News10!

Here is the video of Zach Wick, Paul Mach, and I on our "live online" news report for News10.net. It was pretty legit, and I had fun despite being very nervous!

Check it out yo.

ps: "Zach Wick is a boss!" haha

Cherry Pie

... was a total sufferfest. The winning move happened in less than a lap, and I was no where near it. I'm actually happy I wasn't because Jesse and Nate definately would have blown the legs off of me. Those guys sure can rip man.

This was a super fun, fast, windy race and it left me wanting more... not really, but you get my point.

With about four to go I got into a little move just to avoid all of the madness and battles to stay in the top 15 every lap. The next lap Roman of Ouch and Alexandre Moos of BMC decided to bridge up to us with a few others. At first Stevo was yelling into my ear to sit up and not work, because we werent going to get across to Jesse and Nate. Once he saw that Roman and Moos were with, then he told me to work with that, and I did. I got served up all kinds of pain from my breakaway companions, but we didn't get much of an advantage over the pack and the break was still a good way up the road.

With two to go I could no longer hear much of what Stevo was saying over the radio except for the occasional "nut up!" to those jockeing for position in the pack.

On the bell lap we got caught and I somehow managed to keep a decent positon after being swamped coming through the chicane and sprinted through some gaps to finish a respectable 7th. Not too bad at all, but I definately felt the hurt on that race for sure. Jesse and Nate held us off and Jesse won it in the final sprint between them, but the pack sure was close!

Check out this sweet video that Damian Gonzalez made. It rocks for sure, and you can see me suffering in the break there towards the end.

Off to Valley of the sun on thursday, and a News10 live online broadcast with Zacko and Paul Mach tomorow. Check it out from 11:00am-12:00pm online at news10.net

FUN!!

So this weekend I have to race against this:

Yeah... I mean it sort of explains itself, but if you don't get it- it is going to hurt A LOT. I sure hope they go easy on us, and save it for dominating the Tour of Cali.

Not only is Garmin going to be there, but so are many heavy hitters from other pro teams. Check it out,!!

Madness!

First Win of the Season! Cal Aggie Madness

What a race!!

I always love the course at Land park, it makes for some safe and fast racing every time. For some reason DBC does extremely well out there. In past years we have always dominated the junior race, had sucess in the 1/2/3 (a couple of years ago with Davitamon), and even I did well there last year in the 3s.

This year was no different, it started the same as in past years with Cody leading a 1-2-3 DBC finish in the juniors race! WOW! That kid is learning how to race for sure.

As for the 1/2 race, well Hernando did a great job explaining the happenings of the race, so read that for sure if you haven't already. As he said, DBC was all over the early breaks and we had at the least one guy in every break except the one that stuck for more that 2 laps... go figure.

When the Clif and Webcore duo got brought back I was at the front looking for the next move to go and heard Chris Morales hollering at me to hold on. Hold on? ... alright, well I got on his wheel and he TORE IT UP... I cant really explain it in words so take a look:

As you can see, the field was completely strung out and I had to go as aero as possible just hold the powerhouse's wheel. After this savage half-lap pull the webcore guy (Justin Fraga according to Hernando) and I got a small gap with two others between us and the field.

Here we are coming into the bell lap (in the cave):

When we heard the bell lap, barely audibal over the intense crowd cheering us on in our attempt to spoil it for the sprinters, my legs began to tense up and I had a feelig that we weren't going to make it. On the back stretch of the course we sort of eased up a little, but we were giving it ALL we had. Through the S- curves we probably gained a little over the field and I was starting to get that I'm going to throw up feeling in my stomach. Justin was leading around the last corner and swung off giving me some word of encouragement (thanks man!). I put my head down, shifted into my 12, and gave it more than I thought I was able to give! The field was closing in fast so I tried to kick a little harder and kept glancing back to make sure they weren't going to catch me untill we crossed the line.

Here is an idea of how close the field was in catching me:

Judging by how hard the crowd was cheering, I figured they were right on top of me so I took one look back:


... and then had just enough time to sit up and give the two arm salute:

It is weird how after you win a race all the pain goes away and you forget about those last two laps where you felt like you were going to turn inside out and pull over to throw up. Well that is exactly the feeling I had during those last two laps, and especially in those last 300 or so meters. It was an epic day to remember, my first ever p/1/2 victory.

The great pictures were taken by none other than Mark Adkinson of http://www.hcphoto.smugmug.com/

-Notice my team mates Zach and Alex Wick celebrating with me. Mark really knows how to capture the moment! Without them and my other mates (Chris Morales, Charlie Alexander, Russ White, and the radio support from Stevo) this probably wouldn't have happend. Thank you very much guys, I owe ya one!

I also have a 10min video of the race, taken by my dad, for your enjoyment. No music this time- sorry. I have been pretty busy with school and riding, and just didn't have time to shorten it up and add some music.

09 Cal Aggie Crit p/1/2 from Chris Stastny on Vimeo.

See y'all at Cherry Pie-Shoudl be saweet!