Timpani Category 3 WIN!!

Gabriel Byrne pulls off a huge sprint to take the win at the Timpani Criterium in Santa Clara, CA.

Here’s his recap:

Friday and Saturday I was camping out and moumtain biking in Downieville, so much fun but came back early so I could race this crit. I almost didn’t make it, for some reason I had it in my head that my race was at 2pm. (Note from editor: Always prepare by knowing WHEN your race is!!!) I had a leisurely breakfast, hang out with the dog, around 10:30 I start thinking I better check where this race is… Oh Crap! It’s at 11:45! Threw my stuff in the car, dammit, need to change over to the cork pads real quick, hit every red light in the city between the Presidio and 101. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, let’s go!

At 11:35 I was still a bit away and I was very close to saying screw it and just go to the beach. Got there at 11:45 and luckily they were running late. I had just enough time to throw on the kit, my girlfriend pins my number (all loose and
flappy) and I rolled up to the start just in time.

After that the race itself was pretty uneventful. A non-technical course, which is not my favorite thing. At the gun I went straight through the field to get up to 3rd wheel by corner 1. My legs felt real funky for the first few laps, a few days of using different muscles downhilling on the mt. bike, plus absolutely no warmup. I just hung out in the top 10, no serious attacks went. There was one crash, but I didn’t see at all. With 3 to go one of those really ugly sounding pile-ups
happened right next to me. They were all gone the next time we came around, so thankfully there were no broken bones.

At the bell lap I was sitting 3rd wheel and someone attacked hard. A surge came up
the right while the guys I was behind slowed a bit, I squeezed through a hole to get 4th wheel. On the backside two guys counter attacked, by then I was second wheel. The guy in front of me was loosing steam, so I came around him and closed in on one of the attackers. At the second to last corner I passed that guy, caught the final guy, upshifted and dove into the corner and out of the saddle. Looks like a looooong way to that blue tent, halfway there, chin in front of the stem, upshift one more time. Amazing, I’m going to get it. So stoked. Passed the line with a big smile.

CO Mt. Bike Hill Climb

Mark Mastoras takes a trip to the Rockies and reports on a tough Mt. Bike Hill Climb.

Race: MTB race (hill climb)
Category: Expert (cat 1) 40+
Field: 16
Finish: 12th
Course: brutal

While in Steamboat Springs I rented a MTB (an excellent Rocky Mt. Altitude) and entered the local town challenge MTB race. This race happened to be a serious hill climb starting at 7000′ and proceeding
up to 9000′ over 4.5 miles. I was nervous and as it turns out rightfully so, I went off with the 40+ experts and for a small town there was a serious amount of fit competition, old mountain men.

At the start they drilled it, and I’m like WTF? Thankfully after about 1000 meters the pace settled down some so maybe the start was for show or adrenaline. I was just trying to stay with the group and
managed to make it about 1/2 way up when the double-tracked turned into single-track switch backs after that it was just finding my own pace.

3/4 the way up a women on a single-speed went by me ! Don’t mess with the locals!

After a seeming eternity (49.21 minutes) it was over and I was treated to 2000′ feet of single-track downhill, yea!

Dash for Cash: P/1/2/3

P/1/2/3
Team: Aaron, Angelo, Carmi, Dan, Gabe, Geoff, Jan and Murat (and Dino on the radio)
Course: Office park crit…almost rectangle, with a pretty good wind.
Top Placing: 9th (Carmi)

Being a 1/2/3 race, we had a very strong presence with 8 guys on the line. The Dash for Cash is a “prime-heavy” race…several $40 laps, a $500 gas card on the line and a $250 bonus for the person that could lap the field!

With 75 minutes of racing and all those primes this is typically a fast and competitive criterium. Well, it lived up to that. We played around a bit in some of the breakaway attempts, but nothing really stuck until late in the game. Once the race started to slow down a break of 9 formed and got 20 second on the field. Carmi ended up in a chase group 6 that wittled down to 2 (Carmi and a DBC Rider) bridged up to the break. Joel ended up attacking the break and won it solo and Carmi says, “I had nothing left in the tank and sprinted in for 9th.” Well done!

Jan mixed it up in the field sprint for a great placing as well…just outside of the top 10 due to the breakaway.

