Super Squadra

Hello Racers and Racers-to-be,

Come on out yourself for some skill development and racing simulation, or please encourage a newbie friend to attend.

Thanks to our good friends and sponsor at Holland racing, we are able to present our fifth monthly clinic. Our last clinic of 2010 will be on September 1. The first half of the two-wheeled seminar, led by the TXBRA team State and Premier Cup Champions, Super Squadra, will feature drills focusing on basic bike handling drills. During the clinic’s second portion, we’ll dive into the specifics of racing in a group, and more importantly, how to beat that group to the finish line.

More information on the Beginner Series can be found at,
http://www.drivewayseries.com/Home/DLAPiperBeginnersProgram/tabid/567/Default.aspx

It looks like we will have a packed house in with instructors and attendees, so arrive as early as 5:15 p.m. to register.

After another brief stint in Texas to pick up my rebuilt bike, race the Driveway, lead the BSS-Parmer grand opening Chipotle ride, and win the Saturday Night Fever race, I once again headed north in my truck. Destination: Superweek.

After arriving in Milwaukee Monday afternoon, I suited up for my first race at Superweek, the Day-11 Whitnall Park Road Race. The course was nice: rolling hills on a 2-point-something mile loop with a short punchy hill to finish. From the bottom corner, it’s a bit less than a kilometer to the finish. The finishing hill is steep-ish (but not as steep as cry-baby hill in Tulsa) for a few hundred meters, then flattens for 100m before a false-flat 200m rise to the line. Guys were blowing up just 5 laps in on the hill. I was quite pleased that my car legs didn’t follow me up here, and got into the first big move of the race on lap 6 of 27. The break swelled to 25 riders before we were caught several laps later. The counter-move, including Heath Blackgrove of THSJ, went almost immediately. I bridged the 150 meter gap (pretty awesomely, have to admit) on the hill solo, then a handful more made it up to us until we were 12 strong. Some riders kept disrupting the rotation, and I did more work than I probably should have to guarantee our success. But I was feeling great.

In hindsight, I wish I had raced more aggressively rather than just following moves at the end of the race. Going into the sprint, I started too far back in the group when we made the final turn; I didn’t think the turn would be so decisive that far out, and I didn’t start my full sprint in time, finishing 10th.

Oh, and I should mention that we got rained on during the race. After this year, I feel like I should be racing every time it rains!

On Tuesday, the Bucyrus International Road Race featured a course 2.8 miles long, with 20 laps. It had a single short hill before the finish, but it wasn’t significant enough to really do damage to the pack. The field was huge with lots of talent, and there was incessant attacking throughout the race. It was one of those ‘be the first guy on the wheel’ kind of races, because otherwise half the field would fly by following a move. The first half of the race I followed a few moves but nothing was getting away.

Just past the halfway point, Fly-V Australia lit it up. I was probably front third/quarter at the time, ~30 guys back and suddenly we went to single file at 35 mph with gaps opening up all over the place. I drilled it to get to the front as I saw a group of about 12 getting away. By the time I got to the front the break was very well organized and rapidly pulling away, about 10 seconds ahead already. The pack let up for half a second, so I punched it and they let me go. I was killing myself in the 12- and 11-tooth cogs, yet slowly making up ground. After a mile of chasing, I had closed them down to about 75m but they weren’t letting up at all. In another mile, I had made up no more ground. Finally I began to fade and slipped back into the pack. Not going to give up, I tried a couple more moves and had to bridge to another chase group that formed when a gap opened up in the field. We were caught with only a few miles to go. With everyone doing their best pack sprinter impersonation for 13th place, it got really sketchy. I bowed out rather than contest a sprint for $60 (not to mention I was somewhat burned up at that point). The race was fast, covering 60 miles in 2 hours. My legs were still feeling great, and I felt I would’ve done well in that break had I made it.

Wednesday brought the Lake Front Road Race, a long race of about 90 miles. With two good hills on the course, I hoped that a selection would be made to limit some of my tactical disadvantage as a solo rider. Only a few laps into the 20-mile race, an 8-man break slipped off. Taking a gamble that a move so early wouldn’t stick—and noticing that there were still many strong finishers and series leaders in the field—I didn’t bother to get up there. The field was holding the break at just over a minute gap for a long time, so I felt confident I had played the right card. A chase group got away later, and managed to bridge to the break. Too late in the race, my legs began to feel good. I was in a few chase groups, but the pack had finally decided not to let anyone else ride away. Another disappointing day, but luckily there are still 4 days of racing left! Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I probably shouldn’t take a rest day after considering my race resume in rainy races….

