Houston grand CAT 4s/ Jr open

Finally a race that was close. I woke up this mourning and loaded up all my equipment and my nutrition. On the drive up to the race we past Corey on the highway. Well we pulled our car in front and took the exit on the left while Corey took the one on the right, oh shoot. We already screwed up. We then got lost following the horrible directions from TXBRA. We eventually got there in time to watch the 35+ 4/5. Pearland had two guys in this race. We had James Smith and Paul Wallen. As the race was going on me and my dad found the rest of the team and put our stuff down. as the ended James and Paul finished with the pack and never put themselves in danger. The next race was the 35+ 1/2/3s. In this race Pearland had Dan Morgan and Rich Schmidt. As this race was underway I went back to the car to get ready for my first race of the day, The CAT 4s. When I got my stuff ready I went back to the start finish where Dan was set up and I got on his trainer. As I was warming up Darrel came holding a Fossil on a single legged tri pod thing. At least we had one photographer for the team there. Eventually I got bored of warming up so I took off my helmet and sat on my bike's top tube to watch the rest of the race progress. I noticed as the Sun came out from behind the trees that it suddenly got alot hotter. So I put on some sunblock and grabbed Dan's favorite Houston Astros hat and put it on under my helmet. I thought this was funny because I knew this would so something to to mentality, and I was right. After a 2-3 laps of me wearing his hat Dan came around and chunked his water bottle at me. This bottle hit me across both my knees and caused sharp pains, Thanks Dan : ). As the race finished Dan got pinched in the final corner but still got and got a top ten. As for rich he stayed upright and got 11th.

The next race was mine and I was ready for it. at the start line I looked and noticed that we had almost a full field of 50. The race started out slow and I moved my self to the very front of the pack and sat there waiting for something interesting to happen. But nothing happened so I decided I was going to be in the mid pack and chill. While I was sitting here I did almost no work and stayed up right till the final 2 laps. With two laps to go I was in between two big guys and was bouncing off both of them till I got pushed to the back of the pack. With one lap to go I was riding mid pack and I decided to move up on the inside. SO the whole time I was riding to the turn around I was taking wind. and on the way back in the tail wind I got in the middle of the pack around 20 deep. as we hit the two left turns I moved up around five positions through both the turns and started my sprint from 15 back. I was able to move up to 11th and got 11th for the race. My next race was in 1 hour so instead of stopping I got pinned and rode around with my of my Jr friends for the next hour.

The Jr open and the woman open where both combined to make one big field of 30. This was even better for me because I'll have more pack handling skills and inflict pain on a bigger group of people. As the race started I waited till the field was moving at a consistent pace till I attacked. When I attacked the whole Jr Field was on me like Bees on honey. Well after the field caught me I was reintegrated into the field and got ready to attack again. And I did. This time I got in a four man break with Me, Cody, Trent, and a woman racer. This got the rest of the field in a panic because we would have towed that Woman to victory. one we got caught I sat in the pack again and got ready to do some more damage. As the field went around the corner the two VW woman attacked the field. this strong out the field. this is when Amy Counted the VW woman. But then I countered the counter and got both me and Cody off the front. This is when we had a two man break and had a small 5 second gap on the field. This is when Cody kept saying "c'mon man lets work!" But I just smiled and said that I wanted to go back to the pack and attack again. He didn't like this response so I did a little rotation with him till I dubbed the speed down enough to be caught by the rest of the field. I then sat in again till 2 laps later when I attacked again, This time it was for the win. Me and Cody both got off the front a second time but this time we where working well together and slowly started to get a big gap on the field actually with 3 laps to go we had a 38 second gap on the main field. but when we got to 2 laps to go I directly attacked Cody. He caught on and he did a second counter attack. Looks like the cat and mouse tactics began. With one lap to go the pace really slowed down. I attacked one more time and he did a quick counter. after this maneuver we where both hesitant to pull and really slowed down. Heading into the last two turns I was on the front and he wouldn't pull through (this always happens with me in Jr races). Well with 400 meters from the line I moved to the right hand side of the road and blocked the good part of the draft. with 300 meters to go I unleashed a full sprint effort. harder then I thought I could push my self. But I had to go extra hard, I was sprinting from the front. I got first in this race by around one bike length. After the race I was heading to the podium for my prizes. It was awesome to be the #1 guy on the podium again it's been awhile. While I was on the podium I got lost of pictures and I won a S-works D2 helmet.

