Mount Hamilton Race Report

Recent Cat 2 upgrades Jeff Williams and Bo Hebenstreit recently tackled a monument of NorCal cycling: Mt. Hamilton RR. This is probably the only point to point race in the district and climbs up and over the highest peak in all of the Bay Area. Bo and Jeff finished in the top half, which is a major accomplishment. Good job guys. Below is Jeff's report

Official Results
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Mt. Hamilton RR, P1/2
5/25/2008
21st of 59
Teammates: Bo H. 28th

I wasn't too excited about doing this race. I haven't been doing too much climbing lately, and this was going to be my second road race in the P1/2 field. Plus it didn't help that my legs were still tired from the Beat the Clock time trial the day before.

There was no real team plan. The climb was going to dictate the tactics. Our goal was to try and stay with the main group over the top and go from there.

The race started off a lot slower than I expected. I thought we were going to be going hard from the beginning of the climb, but that wasn't the case. The first 30 minutes of climbing was totally doable, it was hard, but doable. The hardest part was moving up. The road is so narrow that you have to be really aggressive to move up. I wasn't too aggressive when trying to move up because I kind of feel like I'm the new kid on the block. Not being more aggressive was a big mistake, because once we hit the third part of the climb things started to pick up a bit.

This is when a Cal-Giant rider went to the front and slowly ramped up the pace. A lot of gaps started to happen on and I was constantly going around and trying to close the gaps. Plus it didn't help there were a lot more sharp steep turns the closer you got to the top. Being towards the back going into these turns meant you had to accelerate hard out of the turn just to catch back on. This along with the gap closing took a toll on my legs. Looking back on the switchbacks I could see our main group had dwindled to about 20 or so riders.

With less than three miles to the top I lost contact with the main group. I tried to catch back on, but my legs were spent and I knew there was still a lot of racing on the backside of the mountain. So I continued on at a steady-hard pace. I ended up towing three other dropped riders up to the top.

Just before the top I caught five more riders. One of the riders we picked up was a Cal Giant rider, and on the descent he was going especially slow. I'm pretty sure he was the rider who set the pace all the way up the climb. One of the other riders was Kevin Klein of Rock Racing.
After fast, and sketchy, descent we picked up some a few more riders just after Isabel Creek. Oh yeah, that little climb coming out of Isabel Creek KILLED my legs. I guess my legs went into sleep mode on the descent.

Our group, now about 15 guys, started working together in a paceline. Kevin Klein of Rock Racing was just sitting in on the back because his Teammate Adam Switters was up the road in the main group. We actually caught a glimpse of the lead group on a long straight away. They were probably over 45secs up the road. Seeing the main group got us a little more motivated, but then our paceline started to become disorganized with too many people sitting out pulls.
Going into the hill after the feed zone I told myself I had to keep contact with our chase group. So when two riders started to pick-up the pace a little I jumped on their wheels. One of the riders, Sierra-Pacific Racing, was pushing the pace with a Specialized jr. rider glued to his wheel. Meanwhile I was struggling to hang on. My legs were hurting. When I looked back to see how many people had come with us I was surprised to see the three of us had a sizeable gap. We continued at a hard pace to the top of the climb and quickly started trading pulls once we were at the top.

The Sierra-Pacific rider was super strong and would continually gap myself and the Specialized rider. I told him to not pull through so hard, but I guess he had extra energy to burn. We continued to work together. I was a struggling to maintain the pace. My legs were burning, but I kept pushing myself. We kept looking over our shoulders to see if the pack was gaining on us, but the road was too twisty to see. The Specialized rider started to fade causing our pace to slow. Luckily we were on the descent into the valley. I started to think we might stay away because we were only about 4 miles from the finish. Then I looked back and saw Kevin Klein and about 5 other riders bombing down towards us.

After they caught us there were a few attacks but nothing stayed off. I thought about attacking on one of the small inclines, but didn't think my legs had enough juice left to get me to the finish line by myself.

We hit the 1km sign and somehow I ended up at the front. I was pedaling easy waiting for some to take control or jump. I slowly started to pick up the pace 500m out, then a Lombardi rider jumped. This got everyone going. Just as I went to stand up my quads cramped up. They were super close to locking up. I managed to push through and pass a few people, but in no way did I sprint. I guess I should have taken in more fluids.