After returning from Bend, I jumped in the car and headed north for the Tour of Lawrence crits. My travel companion was my younger brother, Shane, and we opted to stay with our Grandma in Oklahoma on Friday rather than race the street sprints. We showed up in Lawrence on Saturday shortly before the rain, which laid a nice coat of moisture on the course as we rolled to the start line. I was racing on my old bike, as my race bike was still en route to Bicycle Sport Shop after nationals to get fixed up.

We went hard from the gun, paying little heed to the slick course. One mile into the 4-mile loop, there had already been 3 pack-splitting crashes. I was in a full sprint out of each turn to make it to the lead group, which was less than half of the 70 starters after just one lap. That continued to get whittled down to a final selection of about 15 after several laps of sprinting out of every turn, with only Tradewind Energy and THSJ having 2 riders in the group. I could motor up the longer climbs at a hard pace, but was having a hard time following the accelerations. Andrew Dahlheim of Metro-VW was very aggressive all day, and with 2 laps to go I finally couldn’t hang on to the attack and ended up in the chase group with Stefan Rothe of THSJ. I finished 11th in the race, Dahlheim won, and only 28 riders total even finished!

The next day was a figure 8 crit, and the storms rolled in just in time for our race (again). I was in a couple moves throughout the race, and felt pretty good. No break ever got very far up the road; it would be coming down to a field sprint. San Jose set up the leadout with 5 laps to go, and everybody seemed content to let them control it. For the first time this year (maybe ever?) I did an awesome job of staying at the front of the field at the end. With a very technical course in the rain, I knew my best chance was to not let it come to a sprint. I rolled by the green train with 1.5 laps to go, and amid cries of ‘keep it steady’ Stefan Rothe jumped onto my wheel as I sailed way too hot into the turn but held on. The rain really let loose in a torrent and it was becoming difficult to see.

I kept the throttle pinned with Stefan behind me and the pack dangling through the back half of the course, and going through start/finish for 1 to go I had a 4-5 second lead, with Stefan sitting on to take the sprint in the event I held off the charging field. It was starting to hurt at this point…. Half a lap more I stayed off before the single file pack caught me; I managed to grab onto the train in 10th, and held on for 10th at the end. Disappointed I didn’t do better, but glad I took the tactical risk. If one person would’ve come with my attack and worked, I’m certain we could have held on to the end. Josh Carter of THSJ delivered the win, and shortly thereafter the start/finish area was under 4” of water….

Crit finish

After OKC Rocks, when the rest of our teammates were headed south, David and I pointed north. Over the next several days, we trekked to Oregon and hit up the cycling hotspots along the way. After arriving in Bend, it wasn’t long before the juniors started arriving for the Durata nationals-prep training camp. During the week leading up to nationals, I spent nearly 10 hours baking into the aggressive position on the Specialized Transition lent to me by Bicycle Sport Shop for my first and last foray at U23 Nationals. Even though I’ve had some success on my own bike in the past, we figured it would be best to ride an actual time trial bike for nationals…. I spent most of my time memorizing the course for the race—the opening 6 mile climb and its varying pitches, then the rolling hills and turns of the finishing loop. David laid out the pacing I would have to sustain to match last year’s winning ride. It would be difficult, but was possible!

The day of the race was agonizing, as my time trial start wasn’t until early afternoon and I had too much time to kill beforehand. I finally got to roll down the start ramp; the sufferfest was on. My pacing focused around going really hard up the hills and backing it off down the hills to let gravity do some of the work. When I reached the base of the climb, I hit the gas and ignored the fact that Alex Howes (reigning U23 RR+Crit champion from Garmin-Holowesko) was 30 seconds behind me. I used the two flat sections on the climb to briefly rest, then punched it up the rest of the climb to the turnaround, willing my legs to keep turning. From the turnaround, I saw Howes was about 15 seconds behind me. He rode by me a third of the way down the hill, so I figured holding him at 50m ahead would be good. He was pushing it down the hill, but I was holding back and letting gravity pull my heavier body downhill. When when the descent would pitch up briefly, I’d punch it and come just about even with Howes again.

As we made the turn onto the finishing loop of about 6 miles, Howes and I were blowing by several other riders. We continued to play yo-yo with each other on the opening rollers on the loop, then I finally passed him on the longer hill. I put a couple seconds into him before being passed again a couple miles from the finish. At this point, I just stayed focused on staying low into the headwind and ignoring the growing fire in my legs. As I hammered across the top of the final hill just 200m from the line past the cheers of my teammates, the pain was finally over. I could barely speak after 45 minutes without water….

