Superfrog XXXIII

Sunday was the fifth year in a row I have raced at Superfrog. The race is the oldest half in the world and was started by now retired US Navy SEAL, Moki Martin. It takes place in Coronado and uses portions of the sacred training grounds used by the SEALs.

This year, in the 33rd edition, the current race director and retired SEAL, Mitch Hall, moved the course five miles south to the facility grounds, called the Elephant Cage, where SEALs perfect their hand to hand combat skills.

Every year I circle the Superfrog race date on my calendar. Where else do you have an opportunity to race with past, current, and soon-to-be SEALs on their own training ground? This year took on an extra special meaning as the race was held on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a special tribute was provided for all the Naval Special Warfare personnel killed in combat.

As much as I wanted this win (yes, I actually did cut out ice cream for the past two months) and trained to squeeze the most out of myself, one constant that you can't train to control is the competition you will face.

In the previous two years, I was very well prepared but ran up against tough competition in multiple Ironman winners Chris McDonald, Luke Bell and Jonas Colting. This year, it turned out multiple Ironman winner Joszef Major decided to use Superfrog as his pre-Kona hit out. Oh well. You still need to race the race to find out the winner, right! I was committed to leaving everything I had on the course.

The venue changed for the sixth time in the race's history and the swim leg started in the Pacific Ocean near Imperial Beach. After charging in to the 60-degree water, we faced a series of sets four to six feet high that forced us to show off our duck diving skills. This is one skill I am proficient at in the water and I found myself swimming in third place throughout the first lap. The return back to shore was substantially faster as you could time the sets, catch a wave, hold your breath and move your arms as fast as possible and let the waves take you in to shore.

The two looped swim was separated by a 100 meter run so spectators were able to see us run by with our tongues hanging down to our toes and then watch as we completed the most difficult task in triathlon: running back in to the water with your heart pounding to repeat the second lap! With around 300-meters to go, a familiar swim stroke passed me like I was treading water. It was Emily! She even smiled at me before she continued past, leaving me unable to jump in behind for a draft. She even caught a great wave (a first for her) that gave her a perfect end to her swim. I came in to shore a few seconds later.

The run up to the transition area was over soft sand and this was the first taste of what we would experience later during the run leg. Emily and I opted to leave a spare set of shoes at the start of the transition area as our bikes were racked a few hundred meters at the opposite end. The transition was on a rough surface and we made up for the time spent putting on shoes by not having to tip toe across the pebbles and chipped road. Looking at the results, our T1 times were nearly one minute faster than most other racers, so we made the right decision in putting on shoes.

The bike course is fairly straight forward but the initial mile to get onto the Strand Hwy was new. We rode over the same rough roads from transition and, for me, I displayed some fred-like riding technique. As I reached down to put my foot into my cycling shoe, I hit a crack in the road that jolted me forward towards the bike’s cockpit. Instinctually, I grabbed for the front brake, which sent me into a Robbie McEwen-like front wheelie! Luckily, I was able to catch myself, clicked back into the pedals and rode off with a surge of adrenaline. That was not a good start!

The bike consists of four out and back segments on the Strand and is simple on paper. However, applying consistent force to the pedals while riding in the same position and holding a constant tempo eventually wears the body down. The past few years I rode with a power meter and sat on a specific wattage reading – a range between 320 and 330 watts. That was an OK strategy but this year I decided to train with power but race off of feel.

Out on the Strand, there were four riders up ahead in the opening miles. I caught up to Emily and another guy within the first two miles but two other riders were a few minutes up the road. I recognized Karl Bordine, a former pro cyclist and current pro triathlete, as one of the riders with another rider trying to hang on (at a legal distance) to his wheel. Good luck! Karl is known as Killer Karl for good reason and I was hoping he was merely the bike leg in a relay. Sure enough, two laps later he yelled to me he was a relay rider. His bike split of 2hrs 1 min was the second fastest in race history, only behind Bjorn Andersson’s 1hr 58 mins set two years ago.

I moved into the lead at the 35-mile mark and decided to put in a surge to extend my bike lead. I saw Joszef Major, a 10-time Ironman winner and top 20 Kona finisher, a few minutes back and knew I would need some padding heading on to the run if I was going to hold him off.

I never felt great on the bike on Sunday but managed to bear down and get through the miles. Mentally, I divided the course up in to different sections: with/against the wind, to/from the Strand Bridge, to/from the tented canopy that marked the bike entrance for the Strand, and to/from the turnaround points. Setting small goals throughout the bike leg made it doable.

On the bumpy roads back to transition, I saw my mother-in-law, June, and my daughter Kaia and yelled “hello” to them. In that moment, there was a sharp turn in the road and I almost wiped out right in front of them! I found out after the race, Emily made the same mistake and nearly crashed in that spot too!

