Super Squadra

With race accommodations still on the brain, I pose a rhetorical question; why buy the cow when the milk is free?  Yep free housing folks, it’s out there. Lots of race directors reach out to the community and invite locals to open their homes (and refridgerators) to the elite racers traveling from out of town.  Below in no particular order are some of most memorable hosted experiences we had this year.

Keeping it in the (upper case) Family – One of my favorite races without question is the Gateway Cup series held over Labor Day around St. Louis. Yes they’re great races and you should do them next year but more importantly for me is the five days I get to spend visiting my sister Nora and brother-in-law Zach. They are both graduate students in doctoral programs at Wash U. For this reason they’re simultaneously incredibly busy and flexible, gracious hosts. This year I spent 5 days on my back on their coach/bed/floor laid up with pneumonia. It was a truly miserable time and I was totally incapacitated to race. Spending time with them (and poor Ian who lost his racing and cavorting partner) and venturing out at the height of my illness for a Ted Drewe’s frozen custard made this trip one of my favorites.

Keeping it in the (lower case) family – Only on a single occasion did we have to abuse our lil’ teammate Ting’s hospitality and crash for the weekend. For the Coldspring RR and its early start we stayed at casa Ting and enjoyed fresh dumplings, a wealth of hilarious Ting photos from his youth and a pretty amazing lunch of beef tips and potatoes. Steven and Wenger had an especially full evening at the track with 11 yr old’s birthday cake, the latest Miley Cyrus gossip and heat after heat of 13-14 girl’s 3k pursuit.

Cliffdwellers – I’ll have to limit myself on this entry. Our dear friends Heather and Zac Lytle, displaced from their spiritual home of Austin now reside in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood. Bounded by I-30 and I-35, the neighborhood has history and color in spades. Taking in a plate of migas at El Jordan cafe means you’re only footsteps from Texas Theater where Lee Harvey Oswald rested up after an evening of changing the world. We enjoyed many evenings at the Lytles and they were always delightful hosts. One evening I was even treated to retracing Heather’s many steps on foreign soil throughout the years as documented by her digital camera. 2009 holds promise that we’ll finally get through that Côte d’Ivoire trip.

Cribs Goldapp Edition – One of the real high points of the last two seasons has come at about 9pm after the HHH crit. It is at that time we besiege the Goldapp home with fat fingers (broken glassware) and smelly food (Chili’s to go). Ever the most gracious host, Allen makes his home’s southern wing available to us as well as his very own washroom when the stinky post-race squadras out-number available showers. We have had some misunderstandings over the years. There was keygate where we were locked out of the house for about two hours following the race. Searching desperately for post-race calories we managed to wrangle up and polish off Allen’s last three Shiner beers. Later that weekend Wenger, perhaps a bit buzzed from his HHH RR and overall wins, thanked profusely our host “John” in parting. Allen, confused at the time, has never held it against us.

Thanks to all our hosts over the course of the season that made the travel and racing so memorable. We’ll be back next year to do it all again

We’ve all been there. It’s dark:30 and you’re meeting up with your teammates to caravan off to a race. Where to meet?

How about a place that has very inconvenient parking, perhaps with a wait staff that is encouraged to be displeased while serving patrons, and food so greasy that it could lower the drag forces working on your SRAM chain? Perfect, see you there at our 3rd favorite team restaurant lining I-35, the greasy spoon Star Seeds at I-35 and 32nd street in Austin. While I can personally recall at least one very good performance after a breakfast taco that required three extra tortillas, this place holds a special place in the heart of every bachelor whose time to bloom is near. In the heat of the guys on the team celebrating an upcoming marriage, Star Seeds provides just the right ratio of taste to grease to make a champion gleam in a shiny hugh.

Next to best place to check out on your next cycling adventure, perhaps even to the Super Squadra Scouting Camp, while coming in from Dallas, is the Texas Best Smokehouse in Italy, TX. When traveling back from toppling unprobable odds at the Matrix Challenge in June, Ian had a bit of a boo-boo on his… bottom. Sitting on frozen vegetables during the odyssey home, he requested his favorite food. Who could say no? Not Phil. Not me. Brisket it is, and I also recommend the turkey as well as a side of mac’n cheese. Don’t forget to check out the Monolithic Dome Institute near Italy, either.



Our favorite stop along I-35, unquestionably, is Fuel City at the junction of I-35 and I- 30 in Dallas. Whether it is yet _another_ bachelor party, celebration a well executed tactic over Memorial Day racing, or welcoming a pile of cash found at Texas Tough, this is the spot for Super Squadra to chow down. Tacos here are cheap, nothing over $1.16, so order no less than three. To top things off other than your gas tank, the gas station regularly has a man singing karaoke style to live radio on Saturdays at a very high decibel level, donkeys, cattle, and a pool. A pool. Gas station. Since we were pretty gross after our sweaty exploits at TX Tough and faced a long drive home, Phil disregarded the sign along the fence of the pool reading, “CHICAS, CHICAS, CHICAS!” and hopped in the warm water. I was left to pump gas in the Bicycle Sport Shop Sprinter Van when I heard over the PA system of the facility something along the lines of, “Would the very pale man in the pool please get out. It is closed and for women only.” Check it out, get some creamed corn and an energy drink during your next stop.