My time ended up at 47:08, good for 14th in the stacked field this year. Last year it would have placed 6th! I was 1:30 slower than my target time—the best I can figure is that I backed the pace off too much when the road pitched downward. Nonetheless, I was pleased with the caliber of rider I finished around, and looked forward to the racing still to come.

The crit was going great for me until the final lap. I was very active in many moves the second half of the race, but nothing could stay away on the fast course. I wasn’t very comfortable in the field sprint, but it was nationals so I was going to give it a shot. Until the traffic island leading in to turn 3…. Guys taking dumb risks caused a pile-up of at least a dozen racers. I anticipated it but was still swept to the ground, tumbling beneath a mass of bodies and bikes. After being rammed in the ribs by at least one bike, the carnage settled and I took inventory of my injuries as the bikes were being pulled off me. Aside from some scrapes and a quickly swelling elbow, I was alright! My bike, not so much. Wheels, bars, shifters, derailleur, saddle—all done.

The road race would be interesting, to say the least. I made sure to arrive plenty early so Shimano could set me up on a neutral bike. Unfortunately, their 60cm bike was broken in the crit the night before so I would be crammed on a 57cm frame with a 90mm one-piece stem/bar combo. Even though the saddle height was correct, I think the reach to the bars was several centimeters too short for me. It was definitely awkward, but I would make it work!

My game plan for the road race was to lay low and let the course wear racers out over time. My best shot would be to make all the selections and hopefully finish from a small group. With large teams like Garmin-Holowesko, Trek-Livestrong, California-Giant, Mountain Khakis, and others, I had to be careful about letting a group with each of them represented slipping away. Our race was full of attacking but the field would never let anything slip too far off. Around the halfway point, a dangerous break slipped off with the crit winner Ben King in it. The field let it go and before long, they had a 2 minute gap. I made it into a few chase groups along with Andrew Dahlheim from Metro VW, but couldn’t stay away. I felt great, so I backed off and hoped that somehow that move would come back. With just over a lap to go, all but Ben King from the break came back after wearing themselves out. Unfortunately, the other big teams that were no longer represented lost the race in a staring contest to see who would bring King back. Dahlheim slipped off in a gutsy move after the final time up the feed zone, and the field didn’t follow. My biggest regret of the race is that I didn’t try to slide away with him, as he put enough time on us in the flats to stay away after the final climb for a solid 3rd place. I made the final selection up the climb, and sprinted for the line after a rolling descent. I finished in the middle of my group for 14th, once again pleased with my ride after looking at the names around me. After returning the loaner bike, I awkwardly walked back to the car (the strange saddle chafed me to high heaven in the four-hour race) with one thing on my mind: milk. Half a gallon and 2.5 minutes later, I was happy. Then it was time for a quick dip in the Deschutes River and let the vacation begin!

Dear Texans,

 
This summer or next, please make a bike racing vacation. I recommend Bend, Oregon (see: Squadra Perspective: Elite Nationals Week), the Tour of The Valley (ahem, my hometown, national level stage race where Super Squadra member Chad Haga recently claimed 5th place overall), or some other mildly exotic location, such as Longmont, Colorado, site of the 2010 state criterium championships, where I competed on Sunday.

 
A new set of terrain, competition, and climate can be a refreshing change. (Of course, Team Hotel San Jose has a large Boulder based contingent, so no matter where you go, some things never change—for example, green and orange all over the front of the race.)

 
On Saturday I raced in Boulder at the North Boulder Park Criterium, and played the odds not so much in my favor for a hard-fought top-18 on the day. Afterward, Emily and I got to spend the rest of the afternoon plotting our next nap and BBQ party, this time hosted by Boulder’s own Sean Sullivan, who invited many out-of-towners visiting over the summer. We were fueling for a very prestigious event, Sunday’s Longmont Criterium, a hamlet nestled along the front range roughly 16-miles north of Boulder.

 
The day started off perfectly, a relaxing ride with Ruarri Day-Stirrat, Marc Mayo, and Jenn Mix for “something scenic,” which in Colorado means about 50min of climbing. After 25min of coasting back to the lair of all things vacation related—that is, my good college friends Drew & Kara Vankat’s pad in central Boulder—it was time to get serious for the race. Whole Foods. Pearl Street. Soccer. Coffee.

 
Arriving at the race was pretty usual: lots of parking with cyclists taking over a bank’s drive thru for shade, more coffee, and port-a-johns galore. The course was a dead flat L, with more right turns than left. All turns were at 90deg. There was a lot of dirt and gravel on the outsides of the course. No real furniture on the Longmont streets, which seemed to be patched just for the race. Thank you, Longmont!