The next race was the CAT 3s. In this race we had both Dan and Rich in the threes. early in the race, around the first 4 laps there was a crash from someone touching wheels. this made Trey Copeland crash ("Tacod" his zipp 404) along with teammate Rich. Rich wasn't hurt but he now crashed more in a week then I have in the past year. At-leased he didn't get hurt. As the race went on Dan got Pinched out in the sprint and just made it into the top ten.

Recap

Pearland was noticed in the races today and got several top ten finishes so it was another god day team wise. As for me I still need to practice a Field sprint to become a better bike race. there's always next time.

Bear Creek Crit CAT 4

This will be the first race of the season that should end up in a field sprint and this made me exited. This race was in Katy Texas and was a very close race to get to. This was also a very close race for my teammates and almost the whole team came here to race. When me and my dad arrived we got to see our teammates in the 3s race, Dan and Rich. what I saw from this race is that Dan and Rich where enjoying the pack life. This was the first time I never saw Dan off the front. 

Well when I got there, there was a long time till my race so I decided to watch my Dad's very first crit. All I can say is that he rode well for a newbie. and coming into the last turn my dad was put in the ditch. well, at-least he did his first crit and didn't get dropped. Well after this race I talked to Eric about our race. We realized that we won't be able to animate this race

as the race started I was near the front for the first couple laps till I saw James attack. After the attack I moved to the front and I started to do some pretty bad blocking. Once James was caught I did a hard counter and got a few seconds on the Field. well I was quickly caught and was back in the pack getting ready for any more counters. There where non. soon Bryon from bike sport attacked. we caught him after 3 laps. well I don't remember every thing but on the second prime I tried to go on this but I was half a wheel off >:(. well after that I decided to sit in the pack till the sprint. going into the final lap I was in a good position, but after I took my pull I pulled off to the outside. At this moment I was overtaken by the rest of the pack meat and went all the way to the mid area. at the hair pin I stared my last effort to win. as I moved up one of the bigger guys ran through the cones scaring the other racers in front of me and opening a hole. I shot through this hole as fast as I could and went from 20th back to around 12 back. I got around twelve in this race. there way no way I could have gone to the front of the pack after I pulled off.

The next race was the 5s with Tom and Paul. as I was watching this race I noticed that there was very little attacks but I noticed that Tom was 3rd wheel for almost the whole race with Paul only a few wheel lengths behind. with one lap to go Paul started his lead out for tom. With 100 meters to go for the 5s tom was in a 1 on 1 sprint with a lone-star rider that he just beat by less then a foot getting him a first place.

The next race we had two woman racers in the field.  BillyeJo Sanders and Christine Callander. As the race started they where both doing well. Long story short- BillyeJo got fourth in the sprint and Christine finished in the pack.

Recap

Pearland rocked today!!! Ok... we did good in the 5s well today was an awesome race in terms of pack skills and breaking the barrier (for Alex, he did his first crit today.) well now I'm getting ready for the Houston grand and hopefully a good result there. Till tomorrow 

Memorable ride with Pop to the middle of nowhere

Me and my dad slept in on Sunday instead of going out for a group ride at 8 in the mourning this usually means we would ride easy for anywhere from 2.5-4 hours in an easy zone. Boy was I wrong about that. style. A few hours before we rode me and my Dad/Teammate looked on Google maps to decide on what to do. What we decided to do was ride to the Bear creek crit course and back to see what the course will be like. The estimated time of the ride was less then 3.5. As the ride started I made my mind that I'll be riding tempo for a while and a also decided to hit it from the gun with. we where going at an average speed of 20 into the wind when somehow we took a wrong turn and got lost. We eventually made it to Sugarland and I decided to show my Dad the crit course instead of going to bear creek.

