Ok, so not a lot of news lately, sorry for that. I’ve been extremely busy between planning our trips, traveling and racing… and the lack of internet access also didn’t help. So here’s the rundown on the last 3 weeks of racing.
First up: Mississippi Gran Prix. The weekend went ok but not as good as we had hoped. We finished 5th, 6th and 7th in GC, Peter and I were in a break in the road race and got caught within the last 10 meters and we finished 2nd in Team GC. All right but we had come there with higher goals…
Next: Matrix Challenge. On Saturday I ended up in the winning break but didn’t feel too good so I was hoping that the guys would bring it back so we could set up Andrew. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I finished 4th out of the 4-man-break… Sunday, we held it together for a sprint but Andrew got pinched in the last turn and couldn’t get the result we were hoping for, I think it was 6th or so. Again not what we had hoped for.
Finally: Speedweek. We hopped in the van right after Matrix and drove the 17 hours to Baufort, SC for our first shot at one of the Speedweek crits. Considering the drive and the fact that the crit was one of the faster ones we did all right, Benji came in 13th, Andrew 16th and I finished 24th. Yesterday we traveled on to Spartanburg, SC and the race itself felt a little better but the finish was a little sketchy and the best we could come up with was a 21st place. Not too happy with that but we are all looking forward to tomorrow’s race. After an off day today we should be good to go and hot for the race.
Well, at least in theory. I did manage to cut back on my hours on the bike and did NOT race this weekend but I sure was busy the whole week long. I'm in the process of planning our next two road trips, the first this week to Mississippi for the Mississippi Grand Prix and the second in two weeks time to USA Crits Speed Week. Both are multiple day events and at least Speed Week requires quite some travel in between races. But it is fun to take care of the organization for those trips. But it keeps you busy.
On top of it, Brad got some of us out to ride on Thursday. It was a good ride but I ended up with close to 4 hours in the saddle that day. A little too long for my liking for an off week.
At least I had some down time this weekend. I finally got back on the trails to ride a little mtb on Saturday. The guys at the duck let me borrow an awesome bike again and Chlue, Pete, Demian and all the others have really done a great job on the new sections on North Shore. I had a blast. In the evening, Demian let me play around on his new PS3. Wow, that thing rocks but it got rather late... figure that. After sleeping in on Sunday, I headed over to Demian and Debbie again for a really nice Easter lunch. Got to watch Paris-Roubaix too and to prevent all the good food to slow me down too much in the weeks to come we went for an easy spin afterwards.
All in all an awesome weekend. Thanks to all the folks that invited me over and really made me feel at home.
Now we have only a couple of days left and it will be back on the road again. Looking forward to Mississippi and especially Speed Week. Everyone on the team is hot and ready to go so I'm sure we'll do rather well at the upcoming races.
Didn't ride it yesterday but took some photos of the team. Andrew, Gonzo, Austin, Ashley and Brad were out there. Congrats to Brad for finishing 2nd in the B race and hanging in there afterwards in the A race. The boys rode a smart race and it payed off with Andrew winning the day and Austin coming in 4th.
… was a great success. Thanks to all who made it possible and especially to all of you who cam out there. I think everyone who joined us out in Plano for the weekend could see some improvement in their riding by the end. Then we got to finish it up with a real race. Fun!
During the weekend the riders acted as instructors to teach interested cyclists about skills needed to ride a crit successfully. On Saturday we taught basic crit skills, like starting, cornering and moving in the group as well as riding in a pace line. We had a pretty strong wind out there so it made teaching pace lines a little easier as people could definitely feel when they were in the right position and in the draft. Cornering was a little tentative at first but that was also the area where most people made the biggest gains and by the end we hauling through the turns.
On Sunday Rahsaan Bahati came out to lend us a hand. He explained the basics of sprinting and how to position yourself for the final sprint. In the afternoon everyone could put their newly learned skills to the test in a real race. The girls blew their race completely apart. For the guys the main objective was to put the cat 2 riders into a position to where they were able to get some upgrade points. It was a hard race, especially with a strong wind blowing all day but we managed to achieve our goal. It wasn’t enough for a win but Gonzo got second (behind Rahsaan, no shame there), Phillip got 4th and Evan 6th, all in the points.
