Racing against a world TT champion.

Ok so it was not Fabian Cancellara, but he can still pedal a bike. The he would be non other than Pat McCallion. After a brutally hard race on Saturday at Dson, I was hoping for a rather peaceful Sunday morning cruise at the BMW track. I do not know if it was the cold, 45 with a wind chill of something like minus 10 or the BMWs flying around the inside of the track but it took no more than one lap and several attacks, to find myself in a move with 4 guys. As we start gaining some time, I do a quick inventory of who is with me. Pat McCallion had won the masters 35+ race with a solo effort the day before. And to refer back to the title...a former World TT Champion. It did not take long to figure out who my main competition would be and was hoping another CTM team mate would come up to help. Well after about 5 laps, I realize the CTM boys were keeping anything from coming up to the break. As we continued to gain time on the field with Pat and myself doing the majority of pulling, my legs start to feel the effects of the day before. Soon after we drop one of our break companions. Now there is less rest between pulls and Pat seems to be gaining power...GREAT. A few more laps and away goes the other break companion. OK just me and Pat. We continue to trade pulls a few more laps and then I get a little gaped on one of Pat's pulls. Upon making it back to his wheel...I decide to set up camp as getting dropped at this point is not a option and I feel rather confident I can win a sprint. With about 3 laps to go the field starts to gain time back on us. As Kenny Rogers sang "you have to know when to hold um, now when to show um" I make the decision to help Pat with pulls so we stay away and not to sprint for the win. In essence I conceded 1st. I do not like finishing a race like this and swallowed a lot of pride but there will be more races and Pat, well on top of being a former world tt champ, he is a really nice guy. So we ride in together 1-2 and not far behind Rod comes flying through for 3rd by way of winning the field sprint. Jimmy T after being Rod's locomotive for over half lap hung on for 8th. Not a bad days work but have to say I think that will be my last concession of the year.

ASU Cycling Team to host Easter Road Race and Criterium March 22nd and 23rd 2008

Hey guys we just got our flyer up and have committed to hosting a public road race and criterium along with our collegiate races - like NC State.

We were forced to host on Easter weekend, not our choice, and so we're making the best of it hosting a full weekend of racing for both collegiate and public.

March 22nd - Road Race in Todd, fast flats with nice 8-10% 1 mile climb followed by another 1/3 mile climb at 8% and a 200 meter gravel section (extra wheel support station) per 9 mile lap. This course is a classic!

March 23rd - Boone Mall Criterium - Typical sweeping mall crit with chicanes and a wide open finish.

Race Flyer: http://www.geocities.com/appstatecycling/2008_ASU_RaceFlyer.pdf

Spring Series P,1,2 2/23/08

I woke up Saturday morning with a pretty good case of the pre-race jitters. It was the first race of the season, I was on a new team, it was a Pro, 1,2 race and I had only ridden 1 hour earlier in the week as I was having problems trying to "ass"ess some saddle problems that really had me "bum"med out. I didn't even know if I could sit down to pedal, let alone finish a race.

When I arrived at Donaldson I saw several of the CTM boys and we went out for a warm up lap. I mentioned to Rodney that I was a little nervous about the race and he said it would be "no problem" we would just be going about "30mph from the gun". Yep, thats just the kind of reassurance I was looking for...

When they called the field to the line I jumped right up front heeding Rodney's prophetic description of the start. I looked behind me and saw what had to be 100+ guys that weighed 50lbs less than me and were half my age. Good times I thought, good times....Sure enough, ready, set, go! Bam! 30mph into the first corner. I quickly went from the front row to the middle of the group. Attacks flying of the front one after another. I could see my teammates covering moves and I was thinking to myself...."Self, you better get to the front and help out, I mean, at least TRY to make a good first impression." I looked around and saw Josh on the inside and made my way up to him, asked if I could slide by on the white line and was soon at the front just behind Jim Cunningham. A move had just gone up the road with Boyd Johnson from DLP, one of his team mates and a guy from Fiordifrutta. I asked if anyone from CTM was in it. That would be "No" Jim replied. So I decided to bite the bullet and jumped across and took Bruce Humphries from the Hincapie Dasani team with me. When we bridged up I was gassed, it was the first time I'd even breathed hard in a week. I took my obligatory pulls through to first lap and quickly realized that if a didn't sit in I was going to get spit out the back. So, I sat on for the most part and every once in a blue moon when I thought I had recovered, I'd take a pull or two only to quickly resume my position in the back. The other guys in the break were working hard and we were maintaining our gap.

With a lap and a half to go the the skinny dude from Fiordifrutta attacked and was quite simply never seen again.....we were the bad habits he had just dropped.

