Chris Stastny

Day One in San Dimas

2010-03-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today @andrewtalansky and I drove down to beautiful, smog filled, Los Angeles for the San Dimas stage race.

The drive was seven hours of super exciting scenery... if you're into open fields and stinky cows anyway.

Once we got in we got checked into the hotel and went for a spin to preview the TT course. Out there we saw most of our field and some other cool cats as well. The climb looks just as fun as I remember it from last year and look forward to punishing myself up it again.

I go off at 5:07pm, hopefully that burrito I ate tonight will be gone by then. Can't be carrying that up the climb.

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Road race Saturday that I did well on in the Cat 2 race last year and then a downtown crit Sunday.

2010 Thus Far

2010-02-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Quick recap of what has happened in 2010 so far:

I raced the traditional San Bruno hill climb on Jan 1st and finished 3 seconds faster than last year in 6th place.

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After that I had a training camp with my new team Cal Giant in Watsonville. There I got to meet everyone, do some great riding, get all my gear, and most importantly eat a LOT!

Picture of Osvaldo Olmos cutting up the skirt steak. We all ate too much that night, but Jesse Moore and Steve Reaney decided to have a strawberry shortcake eating contest. I tried to get involved but I am not in the same league apparently.

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The next race for me was Cal Aggie where Brandon "Crashton" Trafton won the field sprint to finish second after a rider slipped away in the final lap.

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Andrew "Pullmansky" Talansky, Tyler Brandt, Crashton and I went hunting for some pie in Napa and succeeded. I finished second to Yahoo! 's Dirk Copeland and Pullmansky got 9th out of a 12 man break that formed early in the race.

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And this past weekend Pullmansky, Crashton, and I drove too many hours to the Valley of the Sun Stage Race.

Talansky had a great TT to start things off where he finished 3rd to Chodroff and Amaran (I finished 21st).

In the RR there were a couple of attacks early and a group of 12 went up the road with Talansky and the rest of the GC guys. They stayed away and Talansky sprinted to 2nd place and got a couple of time bonuses to secure his 3rd place overall.

The crit had a bunch of attacks, but nothing seemed to be going anywhere except for a solo attempt from Amaran who was also pulled back a few laps later. We tried to set me up for the sprint, but it didn't exactly work out and finished about 20th.

Talansky held on to 3rd overall and I finished 20th.

Trafton finished 11th in the crit and 21st overall in the Cat 2 race.

Results can be found here.

We had a lot of laughs and I felt like we really gelled as a team this weekend and I look forward to a great season.

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BASP #2 Crash Causes Pain

2009-10-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

BASP #2 was the first of two meetings at Coyote Point this year. The course had almost everything you could imagine, and most of it was very loose.

I was doing well and was on track for a top 15 finish... long story short - I wrecked on the bumpy descent after suffering a ruptured blister which made me loosen my grip on the hoods. My front wheel slid out from under me on a tree rut, and that was the end of my race with about 4-5 to go.

Wrist isn't broken, but it has been hurting quite a bit. I also have a nice bear claw mark on my knee.

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Jesse was the best guy on the day with 12th, and keeps his call up for the next race.

Sweet picture

Before the crash, and even before the pain cave was fully open

BASP #1 Video and Recap

2009-10-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Check out some of the madness/party:

The course was mad bumpy and we were all pretty sore the day after. Phil Mooney placed the best out of us getting 12th.

Jesse raced both the Master A and the Men A, so he was extra sore! 17th in the A.

T-Dibble raced his first race after his accident and crashed a few times, but loved it!

Keith and I didn't complete our pre-race goals, well one of them we did.

Full results are here.

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Second Sac series race on Sunday and the Jesse crushfests start this Saturday, so don't be expecting any top notch cross results out of me.

DBC Elite Blog

2009-10-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Davis Bike Club Elite Team now has a blog set up by our own Frank "The Tank".

Check it out yo: http://dbcelite.blogspot.com/

Look for some sweet updates from the guys.

DBC Hits the Cross Scene

2009-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the first race of the Sac Series in Del Paso park.