All in all, it was a very successful weekend. Maybe we will do it again but please with less wind and maybe a little later start times (I don’t like getting up at 5 am…)
This week is going to be pretty mellow for me as it is another off week. We’ll be racing for the next month straight with the Mississippi GP, Matrix, Speedweek and Joe Martin coming up all within 4 weeks. So I’ll enjoy a little time off and get ready to kick some serious behind on the upcoming weeks.
So we are finally back in Dallas after two weeks in California. On the one hand the trip turned out to be disappointing as the racing didn’t go as we had hoped it would. On the other hand, we had some awesome hosts and met some great people. Thanks again to Randy and Lisa, as well as the Gornays for taking such good care of us.
The second stage in Redlands was a crit which turned out to be a crash fest. I managed to stay out of trouble but Andrew and Chris weren’t so luck and hit the deck. Both were able to finish though. We got though it but weren’t a factor during the race. Benji (aka Princess Bebe) salvaged the day by finishing 19th. Not great but at least something. GC didn’t change a lot, I think I moved up to 78th maybe.
Sunday was the big one. A 10 km circuit had to be tackled 12 times (plus some out and back). The circuit had NO flat sections, either up or down. Whit time bonuses and KOM points in the first 3 laps the tempo was brutal and it didn’t take long for the field to fall apart. I held on the longest but also got caught on the wrong side of the split and ended up in what turned to be the main group. It was a decent result but nothing to brag about. I had hoped to do better but just did not have the legs to do it. As a saving grace, I moved up to 50th in final GC. Yay!
The drive back was pretty much a straight shot and we made it back to Dallas on Tuesday night, just in time to get ready for the FCS Metro Volkswagen Crit Clinic this coming weekend. Besides teaching some crucial crit skills we’ll also have a race on Sunday out in Plano. So, come out and join us for a great weekend.
Today was the first stage of the Redlands Bicycle Classic, „The City of Baumont Road Race”. We had to complete 4 laps of 39 km, which came out to 155 km of fun. As we got out of the van at the start we were nearly blown off our feet… this wind also made the race pretty hard. Fortunately, we didn’t have too many cross wind sections but in the few that we had the race got very chaotic. People just don’t know about echelons here apparently, so everyone rather sits in the gutter and open up gaps when they pop… Enough said.
As if that wasn’t hard enough, we had a couple of miles of super smooth, slightly downhill roads with a tailwind. Now, that doesn’t sound bad but according to my SRM I maxed out at 191 rpms and about 55 mph and still couldn’t hold some wheels. Not my favorite part of the race.
Anyways, the race blew apart a couple of times but rolled back together until the last lap. Once we hit the climb on the lap, my legs where so shot that I had nothing left and had to let the pack go. I found myself in the fourth bigger chase group after it was all said and done together with Andrew. We finished 1:41 down and I dropped to 80th in GC. Not the kind of result I was looking for but I feel that this is about what I am capable of doing at this point so I have to be happy with it.
Tomorrow we’ll race the crit. It looks very technical and should be hard again. But I am confident that we will do all right and am actually looking forward to it. I’ll keep you posted.
It is Wednesday night, the eve of the Redlands Classic Prolog. We had a couple of days to recover from the rigors of the San Dimas Stage Race and I must say Randy Lisa, our hosts, made our time very enjoyable. Between beach time, great home made food and great breakfast at the beach, we are all ready to go and can't wait to finally all race tomorrow. But take a look for yourself.
Today we prerode the prologcourse here at Redlands and the team is pretty undecided on what bike to use. Most of the course is uphill, even though only the last kilometer of the five are really steep. I guess I'll go with the road bike as long as the wind doesn't pick up over night... we shall see.
You can find out if the choice of material was the right one tomorrow night - right here.
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