News from Vegas

When the cycling world descends on Vegas every Fall we get to see lots of new gadgets and gizmos, the latest and greates in bicycle technology, but I don't really follow all the tech stuff... In most case equipment is not the limiting factor for riders. True for the DBCJRT kidlets as well as the proseys. Witness the vast array of equipment that finds its way to the podium. I chuckle when I hear a 42 year old masters racers brag about his new carbon bars and matching carbon bottle cages that shaved 23.6 grams off the weight of his bicycle while sipping his double mocha frappucino whip whip latte with a twist. That same master could have shaved a few pounds off his race weight (rider body weight + the weight of his equipment) if he would have passed on the daily latte and accompanying cinnamon roll. And, he could have done it without dropping $760...

don't get me wrong, if one has the dough, spend it. Support the bike industry, but don't think you are going to be faster because you spent an extra $760 to save 23.6 grams in lieu of spending a few extra hours on the 23.6 gram overweight bike.

But, enough of that rant...

What I do follow coming out of Innerbike is all the gossip, news and press releases.

Today, a big'n from the bad boys of the domestic pro peloton... Rock announces some new signings. I love the way those cats play. 'Gonna do it our way and the rest of you be damned.' Rumors swirled throughout the summer about Rock's aspirations for the Pro Tour. Most in the know chuckled and said, "Yea, sure..." Today Michael Ball put his money where his mouth is. Freddie, Hugo Pena, Grajales... the 07 crit scum are transforming themselves into a force to be dealt with... Rodriguez for the flat fast stuff, Grajales when the road tips upward, and they are courting Horner as a field general. They'll definitely make a splash on the NRC next year.

Gotta admit, I was a little bummed when I read through the first couple of paragraphs... what's gonna happen to local boy, Switters? But hope springs eternal... Ball added, "that the additions to the team are just that, with almost all of the current riders staying with the team." Fingers crossed that Adam falls into the 'most of the guys' category.

I like Ball's style. From his team vehicles to his shots at Slipstream, this guy is ragged at the edges and doesn't care what everybody else is doing, saying, or thinking. Style!

Old business...

Quite a little while ago I promised to upload a picture from my cellphone... finally got around to doing it. Thanks to PtotheArker for his help...

if you recall, TK played the newb on Mix Canyon and ended up in the ditch. TK, remember, we are laughing with you and not at you!

silly kid...

George for Worlds... Not!

I've never really been a big fan of USACycling's selection process for numerous reasons, but mostly because me thinks that they don't always pick the best man for the job...

Take for example their Worlds Team. The only thing I can think of is that they are building for the future??? I mean, come on, you have a course that actually suits Big George... one that he has a fighting chance on, being a relatively fast finisher/former sprinter who can get over moderate hills. The course has enough climbing that it should eliminate the pure sprinters, but not enough to favor a pure climber. So, according to all predictions, it should favor a punchy rider, a strong man, someone like Georgie.

Gotta decent shot at bringing the rainbow jersey back to the good old US of A, maybe the best we've had in years, and what does USAC do? They load up the roster with youngens Tyler Farrar and John Devine. Farrar, maybe... the course does suit him, but IMOP he doesn't have the experience necessary. Devine... the guy's strong, but really, how much experience does he have in the European peloton? Next to none and you are gonna throw him in with the biggest of the big dogs... Hence my thoughts about building for the future.

But, the future is now and it is Hincappies course. Why isn't USAC supporting him with the best team they can? Where is Freddy? He's a proven leadout guy and can get over the hills. Where is Horner? Arguably the most tactically astute rider in the European peloton and don't even question his commitment to the whole team work thing. Where is Lippyheimer? Come on... he's our reigning National Champion, owes George a little sumpin' sumpin' after that race in SC, and is a better time trialist than McCartney (two birds with one stone)...

I don't know...

maybe... for sure... I don't know all the ins and outs that go on behind the scenes, but unless Horner and Rodriguez turned down spots, are injured, or otherwise are inelligible they should be there. Liepheimer should be there without question. Come-on, at least honor his jersey.

maybe I'm an idiot, but at least when I smell a possible win, I'm gonna field the best team possible.

Sorry George, I'd have supported you better... maybe in a few years we'll see Devine leading out Farrar for the jersey, but it ain't gonna happen this year.

9/24

If today is 9/24, then the 2007 NCNCA road season is officially over... which means it is time to reminisce.

January...

DBCJRT goes 1/2 at Cal Aggie
and Kelbster and Karch race for the very first time

February...

