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Posted by Brian Toone
Category 1/2 Omnium
Category 3 Omnium
Cateogry 4 Omnium
August 16-17, 2008
Meridian, MS and Cuba, AL

Quick summary:
1/2 Omnium –
Brian Toone, 5th crit, 2nd road race, 2nd overall
Darryl Seelhorst, 7th crit, 7th road race, 8th overall

3 Omnium –
Justin Gilmore, 4th crit, 5th road race, 6th overall
Wes Douglas, 13th crit, 11th road race, 12th overall
Lennie Moon, 10th crit, Raced road race, 14th overall

4 Omnium –
Sammy Flores, 1st crit, 10th road race, 1st overall

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Posted by Brian Toone
Category 1/2 Stage Race
August 2-3, 2008
Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Summary for the weekend: 15th place (Stage 1), 18th place (Stage 2), 17th place overall for the GC. The top 8 places on GC were people who had gotten any time bonuses at all for either stage and then the rest of us were tied for time so they broke the ties by adding your placings together from the two days.

Stage 1 was a fast, flat race with lots of crashes. I was in a couple of ill-fated moves, and it certainly looked like we were heading for a field sprint. I fought for good position Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Brian Toone
Category 1/2/3 time trial
July 27, 2008

Quick summary: 3rd place! behind two Masters World Time Trial Champions: Mike Olheiser (2006) and David Grice (2003). I was happy with just about every aspect of my ride except for having a little bit too much left towards the end. Mike’s time of 48’27” shattered the old course record set by GW by over 5 minutes. David started 1 minute behind me, and I expected him to catch me before the halfway point. I was having a good ride though, and by the top of the climb to Bull’s Gap I estimated that I was either pulling ahead slightly or still 1 minute in front of him. By the end, though, David had pulled back some time and ended up riding 54’13” which was 38 seconds faster than me, but which also means I have now completed two time trials in which I didn’t get passed by anyone! I believe Mike Lanham (Marx and Bensdorf) was fourth followed by Travis Sherman (Marx and Bensdorf) in fifth. Check out my full race report on my personal page! Also, the full results are available on the COGS website.

Great report Jacob! (See previous post). I’m adding a shortened version of the blog that is posted on my personal page. Enjoy!

State championship road race – Pro/1/2, Hartselle, Alabama
First, Heath Goebel put on a great race with two excellent course venues. The road race was four laps of an 18 mile loop that had a nice 2 mile climb divided up into two main sections with the bottom section being longer and shallower and the top shorter and steeper after the feedzone which was pretty flat.
Read the rest of this entry »

Road Race

From Philip:

The 3’s RR was pretty good. We dropped some riders in the first two miles.  We had some breaks go on the first lap but nothing stuck.  Lackey drilled the top of the climb on the second lap [thanks for dropping me Lackey! -Jacob] and had a gap across the top but was eventually brought back.  So he was a one man army until Kevin rolled off the front.  Yet he still covered for him.  the third lap was reserved until the closing miles.  A Mellow Mushroom guy had a go for it and held it to the line after the break and Lackey took second in the field sprint.

From Jacob:

Philip already covered the RR, but I’ll just add that he and Mike rode incredibly strong on the first 2 laps.  Philip set a punishing pace up the climb on the first lap and I knew it wouldn’t be a good day for me immediately.  I tried to get near the front some just to spell Mike and Philip, who kept themselves on the attack covering pretty much everything.  I made one little minor attack just to keep the field stretched out and under pressure.  We rolled into the 2nd lap and hit the climb, Philip hit the gas, and I was immediately anaerobic.  I made it to the feed zone near the front, but was no longer under control.  By the time we hit the steep top pitch, I was in trouble. Mike punched it at the top and it was all over.  I could barely turn the pedals and had to traverse the climb to get over it.  I watched the field ride away.

Mike uncorked a great sprint to get 6th overall.

