Super Squadra

Anyone who’s reading this blog was probably also at the AT&T Downtown Criterium on Saturday night. For anyone who wasn’t, you missed one of the best days of racing Texas currently has to offer. After a seven year hiatus, Texas again has a National Racing Calendar event. Toyota United, Rock Racing, Colavita, Time, Jelly Belly, and others all came to town. It was the nation’s best on Austin’s streets.

Super Squadra’s goal for the evening was to be as attentive to the front of the race as possible from start to finish. Having not done a national level criterium in four years, the race was as fast, hard, and exciting as I remembered. Riding down 2nd Street was like racing through a tunnel of sound and light with friends, family, and thousands of complete strangers all cheering at the top of their lungs—camera flashes popping like fire flies against the twilight sky. After riding a few splits throughout the race, it was apparent a field sprint was in the works as Toyota United set their train up on the front. Unfortunately our team muscle, Phil, suffered some (non-sponsor product related) mechanical issues, leaving Dave and I to fend for ourselves at the front of the field. I came in just behind the main group of sprinters, but still in the money at 17th, with Dave close behind in 25th.


After some downtown revelry that evening and a hearty Juan in a Million’s Don Juan breakfast taco the following morning, we lined up for Andrew Willis’ eRacing Stigma criterium on the grounds of the Texas State Mental Hospital. Willis did a fabulous job of organizing this race and I hope to see it grow in conjunction with the downtown criterium in the coming years. Four lime and black painted Escalades, a giant truck and trailer, and an enormous motor home signaled the presence of Rock Racing at the eRacing Stigma crit. As the only pro-team entered and with six riders lined up, the race was their’s to lose.


The always aggressive Stefan Rothe was the first to launch a serious move on the technical mile long course, drawing out non other than Rock Racing’s Tyler Hamilton. I bridged across shortly after with Jittery Joe’s strong guy Jared Barrilleaux. The break worked together pretty smoothly until Tyler flatted. Without him in the move we were sure to get chased down by Rock Racing. Luckily he rejoined us a lap later, unluckily, he crashed, hard—doing a somersault over his handlebars—while chasing onto our group. To Tyler’s credit, he brushed himself off and rejoined us a couple laps later. He left large gaps going into every corner the rest of the day.

After 50-minutes of cohesive work off the front, our group got the five-lap to go sign, and with a minute-plus gap on the field, started attacking each other relentlessly. With no one able to stick a solo move, Barrilleaux lead out the sprint and Stefan jumped before the final turn, getting me by a half bike or so at the line, with Barrilleax in third and Tyler in fourth. Wenger finished ninth out of the chase group.


A big thanks goes out to Rock Racing for supporting bike racing in Austin this weekend.

Finally, big, huge props to our kid in the wings Alan Ting who rode a break in the 1,2,3 race and scored a second place finish out of the final four-man split. Awesome.

Bicycle Sport Shop p/b Girling makes the front page of the sports section.

After a three week hiatus the fifth member of Super Squadra has been spotted on a bike again.  With a move, a wedding and a honeymoon behind me I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike. 

Even though I wasnt racing my bike I was never to far away from the team.  I was lucky enough to have Ian, Dave and Phil as my groomsman for my wedding. Here’s a picture of Nina and I at the wedding.

  I also had a surprise for the guys and all of the guests as I made a special request for my grooms cake.  My friend, Teresa Nugent, and I had been working on a design idea and Teresa ended up making me an amazing cake.  The cake has a bike case as the bottom layer with a race wheel on top.  The race wheel even has a cassette on it and yes it has an 11 on it. The jersey on the left is of course our team jersey and it even includes our sponsors logo’s like Bicycle Sport Shop and Girling HealthCare.  People were in awe of the cake and the attention to detail.   Oh, I almost forget.  Yes, it’s all edible and it tasted great.

With everything behind me it will take me a couple of weeks to get going again but I look forward to seeing everyone on the road.  I will especially be working on my time trialing so that Super Squadra can make a statement at the state championships in August.

Ian really wanted me to have three wins in a week. The second week of June was kind to the Bicycle Sport Shop bp Girling team. On Tuesday, I tweaked and tuned my TT position with some success coming out with a two 16 and a half minute rides at the Run- Far TTs, good enough for fastest on the evening. From there, the Austin contingent of the team set their eyes on Thursday’s Driveway Criterium. Ian and Phil were very active throughout the course of the race, I was riding last wheel on my Zipp 404s conserving every ounce of energy possible for the inevitable gallop to the finish. In the final 15min of the race, Ian forced several riders off of his wheel while he was off the front on the “long course.” Coming into the last lap and a half, Phil took over where Ian left off and brought back a three rider move while Ian put me in the best spot possible to take on TX Tough/ THSJ’s sprint aces Carlos Vargas and Jed Rogers. I took the sprint from far out and forced Carlos to take the slow line through the turn, but he still had enough to take me on a week night. That was all I needed to get fired up for the Matrix Challenge.