I transitioned onto the run quickly and we hit the soft sand and beach right away to kick off the half marathon run leg. Running off the bike is always tough, but hitting sand right away is a quad crusher. Two out and back sections in the first three miles on the beach were the only points to see where your competition was, and I saw Joszef and Max running a few minutes back at the three mile mark. I got a split a few miles later that Joszef was 1:50 behind at mile 5.



My plan was to maintain a steady tempo and then hit the beach hard in attempt to demoralize him that he wasn’t gaining any time on me. Instead, at the first turnaround on the second lap at mile 7 it was obvious he had cut my lead in half to under a minute. It took him another 3.5 miles to make the catch and as we entered the section of the course running through the Elephant Cage at mile 10.5 he made his pass. I attempted to respond to his pace but I was already at max effort. As he pulled away, I jokingly told him he should “let an American win today” as Joszef is from Hungary. After the race we laughed about that comment.

Over the final few miles, I kept him in sight and he hovered a few hundred meters ahead but I had to concentrate on holding myself together till the finish. With less than 400 meters to the line, I passed by Kaia again who was sleeping in her stroller and I was able to give her a kiss. She was a trooper hanging with Grandma out in the sun all morning!



The final straight away to the finish took us through a chute lined with the photos of fallen SEALs and NSW heroes who had died fighting for America’s freedom! I mustered a final sprint to the line to honor them and to leave nothing left on the course. Upon hitting the line, I was absolutely spent. I had given what my body had on the day. I was beaten by a better triathlete. I have another whole year now to consider how to go about moving up one place to get that elusive paddle.

Here is a breakdown of my splits:
1.2-mile swim - 26:49
T1 - 1:31
56-mile bike - 2:07:38
T2 - 1:12
13.1-mile run - 1:23:09
Finish time - 4:00:19
Winning time - 3:58:48

As is a common occurrence in our household, Emily took top honors and won her third Superfrog. I am extremely proud of her as it was only her second triathlon since she gave birth to Kaia ten months ago and she had not biked for over 30 minutes but two times in the last six months. She gets up every morning to swim with the 5:30 AM Master’s swim group at the YMCA and otherwise has to get creative to fit in training while taking care of Kaia. She is a tough woman and is a pro in coping with pain!

I haven’t thought too far ahead about what I will race next but I am excited to do some unstructured cyclocross riding and race in a fall cross country running series in San Diego.

One final shout out of thanks to race directors Moki Martin and Mitch Hall! These retired SEALs are top class individuals. If you would like to support the Naval Special Warfare Foundation which funds the families of fallen SEALs, please go to their website: www.superfrogtriathlon.com and donate today. They have indeed paid the ultimate sacrifice so we can have our freedom!

stealth ninja training

Quick update as I've been dark, in full secret training mode, these past few months.

While I neglected to give up ice cream or my morning lattes these past few months, I have implemented a reverse swim taper, a steady diet of bike commuting to work, completing lunch runs with regularity and recovering like a full fledged pro (thanks NormaTec MVP).

Throw in a week of forced rest last week while attending the Eurobike trade show and I am ready to throw my hat in the ring at the Superfrog Triathlon this upcoming weekend. This is the longest running half iron man in the world and is operated by Naval Special Warfare.

Check back Sunday evening as win or lose I will give some insight into why this is the greatest race on the planet.

LF

San Marcos Crit

Sunday’s San Marcos crit was one of the last opportunities on the So Cal racing schedule for the hard men of the area to showcase their strengths. The Swami’s Dev Team had a great showing, and with the exception of Matt Shackley and Chris Burnham who raced in Bend at Cascade Classic, we nearly had the entire squad on the start line (rumor was Anton was crushing triathletes’ souls at Solana Beach Tri).

The 1.7-mile course lay out rode more like a mini circuit than a crit and featured a punchy climb on each lap. Over the course of 75 minutes, this would surely wreak havoc and make it an attrition race.

In the opening laps, Alex Jarman chased down and jumped into early moves that formed up the road. It made for a few blistering laps out of the gate and the race announcer even commented how riders were getting dropped after the first lap.

The new-Swami-on-the-block, Jon Hornbeck, was carrying great form that he unfortunately never got to use at Cascade after a high speed (45 mph) downhill crash broke his bike and sent him home after stage one. He put that fitness to good use yesterday though as the two of us launched multiple two-pronged attacks to further tire the group out.

On one lap halfway through the race, Jon went so fiercely up the hill that he gapped everyone and he decided to wait up top on the false flats for us to catch up. As the group rejoined, Orion Berryman – supposedly riding on only one good lung – launched out of the group at the start/finish and two guys went with him. No one else reacted. With 30 minutes to go, we did not know the strength of Orion’s breakaway companions but we knew Big O would drive the group.

