Super Squadra

Hotter ‘N Hell in Wichita Falls annually marks the beginning of the end of each season and with that distinction, along comes a good deal of prestige. Since 2009, the race has been a three day affair with two criteriums bookending the all-important HH100 road race. After a summer lull in racing, Texan racers return to the state for a bid at the title and that famously garish winner’s jersey.

Friday night’s 75 minute criterium is always a fast and nervous affair due to the fresh legs, ambitious field and thousands of HHH rally racers to cheer us on. The racing stays full throttle throughout, mostly spurred on by the primes and a shot at taking home the largest slice of the $2000 on offer. Ian predictably went for the Festina TdF edition wristwatch, a possession he has chased since his tender years as a Cat 2 collegiate cyclist. A number of breakaways formed with nearly every combination of top teams and riders, eventually leading to a period when the break nearly outnumbered the field. However with 20 minutes remaining, THSJ coalesced at the front of the pack and went about the unenviable task of setting up their stable of fast finishers. Entering the final two corners I sat well positioned for the sprint when a rival entered a corner far too fast and ended up taking out nearly all of the leading ten riders in the field. David and Chad were able to ignore me performing a flip in the air onto my face and finish in the top ten.

The HHH road race begins in the cool darkness amidst natural disaster-like confusion. Despite a team of HHH veterans, in attempting to circumvent the thousands of staging rally riders we stumbled upon the Renaissance Fest-clad cannon firing crew. I’d never heard the phrase “THE CANNON IS LOADED” before but after Saturday, I’m positive I never want to hear it again. The race was not without it’s own pitfalls. Alan was taken down in the first 30 miles and his team bike was irreparably damaged. Everyone on the team was attentive to the attacks despite the 30+ mph averaged speeds of first few hours. After a particularly difficult section in which the field again comprised many disparate groups, I launched a seated attack up to eventual road race winner Russ Walker. Joined by Vargas, Logan and Pat’s RBM teammate Jason Short, we would not be seen again by the field. On the final wind-swept approach to the finish, Russ launched one decisive attack up against the gutter and won with ample time to make his celebration truly memorable. The remnants of the break worked together and decided the podium spots in a small group sprint. Back in the bunch kick, confusion reigned as a crash, wrong turn, and impromptu police road block made for a dangerous and unsporting final 1k. Ian kept me company in the heat and soiled chamois drenched post-ride music tent.


Sunday’s criterium is what I would consider a hangover criterium, despite evening’s prior sobriety. The midday conditions are brutal, as are the road surfaces. Gone are the many enthusiastic fans of Friday evening. The race exists to satisfy the principles of Charles Darwin. If you had made it this far with body and equipment intact and were still at your sporting best, you deserved to don the flame-ensconced bovine skull leader’s jersey. Only a few riders were up to the task and the day’s break included Russ, Logan, our very own Chad, Pat, and Stefan. Chad would eventually suffer an energy gel reversal of fortune and returned to the field. With the jersey holding Jason Waddell opting out of the day’s aggression, his team was left to set a nearly impossible chase until the race was over. Once their failure was certain, THSJ basically dominated the final laps of the race both winning from the break and launching Josh into the top 5. I slotted into 7th and ended the weekend 6th in the omnium despite the dearth of Friday points, a crash, and an unwelcome bout of anaphylaxis.

With a huge block of Holland Racing ahead of us, we can thank HHH weekend not so much for the entertainment, though Piranha 3D was a classic, or the posh housing, countless thanks to the Knox family and Julie Carter for the lead, or the broken equipment, an SL3, 303 and a seatpost, but instead for the gained fitness and opportunity to tune-up our ability to race as a newly formed team of seven.

The Tour de Austin Bradley Houston Law Pole Position Time Trial will be smoking fast. As is the case with any time trial, a time trial specific bike will be fastest, but don’t fret if you’re coming with one road bike for the weekend. Bring your clip-on aero bars, a set of Allen wrenches, and set up the road bike to go fast on the turny course. Pop all of the spacers out of your steerer tube, place them above the stem, and get in a low, as well as aggressive, TT position and you’ll be set.

