Super Squadra

Sunday the 24th wasn’t just the date of the 2008 Academy Awards. No, on a sunny afternoon over 150 riders rolled out for 80 miles around Pace Bend Park. 150 you say, where on earth did they all come from? The prior day Walburg was run off in dry, warm and yes WINDY conditions. We saw a preview of the field that would assemble the next day. If we took anything from Walburg Road Race, it was that Orven is a team based out of Monterrey, Mexico and that they can ride fast by themselves if allowed to.

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Pace Bend run clockwise is a totally different animal though. No one is just going to gutter it and ride everyone off their wheel. You can’t punch it over a riser and find yourself with a commanding advantage. Speed rules at Pace Bend and the first three or four laps had plenty of it. But there is too much of a good thing. In this case as we were midway through our 5th lap we lapped the women’s cat4 field for the second time. 150 men on a two lane winding road with support vehicles is a rather ungainly unit. As we passed them on a downhill swing a collision in the women’s field spilled into the men’s field in the lefthand lane. This caused a huge pileup all centered around a very unfortunate felled female. As the race continued up the road all the riders behind and in the crash scrambled to return to the field. This took another half lap but the race was really heating up at this point. As we took the tight corner at the top of the course I made a hard move only to see the lead car slowing and waving us back. An emergency vehicle had to make its way to the site of the collision and all fields were told to find a place on the side of the road in the shade. Many riders who had never made it back to the field and were simply riding out the laps were given a second chance. So too Alan who was struggling with his bike, unable to get his chain into his 14t was limited to very short 52-15. Not exactly ideal for the downhill finish let alone the short steep pitches dotting the course.

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So we restarted after about a 15 minute break. With less than half the race remaining the dynamic of the race was pointing towards field sprint. Despite covering early moves, I went into “float” mode preparing for the finish. I was at ease though as the myriad attacks going up the road were covered by a combination of Wenger, Dille, Wheeler, Dille, Wenger and on and on. I at least was confident that should these moves roll, we’d have BSS dogs in the fight. The last two laps were really fast and nervous. The sprint finish was on everyone’s mind and with a downhill finish, everyone’s in with a chance if they position themselves well. Steven, David and Ian had me constantly hovering and reminding them I’d need a hand in the final 5k and were up to the task. A strange calm came over me as we entered the final rise before the downhill 1.5k. I had barely pedaled in the last mile as Steven piloted me in and out of traffic with David waiting for me in third wheel. Tactics went a bit amiss though as we reached the top. Orven attacked hard midway up the hill and already had a nice gap. I had a load of momentum but no more field to shield me for the final meters. I attacked hard to go across to the eventual winner and was quickly joined by a lone rider, Alex Boyd. That the field wasn’t in tow was a shock and we quickly did a few turns and were a group of three racing for the win with only a 500m shallow rise to the finish to sort us out. I was apparently a bit too happy to be there and found myself on the front with a field bearing down on us and a solid 300m still to go. I followed my fiance’s favorite maxim, when in doubt, lead it out. Sadly in the last 25m I was passed on either side and held off the charging field for third. Don’t believe me, check out the pic below. Yes, I’m the shoulder and left shoe behind the winner. Sigh. Great publicity for our HealthCoach sponsor at least. Lago next, I sure hope to get all our sponsors in the frame.

Images thanks to Vanessa Ford of Bicycle Sport Shop.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the D1 Texas Cup season. This will be my third go-round with Walburg and Pace Bend and I have personally rolled snake eyes each year. Tomorrow’s Walburg should be a bit different than years prior in that the weather looks to be less of a factor. Notice I didn’t say non-factor. There will certainly be wind but no 40’s and raining and hopefully no 40+ mph gusts of cold front like last year. There are new sections of road to race on that maybe those living in So. Waco have already pre-ridden but for most racers will be totally novel. The theme of the weekend is a theme for most road races in Texas. Uphill finishes. Some uphill finishes are long, some are short, some steep, some light grades. It certainly produces a safer, even sometimes dramatic finish but most of the time the win goes to the best man. A few riders I think are capable of high finishes on Walburg’s rolling terrain are Stefan Rothe, Andrew Dalheim, Alex Boyd, Mat Ankney, Midwest gypsies Steve Tilford and Brian Jensen and our own Steven Wheeler. I know this will be an aggressive, fast race that goes to pieces.