That smiley goes out to Nina Wheeler. Day 1 of the Matrix Challenge was hard. Ting practiced his 1k efforts and got a prime. Field sprint. I ended up 6th, Phil 10th, Alan 15th. Ian crashed hard early in the race and got back in, but his broken saddle make it tough to get good power and control on the bike over the technical course. While his Serotta HSG held up to the course and the trauma just fine, Ian needed a bag or two of frozen peas in the hours after the race to keep swelling to a minimum.

Day 2! Thanks to host housing from Heather and Zac Lytle a short 25min ride away from the race course, BSS pb Girling arrived at the race ready to win. There is a big difference between riding to win and riding. Ian exploited this by letting an early move roll in the first 5 laps of the race. It was dangerous, but the race was a full 90min. Once the race finally slowed a bit at the 25min mark, I was able to offer Ian a hand and we took long, fast pulls to get the move containing Carlos Vargas, Barry Lee, Jittery Joe’s Jered Barrilleaux, and danger man from Mercy Stefan Rothe. From there, the race constantly lurched forward but not at too great of a speed due to the extreme temperatures. Thus, the main group eventually worked its way down to 16 riders. After a long series of attacks by Ian, I launched going into five laps to go with Barrileaux on my wheel. Tyler Jewell made the jump as well. We worked very evenly and a lap later were joined by a raging John Trujillo. I was feeling strong in the move, but knew I had slim chance racing against three sprinters and winning out of the move. Not until the last lap did I make the sprinters do all of the work for a half lap. This quickly turned into a navel-gazing game and two chasers were gaining on our group. Off of the downhill turn, I attacked hard with about 500m to the finish and held off for the win. A special thanks goes to Teammate Dille for his medal of honor in seeing me through the race.

Thanks to Super Fan Mark Wiggans for passing this along.
http://www.austin360.com/recreation/content/recreation/stories/2008/06/0616fitcity.html

Bicycle Sport Shop pb Girling posted its 17th win of the season (including some training races, but what is a training race?) on the Zipp 404 wheels of Philip Wikoff. For those of you counting, this is Wikoff’s 3rd win on the course. Conditions were unusual for Copperas Cove. Turns were counter-clockwise, temperature was moderate, and winds were at T3 levels. Our team was highly motivated and based our race tactics around stashing away as much of the generous prize as possible, taking home valuable D1 TXBRA points, and winning.

At the 6min mark of the race, Phil got away solo and 9 others, including Specialized S-Works shoe wearing Ian Dille, Orbea’s Bryan Fawley, Velossimo’s John Trujillo and Steve Brandt, Mercy’s Stefan Rothe, at&t- Brain & Spine’s Erick Benz, RBM’s James, A Matrix rider on a Canadian carbon bicycle with Zipp 303s (Serotta, a far more refined steed), as well as AustinBikes’ Sol Frost. I was just behind in what was left of the pack after 40min of racing. 2hr later, the same story played out. Teams that had largely missed out on strong representation in the move took over the chase and kept the gap to the shrinking number of leaders between 30s and 2min at all times during the race.

The group of 10 shed members throughout the course of the day that would join the 8 of us behind for various amounts of time. In the end, Zipp Tangente tire riding Wikoff and Dille, as well as Rothe, Trujillo, and Frost made the right turn in Tipton back to Copperas Cove with a tenuous 45s gap on the chasers. With the leaders chasing Phil while he was working an advantage off the front of the group, Rothe made a hard attack that shelled Frost back to the pack. From there, a Specialized Soft-Top squeezing Dille came back to the pack after his long day of pacing Wikoff. Next, BSS pb Girling teamed up marched the pack back in for the finish along with much legwork by Benz. The leaders opened their gap a bit more, with Wikoff winning the sprint and Trujillo coming through with a solid second place. Rothe finished third.

Behind, Steve Brandt jumped the cramping warriors of the peleton to hold on for 4th. I held off the field with an everlasting Max Miley pushing hard for 5th and 6th. Ian used his SRAM Force to shift into high gear for 8th.

$731, 60ish TXBRA points, and a win. Day complete. Thanks to the town and volunteers for making this race possible, as well as the neutral feeds.

The first day of summer break usually presents itself without stress, school politely moves aside for pool time. Finals-over, packed lunches- make way for a fresher sibling, alarm clock-relegated to the rubbish bin. However, this morning my teenage slumber was interrupted by an unusual early morning call from my dad; Junior Worlds petitions are due tonight by 5 P.M. Quite unexpected. (petitions are necessary because no junior managed to make the federation’s qualifying times) This quickly became one of those mornings where you have no time to be tired. To the computer, a few quick phone calls, some very helpful people, and this seemingly daunting process moves along quite nicely. By mid afternoon the petition is on its way to National team Coach Clay Worthington, and I sit here anxiously as I await the verdict of the big names. I truly hope that The Worlds in South Africa are on my summer travel schedule.

Keep your fingers crossed.

I’ll keep you updated

Alan