I showed up early to watch the C race and cheer on team mates Jesse Moore, Cody Tapley, and Torey Phillip. Turns out they crushed that race pretty good. Jesse pulled off in the last corner because he said it was "unfair" for him to win that race. Good sport, he only did the C race because it was his first ever cross race and was unsure of his skill set. Cody ended up taking the win and Torey got 3rd! Heard a rumor that Torey was suffering some mechanical issues towards the end, but he powered through it.

Jesse: (looking good in that DBC kit!)

Cody:

After an exciting start to the day it was time to get ready for the A race. On the start line we had Jesse (racing his second race of the day), Phil Mooney, Keith Hillier, Charlie Alexander, Bruno Pitton, Bryan Pro and myself. Also on the start line with us but racing the masters was Shawn Miller.

Phil got 3rd!

I placed 6th

Bruno finished 8th

Charlie was 11th

Keith ate some dirt and finished 14th

Jesse got 16th after stopping in the pit to tighten his loose pedal

Bryan was 19th on a single speed

And Shawn placed 6th in the Master's 45+ race

- Frank (The Tank) Marrs also raced his first ever cross race Sunday and finished 4th in the B race.

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We had the biggest squad out there today, which is HUGE for a new cross team. From what I could see, everyone had a blast!

I can't wait for next weekend - First BASP series race, should be one helluva party.

For those that were not aware...

2009-09-11T15:53:00.001-07:00

"Scraper bikes is on the scene"

Probably one of the funniest things i have EVER seen!

Enjoy

I Mean It This Time

2009-09-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

I am done racing on the road now, and am taking some time off the bike to get ready for my cyclocross/ winter training season.

My last race was the SF Giro, which is a really cool race (minus the terrible roads). A break of two (Cal Giant, and Webcore) got away fairly early and managed to stick it to the line after 55laps and 40miles of crit racing. Props to them, must have been a rough day!

I was feeling a bit antsy in the field and decided to take a dig up the little riser with 6 to go. I felt like the gap was close enough that I could bridge, but still far enough that we would survive once I got across. I brought them down from 15sec to 7sec in one lap. The next lap I was starting to hurt, and being a little out of shape was catching up with me. The MooneyExpress made it across to me soon after, but he didn't really feel like working and we went back to the field to finish out the rest of the race.

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My cross bike is being built up very slowly, and it looks sweet! I can't wait to start racing on it. I believe my first race will probably be the first race of the Sacramento series. That is the plan anyway. Hopefully my scraper bike will be all set by then.

Home Town Weekend

2009-08-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend's races, Winters and Vacaville, were both a 10 minute drive or less from my house. I can't even count how many times I have gone over that stinking Cantelow climb just this year alone. Knowing it was going to be a scorcher I sent Jan-Man to the feed zone with a lot of icy goodness and good company from the DBC feedzone crew!

Winters RR
Lap one: felt fine because we didn't go very fast.

Lap two: I was up towards the front on the climb and managed to make the front split over the top, but we all came back together on the flats after a lot of attacking and sitting up.

Lap three: I saw a very good move get clear on the frontage road and knew I should have been in there. I placed a weak attack, if you can even call it that, and ended up solo over the rollers. Joe Iannarelli bridged up to me after a while and so did Andres Gil. We worked well together to the base of Cantelow. Through the feed zone we had the break in our sights, but our chase group broke apart. Gil made the bridge without much difficulty, Joe was dangling off the back, and I was not feeling the greatest. Got caught by the main field, which had significantly shrunk, on the steep section and didn't have enough juice to get on the back. Did a gnarly decent, but didn't make it back.

Lap four: Rode it with Lucas because I hate abandoning races. It was ridiculously hot out and I drank 3 bottles every lap.

Not sure where I finished, but probably fairly high with all the flats and people not finishing. Even Keithatron got himself a flat out there. Bummer man, he probably would have done well.

Vacaville Crit (Districts)
Being my hometown race and all I wanted to do well. With a hill, technical corners, and some wind I figured a break would go early so I got to the front early. I followed some moves, stayed near the front and managed to miss the break.... Two Webcore, Two Cal Giant, and another guy I believe.