As with most races where locals can easily familiarize themselves with a course, Austinites will enjoy a home-court advantage at the Driveway. If you’re coming from out of town or this is your first trip to The Driveway Austin, be prepared for a flat-out fast course. There are no corners that require heavy braking. In fact, there is only one turn that requires coasting, the one closest to the announcer’s stand on your way from the start line. Everything else can be taken full-gas, sometimes in the aero bars and sometimes out. No matter what, stay slow, keep pedaling, and shoot to take your momentum the whole way to the outside of the exit of every turn. Again, lots of turns, but only one that counts as a corner.

The Driveway Austin features two distinct sections. First, there is the upper part of the course that will be used for the start and finish. There is no vegetation, so if there are winds, expect them to be amplified by the openness of the top of the course. Also, this section of the course has many turns. All but one can be pedaled through if the rider takes a wide arch, which will eventually take you past the shop house then into the river bottom which is protected from the wind by tall trees.

This section of the course is normally free from wind. Sometimes the long, sweeping turn at the end can get a bit of a south wind in it, but that’s it. This section is fast! It is almost perfectly straight, here’s where you’ll pull the average speed up a few notches. Heading into this section is downhill and perhaps the only time a rider can let pressure off the pedals. The approach back to the upper part of the course is deceptively uphill, a prime spot for powerful riders to make up time on the competition. Do one more full lap for a total of roughly 4 miles and your done.

It’s a short, hard effort, so amidst all the turning and pedaling, don’t forget to breath!

TX Cup is divided into two segments. First, there are the hard-core and hyper competitive spring races. These start with Copperas Cove and the Tour of New Braunfels then conclude with the State Criterium Championships in Fort Worth. The second part of the season, football season or pre-season for the spring races, starts with the Texas State Time Trial Championships, this year held in Floresville, TX.

The course for the 2010 40k championships was a relief from previous editions. It featured safe turns early in the out-and-back course and challenging elevation 520ft changes from the 4- 21mi mark. The time trial ended up being a little short, 38.96k, so finish times do not show the difficulty of the course until it is noted the race was fractionally short.

Steven was the first rider off from our crew right around 7:50am. Squadra had alternating starts with Team Hotel San Jose, with Chad as my minute man we were all out on the road within an ear shot of each other. For the first time ever in a 40k, I was able to zone out and really not concentrate on much other than average speed. After a week and a half off the bike leading into Le Driveway to follow greatness in action, I am pretty sure that I was in peak form for the weekend after a nice taper. I didn’t feel much other than ice melting on my chest for the 52min ride, but 9am brought a whole new set of challenges. After figuring out our places (5^th for me, 8^th for Haga, and 13^th of Esteban), we set sail to watch movies and eat tacos in the big city, San Antonio

Guided by mobile devices locked-in on the keyword, “Taco” we stumbled upon team Godfather Zac Lytle’s favorite taco joint, Taco Taco. Similar to boutique shoe stores in Manhattan or auditions for America’s Got Talent, there was a line out the door. We waited patiently for our brunch, and suggest blog readers do the same. The tortilla was surprisingly puffy and chewy, requiring a fair amount of tugging from canines, but this did add to the joy of a simultaneous burst of flavor from avocado and fajita chicken. Go with the specials or best known dishes on the menu and you’ll be pleased.

Next, we went to kill some time at the movies. There was air conditioning. The movie really is not worth mentioning (not Eat. Love. Pray. despite my protests.)