With Big O’s break up the road, the group was content with letting me and Pascal set a half-hearted tempo. Eventually riders started jumping but we covered each and every move. With three laps to go, Big O’s break looked like it would succeed as long as they had something left in their tank for the final trips up the hill. From the group, a Jamis-Sutter pro rider (one of the Borrajo brothers?) jumped and took two riders with him. Trevor wanted in on that action so he and Pascal took chase while Jon and I sat up on the front of the main group. They had their gap and were closing fast on the chase group just ahead.

The final time up the hill, the race for the podium was in the bag and Big O earned his well fought third place as the break succeeded. Pascal towed Trevor to the base of the climb and Trevor was able to bridge up to the group and passed one of the chase group riders to take sixth. Pascal and Jon finished with the group and I soft pedaled in a minute later. After putting in his work early, Alex made sure the Swami’s tent had cold Sambazon and Michelob Ultra ready for us. Trevor circled back to the tent a few minutes late as he had to collect himself while passed out in a bush on the side of the road from his late race efforts! Way to leave it out there on the course!

It was obvious this course style suited our team’s strengths and we controlled the race from the gun. While we are still chasing that elusive win, we took steps in the right direction on Sunday and showed we were the strongest and most cohesive team in the race.

Dominguez Hills Crit - 70 minutes of circles

Yesterday afternoon was the Dominguez Hills Kool 'N Fit crit with the 1/2 race going off at 2:15. Swami's was represented with five riders - one of the best represented teams in the 54-man field.

Former Toyota United Pro rider Stefano Barberi took a flyer from the gun and quickly built a 30-second lead in the opening laps. He stayed clear for the first 10-15 minutes and together with Cashcall, we brought the group back to Stefano. Miles did a great job working hard to close down this gap. New Swami, Jon Hornbeck, jumped with a counter attack with Cashcall's David Santos and Monster Media's Rudy Napolitino and they stayed off the front until the 50-minute mark. A few break attempts were made over the next ten minutes and it wasn't until the 60th minute (been watching soccer world cup highlights!) that a group of four got away. In the final lap, Alex and I fell off the pace, Jon sat in the middle of the group and Trevor was in the back of the field. However, Trevor worked his way up through the field down the back stretch, passed more and more riders up the hill through the final corner and sprinted the final 100 meters past another ten or so riders to finish 9th overall.

Looking back at today's race, the Swami's Development Team continues to show gains with every race. Trevor is riding on excellent form these last few weeks so if we can work to get him in better position for the final sprint, we'll tackle that elusive win.

CA State Road Race Championships

This past Sunday, June 5th, was the final road race of the So Cal cycling schedule so it was important for our Swami's team to have a good presence.

The 93-mile race in the oil fields outside Bakersfield was challenging as the course included long stretches of exposed road to the wind and sun, sections littered with potholes that resembled Belgian cobbles, a gradual four-mile climb and a twisting descent.

We had five teammates in the race which gave us firepower and allowed us each to take up a roll within the race. The night before we gathered for a team dinner and discussed our war plan.

Our youngest rider, Matt Shackley, covered each and every early breakaway move in an effort to keep our team represented in case one of the moves stuck. Pascal Bonaventure, who had raced, and won, the 40-plus race the previous day, was glued near the front of the pack and always provided me with a safe wheel to follow through the field. Trevor Haag came into the race a bit under trained and had some difficulty, and Chris Burnam came into his own during the third lap and towed me back into the lead group after I slipped out of the group the final time up the climb. Last, but not to be forgotten, were Miles and Daniel who selflessly handed us feeds after each lap. Without those two, five Swami's would have entered the scorching oil fields and not made it out alive.

Going into the race, I knew my fitness was getting better with each passing week, so I thought if the climb was not ultra selective I would have a chance to fight it out in the final miles. At the same time, I did not like my chances in a bunch sprint.

The first lap was ho-hum as one lone rider went off the front and built a one-and-a-half minute lead. This did not cause too much panic in the group though as that breakaway rider was a weak climber and was merely trying to make it over the climb to avoid getting dropped. Some minor attacks went but they always were neutralized.

The second time up the climb at the 50-mile mark into the race, the pace was elevated and cracks formed in the group. I managed to stay at the front and tried to keep the pressure on all the way over the top of the climb. However, once off the descent, the pace slowed again the dropped riders from the climb were eventually able to rejoin.

A rider I have a great deal of respect for, Eric Marcotte, did not have any teammate support in this race and kept urging others to keep the pace high. When riders wouldn't respond, he would ride off the front in an effort to instigate some breakaway companions. Each time he went, I rode off with him and we took pull after pull but every gap was eventually closed.

At the 70-mile mark, the third time we hit the section of road littered with potholes, the race official who had been following us, waved the entire peloton to a halt and we sat unable to pedal for five minutes while he chewed riders out for crossing over the yellow line at various points during the race. This forced pit stop allowed dropped riders to rejoin the group and we were a massive group of fifty-plus riders going into the final 20-miles of the race.

A few riders raced away as the official was finishing up his lecture - which was bush league - and it seemed to distract the peloton for a few minutes before we organized a hard tempo again. With two miles to the base of the climb, I jumped off the front and was again joined by Marcotte, a few CashCall riders and Pascal and I thought we had the right mix of riders to crack the race open. However, the group caught us at the base of the climb and attacks started from there.

The third time up the climb was brutal and I lost contact with the leaders after the first mile. I dangled off the back and held the wheel of another rider until I felt him start to slip. I jumped around him and grabbed the wheel of another guy. We started to pull back to the end of the group in the final mile but the elastic snapped before we caught on. A slight flat section allowed us to get our rhythm back and it was then Burnam rode up and set an even paced tempo. He saved our group and he didn't ask anyone else for help. He rode steady and got us to the top of the climb. Once we hit the last flat section before the downhill, I found my legs again and slotted in to help with pulls.

It took us four miles of steady chasing, but we locked on to the group at the base of the climb. I went right back to the front of the group as psychologically I find it easier to ride and react to attacks from that position. Every few miles attacks were launched, mostly from CashCall riders, who did a great job of instigating all afternoon. Once all the hills on the course were behind us, we had five miles in the crosswinds back to the start/finish area. Knowing I would be out of contention in a sprint, I attempted a move off the front and was joined by a few riders - including Burnam - and we swapped pulls for a mile. We were reeled back in and off went a counter attack. The pace stayed hot for the last two miles and within the last mile, I slid off the back of the group and found myself riding with Burnam and a RideClean rider. We hovered a few meters off the back of the group but were too far off to contend for the final sprint.

In the final kilometer - a false flat rise - a handful of riders tangled wheels as the sprint was winding up. We watched as the boys raced for the podium pecking order and when we crossed the line a few seconds later we heard Cashcall's David Santos took the win with two riders from the NOW-MS team finishing second and third. Pascal, and his 42 years of life experiences, grabbed ninth and beat dozens of racers half his age. He finished as the top Swami. I rolled across in 20th and Burnam was on my shoulder and was 22nd. Shackley, who was a beast throughout the day, finished a few minutes back but made the top 30. Jason Holden, who races for Wolf Pack, but was Friend of Swami (FOS) for the weekend finished 35th in his second Cat 1/2 race.

Despite not grabbing a podium spot, this was an improvement for the team as our guys showed maturity and raced aggressively and stayed near the front of the race. We helped one another out on the course and rode with guts.

Until next time, ride on.

Redlands Bicycle Classic

Invitation

For the past three months I have raced on the Swami’s Development Team, which comprises a mixture of Cat 1 and 2 riders. While the bulk of team members are in their early or mid 20’s, we also have a few riders in their late 20’s and early 30’s. At the beginning of the season, a colleague of mine pushed my name in front of the team director and he brought me on board. After two good early season performances in Cat 2 stage races at Valley of the Sun and Callville Classic Bay, I earned enough upgrade points to get my Cat 1 license. Once I received that, my name was put on the team roster for the application for the first NRC race of the year at Redlands. Because only four Swami riders have their Cat 1, our director began looking to pick up at-large riders to join our squad for the racing weekend. He started with former US Postal Service rider Anton Villatoro, TrainingPeaks founder Dirk Friel and 1984 Olympic road race gold medalist Alexi Grewal. This mixture of young, inexperienced development riders and older, established veteran riders was enough to gain an invitation to the Redlands start line.

Stage 1 - 3.5-mile time-trial
Despite the short distance of the opening individual time trial, the course featured technical turns, a short and punchy climb, and a one-mile steep climb to the finish line. Each of the 25 teams had upwards of eight riders on the team and the time trial starting times for each individual were selected the previous day by the team directors. I was chosen as the final rider from our team and ended up being the fifth to last rider of the day.

Due to the handcycle and women races that started going off at 9am, I was unable to pre-ride the course and relied heavily on course video provided as well as feedback from my teammates who rode earlier in the afternoon. This was my first NRC race and the first time my time trial bike has needed to comply with UCI measurement standards. Luckily, I checked my bike with the officials a few hours before my start time and they told me the length of my aerobars needed to be reduced significantly and my saddle needed to be pushed back. A neutral mechanic was cool enough to shorten my bars and provide me with a raceable bike.

I have learned over many mistakes throughout the years that a good, long warm up is what I need before my time trial start. After running through 30-45 minutes of warm up at various intensities, I made final preparations putting on an aero helmet, skinsuit, even shoe covers, and topped off with a few rips of water before riding over to the start gate.

Once the officials in the start house gave me the final countdown and released my bike, I rolled down the ramp out of the start house and onto the 3.2-mile course. I felt strong and settled into a rhythm and concentrated only on pushing down hard on the pedals. The first mile was over flat roads that featured a short and punchy 200-meter hill. It was a big ring effort that left my heart racing! Over the next mile, which was a false uphill, I started overheating. The temperatures had risen throughout the afternoon and while I stayed well hydrated throughout the morning and early afternoon, the heat seemed to be taking it’s toll in combination with the very hard effort I was exerting. I maintained a high pace through the second mile and was catching the rider who had started 30 seconds in front of me. However, as the course crossed a bridge leading into the final mile climb to the finish, I was passed by the rider who had started 30 seconds behind me. All three of us hit the climb at the same time and I did my best to focus on my ride but it is impossible to not be bothered upon being passed in a time trial. The final uphill was painful in combination because no all out time-trial effort ever feels good but the heat caught up with me and I was imploding. Once across the line, I coasted to the side of the road and found a tree with some shade and sat laid down for a few minutes to regroup and collect my wits for the descent back to the team tent. Despite not getting a result I had hoped and trained for, I managed to cover the course as the fastest Swami racer and I beat a lot of guys who I race week after week against throughout So Cal, Arizona and some guys from back in Colorado. The lesson I took away that day was to respect the race course, even when faced with a short three-mile effort. It knocked me on my ass big time.

Stage 2 - 120-mile road race

Racers were fresh and chomping at the bit ready for action and a hot tempo began immediately out of the starting gates. Having excellent shape and fitness is great to have but I found out it is far more important to position properly within the group, find safe wheels to follow, and constantly be looking to move forward. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards in a race with so many motivated riders. Half of the circuit was flat and facing crosswinds and half featured some perky climbs. The pace itself was not a problem for me, and I was able to work into good position over the climbs in order to stay near the front and avoid having to accelerate, however I made an unwise choice and wore a set of shoes I had never trained or raced in before. Another hot day in Redlands combined with the physical exertion caused my feet to swell. I had experienced this feeling at Ironman Hawaii and Ironman Lanzarote before - both held in extremely hot conditions - but had never had to deal with hot spots during a bike race before. I managed to suppress the hot spots building on the underpart of my feet but in the flat lead up to the day’s final climb I punctured and was forced to wait for neutral support to get me a wheel change. Team director Pat and teammate Colby helped pace me as best they could through the flats but eventually a race official came by and told them to drive ahead with all the other team cars. I was by myself time-trialing over the remainder of the course. Thankfully there were only ten miles left and I caught riders who were dropped on the climb so I ended up in a groupetto with a dozen others. The final damage ended up being around six minutes lost to the stage winner on the day. Unfortunately, we lost three riders during the stage to untimely flats very early on. That would hurt us as the race weekend continued on.

Stage 3 - 90 minute downtown criterium

Fast and furious was the order of the day. I tend to be cautious in the lead up to crits and the tight cornering, accelerations and jostling for position within the peloton make these races unsettling. I feel as though I age twenty years from being so nervous in the lead up to these races. Once the gun goes off though, all you can do is focus on positioning and reacting to the race. With so many fast riders on a relatively flat but twisting course, it was near impossible to move up in the crowd. I found myself hovering in the middle of the group, and telling myself I had to make it to the ten laps to go mark 60 minutes in to the 90 minute race in order to get an official time and make the cut to the final day on the Sunset Loop. Well, I made it until two laps to go but flatted on the back stretch and being so close to the end, was not allowed a free lap for a neutral wheel change. Instead, they gave me the same time as the last rider on the stage. That ended up being okay with me as I was not going to contend for the final sprint and there was a crash in one of the last turns.

Stage 4 - 94-mile Sunset Loop circuit race

The GC battle for the overall race lead was one second between Francisco Mancebo, a former 5th place finisher at the Tour de France, and Ben Jacque-Manes, a seasoned racer for the domestic powerhouse Team Bissell. Both teams, Mancebo’s Real Cyclist and Jacque-Manes’ Bissell, were motivated for their team leaders and setting very hard tempo at the front of the race. After three opening circuits around the downtown crit circuit, the race shot out of town and followed a three-mile uphill road that lead to a tough, seven-mile predominately uphill circuit named Sunset Loop. The pace was hot and riders covered the whole road up the first climb and the real fireworks started towards the first KOM of the day. Race organizers were offering three bonus seconds for the first rider to the top of the KOM and with such a close race on GC, many thought this would be where the race was decided. Unfortunately, this also meant I was dropped from the lead group on the first of twelve Sunset circuits! After watching 20-30 riders go away, I lead the second main group up the climb and probably did too much work on the front. My stubborn mentality thought the lead group would let up once they reached the flat roads at the top of the circuit. It was not to be and I was dropped the second time up the climb. Oddly enough, I ended up in a small group with three other riders I race with regionally, each who I consider to be very good riders. So, I was not too disappointed with my efforts and focused on keeping a steady tempo going through the rest of the laps. Our group ended up making it through nine complete circuits and were pulled off course at the start of the tenth as the lead group was within a few minutes of catching us!

