Cavern City Classic (April 20th and 21st, 2013) – Cat 4 Men

This past weekend was the 2nd annual Cavern City Classic down in Carlsbad, NM. I went down in hopes of a good result and felt that it was possible after the past few successful weekends of racing. The first day was more of a circuit race with the Men 4 doing four laps of the circuit that ended with a one mile climb. The race started off as most of the Men 4 races do, slow and uneventful. On the first lap there was one extra category 5 climb at the beginning of the lap and Randy Bradford used this hill as a launching pad for an attempt at a solo break. Randy held the peloton off for one whole lap and was even able to get his lead up to almost two minutes at one point. On the second lap it was clear that the group was ready to bring him back and just before the second time up the climb he was reeled back in. The second time up saw the beginning of the fireworks as there were KOM points on the line that could greatly effect the overall. Dustin from ZiaVelo set a blistering pace up the first half of the climb. I knew I needed to take the KOM points if I wanted a chance at winning the overall so I sat third wheel and waited until about 75 meters to the line to attack. As I attacked, others behind reacted and unfortunately a few of the racers got caught up in a crash. I took the KOM fairly easily and as I crossed the line I sat up and looked back to see two ZiaVelo riders and one Carlsbad rider with me. We decided to press on, just the four of us, and attempt to hold off the chasers. The chasers got within ten seconds of us at one point but I told the guys in the break to keep it steady up the rollers and hammer it on the down hills. This worked and by the time we hit the climb for the third time it was pretty clear that the winner would come from this group. On the last lap we were still riding hard making sure to stay away from the chasers and the single Carlsbad racer was dangling a bit. I told the ZiaVelo guys it would be best to get rid of him so I put in one big dig and we were able to shake him. Now that it was two ZiaVelo racers versus me it was time to start being conservative to save what I could for the finish. I started taking shorter pulls and eventually let the two ZiaVelo racers pull altogether. We hit the climb for the final time and kept the pace steady with everyone looking around at each other. I made sure to sit on a wheel as the ZiaVelo racers started to up the pace as it was a headwind climb. We started hitting the steep ramps and then the attacks from ZiaVelo started coming. One guy would attack and I would have to chase pulling his teammate up to him. Then as I would shut down one attack the other guy would counter attack and I would have to chase this as well, each time bringing the teammate back up to the other. Each guy from ZiaVelo put in at least two hard attacks and counters before we reached the point where the rode flattened out a bit. Dustin from ZiaVelo put in one last attack right at the beginning of the flat section and I was able to cover it. He then proceeded to look back and as he did I countered his attack and was able to hold them both off to the line to take the win. This win was my most gratifying to date as I really had to play my cards right. It was also gratifying because I had to go so deep to stay with the attacks and was still able to have enough to put in one of my own. For the first time in a race I really felt like this was how bike racing is supposed to be.

 

The second day of racing was a fairly flat road stage until the final climb up the same hill as the circuits were on the day before. I knew a lot wasn’t going to happen on the flat sections but there was one crucial sprint point for omnium points that I knew I needed to take to help win the overall. One Olev Rapido racer was up the road and ended up taking the first place sprint points, but I wasn’t concerned because he wasn’t a GC threat. I was fortunate to have Bean Mercer pull me up to the front before the sprint point and give me a great lead out to easily take the second place sprint points. For the rest of the flat part of the race not much happened. A few half-hearted attempts at a break went off and I was forced to shut down a few, mainly the ones that contained one of the ZiaVelo riders from the day before. Approaching the climb Bean again helped me position at the front for the climb. I was first wheel coming into the climb and proceeded to ride a hard tempo to start shelling some of the riders. Almost immediately Dustin, from ZiaVelo, put in a huge attack. I continued to ride my pace thinking that he was most definitely going to blow up and not be able to hold that pace. As we got halfway up the climb I realized that he was potentially going to make his move stick and I had to give everything I had to try and get up to him. I was able to get within three seconds but never anymore. As I crested the top I realized he was going to get the win on the day. His teammate Marcus, the other rider from the day before, was able to ride up to me and sit on my wheel until about 150 meters from the line when he started his sprint and I had nothing left to follow. This had me ending up 3rd on the day but in the process I was able to secure the overall win of the omnium. Big thanks to Carlsbad Velo for the great race and support – and kudos to my two ZiaVelo riders who really made the race interesting!