Heading back to the metropolis of Floresville in Chad’s Chevy V8 truck to join our TTT teammate Ian, we made a pit-stop at HEB. Chad bought a half gallon of 2% milk and a cheesecake. Both were consumed by start time on Sunday morning for the team time trial, which is another story. Steven, God of Cable Television, was able to find several Harrison Ford, Mathew McConaughey, and and various other features with Jessica Alba to pass our time. In fact, during the most heated part of our TTT pre-race meeting, “Do I ring my bike bell only when pulling off, or when attempting to pull through?”, outcries of “Be quiet, Optimus Prime is ready to for action.” And, “You’re an idiot. You only ring your bell when we pass San Jose,” were conveyed by disapproving eyes during the evening entertainment. We pounded a few chicken fried steaks and DQ Blizzards, then it was time to retire.

Waking up was a bit rough. We were on the bikes and rolling around as a team by 6:50a, about 40min from our start. Our ride was about as good as we could make it, so we’re thrilled with our performance. A time trial is not about winning, it is about having the best effort possible and then being satisfied with the output or effort. In all cases over the state time trial weekend, we exceeded our expectations and lopped off considerable time from our previous best team time trial efforts. Our placing of 4^th in the TTT is what we earned and our performances bode well for the racing to come in Wichita Falls and at the Tour de Austin.

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.

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!

It is not quite the production of Holland Racing’s Driveway Series, but King Racing Group’s first-year of promoting the Thursday Night Criterium is certainly a success. I’ve spent many a Tuesday evening at the historical Tuesday Night Crit in Plano but had not yet made it out to the newest Dallas racing scene. After sitting through an hour of Dallas traffic, I arrived at the undeveloped neighborhood tucked away in quaint Sunnyvale, TX eager to see what this race is all about.

It’s the little things that matter–porta-john near registration with toilet paper and hand sanitizer: check; quick and painless registration: check; easy and plentiful parking: check. With 30 minutes to kill before my race, I warmed up on the miles of lightly-trafficked and nicely-shaded road just outside the course.

Okay, so this race has all the amenities that racers like, but how is the racing? With the Memorial Day crits kicking off in two days, this week featured many of Dallas’ P/1/2 racers who were looking for a tune-up race. Metro VW had several riders in the mix, Johnny Sundt made an appearance, and a small crew from RBM including Andrew Armstrong on the hunt for his 4th straight win at this race comprised some of the 1/2/3 field. As a bonus, we got to race with Ben Spies–the current World Superbike Champion. Thankfully his bike was less Super and more Specialized for this race!

As all training crits should be, everyone raced aggressively. Metro VW was constantly sending riders off and I kept myself busy covering their moves as well as others’. The course is not very technical, which makes it quite difficult to get away cleanly from the pack on such a fast course. I took a few digs of my own during lulls to keep the intensity up, and finally a group got away with just ten minutes left in the race. The games finally started on the final lap, and Sundt decided to drive the pace for the lap. Andrew Armstrong ramped the pace fast with 500 meters to go; I was 2nd wheel. It seemed as if I was getting a perfect leadout, but Armstrong knew–and I learned–that if you lead into the final sweeping turn 100 m from the finish you stand a good chance at winning. The turn isn’t very hard at normal speeds, but when you have to chase around the outside at 40 mph you notice the turn! Andrew held the inside line and was able to hold me off for the win by half a wheel.

I didn’t get any of the several primes offered, but I did get some money for 2nd. As I walked up to collect my prize money, Ginny handed me an ice-cold bottle of water. I’d call it a good day.

We’ve had a great run over the last month at The Driveway Bike Race Series. Phil won the last race in May, I won the first and the series overall, as well as the team getting podiums and primes every week. June would be another important month, we’re gearing up for Nationals in Bend and these races are the best way for us to measure our strengths and weaknesses before heading out of town.

By now, after five seasons of having my Thursdays dominated by East Austin happenings at The Driveway, I’ve figured a few things out. First, East 2nd street is a smooth, flat way out to the race. Second, if it rains, I’m more worried about my ride to and from The Driveway than about my racing on the tacky surface at the race track. Third, you’ve got to have a plan. If you get on the podium, how are you going to ham it up?

The big story of the day good was news that Teammate Wikoff will be raising the next generation field sprinter. Motivation was high to welcome the news of Phil and Daniele’s well-timed November child. Keep in mind that this will be a disadvantage for Young Wikoff with racing age determined on 12/31 of the current year, but as the child ages into the masters categories, YW will have a distinct advantage. Clever. Ah, the advantages of having smart parents.

The 5/3 Driveway race was spartan in attendance due to competitors traveling north for Tulsa Tough and the weather conditions being too nice for just a 1hr race. 73 and light sun made most folks want to go for more, thus, I rode out to the race and slotting several wheels back in the 30 rider group. The race stayed a steady 27.3mph for the first 15min as a large early split gained an advantage. THSJ lost their rider in the move, then Casey Crosby and Will Ross took to the front to pull things back. Nerds, the first 15min of the race was at 2.9w/kg.

The prime bell started to ring and the race picked up a bit. Several riders went for long solo moves to make the cash, or bar tape, but the only rider to break from the field for a signficant advantage was Team LifeSize’s John Korioth. Once he was caught, I attacked for the next prime, and kept going. To get the prime, it was a 900w jump and 1:40 438w effort to get to the finish line clean, but my gap was good enough that I figured I’d see who I could draw out of the field to play off the front. Several laps (9) later, I reached the finish line with an average speed for the break at 27.3mph, 4.3w/kg, roughly 310w, and a well-thought out victory pose.

About three laps before the finish, I knew I had a monumental task. I had to come up with a victory solute worthy of a new Wikoff. Do I sprint and toss up both arms? Do I perform the Lion’s Roar from the ‘09 Pace Bend win? Do I simulate popped Daniele’s Eggo’s in the toaster and have them snap up into the air? No. I rocked the baby, err, next generation field sprinter, all the way to the finish.

There’s a new category in Texas, the Pro/ 1. There are not that many professionals that show up to these races, but holy cow the Cat1s turn out for reasonable size fields. About 40 riders started both the Gary Glickman Memorial Criterium and the GS Tenzing Criterium, and teams showed in strong numbers. We entered four riders each day, Metro VW with about seven, Matrix with three, and Team Hotel San Jose with eight. If the right mix of riders made it together, the field would split each day and gradually the gap between them would grow.

At Glickman, Chad and I made the move of roughly a dozen riders that included three Metros and five THSJs. No one drove the move, it just sort of went around the course without much motivation aside from some digs to see if the group could split. With strong THSJ numbers, they played a thier hand by pulling back moves and nudging us closer to lapping the field. As we did, Chad and I had less and less of a chance of pulling off a move to win without lapped riders participating in a chase to limit our gains. As the last two laps approached, the sprint became chaotic and it was clear that to finish, we were going to have to ride to the outside of the group and just swarm back around the field after they swarmed us. In the final kick to the line, I finished 5th, Chad 8th.

The next morning (which was beautiful, btw) the GsT crit was pretty much the same story but Ian made the split with us, as did Josh Carter. Coming into the bell lap, we were catching the field and they were allowed to participate in our last lap and sprint. More chaos, so we free-lanced our finish to more top 10s, me in 4th, Chad in 5th.

Collegiate Road Nationals. This race has been my focus since the 2009 edition, so you can imagine how much I’ve been daydreaming lately.

First, the course: The course starts with a long, fast descent. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it is what it is. In dry conditions, we almost touched 50 mph on it without trying. From there it’s some small rolling hills before a short steep kicker that takes a bit over a minute to get over. This is followed by a small descent and some more rollers before a longer climb of about 2 minutes, and then a fast descent and more rollers before the final climb of the lap. This climb…the tough portion of it takes almost 5 minutes, and rises about 600 feet. The race does 5 laps of this—the last time through we climb up to the state park, which is an additional kilometer (and 300+ feet elevation gain). Our race (72 miles) would have us climbing over 8000 feet! Here’s the course profile:

Yesterday, we (me, Shane Haga, Cody Foster, and Greg Hercules) rode a loop of the course to get a feel for the climbs and descents, and enjoyed the scenery. The weather was awesome. I was undecided about my feelings towards the weather to come—my recent race results prove that I’m good in the sufferfests, but that doesn’t mean I like them. I decided my 25-tooth cassette would get the job done, but I wanted some more teeth to keep my cadence up on the climbs…good thing I forgot my 12-27 back in College Station. So I bought a 12-26 at a local shop (there’s more than a dozen in Madison!) along with a new pair of rain/wind-resistant gloves.