Looking back on the race I should have been more aggressive with moving up on the second part of the main climb. This could have aloud me to stay with the main group longer, or maybe even over the summit. I also should have taken in more fuel during our break attempt. Lastly, I should have attacked on one of the last inclines before you hit the bridge. Who knows I could have gotten, and stayed, away. I'm still learning a lot about racing. As long as I can learn from my mistakes I will become a better racer.

Thanks for reading.
Jeff Williams

Memorial Day Crit Report

James' report from Memorial Day is below

Memorial Day Criterium (Morgan Hill)
Men's Category 1/2
Teamates: Tore, Bo, Rand, Jeff, Neil, Chris, Graham, Jono, Aroussen, Peter C., Bob Parker
Placing: ~17th of 90ish

This was the first race I have done with this many teamates. In total their were 12 of us in the Green at the the pre race meeting. There were many other teams with large numbers as well including, Lombardi, BPG, Z team, and others. In addition Rock Racing had two riders show up and Daniel Holloway and Eric Wohlberg were there.

The course is flat with 3 corners and a long sweeping straightaway on the backside, wide road, moderate pavement (some cracks and some bot dots)

Our team plan was to 1) make sure no break went off without a green rider in it. 2) Ride aggressive and try to start our own breakaway if possible. 3) If it comes down to a sprint finish try to organize a leadout train for the sprinters.

The race started out fast and stayed fast the entire 75 minutes. There were some brief times during the race where people swarmed and it slowed but this never lasted long. The avg. speed for the day was 28mph. With the flat course and large field, the race didn't feel exceptionally hard in my opinion. For the entire race there were multiple attacks going off, with all of the riders from Webcor/Alto Velo contributing to the effort of establishing and/or chasing breaks as needed. There were some primmes that tempted me to sprint, but I decided to not go for any. In short, the Webcor/Alto Velo team rode the race perfectly all the way up to the point of 3-4 laps to go. Rand and I were sitting at the front waiting for the leadout train or some sort of support and nothing ever materialized. During the last lap on the backside of the course I thought I caught a lucky break and found myself 4th wheel behind 3 BPG riders, (Perfect positioning given the circumstances). My luck ran out when the BPG rider on the front started soft pedaling going into the last corner, by the time I figured out what was going on I checked over both shoulders really quick and we were already getting swarmed. I was forced to hold my line and watch the soon to be podium finishers ride right by me. I coasted into the final turn, got out of the saddle on the final straight and held onto something like 17th place.

In summary, I was happy that so many guys showed up to race. We executed our plan perfectly throughout the race and showed that we were a dominant team. With this many guys I would have liked to see more organization in the final laps. There is still a lot of racing left in the season and I hope that the team can learn from the experiences and continue to improve. Congrats to the recently upgraded Cat 2's on finishing a tough race.

--
James

Neil flew solo at Modesto Road Race and scored a nice top-5. Way to go. Below is his report.

Official Results
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Race: Modesto Road Race
Date: 5/18/2008
Temperature at finish: 100 degrees
Place: 4th out of 45ish
Category: P/1/2
Teammates: None

The day before the road race is the Downtown Modesto crit. With a start temperature of "only" 95 degrees. I was still pretty beat from being in the sun on Saturday. We were scheduled to do around 80 miles on a flat course that had plenty of turns and closed roads.

Daniel Holloway (VMG) showed, and BPG had a couple of guys. Chris Turner who has been having a pretty good year and is seemingly hitting some form (after helping lap the crit field the day before).

Rolling out in the high 70's at 8am. I wasn't sure anyone wanted to shoot off the front right away, but the attacks started soon enough.

My plan was to keep an eye on the heavy hitters and do my share of work in any break I might get in into. I ended up doing quite a bit of work throughout the day to bring back breaks and a few times I was in breaks.

I tried to get into three or four breaks, but they were not sticking. Most of the race seemed like a 3 hour crit, attack after attack -with all of them coming back.

On the 8th and last lap we skipped the feed zone and went heads down to catch the semi-break that was had been created four or five miles back.