On the other end of the spectrum is beloved Pace Bend RR which reflects its promoter. THSJ/Barry Lee’s flashy Pace Bend is in one of the most physically beautiful areas in Central Texas held usually under blue skies and afternoon sun. The last two years have featured no less than a Lotus and I believe a Porsche pace car. Pace Bend is fast and swoopy and has featured countless big name riders over the years at different stages of their careers. Yesterday’s ATOC stage winner Dom Rollin is a past winner as is Brad Huff of international track fame and national crit glory. Chann McRae, Lance, our boy Pat, all Pace Bend entrants. I haven’t even been in those editions of the race and I know the stories. So, who is going to win this years? Look again at Tilford and Jensen, one of them will be in the break that goes the distance and they’re both superb finishers. Can some of the large local teams avoid the temptation to be the best Texan finisher and race for broke? Is Crosby going to cement his place in the pantheon of Tx racing with a PB win? He’ll line up again with lots of teammates and lots of strength! This is a very exciting time of year as the weather is unpredictable but generally gorgeous and the fields are big.

Well it is with great gratitude and satisfaction that I report our team bikes are on the road and logging miles. I will do an in depth review of each and every ferrule, bearing, and cable stop in a few days but I figure I should at least get a photo up of it looking so fresh and so clean. The picture below has the qualities of a stolen glance to a forbidden lover (ok that’s a bit too Andy Hollinger). It’s a lousy photo because I took it with my iPhone. I will put a fancy photo up in front of a fern or a lake or pretty much anything besides a box of files and a DuPont gray cubicle.

Today I hit up the good old Chappell Hill for what us Houstonians call hill training. Together with my best mate Lawson Craddock and his father Tom, we went for a 70 mile long training ride that took place with some very strong winds. Nonetheless it was a very beautiful ride with minimal traffic and a good amount of hard work. The plan was to ride the first hour and a half at tempo then ease off for the next hour, before finally “racing” back to the cars. But it was not to be as Lawson’s cassette lockring came loose and we were forced to limp back into town. Other than the wheel mishap the ride was faultless, and we plan on doing our distance and hill training here whenever possible. Stay tuned for more updates as a big weekend looms ahead.

Chappell Hill when the asphalt isn’t melting

Fixin Wheel

Best Mates

Super Squadra Conquers Chappell Hill

Here is what went on in my medium Specialized Decibel helmet, almost new with tags. Life in the hour long breakaway at 299w for 60min. Please pass the PowerBar Gel and enjoy.

The race moved fast early on, in the first 10min of the race. So fast that I wasn’t worried about a rider in February having the legs to drive a move at those speeds. As moves started to be placed by teams controlling the race at about the 10min mark, things got more interesting. A group of six or so had a good gap with good representation, aside from TX Tough/ San Jose. I got a good opening to leap out of the field going into the first turn on the course as the field swung left, jumped hard, then drew out two guys who could really make the move work. Kevin Kremke and Tyler Jewell. With Tyler heading up the road, it softened TXT/ SJ’s chase enough so that the gap to the break we just merged with gained a bit more ground.

After a few hard rotations, the break split. We had an hour to go. I was nervous for this effort. Andrew Willis and Kevin worked evenly, a trend that continued throughout the race. As we got time splits, there was a noticeable pattern. We would hold steady for two laps or so, then the gap would balloon by another 7- 10sec before the chase would get going again. This pattern landed us with a 40sec gap, about 1/3 of a lap, by the time we had about 15min to do in the race.

I started to miss a few pulls as we were getting ready to lap a portion of the field as I had two very good finishers in the group that could assist in a lead out. Kevin and Andrew did as well, so they drove forward. As we caught the COM3, they were asked to retire from the race. This was unfortunate for two reasons. One, my leadout was gone. Two, the pace was very high in the break and I was hoping that would take a toll on Kevin’s fast sprint. If the pace had remained high instead of softening up to catch my sprinters, it could have helped my case in finish with Kevin.

