The Start of 2012

     Lots of things have been happening since my last post, So i just want to fill my followers in on what has been going on. 
     In terms of my cycling things have been going great. I have been getting in lots of good training miles in preparation for the race season. Since October I have been a cat 1 racer. A goal that has taken 5 short yet awesome years to achieve. I will also be racing for team Super Squadra 2012 and forward. One of the most successful Texas teams around. Super excited to be around such great mentors who will be able to help me mature farther in the sport of competitive cycling. My first race will be the Tour of New Braunfels (a week from this post).

French Alps

     In terms of my education and schooling, things have been going great as well! I have made it to the second semester of my Sr year in high school. All my grades have been phenomenal, as well as all my friends I have surrounded my self with over the years. All that's left at Dawson will just be Prom, Project Graduation, and AP Tests... I also have been getting my post high school education settled. I have been accepted and plan on going to the Cullin School of Engineering at the University of Houston under an academic scholarship.

Red Black and white with Super Squadra

     SO all in all things have been great. I plan to come back to my blogger with a bit more than just bike racing. Maybe right about my opinions and what else comes to my mind.

End of 2011

I know I have been bad about my blog lately and I have left quite a few people in the dark on what I have been doing these last few months. So instead of making it up with a mass of mediocre reports since Nationals, I am going to choose to start with a clean slate on how  my state championships went last weekend, as well has my plans going into 2012.


For my state Championships I am going to try to get full race reports sent to the racing post magazine with the hope of at least one of them getting published. In the mean time I would like to let everyone know that I think I ended my last year as a Jr cyclist with a bang. Everything the last couple weeks leading up last weekend had been going fanstatic. My racing, training, school, everything. Then everything seemed to climax the monday after States.


 It started with winning the STATE wheels series overall in the Pro12 category, I finished in front a lot of big names and despite not finishing the final race of the series and getting dropped.


 My next positive result was I ended up getting a 9th in a very hard chapel hill road race (every year its the hardest race to finish) I finished right behind some very strong Cat 1 racers as well as in front of a lot of strong Cat 1s and 2s.


States was the following race were I raced the Cat 2 men. Long story short (i'm going to get a full race report up either in the racing post or online soon) I raced very smart and used every one man team tactic I knew to come to the line with 5 people and just get beat in the sprint by a very strong Bryan Reid. Nothing wrong with silver


The next day I raced the Jr Open, were I was animating the race at any point I saw to make the race safer. (hills, cross winds, redlights, trains). The final 5 k it it was pretty much Me, Kyle Parrot, and John Ryan in a four man group that got away from the 15-16 year olds. coming down to the the sprint John Ryan led it out and I was on his wheel. Kyle came around me as I came around John with 150 meters to go. Getting my self my second silver medal in two days. Nothing wrong with that. Me and Kyle were definably feeling the 99 miles of the day before in our legs.

Jr Open State Road Race

Then something I have been waiting to see for several years happened Monday. I got my racing upgrade request to cat 1 approved. One of the biggest mile stones for anyone in the sport. Not a bad way to end the year if you ask me. ;)


Again I could not have been able to do this without the support of my family, my friends, my team, my coach, and a drive to better my self every day.

University Oaks criterium 123

The final race in a four race block I've been on.

The start of the race was fast filled with racers trying to get off the front as well as move into position at the front. After a few laps of racers trying to get up towards the front, the pack was in single file. I could also see that gaps were opening as well. I waited until the cross wind section and I put it a small attack to help split the field some more. To my suprise I got away from everybody else and was solo off the front. I held a small gap for a few laps before I was brought back into the fold. Luckily it was only a group of around 12 riders that brought me back. The chase to bring me back finally split the field. I surveyed the riders around me and noticed that all the large teams were represented. After seeing this I started to work with the riders knowing that the majority of the main group will be blocking. I also used the fact I was a team of one to my advantage and did a bit less work than the others. As the laps went on I continued to work and was able to jump out at get 4 primes. (I thought they said 50 dollar prime, not sock prime! however I did get a nice wheel bag from chrome)

Heading into the final 5 laps the pack was in view in front and were going to lap them soon. I continued to follow the wheels of the other attacks waiting to launch an attack of my own. with 2 laps to go I put in a hard attack and bridged the 5 second gap to the back of the peloton, once i caught on i moved quickly to the front to keep the pace high. As I got to the front of the pack we started the final lap. The break I attacked from caught the back of the pack at the start of the final lap and started to move up towards me. Luckily one of my JR friends, Nick Green, who as been sitting in the whole race saw me and moved to the front to try to string out the pack. This helped as I came around the final corner sitting second wheel and jumped around not only to win the race but also the pack sprint.

Beltarra 2011

After a confusing and compact few days of racing I was finally going to be racing the Beltarra Circuit race. I have never raced this course before and from what I here it is one of the hardest races to complete.


It was hot and humid. One of the first hot and humid days we have had all year, and marking the beginning of the summer racing season.


At the start of the race we had around 45-50 riders all lined up at the barricades. Soon after we started a small group went up the road. I sat patiently and waited to see if anyone was going to jump across, to the lead group of 3 that got away. After I saw that no one was jumping across I moved comfortably towards the front of the race and waited for power hills and temperature to start hurting the competition. After a few hard accelerations and speedy laps I could see that the field was starting to splinter. I did everything I could to stay near the front, this helped me tremendously since I was able to keep from losing the front of group, which contained the strongest guys in the race. Before I knew it I was in a select group of 7 including some of the fastest racers in the state, as well as current and ex pros. I did everything I could to stay with this group of 7 knowing that they were the fastest left in the race and no one from behind was going to bridge across to us. After a couple hard laps of pulling Stefan Rothe put in a hard attack and gapped me on the bottom of the course. I did everything I could to get back on in the fast down hill section, and right before I could get back on, Lawson Craddock attacked the flats. That ended my chances of finishing with the leaders and I was sent back by myself. After a few laps of solo riding I was caught by a small chase group including fellow Houston racer Wally Groda. I did everything I could to stay with them but I was too spent after trying to stay with the leaders and was quickly dropped off the back of that group. After two laps of some more solo  riding I was caught by another small group of two. However I was able to recover enough to be able to work with this group. For the remainder of the race I worked with my chase group. Coming into the sprint I was sitting third wheel and was able to win the sprint of my break getting mysekf a respectable 14th place.