After the break was caught McGuire went to the front and started controlling the pace of the peloton. We caught the 4's men with a mile to go and a few of them jumped into our race. The heat was starting to get to me and I was hoping I wasn't extremely sunburned.

I got caught up a little in the cluster and ended near the end of the peloton and had to make a few moves to get around to the front. The sprint was pretty intense and I dug in. I held on for fourth and Daniel got 1st.

An enjoyable day that was capped off by a very large burrito and a cerveza at a great little taqueria.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil

Panoche Valley RR Report

Below is Bo's report from Panoche Road Race. This a great race, it's always hard and conditions are usually brutal--conditions Wholberg usually excels in. This year was no exception.

Official Results
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Panoche Pass RR
P1/2
67 miles out and back.
3500 ft. of climbing
25 riders
May 18th, 2008

Bo Hebenstreit (9th), Tore

Well, guys. Let me tell you. It was b-r-u-t-a-l! Temperature estimates for day ranged from 95 degrees to 119 degrees depending on who's computer you looked at. Our 'lite' team consisted of Tore and Bo. The masterplan was to deliver Tore to the sprint where he would surely win! One thing we overlacked in planning, however, was Tore's complete lack of endurance. His typical weekly training being 3 hours of commute riding fortified with 14 bags of peanut M&M's.

Now to the exciting details: Five guys (including Nathaniel English (Z-Team), Eric W., and a BMC rider) got away in the first 1/3 of the race only to be seen very briefly at the turnaround. I screamed at them that it was a no-drop ride but they didn't hear with all the wind out there.

There were thirteen of us at the turnaround and by the last water zone climb there were five. Tore wilted in the heat leaving me to dominate at the finish. I was putting 850W for the last 2K but it just wasn't enough (just kidding). Due to the fact that I have absolutely no sprint I figured I would give a leadout for the other teams. This will be good practice for the next race when hopefully Tore will not get dropped and I can take him to the line.

Bo.

Berkeley Hills Race Report

Below is a combined report from Bo and Tore. Sounded like another cracker of a race at BH.
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Berkeley Hills RR
11 May 2008
P 1/2
90miles
7300' elevation gain
Start List 65 riders
Webcor AV: Bo Hebenstreit 21st, Jono Coulter, Jeff Williams, Tore
Nauta

Winner: Nate English
2. Jesse Moore
3. Taylor Kuphaldt
4. Mike Sayers

I had bad memories of rain and/or pain racing Berkeley Hills in
previous years so I only decided to sign up a few days ago. It is so
much fun to race with the team I just could not keep myself from
going.

We had a quick meeting before the race and Tore volunteered to go out
in an early break. Within the first few miles Tore and seven others
were off the front. This was fine with me and I don't think anyone
else was complaining, we still had 90 miles to go.

Due to Tore being in the break I was able to relax, drink, eat and
enjoy the view for a while.

We had a total of five laps to race. There are two main climbs with a
few small climbs in between. The feed zone is half way up the last
and largest climb and the finish line is at the top.

Jeff and Jono were doing a fine job patrolling the front of the pack
and I was bringing up the rear. The first time passing through the
feed zone I had no problem moving up through the pack to get myself
up with Juno and Jeff for the screaming descent to follow. The pace
was quite tame being that most of the main teams were represented in
the break.

Jeff flatted on the first lap but was able to get it changed.
It took Jeff 31 minutes at threshold power to catch back on.

On the second lap riders started rolling off the front. It happened
that 1 and 2 rides at a time were getting off the front and joining
together up the road a ways. It still was early in the race and I
knew the first break had already ready put some significant time
on the pack so I thought to myself no big deal. WRONG! I guess a total
of eight more ended up getting away and were able to join the first
eight man break for a total of 16 off the front.

We rolled around for three more laps loosing riders every time we went
over the climbs.

On the fifth and final lap we started catching riders that had lost
contact with break. Unfortunately Tore was one of them but by time we
caught him the pack was down to 13 riders.

With about 8 miles to go the pack finally put the hammer down. I was
sitting near the back when it split into two groups. I made a few
feeble attempts to bring it back together but that was not happening.

The last time over the climbs we started to pass a few riders that
had fallen off the original 16 man break and the last 6 man break. It
was still the six of us going up the final climb to the finish line.
Approaching the finish line it was strung out. A few riders were in
front of me, that I was not going to catch, and a few riders were in
back of me that I didn't need to worry about. WRONG AGAIN! I looked
over my shoulder with a hundred meters to go and it looked like I was
okay to roll in to the finish but then people starting yelling from
the side of road saying "GO! GO!" I thought they were just being nice
but I turned around and there was a Giant Berry guy barreling down on
me trying to take my big 21st spot. I really did not want that to
happen in front of friends so I went a little harder and held him off
by a few feet. See photo.



I had a great time and thanks to Amy for feeding everyone today.

Great job Tore, Jeff and Jono!

Thanks for reading Bo,

Now read Tore's view from the front break!

My BHRR experience in a nutshell:

First part of the break was with eight guys working very well together
in a rotating pace line. After about 1.5 lap we were caught by the
chase group of eight. The pace was pretty fast and the motor told us
we had about 7 minutes on the pack.

I'm still not fit enough, which became pretty apparent at the end of
the third lap: fourteen of the group were simply riding away from me
on the first climb. Crossing the feed zone Amy saw that I got dropped
and she relayed my situation to the others (we didn't have radio). I
let myself drift back to the pack; after being in no-mans-land for
another lap, I was swallowed by Bo's group. In the last half lap they
picked up the pace while I was too knackered to follow.

Tore

EBC Crit Report

EBC Criterium, Pleasanton, CA
Race: P/1/2, 75 minutes
Date: 10 May 2008
Webcor/Alto Velo Team: Jono Coulter, Chris Crawford, Neil Harrington, Aroussen Laflamme, Rob MacNeill, Graham Simpson
Result: 5th of ~75

This past Saturday a bunch of the men's elite team went out for the EBC crit in Pleasanton. The course is a clockwise loop of 2 sweeping roads, so 2 real corners and 2 sweepers. The stretch from the last corner to the line is less than 200 m so if a sprint is on, it's to the last corner. Pavement is good with wide lanes so no real reason to touch the brakes or shift much for the whole race. The wind picked up throughout the day and was the worst for the mid-afternoon P12 event, which made it pretty tough on the front or in breakaways.

We had a typical plan to cover moves and position for the sprint if it came down to it. Rob and Neil were go-to sprinters. Everyone on the team was active during the race either following moves or helping to chase. There were numerous breakaways from start to finish but nothing really stuck--it was hard out there in the wind. Also, there was a lot of order shuffling due to changes in pace. Keeping good position was a constant battle but it seemed like we were well represented in the front third of the pack for the entire race. It's important to keep good position to be there when the action happens. Otherwise, we're left to chase missed moves--never a good thing.

With things winding down, and the last of the big breakaway having come back it seemed a bunch sprint was inevitable. Though with 3 or so to Viktor Rapinski of BPG took a flyer and got a big gap quickly. It looked like he had a good chance of staying away though the pack was getting faster and faster with every lap. After having done a lot of work in the closing laps, Neil struggled to find the right wheels to get back to the front for a sprint. Meanwhile, Rob was surfing the pack and trying to stay up in position for the finale. Into the last lap, Rob is fighting hard to stay in the mix, he sprinted up the second to last straight and into the final corner in about 6th or 7th. Rapinski is caught in the last corner and the sprint is on. Rob gets guttered, yells, hesitates, muscles through, and sprints again. Briggs from Cal Giant crosses first, followed by Bosch of Sierra Pacific in second, while Loader from BPG is 3rd. Rob passed the guy that guttered him and almost got on top of 4th place but had to settle for 5th.

Good day in all for the boys in green--good aggressive team riding and a top-5 result. Thanks for reading.

Ted Beats Reigning World TT Champ!

While supporting Christine and the other Webcor women racing the World Cup in Switzerland, Ted ventured off to do a race of his own. Not only did he win from an epic breakaway, but he beat the reigning world time trial champion, Fabian Cancellera, as well as 248 other guys! Way to go Ted! Below is Ted's report from the event.