 
About 100 Pro1,2’s lined up for the race under sunny conditions. Roughly100sec into the race, I got bumped hard for the first time in this event. Really, I thought? I have never seen pack racing behavior as aggressive as in my two Colorado crits. Hands came off bars for pushes. Di2 levers hit hips. Guys, the best way to win is to eliminate excuses and ways to lose.

 
Then, it rained. I drifted back, not so interested in trying out the traction of my 140 PSI rear tire, and it got safer. Whew.

 
The rain was heavy, maybe lasting for 8-12min before leveling off to a drizzle. As the course dried out near the 35min mark, I began to regain my nerve and moved up a bit, only for the second downpour of the day to start at the 40min mark. I thought about dropping out, but I needed a workout and everytime I think about dropping out, I win. Then, I thought about dropping out again, but elected not to as I didn’t know where to go for a ride in Longmont and my bike was already dirty.

 

 

The rain stuck around much longer this time, perhaps for 25- 30min. It was at this point, the 50min mark of the race, that a very select group got off the front of the race. Their gap of 25sec stayed steady, thanks to the very strong group of chasers at the front of the field. The pace was a 28.4mph average for the 25min of chasing. Pretty fast on drying roads. I got my groove back and started to move up in the group as riders couldn’t handle the pace. At roughly 10min to go, people started bashing into each other in the race. This is how I moved up through the field.

 
Riders would crash four at a time. The crashes, sadly, were spectacular. All involved broken bikes, thankfully it appeared as though no broken bodies even though it took several laps to clean up one crash. It appeared as though one bike broke twice in one of the crashes. First, the bike snaped a fork on a T-Bone impact of a downed rider, then when it went sailing through the thin mountain air, came smashing back down on the tarmac to break a seat stay. Flat tires on the dirty roads also made riders slide through turns as the tire would lose pressure without the rider noticing anything was wrong until their rim was on a painted crosswalk at 33mph.

 
At about four laps to go, the break was caught. After about 1hr 26min of sitting in the field, I struck out hard just inside of two laps to go on a 1.1k course. I bombed the right side of the pack, took a clean line through the following right turns, then had a solo rider bridge up shortly after we entered the last lap. I could see groups of one attempting to make it across.

 
As we crossed the finish line for the next to last time, I was feeling lucky. This is a Colorado state championship, I’m not from Colorado, and a guy strong enough to make this move was towing me around the course. The rider didn’t let up. He kept pushing the pace the whole way through the last turn, completely unaware that Bahati Foundation’s Jason Donald made a solo bridge up to us with about three turns to go. I figured my muscular butt would out kick Jason’s skinny climber’s physique, however, I wasn’t going to leave this to chance.

 
We exited the last wet turn completely full-throttle, no brakes or goofing off. I jumped hard on the right side of the rider who pushed the race for the last lap. The finish line was about 250m way, and into the wind. I didn’t want to lay everything out too early, so I clicked down to the 11, sat, and pushed hard in an attempt to stay small and force Jason around and into the wind. He attempted to come around and as soon as I knew he was in the wind, I pounced. Out of the saddle, everything. We were both in the wind, him for longer than me, being “larger”, I was able to hold him off, as well as the charging field, for the win.

Beautiful Bend, Oregon hosted elite nationals in 2009 and again in 2010 with a venue well suited for a team vacation to the alpine desert town. The mix of amateur racers at elite road nationals ranges from full-time cyclists (perhaps working a part-time job to support themselves) to mid-level professionals and full-on executives. The difficulty of competition is designed to suit any Category 1 cyclist older than 23 who’s able to balance bike racing with professional and personal obligations in order to ride and race roughly eight to 15 hours per week. (Read: The founding members of Super Squadra.)

Ian and Phil took full vacations from their jobs to recreate in Bend. I mixed my racing with business and lead a handful of juniors through a pre-nationals camp that included previews of the national’s courses and workouts mimicking what the racers could expect on the day of competition. The camp made for a relaxing approach to my personal racing focus of 2010, elite nationals.

Racing got started with the time trial. It’s a 35-kilometer trek about 12k up 320-meters in elevation, then a 12k back down the mountain to a rolling 11k loop that was plenty open to the wind. The course was tough. I knew I’d be less than the best rider on the circuit, but wanted to see where I’d stack up. I approached the time trial partly as an opener for the mass start races and partly as a form check to set expectations for the rest of the week.

Thanks to a little help from Kevin Burandt, I had a good idea of what poor, good, and great times would be for me on the course. My time of 47:01 was a solid 15sec faster than my best-projected time, so my hopes were high for top 10 or medal. Turns out that the fields were much, much stronger than the 2009 edition where that time would’ve landed me a 3rd place finish. In 2010, a 47min time put me in 21st place.

