Redlands so far

Well Redlands has been interesting so far. The race started with a 5km generally uphill prologue and the whole team did a really good job. Rory was our best guy in 4th only 6 seconds off the yellow.
I came in 11th, Brad was 12th, Chris was 15th, Karl was 17th and Marc was 24th. It was an impressive display of team depth which should bode well for today's final stage around the Sunset loop. Personally, I've usually struggled in time trials and to get up there like I did really shows that I may have finally cracked it.

The first road stage was a bit of a mixed bag. We wanted to make Fly V work since Ben Day was in the leader's jersey again, but we probably used too much collective energy early and then missed the small break that went at the top of the last climb with 10km to go.
Luckily the team did decent damage control and the group only got 7 seconds. It meant that Rory got bumped down to 6th, but Ben Day kept the jersey so Rory is still only 6 seconds off the lead. Pinner got second in the field sprint to get a 5th on the stage to salvage something from an otherwise disappointing day.

In the crit our game plan was to lead it out for Jake and Pinner to get the stage win. We messed up a bit in San Dimas and tried to come to the front too late in the game, this time we got on the front with 10 laps to go and avoided the carnage behind.
This was Marc's first real crit, so it was a bit of a trial by fire since this is the hardest crit in a stage race that we'll do all year. It meant that it took him a bit longer to get to the train and just as he was about to get up to us, someone dived into a corner underneath him and caused a 30 rider pileup. He's covered in road rash, but hanging in there and ready to start today.

All photos but this one courtesy of Jonathan Devich from cyclingnews.com, this one from Becky Heely

In the end Pinner and Jake got a perfect lead out, but were nipped on the line by a flying Hilton Clarke. Still in was an impressive display of team tactics on our part since we executed perfectly.

Heading into Sunset now we still have 4 riders within striking distance of the overall. Its going to make for some exciting racing.

San Dimas stage race

This past weekend we raced the San Dimas Stage Race, in none other than San Dimas, California. It is a cool little race that a lot of teams use as preparation for the opening NRC race in Redlands four days later. It started off with a 6km uphill time trial up a fairly steady grade in Glendora. I had a decent ride but in my anaerobic haze I accidentally crossed the centerline in a switchback right in front of an official and got slapped with a 30 second time penalty. I was by no means the only guy to cross the line and cyclingnews has photos of other riders over it, but I did it by an official so I got penalized. Rules are rules. Chris Baldwin, Rory Sutherland, and Karl Menzies all had good rides into the top 20 so we still had a lot of cards to play in the overall for the rest of the race.

Baldwin ripping it up the climb

Ben Day from Fly V Australia won and was in the leader's jersey so our plan going into the road race was to make his team suffer and hopefully isolate him so that one of our GC guys could get some time. We managed to do just that, with Karl, Brad White, and myself all getting into some dangerous breakaways which really put the pressure on them.

Going up the climb on some lap

Sadly, just before the real action started, Chris got caught up in a stupid crash with 2 laps to go and lost some time. On the last lap, Jonny Clarke and I perfectly led out our sprinters (Andrew Pinfold, Jake Keough and Karl) and Rory for the bottom of the last climb which topped out only 2.5 km from the finish. Rory put in a savage attack and only 4 riders managed to go with him. He then put in a perfectly timed sprint to win the stage and move up to 5th overall.

Best feeling in all of bike racing.

The last day was a super fast crit around downtown San Dimas. Our goal was to look for some opportunities for Rory to get time, or barring that go for the stage win by leading out our sprinters. This raced ended up being super fast with an average speed of 29mph despite 6 corners in a 1 mile course. Naturally this meant that no breaks got anywhere and it came down to a chaotic sprint. I got up near the front with 5 to go trying to help get our sprinters in position, but unfortunately I lost them in the melee a lap later and couldn't get back up to them. In the end they got a bit separated and swarmed so it didn't work out. However, Brad kept hold of his Sprinter's Jersey which he took on the previous day so the week turned out to be a pretty successful one with a leader's jersey, a stage win, and 5th overall.

Next up Redlands!

Madera

Last weekend was the Madera stage race which consisted of a hilly TT on Friday, a flat TT and a crit on Saturday, and a road race on Sunday. I mostly wanted to do this race to practice my time trialing and overall I'd say it was a mixed bag, basically I need to find a minute in the TTs in order to be competitive and I don't think its down to having a bad position as you can see below

I guess the solution is the same as it is for most things.... practice, practice, practice.

Other than the TTs, the crit was pretty exciting with Cal Giant ripping the field apart in the crosswinds, which was impressive to see. In the road race I messed up and let a break get away from me and no one in the rest of the field wanted to do anything about it. But it was really good to get the racing miles into my legs and I am feeling ready to go for the big races in San Dimas and Redlands the next two weeks.

Temultous Merco

Last weekend we raced in Merced. Overall the weekend was a bit disappointing. We made mistakes, but we learned a lot. There are a lot of new guys on the team and its normal for things to take a few tries to click properly.

It started of when we missed the break during Saturday's crit. Given that all of the other good teams were represented in the group of 5 it was up to us to chase. We got to the front with 12 laps to go and caught the break inside the last 300m, but by then Matt Rice had attacked out of the break and soloed to the win.

Us chasing. Courtesy of Wil Matthews.

Personally I was a bit petrified for the first half of the race. Its been a long time since I've raced a real crit and I was also pretty nervous after the stupid crash at Snelling. Still I got it out of my system eventually. So when we decided to get organized it was pretty straightforward to get to the front.

We made sure to make the break in the road race because chasing is never fun. But there were some tactical mistakes made and we only ended up with 7th. It was a good win for Ben J-M, very well ridden by Bissell in the last part of the race.

The break hovered 1.5 minutes in front of the peleton. Courtesy of Wil Matthews

This week the team is down in SoCal for the Tour of Murrieta, but I am staying a bit closer to home and racing the Madera stage race on my own. It should be a good time with two time trials, so there is plenty for me to practice. This week has been pretty had in terms of training so I'm a little worried about having flat legs, but it should set me up nicely for the bigger goals of San Dimas and Redlands in a couple of weeks.

I'll be sure to update more quickly after this weekend.

Longest race ever!

I "raced" the Snelling road race on Saturday, one of the biggest early season NorCal races. But racing is a bit too strong of a word. I warmed up for 10 minutes then did the world's slowest roll-outs in which I managed to move from the very back of the pack to about 20th position using my great pack skills I learned fighting on narrow roads in northern Europe. Of course these pack skills may not have served me too well since 300 meters into the race the two riders in front of me decided to run into each other and fall over into my front wheel at about 30mph. This resulted in a 30 rider pileup and effected about 70% of the field in one way or another.

Considering I hit the deck at 30 and had a bunch of guys run into or over me, I got off pretty lightly. I have some bad road rash on my right side, but nothing is broken and I should be back to normal in a week. Amazingly my bike also survived the carnage with only a few scratches to the shifters and saddle. It could have been much worse, like Tyler Dibble's Tarmac which ended up in a few pieces:


I went back to the start and got bandaged up then went back out and rode a lap of the course. In the process I got caught by the break and spent a few minutes chatting to them while riding next to them in the wind. Then I was caught by the remnants of the peleton and did the same thing there. The finish was pretty exciting and it made me really want to be out there racing, but for now I have to rest up to be ready to hammer at the Merco races next weekend in Merced. Our UnitedHealthcare presented by Maxxis team will field a super strong team and we are prepared to really make people suffer.

I'm hoping the sketchy people won't make an appearance or will be too far back in the pack to crash me out.