Full Results

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May 3, 2008
Tour de Berne "Super Race"
Field: 250
Notables: Fabian Cancellara and Steffan Wesemann

I flew into Bern, Switzerland late Friday evening (May 2nd) to watch and support the Webcor women at the Bern World Cupt. Knowing I'd have some nervous energy to expend, and wanting to stay out of everyone's way, I decided to participate in the Tour de Berne "Super Race." I knew nothing about this event except that it was the only ride/race I was allowed to participate in. For some reason, with an int'l license, they wouldn't allow me into the men's UCI event. (I later found out that this was a U23 UCI race). I think what I entered was more of a "public" race. Thus I was very surprised to see Fabian Cancellara and Steffan Wesemann get called up to the line. The course was similar to what the women would be racing the following day, but the climbs weren't quite as steep. Good thing too, as I only had an 11-23 and training wheels + pump/spare with me. On the line, Fabian was one bike away from me so I had a chance to marvel at his gargantuan quads. He's even bigger in person than in the magazines. I was determined to consider this a "ride" but judging from the number of Lightweight and carbon wheels adorning bikes, along with lots of racing jerseys on the startline, it began to look more and more like a bike race.

I have to say I was a bit nervous about this so called 'fun race' as the full race caravan, complete with Shimano support, lead motos, commissaire's cars/etc supporting us certainly made me feel special. As the fun went off, the pace was quick as everyone jockeyed for position on the narrow roads In fact, I was downright fearing for my life as people were jumping on sidewalks to move up, and obstacles in the median popped up constantly, causing riders to dive onto either side, and into the peloton. I stayed about ten riders back, and was incredulous that Cancellara was behind me. The main climb of this "race" started with a couple km of false flat, followed by a 1km pitch of 4-5%. Then the road kicked up to about 12% for a few hundred meters before rounding a bend and then descending for a couple hundred meters before the final 1/2 km of 10+%.

Having never seen the course, nor knowing what was up ahead, I went ahead and gave it some gas near what I thought was the top of the climb (there was a KoM banner), and bridged up to a guy who was about 50 meters up the road. I motioned for him to get onto my wheel and we quickly gained a gap on the peloton. Once I had some breathing room, I felt much more comfortable, and less fearful of crashing, and decided I should see how long I should last, and enjoy the lead motos, camera motorcycle, and commissaire's car following me for as long as I was able. The only issue was that I had attacked at km 5, and there were 95km left to ride.

Well it turned out that the descent varied from wide open to twisty, coupled with several nice sets of rollers. I did manage to spin out my 11t several times and get into an aero tuck. I think my breakmate and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the rest of lap one. I quickly realized that the person I was in the break with spoke very little English but was game to share pulls with me, albeit shorter ones. I noticed that he pushed a pretty big gear, and thought that this might come back to bite him later on in the race. (I was right). Well, by lap two of three, two things became clear:
1) the pack was nowhere in sight
2) my breakmate was rapidly tiring and sitting on more and more
3) I didn't have enough water and would have to conserve

Up the climb on the 2nd lap, my legs began to feel like deadwood. Despite that, I had to slow down slightly to keep my companion with me. He would give me about 10 seconds rest from time to time, enough to keep my legs from seizing up. All of this time he complained that he was getting tired, but I kept encouraging him to pull when he could. With the pack still nowhere to be seen and despite having a commissaire's car following, I had no idea what the time gap was.

At the start of the last lap's false flat climb, my breakmate finally told me to go on. I did manage to bump up the pace slightly and groveled to the start of the final stair step climb. I definitely could feel that I was going slower, but tried to stay on top of the pedals. I also wondering what induced me to spontaneously enter this "Super Race" having just got off the plane 14hrs before, and just thought to myself that at any second, Cancellara might come rocketing by, laughing, and that it would be embarrassing to sit up at this point. So I plodded on, as my calf and abductors started to contract into spasm. By backing off every so often, however, I was able to keep my cramping under control. It didn't help that I was out of water with 15km to go.

Just then, the comissaire's car drove up next to me and finally gave me my first time split. "You have 'twein' minut" I yelled, back, "In English please." Two minutes! I actually had two minutes on the field. I dared myself to think I might just stay off, with a fast, rolling descent and flats remaining to the finish. However, adductors and calf was in full cramping mode, and I actually had to stop and coast every so often in order to keep pedaling. Pedal I did, and with 5km left, I was told I had 'ein minut".