Crit

Again, Mike and Philip were all over the front most of the race.  I was really unsure of my form after Saturday’s implosion, so I hung back and tried to save something for the finish.  Philip got into a break that I really thought was gone, but the field just wasn’t having it.  He made several great efforts.  Mike kept hammering away at the front, closing gaps, lifting the pace.  Mike, I seriously don’t know how you do it man.  Your fitness is ridiculous.  A solo break rolled off with a few left and dangled for several laps.  The field scooped it up with 1 to go and it was game on.  Brent made a great move to come from the back to the front, and set up a perfect leadout that I was unable to capitalize on.  I just didn’t have enough left in the tank to accelerate through the gap at the right time.  Hurley brought Brock across to Brent’s wheel, and Brock launched from there for the win.  I finished 6th.

Win and Out

Finally, a race for the fast-twitch guy!  I’m a track cyclist without a track, and this race was made for me.  The format was cool — you start racing and wait for the official to ring a bell, which you know will happen sometime in the first 10 laps.  Once the bell is rung, it’s game on — the winner of the next lap is the winner of the race, the winner of the lap after that is 2nd, and so on.  It’s a gambler’s race, because if you go for the first sprint you’re catching everybody’s best shot, and if you don’t get it you’re toast.  Fortunately, I once again had Mike Lackey to keep everything under wraps, so I just hung back and cruised the pack for the first few laps.  Brock threw an early punch to draw out the attacks and Mike immediately countered and shut it down. Perfect.

Finally, on lap 7 we get the bell.  I had been glued to Brock’s wheel the entire race and knew he’d be the man to mark.  Sure enough, he waited for the short backstretch after turn 2 and threw down an enormous attack up the right side.  I jumped on for the ride.  We took the 90-degree left-hander on the outside and blew past the entire field.  We then swung all the way across the road to the left gutter to set up for the right, then down the hill for the sweeping downhill right.  We went through that turn so fast that I think both of us almost went straight off the course — Brock was absolutely flying.  I never looked back because I could hear nothing but air behind me.  Jim swung into the apex of the turn for the sprint and I hit him with everything I had up the hill.  Fortunately it was enough and I was able to hold it to the line.  Mike was then able to seal it off by recovering and winning the sprint for 3rd — a great result considering how hard he’d been working.

I have to give credit  and respect where it’s due to Brock.  He did 3 races yesterday and won the cat 3 crit after riding in a break in the Masters race, and still had enough to launch an attack that nobody but the guy glued to his wheel could follow.  He’s still the craftiest and fastest old guy in the sport!  If you want to learn how to race a crit, you could do a lot worse than following him around all day.

Sprott, AL
July 13, 2008
Cat 1,2,3
Posted by Brian Toone

Quick update to let everyone know that Tria Market now has two of the Alabama state time trial champions. I believe that our state director is awarding them based on 5 year age increments, but even if he uses 10 year increments or category based medals, then Wes Douglas and I (Brian Toone) have both won the gold medal in our respective categories/divisions. Wes scorched the course with a time of 57’50” easily winning the Cat 3 championship and having the 2nd fastest overall time for the day. I was next with a time 59’05”, but since I was the only Cat 1 in the race that was still good enough to earn me the Cat 1 gold medal. Lennie Moon was just 3 seconds behind me for fourth. Darryl Seelhorst was riding really well (on pace for sub 57?) until bad luck hit him with a flat rear tire only 4 miles from the end. Kevin White got 2nd place in the Masters division rolling one of the top times of the day as well. Philip Thompson (Eddy Merckx style with no aero equipment) and Faris Malki both had good rides, too.

Road Race

The course was flat to rolling — a hill on the first part of the lap, then several miles of rolling stuff, then a hill about 1.5 k from the finish, followed by a kicker at 1k from the finish, followed by a headwind.  We started in windy, cool, cloudy weather.  The first lap was pretty quick.  Brent pulled at the front leading out but picked a tough time to try and recover because the field lit it up and we spent the first lap in the high 20s.  The second lap saw a few early attacks and then absolutely nothing.  We did a good job of talking in the group and realized we needed to save our bullets for the 3rd lap, when the action would start.
Sure enough, through the feedzone on the first part of lap 3, 18 miles to go, and a few guys attacked the first roller.  They quickly got a little gap and got together.  They drifted off in sight.  I had talked to Lennie and told him to cover anything that had Ben Gabardi in it.  Ben was not in this move, but Lennie saw the opportunity and hit out.  A Motorworks guy joined the cause, they got together and went off after the 2 up the road.  They seemed to dangle out there for several miles, but as we turned back into the wind, they finally got together with the other 2 and that was the break of the day.  For some reason Smith & Nephew and Cumberland Transit did not chase, even though I think they were unrepresented.