In order to be recognized in the official results four circuits must be completed so the silver-lining was I managed to officially finish my first attempt at Redlands Bicycle Classic.

The experience was 100% positive as it allowed me to see how talented and savvy pure bike racers are. I was also very lucky to be on the same team as a few veterans who have accomplished so much throughout their careers and learned alot from each of them. The coolest part though was having my brother Hans along as our team massage therapist and to have him see what top tier domestic bike racing is like. He was out there in the team car every day handing out bottles to us and offering pre and post race massages, giving us great access to professional recovery as well as allow us to feel like pro racers.

The time and effort to adequately prepare for a stage race like this was quite difficult and I was forced to start early season racing in early February. With Kaia only a few months old, it was quite a burden for Emily to sacrifice a few of her weekends and travel with me to races that are difficult, and usually boring, to watch. As it turns out, bike races are often held in very uninteresting places. Luckily, she understood how much effort I put into the training aspect and was willing to make the effort in traveling when I needed her to along with letting me be away a few weekends.

Tucson Bicycle Classic

Tucson Bicycle Classic - Three Stages (Prologue, RR, Circuit Race)

We had two Swami's race in the Cat 1/Pro Men field at Tucson Bicycle Classic this past weekend, me and Colby Elliot.

800 miles of driving round trip meant I would need to make the three days in the desert well spent...

Prologue - 3.2-mile TT
The course was well-suited for a power rider as it started with a slight downhill, followed by several rollers, and ended with a short punchy climb into the finish. Breathing the desert air made the effort a miserable experience but luckily Colby returned from his ride in time to give me some advice on the course and it allowed me to stay confident in riding into each of the winding corners tucked in the aerobars and focusing on driving forward rather than worrying about gear changes. You can never know how well everyone else rode but I felt good about my ride. I ended up taking 5th on the stage, four seconds behind winner Phil Zajcek and two seconds out of second.

Road Race - 80-miles
This would be my second Cat 1 road race so I had no clue what to expect. I knew I wanted to stay aggressive and see how I could stack up against a field that included riders from Kelly Benefits, Jelly Belly, Fly V, Kenda, RealCyclist.com, RideClean and Pista Palace. I wanted to stay in position to cover any breakaway attempts made by Eric Marcotte (lofty goal, I know), Zajcek and Paul Thomas (the only other rider I personally knew in the race). Despite being hilly course, with a few steep kickers, and an uphill slog to the start/finish area, the group stayed together because of headwinds and crosswinds in each direction we rode! A few break attempts were made throughout the ride so I figured rider's legs must be feeling fatigue going into the final uphill section. The pace slowed as we neared the finish and I thought it would be the perfect chance to pounce and make a break for the line before the sprint could wind up. I dangled for a few hundred meters but was swallowed up within the final kilometer and upon being caught the group launched into the final sprint. I was gassed, BONKED, and broken. I limped across the line so far back that I was not listed in the results that evening. Upon further review, the officials gave me a time of one minute behind the main group, which I thought was 30 seconds too many, but I don't know what good it would have done to argue. I took a chance for glory and instead was relegated as the group goat!

Circuit Race - 50-miles
The GC was still only separated by seconds which instigated a flurry of attacks from the gun. I stayed out of trouble near the front of the group and after covering a few of the early break attempts, missed the break that stayed away. It featured Cole House (winner of the road race), Paul Thomas (VOS winner at ripe at of 43), Antony Akers from Pista Palace and a rider from the Mexican team. They went away on lap 2 of 9 and built a lead of two minutes. The main group rode steady over the gentle risers and downhill portions of the course but turned on the jets each time we went up the sustained climbs. I felt better being near the front during these efforts so I tried to stay behind Zajcek as often as possible. On laps 7 and 8, Marcotte launched attacks up these hills and it split the group up but everyone was able to recover on the subsequent downhill section. On the final lap, the pace was hot as we were still 45 seconds down to the leader. We caught three of the riders the final time up the sustained climb through the feed zone on the back half of the course but Cole House held off a fast charging field sprint to take his second straight stage win. Marcotte won the field sprint and pulled to within one second of Zajcek in the final GC standings. I finished in the middle of the sprint and unfortunately Colby fell into bad luck and snapped his chain earlier in the race and had to pull out.