I decided looking back at this point would be a demoralizing so I just kept my head down. At 1km to go, I allowed myself a glance back. With the commissaire's car right behind me, I knew I might be safe. Down the finishing stretch, I had no desire to celebrate or enjoy myself as every muscle fiber in my legs was screaming in agony. I crossed the line completely cooked. I don't think I've pushed myself so far beyond my level of fitness, regardless of what type of "fun race" this was.

I must admit though, in retrospect and even during the first 70km, it was complete and total fun being on closed roads with the constraints of a race caravan replete with camera moto. Standing on the women's UCI podium (twice...as I also won the KoM award) and being handed a nice bouquet of flowers made it all worthwhile.

The only issue at the end was that my glutes were so tweaked that I couldn't physically put my leg over the bike to ride back the 2km to the hotel. I had to prop myself up holding a barricade, lay the bike flat, and raise it up beneath me. In just three days, I was back to normal. :)

As for Cancellara? He rolled in with the peloton which finished about 7 seconds behind the disgruntled looking second placed guy 23 seconds behind me.

Let's just say that I very much enjoyed WATCHING the women's race the next day.

Thanks for reading.

-Ted

Start list:
http://www.berner-rundfahrt.ch/anmeldevolk/index.php?nav=020000000E&STRECKE=Super%20Race&KAT=Herren

Wente Crit Report

James recently led the boys in an active race at Wente crit. Below is his report of the action.

Full results here

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Wente Vineyards Criterium

Men's Pro 1/2

Teammates: Jono, Beebe, Neil, Rand, Graham

Placing: 11th of 100

After a lot of waiting around due to multiple crashes in the women's field, everyone seemed lethargic from waiting in the hot sun. I arrived to the race early, got a good warmup on the trainer along with the teammates. The course was the same as always, completely flat wide roads with 4 corners with s-bends on the two backside straights. There was a significant head wind on the wide finishing straightaway. We had our team meeting on the grass under the trees, thanks to Graham the entire the guys who don't have radios were supplied with a radio and headset. The plan was pretty simple, everyone would share the load of covering breaks, I was only going to cover breaks during the beginning of the race. Rand was to ride aggressive like he always does and attempt to establish some breaks. Liza from TIBCO agreed to be our spotter for the day and did a great job updating the team and giving encouragement over the radio, she has obviously done that sort of thing before.

The race was originally scheduled for 60 minutes but was cut short to 50 minutes by the promoters due to the delays in earlier races. The race started out really fast and stayed fast throughout. Immediately attacks started happening, and everyone did their share of covering. Beebe was in a break for a while that looked solid but got eventually came back.Soon after being brought back Beebe was pushed into the curb and laid it down. He's OK but his bike was too crooked to get back onto the race., Neil and Jono were active near the front as well. Rand put in an awesome attack that opened up a huge gap. The Webcor/AV team made their way to the front to do a little blocking but the peloton was having none of that and pulled it back. I spent some time bridging up to a breakaway with Daniel Holloway but we were eventually pulled back by the field as well. It seemed like nothing would stick.

Going into the final laps the race was getting faster and faster. With about 3 to go I found myself on Neil's wheel and let him know I was there, I rode on his wheel for about a lap and noticed we weren't moving up from our spot about 25th or so. It looked like Neil was pretty gassed from his efforts in the race so I decided to abandon his wheel and start moving up on my own. Coming into the final turn I was in maybe 15th spot. The long sprint started early just after the final right hand turn and before the bend to the finish. I was able to pick off a few guys for 11th place, but the guys in front of me were really strung out into the headwind and wasn't able to pass anyone else.

In summary this was a good race for the team, we set out to do something and we all contributed and did what we said we were going to do. The only thing that could have gone better for me was for Neil and I to communicate toward the end of the race about how we were feeling. Neil and I discussed this along with the rest of the team post race and I am sure it will start coming together more and more as the season goes on. Our team is growing and I am excited to continue racing with my teammates.

Beebe did a great job getting into a breakaway, Rand was rode like a crazy man as always and attacked to open up the largest gap of the day, Neil rode very strong and showed he can be a contender in his new category. A great day of racing and team bonding.

Thanks for reading,

--
James