With Lennie well away, we started patrolling the front, but the race was very slow and there was little to do.  I hoped someone would go away and try to bridge and maybe drag Philip or Mike along, because I’m confident either of them could’ve bridged.  They both looked great after riding strong in an earlier 8-man move that looked like it was going to stick.  But, it was not to be and so we rolled toward the final climb.  We had talked on lap 2, and agreed that Philip would hit out at the top of the climb, leaving Mike to counter around 1k to go, ramping up the pace for the finish and maybe springing free.  Philip nailed it perfectly, demolishing the field and stringing out the pace.  Then as he got caught, Mike moved up for his turn.  Unfortunately, as we went inside 1k to go, the young long-haired Motorworks kid ran Dave McNeal off the road triggering a big pileup that took Mike down, along with  many other guys (including Smith & Nephew’s Aaron Parker, who was pretty beat up, unfortunately.  Hope he recovers soon.).  I fortunately was ahead of it, and as we got about 600 meters out, Mark Simpson from VeloCity felt antsy and took off, trying to get over the last little rise before the field.  I was on his wheel and knew he was a strong finisher, so I went along with him.  We opened a huge gap but were way, way too far out.  I pulled through once, then sat on and waited.  Sure enough, Ben G and 2 other riders came storming out of the field.  I jumped Ben’s wheel, but then HE sat up at about 400 meters.  I was too far out for the sprint but had no choice — what was left of the field was coming fast.  I gave it all I had but got caught by 2 guys to finish 7th overall. Lennie finished strong with the break to get 3rd on the day, and a lot of Omnium points.

Overall, excellent racing by the team.  Now, if I can just do a not-embarrassing TT and a decent crit, maybe we’ll have a couple guys in the omnium money….

TT

Philip wins! Jacob 4th! Lennie 8th!  Hard, steady effort from everybody.  Now we’re set for the omnium… just need to deliver in the crit.

Criterium

The crit course is almost dead flat with 3 righthand turns.  The only real factor today was the very strong crosswind that swept across the front and back straight — being exposed in the wind hurt badly, and you wouldn’t stay out there for long or you’d watch the field ride away from you.  Our gameplan was simple: Lennie and I were both highly placed in the Omnium, and we knew if we could finish strong, we had a good chance of winning the Omnium and putting at least 2 guys in the money.

Thanks to Philip and Mike, that plan worked to perfection.  Before the race, Philip and I studied the results of the RR and the TT, and tracked all the race numbers of anyone who had a shot at beating Len and I in the Omnium.  We talked a good bit before the start and agreed that Philip and Mike would help cover breaks, and Lennie and I would sit in, only marking the most dangerous guys (Patrick Harkins from Nashville Cyclist, who won the RR, and a guy from Motorworks who was 2nd and had a good TT, as well as a guy from OKC who had been in the break in the RR).  The race started and quickly picked up speed, and several inconsequential early moves went after primes, but nothing of substance or real danger happened for a while.  25 minutes in or so, the danger guys started showing at the front.  Mike and Philip covered EVERYTHING like a blanket; I know it was stressful for them, but I’ve never been more relaxed in a race, knowing my teammates were on top of everything.  Lennie and I hung mid-pack and would talk about who was nearby, who was a threat, and what needed covering, and we only put our noses in the wind when one of the top 2 or 3 guys made a move.

The other teams had not done their homework, or didn’t have the numbers to do much, because we could see Cumberland Transit and OKC chasing everything that Motorworks sent up the road — including guys that were nowhere on the Omnium leaderboard.  Fortunately, we had done ours, and had the firepower to chase everything that mattered, and we kept a death grip on the race.  The other teams neutralized Motorworks, and the good guys shut down everything that mattered.