Regardless of the placing, my time trial effort gave me confidence I was in for a great week—with legs, lungs, and head ready for maximal efforts.

The next morning we took an easy spin to loosen up for that evening’s criterium. Good thing we did. The largely wide-open, rectangular course—aside from an unusually high amount of road furniture jetting out from crosswalks right about were the pack would swell before turns—made for an extremely high pace with speeds topping 36 miles per hour on the long flat straightaways.

The concrete islands on the course’s backside claimed many, many victims. Luckily none of them were from Squadra. My plan was to not do a lick of work and ride the back for 40min, then turn things up a bit to see if I could get a gap with some other riders and force teams to chase in hopes of softening up lead-out guys. That would give Phil a better shot at the end, he’s great at positioning himself at national level races and our best tactic is less of a lead-out and more of a strategy of blowing-out the worker bees. That way, its just chaos at the finish—the way Phil tends to like it.

Once the race got to the halfway point, I began to follow moves and force the pace a bit. Eventually, this led to me countering a move, then another. The second attack led to a huge gap on the field, the biggest of the night. Sadly, I was by myself, in a losing situation. It took about 380w in a full-dork position to ride 29mph around the course to hold the gap once it was opened. Fortunately, the winner of the TT and another rider made it up to me about a lap into my break. Unfortunately, the effort that it takes to go around a dead-flat course at 34mph left both bridging riders without legs to continue their effort. We were soon caught, and that was the end of my race. I’m just too much of a chicken to play roulette at end of the race. Phil rode great to finish 9^th in the sprint.

On Saturday the team got a day off. Ian and I took a morning spin of 80min east of Bend, into the flat desert lands where we gossiped about how great Chad was going to do in that afternoon’s U23 road race on a neutral support bike. On a frame two sizes too small, and making no excuses after a hard crash the night before, we watched Chad finish 14th in the road race. He looked very good late in the race, but was clearly limited by lack of top tube and will be a force in the elite (or USPRO!) race in 2011.

The elite road race was the final event of the Junior/ U23/ Elite nationals week. The circuit was about 18-miles, mostly on rolling climbs but with some light crosswinds thrown in on relatively level terrain. We would complete six laps for a roughly 100-mile race. For Texans, it was perfect. Think of it like a Lago Vista type course. It starts off with an eight mile or so loss of elevation, with a single small-ring climb on for good measure. From there, the route includes a curvy run-in to a long uphill section toward the feed zone. That effort takes about 3- 3.5min from bottom to top. Things back off again before a few tricky sections leading into the hardest part of the course. The Archie Briggs climb starts off steep, but only takes ~45 to 60-seconds to pound to the top. Then it levels off again before another riser. From the bottom of the climb to the first loss of elevation, it takes about 3min, but that’s also where things get interesting nearing the end of the circuit. The road is constantly up or down, left or right, and the field gets strung out for what amounts to a full 8-9min of hard racing before any relief on the long descending section. Perfect for Texans, really!

I say that the road race course is perfect for Texans as it takes a massive amount of time at VO2max on this course. The climbs are steep or high powered, nothing like the TT, which is clearly a course for riders who have been on the NRC stage race circuit. To do well in the crit or road race in Bend, it was not so much a matter of watts/kg at threshold as there was plenty of time to coast, but more of a repeatability of power at VO2 pace as pushing wind at 34mph at the crit takes a massive amount of power. Similarly, the road race breaks down to how long a rider can go at their VO2 pace, and how quick they can recover when it’s time not to pedal on the Archie Briggs section of the course. If a rider is looking to do well in the mass start events at elits nats in Bend, then racing in Texas as well as a good load of VO2max training will do the trick. If a rider wants to excel in the time trial, they need to be able to buffer a high load for 16- 18min up the climb (for me, 20ish minutes), which cannot be easily simulated in training in Texas.

Phil and I got to the front of the road race very early, just to watch the early break roll up the road so we knew which teams would be hanging back with us until it got caught. Both THSJ and Metro VW had Texans up the road with Josh Carter as well as Tyler Jewell respectively. Tyler was back in the field within a lap due to a flat tire. Josh came back about 2 laps later. For the first 2.5hr of the race, the Squadra guys got to sit back and relax at 194w, 255w NP, and have a very relaxed ride. The large teams of Exergy, Yahoo!, and Cal Giant did all of the pace making.

