Monday, May 18, 2009

Ventura

Me and corey shadowing Roman Kilun, pro w/OUCH in the crit.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Collegiate Nationals: Fort Collins, CO by Alex Jarman

Collegiate Cycling Nationals was this past weekend in Fort Collins,
Colorado. All of the best teams and individuals in the nation would be
competing for the stars and stripes jersey. Myself and Tammy
Wildgoose represented UCSD's cycling team, qualifying individually based on our rankings in the overall omnium for the West Coast Cycling Conference.
We arrived in Fort Collins on Wednesday to get acclimated
to the elevation prior to Friday's road race. Thursday morning we went for a beautiful spin through the valley in Fort Collins and then drive the tortuously hilly course. Several of the racers were at the rider meeting Thursday night. This was the real deal - full neutral support from Shimano, rolling closure, etc.
Friday morning was the first big day of racing. Tammy ventured outside
the hotel to warm-up and was greeted by a crisp-cold morning and gale
force winds. The womens Division 1 race was off first at 8am with a field
of about 80 of the nations best college women racers. The peloton stayed
together until the first major climb of the day. Tammy was able to stick
with the lead group for the first portion but by the top was not able to
hold onto the lead group. The rest of the road race was spent battling
the winds with a group of about 15 riders and attempting to chase down
the two groups in front. Tammy finished 21st in a shattered and tired
group of four riders.
The mens Division 1 race began promptly at 11 am with a field of more
than 130 of the nation's best. Although it was a "neutralized start," race was chaotic from the gun with a crash about two miles in ending the race for some. I immediately fought my way to the front, and sat two wheels back from the car leading the bunch. The peloton shattered into several groups by the time we reached the circuit in Masonville. The climbs, elevation and competitive field did me and several others in. I felt good in the third group, but being that our group was 6 minutes down at about 50 miles into the 70 mile race, I decided to end the chase and focus/recover for the crit on Saturday.
Saturday was the last day for Tammy and I to show off some sprinting
skillz. Tammy was frustrated with her performance in the road race and
was able to channel that energy into the criterium.
The women's field managed to stay together for the majority of the 60
minute race. With two laps to go their was a crash that fractured the
field. Tammy was able to avoid that crash and stick with the front group
to the finish line. It ended in a bunch sprint with Tammy able to sprint
as hard as she ever has for 3rd place! This finish also moved her up into
8th place in the omnium.
The men's race was fast and intense! The field was strung out in a long
line for most of the race. The peloton of over 130 riders stayed together
for most of the 75 minute race. I sat amongst the top 20-30 riders for most of the race. However, with five laps to go a group of about four riders managed to get away from the main group causing an enormous and chaotic chase effort by University of Vermont riders. The peloton averaged 29.5 miles per hour for the race, of which we were easily well above 30mph for the last 5 laps. The peloton caught the break with about half a lap to go and I was unable to get into good position. I finished 31st.
After a long weekend in Fort Collins and a good season of racing, Tammy and I were very pleased with an epic weekend of racing to end our collegiate careers.

- Alex

Monday, May 11, 2009

Race Report Retraction: San Luis Rey RR

Clarification has been requested by Fred Muir on the San Luis Rey RR race report. Per the original report Fred did drink half the beer we brought to the race for our feeders. However, we only brought 4 beers (I'm a lightweight - light featherweight really), so Fred only drank 2 beers. Apparently, a number of Swami's had become concerned with Fred's drinking problem.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Collegiate Nats Update

Got a call from Alex in CO. He is resting up and hoping to have agood ride in the RR. It's a tough course and definitely favors the climbers. Alex was hoping to finish and blow the legs out while looking for a big result in the crit. He also said that Nationals were going to streaming live on cycling.tv. Cool!

Sat is the crit. Hopefully I'll hear from him later today about his RR performance.

Chris

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Alex Jarman to Collegiate Nationals in CO!

Alex Jarman will be representing UCSD at the National Collegiate Cycling Association Championships in Ft Collins, CO. Alex placed top 20 in the crit last year and is looking to better that in 2009. The nationals berth came after an abbreviated, but effective collegiate campaign in the tough WCCC. Alex had a number of top 5 placings and was awarded an individual invite to NCCA Nats.

Go Alex!

Man vs. Lizard: Corey's final Gila Report

Below is Corey's final report from Gila:

Friday: Had a less than spectacular time trial. The course has absolutely no flat ground in it. You are either climbing or descending. Usually this would be a perfect race against the clock for me. I had to really try to remember and not go out too hard. Time trials at altitude are hard, you can't recover. I don't wear a heart rate monitor, but I'm pretty sure thats the hardest it's ever thumped. Saturday: The plan was to rest up, and spin out my legs. The course was on a pretty tough loop with 115 feet of climbing in a .7 mile lap and it was ridiculously windy. Was able to avoid any problems, and sat in the with pack.