As we got to about 40 minutes in, the wind kicked up pretty bad, and everytime we hit the front straight, it was blowing the peloton all over the place as guys scrambled for shelter.  It was getting dicey midpack and finally it happened — a young punk who shall remain nameless, who rode like he was braindead all weekend, allowed himself to get blown over right in front of me.  I watched, in slow motion, as he went straight into Philip’s front wheel.  Philip’s wheel locked and he went down hard.  Lackey went down too, although I didn’t know it at the time (and am glad I didn’t — I might’ve panicked).  The field hit the gas and we went singlefile away from the wreck, but as we came back around I saw Philp in the pits, getting ready to go.  He and Lackey jumped right back in, and were almost immediately back at the front.  Seeing those guys nearby as we went to laps was huge — I knew we had it under control, and now all we had to do was play out the endgame.

So that’s what we did: Just like you draw it up, Philip came to the front with 1 to go and threw down one of his now-patented MONSTER pulls into the windy backstretch.  Everybody who had any aspirations knew what was coming, and all the contenders jumped on for the ride.  Anybody left out of that group of 10 or 12 was instantly out the back and hanging on for what must have been a very, very painful ride to the line.  I was absolutely on my limit just trying to hold the wheel in front of me as Philip blasted towards the finish.

Philip continued to crush it at what had to have been over 30mph all the way to the drop down to the final corner, and finally pulled off as the sprint started.  Lennie was in front of me in the front cluster and got a good run through the turn to sprint in for 3rd.  I got a little chopped in the turn but found a wheel and managed to get 4th.  The best part, though, was that Brent was right there with us!  He hadn’t been having a great weekend, so he wisely saved his legs until just the right moment, and then used his old school skills to get to the front when it counted.  He ripped off a great sprint for  7th.  I don’t know how Lackey and Philip finished, but those guys deserve ALL the credit for absolutely killing themselves for the entire race for their teammates.  They were superhuman today.  It was a sight to behold and showed everybody in Memphis how deep, powerful, and selfless our team is.

So we capped off a great, fun weekend with maybe the best display of teamwork I’ve ever seen from Tria.  It was a great ending to a great weekend that ended with Lennie 2nd and me 4th in the Omnium.  Thanks to everybody for coming, and for racing your tails off (and thanks to Katherine, Christine, and Kim for cheering the ENTIRE weekend).

Berry Peddler Road Race – Dayton, TN 7/5/2008

Dayton, TN
July 5, 2008
Pro/1/2/3
Posted by Wes Douglas

This was supposed to be a cat 3 only field but the Pro, 1,2, field was combined with the Cat 3s at the last minute, however the 3s were to be scored on their own. This was a good race for me to do alone because the big climb was 5 miles in to the first loop and lasted for about 5 miles.  Very steep, Lots of Switchbacks, no recovery.  Think Nickajack (up in Mentone) only way longer and harder.  Teams were a non-factor here because there was nothing they could do to improve or impede any rider’s position.   If you didn’t climb well you were out.   Ty Stanfield and Matt Winstead were on the front going into the climb so I decided I was going to stay with them no matter what.  A mile or two into the climb guys were blowing up all over the place but I just stayed about 20m back from Ty and Matt. My focus was to stay in the saddle as much as possible and control my heart rate and breathing.  Basically, we shelled the whole field.  I made it to the top a few meters behind Matt and Ty with a guy from DLP (Spencer) a few meters back.  The field was about a minute back by the time we hit the ridge and I think there was a 3 or 4 man break between us and the field about 30 seconds back.  The four of us started working to improve the break and by the time we made it to the end of the first lap we had over 4 minutes on the field.  So here I was a cat 3 in the break with what I thought was two cat 1s and either another cat 1 or a 2.  Just before we started the 5 mile climb for the second time Spencer rolled up and said that Ty and Matt were going to attack hard on the climb and that, however it played out, he would wait for me at the top if I would wait for him should I make it there first.  I nodded that would be fine but I still considered trying to stay with Matt W.  At the first pitch Matt and Ty started to push it and I started to go with it but I was worried that the effort might make be blow up completely and I really didn’t have anything to gain by going with them.  I was in first place already and I didn’t want to make it this far only to blow up, get stuck out there alone in no mans land with the field closing in on me.  So I backed it all off and did the climb with DLP.  When the two of us got to the top Ty and Matt had a minute gap on us and I don’t think either of us had the motivation or the energy to try to catch up.  It really didn’t matter much for me.  I just needed to stay away from the field.  On the second to last rise before the finish DLP attacked me after I came off a pull.  I should have been watching out for this but I was really expecting this move a little later.  I was pretty drained so I didn’t really respond and I ended up finishing a few seconds behind him.  After I crossed the lined I rolled up to Spencer and asked if he was a cat one or two (because I was hoping I had beat all the twos) and he said, �Actually, I’m a pro. Are you a 3?�  So I won the cat three race, beat all the cat 2s, and finished 4^th behind Ty(1^st), Matt(2^nd), and  Spencer.  This was by far the hardest road race I have done.

