NorCal Cycling News

Back-to-back downtown criteriums. Take a moment to savor those words before we get into the nitty gritty of the weekend: back-to-back downtown criteriums.

Now to the racing itself. Saturday night we had the San Rafael Twilight. Great venue, deceptively hard race. On paper there is nothing special about the course, but in practice racers are left with nowhere to hide & no chance to recover. It is call your mommy and cry brutal.

While Hernando’s prognostications weren’t exactly spot on, there was still some damn fine racing to be seen. The big boys came down to a field sprint, with former CalBerry Ken Hanson of Team Type 1 taking the win in front of Rahsaan Bahati himself, with Steve Reaney wearing the stars & bars rounding out the podium. A break of four including Chris Jones of TT1 and Justin Fraga of Webcor/Alto Velo was away for a good chunk of the race, only getting pulled back with 4 to go. Now, I’m sure somebody who knows what they’re talking about can give a much better analysis than I can, so instead I’m going to take a minute to talk up Justin Fraga and the Webbies.

The guy has flown mostly under the radar this year, showing up at a couple crits to back up his boys in green but not showing that trademark fire and brimstone he can spew like nobody else. Frankly, I was wondering whether we’d see that side of him again, but after this weekend I feel confident saying that JFraga is back and itching to crush nuts. This is a great thing for Webcor and especially for their usual breakaway whore Rand Miller, since alone each of them rides like one person, but together they ride like six guys. Somebody explain that math. In any case, it was excellent to see Fraga pouring himself into that break Saturday night, and again on Sunday in Lodi. It’s guys like these who leave everything they’ve got out on the course who keep the races exciting. Now if only the greenies could find themselves a field sprinter…

The women’s race was all about Kat Carroll. She rode herself inside out, off the front solo for over half the race, ticking off lap after wicked lap as everybody wondered when the damn lap cards were going to come out. With only handful of laps to go, her gap came down from 20+ seconds to a measly eight, and it looked like all that work might have been in vain. With two to go and the gap still looking a bit shaky, PB & Co. teammate Hanan Alves-Hyde took a risk with the remaining seconds and went off the front, dangling like a carrot between Kat & the charging field. Only Mary Maroon from Touchstone Climbing followed, timing it perfectly to take second at the line. Hanan’s risk paid off for third place.

(Photo stolen from Bob Cullinan of www.CycleTo.com. More great photos at the site, go check it out.)

On Sunday we had Delta Velo’s Lodi CycleFest criterium. In its second year, this race has everything you could ask for: community support, huge prize purses, a super-cool downtown venue with a cobbled section, neutral support from Williams Wheels, great announcing, free food and beer for the racers, and a whole lot of heat. Unfortunately I missed a lot of the men’s race thanks to that free beer, but as mentioned above I saw JFraga in a break of 5 (including Ryan Parnes of Yahoo, JD Bergman of Clif Bar, and a Williams rider who I believe was dropped - apologies to those I couldn’t identify, put it in the comments & I will give you your credit). They were caught with not many to go, and another small break, including - you guessed it - Rand Miller, got away in the closing laps. A few guys made it back up to the final break before the end of the race, making a lead group of two TT1 riders and around eight singles. Team Type 1 doubled their luck for the weekend with another win.

Edit: Commenter Josh points out that I was remiss in not giving props to Rob “Hooptie” Evans for taking 2nd place on Sunday. He made the final break and manhandled the sprint while wearing borrowed, mismatched shoes and pedals. Why would he be riding that kind of frankenstein equipment, you ask? Apparently he lost shoe in Big Red, the Montano Velo/RH Villa/BPG/what are they now? party bus, while letting loose post-race on Saturday. Good on ya, Rob and apologies for the omission.

The women’s race was a battle of the titans, Maroon vs. Kachorek. After a flurry of attacks from Dolce Vita, Touchstone Climbing and Wells Fargo, Emily Kachorek of the Wells Fargo team re-entered the race after an early mishap that sent her from the back stretch to the neutral pit. She attacked shortly after getting back into the race, catching the field in a lull and taking one teammate with her.  Mary Maroon was the only rider able to bridge the gap, showing that her early-season dominance and selection to the Nature Valley Pro Ride was no fluke: Mary Maroon is the real deal. I will not be the least bit shocked if the proseys start calling on her soon. She’s got the talent, drive and heart to really make it.

Maroon and Kachorek rotated through and built their gap, dropping the second Wells rider in the process. Kate Landau from Third Pillar, Team Vegan rider Emily Thurston, Los Gatos’ Mary-Ellen Ash and Kate Ligler from Dolce Vita tried to bridge again and again, but there was no getting past Touchstone and Wells Fargo riders keeping the race in check. Ultimately, Maroon bested Kachorek in the sprint with Ash taking the field sprint for third.