After prepping the bike last night (including putting the new cassette on my wonderfully light 303’s), the last touch was to mount the bike number. I could have been foolhardy like most of the people in the race, but you should never underestimate the Cool Factor. While most people were zip/twist-tying a paper number to their seatpost (it’s going to rain, people, think about this…) I was folding mine down, filling it with paper stock, sealing it with packing tape, and then poking holes to fit it onto my KirkLee-Hattaway Number Mount Carbon Prototype (thanks, Matt!).



Race day began at 5:30 for me. I woke up and checked the weather—the rain wasn’t here yet but it would be soon. Every bite of my poptarts (the breakfast of champions, you know) had to be forced down like green beans for a 5-year old kid. It’s hard to be hungry that early in the morning. I packed my bag and loaded the van, ready to roll out. The iPod died a mile outside of town…so much for the pump-up music. So I spent the next 25 minutes of the drive running through tactical scenarios in my head.

At the parking lot, I began to get dressed and prep my bike. It was sprinkling lightly. With an hour still to wait before the race, the rain set it. Our host for this trip, David, let me have a rain jacket so that I wouldn’t have to start the race wet. Staging was the usual chaotic process, and I ended up in the 6th row or so, with about 40 racers ahead of me. We would be starting the race with 146 riders…definitely the biggest race I’ve ever done! The start was neutral done the first hill until we reached the start of the loop, at which point things got sketchy. Everyone wanted to be at the front, but nobody wanted to take any risk in the turns the first time through on the descent—so naturally we all rode the brakes the whole way down. Ah, the smell of burning rubber.

During the first lap, lots of little attacks went off and got chased down. Throughout the entire race, one or two guys would attack at a time and the pack might chase it down immediately or they could just look at each other and let it go. I was floating the front 20 or so to stay out of trouble and be in position in case the pack split. The first time over the long climb was going to be interesting, as everyone was still fresh. As I expected, the pack split about half-way up into a group of 50 or so. The rain jacket I was wearing was becoming uncomfortably hot so I shed it at the top, hoping that the descent wouldn’t make me too cold.

On the preride of the course, I predicted that the pack would split on the big climb each lap and regroup on the descent, and that’s exactly what happened. Our lead group was descending at nearly top speed (still using the brakes a little bit), and the rest of the field caught back on after a few miles. A break of 4 or 5 slipped away that had me worried. I definitely didn’t want to waste energy and go with it so early in the race, but it had nearly 2 minutes on the field. I was hoping that working in a break would tire them too much to do the climbs quickly. Sure enough, their 1:30 lead on the field dropped to zero over the long climb at the end of the second lap because the field charged up it so quickly. Once again, the field split on the climb and reformed on the descent. I noticed, however, that fewer riders made the split the second time around and fewer riders rejoined. Yep, that hill was going to make or break the race.

This pattern held true for lap 3 and 4 as well: small break with a minute on the field, caught on the big climb. The pack split (smaller group each time) and reformed (smaller each time). On the descent, we no longer used our brakes. I wouldn’t classify it as really technical because none of the turns were very hard but they were all blind and the road dropped off steeply into a ditch if you overcooked it. I was thoroughly enjoyed it! Based on cadence and gearing, we were flying down—in the rain, mind you—at a smidge over 50 mph.