-Wes Douglas

Gainesboro, TN
June 21, 2008
Pro/1/2
Posted by Brian Toone

Quick summary: 4th road race, 19th time trial

The details: it was a relatively small field (about 35 riders), but it was packed with heat. Two Team Type I pros were here (Emile Abraham and Daniel Holt), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), and four riders from a pro team called DLP (UCI Continental) along with Michael Olheiser and three riders from Texas Roadhouse. The pace started out slow in the road race because it was raining and wet. I put in the first attack and strung out the field. There was one counter attack that was chased down and then there was another strong attack at the base of the first major climb. Only Olheiser, me, and the US national team rider (?) could maintain the pace up the climb. We went up and over and flew down the other side which was kinda scary on the wet roads. We traded pace across the valley, but when we hit the next climb at 25mph Olheiser didn’t even slow down. Seriously, he probably went up that next climb at 20+mph all the way to the top. The national team rider and I both popped pretty quickly from that and the field came up to us.

Then there was a section of the race where several riders and teams were working together to try to bring Olheiser back so there weren’t any attacks or breaks. Once it became clear that we weren’t going to bring Olheiser back, the attacks and breaks started again. There were several “roll off” breaks where a few riders would simply roll off the front of the group at a slightly faster speed and simultaneously you get a couple of riders at the front who slow down or don’t want to pull through and all of a sudden there is a 5 man break up the road! This happened right before the long climb on the course. A group of about 8 riders simply rolled off the front. I got caught out near the back of the main field and managed to work myself to the front by the top of the climb. Several of us that didn’t have team members in the break worked together over the next 10 miles to bring the front group back. We did, and then almost immediately another “roll off” break went up the road. Darrell O’Quinn bridged up to it with a Krystal rider. There was pretty good team representation in the break and nobody in the pack looked like they were motivated to chase it down, so I attacked hard up the righthand side of the road and managed to get a clean gap with only a DLP rider in tow. I made it halfway across the gap and then convinced the DLP rider to work with me since they would then have a second rider in the break. We finished the bridge together and made it up to the lead group (minus Olheiser who was already several minutes up the road).

So after a few minutes our break of 7 started to gel and people started to work together although I wasn’t super happy with the composition of the group (we were missing two of the pros and one entire strong team – Texas Roadhouse). Eventually we got into a really good rhythm with everybody pulling through. I felt pretty comfortable that we were going to stay away to the end (about 20 miles to go). We made it to the last major climb (excluding the finishing climb) and only three of us were able to maintain a high pace up the climb. I found myself off the front with a strong DLP rider (Thad Dulin who raced for Jittery Joe’s last year), and a Team Type I pro (Daniel Holt) coming across the top. We worked well together and put about 30-45 seconds into the remainder of the break. We were rolling into a headwind at a pace that fluxuated between 25 and 28mph. Finally, we turned and you could see the last climb just ahead of us. We congratulated each other and joked that maybe we should just roll up the last climb and then do a standing start sprint with 200 meters to go. We laughed and then started up the climb. Right about that moment, we looked back and saw that the pack was RIGHT THERE maybe only 15 seconds behind us and we still had a 1km climb left to go! I panicked at that point thinking that I might cramp and get left behind if I waited for one of the other riders to attack – so I went to the front and pulled as hard as I could up the climb without cramping desperately hoping that I would be able to pull hard enough to keep us away and maybe drop one of the other two riders with me. That wasn’t going to happen so when we made it to the 200 meter mark I led out the sprint hoping that maybe I would catch at least one rider struggling – but I could hear both of them shift into harder gears behind me and then launch around me to take 2nd and 3rd while I rolled across in 4th. The pack came in a few seconds (maybe 10) later.