Somethings are a given when you decide to be a bike racer and enduring long trips in the car are one of them.  Anyone that has had to travel to a race this year realizes how important it is to have some good tunes to rely on.  With all of the road trips that Super Squadra has been on this year some songs have stuck out more than others.  These songs trigger memories of certain weekends or certain races and as part of our Best of 08′ series here are the top 5 songs of the 2008 season.

1.  Wolf Like Me – TV on the Radio This songs takes the top spot for the sole reason that it’s my personal favorite.  Phil was blasting this song all weekend at the Fayettville Stage Race and it became my personal anthem after I couldn’t get the beat out of my head during the individual TT.  By the end of the year Phil was so tired of me asking him to play that song that he burned me a CD that had this song on it.  He gave it to me at the State Road Race and we all listened to it right before we started our race.  I guess it helped.

2.   Grateful Dead I didn’t pick a certain Grateful Dead song in particular but i did link to “Truckin”.  For the Ft. Davis stage race the team loaded up in Tim Pletcher’s suburban and headed west.   Somewhere in Junction, Texas we hit this unexplained Grateful Dead “music zone” where for literally over an hour nothing played but Grateful Dead.  We all just looked at each other and laughed when one 8 min song ended and another one started up.  We never figured out if it was an all Grateful Dead station or if it was just for that day but it definetly helped pass the time out to Ft. Davis.

3.  Lollipop- Lil Wayne This was a song that got pushed on us by our very own resident rap expert Phil when we headed up to Chicago for Crit Nats.  When we were there we rented a Chrysler Town & Country mini-van to help us get around and we needed the extra space that only a mini-van could provide since we had 4 people and 4 bikes.  Now, just imagine 4 guys in a Town & Country listening to this song.  That within itself is enough to get it on our top 5 list.

4.  Dangerous- Kardinal Offishall There’s nothing worse than having a bad song stuck in your head.  Except having a bad song stuck in your head before the state TT.  For whatever reason the Bicycle Sportshop van was in tune with this song since no matter what station we switched to we couldnt get away from it.  On another note its probably not a good idea to be singing the chorus “so dangerous, so dangerous” when your hitting 30 mph in your time trial bars.

5.  Subway Jingle On a trip to Mississippi this year for the Mississippi Grand Prix the team single handedly increased Subways stock by eating there three times in two days.  Can you really blame us though when its only $5 dollars and they have such a catchy song.  It only gets bad though when Ian starts singing the jingle to his 3rd sandwich in two days.  I dont think any of us have had Subway since.

Black shorts, some sort of red/blue/green/white top, and that seems to complete your average Texas racers’ biking kit. Now, I am no self proclaimed fashionista, but having noticed such a lack of trendy fashion in the peleton, I called it upon myself to provide impetus for change. In tandem with a pair of “hottie” socks, my friend Lawson and I created a new fashionably-functional outfit.

First debuted during a Kirkwood training ride, the outfit recieved rave reviews for not only being proper fashioned, but also for the superior cooling affects of the top. While other riders were baking in the hot and humid Houston air, I was enjoying the much superior ventilation of my new kit.
Try it out sometime, it functions almost as well as it looks.

Zoolander approved.

Special thanks to Mrs. Craddock for the tops.

Lots of races, lots of race meals. Most are the forgettable sort. A Chili’s takeout we (I!!) choke down late at night, a chain Mexican restaurant in a dry county or some granola and beef jerkey washed down with hotel sink water. On several occasions though with the help of my wife Daniele and some proper planning, the dinner meal transcends simple refueling.

This particular meal was accompanied by iceberg lettuce bag salad, trans-fat special garlic bread and a Wheeler blessing.  The next morning Dille and Wheeler powered a break that would launch him one downhill-attack (perhaps more lasagna next time?!?) away from the Ft. Davis overall GC.  

Some meals were memorable for the wrong reasons.  This in-house job turned our protein source into indiscernible charred carcass. You know what they say though, “When in Possum Kingdom…”

Cue cheezy morning news show commentary: “And on a much lighter note…” we will be reminiscing on the “Best of ‘08″ throughout the dulldroms of the Texas winter off-season (all 12 weeks of it). Our first installment features the best hair on the team.

After much bitter debate, I was voted as having the most bodacious shag, with Phil as a close runner-up. (I can only imagine the attention his red flowing locks would attract, if he would only commit.) As always, we expect great things from Alan Ting(’s hair) in the future.

Often immitated, never duplicated.