W/AV at Snelling Road Race

The season is "officially" underway now that Snelling Road Race has come and gone. The race was fast and furious with 30+ mph average speed for 3 hours. To put that in perspective, normally our 60-90 minute crits are usually in the 27-29 mph range. This race was faster and for 2-3 times as long!

Our riders were active the entire time covering moves, chasing, and whatnot. In the end, it came down to a sprint and James negotiated what is usually a really hectic finale for a top-20 spot. From a very competitive field, three pros took the podium spots: 1st--Jackson Stewart (BMC), 2nd--Daniel Holloway (Garmin), 3rd--unknown Rock Racing rider.

Below is James' report from the race.

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Race: Snelling Road Race

Placing: Somewhere in the upper teens

Teamates: Tore, Justin, Rand, Bo, Rob, Ryan Parnes, Ryan Prsha, Neil, Peter Cazalet, Brad, Greg, Jeff, Billy, Thomas, Chris

I have always considered Snelling to be opening day for the Nor Cal road racing calendar. I know there are races earlier than Snelling, but to me this is really the true start of the season. The conditions this year were not as harsh as years past. The temperature was mild, no rain, and the wind was subtle.

There were a lot of racers on the start line with many other teams well represented. The Men's Elite team had 16 guys on the start line. Our plan was to ride the race as a team, share the load of covering attacks, and not let anything get away. In summary we achieved our goals. Most everyone on the team showed there face at the front of the race to cover some of the constant attacking that was taking place. I covered a lot of early attacks early on in the race. On the 3rd lap I was feeling good and tried an attack myself. i was quickly joined by a Cal Giant rider and one other. The peloton, quick to respond were not letting anything stay away. we were brought back in short order.

Some of the guys on the team dropped out due to lack of early season fitness and the shock of a ~31 mph average pace for the full 86 miles. Others dropped out because of flats or mechanicals. Those who dropped out went to the feedzone to help with feeding duties. (What teamwork!)

On the last lap there were only a handful of us left in the race. Rand made his way into a break that looked promising. Ryan Parnes did a great job during this time covering bridge attempts. To my surprise the break was caught just before the left turn onto the rough section.

As we entered the rough section I was sitting about mid pack. I started to move up on the left side of the road and was having a rough time as things were very chaotic, riders were dropping out constantly and balling up my attempts to move up through the pack. There was a slight diagonal head wind blowing from the right. I continued my attempts to move up but kept getting caught up in the mayhem on the rough section going into the final turn. At 1km I was probably 30th wheel and my legs felt good. The pace was blistering fast. I gained a few spots in the final turn and saw everyone in front of me starting there sprint, some guys right in front of me let a big gap open after the final turn. I went around them and closed the gap, passed a few more riders and rode in for somewhere around the teens (according to Chris Crawford).

This was a great race to "officially" start the season. It was my first race on the New Giant TCR Advanced. The bike handled perfectly. I was happy with the way the team rode the race. We were able to respond to all moves that took place. I fault myself for not getting into better position before the race turned onto the rough section.

Thanks for reading,

James

W/AV Sweeps Sierra Road KOM podium

While most of the team slept in for the San Jose Crit in the afternoon, three of the team's secret climbing weapons went out for the Sierra Road KOM, which is a mass start hillclimb up Sierra Road in San Jose, which has featured in the past few Tours of California. It's a steep leg breaker that takes about 20 minutes at race pace.

Billy Crane upgraded to Cat 2 late last season so is still relatively new to the team. He's obviously a strong climber and has had a good winter of training. He won his first race of the season. Billy was followed closely by another strong up-and-comer, Jeff Williams, and by a team veteran, Ted Huang. Below is Billy's report from the race.