-JP

Cavern City Classic – (April 20th and 21st, 2013) Women’s P/1/2

First of all, the Carlsbad Classic was an excellent event and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Unfortunately, the W1,2,3 field was not well attended.  There were 3 members of the Spokettes and a girl, Erin, from  Amarillo who also recently raced at Adoption, as well.  Yes…only 5 of us.  The first effort was on the 2nd climb for the KOM points, as Tom described about 1 mile with 350 feet.  The climb is similar to Sunset Canyon, just a bit longer.  There was a moderate headwind on the climb, so I positioned myself better as the wind turned, jumped moderately hard, and separated myself for the KOM.  I  took a look back, had about 5 seconds and expected everyone to just catch back.  But, as I made the descent down C-hill through the corner, they were not in sight so I kept riding.  I took a look back and had 30 seconds at the first turn. Then was given a 4.5 min time gap at the feed zone, about 7 miles later.  Well, the rest was just riding objectively hard, eating and drinking and taking in the subtle beauty of the desert.  Here’s the link for ride details, if interested.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/300711008

Day 2.  I was definitely feeling the efforts of yesterday in my legs.  The sprint points came at about mile 16 on a flat section.  I did not need any of the points.  So in the 5 women peloton, I stuck my head in the wind for over a mile and gave a hard lead out for whomever wanted it.  I just kept riding past the sprint, hoping 1 and only 1 person would jump on for a buddy the last day.  All three Spokette girls appeared to set up and Erin jumped on….I was pleased as she had experience in herding Texas longhorn cattle off the roads, which we were warned about at the start.  Erin and I shared in the pulls till 3 miles to go.  I really didn’t mind, had secured the omnium and wanted to finish with a hard effort.  So, I headed the last few miles home and was able to separate on the first section of the climb to the finish.

Day 3.  Oh yes, there was a third day.  Matt and I went to Carlsbad Caverns, not realizing that it was National Park Week and entry was free – “score!”.  Holy crap, that was one of the hardest 3 miles of walking ever…I’m not joking!

-Mindy

Cavern City Classic (April 20th and 21st, 2013) – P123 Race Report

I promise JP’s report will be much more exciting than the following.

Carlsbad race report

Saturday’s road race consisted of 6 laps of of a ~12mi circuit with a a 1 mile climb with an elevation gain of 350ft. This climb doesent sound intimidating on paper, but from racing here last year, I knew it would break the race up quickly and I tried to position myself so that I could sag climb it as much as possible. Heading into the climb on lap 1, I was 2 or 3 wheels back (Matt thought I was farther back, but he doesent realize that I am just slow.) and quickly moved to the back of the group on the first steep section. I tried my best to stay calm as I watched the race ride away from me, and as luck would have it, I was able to grind my way back to the leaders with Kyle Martinez and Marcel Berger of Zia Velo. We were the last riders to make the front split, and with no teammates, I was able to sit back and do no work. The second ascent was similar to the first, but with a KOM, where Fortunato Ferrara used the post KOM lull to slip the group and (spoiler alert) solo for the race win (super impressive!). Meanwhile, I hung on to the end of the lead group, but Kyle and Marcel now had to do work to try and bring Fortunato back, so when I cramped on the 4th ascent (should have been drinking more Amy and Brian’s coconut water:plug) I had no one to chase back with and my day was done. 9th place. As an aside, I started to catch a solo Mindy Caruso, but I soon realized that she was better than me and my tempo pace was not enough to bring her back to give her some words of encouragement. Hats off to Scalo’s best rider (who apparently drank the proper amount of coconut water.)!

Sunday’s race was going to be a bit more tactical than Saturday’s as there were placings and money to protect; luckily, I was in the hunt for neither, so I had free reign to ride. In my head I knew I should look to get into a break with Jonathan Petrillo of Sports System, but in actuality I bridged to a break with Silvio of Sports Systems and Kyle Martinez of Zia Velo, as it was not being chased and it had some non GC riders like myself in it. Unfortunately, my move to the break did not sit well with the bunch and I was brought back only to see Petrillo go up the road with Frankie Benavidez of Zia Velo and Anthony Moye of Crazy Cat in the counter move. Matt should have punched me in the head for missing that move! The break quickly gained time as I sat in the back cursing my bad brain. After riding around at a recovery pace and with the break at least 3 minutes up the road, I decided to go up front and at least do some training. Matt joined me, and as it turns out, we were unknowingly pulling the break back. Matt said they were in sight at the feed zone, but I didn’t see them as I was more concerned with my softening front tire. Soon I was riding the rim, and I knew I would be in for a wait as the wheel truck was with the break. Unfortunately the wait was a long 35 minutes, as some riders had crashed on a cattle guard* which caused the other races to be held up. Last place.

-Tom

*Hopefully those riders are all right and everyone at Scalo wishes them a speedy recovery.

Adoption Exchange Weekend Report – Men’s Cat 4

 

Earl and JP in the Road Race

Time Trial

Ah yes, the time trial at The Adoption Exchange Omnium. Having just recently bought a new TT bike (new to me anyways), I was feeling particularly pumped for this edition of the race of truth. I had no magical fuel poised to win me the day, just a humble bowl of rice and eggs, eaten exactly three hours before my start time. Standing at the start line shivering I thought of John and Tom’s wise words to stay warm at the start line before a race, and my stupidity in not heeding their advice, although I must admit I am getting better at overdressing instead of under dressing. I think this particular shivering was due more than not to the nervousness and tension associated with time trials, this one especially for some reason or another. I took several deep breaths as the clock wound down to thirty seconds to start then fifteen and finally, five….four….three….two…one…. Bang! My favorite part of time trials and cyclocross races, the start. All that power used as efficiently as possible to get you up to speed in the least amount of time, then sitting back down and getting as comfortable as is possible for what feels like an endless amount of suffering. Usually my least successful endeavor on the bike, this time trial went especially well, snagging a fourth place finish in the cat fours. Pretty good compared to my usual measly placing in time trials. The day ended quite well for the Scalo Veloce cat four squad with JP in first, me in fourth and Joe in sixth. I guess TT bikes do make a difference.

 

Criterium

The Criterium, a discipline of cycle racing that I neither loathe nor love. A Criterium for me usually involves pedaling too hard and spending too much time at the front only to miss the winning break and watching as yet another person that isn’t me wins the race. From pedaling around the track at Napa Speedway I determined my legs felt surprisingly energized after an intense time trial (a sign I didn’t ride hard enough?). After some time spent scoping out the course and watching other races, I donned my black JBV coaching skinsuit and headed over to the line. The race started as did any other, an attack or two coming after the first few laps, and not surprisingly, not getting very far. This crit started to feel very different as the laps went on. I found myself in more breaks than usual and riding quite aggressively. The race ticked by and soon we heard the bell for one of the prime laps. You could sense the tension rise in the peloton as riders started thinking about the box full of merchandise and gift cards that this prime consisted of. Soon after hearing the bell it was my turn to pull at the front, however instead I jumped past everybody and soon had a small gap. I worked as hard as possible to hold off the pack for a lap to snag the prime and somehow succeeded. Crossing the line I turned back and realized I had amassed about fifteen seconds between myself and the peloton, and pedaled even harder to put some more time between myself and the pack. What I didn’t realize was that Gabe Gaarderen, from Sport Systems MTC was quickly bridging up to me as was the rest of the field. This solo break was beginning to wear me down; soon I was caught by Gabe who was not in any mood to be caught by the rest of the field. He pulled me around for a lap and soon we started working together pretty well, increasing our gap once again. With three laps to go we had enough room between ourselves and the peloton to where we started thinking about the win instead of getting caught. On the last lap Gabe pulled harder than usual through the tailwind section of the course, opening up a sliver of time between him and I on one of the corners. On the last corner he realized that and jumped for the final sprint, making certain I wouldn’t catch him. He crossed the line about five seconds in front of me. In the end, the race ended pretty well for Scalo Veloce with me securing second and JP winning the field sprint for third, but once again, the mighty victory salute eludes me…

 