Next up: the Watsonville, Colavita and Berkeley Bike Club criteriums.

world of suck … on video

- - -

Blogging for SFGate.com next week

sigh …

Next week I’ll be adding some Norcal race coverage to the SFGate.com’s new bike blog. So, if you’ve got quotes or pictures you’d like included in articles, please shoot them over to me via the interwebs … pedalhome(at)hotmail.com.

Road, Dirt, and Track coverage will be tossed into the blog as we try to increase media exposure for our athletes, teams, sponsors and race organizers.

… so thanks for sending me info to include!

have a great weekend and apologies for the crappy vidpost.
-

Nationals dominated by West Coast Mafia

There are two teams that took center stage for this past weekend of racing - the PeanutButter Jammin’ ladies and the hardmen of California Giant Berries.  These two teams are excellent example programs for other outfits around the nation to look at and draw inspiration from.

CalGiant Berries is, hands down, the best amateur racing program in the United States … maybe ever.  The team, led for over 10 years now by Anthony Gallino, has invested in promoting riders into the professional ranks, consistently spread resources to Norcal grassroots events, and engaged in targeted sponsorship of many critical US national level events.

The success stories of this year’s National Championships were perfect encapsulations of the Berry program’s goals and investments.  Andrew Talansky won the U23 time trial championship, and in doing so, posted the fastest overall TT time of the event. It was soon thereafter announced that CalGiant would be promoting another rider to the professional ranks, as Jonathan Vaughters of the Garmin-Transitions team signed Talansky to a 3-year deal beginning Jan 1, 2011.  Talansky will finish out the 2010 season with the Berries … and there will be few happier than team owner Gallino in seeing another of his prospects picked up by a professional squad.

With the TT title now in the hands of CalGiant - that makes this team owners of TT, road race, and criterium national championships over the years.  Add to these titles the many cyclocross championships they’ve won - and you get a testament to the amazing talent, depth, and diversity of this program.

A fitting reward for years of work and suffering was the crowning of Steve Reaney as the 2010 National Criterium Champion.  All of us who have raced with Steve up and down the state have known that this was a title he was destined to win - but, it is very, very sweet to finally see him grab that brass ring.

Reaney teamed up with Jared Barrileaux to smashmouth this year’s Natz Crit … much like Reaney and Ken Hanson did for the win a couple years back.   They were able to overcome a strong challenge from Yahoo cycling and the many other teams from around the nation to secure another title for the Berry mantle.

There was talk of Reaney “retiring” after this year’s racing … but, thankfully that stars and bars jersey will reinvigorate the hardman and he’ll be out there showing our region proud in 2011.  As it should be.
-

PeanutButter squashes

This transition has been brewing for a few months now … but, the 2010 US Nationals has shown that the Peanut Butter & Co program has turned a corner and shifted into overdrive.  The change in … confidence was evident the first few weeks after world champion Kristen Armstrong joined the team as Director.  And ever since her addition, the team has gained momentum … breaking into a full gallop now and heading full steam towards becoming the premier women’s professional cycling team in the United States.

The HTC-Columbia team is a better funded program, drawing in strength from a large international pool of riders - but the homegrown talents of PeanutButter and the fierce dedication of the riders to each other and the success of the program have them stalking HTC’s top ranking and hungry to overtake them … soon.

Winning 2010 national titles for the PeanutButter jammers were:

Mara Abbott - road race
Sinead Miller - road race & time trial (u-23)
Shelley Evans (Olds) - criterium
Coryn Rivera - time trial, road race & criterium (Juniors)
Olivia Dillon - road race & time trial (Ireland)

Also racing extremely well with to-10 performances were Kat Carroll, Lauren Tamayo, and Ruth Winder.

With these phenomenal results - this program is now poised to draw in more advertising dollars as businesses will see the trajectory of success and media exposure strongly evidenced by the team.

Manager Nicola Cranmer has bled sweat and hammered hard against the wall of a male-dominated cycling industry and media pool … and her dedication and fortitude have begun to wear down the nay-sayers and toss aside all road blocks.

The 2011 season will require more work, more sacrifice - but this team is ready … and hungry for it.
-

And Newz from the homefront…

The Chico Stage Race results aren’t up yet - but I know that the Women’s elite road race was won by Susannah Breen of Wells Fargo.  The Wells Fargo women put on a brave display of attacking to try and overpower the time trailing champion, Molly Van Houweling.

MVH had to put in a solid 60 minutes of chasing in the epic 90 mile road race to regain contact with the Wells Fargo driven breakaway attempt of Breen and Cody Graf.  And it would be Breen sprinting to the win for her first victory of the year and showing she will be a serious factor in the upcoming climbing events of the Cal Cup season.

But MVH would put in an afterburner time trial effort and fend off all-comers in the criterium to secure another stage race title for her impressive 2010 season. Kudos.

The Burlingame Criterium was won by 3rd Pillar’s Martina Patella, just over the Los Gatos firecracker Mary Ellen Ash and consistently powerful Laurie Furman of IPass.  These women are showing improving form as the summer sets in, and as the professional teams of PB&Co, TIBCO, and Vera Bradley begin the arduous travels of NRC and UCI event chasing - we will see a lot of chances for the regional squads like 3rd Pillar, Los Gatos, Metromint, Touchstone Climbing, Dolce Vita, IPass, and Wells Fargo gaining more podium exposure.  Should be a great summer.

The men’s elite Burlingame event was won by Greg Pattison, following up on his field sprint victory at the Pacific Grove Butterfly Crit.  A pure sprinter, Pattison has shown some fierce kicks these past few weeks and it will be interesting to see if he will be able to withstand the heat and hill of the District Championships set for Vacaville in late August.   But, it’s hard to think that Vacaville won’t be anything other than a ground-shaking battle of titans between the Yahooligans and CalGiant.

Don’t miss that show!
- - -

Correct yo’self

Got a decent bit of keyboard lashing for my inaccurate reflections of Tour d’ Nez happenings in yesterday’s post … so, needed to voice a few words in response.
-

-

Also got jibed for not editing in pictures to the vids, having a crap backdrop, and for being incomprehensibly idiotic.

… what ya gonna do.  I’m lazy.

- - -

Nationals Now!

Today there are quite a few Junior USA criterium champ jerseys up for grabs … with tomorrow being the big TT day.  The Time Trial fields are stacked this year and there will be a lot of NorCal hopefuls digging deep into the cave to try and dig up some treasure.

Luck to all!

My pics are for both Cal Giant and the Yahooligans to put in stellar performances all week long.  We’ve seen a huge turn of speed recently from Cal Giant’s Jesse Moore … but, bighit Phil Mooney is going to be a thrusterbuster at the Natz TT this year and I hope to see both at the top end of the results.

Updates as soon as possible.  See you ’round the ’bout.
-

Nez, Nevada City, and Pesky blahblah

Howdy folks ~ trying out a video post.   Apologies for the slow VIMEO interface … but, the video was over the YouTube 10min barrier and i don’t have the stamina to do two takes.  So this first vidpost will be hosted on crappy slow VIMEO. Whenever I watch through VIMEO - I pause the vid, let it upload completely, then try and not cringe when it still chops up. Anyway, if I do any other vidposts, they’ll be patched through the youboobtubes.
-

Norcalcyclingnews.com - June 22, 2010 from Michael Hernandez on Vimeo.

-
And … didn’t have time to scratch on about how cool Nature Valley Grand Prix was this year.  Big battles by Alison Starnes and Scott Zwazinksi to keep their leaders’ jerseys … but overcome by Shelley Evans and Rory Sutherland. Great freakin’ race.

I’m darkhorse picking Starnes to win the Elite TT championships this year.
-

Well - let me know if i should scrap the vidposts.  Lates,
m

Big win by the Boston Brawler

TIBCO’s Megan Guarnier wins the Tour d’ Nez prologue!!!  Megan G took another win in her gathering storm of form this summer.  This year’s Nez will be a criterium specialist’s delight, and big MiG will have a strong chance at winning the overall omnium and looting the big race’s substantial prize purse.

TIBCO holds two leads around the nation now, as Alison Starnes grips the top rung in the Nature Valley Grand Prix after her fantastic time trial effort.  The win by Starnes is huge and is one more indication of just how much potential is thundering under the surface in the TIBCO rider.

Stage 3 was cancelled at the NVGP due to tornado warnings, or some such mid-western crazytalk.  But, the hots will be on display again today … so be sure to check out the action on the interwebs and give a cheer to the locals crushing it up big.

Speaking of locals …

NorCal’s Scotty Zwizanski won the men’s opening time trial in the NVGP and again dips himself into gold in front of a field of top American racers.  Zwizza is a crowd favorite and well respected in the peleton … so, there will be some serious applause if the big man can defend the jersey against the inevitable onslaught.

CalGiant’s Jesse Moore broke the 40K time trial record out at Sattley this past weekend … a huge result for the man who has been putting in some of the most consistent and panache-filled results all year long.  Fantastic result for the Berry rider and shows that the team is looking very, very good for the upcoming Elite National Championships in Bend, OR.

Look for Moore to shine.

Metromint Molly Van Houweling won the women’s time trial championship in Sattley with another powerful display of her specialty. MVH on a TT bike is like watching two-wheeled ballet … grace and power.

Beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful …

For those who don’t know Murphy ‘the’ Mack ~ or haven’t seen him in one of Sheila Moon’s skinsuits ~ Murphy is pretty much the coolest, hippest, baddassest dude on a bike this side of NewYorkBikeSnob.

He’s tossing together a salad of bike riding and nose-tweaking this weekend up in Marin … so, check it out and support the good cause, Marine County Bicycle Coalition.

But read it from the horse’s mouth:

“murphy here.

i’m putting together this little fun ride…

so some people that have seen the poster for the ride this sunday have not heard about or know the meaning of the ‘two wheeled locust’.

there are two people in particular in the bay area that have been hating on MTB and mountain bikers for over 15 years. they start flame wars in forums, message boards and they used to go to a lot of land access meetings to lobby against ANY MTB access. they would say that if you opened any trail to mountain bikers they would “descend like a swarm of two wheeled locust” and destroy everything in their path. they used this “two wheeled locust” as a derogatory term for mountain bikers for years in their writings and on their websites.

so, this is my homage to them. it’s the Marin County Two-Wheeled-Locust.

also, the locust is a cousin of the grasshopper, there seem to be a lot of them in sonoma county.

bring a camera or camera phone! bring sunscreen. mixed terrain = road, rocks and dirt. bring any bike you like.

40ish miles. self supported. party at the finish line. we have a permit, so bring your manners too please!

cheers!

murphy

faster isn’t always better, but it’s always more fun.”

‘These bladder-wheeled bicycles are diabolical devices of the demon of
darkness. They are contrivances to trap the feet of the unwary and
skin the nose of the innocent. They are full of guile and deceit. When
you think you have broken one to ride and subdued its wild and Satanic
nature, behold it bucketh you off in the road and teareth a great hole
in your pants. Look not on the bike when it bloweth upon its wheels,
for at last it bucketh like a bronco and hurteth like thunder. Who has
skinned legs? Who has a bloody nose? Who has ripped breeches? They
that dally along with the bicycle.’ - from a Baltimore sermon in 1896

-

Friday Night - June 25th … get your SuperHero on!

Bell Lap Racing is sponsoring a night of track riding, beer drinking, and superhero’d spandex debauchery.

’nuff said.

See you there … i’ll try not to be too obnoxious on the mic (this time).

- - -

At this point I’m sure your ready for some non-track related posts.  Let me get this out of my system and then I will move onto important topics such as which million dollar bike won up at Sattely, or the injustice of the LARPD CX series being discontinued.

Overall the weekend was dominated by Jame Carney.  Carney said he was feeling sluggish going into Saturday night but ended up “Riding like a swan.”  To be frank, I don’t think that the expression was the most masculine way to describe a series of ass kickings Carney laid down on the NorCal (and West Coast for that matter) track community.  Ben Jacques Mayne even showed up to give it a go and Carney swooped both the Scratch race and Points race from Hellyer’s BMOC.  BJM does win for best TVC Twitter post… here is the quote, not sure how Twitter copyrights work so here it goes, “Dave McCook for the win if there’s any justice in the world!” you don’t hear that too much…

There were additionally dominant performances from the other T-Town/ADT regulars in attendance Laura McCaughey, David Espinoza, and Jimmy Watkins.  It was enough to give Hellyer an inferiority complex.  Sure, I guess our big guns (aside from BJM who probably did a 100 mile ride in the AM to prep for NVGP) like Shelly Evans and Daniel Holloway are out of town being all pro and stuff, but the T Town domination of the elite events sure made it clear that the next generation of Hellyer-ites need to step up.  If they don’t then I’m either going to have to step up my psychological warfare against T Town or move to a different track.

Luckily we saw a few standout performances on Saturday that give one hope.  Beth Newell lived up to her potential and lost a narrow battle in the Miss and Out (2nd) and Scratch Race (3rd) to get her on the top steps of the podium.   Pete Billington put himself on the national map with a third place in the Sprints against much more seasoned competition.  And the biggest pull of the night has to be Daniel Farinha who rode a fantastic points race, with junior gearing i might add, to get third place against a top notch field filled with pro’s, journeymen and the various ronin of west coast tracks.  Farinha just became the Luke Skywalker of Hellyer Velodrome… let’s hope he’s got another year of high school before college ruins him. (UPDATE: Word on the street is Farinha graduated on Friday!  Hope you pick a college with a good cycling program!)  Even though they weren’t wins each one of these riders put it down and moved up a notch with their performances.

Next up at the track… More crazy Friday Nite Fights on June 25.  Wear a superhero costume and get a free beer or something.