The fourth time up Archie Briggs was when Yahoo! went on the attack with several of their riders. I was able to sit on them in fourth wheel and watch as solo riders would attempt to gain ground on the pack, but never could. Things slowed again as we entered the fifth circuit. The start of the feed zone climb saw the 2009/10 elite time trial champion and 2009 road race champ, Michael Olheiser, crushed the first 1.5min of the climb. Once he sat up, I played the same card as from the criterium, try to get a gap and make others bridge up on a tough section of the course. My gap as I led the race through the feed zone was small, but one Cal Giant came across solo, then the whole field. Olheiser immediately counter attacked and was away solo with 25-miles to go.

Olheiser’s attack was fierce and well before the hardest section of the course. The bigger teams again got to the front and rode a solid tempo, enough to keep the leader in site presumably in hopes that they could send riders up on the climbs of Archie Briggs. Once on the climbs, no one organized to get a group going off the front. The big teams never worked together, they were always looking for an advantage with number of riders in the split, and this lead to solo moves that went nowhere. I launched an attack right where Shontell Gauthier told me the winning move went in the women’s race that morning, and the year before, on the final climb on Archie Briggs. I again had a huge, pointless gap by myself. No one was racing, it was now time for the field to think about getting the best placings they could rather than sacrifice for the win. I was somewhere in limbo, hoping a move would come up so we could make it to Olheiser, or hoping that the laziness would continue so I could pull a similar move to Andrew Dahlhiem in the U23 championship. He attacked rather than watch the naval-gazing for a medal.

I put my head down and elbows on tops of bars to go as fast as possible. It was successful. I held my gap to the field, and pulled back 10sec on Olhieser, by the top of the ascent on the descent. At this point, eight other riders made it up to me. There was no cohesion in the group as lone riders from Yahoo! and Cal Giant sat on the split, so I followed wheels up the road and attacked again. This pulled out a very strong group with 22k to go, four riders in total. I had a “teammate” in Seattle Super Squadra’s Russell Stevenson, a THSJ rider from Colorado by the name of  Benjamin Blaugrund, and a motivated Lang Reynolds from Hagens Berman. We all worked smooth, but fast, extending our advantage to 25-seconds over the field, 50sec to the leader. It hurt.

I gave it everything figuring that back in the pack, the big teams would assume they had a rider up the road. When they would find out they didn’t they’d have a few tired worker-bees chase, they’d blow, then our group would stay away to round out the medals. Right?

I felt great. I pushed the pace very hard, as did Reynolds, and our gap held steady until the final ascent of the feed zone climb. We stayed smooth, but not too fast, thankfully as I was starting to cramp. The effort to get the break going and then maintain the pace at the 80-mile mark was at 285w/ 340w NP for ~30min. The field put the hammer down and closed the 25sec gap by the end of the feed zone. Despite leading the race through the feedzone laps 4, 5, and 6, I was not going to be clear of the field.

Here I was, bitter and cramping with 8k to go and a group of about 40 riders, many of whom hadn’t touched the wind most of the day. I stayed with the field until 5k to go, then it was just too much. At a national championship, there’s no money at stake, only five shiny medals. At the end of the day, just one rider goes home with a stars and bars jersey. In Bend I raced for that jersey, rather than a placing. I tried to prove that I was the best guy in the race. I wasn’t the best guy, that was the winner, Olheiser, who deserves many congratulations.

After spending the night at the Haga’s house and enjoying their great hospitality (minus the bathroom laden with all things Aggie, from the shower curtain to the soap dispenser) we started our trek to Oklahoma City for two $10,000 criteriums. The first race was around the Oklahoma capitol building which was a lot bigger than I expected. The course wasn’t very technical with the race literally being on the roads that surrounded the building but it was still very hard. A straight headwind was ripping into the section heading toward the start/finish area.

Individual riders tried to get away but with the wide, open roads it was easy for the field to pick up the pace and bring back the lone escapees. About halfway through the 90 minute race a group finally established a lead of around 10 seconds and we started attacking trying to get someone in the group. After our attacks the other teams played it perfect and would counter all of our moves, putting us in a big hole. Two groups had come together and we were lacking representation. In a last ditch effort I attacked and was joined by two others as we crushed ourselves for three laps to finally reach the lead group.


Not long after I reached the front group I had a mechanical and was stuck riding in my 53 X 11. This obviously made a hard situation pretty much impossible as I just tried to stay in the wheels and save as much energy as possible. Ian ended up bridging to the lead group with around 15 minutes left and did a great job covering moves but a group rolled off and Ian and we were stuck sprinting for 8th place. I tried to find Ian to tell him my problem with my gears but we couldn’t quite hook up and trying to sprint into a fierce headwind with my huge gear didn’t quite work out. All we could manage was a top 20. We rode home knowing we raced hard, but were still dissapointed on our results from the weekend so far.