Recap
Don't try anything new with Dad

Alkek Friday night 5-9

Today was going to be my very first track race of the new season and I was pretty excited about it.  This was going my first time racing as a three on the track and my first time riding my brand new Fuji track bike (that's right I catted up from a 4 to a 3 on a rental).

Well me and my teammate James left Pearland at around 4:30 and we had an hour drive to Katy in order to race the track. Today was also Dan's and Riche's first time racing the track ever. After traffic the whole team is at the track which consisted of me, James, Rich, Dan. Once we got there we had to go through the registration process and get pinned up. After that I started to warm up on the little warm up circle when the announcer says that there will be no Jr race. This pisses me off (I want my money back), this will make it so I only do 3 races, instead of the normal 6 that I'd normally do. So I go to look at the schedule to see what's going on with the races. My first race of the night is the P123 Kerrin. Then i looked at the race before me which is the 4s. So as I warm up I watch my teammates race their first race on the track. I believe Dan doesn't realize the term of NEUTRAL lap. well Dan and Rich where living up to Pearland's rep (chase down teammates in break ) well Dan and Rich eventually made the Lonestar rider Eric chase everything down. This is the maneuver they pulled for the rest of the night letting Dan win 3/3 races along with the omnium. So pearland ROCKETED in the 4s.   GO Pearland!!

 Well in the 123 I was chosen for heat 2 in the Kerrin. Well as the race started I was last in position and just somehow rode up to get second in my heat. Bike was OK. Well in the final heat I did the first lap and pulled out due to a chain mechanical. It sounded horrible. I thought the whole bike was falling apart that time. Well my second race was a 15 lap scratch race, long story short, I pulled out again because of a chain mechanical- This however the official looked at my bike and said that I had a tight link or a twisted chain, unfixable w/o the special link tool. Now I asked teammate James Smith to burrow his bike for the final 48 lapper and he said yes (thanks again James). Well me and James had 20 laps of races to change everything on the bike. First we changed the pedals, then we changed the wheels, then we changed the seatpost. I lined up just in time for the race.

So all the 123s except 3 or 4 where in this race, so we did the free lap and then we where off. at first we at a steady slow pace till the first prime lap when the two strongest Jrs went off the front in a two man break, Alan Ting and Daniel walker. So I moved to the front to start the chase when I realized no-one was on my wheel, so I started a solo bridge to the leaders. After a few laps I finally got to the leaders where I was greeted by awkward stares from both the riders. I then was attacked from above going into a turn. I was quickly gaped and in no mans land once again. I started to do another solo Bridge across the gap. I eventually made it across again. This however I never exposed my self to be attacked from above again. I then raced very conservatively for the rest of the race. I got 3rd in the 3 man sprint in the 3 man break, all I can say is I'm just happy to be here. Well I did 1/3 races their that night and still got 4th in the Omnium getting 25$ and making up for my 25$ entry fee.

The recap

I believe the only I could have done better was get a bike that works. But besides that I believe I still need more experience in just riding the track. Well in the 4s Pearland Dominated the field so it was a very good day for the team, well There's always next time

