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Monday, February 25, 2008

Snelling Road Race - 2/23

I woke up well before dawn to jump into my teammate's car and drive about 2.5 hours to Snelling, CA...the start of the Snelling Road Race. Start time was 8am and we arrived at about 7:30...just enough time to get our numbers, take care of business (long lines) and get into our fancy, matching costumes.

We, Active Athlete/Squadra Ovest, had 6 riders in the race: Dan, Ryan, Aaron, Gabe, Carmi and myself. This race reached the field limit of 100 at the start.

Here's the course...there was a short neutral roll out to the actual course and then 6 laps of racing; totaling just a hair over 63 miles.


Luckily for me, the race started off fairly tame. During the first lap my teammate, Carmi, rode next to me and told me that my rear skewer was wide-open. I unclipped and closed it with my foot, but was very upset to feel how easy that was to do...the skewer was way to loose to continue, so I had to pull over (in a section with a strong headwind) and tighten it up...thinking my race might be already over or at least about to be very hard. Many thanks to the follow car that allowed me to draft my way back to the pack! Crisis averted...I was back in business and only a small amount fatigued from that.

Speaking of the wind...it was killer. I received advice from another teammate before the race to leave my deep-dish carbon wheels at home because of the cross-winds and he was definitely right. Guys with the big carbon wheels were getting blown all over the road.

About 3/4 through the first lap the pace heated up. Attacks were coming left and right. My team did a great job either getting in every break attempt or covering every one that we were not represented in. Until finally a large break formed. Ryan jumped on a bridge attempt and rode his wheel perfectly to join in on this break. The rest of us assumed our positions at the front of the pack covering any chase/bridge attempts and the break got up to almost 2 minutes. Ryan is a very strong teammate and we knew if he made it to the end with these guys, he'd do great in the sprint. Once everyone knew the pack was going to make it the pace lightened up a bit, until the motorcycle drove by to tell us the pack had 1:45 on us. This is when there were a bunch of "2nd breakaway" attempts began. When none of these came to fruition, we decided to give the uphill field sprint an effort as a practice for when it counts. Aaron raced a great race, but fell victim to a flat tire at the start of the final lap, so his race was over. The lead out order was going to be Carmi, Dan, Gabe and then me. Unfortunately, we got jostled around a bit and lost each other. I think I ended up around 10-15th in the field sprint, but it was a messy one...lots of brake tapping and jostling and even a crash on the opposite side of the road from me. I think that of the 100 starters, only about 30-40 finished in our group and about 10 from the breakaway group. The wind and some of the pace-setting really thinned out this race.

It was a great race and Ryan ended up pulling a top-ten (8th) for us, which made all the earlier work worth it. BTW - Ryan is on fire...10th at Cherry Pie and now 8th at Snelling.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bling

Tour of California - Killer Weekend!!!

I moved out here just after the Tour of California last year, so this was my first experience and it was amazing!

Friday I went to the Team High Road Presentation...we didn't go for a ride afterwards, but I did get to go to dinner with Steve Hegg (Gold Medalist - track), Nelson "The Cheetah" Vails (Silver Medalist - track) as well as a few people from www.Bicycle.net and the Agency for Cycling Ethics (A.C.E.)...that was really cool.

Saturday, Eric (Team Get A Grip), Tim (Athletes By Design) and I did a big ride with my team...60+ miles and lots of climbing.

Sunday. Eric and I rode from SF to Palo Alto (about 45 miles south) with a couple other guys from out here to watch the Prologue. Then we took the train home.

Monday. We rode to Sausalito to watch the start of Stage 1. I stayed in Sausalito to man our Active Athlete / Squadra Ovest booth in the "Big Tent" and Eric rode out on Highway 1 to one of the climbs and took some pictures. Then after the events in Sausalito were over, we went for a 45 mile hammer-fest with my teammate Aaron and John from Northwave (he had the booth next to ours).

Today. Eric and I rented a car and drove up to a friend's place in Napa. Chris took us on a ride (2,000+ feet in just less than 17 miles) up to the top of one of the climbs and watched the riders come through. Then we rode back to his house, cleaned up and ate. Then cruised back to SF.

It was pretty amazing to see some of these riders up close. I've only seen them on TV during the Tour de France before, besides a few at Interbike this year.