Boyd and Bruce both attacked our group on the last lap, but every one was pretty crispy, and no one was going anywhere. With about 1k to go I looked back from my post at the rear I had been so steadfastly protecting all day and saw the Time jersey of Andy Baker coming across and he had Thad Dulin in tow. I knew if the cat and mouse games continued in our group we would be caught for sure. So as Paul Sherwin would say, I "reached into my suitcase of courage" (except in my case it was my tote bag of desperation) went to the front of our group and led everyone up to the line trying not to get caught by Andy and Thad. Somehow, it worked and my remaining three breakaway companions sprinted around me at the line with Boyd getting 2nd, Bruce 3rd and the other DLP guy 4th, I rolled across in fifth, completely spent. I thanked all the CTM guys for keeping me out front and went home to sit on a bag of ice, elevate my legs and get ready for the double race action on Sunday. For me and team CTM it was a great start to the season!

Greenville Spring Series, weekend #1

Team CTM was out in force for our first team races of the season. The Greenville Spring Series always excites the cycling masses with people traveling from Florida to New England to take advantage of the huge fields and excellent caliber of racers.

The P/1/2 road race on Saturday started with close to 100 riders but had a high attrition rate as the group experienced a strong wind that made one section of the course a tough side wind. No quarter was given by anyone, as each of the 8 laps saw the entire field single file in the gutter with no where to hide.

On lap 2, a good break formed which Team CTM rider Jim Taylor bridged up to as it went off. With good team representation from some of the heavy hitting teams, the group was content to let them roll. The rest of Team CTM, made ourselves busy by following any good looking chase groups. However, the breakaway stuck till the end, with Jim taking 5th overall.

I fared the best in the field sprint, keeping good positioning throughout the last lap to keep near the end for the sprint.

On Sunday:
Team CTM tackled 2 races at the BMW test track, a crit-like course with gently curved turns. In the 35+ race, Sean Weddell ended up in a 2 man breakaway that stayed away to the finish with Sean taking 2nd. Rodney Dender followed up winning the field sprint for 3rd.

In the P/1/2 race, attacks went from the gun and continued with no rest to the finish. Team CTM was in many good looking moves that got small gaps on the field, but were quickly reeled back in. Being mostly a breakaway team, we had a tough go in the final big group sprint, but I fared the best in 14th with Sean Weddell giving me a good tow up the back side of the course to get me in better position.

We are all pleased with the weekend and worked well together as a team. We're all looking forward to next weekend and the Fork Shoals course where Team CTM member Jim Cunningham won the SC State championships last year.

The Georgia Cup has Responded!

I got an email and a follow up phone call today from Jay Lowe from the GA-Cup series. We had a great discussion and I am pleased to announce that the GA-cup has experienced many changes for 2008.

Here are some important points:

1. The Ga-Cup is under new management in 2008. Jay has taken over the sole management role and is advised by several folks who help guide his decisions.

2. No more fees for timing chip rental! Chip rental is free, if you have purchased your own previously, you get a discount on your registration fee. You don't have to leave your CC# on a little piece of paper any more either.

3. Registration has been streamlined on bike reg, but you can also register in person on the day of the event.

4. Now that the Ga-cup has some experience with the timing chips, results have been very fast and reliable.

5. If you don't want the telemarketing phone messages, press 5 when you get it or send an email to info@georgiacup.com to unsubscribe.


We also hope to get Jay on the podcast for an interview for the next episode to describe what has changed this year in the Ga-cup. He will also give some details about the headline events such as the 5day, 7 stage Tour of Atlanta.

Looks like we'll give them a chance this year and see for ourselves if things are better.
Thanks Jay!

How not to get phone telemarketing spam from the Georgia Cup

It started again this week, the 1-2 times per day pre-recorded telemarketing spam from the Georgia Cup advertising their upcoming events. As will all un-solicited marketing spam, especially over the telephone, this annoys me to no end. Valuable time of my day is wasted deleting unwanted messages from the GA-Cup.

I posted a comment on the GA-Cup blog to ask how to be removed from the call list and if they could post those instructions on the blog for others who also with to be removed. Here was the response:

"Mr. Whitmore, Thank you for your very public display of disappointment in the GC calls. Sorry. You could either "PRESS 5" when you recieved the call to be removed forever or you can email info@georgiacup.com. All numbers called were given to us by you. Either through signing up for our newsletter or other means. We use this to better communicate and have received overwhelming support for the calls. AGAIN, you can either "Press 5 next time or email info@georgiacup.com with your number".

First of all, I want to thank the GA-Cup for the quick response. That was great. Second, I want to note that this was not posted on the blog, but rather posted on this blog. Interesting. Third, I never listened far enough into the messages for any instructions to tell me how I could opt out, so never knew about the "press 5" thing, so I appreciate the email option.

Overall, I was left with a very bad taste for the GA-cup after a few grand debacles last year. I'm at that annoyed stage where anything but perfection and superior customer service will only deepen my disgust. I do want to give the series a second chance this year, but I am skeptical.