They quickly built up a solid advantage, but I was unsure of their success because it was such a long race. I moved to the back by taking it easy up the climb one lap and Keith replaced me at the front.

Towards the end of the race, about 8 or so to go, the gap started to come down to the break so I started moving up. The Lombardi boys did a big chunk of work once I got to the front and we got the break back into sight. Cal Giant dropped out of the break, and then went to the front of the field to lead it out and bring back the break with 2 to go.

I was third wheel coming into the climb on the last lap and saw Parnes jump on the right. He must have come from far back because he came around us like he had some rocket boosters on. We all tried to get on his wheel but he motored away for the win. I slotted into second wheel behind Keith Miller and had beautiful position for the sprint. We rounded the last corner before the chicane and people started to sprint. I say people because I was not part of this sprint. My mind was saying "GO!" but my legs seemed to ignore the request. As I was throwing it into reverse through the chicane I heard some carnage a few wheels behind me. Turns out it was Keith, rough weekend man! He is okay, but I am unsure about his bicycle.

Ended up getting 10th, which is solid considering the embarrassing sprint I did at the end.

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That was probably my last weekend of racing until cross season starts unless the Mooney Express can talk me into doing some other stuff. He has a way with words that man.

Cascade...

2009-08-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I didn't have much internet for my trip in Oregon and did most of my updates through Twitter on my phone.

Cascade, as I mentioned, was super fast and a great experience. I didn't have any expectations aside from finishing every stage and saving as much as I could for nationals the following week.

That was all working fine until stage four. We started with a 15 miles climb out of Bend, and then it was flat until another climb up to the finish. I dropped my chain about halfway up the climb when I was shifting to my little ring. It was a bad one too, one of those where you actually have to get off your bike to put it back on. Well, I got it back on, got a push from the Shimano guy, made it back to the group, and was in serious oxygen debt. I knew it was a matter of time before I popped off the back.
I got into a little group of 4 or 5 with 4k to the summit and we tried to limit our losses. A couple guys turned around in front of us, and there were more guys behind. We crested the summit and worked together to the feed zone, where my dad told me I was 15 minutes off the back already. So I figured I would get off and save it for nationals. I was wrecked!
- I know for sure that at least one of those guys that, were in the little chase group with me, made the time cut by less than a minute. Guess I should have kept riding.

I took a few days real easy in attempt to try and recover for nationals.

Bend

2009-07-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I have arrived here in Bend for the Cascade Classic. Just got my number and ate some lovely pasta.

The drive was long, and made longer by a scenic detour we had to take to avoid some fire that was happening on hwy 97. Pretty lame to say the least, but we made it and I'm ready to rock for tomorrow's fairly flat stage 1 (71.2 miles).

Check back tomorrow night of a recap of Stage one.

Also, don't forget to enter the contest on paulmach.com... awesome stuff to win... sorta

Benicia

2009-07-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

The course was hard, the heat was unbearable, and the field was strong...

Recipe for disaster.

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After a few laps a large break got up the road without any DBCers in it, so I followed an attack and rode as hard as I could to bridge up in a little less than a lap. I looked around to see 2 Ouch riders, the always present Gerlach, Scott Z, Reaney, Kline, couple of Webcore riders... and some other folks. aka- this break is going to stick.
Sweet picture

In a short amount of time we had 40 seconds on the field, according to bystanders. Our group slowly started to get smaller and people began skipping pulls like it was nothing... So I ended up on the front a bunch.

Once Zwizanski attacked it was over for me. I just could not accelerate anymore. The lead group was now the 2 Ouch guys, Scott Z, Gerlach and Colin Samaan. They fought it out for the win and lapped all but 16 people.

I fell into the next group on the road. Then a group led by Floyd Landis caught us and with 3 to go I EXPLODED.

I finished 16... last guy to not get lapped, and the finish played out right behind me.

Gnarly race, ready for the 4th!

