Super Squadra

On the long drive back to Austin following our final TXBRA Premier Cup race, and second to last event of the racing season, Dave made an astute observation. We are now closer to racing the first Premier Cup race of the year, Pace Bend, than we are from having done it back at the end of February. It’s been a long, incredibly fun and successful year for Super Squadra, and we’re looking forward to finishing it off with a flourish in two weeks at the State Road Race Championships.

This past weekend, at two criteriums in Denton—one near the town’s quaint downtown square, past the popular beer, taco, and burger joints, Fuzzy’s and Rooster’s, and the other race, around a high school stadium—we succeeded in securing: the Team Premier Cup title; second place in the Premier Cup individual competition; the Team State Cup title; and the Individual State Cup title.

On Saturday, we lined up for the final Premier Cup race of the four race series prepared to take on an incredibly technical 14-corner course with two tough uphill drags straight into a headwind. Ten feet into the race, I managed to wrap my rear derailleur into my spokes and effectively kill the rear drop out on my beloved Serotta HSG. Unbelievably, a savior, Colavita masters racer Russ Wiseman, who lives in both my and Wheeler’s hometown of Southlake, TX, was standing on the sidelines, and offered me a spare bike. While I watched the field speeding single file around the course, Russ ran to his car to grab his shoes. He returned just as the pack was rounding the final corner. I threw on the Sidis, hopped on the bike, and just made it onto the back of the field as it came by. Wicked awesome USCF official, Bonnie Walker, handed me up the water bottles from my mangled machine on laps 3 and 4 of the race. Having assessed that the bike was functioning well enough, I then made it to the front of the field to assist the team.

The field was strung out throughout the 80-minute event due to the constant turns on the course. With the difficulty of a group working effectively together, only solo moves were able to get away.

Dave made a strong bid off the front roughly 50-minutes into the day, but was brought back through the team efforts of Matrix, Metro VW, and Mercy’s Stefan Rothe. TX Tough’s Russ Walker, sporting his rhinestone bedazzled bib shorts, went on the counter attack, but Wheeler, riding with a case of undiagnosed bronchitis, was there to bring him back. Coming into the finale, Christian Helmig of Metro VW took the final flier, and it stuck. Phil and Dave weren’t quite able to catch before the finish line, and came in second and third respectively.





That evening we enjoyed the only reason we really made the trip to the Metroplex: Mrs. Wheeler’s turkey cutlets. The tendorized, seasoned and breaded, pan fried, pieces of poultry goodness have led to success in endurance athletics for Steven and I since before we could legally drive. After demolishing a few cutlets a piece, along with blissfully buttery mashed potatoes, green beans, garden salad, and fresh bread—all finished off with heaping portions of chocolate cake and BlueBell vanilla ice cream—we attempted to uncover Mrs. Wheeler’s TXBRA forum identity, but alas, were unsuccessful. (She’s a sneaky one.) Knowing Mrs. Wheelers meals never fail to deliver, we hit the sack expecting more top results on Sunday.





On Sunday, both Dave and I made an early move of nine-riders, including noted strong men JT Cody (Solar Eclipse) and Stefan Rothe, that quickly lapped the field. With a full pack of fresh teammates to lead us out, and the few attacks we did launch quickly quelled by our break-away partners, a field sprint was in the works.

The final laps were a low speed game of positioning until, with one to go, Stefan launched an attack that shook up everyone’s well positioned lead out trains. Luckily, I was on Ting’s wheel who chased down Stefan, then sprinted his way up to the front of the strung out field. Dave and I were roughly five riders back coming down the final straight, but weren’t able to make it to the front before the last turn to the line. We again scored second and third on the day, with me on board Russ Wiseman’s graciously loaned spare bike. A million thank yous go out to Russ for giving me the opportunity to compete this past weekend.

Thanks as well to Kevin McDade of KMc Photo for the awesome wide angle lens shots.

In temps reminiscent of the very first Driveway of the year back in March, we raced last night at the Driveway trying to sew up a seventh straight mini-series win. We came in with Dille in the lead despite having missed last week’s race to line up with the country’s best criterium racers in Victory Park, Dallas. He held a slim lead over Stefan Rothe of one point with last week’s winner and our very own Alan “Gotta Have That” Ting a single point behind Stefan.

The rain continued to fall throughout the race albeit very lightly. Puddles of water provided a new means to shake the rider in your slipstream because you could shoot water in their face and soak their shoes. We all finished about 15 lbs heavier than we started due to being totally soaked by surface water. I attacked off the front at first with two riders and then by myself for the first 15 minutes of the race. I absorbed a prime and some heavy legs with the effort and eventually was brought back. Wenger went away in a group of 5 and eventually Stefan’s big effort brought the race fully back together. Lap cards came with only about 30 minutes elapsed and eventually winner Colt Trant continued to attack until he was riding with one of the biggest engines out there, Erick Benz. With the finish order determining the monthly overall, Ian made an all or nothing move that would either earn him the “field” sprint win and the overall or set up Ting perfectly for the same.