So, lesson here: don't give the GA-cup your phone number, address, email, etc. Because they WILL use it for other than registration purposes. Makes me wonder what happened to all those credit card records I filled out when renting the timing chips. Hmmmm

Has anyone else out there had issues with the GA-cup? Timing chip rental, crazy entry fees, messed up results, delayed results, parking fees, no prize money, etc?

Episode 3 of the PODCAST!

The best episode yet! I address a listener question about entering his first race and dealing with the "unspoken" rules of riding in a group. I have an interview with an actual cycling fan, yes they actually exist. The majority of the show is about the state of womens racing in the US. I have an interview with Lee Farabaugh from the Southeast Womens race series, some commentary by yours truely, and an interview with Laura Bowles to get the perspective from the pro level. Lastly we visit the coaches corner with Laura Bowles to discuss planning a season for an athlete who races both road and cyclocross.

Enjoy!

Cirlces of fun

Orange County Speedway Crit - Lets start by assembling a new bike the night before and morning of my first race of the season. Tweaking the shifting and seat hight as I warm up, the bike seems to go well especially after riding a cross bike only for the last 4 months.
So wheels are on the bike and handlebar is pointed forward as the race begins. Off the bat my old teammate Ross Bowden and a couple other guys go, immediately following them a half dozen others spring themselves across the gap leaving people strung out around the course. After a few chaotic laps of rotating around 9 people lapped the field myself included. With most teams accounted for the 9 of us began to think about a second go round. After about 20 minutes of attempts a second group of 5 go and finally get all the way around again, with myself included. Two of the larger teams present begin to line up for the lead out. Being a lone rider I stick myself 4th wheel and stay there, until the final lap when Curtis Staples came by with Ross on his wheel on the bell lap. I latched on to Ross and we three grew a small gap as we zoomed around the last lap of the short track. Curtis peeled off and I snuck around Ross for a nice 1st place field and race sprint win.

Gainesville UF Criterium

Let me start by saying the only time you will find a UK supporter(me) in Gville, FL is when the BB team is there to reclaim it's place at the top of the SEC and nation....ok ok this is cycling I know but just had to slip that in. So back to the race. Well at the start I am looking around and noticing the number of teams with 6 of more guys.. total of 3. Obviously I think there is nothing going up the road with at least 2 of these teams represented. So we head out for the 65 min crit that takes place on a rectangle course with a brick road section in turns 1 and 2. The race then turned totally negative after a group is allowed to go up the road due to the big teams slowing the race to a crawl. After several attempts to bridge with no luck due to guys representing the big teams sitting on wheels and not pulling through(where are my CTM boys). Another move gets off while I am sitting about 10 guys back. I jump HARD to the move where one guy is able to hang on to my wheel. Once I made it to the move, attacks and counters begin. Due to the disruption in the momentum we are brought back by the field. I jump again thinking the teams would let one guy go that poses not threat. This works for about two laps and I look back to see a guy on the front of the field bringing me back...(scratching my head) this guy has no teammates in the race. Once is gets to be he pulls over behind me again (scratching my head). We then come around to see 5 to go. I sit for two more laps about 20 deep. At 2 to go I move up to about 5th wheel. This is where the the fun really begins. Going into 1 to go and the brick turns some guy sitting in front of me does not like the bricks and hits the brakes.....we go back about 20 guys. Great!! Down the back stretch a guy that needed a pick up truck in front of him with flashing yellow lights and a wide load sign on top come blasting through the field. About takes me out and puts another guy into the gutter. He does open a hole that I follow but going into the last two turns, he is going too hot and comes up out of the turn and pushes another guy across the road. That leaves 6 guys going through the turn with a 5 bike gap to my self. I jump hard but was only able to get two guys by the line for 5th in the field sprint and 12th overall. OH well, after words there were some words exchanged with the WIDE LOAD fella but old WAD DELL was not involved.( no really I wasnt!) AHH CRIT racing at is finest! Can not wait for CTM to be in full force.

On a more positive not....the better half of the WAD DELLS was the top women 4 finisher in the women's open race that featured several pros. :)

Episode 2 of the Podcast is Finished

Episode 2 of the Team CTM cycling podcast is ready for your listening pleasure. On this episode we have the next installment of the "tales of the not-so-pro peleton" which covers the Upstate Winter Bike League training rides as well as has some great tips for team tactics. We also have an interview with coach and team member, Jim Cunningham who talks about balancing life and training for athletes with day jobs. Another exciting interview is with Kent Kranford, former Specialized sales rep and owner of the Motion Makers bike shop in Sylva, NC. We'll discuss in detail the technical specifications of the S-works SL2 that the team will be riding this year.

Enjoy!