After finishing I was surprised to find out that the officials pulled all the other racers behind our group and that only 17 of the 45-50 starters finished the full race. 

Lago Vista day 2011 day 1 win

The racing post was able to put in my write up for this race in the April edition of the magazine. Everybody should check it out on the online format.

The racing post april 2011 issue

Ronde Von Manor 2011 P1/2/3

72 miles 6 laps


Race started off fast with attacks going on the first head wind stretch. Eventually a break of 10 riders got up the road and started to pull away. I tried to bridge across with Kremke (bike barn) once but we only got half way across before the pack got on our wheels. As the race progressed I started to feel stronger and more awake. Just as I got stronger with time, so did the winds. quickly the gutter was getting filled up with suffering riders. during the chaos of trying to get every little piece of shelter possible from the winds, I didn't see a large crack in the road that I ended up  hitting square on.  I ended up getting a pinch flat on the second lap (there was 6 total) of the race and then got a non jr rear wheel. So technically I was DQ'd the moment I started to chase back on. The chase gave me little hope. I knew there was no way I could possibly catch a flying Pro 1/2/3 field solo with so many strong riders trying to catch the break still up the road. I chased hard for one lap before I finally threw in the towel and started cooling down with another lap. I was able to ride a lap with Chris Tricky (Woolly Mammoth) and get in a nice chat. Once I finished this easy lap with Tricky, I pulled out and got ready to watch the finish of the race.


I really wish I could write more about Manor. This course was awesome, the weather was awesome, Velossimo was awesome, and the ghost town was awesome. Can't really prepare for a flat tire like that.




Next race on the list is going to be Ft Davis Stage race. AKA "Hammerfest"

Fayetteville stage race cat 2 2011

Stage one 63 miles

3rd Cat 2 iTT

the stage started off at a slow reasonable pace with a lot of chitchat going on amongst the racers. Everybody seemed content to stay in the pack and save energy for the later stages. As the race progressed things seemed to stay calm for the most part. I was enjoying the pace and the fresh country air as I sat in the middle of the group talking to my teammate Jake Boone and other racers I don't normally have time to talk to. Heading into the sprint I was about half way back from the front of the pack and had no chance on moving up for a top ten. I made sure there were no time gaps and finished safely in the middle.


Stage 2 iTT
For the time trial I started off above what I would normally do for a TT of this length. However with a strong head wind start I knew that the most time would be made by going off full gas and slowly tapering off as I neared the finish. My TT strategy paid off in the end. I ended up getting third on the stage 4 second off of first and moving third in GC.


Stage three 96 Miles

Finishing Stage 3

Stage started off calm with one attack coming from Chris Tricky (Wooly Mammoth) straight off the neutral start. He ended up rolling off the front solo while the rest of the field was getting ready for a long day. As the race continued to progress team 787 was controlling the front for the beginning of the race preventing any large groups that could hurt Biard's GC lead. I stayed near the front with my one teammate Jake trying to make sure 787 didn't sneak any of their other GC guys into any early breaks. As the race progressed things stayed together for the most part, with Tricky now solo off the front with a 2.5 minute lead. As we entered the single lane road on the 3rd lap there was a small split at the front of the pack that contained about 6 riders. This split had riders from a lot of different teams in it. the gap to this break got up to 15-20 seconds but looked like it wasn't going to get away. As I told Jake to jump across to the group, I heard a whistle being blown by the ref, singling for the group to go neutral. The reason for this neutralization was because the cat 3s were catching us from behind and we had to make room for them. This normally doesn't mean much for me, except the Officials didn't stop the break, and Jake couldn't get across in time. As we sat there spinning our small chain rings waiting for the 3s to pass us I could see the insignificant break that was just up the road start motoring away with no one allowed to bring it back. Once we were allowed to race the break had a lead of 2.5 minuts and was out of sight on the other side of the cat 3s. As the raced progressed a few teams that missed the break went towards the front  to try to bring it back to a reasonable time. We ended up re-catching the cat 3s. The break of 6 that were up the road were only up two minutes now. That is when disaster struck for a second time. The cat 3s caught the my field for a second time as they started singling out for their sprint finish. As I waited for the single file peloton of racers to go around us. the break of six went up to a daunting 5.5 minute gap. Once we were allowed to race again the pack had a different mentality and started slow down knowing that the break was just too far up the road to do anything about. With about 2 laps to go I started doing a few attacks off the front of the pack in the harder cross wind sections to try to form a chase group to get away from all the sprinters that have been sitting in all race. After several failed attempts of trying to get away, I was able to form a small group of 4 at that start of the final lap. the four of us (Anthony White, Jeremy Thompson, and Rusty Stover) were able to get a smooth rotation going at the top of the course and kept things pretty smooth for the rest of the lap.


I finished 8th on the stage and went back to 7th in GC. We were able to bring the break down from a 7 minute lead to a 2-2.5 minute lead.


as a recap of the race weekend- I believe the best thing about Fayetteville was how great I felt starting that final lap of a near 100 mile road race. This is a good sign my form is coming along great and things are still going to be going up with Nationals coming in June.