It would be the teammate role for Ian as he was caught with 350m to go and Ting surged ahead to win the sprint and the monthly overall. It was a tough, short race in disgusting weather (for central TX in September that is) and both riders deserved the overall win. Ian’s stellar form in September was again on display in what has been a stacked block of racing by amateur racing standards. Ting’s star is continuing to rise through the late season with still more races to come and a surprise appearance at Alkek tonight. Watch out for him to take his first P12 distance road race in the future. Pace Bend 2010 anyone?

Ever wonder what a world-renown cycling journalist does to celebrate the start of his fourth decade on the planet? Me too. Thus, I went under cover, presenting myself as a member of the Super Squadra cycling team in order to find out how they would honor such a great record keeper of our times. Man, it was great!

These Super Squadra guys do the coolest things. For example, they play jokes on each other, like when to leave Austin in order to make it to make it to Victory Park in Dallas on time for TX Tough. At this point, I still do not know what time the race started, but they made it there with plenty of time to spare and many bladders expanded for the better—since they’re way too Cat 1 cool to stop during a drive to stretch the legs. They even found the best parking spot in Victory Park. The parking meter was broken so Ian didn’t even have to expense $2.75 in change for the meter.
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     The first race that I did on Sunday was in my car trying to get to Phil’s house at 4:30 in the morning.  Our team had decided to just drive up the day of instead of getting a place to stay close to the race course.  With it raining all day on Saturday and rain expected all day on Sunday we knew that we needed to leave a little earlier than possible to make sure we made the 7:30 start.  As Phil and I drove to Chappell Hill, with the rain sporadically dampening our spirits in the pitch black of darkness, we joked about the season winding down and how most racers are losing motivation.  Fortunately for us, our team still  has some goals to wrap up for this season so we were excited about the race even with the rain looming overhead.

 

     The race started and I think for the first 10 miles we went as slow as humanly possible.  No one was attacking and with the roads still wet, I think everyone was just trying not to get water sprayed in their face.  Finally, we hit a good size roller and the race started to heat up.  Ting got in the first move and on the feed zone hill Phil attacked as hard as I’ve ever seen him.  Of course being 40 guys back, basically riding last wheel, I laughed seeing the team sprinter attack on the “hilly” part of the course as he splintered the field and put everyone in a single file formation.  A couple of more riders bridged to the group and when Ian hitched a ride to the break, Super Squadra had 3 riders up the road.  I was sitting pretty in the field just biding my time hoping that those guys could get further up the road so I could just sit back and enjoy a nice training ride as they battled up the road for the win.

 

     After a furious chase from the field everything came back together and Sam Childs (AT&T Brain & Spine) put in a dig.  I waited for the next hill and launched myself to repay my teammates for their early efforts.  I looked back after I had a gap and saw that Scott Henry (AT&T Brain & Spine), Kevin Schaefer (Team Six) and a rider from Mexico were bridging up and before I know it our break had 1:45 over the peloton.  I just had to laugh to myself since the year before at the State Road Race I had found myself  in the exact same situation.  The five of us worked well together with the others doing the bulk of the work. 

 

     With a lap to go a group of four riders bridged across and that made my race a whole lot harder.  With strongman JT Cody (Solar Eclipse), World Junior TT silver medalist Lawson Craddock (Hot Tubes), Cody Foster (Sun & Ski) and another rider from Mexico in the mix the whole dynamic of the break changed and I was immediately put on the defensive.  Luckily from my experience of winning the race last year I knew where I needed to conserve, where I needed to be aggressive and even where I needed to hide.  Unfortuantely I wasnt able to hide very much as on the run in back to town JT Cody and one of the riders from Mexico established a 15 second lead after a counter attack.  I tried my best to keep the group together but the attacks kept flying and the two riders kept getting further up the road.  Eventually Lawson Craddock put in a huge dig and was making his way across so I had to drag the rest of the group with me.  Foster got left behind during this move and Childs started to sit on after working all day in the original break. 

 

     The break took the left turn heading back into town and continued attacking each other until one of the riders from Mexico got off solo.  The rest of us tried to continuously get up the road to him but all we did was weaken each other as his teammate just floated wheels.  Coming into the last mile the rider from Mexico was only 10 seconds off the front but he started to crack  and the rest of us came into the base of the hill together.  I knew the other teammate who had been sitting on would be the freshest rider left so I waited for his jump on the hill and the drag race began.  I usually have a good kick at the end of a long road race but I didnt have enough to come around and I settled for second or so I thought.  After watching Phil and Ting take the field sprint for 10th and 11th I found out the two riders from Mexico that were in the break were disqualified for littering and for illegal feeding.  I was surprised of the DQ’s but I guess rules are rules and we all need to follow them to keep an even playing field. 

 

     After eating a celebratory meal at Super Squadra’s favorite post race restaurant, Chili’s,  we packed back into the Element and under clear skies and a bright sun we headed back to Austin with another win under our belt.

Past as well as future Super Squadra Scouting Campers please come on out to White Rock Lake for an easy 1- 1.5hr spin on Friday 9/18 at 4:30p. The team will be spending the day in Dallas between TX Tough and Cotton Patch Challenge and would like to invite you out to chat, fine tune your handling skills, or share your favorite taco joints with weary Austin travelers. If you are interested in attending, please just show up to the ride and kindly drop me a note to inform us of your intent to participate. This will be a no drop ride, but ripe for those of you wanting to do openers before the weekend racing. Tentative meeting spot will pay homage to American cycling past by starting out of a 7-11 near the corner of Winstead and Grand. See you in Dallas!

About 10,000 recreational cyclists and bike racers got royally gypped this past weekend at the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls. A front blew in the Friday before the annual bake fest in the plains of northwest Texas. The temperatures dropped down into the high 80s (brrrrr!), and essentially ruined the one reason everyone comes to HHH—to race a hundred late August miles with their core temperatures also hovering in the triple digits.

After spending Thursday evening defending our overall lead at August’s Driveway Series, we headed to Wichita Falls with the hopes of reclaiming the glory of Dave’s 2007 Hotter ‘N Hell road race and omnium victory. Friday evening’s criterium at the MPEC center, the staging grounds for the thousands of rally riders, is always a team favorite, with an abundance of enthusiastic fans on hand, and plenty of prime cash to race after. Wheeler and I were diligent throughout the race in following the many dangerous moves that emerged, but the race again ended in a field sprint. Dave and Phil placed fourth and sixth respectively with Wheeler and I finishing just behind the field sprinters, but still in the money.

After returning to our fabulous accommodations at the Goldapp’s and an international dining experience (of pancakes) that evening, we prepped our gear for an early (and chilly) start Saturday morning. With Phil still in contention for the Texas Premier Cup overall, following his early season victory at Pace Bend, we went into the weekend’s marquee event aggressively, hoping to stack a late break by putting riders in an early move. Dave attacked within 10-feet of the start line, and the pace barely subsided for the following hundred miles. Wheeler ended up being the MVT (most valuable teammate) on the day, absolutely destroying himself in not one, but two epic break-a-ways that hovered off the front off the pack throughout the race. His efforts will undoubtedly be returned with some fine fitness over the coming weeks.

However, with little wind, and no heat to speak off, the rate of attrition in the field was minimal, and coming into the finish a large group of 60-riders or so remained intact. Countering a move by Dave near the final, fast run into Wichita Falls, I found myself off the front with a lot of lonely road in front of me. Luckily, a group of 8-riders, containing Dave, bridged across. Unluckily, Phil remained mired in the pack with many of the other patient sprinters. While our break contained a tun of horsepower, no one was willing to commit to it, and we stayed just 30-seconds or so in front of the field. Coming into the finish, Dave and I were hesitant to attack, as it looked like a catch by the chasing pack was assured and we hoped to stay fresh in order to potentially assist Phil in the field sprint. Eventually though, the aggressiveness of other riders kept us off the front and just ahead of the hard charging pack as we came to the line. I secured fifth, with Dave just behind in seventh and Phil 14th.

In past years, HHH has been a quick and easy trip. With no racing on Sunday, we were often back on the road home by noon Saturday. However, the event is hoping to redevelopment some of its former National Racing Calendar glory after a few years as a top regional level race, and this year, under the excellent direction of Midwestern State cycling team coach Julie Carter, added a Sunday criterium. While we had a long 24 hours to kill in Wichita Falls, ultimately, we were happy to get in another day of racing. That is, until we showed up to the downtown course and realized how difficult the race would be. As Phil aptly said on the drive up, “we’re not getting this cold front for free.” Stifling north winds howled across the exposed crit course as Dave took the early initiative to set out with our Austin-based-German-born nemesis, Stefan Rothe.

The duo was joined by San Jose’s Ronnie Strange and recent Dallas transplant Johnny Sundt, who brought some credibility (and beautiful, curly blonde locks) to our local scene as a pro for Kelly Benefits Strategies. (We won’t get into my brief appearance in the break.) With Phil and Wheeler hampering all chasing efforts from the field, Dave ended up third out of the move—also securing third overall in the Omnium—while Phil finished off the front of the shattered pack in 12th.



After the race, we collected our hefty stack of prize checks and headed back home, happy to escape the frigid weather, and looking forward to a few days of rest prior to this coming weekend’s Tour of Austin.