The Early Season

Well, I have once again fallen into the trap of laziness and excuses preventing me from frequent blog updates. In fact, I have raced 12 days this season already, but this is my first real post of the season.

After the drive to California and the frustration of trying to find a place to live were over, I jumped right into the early season racing scene that SoCal has to offer. I did a crit on January 25th, albeit a low-level one, but still the earlisest in the year I had ever raced. The strange thing about it was that while it was club-level racing, Tony Cruz (BMC), Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) and a handful from Rock Racing showed up. There has been a minor adjustment period since then and I now expect at least a few pros to show up to any race I am at. The weekend after I went up to Santa Barbara and stayed at a teammates house on University of California, Santa Barbara campus (as did 5 or 6 others). The Poor College Kids Road Race was the opening Road Race of the season and with the course about 15 km north of Solvang, it attracted a lot of strong riders. Of note on the start list was the full Team Type 1 squad (who were doing their training camp there), Ted Kind of Cervelo Test Team and Brian Vandborg of Liquigas.

The race season rolled along with the next notable race the Boulevard Road Race about an hour south east of San Diego and just a few minutes from the Mexican Border. The race was up in the desert mountains and it was quite cold. The race is typically a big race due to the turnout from pro teams getting in some final prep before the Tour of California. So, on the start line were teams OUCH, Jelly Belly, Fly V Australia, Team Type 1, plus a couple of Bissell and BMC guys. As we lined up to start, adding to an already freezing temperature, it started to snow … heavily. It turned into a full on blizzard as we sprinted away only to start descending on the large loop we were to race. I hung near the back on the descent because I couldn’t feel if my hands were braking and with the carbon wheels I was running, if the braking was having the desired effect. After climbing back up to the start/finish for the first time, about 50 riders pulled off the course and called it a day. Being Canadian, and having done rides in similar weather, I could not do the same. By the end I finished 25th, just a bit back from Floyd Landis (16th) and Rory Sutherland (17th).

The team itself has been great. All of the riders are easy to get along with and it makes racing with them that much more enjoyable. All of the Elite Team is U25 and is made up of Cat. 1’s : Eric Bennett, Brock Curry, Michael van Eerd (Dutch), Nick Martinez, Peter Rennie (Kiwi), and myself. Cat. 2’s: Cory Greenberg, Erik Losak, Tyler Locke, and Aaron Schneider. There is also Junior Kit Karzen who will soon be a 2 on the road and is an extremely fast on the Track (ie. Junior US Points Race Champion). Between us all, we make up a strong team with riders that can net some real results.

The team got together a few weeks ago for a ride from Eric Bennett’s place in Ventura. After a solid 3 hours with some good climbing, we headed to the start of a crit in Santa Barbara. We had a large contingent of strong guys there and made it known. On the start line, Eric and I clipped in and leaned into each other right on the line. The gun went off and we attacked from the line. Within a lap, we hap 4 more riders with us, Cody O’Reilly of Bissell, Danny Finneran of Rock Racing, someone from SLO – Nexus, as well as Kiwi Pete. We worked well together and kept the pace high and steady. Just before the half-way point in the race, we lapped the field. This is where the rest of the team took to the front and set tempo/chased down attacks. In the last 10 laps I was marking the other break riders and getting ready to set-up for the sprint. I found myself in the sprinter’s spot in our lead-out train. I was feeling great and all seemed perfect until 3 laps to go when we ran out of riders. Strong guys, but tired from all the work, re-cycling the lead-out train wasn’t working out. With 2 laps to go we were swarmed by the pack and I had to push my way through to find a spot out. Coming onto the finishing straight, I was maybe top 15, but let my sprint go, found a gap, and jumped out to claim fourth in the bunch sprint. The team was 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Aside from racing I have enjoyed my time here as well. I made it out to the Tour of California Stages in Solvang and the one finishing in Passedena. It was exciting to watch, but I am less interested in the presence of big names these days. It felt strange watching teams I race against every weekend line up with Saxo-Bank, Astana, Columbia-Highroad, Quick Step and Rabobank. Even then, I had Mark Cavendish walk in front of me when no fans were around and all I did was politely nod. The circus that follows the ToC around and how many people swarm the pros for autographs is unbelievable. It is great to see so many people out watching a bike race in the US, even if 60% of them were there just to see Lance Armstrong. All in all it was fantastic to see the domestic and Tour de France caliber fields married in a place that seems very applicable to my own career right now.

In the next couple of weeks I have some very big races coming up. This Friday-Sunday is the San Dimas Stage Race and then next Thursday-Sunday is the Redlands Bicycle Classic. I am excited to line up against some of, if not the best domestic racers in North America and show my stuff.