• AWfoSho earns his final upgrade points at Earlybird Criterium #5
• TK wins the 2/3's at Apple Pie in a sideways rainstorm
• Kelbster wins his first race at Cherry Pie
• Davitamon earns his final upgrade points at Snelling making DBCJRT the only junior team on the west coast with three cat-2's

And the boys rally behind TK at Valley of the Sun

March...

• Laundry wins the Bariani RR in the 4's
• TK and AWfoSho go 1/3 at Land Park giving DBCJRT the perpetual trophy for the third straight year
• And crashes come in three's... El Gigante at the Merco Downtown Crit, Davitamon at Merco RR, and TK at the Central Valley Classic... taking toll on the equipment

April...

• The hilly road races start and the flat landers of Davis have to take a back seat to the climbers from the Bay Area...
• TK jumps the pond to race the big boys in Europe

May...

• Garden sneaks in a win on the Cat against the climbers
• Staz grabs a podium spot at the State Championship Crit
  
  
  
  

  And AWfoSho gets DBCJRT's first ever Pro/1/2 win at Golden State

June...

• Garden wins the Junior Point Series making four straight years that DBCJRT has won at least one of the age groups
• Laundry wins a nail biter at Gold Nugget Junior Stage Race
• And TK finish 14th on the GC at Elkhorn Stage Race as the boys cut their teeth on Pro/1/2 stage racing

July...

• AWfoSho shows his form with a win in the juniors at 4th of July and an impressive bridge in the Pro/1/2 race along with a strong ride a Vacaville

TK slips off the podium only after the last rider finishes

in the National Championship TT

while AWfoSho sucks it and rides despite a

separated shoulder

first, off the front...

and, finally when the body said no more,

off the back

August...

• TK takes his second trip across the pond with the US National Team
• Laundry launches his own bloggity-blog where you can read all about his latest escapades
• Davitamon, AWfoSho, and El Gigante try to heal up from their various injuries
• The search for 2008 sponsorship begins
• Garden makes public his defection to Discovery... hope he has a ride next year with the fall of the pro tour team

September...

• The search for sponsorship intensifies
• The leaves start to change color

Where, oh where, does the time go...

These Guys are Tough

found these pics of the 17/18 RR at Nationals... check out this one and the several following it in the series. Thank God nobody was hurt more seriously...

AWfoSho Update

Thanks to all of you that fought your way through the spotty cell phone coverage to check up on AWfoSho... He's getting pretty familiar with those backboards and ambulances. Fortunately, after several hours in the hospital, multiple x-rays, etc, he was diagnosed with severe shoulder trauma... minimal separation, no apparent fractures. He says it feels just like when he broke his clavicle a few years back. Currently he's all drugged up on painkillers so physically he's not feeling too bad, but emotionally he's a wreck... no crit for him tomorrow and he'd really been working hard for that one. The kidlet is a tough one... on the way home from the hospital he asked, "If it isn't broken, then I can't hurt it. Can I race tomorrow?"

From the boy's mouth in more or less his words... I was up front over the climb to stay out of trouble on the descent, but TK was in the back, so I started drifting back to move him up to where it is safe. About 20 wheels in front of me riders started going down in a bikes and bodies cartwheel. the cartwheel kept getting bigger. Guys were riding up the embankment and going over the guardrail. I tried to get through a hole in the middle, but a bike shot out right in front of me. I tried to bunny hop it but didn't make it and went over the bars. Then I just curled up in a ball and thought, "here it comes." At least one guy ran over me, and Heath Medeiros ended up on top of me...

When I got to him, AWfoSho broke down in tears, not from the pain, but because he knew he wouldn't be able to ride the crit... kinda one of those "I need a hug moments." It'll be tough on him to watch his teammates ride tomorrow.

Soccer Moms

Today I was accused of being a soccer mom... maybe I deserve it. See, I was loading up the minivan with 6 boys, and something like $300 worth of groceries from Giant Eagle (Giant Eagle is PA's answer to Safeway... cept' they don't have no Mike Hernandez racing for them).

So I've spent the last two days feeding four u-23 racers and and 5 junior kidlets. And, I'm not talking about handing up bottles in a feed zone whilst I flirt with the local hotties, although I did hand up bottles to the u-23 guys during their RR today. We even got to play our own small part in Max Jenkin's RR win, handing him a bottle as his fledgling break formed. I'm talking about huge quantities of pasta and sauce, whole loaves of bread, watermelons, two dozens of eggs, etc, etc, etc. In all honesty, $300 worth of groceries disappeared really fast.