Sugarland Crit CAT 3/4s and Jrs

 This would be the hardest crit this season and the most technical one too. This crit is in the center square of the Sugarland shopping center. I came in to this race expecting it to be the hardest crit I've ever done and boy was I right. Well this was the first race I was going to do with the 3s of my team, meaning I was going to race with Rich and Dan both on the Pearland Racing Team. once me and Rich got there we heard that Dan had another one of his crazy plans, start hard and fast right from the gun. this meant we had to get a good warm up to be ready to hammer from the gun. As Dan warmed up on his trainer me and Rich both went into a parking garage and did circles for ten minutes. After this we strolled to the start line, however me and Rich got there a little late and was separated from Dan, not good. Well as the announcer said "go" Dan was at it before I could clip in, owe. Instantly the whole field was thinned out into a long single file line. And both me and Rich had to use both alot of strength to get to the front of the pack but once we did it was time for Pearland to put the hurt on. Basically the three of us had some rotation going waiting to get on the attacks of other riders and that is what we did for almost the whole race. However toward the ending half of the race it was the Pearlanders who started to get a little more crafty. A little too crafty. I crashed at about ten laps left in the race and shredded my skin suit, but not just any Skin suit. It was my favorite! My personal sponsor TRIALTIR USA got me this sweet Santini Skin suit, which is now shredded beyond repair. I got a little bit of road rash on my elbow but got a crater in the side of my hip. However the officials where able to get my # and give me the free lap rule, so I was able to get back onto the lead group of the pack and race as if nothing happened. First I started to get back in the rhythm of things, and with six laps to go Travis Troxtell, a San Jose guy attacked, so I started to close the gap and all I heard Dan say was "bridge it" so I did. Little did I know that the field was getting blocked by Pearland and San Jose (thank god for teammates) and my and Travis got a 10 second gap with 5 laps to go, as we where going the pack was making very little ground which was good for us. On the final lap me and the Travis held onto the break till the end of the crit. I was able to get second thanks to Rich and Dan.

Go Pearland Cycles Racing

The Jrs

Long story short,

I blocked for Blake giving him the win and I rolled in for third

The recap

This was another good day for me and a good day for the team we even did good with Tom in the 4/5s. I now have enough points to cat up to cat up to the 3s, but I'm going to wait till after the Racing Rapids Omnium in Alexandria Louisiana to do that.

Coldspring Road Race CAT 4s

Cold spring is the closest road race to my home. This is one reason I decided to do this race this year, another reason I decided to do this race is because last year I raced it and crashed out. 

Last weekend (weekend before the race) our group was getting ready for our local group ride when we just realized that we where going to get rained out. So the rest of the came back to my house and we looked at the radar map and found out that it is dry in Coldspring, So me, my dad and the other members drove up there for a ride. This was also a good idea to see what the hills where like as well. After the ride I was definitely looking forward for the race.

All that week I knew I was going to race the cat 4s, and win this category you need some sort of plan, so I asked the two people I knew would know what to do, Darrel Edward and James Karthauser. Surprisingly I got two very different opinions. Darrel's plan was to sit in the pack and conserve my energy for the sprint, while James' plan was to attack and attack till I get away and no one can stay with me.

At the start of the race I decide to make a compromise and make a few smart attacks. At the start of the race my field had >50 people, which meant for a tactical race. I was at the starting next to my two teammates Alex Pincus (dad) and Blake Collier (San jose). well as the race started there was a few attacks on the faster flatter sections making the start of the race fast than normal. Well for the flat section I was just doing low watts and getting in position to get ready to attack the hilly section. Once we got to the first hill I was finally in position to make my move, and on the very next hill I attacked. As I looked back I noticed a small reaction from the pack which made two more riders bridge up to me for a small brake of three after the first hill I attacked. As the pack moved to the next couple hills five more guys where able to bridge making a group of eight riders off the front. This breakaway hit the flat section about 5 second ahead of the main group and all I was saying "rotate!" all that went through my head was, this is my break, and we're going to do it right. Once we got the rotation going smoothly all I was hoping for was that my teammates where back in the pack blocking, and they where. by the time we went through the Start/ finish line we had a 30 second gap and then we decided to hit hard in the hills one more time to try to gain more precious second over the field. as we merged through the hills for the last time we where still gaining time Thanks to some committed teammates in the pack. But the race was still not over, we had another 6-8 miles to finish the race so I got the rotation going again. With one mile to go our pack started to do some cat and mouse tactics and started jockeying around for position. I was in second position heading up the hill (not the worst/ nor the best position) As the sprint came I was able to go around my man and get on the wheel of the guy sprinting around me, but I just couldn't get around him, my legs where shot. I was able to get 4th place and was able to get my breakaway to stick.

So all in all it was a good day for results and for team work

Go Pearland