AZ State TT Championship
AZ TT Championship report by former Aggressor Vic Riquelme and new AZ state TT champ.
Is that a fricking milk crate podium? Ghetto!
The Arizona City TT Course was the stage for this years Arizona State Individual Time Trial Championship. The course was a 40 kilometer out and back, with a healthy dose of false flat and crosswinds. I had local Cat.2 TT strongman Dave Swanson(Taser/Kenda), who I considered the man to beat, starting only 60 seconds ahead of me. I knew that if I could take time from him on the outbound cross-headwind leg and get him in sight, that I would have a chance to match his speed, which was a big threat. I did the first 20k very fast, and was pushing a HUGE gear (54×12) up the false flat, with a headwind. I saw Swanson coming the other way after the turnaround, and I knew from the split time that I had taken at least 20 seconds out of him. I was able to see him for the rest of the race, and I focused on his silhouette on the horizon. I managed to keep him in sight all the way to the finish, and I knew I had won. I was 1st in the Pro/1 race with a time of 52:49, and was the 1st placed Arizona man over all in the 40k discipline. Dave Swanson(Taser/Kenda) won the Cat.2 race and was around 40 seconds behind me. David Glick(RideClean) and Nicholaus Schreiber(Landis/Trek) filled out the Cat.1 podium.
I won, bitches!
Rick E. took third and rounded out the podium in his category. Congrats!
http://www.teamfrisky.com/AZTT/Results/2010_ITT_Results.pdf
Hillside RR 8-22-10
Report by Rick E.
This was a tough race. The 50/60 guys rode as a combined field, as usual; perhaps 10-11 total. The initial (mostly) downhill rip was civilized; old guys are a bit more patient. Then there were rollers and the uphill attacks began in earnest. Shortly before the turn from highway 96 to 97 the peloton fractured on a longish uphill and I ended up with 2 big Landis/Trek guys that I could pull away from on the uphills but they re-acquired me on the following downhills. After a while I gave up and stayed on their wheel. Approaching the turnaround, I saw Bob Pongratz first with one of my competitors (Jim Morehouse from Las Vegas) shortly behind him. Just before the turnaround I saw Ralph Duckett going the other way and at the turn, figured he was about 2 minutes ahead of me. I saw the 4th place guy in my group about 3 minutes later coming toward the turn after I and the Landis riders had already rounded it. At that point I knew the race was set, barring catastrophe. I stayed with the Landis guys until the real uphills began about 7-8 miles from the finish, and then rode away from them to finish 3rd. I was a little disappointed, having kind of hoped to finish 2nd, but the unknown rider from Vegas (Morehouse) was strong, finishing 2nd in the combined group right behind Pongratz.
Report by Elijet (edited by Kurt)
Jim, pistols for 12th in definite style; that sh*t was hard. Your face looked puffy and red, I know from the 4’s that Jim worked hard with Echelon and Landis a lot. Leo and Jeremy: great job. I enjoyed watching my competitors get annoyed and spend some energy catching Jeremy on the massive initial descent as he flew away many times.
As usual, I was worried about the shorter hard power climbs, especially when the other strong riders were drilling the tempo on the penultimate climb. As I got dropped off the back at that point, the group of 22 went down to 10 quickly with me fading back in 11th. I knew I had to stay calm and tempo myself and so, I finished in 7th. The end was exciting though… this dude and another Bike Haus guy were all trying to claw our way back; we work together for not very long, before I dropped the Bike Haus guy, then slowly dropped the other rider, caught Matt P. from Eschelon and Troy Burns.
The point being, had I known those rollers were the final rollers, I would have definitely TT and stayed away from the yellow guy with my lead. But, he was right there with me at the 1k mark and I was determined to win the sprint… With 1K to go, I was drafting, then he was drafting and then he slowed down and I wasn’t into that. I swerved and slammed on the brakes and forced him ahead, got on his wheel and we were side by side for the last 200m. He drifted into my draft and popped back out in the last 30 meters and was gaining fast, looking to win, BUT then ELJET did with the most extreme, ridiculous bike throw ever, and the only one that I’ve ever used – it was so sweet & won by inches to clench 7th (sounds like a clencher indeed- had to leave that one:).
View from the front – The Gladiator – Vic
Different course….same result! booyah!
I attacked the main field halfway up the final climb and bridged across to a small break that had a 45 second gap. I left them behind a mile from the summit and rode solo to the finish. Watch out bitches; I’m a climber now!
http://www.azcycling.com/10cal/RESULTS/hsrr.pdf
Flagstaff Omnium
Rick took the overall for his Category at the Omnium! Congrats! Next round of beers at the Barrio is on him.
