Race Report: Red Trolley Crit, Sun Feb 8th

Riders: Chris Daggs, Skyler Bishop, Rob Carr, Zack Simkover, Jason King, Corey Ferrell, Jose Quintero, Alex Jarman.

Following the epic conditions of Saturday's Blvd. RR, the Red Trolley Criterium was held in good conditions. This was the first race of 2009 where the entire Swami's Developmental Elite Team lined up together at the start.

The event was maxed out with 120 Pro/1/2 men lining up for the 75 min race. Jelly Belly, Fly V Australia, Team Type 1 had full squads with Rock fielding a few riders as well. Zack, Daggs and Alex proved to be the most aggressive and active early in the race, covering everything that look dangerous and ensuring Swami's wasn't left out of anything promising. Alex covered a great move very early on; it was good to see a Swami in that one as all the pros were there. It came back after a few laps. Jose and Jason mixed it up as well. This was Jose's first race of the season; "I missed the speed" said Jose after the race-well there was plenty of that today! As the race wore on, the attrition weeded the field in half as continued attacks kept the pace consistently hard. After Corey's epic ride at Boulevard, he was understandably physically and mentally tired so he got the day off. Rob Carr had a rough day at the office and went down in a minor crash early in the race; he's fine but landed on some old wounds and dinged his pride.

Amazingly, no breaks were successful and as 5 to go was displayed we were all together. I've been suffering from pulled muscle in my back, and didn't expect to finish the race. Riding most of the race at the back, I wasn't privy to most of the early and mid race attacks, but in the closing laps I joined up with Daggs, Alex, Zack and Jason in our attempt to maintain our position near the front and contest what was guaranteed to be a fast, elbow banging sprint against a few of the top sprinters in the country including several current and past National Criterium Champions.

Alex and Daggs rode attentively in the closing laps staying near the front and actively covering each and every attack. A dangerous move with Brad Huff and Justin Williams as well as two Fly V Australia riders slipped off the front going into 3 to go, and the selection seemed to have been made. In a last ditch effort to keep Swami's in the race I bridged across bringing the field with me and keeping Alex and myself in the mix. I made a mistake as we started the bell lap, finding myself on the outside and getting swarmed up the inside. By the time I was able to slot back into the forward moving group Alex and I were twenty riders back and, at those speeds, were unable to move up anymore. I finished just inside the top 20, with Alex just behind me a few places further back.As my first race of the year, and the first race we've competed in as an entire team, I'm very happy with how we all rode and look forward to the next month of racing as we really start to gel as a team. This is going to be a great year!

Photo: Sky nailing a break back with 3 laps to go.

DET in Velonews

Corey gettin some press. Nice work covering Foyd!

"In the future everyone will be famous for 15mins." Andy Warhol

Keep it coming boys.

More Boulevard Pics!

Some Boulevard pics

The feedzone

The start

Boulevard Results

Corey 20th
Orion 26th

Nice.

One to Remember!

Boulevard was insane! Zack, Corey, Jason, Jose, Orion Berryman and I lined up for the Pro/1/2. It was a stacked field with Floyd, OUCH, Jelly Belly, Team Type 1, Rock, Team V Australia/Successful Living, and many other good guys. About 15mins before the start it started to rain, then it turned to big snowflakes! WOW! On the start line the snow was blowing sideways. We asked about doing 3 laps instead of 4 and the officials said "Nope you're doing 4." WTF? Seriously it was like 35 degrees and, honestly, really dangerous for crashing and our health - the chances of hypothermia were there. I wasn't too cold. I had on a LS baselayer, 2 jerseies, leg warmers, arm warmers, a water proof hat, vest, rain cape, and waterresistant gloves and shoecovers. We took off and it was FREEZING. The legs did not want to work. The guy next to me turned around after a mile! In the first mile we had a crash! You were constantly getting gapped by guys. IT was freezing on the descent. I couldn't feel my hands or quads! On top of that my brakes weren't working well at all. We finally hit the climbs and the field had already thinned out. I sat in the group on the climbs, but felt horrible. It was going to be a 1 lap race for me. I cruised in and it was snowing heavily on me at the top of the climbs. Apparently half the field quit! I rode down to the car with Zack and found Jose already warming the car up and Jason trying to get warm in Corey's car. We finally warmed up and headed out to help Corey and Orion. Corey toughed it out for nice top15 (I think); on lap 1 he was talking about quitting to save it for VOS, but he must've felt better. Orion rode awesome for a guy who says he hasn't been training! About 25 guys finished total. Not a bad showing for the Swami's! What a day! I'll not foret that anytime soon.

My friend from Team Type 1 was there and didn't even start - he's doing ToC and didn't want to get sick. Don't blame him. He rode on the coast and said it was sunny all day for him. Alex and Rob rode really well in the collegiate A race and took 4th and 5th. Not too shabby at all.

Tomorrow we have the Fiesta Island TT and the Red Trolley Crit - we'll see how they go after today.

Chris

Ouch indeed!

35 pros registered for Boulevard including Floyd; Ouch, Jelly Belly, Team Type 1, and Team V Australia p/b Successful Living will be there in force. With the weather predicted Boulevard is going to be epic!

Race Report: Mothballs Crit, Sun Feb 1

Coming off a very solid showing at Poor College Kids road race the day before, the team (Chris, Rob, Alex, Jason, and myself) cruised up to Isla Vista to race the Mothballs crit. Basically a pancake flat, fast, 4 corner crit course in the industrial buildings of Santa Barbara. I decided to ride up the day of the race just to get a little longer warm up in my legs, and Jason drove my car to meet the rest of the guys in Isla Vista. Everyone pinned on their numbers, pumped of their tires, and spun around until the start at 4:00 P.M. The weather turned out to be awesome, and we were all looking forward to the last race of the weekend.

With the ENTIRE Team Type 1 pro team present after their Tour of California training camp, the race got up to speed pretty quick. There were a few small initial breaks that were brought back quick. All of us tried our chances at a break, but on this course its pretty hard to get out of sight. All of us were also pretty anxious to get up to the front at bump elbows with the Type 1 guys, and thats exactly what we did. The pack pretty much stayed together for the entire duration of the 75 minute crit.

The goal for the race was pretty simple. We were to stay at the front, get into strong breaks, and drop our fast man Alex off into the Type 1 lead out train for the final sprint. With about 4 laps to go I encountered some trouble when someone in front of me knocked over a giant traffic cone right into my front wheel. This was right when the pack was really rolling and I ended up losing my spot in the front end of the group, but somehow I was able to make it back up with about 1 1/2 to go. While this was happening to me Chris, Jason, and Rob were able to drop Alex off right into the lead out.

Coming into the final turn Alex sat 5th wheel and was able to taste a top 5 finish in a Pro 1/2 crit. Unfortunately the guy right in front of Alex opened up a wheel and when you're in a lead out traveling at nearly 40 mph its nearly impossible to close a gap within 200 meters. He was pretty bummed, but it taught the rest of the guys some lessons, and it proved to us we are going to have an awesome season.

Next up is Boulevard road race and the Red Trolley crit in San Diego.

Corey "Ferret" Farrell

Race Report: Poor College Kids RR, Sat Jan 31

My apologies if this race report seems a little mish-mashed, but I’m cutting it close to some homework deadlines in order to get this done. However, writing race reports is actually a very productive activity because the Swami’s team like supports me a lot and all that good stuff.