This was my final race tune up before Redlands the weekend after next and it was a good confidence builder to ride aggressively with some of the area's top riders and teams. I don't see the point in trying to hold onto 5th position in GC when the object is to win or podium in a race, so in this specific instance, I would have done the same thing over again. Then again, $200 could have paid for the gas on the drive back home!

Safe training and riding out there.

ucla road race -- brrrrrrr

still waiting for the results from the UCLA road race to be posted but i'll give a quick recap anyways.

here in southern california we can't complain about our weather. while all my friends on the east coast, midwest and rocky mountains are bundled up and either skiing or rolling around with the knobbiest tires they can find, i have been logging consistent outdoor training miles since december. until last week, we have been enjoying summer-like weather!

this past saturday, a few Swami teammates and i opted to ignore the weather forecasts (would you ever go outside if you listened to everything the weather man suggested?) and drive to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, east of LA, to race the UCLA road race. the 75-mile race consisted of six 12.5-mile laps with 1,500-feet of climbing each lap. a bruiser, to say the least.

it was a small field so the head ref combined the pro/1/2 field with the collegiate "a" racers for a total field size of 30-40 riders.

my role within the team was to set an uncomfortable pace from the gun up the first four-mile climb. i drove the pace for as long as i could, but i was the first casualty of this effort. i popped off the back of the group before we hit the descent which might have allowed me enough time to recover.

after the first lap, i started to see the damage the initial pace had produced as single and twosomes of riders were popping off slowly but surely. i learned later that our team's top climber, Orion Berryman, rode a great race and finished in the lead chase pack just behind the select group that produced the podium.

on the third lap, the temperatures dropped and snow flurries came over the peaks and started blasting us. the descent on the fourth lap and the climb on the fifth laps were the coldest of the race as all my fingers were numb and the snow was sticking to my sunglasses impairing vision on the descent. at the top of the fifth lap, the sun peaked out and stayed out long enough so i could thaw out my fingers. i told myself when i made it to the end of the fifth lap i would ride off course back to my car and get a warmer, and dryer, set of gloves before finishing the final lap. however, when i got to the start/finish line at the end of the fifth lap, Orion and Pascal were there waiting (they had to wait for the guy with the car keys!) and said the ref had shortened the race from six laps down to five.

even with the shortened lap, i saw at least a dozen racers drop out before completing the fourth lap, so my guess would be that 20 or so riders finished the race.

after popping on the first lap, i regained my composure and strength and caught quite a few riders who popped out of the peloton throughout the race. the effort was just what i needed going into this upcoming weeks race at calville bay classic, a four day stage race in the hills outside of las vegas.

till next time,
lars

Valley of the Sun - Cat 2 GC win!

Going into Valley of the Sun weekend, I did not know what to expect. I was coming off a strong 60-miles of riding in a small break with Pista Palace's James Gunn at last Saturday's Boulevard 90-mile Road Race, but then marvelously cracked and limped in to the finish (just ask all my Swami teammates who passed by me to the line: Chris, Orion, Matt and Pascal). Realistically, I thought if I could crack the top 10 or 15 places on GC then I could get some points towards an upgrade. I was equally ready to commit to my two teammates, Matt and Chris, depending on who went the best in the 14-mile TT.

Stage One: 14-mile TT, Buckeye, AZ
Oddly enough, the event I felt most prepared for on paper at VOS, the opening time trial, ended up being a ho-hum performance in comparison to the Cat 2 field. I left San Diego very early on Friday morning and arrived to the start two hours before my start time. I had plenty of time to prepare equipment and get in a good warm up. I had my Power Tap race wheel with a Wheelbuilder.com disc cover so I could glance at my wattage from time to time and focus on maintaining a high and even pace throughout. The course was an out-and-back, with the out portion into a headwind and ever so slightly uphill and some jarring bumps in the shoulder. I rode an even paced race to place 11th on the stage at one minute behind the winning time of 30:43. I felt as though I rode well and was surprised I was not in the top ten. This told me I had not done my homework and should have ridden on the smooth white shoulder line, or maybe should have driven over the night before or finally (but worst to admit to yourself) was possibly outclassed by better riders.




Stage Two: 87-mile Road Race, Casa Grande, AZ
My two Swami's teammates, Matt and Chris, and I went into the road race with a loose plan of attack. We all felt good and we agreed we would be aggressive and opportunistic. No more than three miles after the start, one of my teammates launched off the front of the group and drew a few other out. Conditions were windy (crosswinds) so they didn't stay out for long.

