Squad: Corey, Chris, Zack, Skyler, & Robin
So finally a race thats about as local as it gets for me. I've been excited about this race since hearing about in December. The race was a 20 minute drive from my house in Ventura, Ca. So the crew got to my house the night before. Everyone just did some final adjustments to their bikes, ate, and slept.
The next morning we did the usual pre race stuff, and headed to downtown Ventura for the prologue. The course was 2 miles with 2 small risers, and one steep downhill that went straight into a left turn. I wasn't sure if I should race it on a road or time trial bike because of how technical the course was. I ended up riding the time trial bike, just because the turns were pretty wide, and there were some flat parts where you could make up some time.
The team signed in, kitted up, and started warming up. I never saw any of the other guys again, as I opted out on the trainer and got on the road. Since the prologue was so short you had to really get on it during the warm up. I got it done pretty well, but my legs were still a little stale while rolling up to the start.
My goal was to go under 4:05, but after crossing the finish I was told I went 3:58:71. Not that it really mattered because the time gaps between first and 50th would be something like 20 seconds. The time put me into 16th place, 4th in the U23 category, and 12 seconds off the lead. Later in the day was the crit, so we headed back to my house and recovered for a few hours.
Corey @ 3:58:71
Daggs @ 4:02:02
Zack @ 4:05:16
Robin @ 4:06:94
Skyler @ 4:18:30
So the crit was in the same place as the prologue. The course was going to be hard and lined out with a short steep climb after a long false flat to the start finish. There was also the same steep downhill to left turn that would keep everybody paying attention.
The race got going from the gun and within the first 5 laps or so, there was a crash that split the field. With a lead group of about 35 the pace was still being driven by a few different teams. The goal for the crit was to keep Daggs and myself in the front and save our legs for the tough road race the next day. We ended up finishing the 75 minute crit, and I ended up moving to 13th in GC and first in the U23 race.
Next up was the road race in Ojai. We were able to sleep in and take our morning slowly which was great. We drove up to Ojai and got Zack his caffeine fix at Starbucks. Quickly we realized that is was going to be super hot that day, which isn't unheard of in upper Ojai. The temperature was quickly at 95 degrees before the start, and got over 100 during the race. With no shade on the course everyones jerseys were quickly unzipped.
The race got off pretty slow, with the exception of a few solo attempts to get away. The course had climb that was about a mile long that was sure to blow the field up during one of the 11 times we rode up it. For the first few laps my legs weren't feeling super great, and it was HOT. Then on the 5th lap Neil Shirley and Roman Kilun attacked at the bottom of the climb, and I tried to bridge my way up to it. At the top of the climb I wasn't able to catch up, but I was with 2 guys from Liquid Fitness. I looked back and saw we had a pretty big gap, so I stayed with them. We quickly started rolling pretty well, and the gap to Neil and Roman slowly started dropping. Eventually the gap started to grow and they kept pulling away, but we were also opening up a pretty big lead on the main field. We were working pretty well together, and aside from the occasional cramping I was feeling pretty good. At the end of the 11 laps I rolled across the finish in 4th place, and we opened up about 4 minutes on the main field. I was pretty happy to finally get the result I have been wanting, and it was even better to find out I had placed 4th in GC and 1st in the U23 category.
The race organizers put on an awesome race, and I can't wait to race it next year.
Corey
Monday, June 1, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
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
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
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!
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
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
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