Good day of racing for sure. Everyone was working well together and sharing the workload at the front.

Photo Credit: Steven Woo

Rohnert Park Crit – P/1/2: 6th Place

P/1/2
Team: Aaron, Angelo & Jan
Place: 6th (Jan)
Course: Slightly undulating with gusty winds: 1.2 mile office park

The race got under way slowly but ramped up quickly. We had to do 75
min. Because of the wind, length of course and number of turns/curves a breakaway was bound to happen (almost every race before us was won in a break). After several attempts by us and others, one finally stuck and I think it was around 20 min into the race. Prior to that, we were all near the front taking turns going in breaks, but just missed this one that went away. Angelo tried to bridge up but the break was working too well together (Joel, Rand Miller, 2 other guys, one of which eventually got dropped). Angelo recalls, “I tried to bridge and they were almost instantly out of sight, after 2 solo laps I was back in the pack for some recovery.” So we tried with others to try and bring them back but no one was working well together at all. Jan tried several times to bridge and have some people come with him but it all got chased down by the pack. Angelo and Aaron continued covering attacks/bridge attempts. Jan finally made a move that stuck, “Then I (Jan) found myself on the front of the pack and I was like WTF so I attacked ala sprint and took a huge flier. Two guys came with me. So we started rotating well and got a great gap.” The break away had 45sec-1 min on Jan’s chase group, which eventually picked up the guy that was originally in the main breakaway and the 4 of them worked great together. So 3 up the road and Jan’s group of 4 chasing hard. With 40 sec or more on the pack this chase group was looking great. Jan’s group did not catch the main break, so they were racing for 4th. One rider attacked hard, Jan reacted and took 3rd in his group (6th overall).

We raced well today and we had fun. Granted, we should have been in that first group, but we are learning and getting better….

The (not-so) bad news of the day is that Jan’s placing earned us a box of Clif Bars, the winner got a case of beer. Personally, I (Angelo) think Jan should have rode harder and won us some beer.

Photo Credit: Mark Nakamura

Squadra 3’s Were ON Last Weekend: 1st, 6th, 7th, another 7th and 8th.

Photo courtesy Rozel Tupaz, Team Luzvimin

Not sure what to say really…Our Cat 3 team had a stellar weekend with 5 top tens in just 2 races. Gotta love it when your team is working well together.

Here’s Gabe’s write-up from the weekend (btw – he just came off of a 4th place the weekend before!)

Santa Rosa Crit:
We had Dino, Murat, and myself (Gabe). Fusion had five guys there, some San Jose team team had a handful of guys as well. Having Murat there made all the difference. Instead of covering breaks and trying to figure out which to chase down, I could could concentrate on position, save energy, and watch the other teams chase Murat around. There was a good headwind coming through the start finish so I made a note to come out of the last corner in maybe 3rd wheel. Fusion was super active as usual and with 1.5 to go lined up their whole team and drilled it. There was some pushing about to get on the train and I got the sweet spot as caboose. With half a lap to go Fusion had four guys left and Murat came up next to us. I let Murat slide in front of
me, one fusion guy swung off before the last corner. We were going pretty fast so I up-shifted going into the corner which I usually never do. Coming out of the corner the fusion guys spread out a bit and were all in front of me. I clicked it one more up, stuck my chin low and jumped, got it by a bike length. Dino pulled in for 6th and Murat 7th. Totally my kind of sprint, stretched out field, wide
open, and fast.

Livermoore Crit:
This time we had Dino, Eric, Matt, and myself. This was Jr. Championship Crit so there was ton of those little guys in the field. It was super windy and it was pretty funny watching these eighty pound guys just giving it their all into the head wind while the elite’s cruised comfortably. For the first few laps breaks went and came back, six or so laps in I got into a break of around five but there wasn’t much team representation and we weren’t getting it together. I sat up a bit and another break went with Dino. For the rest of the race Squadra did a kick ass job controlling the field. Although it was pretty easy, other teams with guys in the break were happy just to let us do the work. The break got out of sight and they even cought our tail end as we came across the finish. Dino pulled 7th and I won the field sprint for 8th.

A great day for the team. (Yes, this was all done on Saturday)

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