On the second lap as we headed into the crosswinds, two riders jumped from the group and got a few hundred meters up the road. The pace in the group was sluggish, so I pushed a hard but steady tempo and no one followed. I was committed so I stayed in the saddle and bridged the gap to the two leaders. I told them to keep the pace steady but that the group was not following us. At the base of the climb, we were joined by three other riders and we were now in business. One rider in particular, Michael Jasinski from NorCal, was so strong on the climb that each lap we dropped riders from our break. I made an alliance with him that I would get the group to give him the KOM on the second and fourth times of the climb if he would pull us up (no brainer, right!). This guy was a workhorse but he had difficulty keeping a steady pace and his accelerations on the fourth of six laps whittled the break down to three. While he took top KOM time bonuses, I took second and got two seconds for each, four seconds in total.

On the penultimate time up the climb, a race vehicle told us we had two-and-a-half minutes on a chase group of six riders behind and that the peloton was nowhere in sight. Despite our own hard tempo pace up the climb, somehow we lost two minutes to the chase group behind. We were caught near the feed zone so with 10 miles left to race, we were a group of nine riders. The pace over the next seven miles was very hard and I had to sit out every other rotation. At the start of the final climb, I rode up to the NorCal rider and told him this was his race to lose and that he was the strongest climber in the group and he should "go and not look back". He listened and jumped and it instantly splintered the group. One rider followed him and they put 50 meters on me very quickly. I rode tempo and carried three others with me. With 200 meters to the line, those three jumped and I took fourth to the line. We put good time on those who had fallen off the pace early in the climb.



I ended up sixth on the stage and jumped into the race lead, four seconds ahead of the road race stage winner. My early gamble of riding in the break paid off.

Stage Three: 45 minute Crit, Downtown Phoenix
I told myself before the race I needed to stay aggressive and stay near the front of the race. In the opening ten laps I did neither very well. I was in poor position near the back of the group and was riding passively. The announcer started auctioning off primes and I started using the laps after a prime lap to move up in the group. Finally, halfway through the race I established a position in the front quarter of the group and the ride became easier from that point on. I finished safely in the group and ahead of the two GC contenders sitting in second and third place and hung on to a four second victory margin!



I am realistic and know that in the road race I might have managed to sneak one by the field. The guys told me that morning that racers usually note the top 10 GC riders and in 11th place I might go unnoticed. The group may not have given me a leash in the road race had my number been written on enough top tubes, but that was their fault and not mine. Maybe next time they will pay attention to the rider sitting 11th!



It was so cool having Emily and Kaia at the race cheering for Dad. It made sweating it out in the desert worth every second.

remembering Keith Carter

Mr. Carter was a part of my family's Arabian experience from the very beginning.

As a kid I wanted to be the Lone Ranger and dressed the part of a cowboy everywhere I went. During a tantrum in Houston, at an Aramco orientation for new teachers. I took off one of my cowboy boots and flung it over the balcony as I was upset with my parents. As fate would have it, the boot landed in the middle of a table occupied by Keith. My parents, who had heard about Keith through mutual family friends, Tom and Ann Monson, introduced themselves to Keith and then had to ask for the boot back. Keith always joked that he would stay teaching until I passed through his sixth grade class.

Almost a decade later, I experienced the legendary teaching methods Keith shared with so many other students. The European and African notebooks were the most difficult, time-consuming, yet most rewarding projects. What brilliance and vision he had to have sixth graders research every country on those continents, draw a map of their profile, draw a map of their flag and find an article inside a newspaper featuring that country. I ended up majoring in history in college and I am convinced that year in sixth grade with Keith inspired that.

My other favorite project in Keith's class was investing in stocks. Yeah, I did this later in high school, but by that time I had already experienced Keith's methodical preparations in which we always had to show the work we had completed and provide a reason WHY we selected what we had. I still remember Shane Lambert was the big winner in the class as Chrysler was a big mover in 1992! I was conservative with my fake money and had selected a few mutual funds along with my favorite fast food restaurant McDonald's.

I was a paperboy for the Arab News and Saudi Gazette in 7th, 8th and 9th grades and Keith was on my route. I knew he loved getting his daily news, and as one of my teachers, I wanted to make sure his paper never got caught in the sprinkler system. His was the only paper I did not throw in a baseball-style toss, instead I placed his neatly folded copy on his doorstep. He rewarded me with a handsome tip each month. I think he always knew the style I delivered all the other papers and tipped me so that his paper did not receive the same delivery experience!

Keith was a family friend and we continued to have reunions when he retired back to Iowa. We visited his Arab Heritage Museum in Newell a few times, the most recently three years ago when I was able to introduce Keith to my wife. His health had noticeably declined but he still spent a few hours with us telling stories of his world travels, his museum treasures from all over the Middle East and Africa and he even prepared coffee in an old Arabian coffee pot. That was the last time I saw him in person.

Keith, your patience, worldly vision, and strong conviction to always do the right thing and to ALWAYS show your legwork will live in those of us who were lucky enough to be your students.

Thank you teacher and friend!
Lars