Road Race

The final stage of this year’s Adoption Exchange classic, the road race. I was sitting in third overall with JP in second, and Gabe in the leaders jersey (A result of the yesterday’s crit win), so from this we determined one of us needed to win the road race to secure the overall win. If it came down to a sprint JP was confident he could take Gabe, and if I was to get over heartbreak solo the second time I would go for it. The previous night’s recovery techniques seemed to work pretty well as my legs were raring to go. The course consisted of the heartbreak hill, twice: quite the difficult course but one that suits me considerably well. I didn’t expect the first group over heartbreak to be especially large, and I was right. Joe led JP and I to the front of the pack as we neared the beginning of the climb. I put my skills to use and proceeded to ride up Heartbreak as fast as possible. Looking around, JP was still with me, as was Gabe and Greg Albright. Cresting heartbreak the four of us were alone with some time between us and what was left of the peloton. JP and Gabe hammered the tailwind descent with me stringing off the back, spinning my legs at immense speeds, the junior gears boldly showing their drawbacks as I struggled to hang onto the back of Gabe and JP’s freight train of power. Once we hit the rollers going east, a quick look around showed Greg was not able to stay with us, our group had grown even more select as only Gabe, JP, and I were left at the front. We worked together taking thirty second pulls at the front. A little while later the official pulled up on his motorcycle informing us we had a 45 second gap, and that a chasing group was being organized with about 10 riders trying to pull us back. Nearing the top of Frost the chasers got as close as they would get that day, about 30 seconds. Once we turned onto Hwy 14 JP and Gabe once again put down the hammer with me trying to keep up. Once we crossed the finish the first time, I started to grow tired, not a good sign with 35+ miles still to race. I stuffed my face with Clif bars and gels hoping that would help, but what really helped was the official coming up on his moto once again to inform us that our gap had grown to two and a half minutes! The chasers had given up! Apparently the solid effort from Gabe and JP was enough to put the final nail in the coffin for the chasing group. This delightful news was enough to get my spirits up and restore not only my legs but my confidence in this breakaway succeeding. The second time up heartbreak was understandably less intense than the first go-round, with the three of us holding a sharp but not too exhausting pace. Cresting Heartbreak, once again JP and Gabe put the hammer down, no doubt putting more time between ourselves and the chasers. Pretty soon we found ourselves on the headwind section going up frost for the second time, with more than enough time for our break to succeed. Our thoughts were now resting firmly on which of us would win that day. I suspected my chances in the sprint would be slim, so I intended on giving JP the best leadout possible. Passing the 1k to go sign, I was sitting at the front driving the pace, with Gabe on my wheel with JP on his. With about 800m to go Gabe started the sprint, with JP locked on his wheel. I stayed with them as long as I could, then watched as JP came around Gabe and crossed the line first, winning not only the stage but the overall as well – putting an end to a spectacular weekend of racing and securing two solid results in the cat 4′s. JP’s win and my rounding off of the podium in third for both the road stage and the overall concluded some fantastic racing from our cat 4 squad ( JP, Joe and I), as well as the rest of our awesome Scalo Veloce team!

 

-Earl

Adoption Exchange Crit Report – P123 (April 13th, 2013)

Thanks to Angelica Dixon for the great Adoption Exchange Photos

We started the race with nearly a full 1-2-3 team: Nick, Ryan, Wristan, Greg, Matt, Tom and I all met up at the NAPA Speedway for the second stage of the Adoption Exchange stage race, the criterium.

The team decided pre-race that we would race solely for the crit win – not worrying at all about the overall standings. That was by virtue of only our crono-man Daniel cracking the top 10 (4th) in that morning’s TT. Daniel graciously volunteered that he was not particularly motivated for the crit, or for the overall stage race, and so he would prefer we only race for the crit win rather than his overall placing.

That turned into a winning strategy. While the Sport Systems team took control of the crit as though they were holding the top 3 positions in the overall (note: they were), Scalo Veloce was able to let them drive a hard pace at the front, counterattacking them at every opportunity. Nick started the festivities by entering a 5-man break that went from the gun. When that was caught under the impetus of the Zia Velo and High Desert teams, Ryan, Nick and I kept counterattacking, and making sure Scalo was represented in every move that went off the front. Along the way, Ryan won all the primes, and undoubtedly also won over fans of the now defunct Aqua e Sapone teams of the early 2000′s by way of his zebra striped shorts.

The race was fast enough that more than half the field was dropped by the closing laps. While we lost Matt to a late flat tire, Nick, Greg, Ryan and I were still in the front group. Following the final prime of the race, won again by Ryan, I counterattacked and drew out only race leader Fortunato Ferrara with me. It became clear to both of us very quickly that this was the perfect trade-off: Fortunato could consolidate his lead in the overall, while Scalo could win the crit. And that was the story. We worked together for a couple laps before the officials announced 5 laps to go. We kept working smoothly for the remaining 5 laps, and I was able to cross the line first for my first win in a Scalo jersey. Nick took second in the field sprint a few seconds later for 1st and 4th in the race, moving Nick and I up to 4th and 5th in the overall at the same time.

The win was undoubtedly a team win, as everyone was working hard to make sure the team was represented in any breakaway, and literally any of us could have been the one to get away with Fortunato at the end.

-John

For the win