took turn two too fast and dumped it.

Since then I've been doing Tour de France commercial intervals on my turbo trainer. Last weekend I felt so good I started to think about the State Championships that were coming up this weekend. Yes, I'm a goal driven person! How bad could it be to race a 2km time trial?

I won my 101st State Championship yesterday. I'm sorry, but its an occupational hazard to count these things. My first State Championship back in 1991 was a good memory (12 months after getting clobbered by a triple trailer truck) and so is this one! My collarbone is not fully recovered but I'm bouncing back faster than I thought I might. I'm ready to sign up for Track Nationals in Colorado (5 weeks) and give it another go at Track Worlds in Australia (14 weeks).

Political view: I'm in favor of "master" being redefined as a 40+ year old -and- track championships move to 10 year age groups. There were only five of us in the M50-54 2km event yesterday and that was a relatively large field!

The victory!!!

2009-07-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Winning the 2009 Masters National Road Racing Championships (40-44 years).

Craig Roemer - National Champion

2009-06-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

Gold Nugget Stage Race

2009-06-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Stage 1: Mass start hillclimb

The hillclimb started at 5pm and was 9 miles long with 6 miles of rolling hills and a steep 3 mile climb. At the start, I sat in the group to not waste any energy, then when the hill started, I began to ride at a fast pace and when we only had less than halfway up the climb to go, it was only Chris Flanagan (Team Swift) and me. I attacked him several times, but he matched all of them. I didn't know where the finish line was and when I saw an official near the top I started sprinting. Unfortunately, my sprint was too early and Chris won by 5 seconds plus a 3 sec bonus time, so I was 8 seconds off Chris.

Stage 2: Greeley Hill RR

It was a 5 mile loop with only one climb at the end and we had to do nine laps for a total of 45 miles.

The first half of the race I sat in and followed attacks. With 5 laps to go there was a breakaway

of two riders: Bjorn Fox and Alex Freund. I attacked and only Tyler Hanson could follow. We worked together to catch the breakaway and when we did we all started working together. With 2 laps to go Alex and Tyler were dropped. With one lap to go Bjorn broke away and I couldn't catch him. He went over the top first. I knew he was 1:02 behind me from the day before and when I crossed the finish line to take 2nd place, he was 19 seconds behind me in the GC. Chris caught Tyler and Alex and got 3rd in the stage, and he was now 33 seconds behind me in the GC, making me the leader.

Stage 3: Toll Road TT

Stage 3 was in the afternoon after stage 2. I started out with a steady pace, but was tired because of the RR I had done in the morning. I got 2nd in the stage and Chris won by 23 seconds over me, leaving me with only a 10 second lead. That was a problem because the time bonuses for the last stage were 20s for 1st, 10s for 2nd, and 5s for 3rd, which means I could not let him win the final stage because that would tie us and then he would win because of the stage wins.

Stage 4: Bootjack RR

A 12 mile loop with 1,300 ft of climbing and we did 3 laps for a total of 36 miles and 3,900 ft of climbing. I decided to stay behind Chris for the whole race and watch him. Best would be to have a field sprint so he couldn't take the time bonus but the chances of that happening were slim because of the climbing.

Many people attacked and Chris chased them down, while I sat on his wheel saving energy. With one lap to go more attacks followed from Bjorn Fox who now was over minute behind me on GC. Chris chased them down again and I still stayed on his wheel. I attacked once when Chris was in the back, and got away from the field. I let Chris chase me down.

The last attack came from a SoCal rider on one of the climbs. Chris climbed at his max speed and flew right past him, dropping everyone in the field except me. He asked me to work with him to get away from the others but I didn't lift a finger. He then pulled me all up the last hill, where there was a right turn with about 200m to go, all of it uphill. Just before the right turn, I came around him and took the turn as narrow as I could go. I sprinted to the line and won by 2 seconds and got a 10 second time bonus over him, increasing my lead to 22 seconds to win the GC and a stage win.

Next time we should get the rest of the team to come,

Great race for team work.