Here are some of my pictures/videos: http://picasaweb.google.com/adigiovine/TourOfCalifornia?authkey=myGWHAKoL1E

Here are some that a teammate took (he's a much better photographer than me): clauss.smugmug.com/gallery/...256181545

The pictures in the previous post were taken with my cell phone, so the quality is poor - sorry

- Ciao

Here's the Garmin Data:

Saturday



Sunday



Monday

Tuesday
(I had the Garmin off on the way home, but drew the route back in blue)

Monday, February 18, 2008

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Our booth!

Kind of fun to watch people take pictures of themselves next to my bike, so I had to also.

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Mead's new ride!

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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Boonen!

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Cipo is on the course!

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Phat Shades

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Full Team

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Hincapie

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Women's Team

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Team High Road Presentation - more to come..

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Brief Cherry Pie Criterium Recap...

The weather was amazing...65 and Sunny. I got to race in shorts & short sleeve jersey. The weather here still gets me, especially when I call my parents back in Chicago and they tell me that it's -3 degrees and 30 below with the windchill.

The course was fun...about a 50-75 foot hill, a 180 at the top and three 90 degree turns...curvy sections throughout. As you can see from the map below (Garmin Data) my finish wasn't where it was supposed to be...if you look at my helmet or carbon bars, you would understand why. :-(I was sitting in great position for the final lap and in the curvy section there was a crash just ahead of me...I threw the brakes on full blast and rode a nose-wheelie for what felt like fifteen feet (as well as slow-motion). It wasn't enough and I buried my front wheel straight into the crashed rider's back, throwing me over the bars.

My team rode aggressively and grabbed a few primes on the way...would have been great if I would have made it to the sprint to contribute.

We stuck around to watch Eric, Jan and Charlie race the P/1/2 race. All 3 did an awesome job in what turned out to be a very fast race. A fairly early breakaway of 9 stayed away till the end, but "Fast Freddie" Rodriguez put in some huge efforts to try to bring them back...Here's a photo of Freddie pushing the pace with Jan in the background.


Next race: Snelling Road Race

Thursday, February 7, 2008

1st up...Cherry Pie Criterium

Well, the season's first race is just around the corner for me. I'm heading up to Napa this Sunday morning for the Cherry Pie Criterium. Podium placings get the added bonus of a cherry pie, which is motivation and a half (if you know me, you know my sweet tooth). My cat 3 race has reached the limit of 99 riders...big first race!

The Pro/1/2 race includes some big name teams that are out here warming up for the Tour of California - Slipstream, BMC, Rock Racing and Eric W. from Chicago's Get A Grip Cycles...yes, Eric is coming out to test himself with some big names out there!

I've had a great winter and have barely spent time off of the bike and I'm definitely not feeling burned out. I'm actually feeling very strong :-) The hours I put in over the winter were quality base miles with a few spurts of high intensity tossed in to break up the monotony. My more recent rides have been the fun ones where my team goes out and just beats up on one another...dropping one by one.

I'm pretty stoked about this year...new bike (which is proving to be an amazing ride so far...very stiff, responsive and light - it's a rocket). My team is also very strong this year, so it should be great.

The pics in the last few posts were taken on my Headlands Loop Ride tonight. They do not look even a 1/4 as nice as it was. I rarely stop on that descent down the back-side of the Headlands Loop, but tonight's sunset was amazing.

I'll post again after the race this Sunday...hopefully it will have something to do with one of these:

Headlands Ride!

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Last pic

Not sure if this will come through right, but...


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Saturday, February 2, 2008

The Excalibur Found It's Way Home

It's here...My new ride for 2008.

Ridley is the team bike for my Active Athlete / Squadra Ovest racing team! I went with the Excalibur, dressed up with Campagnolo Chorus, FSA and Mavic Wheels.

My teammate, Anthony, and I headed up to our team shop in Sausalito tonight after work. We just sat around watching the 2001 TdF while the shop did all the finishing touches (fitting, adjusting, cutting the steer tube, wrapping the bars, etc...). It turned out to be a pretty late night at the shop.

My first ride was just a few miles home after dropping Shana's car back to her (Thanks!). That small ride home was fun...this bike is SOLID! It's light, stiff and it's going to rock.

I'm itching to go attack Mt. Tam. Hopefully tomorrow.

Without further ado...




The below picture is the view from my closest competitor's front hub: