Cherry Pie Criterium

Me lining out the Elite 3's

Ryan and I out front of the junior field

Junior 17-18 ~ 4th Place

The first race of the season, there is always so much anticipation. Having trained hard throughout the winter months and the countless hours spent trudging through wind and rain seem to culminate into one afternoon, one test. Or rather for the juniors it is always a brisk morning of expectation. Of course there is a whole year of racing to follow, but it seems that the first race of the season sets some sort of tone. Every ‘big name rider’ from the juniors tends to show up to the first big race and it is some sort of trial. We all see each other and wonder who has really gone out and rode their bikes day in and day out from November until now. The butterflies build on the starting line and it seems that we stand there for an eternity. Then bang, another season begins, the butterflies are gone and once again were on the road. I love that aching in my legs and the loss of breath, the crashes, the attacks and the final sprint. There is no other sport that can compare to a bicycle race.

My season began at Cherry Pie Criterium in Napa. My race started at a cruel 8:30 in the morning, but that is just the way it is for the juniors races. It was exciting to see so many riders from Team Swift at the race and it was great to get everyone together to warm up and get ready for the race. I got to the starting line ready to go and then we were off. I was first through the first corner and ready to pound up the tempo. The first few laps of the race were an absolute blast. Ethan, Ryan and I tore it up on the front and had some fun attacking and countering. It was then about time to settle down and get ready for the real moves to go. Prime lap, Ethan attacked at the bottom of the hill, he looked good. I sat and watched the sprint for the prime and then bang that was the break. Immediately I was chasing it down. Should have gotten into it instead of watching them go. My mistake. The next few laps were a strong chase. Not many teams felt like working though. Swift on the front not wanting to let the race go. Then they were gone. It was a sprint for 4th. Ethan started the final lap on the front in an attempt to lead out Ryan for the win in the 15-16. Not all worked to plan, but it was a fun race. I sprinted hard at the end, but was dissatisfied to get beat by some 15-16’s in the sprint.

I feel like as a whole Swift rode very strong. We passed the test and everyone rode very well. Some tactical mishaps led to a no win outing, but that can be fixed. It was great to see that we were all on form. The first few laps of the race I could see that we are going to have an exciting year.


Elite 3 ~ 4th Place

The second race of the year. The sun came out. It was the beginning of a magnificent day. We hit the line with a good warm up in the legs after a hard junior’s race. Once again I was first off the line, but I sat up a little so that I would not have to pull. I jumped in about 5th wheel. My own little sweet spot. The race was mostly a blur for the greater part of it. As the laps began to count down I got into good position for a prime. A few other AMD juniors set out a great lead out for the prime and I sat on and Ryan and I sprinted in for the prime, which I won over my teammate with a bike throw. Once again I found my sweet spot and just settled in for the race. It was not much of a blistering pace, but the hill hurt. I did not remember it being such a big hill. It can wear you down. The last few laps there were some crashes on the backside. That got the adrenaline going. There’s nothing like the chance of hit the floor any moment. For me the key is knowing that you’re not going to be the one that goes down. No matter what happens, I am going to stay upright is how I like to think. I know that is not always the case as I have in fact crashed before, but I feel that being strong mentally through the nail biting parts of races is the means by which you can stay upright.

So I made it through the last few laps and I got pushed back a ways with 2 to go. I began to make my way back up to the front and I was into good position as we hit the hill for the final time. Of course we were spread across the entirety of the road so it was difficult to move through, but I managed to squeeze through the field. I like going through the middle of the field, it seems to save a lot of the energy wasted that involves going out on the outside and fighting the wind. I was there for the sprint and I gave it a good kick. I felt good and I think that if I could have found some more room then I could have pulled it off, but alas I did not. I almost got into 3rd and earned a pie, but another 4th was the final answer. Two races, 0 pies. 1 place higher in each and I would have gotten one. I guess if I don’t eat too much pie then I won’t get that unwanted weight, so the less pie the better I suppose. I felt good though and it was exciting to see that I still matched up with everyone and all of the work that I put in during the winter was successful. Now I need to improve my tactics and get that badly needed/wanted win. I am done with the top 5’s and as in the words of Ricky Bobby “If your not first, your last” and then there are the words of Vince Lombardi; “If you lose, your out of the family” So it is time to get that win!

Ethan, me and Ryan on the front of the Juniors race

Discussing the race

Thanks for reading,

tb

More TOC

My grandma was wondering where my picture with the champ was, levi, so here is the best picture I got asking him to have his autograph

Half of Scott Nydam, the KOM!

Standing with Thomas Voeckler - (In 2004 he held onto yellow for 10 days in the Tour, very impressive riding and probably the best part of it was watching him suffer like no other to hold onto the jersey, a rider that I have always respected)

Fast Freddie, he has been an awesome leadout man for years in the pro peleton, better yet he is an awesome guy who has been willing to help juniors and be a part of the Team Swift ride with champions multiple times, a great guy, im not so sure about the move to rock racing, but he is a very respectable rider and hopefully he is ok after a couple of falls in the TOC

My dad and I with Jens Voight ("life is good" - Jens) or "im in the first line, im gonna get goiiinnnggg" - hes a funny dude and awesome racer, just had his 5th kid in fact

My dad and I with Steve Cozza, sportin his stache, that thing needs to go

Floyd Landis and I, my controversial pic of the night I suppose


Tommy D. signing our poster

My dad and I with Ekimov - He has finished 15 TDF's....Impressive!

Dave Towle and I, the great anouncer

My dad and I with the Specialized Angel

Crazy Night at the TOC

Can you even imagine hanging out with all of your heroes in one night, I don't know if it is possible to even imagine, but it did happen for me tonight. Of course the best part was hanging out with BMC's Scott Nydam, but here are some other people that you might recognize....

Pinch me, standing with the World Champ Paolo

Paolo signing my poster


Standing with Tom Boonen, need I say more?

Bobby Julich, one of the great Americans

With David Millar, the new, clean, argyle wearing machine

Standing with Big George, repping his new High Road colors

Standing with Mark Cavendish - 11 wins in his rookie season....(I asked him to take a picture and just then George walks up and he was like HEY its George, are you sure you want a picture with me) of course I still did

Hanging with Paolo

Trying to take a picture with the Lion King - Super Mario
It very tough to get a picture with him if your not a woman

Boonen hanging out

Robin Williams can even make Paolo laugh


Did I mention that the day started at the Team High Road Presentation,

this is Ryan hanging out in front

More to come with some details...also more pics including Thomas Voeckler, Fast Freddie Rodriguez, Floyd Landis and my all time favorite JENS VOIGT
-tb

Is it raining yet?

On Friday it was raining. Wait does that give justice enough to the rain. It was pouring. The sky was dropping absurd amounts of water. The streets were filled with that water. Perhaps it was not a good day to ride a bicycle. Or was it? The proper clothing was the only way to go. Sickness is not an option for cyclists. A cyclist can not even fake being sick to miss school because that would mean that one would not be able to ride their bike after school! Maybe the rain was needed. The creeks had been relatively low for this time of year. Even Lake Nicasio was at the lowest limits that I had seen in a while. It was looking more like a field than a lake. Why did it have to come today though? I guess it was just meant to be. Saturday I was planning on riding Skagg's with my Team Swift Elite teammates. It would have been awesome. Alas, six hours in this weather was not an option, even for a bunch of fools like us.

I got home from school around 1, but I pouted over the rain for a few hours before I became hardcore enough to put on my clothes and jump into it. As I got dressed it was only drizzling and that angered me. If i was going to ride in this junk I wanted a hurricane. This needed to be epic. Of course I was going to go ride the mountain bike, it was way to nasty for the road, what with the gray skies, fogged windows and crazy drivers. The trail was the place for me. Heck, is anyone else crazy enough to go ride on the trail today? No, can't be anyone that stupid. The trails would be all mine.

I headed out the door and jumped upon my MTB beast. Now it was storming. That is what I am talking about. I let out a scream for a joy (or insanity?) and wheelied that bad boy out the driveway. I was well equipped and ready to roll. I was even sweating I was so perfectly warm.

I stole my dads waterproof gloves. They are amazing. Seriously, they are absolutely unbelievabele. I think that they are for kayaking or something, but no water, well extremely few amounts seeped into my gloves during my two hours of riding through an absolute perfect storm.

I got to the neighborhoods near the trail entrance and the streets were flooded. I had to follows cars through the water. They would part the water for me and I would race through the streets before I got engulfed. I made it to the dirt, my kingdom. Not a soul for miles. I felt good today. I was cruising through the thick mud. The rain pounding. Drops pounding on my rain jacket. I was thundering through the forest. It was a good day to climb. Climb I did. Ten miles of climbing to the top of Mount Tam. The trail was a river. Then as I neared the top of the mountain another man descended past me. He looked exactly like me. All dressed up in an ugly bike rain jacket and massive amounts of lycra. We are like ugly ballerinas. Well as I saw this guy in the distance he was laughing, and he continued to toss out that laughter all the way down the trail as he passed me. Was he laughing for joy? (I think that he was hypothermic or something!) Oh well, I felt great as I cruised up the trail. I passed through multiple waterfalls crossing the river that I was riding through. It was getting windy. It was ridiculously foggy. Could I see that tree 10 feet away. Nope. I caromed my way to the top. Oops, not much time left to get back down this mountain. Oh, no worries, I can get down this mountain in probably five minutes.

Have you ever tried descending through a river? Wow, it is not easy. One may in fact say that it is difficult. Did I mention that every corner of Tam looks exactly the same when it is ridiculously foggy. I think that it was harder descending then climbing. One might even claim that it was scary.

I reached the bottom and had to follow some more cars through the flooding. I thought that the one that I was following was going to die as I heard the engine sputter in the water. Luckily, it made it through, and so did I.

The best part of the ride was while I was navigating my way through one of these flooded streets. There were two boys of five years in their full on yellow rain gear standing with their mother and dog. As they spotted me they yelled to their mom "That kid is riding a bike!"

I continued home and I ended up on a street that was closed with a banner blocking my side. Oh, this couldn't be much of a problem after what I have been through. I rode about 500 ft before I saw the biggest puddle of my life. The street could no longer be considered a road, it was river. The water was gushing across the hillside on one side and into the river on the other side. It was at least as deep as my wheels. I turned back and managed to pull into my home before it was too dark. Another adventure in the books.

I am that kid riding a bike.

tb

One of the many sweet waterfalls on Mount Tam

Some Fundraising

During October and November, my main focus was on school, although I was still riding and going to the gym. Along with all of this, I spent four successive weekends attending fundraiser rides. The fund raising season began with the Tour of Marin half century. This ride was on Sunday, Oct. 21st, and came the day after I had done a full century in Davis with my dad and his UC Davis cycling team friends. This ride supports a private school in Marin, and was well attended by local pros, and local riders. Coach Laura was able to get the school to make a contribution to Team Swift, as well as get free entry to the event for the elite team swift riders. The ride went from Corte Madera through Fairfax and around Lake Nicasio (which is a training ride I do weekly).

Levi was gracious enough to take a pic with all of us

The next weekend was the Team Swift ‘Ride with Champions in Santa Rosa. This year the event was attended by several member of the BMC pro cycling team (including Scott Nydam, Mike Sayers, Nathan Miller and team director Gavin Chilocot) as well as former Team Swift rider Steven Cozza (now a Team Slipstream pro). Following us on the fifty mile ride were the BMC team cars, each with a team mechanic and doctor. It was definitely the best supported fall training ride that I’ve ever done. Along all these great pros, were maybe forty swifties, many parents, and a variety of sponsors, community members and team supporters. Team Swift’s national champion, Ashlyn Gerber came all the way from Florida to attend the ride.
After the ride we had some great lunch, socialized and had the team raffle. Everyone was able to walk away with something from the raffle, thanks to many generous contributions from our sponsors.

Steve Cozza and I

Coach Laura Charameda and National Champ Ashlyn Gerber

Ryan and I tearing it up on the front

Getting some advice from BMC director Gavin Chilcott

The first weekend of November was the first annual Tamaranch 1000, a fundraiser for my Drake HS mt. bike team. Our goal was to ride a combined 1000 miles around our local trails. Parents made and brought food and riders rode from 8am-4pm. Some riders had to leave for soccer games, and other commitments. I was taking the SAT’s in the morning, but still came in the afternoon and rode four laps of the course. We were very successful and raised a total of $13,000. Thanks to some very generous friends and family, I was able to bring in $700 for the team.

Finally, on November 10th, was the NorCal High School Mt. Bike Leagues annual fundraiser dinner and auction. We got to socialize for a while, have a nice dinner, and listen to Bob Roll tell some stories. Bob Roll is the man.

Thanks to everyone for their support of me and my programs in 2007. I am hoping and training for an even better '08.

tb

New Years Day Epic Ride

Well I finally found some time and energy to write so here goes nothing. The Elite team decided to have a ride on New Years day and it was going to be epic, but I didn’t know it would be this epic. I went to my grandparents for the holidays though and was not sure if I would be able to make it. I convinced my parents to wake up early and drive back so that I could ride and they finally surrendered. We had to wake up at 6:30 after staying up till 12, so that was tough, but luckily I got to sleep in the car.

We were the first to arrive at Coach Laura’s house and I got ready. Soon enough Steve Cozza, Ryan and Ethan showed up. We got dressed and sung happy birthday to Ethan and then yelled at him when he decided that he needed to change his tire.

We headed out towards Calistoga Road and met up with Gavin Chilcott, Rich Sangalli and a group of guys from the Dewars Team. We went to the top of Spring Mountain and the others turned back while my father, Laura, Steve, Ethan, Ryan and I continued on. We continued over Howell Mt. and I found some sweet goggles on the side of the road. I wore them for about a mile before I discarded them for my trusty Specialized sunglasses and we began a sweet descent down Ink Grade. We got stuck behind a car, but luckily or maybe unluckily she let us go.

