Jon, Race Report: Land Park Criterium

Land Park Criterium
AVG: Around 20mph
Time: 40min
Group: Juniors Open
Course: Flat with some wind. A chicane and other turns.
Junior roll out took me a long time (chain kept falling off) so I lost my spot on the front. Luckily they had a neutral lap and then a restart, so I got to be on the front for the real start. After the first few laps flew by I got dropped. Soon Bobby Terra caught me and we worked together. We shared the workload pretty evenly, and we were only lapped once @3 to go. Once when me and Bobby lapped a girl she hung onto us. There was less then 5 laps to go and she was annoying me (we couldn't drop her.) So I thought of a plan and told it to Bobby. Coming into the chicane I went fast and we got a gap on the girl. Then Bobby came by me and we got our gap even bigger. On the last lap I found myself pulling on the last stretch. I slowly pumped the speed up and when Bobby jumped I think we were going 24mph+. Then coming into the last few yards I dug deep, like ten feet, and I came up next to Bobby and tossed my bike (he tossed his too.) I thought we tied but I guess I beat him (the results had me down as 13th and him as 14th.) Good job to all my teammates!
Thanks for reading,
Jon

Robbie, Snelling Race Report

Robbie Snelling Race Report
2/27/2010 – 13-14yr olds
6th place – photo finish
26 miles roughly
This was the hardest and most fun race I have ever been in. I got to meet a lot of new kids. The way we did the ride out to the start and waiting gave us a chance to talk to other riders more than other times.
It was kind of over cast bad weather but it had stopped raining. There was a lot rain before so the roads were really wet and some areas with a lot of water on the road. The course had roller hills like out by John’s house in Clements but not as many.
There were about 21 riders. We were all doing fine and all held together the first time around. Robert, Ryan and me were keeping with the pretty fast pace. A little in to the second lap I was talking with some other riders and I saw Dylan and another guy shoot past and they were off. I was totally caught off guard and now I know what an ATTACK is like. I had never had one happen before like that last year in the 11-12 year olds. I tried to catch up but they were gone. I caught up with another guy, Matt of Specialized, that got dropped from the attack group and then we took turns leading till the end. Matt had a lead going into the finish hill. I pushed and got even with him at the finish line and thought I was going to beat him. Then he pushed his wheel forward and beat me for 5th place by inches. The officials had me down as winning 5th place but I didn’t and notified them so they could make it right. So I got 6th place.
I learned three things for sure. 1. I have to pay attention to attacks and watch Dylan. 2. I have to learn how to stand on these hill finishes so I can go faster. It is the gearing switches that throws me when I go from sitting to standing on a sprint up hill. 3. I will always push my wheel forward in the future if it is really tight. That cost me a point.
Again it was a lot of fun and I need to train more because I had no energy left.
It was really fun hanging with Robert and Ryan. They rode well. The only way it could have been better is if John C. would have been there with us. Hope he is better.
Robbie

Ryan, Snelling Road Race Report

Snelling Road Race
Place: 12 of 21
Avg: ????? (no speedometer - will have to look into that)
I had a great warm-up and felt really strong going into the race. This race was the first of this year for me so it was pretty interesting. The weather couldn't have been any better considering all the rain during the week. The race started out with what felt like a very slow neutral compared to two years ago. When the race finally started, everyone was just happy to be done with the neutral portion. For the first lap Stanley and Dylan kept having these short "breakaways" to try to catch the group off guard. None of them stuck but they sure did tire me out a bit. As we crossed the finish line going into our last lap someone started to sprint and try to break away. I thought I was dropped for sure but at the top of the hill we had to slow down and become neutral. During the restart, Dylan started heading towards the back of the pack and I thought it was a little weird since he was leading the race up to this point. All of the sudden Dylan and a SJBC rider were flying up the side. The pack got split up into a couple groups with me and Robert off the back. We started working with each other and were going pretty good but I was struggling to keep up. I told him to keep going so I wouldn't slow him down. I was by myself for the rest of the race. I now kind of know what Jon means when he talks about the pain cave!!! I ended up placing twelfth which is 8 better than 2 years ago. All in all I think it was a great race for me!!!!
Congrats to all the DJs Produce riders who raced that grueling course Sunday.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan