Hey Gang,
Happy Monday to you. This week there was a lot of action with all the Big
Masters chasing SoCal cup points. Lots of action and news to talk about.
We even have a race here in town to get excited about. Lets get to it!!
Tip of the Week:
ATTACK!!!! ATTACK!!!!! ATTACK!!!!! All too often I hear riders
strategize about winning races and the term follow wheels is tossed about.
I hear the words wait until the sprint. I hear I am going to mark so and
so. At some point in a riders career, you have to realise that in order to
win big, you have to risk. So my thoughts on this matter are clear.
ATTACK!!! Even the best riders know that many of their efforts will go
without bearing fruit, but in order for you to get stronger so your attacks
will work, you have to keep attacking. I am a domestique by trade and my
job is to make sure my leaders are ready when it is their time to shine,
but I love the ATTACK!!!!
TNW:
This week a select group was able to get away and pound it out in the wind.
Balch was driving with long strong pulls with Penta repesented by Luna and
Ryan. Little Hurt made the break. The Pro Cyclery dude that rides like he
is on ice skates bridged up with Nathan from Allegiant and off we went.
Little Hurt popped a nice sprint on Big Lance to take the W this week. The
two of them had a two up drag race for the BIG W. I was in Disneyland on
Sunday with my kids when I spotted the perfect trophy for the winner every
week of TNW. In honor of the TNW stature as a non-sanctioned event, I have
a new trophy for the winner. Your Mickey Mouse ears will await you at the
finish line.
Devils Punch Bowl
3 laps of hell. This race involves a long climb after the start finish,
than a descent down to the valley floor, and than rollers to a long false
flat finish. Just to make it extra tough this year the rollers heading
back had a wicked cross headwind.
In the 35+ race we had myself, Robocop, and Mr, Freeze. Most of the field
was filled with the whose who of road racers in Socal. Thurlow went to the
front on lap 1 climb and the field was already shattered at the top of the
climb. A select group of top climbers were away on lap one and Kircher and
Freeze were in the second chase group. The finished 18th for Steve and
22nd for Alex. It was tough day for the PT team. We will not mention my
killer finish at the back of the bus.
In the 45+ race we faired much better. The Boss and Balch took on a
stacked field. The Boss attacked on climb 1 and took Ketterer from Amgen
with him. He was towing him around the course like a disabled car. The
Boss dropped his companion on the last lap and soloed in for another W.
Balch did a fantastic job back in the chase group to thwart chasers. he
finished a very respctable 13th place. They both lapped me.
Jonathan contested the Cat 3 and finished 10th.
I did not see any other noteworthy performances but some of the Allegiant
riders were out to contest in the Cat 3 and the Pro 1-2 race
I checked results for the crit the next day and did not see anything from
any Vegas guys except Jeffon and Nathan from Allegiant were in the top 20
in the Cat 3 race.
Report from the North
This weekend war the East Canyon RR, it is a 60 mile out and back with two
big climbs. Don was on the early attacks before the first climb but nothing
doing. The first climb we let everyone else play and stayed near the front.
The climb cut out the pretenders and left a smaller group. LR One of the
Canyon riders went off the front on the decent. No chase at all from the
group, today was clearly about everyone following Mark and Don! We played
with them pulling and attacking them. Between Dons attacks I could hear him
back there schooling everyone on what they should be doing. I think he as
been talking to the Boss....Don lit it up at the bottom of the last climb
cought the break and dropped half the field. I took over from there to
tempo hard to the top dropping all but my two little shadows. 5 miles of
flatts then a 1K uphill finish. I ride for PT I waxed them at 200M for the
win. Don did a lot of hard work and finished 5th.
Next weekend Sat is a crit up here in Ogden all of team PT is welcome to
come up and kick some Utah ass. I have a spare bed and two couches. If you
are 45+ you can race 3 races, 35+ 2 races...Come up and show these guys how
a real team rides!
News: There is going to be a crit, an actual sanctioned crit, in Vegas on
May 18th. Check out the Luv2Bike website for details. Hope to see all of
you local racers come out and support a local event.
Random Thoughts:
Mark and Don are on a roll. I will be joining them in High Uintas stage
race for sure. Great job you two.
The Boss continues to lead the SoCal cup. I witnessed him dragging KK
around the course. That was a nice little beating of Amgen you handed out.
Nice little revenge from last year. Don't think that I did not know what
was going through your mind on that one. Revenge with a W is always a
little sweet treat for the Cuban.
NEWSFLASH: The Chicken rode his bike. He went three blocks to Dairy Queen
for a dipped cone and than did two meter wind sprints on the way back to
the chicken coup. He should be ready to race again in 2009. I will keep
you posted.
Who in the Hell do I have to sleep with to get my Cervelo??? Your killing
me smalls.
Freeze was looking good on the climbs this weekend. Think about High
Uintas dude. That is your kind of race.
Note to promoter of Punchbowl. You can not do this race without a feed.
Announcing no feed at the start line was cruel mental anguish to the
fatman. Thank whom ever you worship that they changed their mind. That
race is a death march already.
Hey Vegas (Team Penta, Pro Cyclery, NuVision (road racers, not Hileman),
Team CES, Luv2Bike are you guys done for the year???? Lots of good races
still to go. I hate only having to report on Paul Tracy guys. Get out and
show your sponsors that your sport lasts more than February and March.
High Road snuck one by us all. I predicted they would do well but I did
not know about this new guy. Nice move on Brasstown to steal the win from
levi.
See you at San luis Rey
Jim Robbins