Then after feeding them, there are dishes and laundry and waterbottles and... and when that is finished, TK is shouting at me, and I quote, "Hey Steve! My shim is being a (well, he referred to a female dog)" For those of you not in the know, that means he needs help adjusting the saddle on his tt bike. Then Garden's aerobars are slipping and El Gigante's disk "feels like the brakes are rubbing." And AWfoSho's "cassette is making a funny noise." And Sean's crankset is rubbing on his frame. And Chris's crank is hitting his powertap sensor. And Davitamon's wheel stops are lock-tited into place. And TK left his aerohelmet at home. And everybody's shoes need to be stuffed with newspaper because they rode in the rain.

Then, it is time for dinner again. Or at least time to start backing the dump truck full of pasta up to the hot tub so as to get dinner started...

So, I guess I could be confused with a soccer mom, but then again, a real soccer mom wouldn't be rudely awakened from his nap in the back of a rented minivan so some kid from some far away state can borrow a pump because his soccer mom forgot his pump when she drove him out to pre-ride the race course...

TT's are tomorrow. Can't wait for the racing to start... maybe then these kidlets won't have enough energy to see who can eat seven saltine crackers in 1 minute, thumb wrestle over who has to take the trash out, or accuse their shim's of being female dogs.

Catchin' Up

So, school is out and I'm supposed to have more time... supposed to anyway. But, a lot has been happening.

I left some teary eyed soon-to-be-sixth graders last Wednesday, got all checked out with my principal and began packing for Elkhorn. Before I go into all the gory details about 10 hours in the car there is a little catching up to do...

There was that little old Sierra Nevada Crit two weekends ago where PtotheArker, Todd Stone and Ian McPherson spun with the 4's... all finishing respectably with the pack. El Gigante rode a solid 3's race but got stuck in the wrong surge on the last lap. And, AwfoSho found the watts to be slightly lacking in the prosey race. He read the race perfectly, tried to follow Mike Hernandez as he made the winning selection but came up just shy on the watt-o-meter, and, instead, drifted back to the pack that was eventually lapped by big Mikey and his break.

Same weekend different day, several of the boys--TK, Staz, Davitamon, and the Tapinator--toured Nevada City. Not much to report 'cepting for some tactical mistakes that maybe cost us a W.

Then there was the Gold Nugget Stage Race where Laundry won what sounds like a barn burner on the last stage. Way to go Laundry!

I'm sitting here tonight looking at ice baths, green snot, and tired boys...

The down and dirty from Oregon... TK stormed Elkhorn, finishing 14th on the GC out of 107 in the prosey race. Davitamon, AWfoSho, and TK rode a blistering fast prosey race... on the first stage the kidlets were spun out in junior gears as they headed UP the Powder River Canyon during the 85 mile first stage. El Gigante stayed with the 3's til the finishing climb and Staz was the lucky recipient of a flat tire and a slow wheel change leaving him to ride 40+ miles on his own in the 4's... The second stage TT was a downhill out and an uphill back. TK did his thing, riding well enough to finish 15th. The stage three crit was another fast one in the proseys... rumor has it that they averaged 29 mph for 6o minutes. AWfoSho moved up with 5 to go in a bid for glory, but wasn't ready to play pinball for the bigger stronger sprinter types so drifted back to watch the finish. Safeway's Dan Martin said that the last couple laps were about as scary as any crit he'd been in. El Gigante rode in the front 15 of the 3's race for the entire shindig until it slowed down with three to go. He came out of the ensuing melee in about the thirtieth spot and could only fight his way back up to around twenty or so in the last two laps. Staz was left still searching for those elusive upgrade points in the 4's crit. The final stage was the queen with four solid climbs, 105 miles and a mountain top finish. AWfoSho and El Gigante called it quits at the feed zone after 40 miles, Davitamon, TK and Staz soldiered on to the finish. TK nailed the final climb to solidify his 14th place on the GC. Got some pics from Jan that I'll try to get up soon...

Yesterday saw the kidlets sitting on a computrainer with coach Jesse... the watts keep climbing as the kiddos get older and stronger. The big surprise was El Gigante who produced more watts in the Conconi than all but TK... when that kidlet turns all the babyfat into muscle he'll be a force. His climbing is already improving. Look out! Bummer is that the load from Elkhorn has caused a little tendonitis to flare up in his knee... hence the ice baths. He looks a little silly on his hands and knees in his joe boxers with one knee completely submerged in a huge bucket of ice water. Looks like a couple days off the bike.

TK may be off the bike for a few days as well... He took it to the limit at Elkhorn and it seems as tho some nasty bugger has taken advantage of a suppressed immune system to take up residence in his sinuses.

And to catch you up to today... Jesse took the kids up Ralston Ridge, let them meander through the remains of last summer's forest fire and spun them down Mosquito Ridge... just 75 miles with 13,000 feet of climbing. I'm glad I was following in the car for this one... you should have seen all the water bottles, banana peels and PB&J crusts on the floor of my car by the time we got back to Forest Hill...

yackety yack... I'll try to put the pics up with something a little more coherent soon.

Weekend Recap...

Cruisin' the internet instead of the end of year grading and coming up with results from the weekend.

Laundry spent some time out on the coast and came top twenty in the 3's at Pescadero. Not bad for a fifteen year old kidlet. The Staz spent his weekend in the mountains and came 2nd at Sattley. Long drive for a quick little TT, but the result is impressive anyhow.

On the home front, TK, AWfoSho, El Gigante, and Garden drug me out for a 65 mile sufferfest to ride repeats on Mix Canyon. Not much to report, just the same old sufferfest... not enough water, not enough watts... you know the drill.

I do have this photo on my phone that I can't quite figure out how to get loaded onto my computer. I probably spent $10.00 in extra phone charges trying to get it emailed to my hotmail account, but can't seem to master the technology. Anyways, its this shot of TK climbing out of a rather deep ditch somewhere on the lower slopes of Mix. Now you are thinking, jeesh, he overcooked a corner on the descent... and I wouldn't blame you, but it was a little more humorous than that... We'd just started up and Garden mentions some bit of trivia or something. It was important enough to break TK's concentration and he drifted off the road. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a shoulder, and it was a nearly vertical drop for 20 feet to the creek bed. Both feet unclip, the bars wobble, and just when one thinks he's gonna save it, the rear wheel starts to lift. Hind quarters hang in the air for a brief moment, and TK takes the head first dive. Definitely video worthy, all we have is the photo, if somebody can tell me how to get it uploaded.

Quite funny, but, truth be told, we were pretty lucky. off the road 10 feet earlier and TK uses a 2 foot diameter black walnut to break his fall. off the road 10 feet later and the slope is vertical with a rather large pile of sticks and whatnot at the bottom that would have most definitely impaled him. Instead, he slid down a 70 degree slope of dry grass and twigs, perhaps some poison oak, leaving him itchy and dirty, but otherwise unharmed.

Can't imagine having to tell Jim that TK was taken to the hospital because he's a newb! Luckily I didn't... let me know if you can hel out with the upload thing...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dunlap TT... The good:

• The weather... perfect day for a TT. Zero wind, 70ish degrees. Rapidamente!!!
• TK's 17/18 win in 27:35... the fastest time I've seen on that course... 20 seconds faster than Adam Switters best.
• Laundry's 2 spot in the 15/16's... Hey, you just beat a national champion. What are you gonna do now? Disneyland? Where did Davis Bentley come up with a 28:33?
• Kelbster's 2 spot in the 10/12's... How do you pass the guy who got first and not win?
• Takumi's Kawaguchi's first bicycle race!
• El Gigante overhearing "some random parent saying, 'I wonder who runs that Davis Team. They are really good.'"
• Racing bikes and being home and finished at 10:30 in the morning.

Dunlap TT... The bad:

• Poorly organized Roll-Out. It cost El Gigante 10 seconds and Brian Larson about 5... the officials credited the kidlets the time, but both of them were unfocused and in the wrong gear at the start, which probably cost them some additional time...
• Mechanicals. We're not sure if the nasty creaking/grinding sound resonating off AWfoSho's disk cost him any time, but it for sure took him off his game. He was unable to focus enough to get the heartrate where it needed to be. On his best day he is about 1:30 faster on the same course, so something was definitely wrong. How come it always breaks during a race? We spent two days making sure the bike was set up and working the way it should. Couldn't it have broken during one of the pre-race check rides? Monticello's Kyle Paterson suffered the same fate, flatting his disk shortly before the start. He borrowed Davitamon's spare, but when all is not right with the world it is hard to focus... Mechanicals just plain suck.
• Kelbster missing his start time by 3:10... He still finished second, and even passed the kid who won. But, since the kid's start time was behind Kelbster's he finished first when he really was second... Understand that?

Dunlap TT... the ugly:

Don't really know what to put here... Was gonna say, "the grinding noise coming off AWfoSho's disk." but I mentioned that above. I guess I could talk about Davitamon's hair, but TK said it best when he proffered the advice, "Next time some guy asks if he can pee on your head, just tell him no!" Anything else that could be called ugly about bicycle racing can be explained away by TBR... That's Bike Racing!

Congrats to all the kiddo's who raced their bikes today...