After the long descent on lap 4, 2 pairs of riders rolled away easily. The guy on my right made an obvious move to attack, so I decided to follow. I did some of the work to get up there, but it wasn’t a very taxing effort. Our break of 6 formed on the first little climb, but never really got organized. I wasn’t about to drive the break and wear myself out if none of them were going to do so, either. Those short times we did get organized, I made a show of being exhausted by wearing a huge grimace on my face and throwing in a shoulder bob so they wouldn’t complain when my pulls were half as long as anyone else’s. On the climbs I flailed around a lot like I was just hanging on so they would pull. I didn’t expect the break to stick and it seems like they didn’t either. If it somehow stayed away, I’d be the freshest one there. If it didn’t, well, I just got to do a full lap at an easy pace and not deal with the accelerations of the pack charging up the climbs.

The rain picked up, and that descent really stung my face. That may be because I was leading the descent and we were going faster than every before. We were caught by the field—or what was left of it—just before the first climb on the last lap. Our lead group was now about 30 riders strong. In the few miles between the first and second climbs, over half a dozen attacks went off and the field brought them all back. With such a feisty field, I didn’t want to waste my legs—which were still feeling great, by the way—on a little attack before it really hit the fan. I was also a bit timid because my wonderful new gloves, as valiantly as they fought, had finally soaked through and I couldn’t feel my hands anymore. It was taking a great deal of effort to articulate a single shift. So when 2 riders slipped off, I didn’t expect the group to let it go. The course is twisty enough, though, that once you’re out of sight you’re really gone.

We hit the base of the climb 1:40 down on those two riders, with about 10 minutes left in the race. This was going to be close. I moved up to about 6th wheel for the climb. After a minute of climbing, a Fort Lewis rider lifted the pace quickly and forced a hard split at the front. 2 riders went with him, and I gave chase with a Colorado rider ahead of the shelled field. The Colorado rider couldn’t contribute on the climb, but I dragged him along because I had plans for him later. I held the group of 3 ahead of us to a bit over 5 seconds ahead over the top of the climb. Keep in mind (consult the profile if you need to) that for this final lap, the big climb that concluded each lap was only half of the final climb of the race. On the short downhill before we started the last climb, I got the guy with me to pull through hard (remember, I said I had plans for him…) and he reeled them in to 50 meters before we made the last turn to start climbing again. We railed the turn onto the climb to make up as much distance as possible, and then I had to get from my 13 tooth cog to the 26 with fingers that I could no longer control and without losing momentum. I finally got it, but not without upshifting twice in the process! With my gear settled, I got to work. The group dangled just ahead of us—the lead riders were gone by this point. Half-way up, the climb levels out a bit at the Ranger’s station. When it pitched upward again, the Coloradan popped. A Fort Lewis rider had been dropped from the trio ahead. I had lost my chance at victory, but the podium was just 50 meters ahead of me. That became my sole focus: catch that guy!



I slowly worked my way towards him, and then passed him 100 meters from the top of the climb. At that point, another Fort Lewis rider was just a couple of seconds up. I started pulling him back as well, but he (Rotem Ishay, it turns out—the same guy that dropped the entire field at Collegiate MTB Nationals like they were standing still) kicked enough at the top to hold me at bay the final 200 meters. I know I could have won the race, but things don’t always go to plan. Nonetheless, I’m bringing home a medal!

After finishing, I had to be helped to undress because my hands were useless. I tried to pull my gloves off with my teeth but it wasn’t working…then I realized it’s because I was biting my fingers. I began rehashing the whole race, and I smiled when I realized that the last 10 minutes of the race is exactly what Dave’s VO2 workouts have prepared me for. I had consumed just one bottle over the whole race, plus all the spray I swallowed. One final thought: this makes the fourth time in 2010 that I’ve podiumed a miserable race…. As for the other Aggies, Shane held on for 4 laps before his legs gave out, and Herc fell victim to a flat during the neutral rollout and subsequent wheel-change SNAFU. Cody made it into the final selection and finished at 28th—awesome job!