Sunday: The infamous Gila Monster stage. The course was 105 miles of fun. There was almost 10,000 feet of climbing, finishing up with a 13 mile climb to the finish. I really wish SoCal had more races like this, I loved it. So a early break of 6 guys rolled off, but I didn't want a repeat of my experience on first stage. I figured it was a long stage, and they would be brought back. They eventually got a gap of 11 minutes on us with about 70 miles to go. After that the pack wasn't letting anything go. I was able to attack on a little climb, and get away alone...Great I have nobody with me, but what do I have to lose. I could either sit up and ride with the pack until the final big climb, hoping the break would be caught. OR I could do a super Jens Voigt inspired solo move and attempt to bridge the 11 minutes to the break and move way up in the final overall.
I chose the later. Eventually I looked down and calculated I had about 65 more miles to race, 13 of them uphill at almost 8,000 feet. It was one of the suicide moves where you really had no other choice.

I quickly got into a good, fast tempo and started motoring on the winding roads toward the brutal Gila Monster climb. Luckily there was a tail wind to make things a bit easier on me, but not much. A motorcycle referee rode up and gave me my time splits. Along with some encouragement, he told me I was 4 minutes ahead of the pack and 6 minutes from the break which was down to 4 riders. There was still about 30 miles to the finish, and I was committed to catching them. At the base of the climb, the group was 6 minutes behind me and I was 4 minutes from the break.

I started the climb, still feeling pretty good. About 3 miles into the climb, I could feel the effort of trying to catch the break start to creep into me. A few miles later the referee rolled up and told me there was a group of 4 guys flying up the mountain and he that he was waiting for a radio confirmation of the time gaps. With about 8 miles to go he told me they were 3 minutes behind me, and I don't remember the time split to the break. I just wanted to hold the chasers off. Then with 6 miles to the finish the group of now 3 chasers caught me. I held on the group for the next mile or so, but the race leader threw in a super hard attack that I couldn't follow. I tried to crawl my way back, but they kept pulling away. While doing that it happened again, I cracked. I tried eating and drinking everything I had on me. A bit later a big group of riders rode right past me. Most of them trying to give me a push while riding by. I rode the last 3 miles alone, with a few stragglers passing me every once in a while. When I finally got the finish I got off my bike and sat down below a tree. Eventually, I went and picked up my spare wheels from the follow car and rolled the 5 miles back into town. In the end I ended up losing 5 spots in the overall, but I gained a lot of street cred.

In order to win, you must risk losing. Unfortunately over the last few days, I've learned this the hard way. Even though the race didn't turn out as I hoped, it was still a good experience. I'll be back next year.

Corey

Monday, May 4, 2009

SLR Pics 2








SLR Pics





Race Report: San Luis Rey RR, Sun May 3

Squad: Sky, Zack, Alex, Jason, Pascal, Orion Berryman, and myself.

Goal: Redemption

The Barrio Logan GP/SLR RR is my favorite race weekend of the year. These are two of the best courses in SoCal (anywhere for that matter). It's a classic Crit/RR weekend, reminiscent of the races I did growing up in the Midwest. And if I had to pick one race of the entire season to do well in, I'd pick SLR (or Nationals, but Nationals can be a crapshoot). But this year I wasn't expecting much for SLR even with the new course-sure there was less climbing, but that just means we'll go faster on the climbs! I hadn't been doing much climbing in training lately so I was planning on a supporting role at SLR. I was bummed after Barrio and so was the rest of the team; that one seems to escape us every year. The saying goes "You're only as good as your last result" and after Barrio that was 21st and missing the break! The Swamis DET is better than that; everyone was determined to put Swamis back to the top of the results sheet at San Luis Rey.

Our pre-race meeting was quick: be aggressive and make the breaks! We had many Swamis feeding us: Gary and Luuuuuke Emerson, Kevin Davenport, Fred Muir (who drank half our beer), and many others. The feeds and cheers were awesome. Behind every good team is a good support system and the Swamis were tip top in that area Sunday.

From the gun an attack went. Two riders rolled away and no one chased. Zack took over to cover it and soon it was Zack leading the race. A lap later another group took off and Alex covered that. Perfect. Jason has been riding really well and is our ace climber. His job was to follow Adam Livingston. Earlier in the week Adam told me he was skipping Barrio to win SLR. Jason rode great and did his job to perfection; Adam was very aggressive in the early laps and Jason was right there. Finally Rock Racing decided to shutdwon Alex and Zack's break. The race officals threatened to neutralize the 1/2 field if we got caught by the master 35+ field. If that happened the break would get a huge gap and our race would be over. Good for Swamis, but bad for Rock! They put the hammer down for a lap and brought the break back.

We passed the halfway mark and the field was more or less intact. Two riders had jumped away. Guys were tired. I had been feeling strong and decided to save my legs for the finale to help Jason or do something myself. As we neared the feed zone the 4th time a strong group attacked and I was in a perfect position to go with them. Before I knew it we'd caught the lead duo and put a good gap into the field. I had been feeling really good on the climbs and was usually in the big ring; I could tell I was on a good day so now I had to finish it off for the team. We motored for the next couple laps: we were doing 27-30mph on the flats and 14-17mph on the climbs! On the last lap we got word our gap was close to 2mins. I was starting to feel crampy so I drank up and sat on as much as I could. I had been working a fair share, but 2 guys had been sitting the whole time. Now it was my turn to sit. We started attacking each other in the valley on the way to the turnaround. We traded attacks but everyone was saving it for the final climb. After the corner more attacks came in the tailwind. Rudy from Liquid Fitness, attacked on the first ramp and our group split. We came back together at the base of the main climb and then Nic Sanderson from Rock attacked and shattered the group. Of course the two wheelsuckers had the juice to go with him and so did Rudy. My legs were locking; I quickly decided that I'd better just ride my best pace to the top. I didn't feel too bad, but there was no attacking left in my legs. I kept the pressure on and was soooo relieved to see the cones for the finish. The chasers were nowhere in sight so I had time to enjoy a nice hard fought result. I ended up 8th, not too bad at all.

The field came through soon and most of the guys were in there with Pascal mixing it up for 19th. The guys were awesome today. It was really awesome to have Swamis yelling for us all day.

Thanks Gurus. I'll see you on the road.

Chris Daggs

Race Report: Barrio Logan Crit, Sat May 2

Saturday was a rough day at the office.

Barrio Logan is a tough crit and one of the best SoCal has to offer. Figure 8 course. Uphill. Tight corners. Always a bit windy. Cool venue. We had a good size squad: Myself, Skyler, Zack, Alex, Jason King, Rob Carr and Joel. We were excited to have Joel racing with us; his finishing speed and smarts are a great asset! After Zack's success last week we were looking for more results. Our game plan: Rob was super domestique today; Jason and I were to cover breaks and work on keeping the race together if it came down to a sprint; Joel, Sky, Alex, and Zack were our sprint team with Alex and Zack also watching for a break. Attacks started rolling from the gun and we were on it. Rob was a regular sight at the front pulling and closing breaks down; he had a great race. Jason and I were covering little breakaways and making sure Swamis was in the mix. Alex and Zack also made some excellent moves. things were looking good until 20mins to go. The field got strung out and gaps started top open. Before we knew it a small group had snuck away and we missed it!!! I jammed hard and closed the gap and caught a few guys who got dropped from the break. Luckily for us SDBC lost a man out of the break so they had to chase too. But we just couldn't coordinate our efforts and the break steadily pulled out of sight. In the end Sky finished 21st, 1 place out of the money. We were all disappointed with the outcome of the race. That is the roller coaster of racing: one week you're winning and the next you're 1 place out of the $$$.

We'll just have to throwdown at San Luis Rey!

Chris

Race Report: Dana Point GP Pro/1, Sun April 26th

Short and sweet. Sky, Jose, and I (Chris) did the Pro/1 race at Dana Point. We were a bit concerned it was going to be a crashfest as the course is pretty technical. We had a huge field and lots of pros were there: Bissell, OUCH (w/Floyd), Rock, Fly V, Colavita and a few others. Dana Point is an NRC race; this means the field is limited to Pros and Cat 1s and there is a minimum prizelist of $15K! Sky is a pretty saavy sprinter so our goal was to get Sky in position for the sprint. As expected it was FAST. Not dicey though, very very smooth. There were lots of attacks, but the fast course kept things close and we were destined for a field sprint. I worked with Sky to help move him towards the front for the sprint. I didn't do much but got him towards the top 40 with about 10 laps to go. With 6 to go Sky got T-boned by some guy and nearly crashed! Sky said both wheels came off the pavement and he hit Rory Sutherland on OUCH (the other guy didn't even acknowledge he bumped Sky). Sky was a bit dazed, but Rory saw exactly what happened and sprinted up to the offender and took a mean swipe at him! The incident took Sky out of position and with the speed of the group the last few laps, we were going anywhere. Sky, Jose, and I all finished safely in the bunch. Live to fight another day! It's always fun doing NRC races. It was pretty cool to look over and see Floyd next to me a few times.

Chris

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Man vs. Lizard: Corey @ Gila Stage 3 and 4

Briefly heard from Corey that his Stage 3 TT didn't quite like he wanted it to, but he moved up the GC to 18th. Solid. Gila is so freakin hard, even the crit has climbing. Stage 4 was the crit and Corey finished in the field.

Hopefully the Gila Monster goes well for him on Sun!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Bottles!!!!

The DET accessorized with the new custom bottles today at the Barrio Logan crit. They be represented complete with our bestest post-ride recovery drink sponsor Fluid! 
Everyone has been super excited about getting these for a while... and it's easy to see why. Watch here as Chris Daggs takes full advantage of his share by stuffing them down his jersey.... 


Friday, May 1, 2009

Man vs. Lizard: Corey's Gila Report Stage #2

We have heard from Corey about stage 2, but we saw he recovered from his hard first day! He finished 27th on stage 2 in the second group. Gila is a hard race, but it appears stage 2 was very hard. The field was broken up into small groups. Corey is solidly in the hunt for a top 10. Let's send some good energy his way for the stage today. It's a 16.5 mile TT; it's long, hilly, and at altitude, a good mix for Corey. He's in 21st overall right now, but only 2 minutes out of a top 12. With the TT today and Gila Monster epic stage on Sunday, he could jump into the top 10. good luck Corey.