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2/14/09
Sierra Road KOM, P1/2
1st of several (but less than last year)
Teammates: Jeff Williams (2nd), Ted Huang (3rd)

With a full roster of the Elite team guys entered in the Webcor Criterium, Bruce asked that a few of us represent the team in the KOM. Jeff Williams and I met up at the San Jose City Hall to register and rather than roll with the excessive police escort over to Sierra, we just rolled at our own pace. This allowed for us to make a stop at my parent house near Sierra road and to swap wheels for the Williams System 38's that Rob MacNeill lent to me. These are awesome wheels! Unfortunately, I did not swap the cassette on the wheel and rolled with the 11-23 that was on there. This was a decision I would regret later.

This year, unlike last year, rather than stopping everyone at the bottom of the hill for a standing/falling start they allowed everyone to just roll across the line at their own pace and choosing. Jeff and I took advantage of this and got a decent rolling start. Given that he had the power meter out of the two of us he would set the pace on the brutal steep lower section and essentially set me up for a launching pad further up the climb. Jeff did a great job of doing this and signaled me to come around about a quarter way up the climb. We were consistently catching the guys that had started minutes ahead of us and continued to do so until there was no one left to catch. After passing Jeff I settled into an AT rythm for the final 15 minutes. Being alone in the wind was something that was near impossible for me last year, but after a winter of focusing on improving that I just found the wind to be more of an annoyance than anything. What added to the difficulty was not having any larger than a 23 for the sections that went upwards of 10% combined with the wind. I'll pay more attention to gear ratios in the future. In the end I rolled across as the first finisher and in first place with a time of 22.21.

I was gunning to beat Ted's time of 21.13 of last year. Had a few things gone better, like the wind not being a factor and choosing a better gear ratio it may have happened. That aside, I'm pumped about my form as we head into my first season with the P1/2's. With San Dimas my first target of the year I'm really pleased with how I was climbing and setting up for the hill climb TT there.

In the end we represented about as well as you could and Webcor/AV Elite guys took the top 3 spots in the KOM.

Looking forward to the rest of the season and getting it kicked off with Snelling this weekend!

Thanks
Billy

Webcor Builders San Jose Crit Race Report

Below is James' report from the inaugural San Jose Classic Criterium, built by our title sponsor, Webcor! We had a pretty big team line up for this early season race. Overall, the team rode well and James finished in the top ten.

Official Results

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San Jose Classic Criterium

Saturday Feb. 14, 2009

Teamates: Justin Fraga, Rob MacNeill (~20th), Ryan Prsha, Neil Harrington, Fabrice Dubost (~14th), Peter Cazalet, Brian "BP" Buchholz, Brad Goodson, Greg Gomez

Placing: 8th of 60ish

This is the first year of the San Jose Classic Criterium and my first race for 2009. The race was sponsored by Webcor Builders and put on by the city of San Jose. It was a little difficult finding registration, but once I got that sorted it was back to the car to get things sorted. I didn't have an opportunity to pre ride the course but the course map didn't look like there was anything too scary. At the start of the race the wind was blowing but the ground was dry. I still haven't gotten my new Giant TCR Advanced setup, so I was racing on my trusty steel Ritchey Breakaway.

We had our team meeting about 20 minutes before the start of the race. Director Bruce was there to call the radio information to us. The plan was to cover all attacks and if guys were feeling good to initiate their own attacks. What we didn't want to happen was to have a breakaway get away without a Webcor rider in it.

The race started out with most riders going easy on the first lap to get a feel for the course. The Webcor/AV team did a great job at the beginning of the race covering attacks and initiating some of their own. I stayed near the front for most of the race following some chase attempts. Brian Buchholz launched a very strong attack but unfortunately had a mishap and went down in the 180.

At about 40 minutes into the race I had a flat, I rolled to the pit and luckily Neil was nearby to give me the wheel off of his bike, since BP had already used my rear wheel from the pit. When I got back into the race there was a break of 4 off the front, there were no Webcor/AV riders in it. Bruce called on the radio for the Webcor/AV team to go to the front and bring the break back. It took a little while but eventually the guys organized at the front and put in some strong chase efforts to bring the gap down significantly, but were never successful in bringing back the group of 4, which included Jackson Stewart (BMC), Scott Z (Kelly), Justin England (Cal Giant), and Jesse Moore (Cal Giant).