Report by Eljet
It was intense and great this weekend; Cat1-3 together for all 3 stages – the Snowbowl Hill climb was 6 miles up like Lemmon (got about 21st of 28 cat 3’s), the 1.8 mile loop circuit race (15 laps) that same Sat. evening was flat and fast as hell with multiple attacks from the cat 1’s against each other (which I amazingly was able to hang with till the end). One of those was a counter attack from Justin for Vic that stayed away. Two Bike Haus riders joined Justin, then another no-name and the four kept it away and J-bird won for Tri-sports! In this circuit race the pace was quick and it was windy and multiple cat 3’s couldn’t cut it (I finished at the back of the peleton lead group, but didn’t know how many 3’s were there.) The RR was a fast initial descent, a couple power hills before the turn around that nearly left me solo for the last 37 miles, but I stayed with the group till the incline started to increase about 15 miles from the finish. The real climbing started 12 miles from the end, which was when my body decided it was totally wasted and I crawled to the end in a very jello-like fashion, but still finished and got the desired 15 points given for just finishing all 3 stages.
It was great to see Jim and Leo and Rick out there, Leo in the 3’s had a tough time, and some fitting issues for stage one hill climb, but did great stage 2 out sprinting me and hung in tough for the RR. It was also pretty exciting to watch Jim the beast in the circuit race in 4’s going crazy off the front in lap 9 of 10 pulling those mothers back.
Report by Rick E.
We enjoyed a great race weekend in the cool piney woods of the Flagstaff region. All in all pretty good weather; 30s-40s in the mornings, 60s by midday.
There were 3 races in an Omnium format: (1) the Snowbowl Hill Climb, (2) Foxboro Circuit Race, and (3) Wupatki Road Race
There were four guys in my age class including Herb Johnson, who came over from San Diego to spoil my sweep of the event by abusing me in the hillclimb; Oh well! In the circuit race Saturday afternoon I got dropped from the combined Masters peloton at the end of lap1 when GST went off the front and the peloton tried for awhile to hang with them and eventually failed. However, the pace was fast enough that I couldn’t hang but fortunately my competitors fell off sooner and I was able to hide for awhile behind a couple of the other riders that got dropped about when I did. Eventually I got lapped by 2 pairs of GST riders who would be the first 4 riders over the finish line. The Wupatki road race on Sunday was a GREAT RR; I loved it. I felt good and was able to hang with the combined Masters peloton all the way out and most of the way back up the hill to Sunset crater. The peloton did sort of fracture into pieces at that point but I was able to hang with my small group to the finish. I would rate this as one of my better efforts to date; I was literally miles ahead of my competitors at the finish.
My final tally for this event was 3 firsts and 1 second.
Signal Peak Challenge (Pinos Altos, NM)
Race Report by Beto Villegas
Strong field showed up for this one with some good representation from AZ. The SS division fielded several Pros from Texas and New Mexico. The race start was insane with 2000 ft of climbing the first 5 mile. I was positioned in the 4th spot until I was able to make a break toward the top of the first major climb. The summit trail consisted of 2 miles of power rollers and huge embedded rocks that were momentum killers, which suited me well. Once I connected with the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) it was mostly fast twisty downhill for the next 10 miles. I chased on the next climb but failed to reconnect with the leaders. David Wilson was traveling home from a two and half month racing tour in the rocky mountain state, so I knew he was in great form. To my surprise he finished 2nd and 5 minutes behind his hometown rival who set a new course record. I finished 3rd and a little over 3 minutes behind Wilson. My finish put some cash in my pocket and beat my best time by 3 minutes.
Thunder Road TT 5-30-10
Three Aggressors (Rick, Gus, Neil) represented at the Thunder Road TT quite credibly.
Gus won Cat 5 and Neil finished 3rd in the Cat 1-3 combo behind Vic and winner Paul Thomas. Rick won by default, but had a solid time nonetheless.
http://www.azcycling.com/10cal/RESULTS/TR-10_results.pdf
Sonoita-Patagonia Time Trial
Sonoita-Patagonia Time Trial by Fast Bryan once again:
Cascade Cycle Classic
Elijet traveled to the great north woods for the four stage, three day event. Kurt Garbe, a native from the area, was able to check the action and track the jet’s progress.
From day 1:
State RR Championship
Bad MF’s – just not today
Aggress had a strong team at the State RR. Elijet, Beto, Leo, Kurt and Mike in the Cat 3 race, Jim in Cat 4, as well as Doug in 60+ and Rick in 65+.
In the Cat 3 race, Kurt was the only one to make it over the first series of hills before getting shelled on the final hill. He would mop up 7 riders on the way to the finish outsprinting all but one to finish a disappointing 12th. The rest of the crew did a team ride and came in after a good training session.
Jim would do too much work on the way out and did not survive the hill storm at the end finishing 24th with the main group.
Rick had the strongest Aggress showing finishing 3rd and Doug came through solo in 9th.
Vuelta de Enology
Aggressors:
Doug Perry and I, on behalf of Aggress, endured two days of intense enologic cycling training this past Friday and Saturday. Spousal accompaniment was deemed prudent in the event we buried ourselves in our work with too much intensity. Our training intervals varied in intensity from 6-9 one oz tastes per cycling dismount. Remount and continuation become more problematic as the event progressed and was exacerbated by the absence of a Team support vehicle. Nevertheless, we dug deep and found within ourselves the will to carry on, in due course completing Stage 1. We refueled and carbed up at Viaggios, got a good nights rest (mostly), and arose ready and eager for Stage 2. At our low point during Stage 2 we needed some inspiration to carry on and thus availed ourselves of the opportunity to commune with Jimi (No, NOT Riccitello, Hendrix). We finished strongly and readily credit Aggress training for the iron discipline necessary to finish at all. Less prepared riders could literally have been dropped.
Rick E.
Masters with Podium babes
Gila Monster
With Elijet nurshing his spawn, Leo, Jeremy and Vic went to Gila. Photographers seem to have been banned from filming Aggressors, so…
Leo or DZ?
Leo: This was one for learning/mis-haps.
I crashed in the feed zone on day one. I chased on, but got dropped at the climb. 80th.
On day two (The Day of the Wind), I dropped my water bottle in the first mile (wind and loose jersey), and then my rear water bottle cage broke… and I thought it was my rear derailleur. This caused me to back out of the pack at the start of the climb. This was bad enough, but having chased on somewhat, I then got dropped on the descent. I then fought for 48 miles. 66th.
The TT gave new meaning to “hump day” as in getting humped up the you-know-what by a supposedly fast bike. Downhill at 48 with side head-winds with a tri-spoke front wheel is not a good plan. 84th out of 89, stayed 66.
The crit was totally fun despite the hangover. Great hard fast course. By the way, don’t take the warm-up lap; you end up starting at the back. I moved up to 65th!
I was ready for Sunday, but got there late and had to chase on. I then tore off my thumbnail somehow, and then got relegated for a white line/yellow line violation, right at the base of the big early climb. Got dropped, but chased on. I then rode through for about 30 miles, surviving some hard stuff. A break developed, and I jumped. 20 miles of beautiful hell ensued, and I finally cracked near the base of the climb, and got dropped at the first switch-back. I climbed steady/slow and rode to, you guessed it, 66th! I finished at 61st place, having moved up each day.
Jeremy would succumb to sickness and withdraw.
Vic made Velonews for real:
Vic
I did well on Wednesday to throw down a series of early attacks and get myself into the break, but still finished in 110th place and lost 10 minutes. On Thursday I attacked no less than 3 times in the first 5 minutes of the race, but got nowhere and was dropped immediately on the first climb. I rode the remaining 70 miles to the finish solo. I would get caught by a chase group every 20 minutes or so, but I was so blown that I couldn’t hang on to any of them for longer than a minute. I lost 38 minutes and finished in 156th place. On Friday I had the worst TT I’ve ever ridden, missing my start because I was caught in the UCI Bike Check waiting line, then having nothing but lactic acid in my legs for the entire first half of the TT, then hitting my knee on my handlebars sprinting up the hill to the turnaround. I lost 14 minutes there and finished in 162nd place. On Saturday was the crit, I got dropped with 2 laps to go, lost 4 minutes, and finished in 132nd place. Sunday was the final, leg breaking mountain stage: 105 miles with 3 major climbs. It was snowing. I got dropped in the first 10 minutes of the race, then spent an hour in the caravan trying to catch back up with the peloton. I did catch back on but got dropped again around an hour later, 2 miles from the top of the first major climb. I rode the remaining 40 miles through the mountains to the finish with a small chase group, who dropped me in the Pinos Altos with 10 miles to go. I lost 43 minutes, and finished in 93rd place.
I ended up in 96th place in the final GC, 1:46:13 off Levi’s time. 194 guys started the race, 101 finished.
On to Arkansas! -Vic