Sunday was an important day for the team as our last chance to dip into the ample prize money on hand before returning home. Luckily, we received reinforcement from an on-form Wenger. Everyone felt motivated to race smart and dig deep in order to get some better results than the days before.

After Ian used his OKC connections with Chris and Justin Wolfe, we found a replacement part for my bike mere hours before the race thanks to the owner of Schlegel Bicycles. I cant thank him enough for being so generous and helping me out. It would’ve been a big downer to travel all the way up from Austin and not get to finish up racing on Sunday. When Phil was finished fixing my bike in the parking garage we headed to get some lunch and enjoyed watching Germany crush Australia in the World Cup. Alan dropped his soccer knowledge on all of us and we just waited to hear the announcer yell GOOOOOOALLLL!

We made it to the race and were glad to see a smiling Wenger in the Durata truck (a.k.a. dood canoe). As we got ready, we noticed the same howling wind from the day before. With the team finally at full strength, we talked about how we were going to reverse our fortune. Dave was very attentive from the beginning and was covering moves like crazy. Everyone on the team fed off his early performance and we started placing riders in all of the dangerous moves. Eventually the move went and Dave and Ian were in it.


The rest of us just followed moves behind and Phil ended up getting in the second break. Alan, Chad, and I waited for the finish, and the two young guns jumped the rest of riders and took the field sprint. Dave ended up placing a strong 4th place and Ian and Phil ended up in 10th and 11th. Overall, it was a great way to end the trip with such a good team effort.

On Friday night in historic downtown McKinney, Texas was the first annual Bike the Bricks cycling race put on by McKinney Velo. McKinney Velo had been pumping up this race for quite awhile and let me tell you they didn’t disappoint. The Pro 1-2 race started at 9:30 pm and had a stacked field of almost 90 riders with all of the big teams present.

After riding a few warm up laps it was obvious with the narrow roads, tight corners and a big field racing in the dark that it was going to be key to have a good starting position. After pulling a veteran move and sneaking up through the crowd, I placing myself on the front line. After a few call ups for the big names, such as my handsome teammates Ian Dille and Phil Wikoff, I was set to race.

The first 20 minutes of the race were a big blur as I tried to just stay on the wheel in front of me and not botch a corner too bad. I remember thinking to myself when is it going to finally settle down and when will I be able to stop jumping out of every corner. The answer: Never.

Thirty minutes into the race 3/4 of the field had dropped out or been pulled by official. The prime bell started going off offering riders $100 primes and merchandise like Oakley Jawbone sunglasses. Chad decided to make a move and ended off the front winning the matte white Jawbone’s (fortuitous since he lost his previous Oakleys in Tulsa). A break countered Chad after he won the prime and Ian bridged up to the seven riders that had powered away. The group kept the pressure on and eventually Ian succumbed to the pace along with a couple of other riders. Chad and I tried to secure a top ten for the team but little groups kept getting away and I found myself in the fourth group on the road. After sprinting my little group I ended up 15th with Chad in 22nd place.


The best part of the night came as I was cooling down. My two of my biggest supporters, my mom and sister, surprised me. They had driven to the race without me knowing and were cheering for me the entire time. It was a great way to the end night having my mom and sister there after taken part in such a cool race. Super Squadra cant wait till next year.

Images courtesy C. Haga Photography.

The three days between the State Championship crit on Monday and day 1 of Tulsa Tough flew by. Dave, Phil, and Steven were sitting Tulsa out in preparation for the weeks to come, and Alan was meeting me and Ian up there. After enduring midday Dallas traffic on the Austin-Dallas leg to pick me up, Ian handed over the keys so I could drive us to Tulsa. The problem? I couldn’t drive a stick.

“Jump behind the wheel, let’s do this,” he encouraged me. After a jerky and tense lap around the neighborhood, we were Tulsa-bound! We arrived at our host house and met the gracious couple that would be putting up with us for the next few days. After a quick PBJx2 dinner, we got ready to race and found a spot close to the course to park. Alan was already getting after it in the 1/2 race, but got caught behind a big crash and was unable to chase all the way back to the pack. After a brief warmup, Ian and I found ourselves at the start line. This was my first night-time race, and my first NRC race. The crowds just put the environment over the top; it was rowdy and loud and I couldn’t wait to get going.

Shortly after the race kicked off, I found myself at the front and then off the front getting in a few moves. There were huge screens around the course and the ever-present man-with-the-mic Dave Towle was screaming at fans, and I wanted them to hear my mis-pronounced name! During the middle third of the race, I was off the front a handful of times, once or twice solo. Rounding a corner to see an image of my own face on the screen ahead was a new experience for sure…. Ian made his way up to the front and got in the mix as well. Aside from nearly being scared out of my form- fitting lycra from fireworks at the adjacent baseball field, the race was uneventful; dodged a few crashes and stayed out of trouble. With just 20 laps left on the short and technical course, I was too far back to really mix it up in the sprint and just hung back to finish the race.

In my excitement to drive back to the house, I was uncharacteristically absentminded and left my helmet, sunglasses, and heart rate monitor on the roof of the car; they were nowhere to be found when I returned 30 minutes later. After a late-night dinner, we met our fellow houseguest, an opera singer.

We awoke saturday morning in no particular hurry, and after a hearty breakfast pedaled out to Tulsa’s river hike-and-bike path for an hour-long spin. Robert, our host, had graciously lent me a mid-90’s Specialized helmet (got to represent the sponsor!) to protect my noggin. Lunch was accompanied by the sound of vintage vinyl records, then a nap, and finally it was time to race again.

Alan finished his race amidst the sprinters, then made his way to our start line for a quick helmet swap with me. Once again I made several efforts to get away from the pack but our groups never survived much longer than a lap. Ian was following the moves when I wasn’t, and the laps ticked by. When it became clear another pack sprint was in order, Ian and I began the struggle for position. On the last lap, I knew the outside of a particular turn was the wrong place to be even at just 15 riders back, and sure enough the riders crushed together at the turn’s exit against the curb and a pile-up ensued. I almost saved it with a last-ditch skid but still ended up atop the pile with a few scrapes. Thankfully Ian was on the inside of that turn and escaped free for an almost top-11 finish.

After we collected ourselves, the Sound Pony bar on the backside of the course (where spectators had been rowdy all night) was beckoning us. The cyclist-owned bar was quite the place to be with plenty of fans, racers, post-race refreshments, and a photographer present.





The late-night dinner was highlighted by our host’s special homebrew. After a restful sleep, Sunday morning was a replay of the day before: hearty breakfast, river trail spin that spilled over through an industrial park that piqued the nostrils, lunch, nap, race. The final race of the ‘Tough is unique in that it features a mean hill on the backside of the course, complete with a rambunctious party spilling over onto the course.



After biding my time until the half-way point, I followed a few moves. We looked golden when a group of 8 got away with 15 laps to go. We got about 15 seconds on the pack at one point but were not working well enough together to stay away. It was the move that went right after we were caught that stayed away–another race of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. Ian claimed the last spot that payed out. As we thanked our hosts, we learned that the record that had us so enamored for the weekend (with a personal note from Boy George) had been a prank forgery. Oh well…. After a quick shower we were back on the road, ready for the next weekend of racing (after a quick stop at Braum’s, that is).



Race photos by our host, Robert Billings. Thanks for everything!

The marquee event of the Memorial Day weekend crits is always the state championship, and on this particular Monday the full Super Squadra crew descended upon Fort Worth ready to do battle. After being stymied the previous two days, we didn’t need much pep talk to get excited. This year’s edition was earlier in the day than usual, so we wouldn’t completely melt in the 90-minute slugfest. Also, the Cat 2’s were given a separate race for the first time so it would just be 50-something P/1’s going round and round the traditional downtown course.

The race started with fervor, as full crews of Metro VW and THSJ had plenty of riders in the mix in addition to many from smaller teams. Our plan was to make sure that we had at least one rider in every move and to keep the intensity up. The race is often one of attrition, which we expected to ultimately benefit us. Just 15 minutes into the race, I launched off the front during a brief lull to see who I could draw out. After two laps alone, Chad Cagle of Dallas Racing joined me for another two. By the time I returned to the pack, it was clear that San Jose was racing for a pack sprint.



As the laps ticked by, the race never slowed down. Every rider in red spent time off the front in an effort to get away, but with so many fast racers present it would have to be the perfect combination to get away. We never found that combination…. Around 4 or 5 laps remaining, THSJ set up their 8-man leadout at the front to control the pace. Phil slotted in a few riders behind the green train with Wheeler behind him. Dave and I were positioned a little farther back, biding our time. I was definitely feeling the previous two days of racing and my efforts from earlier in the race. When the final lap bell rang as we flew by, the race started to break apart. On the bricked back stretch of the course, chaos broke loose in a battle for position, sending multiple contenders sliding across the pavement, including Phil, Steven, Kremke, and Fawley.



Josh Carter of THSJ brought home another win, while Dave crossed the line for 8th and I rolled in 18th. Not all races have happy endings; this one just stoked the fire for races to come….

Photos from C. Haga Photography. Thanks!