With about 5 laps to go we still hadn't caught the break, I was sitting in good position when I got squeezed into the wall by Dave McCook. I lost a bunch of spots and found myself somewhere near the back. Feeling lucky to still be in the race I regrouped and started finding my way back toward the front. Thanks to Peter Cazalet for helping me move up during this time. At about 2 to go I still was pretty far back, somewhere around 20th (in the field) with the break of 4 still away it looked like we were sprinting for 5th place. When I heard the bell I was sitting around 15th. I put in a large effort on the straightaway opposite the finish line and moved into the the top 10. Guys started sprinting out of the 1st left hand sweeper turn and all the way down the long straightaway, I managed to pass a few people going into the last left hand sweeper turn. I came out of this turn in 4th and tried to go up the inside on the final turn but got squeezed. I stayed in 4th to the line which was good for 8th place overall.

Fabrice rolled in a few spots behind me with Rob close behind him.

Personally I felt great during the race. I never felt like I was in the red zone the entire race. The team rode well today, but could have ridden the race better. I think everyone learned a lot and we had a decent discussion at our post race team meeting. I am sure we will do more post race discussion this week via email. Our team has a lot of depth this year, guys are still getting to know each other and finding their race legs. When everything clicks, and it will happen, this team is sure to produce some great results in 2009.

Thanks to the City of San Jose for a great course and event. Thanks to Webcor Builders and other sponsors for allowing the race to happen. Thanks to Director Bruce for radio support. Finally, thanks to www.WilliamsCycling.com . This was my first race on the new System 38 carbon clinchers, the wheels performed superbly, they were plenty stiff and inspired confidence in the corners.

Thanks for reading,
James Badia

First Race Report of the Season: Cal Aggie Crit

Rand Miller and new W/AV rider for '09 Justin Fraga kicked off the season at Cal Aggie Crit. Both riders were aggressive and netted places in the top-10. Below is Rand's report.

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Cal Aggie Crit
Sacramento, CA
1/31/09
Weather: Warm, sunny, still
Teammates: Justin Fraga
Placing: 4th of ~70 (Justin was 7th)

Justin and I, eager to get racing season underway, made the short trip out to Sacramento for the Cal Aggie crit. This race is run on the same course as the Land Park Crit later in the year. The long, winding, undulating course is punctuated by two sets of sharp chicanes...some of the most fun cornering all year.

Justin and I didn't discuss tactics before the race, but we both knew what we were going to do all day: attack. It's what we do.

Justin went in a few early moves, which I countered as they were brought back. Nothing gained much ground, but at least Justin and I were present in any moves that went up the road.

About halfway through the race, I went off the front, joined by JD Bergman (Clif Bar). We stayed away with a 30 second lead all the way to about 4 laps to go. As soon as I was brought back into the fold, I saw a streak of green flying off the front. Justin was at it again, this time with a Davis kid.

These two got a good gap, and I tucked into the front of the pack, marking CalGiant sprinter Pat Briggs. If Justin stayed away, great. If not, I was ready for the bunch sprint.

With only about 300m left, Justin's break was still a few seconds up the road. I could see the Davis kid pulling ahead of Justin as they pushed to the line, and that's when we started our sprint. The break looked like it was standing still as we hurtled toward them...but it was going to be close.

The super-strong Davis kid held us all off, winning the race...he deserved it. Justin was caught by the bunch sprint with about 10m to go. Briggs took the tight sprint for 2nd, followed by a Clif Bar rider and myself, putting me in 4th.

Justin held on for 7th, which shows how close he was to the line when we came flying by.

Our timing was off by just a few seconds...but still, it was a great race and we worked very well together in our first race as teammates. Looking forward to the rest of the season!

Thanks for reading,
Rand