So, moving on, this past Saturday the DET headed out to Santa Barbara for the Poor College Kids RR. While it was my first race of 09, it was the second for Corey, Daggs, and Alex who had raced Long Beach a week prior. I was super nervous about racing again and considering my well-known history of crashing in Santa Barbara County (the place is cursed I swear) I had good reason to be cautious. But the nervousness was good because it got me being first rider to the start line of the P 1,2 (excellent photo opportunity). The course was an out and back, mainly flat-ish, with a nice gradual climb out, then a not-so-nice steep/pitchy climb on the return route, and headwinds galore. Not too much of a magnificent send off at the start, but off we were, and then soon enough after following a few accelerations I looked back and found myself in my very first break-away of the year!!! And I had only been racing but 5 minutes!!! Excitement turned to resent as I began to realize that the move was doomed so I did what I could to sit in. One match burned. After being reeled back, I changed my game plan to holding my position near the front and following all the good wheels. I kept an eye out for the Liquigas guy, and then I noticed the Cervelo Test Team dude roll by, and then, oh, I must have forgot to mention the 18 Team Type 1 guys in the race, who all looked exactly the same (annoying). I followed some wheels, closed a few gaps, and then missed the Liquigas guy, Aaron Olsen and three other TT1 guys roll away at the top of the gradual climb and then proceeded to take a “breather break”. Four more matches burned. I spent the rest of the first lap doing what I could to make stuff happen. Daggs and I were being pretty active at the front during a hard session in the cross winds all the while hoping that something would separate itself from the pack, but the TT1 guys, acting as though they were going to win the race or something, decided to play hardball and stop anything from rolling away. Daggs was working well with Jason and I on his wheel until he made the mistake of getting pushed a bit too close to the edge of the road and was then forced to hit the emergency eject button. No worries, all rubber was kept on the side of down and he soon rejoined the group at the back, with a noticeably large amount of dignity gone missing. And the race kept rolling. The pitchy climb on the way back was fast. Ten thousand more TT1 guys rolled off the front at the top of the climb. The DET, however, missed out on the move because it kinda hurt, a lot. We rounded past the start/finish out for the last lap and headed up the gradual climb again. I decided to be smart about it this time and saved some energy until the top of the climb. Once we hit the false flats at the top I saw that the move was leaving the group and I made an acceleration to latch onto the back. What seemed to be my most promising opportunity of the race was quickly shut down and I was relegated back to my mid-pack position. Which brings me to a total of 12 matches burned. At this point, Alex decided to hit the front, hard. The break was within eyesight when we hit some of the longer sections of road and there seemed like a good chance it might come back. 3 more matches burned. It never happened, the breakaway guys proceeded to turn on the jet engines when they saw that the pack was getting close at the turn around. The last half lap to the finish line was fast as the riders lined out the group leading up to the bottom of the final pitchy climb. The pack fractured on the climb and a couple strong groups made it to the top. Corey and Jason were there in the mix and rolled into a fast finish. Jason decided it would be a great idea to make his move at 2 km from the finish. Of course, he had forgotten just exactly how incredibly far away 2 km was and quickly got reeled back in. Corey stayed strong to be our best finisher of the day with Jason a few riders back and then me a little while later and then Alex and Daggs. In my own case, seeing that I had only brought a 24 pack of matches along for the ride, my ass was toast mid-way up the last climb and I did what I could to out-sprint the other two guys who had rolled into the finish with me (awesome photo opportunity). Of course, pay no attention to the results because according to SoCalCycling.com I no longer ride for the Swami’s, but have since been traded to some unknown team along the Canadian River called CRRC. At the finish TT1’s infamous climber/sprinter dude named Ricardo Escuela took the win with his teammate behind him in second. Oh! and by the way, Gord Fraser (former domestic pro and current TT1 director-and Tour de France participant) had tagged along for the race and was nice enough to give me some compliments on the matchingness of my Swami’s bike/kit combo. He seemed suuper jealous. I could sense it.


Hasta la proxima!
Rob Carr

Race Report: Long Beach Crit, Sun Jan 25

It's hard to believe the season is already here and underway! We went to the Long Beach Criterium on January 25th for our season opener. Alex, Zack,Corey, and I were there and Joel Stranglehold joined us.

I gotta say, I've been racing a loooong time and I was really excited for the first race more so than years past. The team has really come together this offseason and I can see the guys are going to be good and that's something to look forward to.

I signed up for the masters race to get some extra training in and maybe snag a result. Doubling up is an art form. You can't go too hard in the masters race if you're doing the 1/2 race, but it's hard to turn off the competitive fire! The field was huge (over 100 riders) and it looked a lot like a regular 1/2 race-lots of fast guys. Besides Joel and myself, Josh Zlotlow was racing. I was so excited to be racing again that I went with an attack on the first lap-woohoo! I ended up being pretty aggressive all day, but no breaks would stick. I finished off the race by trying to help Joel go for the sprint. I dropped back with a lap to go and I think Joel got swarmed on the final lap.
One down, one to go.

The Pro/1/2 race had a big field. Both Pro and U23 National Criterium champs (Rahsaan Bahati and Justin Williams) were in attendance along with some local pros like Tony Cruz. Swami's was represented by Zack, Alex, Corey, Joel, and myself. The race got underway and breaks started going on the first lap. There were a lot of excited racers with some horsepower so we regularly doing 30mph down the straightaways. Zack, Corey, and Alex were doing a great job of covering moves and keeping Swami's at the front. Alex rode super smart and made the break of the day. He was away with a few pros from Rock and Jelly Belly as well as some strong local guys. Zack and I covered the front and helped shut the race down. As laps went by it was starting to look good, but before we knew it the field started chasing furiously (under the impetus of Tony Cruz) and the break started splitting up. Alex was on the wrong side of some pro team tactics in the break and came back to the field in the last few laps. We were wasted from our efforts so not much happened in the sprint for Swami's. C'est la vie. We couldn't be too disappointed-for our first race the team rode great; it showed we'll be right in there forthe rest of the season.

More good news to come. Thanks for all your support Swami's!

Chris Daggs

It's ON!

The 2009 race season is here and we've got race reports coming up!