So, plan B. I attacked as hard as possible with two to go, and got a little gap. I hated and had to drop race promoter Willis, he can make late moves work and I timed my attack so that both him and Kevin were in the wind. Kevin closed the gap quickly, but at a price. I gave about another four attacks, which also landed me in the role of having to take the sprint long and before the left bend in the road. It was my hope that I could slightly slow Kevin in the sprint by making him go the long way around the turn, but he got past me so fast that it didn’t matter. He came through my left side, on the inside of the turn, before I even go to the bend in the road. Kevin, Andrew, and I all did what we thought we could do best in the race. I am happy with the placement, the best racer won.

The pre-season races wrapped up this weekend in Castroville, TX. This area about 20 minutes west of San Antonio was the host to two days of racing in and around town. Saturday’s criterium was held at a small park called Castroville Regional Park which is nestled between the Medina river and some hills which rise abruptly at park’s edge. The loop was about 2 minutes long and was marked by early aggression in the 75 minute race. With several strong riders already up the road, the very strongest riders of the field quickly bridged across forming a brief but mutually advantageous alliance. Once Kevin Kremke and Wenger reached the small group already up the road containing Andrew Willis (promoter extraordinaire for the weekend), those three riders became the wheat and all others in the race the chaff. With over one hour of racing left, these three had to stay committed. This proved no problem and in the end, Kevin bested Wenger in the final two-up sprint after a few unsuccessful late escapes by our man. It was a day when Kevin, David and Andrew were riding at a different level than the rest of the field. Congrats to all three.

The evening’s festivities included a locally catered pasta dinner. There was also an awards ceremony where both David and Alan received recognition for their podium placings (Alan 3rd in the Cat3 race before entering the 1/2/3). We wound the night down with some generous slices of King Cake fresh from Louisiana.

On Wednesday and Thursday I was in Clear Lake, Texas visiting my fiance and her parents. Clear Lake is a suburb of Houston and is around 30 miles from Galveston. Of course, I brought my bike and went on a pretty cool ride on Wednesday. My main objective for the ride wasn’t a distance, a certain time or interval specific. My main goal was to get to the Gulf of Mexico and dip my hand in it. Now, that might sound weird but when you love the water like I do just seeing it isn’t enough. I left the house and worked my way down from Clear Lake to Kemah. Kemah is a little tourist area that has a nice boardwalk and many restaurants. To get to the other side of Kemah you need to cross the Kemah bridge which also was a good place for me to throw in some intervals. The bridge has a nice shoulder and its pretty long and pretty steep. Just enough to get the old heart-rate going. Here’s a pic of the bridge.

Well I crossed the bridge and headed farther south towards Texas City. I started working my way towards the water and found a cool little park to stop at. I got off the bike and took off my shoes (speedplays don’t like sand) and cruised down to the water. It was freezing and my hand smelled like the Gulf but my objective was complete. I just thought it was cool looking into the Gulf and seeing huge oil tankers and a couple of oil rigs off in the distance. I would never trade training in Austin for anything but being able to see the Gulf of Mexico on a two hour ride is pretty neat. I battled the tough headwind all the way back home and even took a detour to pass by NASA. Overall it was a good ride and anytime you can see new scenery its well worth it.

This weekend we’ll be in Castroville, TX for the criterium and road race. It’s a new venue, new promoter and new weekend of racing for the TXBRA calendar. Andrew Willis and wife Holly are promoting the race for their first ever stab at event promotion. They have had ample exposure to the craft as they were always dedicated to Barry Lee’s events over the past few years. I hope these races will succeed wildly so they receive a reward for their efforts and so that they will stay in the promotion game.

I was really happy with last week’s racing venues. I feel like promoters who are long-time racers themselves are some of the most capable of good course selection. For this reason I am very optimistic the Castroville races will produce challenging and dynamic racing. We’ll see you out there this weekend, look for the team wielding a Wenger.

Will TX Alsatian Country be as pretty as the actual Alsace?

Day two of the Tour of New Braunfels featured a 72-mile road race on a roughly 12-mile circuit. Classic Texas, the course contained windswept chip and seal, rolling hills, and a perfectly smooth tail wind that the field charged at 35-plus mph. The day, however, wasn’t ours. Despite placing ourselves in numerous moves and staying attentive at the front of the field, a group of nine rolled off without Super Squadra representation. Phil flatted out. Wheeler made a second split to score eighth on day. Castroville looms.