40 Degrees and Raining

2009-06-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend I drove up to Baker City Oregon, for the Elkhorn Classic, with Phil and Nils. The drive up was fairly uneventful until Phil lost his stunnas out of the car window. After that we just laughed for about an hour.

Once in Baker city we dropped Nils off to his team's hotel and set out to find all the the minty boys that Phil and I were staying with. We got put into a room with @StammDance who is friggin hilarious! Room 112 was def the sickest room ever, we had a blast. We could barely walk anywhere in the room, but it was all good. There were all sorts of shenanigans like this.

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As for the racing. Well, the first day was a 72mile road race that had one major climb and some savage rollers at the end. The weather was decent until about an hour into the race we got hit with some monsoon rain! I have never seen that much rain coming from the sky in my life. We were riding through about two inches of water on the road constantly.
I made it over the main climb with the lead group and the rain stopped just as we finished the decent and began the gnarly rollers into the finish. Each roller was about 1k long, but not very steep. On the first one Evan Pickett and a Land Rover Orbea rider attacked and two others bridged up for the finish. Evan took third and that group finished 6seconds ahead of the next group of about 10. I finished 20th 44 seconds down on the leader... Phil had a terrible mechanical where he had to take his chain off to untangle it from his derailleur and put it back on. He lost almost 20minutes.

The TT finished downtown after some switchbacks which was totally cool. Phil crushed it and won by 2 seconds. I finished 1:58 behind Phil somewhere in the 30s and lost one place on GC. According to Phil I railed the chicane like a champ, so I'm happy about that.

Room 112's plan for the crit was to get Phil and I off the front together crushing as hard as we can, and StammDance was going to try for the field sprint. Phil and I did get off the front together, but I kept dropping him in the corners and he was making me suffer in the headwind section. We were off the front a lot in that race and Phil got a ton of primes. In the end it came down to a field sprint and Fred and I were nowhere near it.

For the last day the forecast said 50 and raining in town, which meant 35-40 on top of the mountains. 100miles in the 40-50 degrees and rain is not my idea of a fun time. We rolled up to the school prepared for the worst, and got the best news of our lives... sort of. They decided to shorten the course and do approximately 10 miles of flat and then an 8 mile hill climb to the finish. As you can probably imagine the roll-out was wicked sketchy and there was a huge 15-20 man pileup towards the front of the field. I was about mid pack and avoided it smoothly. Fred and Nils were not so lucky. Fred got a bloody knee, chain rings on his back, and some bruises from being towards the bottom of the pile. He turned around and hitched a ride from a nice lady into town. Nils was one of the first to go down and his frame got crushed real hard. He seemed fine aside from being grumpy, but that's understandable.
After that madness we turned left to go up the mountain and it went fast. I held on well and got dropped about 4k from the summit. Phil dropped off the pace a bit later after taking a monster pull for Evan and we rolled in together in a chase group. Finished in about the 20s again.

Evan ended up 4th overall, which is a real good result. That was a tough race, but it was fun. I had a blast this weekend. Big shout out goes to Tony Anne for the amazing hospitality at the Bridge Street Inn. If you are ever in Baker City, that is definitely the hotel to stay at. The entire town was very hospitable to the race. Good stuff!

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The ride home was terribly long, but in the end Nils pulled through in the final leg and got us home safely. Check out http://twitter.com/TheStaz for updates from the drive and twitpics.

Phil and I got 3 new people into twitter. @StammDance, @gomrpickles, and @dexdahl. Check em out.

Residents of the Greater Davis Area Rock District TT

2009-06-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

So I ventured up to Sattley to do some hard 40k time trial in attempt of winning the U23 district title. My dad and I stayed the night in Truckee with the White brothers. Not sure how they slept, but my dad and I slept terribly!

For breakfast we had the usual Janwich buffet and some bagels. Outside I was a little angry because I could see my breath but not the sun. Luckily the sun was out on course and the wind was almost nonexistent.