I took off with Ryan on my wheel and we continued to burn up the road for about 4 miles. At one point I looked back and asked him where everyone was, I thought that we must have missed a turn. We continued to cruise until we hit a left hand turn and bang, I was on the floor in a second. I hit some gravel and ended up rolling onto the pavement while Ryan went over his bars behind me. I got up slowly hoping that I had not cracked my frame. I had a bunch of holes in my clothes, but everything felt alright; well at least nothing was broken on me or my bike. I knew that I had a lot of road rash, but I did not feel like looking at it until the end. After some minor bike repairs with the help of Steve and my dad we headed off. We still had about 3 hours to go so it was going to be a battle.

We loosened up and then found ourselves setting a good tempo into Middletown. We stopped at a grocery store and I had to walk around with the back of my shorts torn open. We ate an awesome sandwich and guzzled down some coke and then headed back to the races. We had the opportunity to head up Western Mine Road which is a dirt climb for about 3 miles. The last time I had gone up this climb it had been 105 degrees and the road was dusty and slick and I had bonked like no other. Today I was riding for redemption and I took off with a steady pace and the dirt was pristine. I don’t think that it could have been any better and Steve, Ryan and I cruised up it together.

We got to the top and then there was a long descent down Ida Clayton Road. It was time to get back on the horse and forget about my crash that had happened an hour or so ago. I followed Steve and had some fun. The views were incredible of Mount St. Helena and it seemed that we could see forever.

We finished the last climb of the day along Franz Valley and I still felt decent which was good. We even pushed the pace at the very end of the ride and I was thinking to myself “We could have just gone easy, why are we doing this now!” It felt great to finish the ride with all I had left though, like a race. I rolled into Coach Laura’s lot with my wheel going flat. Now it was time to clean all that road rash. OUCH, cleaning it was worse than riding for 3 hours with it. I learned today that it is not worth it to push the limit on descents in training. Road rash is not fun, but I was super lucky that nothing worse happened.

Pushing it to the Limit

In the past week I have done most of my riding on the mountain. Of the past 5 days, 3 of them have been MTB to the top of Tam. I have enjoyed an awesome break of easy riding and I am excited to get my training going again and these rides have felt like the perfect transition. Now it is not the trek up the mountain that I am so addicted to, but it is the flash back down. The beginning section of the descent is rocky as can be and is pretty brutal on the arms without about 2 pairs of gloves on, but once you get through that part it is straight adrenaline. There are a bunch of waterbars that are perfect for getting some air off of and millions of rocks. So I basically spend about 45% of the time in air while on the way down. With another 20% spent sliding through corners uncontrollably it is absolutely packed full of fun.

Well yesterday I went out for another ride up the mountain. The climb is great, it is so steady that I can find a rhythm and just go for hours. Plus I got out of school at 12:30 so there was no one on the trail. It was a beautiful day and views from the mountain were pretty great. Well in my usual rush to leave the house and get on the trail I just strapped my road kit on and didnt bother to grab a mtb tube. I have tubeless tires so they are super trustworthy. Well I made it to the top feeling great and I was excited for the descent back down to say the least. That is what I came for...

I started down sliding through the piles of rocks. Then I was off flying, hit each jump like there was no tomorrow. Pssssssss......done. A sliced tire is no good. Well I grabbed my kit and put the road tube that I had into the wheel. I always wondered if it would work, and it did. I stuck my CO2 into it and it was awesome. Felt like a solid wheel and I was ready to get going again. At first I thought that I better take it easy. But there was still so much to descend I could not help myself. I needed to fly. I began to push up the pace and I could feel the loss of control that I had with the road tube in the rear. It definitely was not the same, but that did not matter, I knew I wasnt going to crash.

I hit the next jump and...BANG. The top of the valve decided to explode off of my tube. I was finished. I took the tube out and began to roll slowly down the hill attempting to put all of my weight onto my front wheel. I couldnt take it though, I did not want to damage my beautiful Crossmax SL. So.....I stuffed all the dirt and grass that I could find into the tire. Jeze, it was actually pretty difficult to get the tire back onto the rim with all of the dirt in their. I finally got it back on, but I wasnt able to keep a lot of the dirt in. Oh well I was off again riding up on my front wheel cringing every time my rear wheel touched a rock. I passed a few people and then one guy offered me a tube. I was thrilled and I thanked him at least six times. I popped that in and just as I put the CO2 in. POP. The tube pushed out of the slide tire and I was done.

I sank back down the mountain. Then I climbed back up to 5 corners, where upon my arrival some lady sitting on the bench began to yell "FLAT TIRE, FLAT TIRE!!" As if I didnt know that I had just ridden 2 miles uphill with a flat!

Well I made it back home, with a pretty decent workout I must say. The worst part were my arms that had been locked up so much as I leaned forward for over an hour trying to keep my weight on my front wheel. I guess I shouldnt push it to the limit all of the time!