Georgia on my mind....

Today the team is headed back home to Georgia, where we will resume our (somewhat) normal lives, as school is starting and summer is winding down. The outlook for the rest of the season is somewhat unknown, after months of traveling and racing we're not sure how many more races we will tackle this season. The race count for the season is around 50 days of racing and the number seems to get bigger every year.

If you could use one word to describe the road race it would be, sweltering, two words would be red-hot (one word) and ambiguous, as USA cycling failed to elaborate on the 3 minute rule in effect. On the start line they stated that any riders falling out of a 3 minute window would be pulled from the race because they couldn't block traffic for that long. One, why do you hold a road race in such a densely populated area, two, if there was a solo break with a 3 minute lead does that mean he wins by default? Three, most people assumed that the 3 minute window applied to dropped riders not chase groups, which was not clear at the start. Groups of 20 plus riders were pulled on the fourth lap because they were just outside of the 3 minute window, only 13 of the 100+ riders finished!

The race was six laps for a total of 120 miles on rolling terrain with more than 1,000 feet of climbing per lap. The race started off with a two man break that was quickly reeled back in. On the second lap a break went up the road with some of the race favorites along with Jafer as he tried to hold on. He was hoping his legs would come around but became gapped off during an attack and drifted back to the first chase group of about 8 riders. For the next lap and a half he tried to hang tough but eventually fell off the pace during an attack when the chase group caught the lead group and drifted back to the shattered peloton with a few other riders and that's basically how the race unfolded. Most of the remaining riders behind the break were pulled as the peloton was more than 3 minutes down.

Thomas suffered a flat and with no wheel truck was forced to abandon after 60 miles, Jafer was blown and abandoned after 65 miles, Oscar and Joey were pulled after 80 miles for falling outside of the 3 minute window. The race was so hot that we finished nearly an entire bottle before leaving the feedzone. The ideal situation would have been to drink 4 bottles a lap but we can only carry two at a time, as we didn't want to carry the extra weight in our jerseys. After the race, we were caked white with salt lines like we've never seen before. Our helmets straps were nearly completely white along with our faces as a nice salty crust covered our body.

The U23 crit in Anaheim, CA was not exactly what you would call national championship material, as it was entirely in the Los Angeles Angels parking lot; which as you can imagine was extremely flat, hot, and fast (but not that hard)! What do I mean by fast but not hard? Well, the course was so wide that the peloton was usually 10-15 riders wide, which made it very easy to sit in at 30 mph and the turns were wide open. Joey fared the best on the team taking a well deserved 12th while Thomas took 20th (Oscar and Jafer rolled in a little further back after a last lap crash separated the field).

Oscar and Joey weren't the only fast things on the course

The 33K course was a challenge as expected, with fast times in the mid forties. Hopefully, results will be posted soon on the USA cycling website. In the mean time enjoy some pictures from the tt start and about 5K to go. We even saw a nice red Ferrai on the course.


Oscar finished 23rd 4.53 minutes down and Joey finished in 36th place 6.31 minutes down on the winning time of 44.28 minutes of Peter Stetina (Garmin-Chipolte). For complete U23 results see Cycling News
A picture of Jafer and Ken Rosskopf at the time trial finish in the OC Register

What goes up, must come down

Enjoy the pain that Jafer felt trying to hold his camera while riding up the steep hill
Joey and Jafer bombing down the descent in excess of 40 mph.
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Every things bigger in the west

After a few days of riding in the desert we have concluded that everything is actually bigger in the west. The roads are wider, the terrain is more open and spread out, the wind can be nonstop, and the short inclines seem to hurt more. Yesterday, we rode what we thought what was the U23 road course. From the information we had via the handy USA cycling website, including the map on the blog from a few days ago, we rode the entire course only to find out today that it is not the REAL course. Gone are the tough decisive climbs that you would want in a national championship race. The distance has also changed to about 115 miles but the course should actually suit us better than the original course. The old course had one super steep climb that would have blown the race apart followed by a fun technical descent. The new course will be six laps, with 1,050 feet of climbing per 20 mile lap. What Thomas does best, bombing down the twisty descent.


We also previewed the time trial course today, which promises to be a challenge. The 33K course has 1,287 feet of climbing that will shake times up a bit. We expect some times will dip into the mid 40 minute range and we are shooting for a solid 50 minute ride but anything could happen come race day.

Riding more than just roads...

The flight to LA was a long one to say the least. We all had an early morning as we got to the airport around 7:30 am for the 9:40 flight. Its a good thing because we probably spent 45 minutes trying to get all of the bags checked in and if you think that you normally have a hard time with the ticket people then imagine what happens when you have three bike boxes to check along with three 'over-sized' bags according to their measurements.

After many additional fees and confusion, the haze finally lifted and we began our journey through security. We even talked to one of the screeners because he saw our cool blue team shirts and asked where we were headed. He told us that he used to ride back in the day and even had a Bianchi that he raced. FYI, if you ride the train in the airport, look for a picture of CSC rider David Zabriskie at concourse C, possibly from the 96 Olympics(?).

When we finally arrived at our gate, the 4.5 hour flight began boarding within 20 minutes. Fast forward to the LAX airport where we left behind the heat and humidity of Hot Atlanta, to be welcomed by the cool west coast air. Joey's dad flew in earlier that morning so he could pickup the rental and we quickly rendezvoused with him and headed to our 'as close as you can almost get' ocean side apartment. It didn't take long to get our feet wet!

.Thomas looking cool.

Trying to body surf.

Joey stealing pods from mysterious plant.

California Dreamin

Not much has happened since we got back into Atlanta. Joey was 11th and Oscar was 14th in the Gwinnett Bike Fest road race on July 26th. Other than that everybody has been resting from our summer racing campaign on the hopes of riding into a good result at U23 nationals.

On Wednesday August 6th, Joey and Oscar will try to ride the time trial of their life in the U23 tt, which is an impressive 35 K (Thomas and Jafer decided to save it for the crit and road race).


On Thursday August 7th, we will race the U23 crit which might be broken down into heats if there are too many riders. Having heats makes the race much safer because it reduces the peleton but it also makes it more nerve racking since you have to make sure you make it to the final round.


On Saturday August 9th, we will race the U23 road race in heats (if needed) for a distance of 55 K. The final road race will be on Sunday which is a distance of 166 K or 103 miles.


Our flight leaves tomorrow morning around 9:40 am and we should arrive in Los Angeles around 11 am.

Looks like California should be fun (we promise to wear our helmets)!