Here is my HR data (my power meter was installed but not working for the road race):

1. I was in a break on the first climb with Olheiser and the US National rider
2. Olheiser rode away from us on the second climb
3. I got caught at the back of the group at the bottom of this climb and worked my way to the front by the top
4. Here I was helping to chase down the split of 10 riders up the road
5. This is my bridge to the break up the road.
6. Here is where our break got split up, and I went up the road with Thad Dulin (DLP) and Daniel Holt (Team Type I)
7. The finishing climb

Darryl Seelhorst, Wes Douglas, Darrell O’Quinn, Jim Brock, and I had a nice relaxing lunch and talk on the front porch of a country store in what has got to be the most beautiful part of Tennessee. Then we went back to the state park where our cars were parked from the road race and worked on our bikes. I worked on getting my new Polar power meter working right (technical details in next post, but it turns out it was a problem with spacing for the cadence magnet) and I tried to put TT bars on my bike, but the two sets of bars that I had were 15 and 20 years old respectively and designed to work with the old thinner handlebars. So I did the TT Eddy Merckx style and was very pleased even though I got next to last. I wanted to test out my power meter and get a baseline for the type of power that I could hold for a 9.1 mile time trial. I decided to go with 20 pedal strokes hard, 5 strokes easy for the race but quickly discovered that I needed 10 strokes and sometimes 20 easy in order to keep from blowing up. Also, I went out too hard. Here is my power and HR data from the TT:

2008 Avery Trace TT Heart rate and Power data

Union City, GA
June 1, 2008
Cat 3
Posted by Wes Douglas

Union City Cat 2/3 Road Race

We started the race in good position with Darryl, Philip, & me right on the line. We had been planning on a 91-mile race but all the races were shorted and the 2/3 race was changed to 62mi. The course was pretty nice lots of large rollers, although nothing I would call actually climbing. The pace was pretty civilized until the 20-mile mark. After that there were lots of attacks going off and Darryl and I were catching a wheel on almost every one. Darryl and Phillip did an awesome job of pushing the pace and starting to soften things up before I made it into the first break. The first break was established about 25 miles in where there was a series of steep stair-stepping rollers. We had five riders and most of the big teams were represented but about 10 minutes into the break I noticed that everyone was a cat 3 and Myogenesis was not represented. I don’t know if that was the reason the break failed but after 15 or 20 minutes we were caught. After that I just tucked in and started recovering. From this point it seemed like nothing was going to get away and almost like all the teams were trying to keep it all together but with about 15 miles out a small break went up the road with 3 or 4 riders. A few guys attacked to make the attempted to bridge. Darryl said, “Go with that one” so I gave it everything I had left. It was a do or die effort and I knew if I didn’t make this one I was going to be done. Somehow we made the bridge and established the break with 8 or 9 riders. I don’t remember much after that. I was seeing stars and the next 15 or so miles were a blur. Our average was 30+ mph. I think I was the only one in the break that had been in the first so I was getting pretty tired. By the time we made the last turn and headed down the home stretch there was only one other cat 3 and five cat 2s. I got around one of the 2s in the sprint but that was all I had. So I placed 6th overall and 2nd for the cat 3s. Darryl took 4th in the 3s. I really appreciate Darryl and Philip making the drive over for this race. Good Fun but hard.