I was last to start of my category and immediately felt terrible. My 30sec guy and I passed my minute man relatively quickly and at the turn around I was 10 sec closer to Jeremy (my 30sec guy). On the way back I felt a little better, and kicked up the speed... but so did Jeremy. With 3k to go I had him at about 10 sec in front of me and gave it all I had. I finished 5 sec behind him, which meant I beat him by 25 seconds.

I won!

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Also,
In the elite race PaulMach.com2.0 threw down to win by 7 seconds over TheMooneyExpress

And Torey Philipp won the 15-16 junior TT

Looks like the flat lands of Davis and the Wednesday World TT championships are really paying off for everyone!

Time Trials HURT

2009-06-10T12:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend I raced the Dash for Cash crit and the Dunlap TT.

On Saturday I was feeling good and tried to get into some breaks along with Chuckleberry and Frank Marrs. We got into a couple, but they never got away longer than a lap. Somehow I missed the winning break of 10 and with 6 or so laps to go I decided it was now or never if i wanted a shot at finishing well. I attacked and took Carmi with me. It took us a lap and a half to close a large gap, but we made it. The last few laps hurt a bunch and Joel Robertson rode away from the rest of the break like it was the thing to do. He soloed in for the win and the rest of us battled for the rest of the prizes. I got 6th, which I'm happy with.

Sunday was the first time I have ever done a 30k TT and had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that PMTG was going to slay it, and he did.
My goal time, after looking at last years results, was a sub-45 time. I ended up getting 41:05 and finished in 7th! I was stoked, my TT abilities are definitely getting better... I should probably thank Phil for that.

I'm doing Sattley this weekend, 40K this time... sheesh, looking forward to the pain!

Slackatron

2009-05-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

So as you may have noticed, I haven't been updating this blog thing...

Sorry about that...
I have been really lazy and enjoying my rest from school before summer classes begin.

Here is a little of what happened lately:

Joseph Mendes Crit
- I got in a savage break of 9 and we almost lapped the feild. Took an idiodic flyer with one to go, and finished 9th. Gerlach won.

Berkley Hills RR
- This was a tough one. The winning break/split of 20 or so established within the first mile of 90. I managed to get into it, but fell out with 2 laps to go. Before I got dropped we had somewhere around 6 min on the field. I finished somewhere in the 30s. 31st I believe.

The next weekend was the modesto weekend and it was HOT!

Modesto Crit
- Got into another break with Gerlach again and got 8th out of 9. Hmm... not very good at finishing out of these breaks huh?

Modesto RR
- Team raced real well here. Early we had a break up the road with Keith Hilliest and both of the Blanco brothers. It looked promising and Z, Chuckleberry and I were relieved to have our race over. BUT, Clif missed the break and organized a chase.
Once they got reeled in there was some more attackin, Z took a savage solo flyer and a break went up the road with me in it. Clif made it this time and so did Reeney again, plus Judd, Carmi, and a Reno Wheelman rider who won with a sweet 1k flyer. Caught us all looking at eachother and not pedaling. I won the sprint for second and Keith got into a chase group and finished 8th or 9th. Russ fell out of the chase group but held the field off, and Greg got second in the field sprint.
Great Racin' boys!

This weekend was HUGE, and very painfull.

Folsom Crit
- Gerlach was there, so i fugured a break would go, but nothing went anywhere and I totally blew myself for the finish. Charlie and Z got up to the front and got DerFridge and 8th place! Sayers won.

Mt. Hamilton
-Keith Hilliest drove down with Janwich and me to San Josie to get our legs torn off. Sheet hit the fan real early in the race and the feild exploded. Keith and I were in the second group on the road going into the long climb and I fell out of it with about 3k to the summit. Keith hung on and finished in the 20s. PaulMach.com2.0 won the KOM and finished 2nd with his team mate winning.
I exploded hardcore and crawled in to the finish. Came home to take a 3 hour nap and got to bed at 9. slept a total of 15 hours I think.

Memorial Day Crit
- After all that pain from the day before Keith and I were back to throw our bodys into the hurt locker some more, this time with the Blanco Brothers for company. It was a pro/1/2/3 race so it was a sketchfest in the beginning. I decided another break would be my best option. I followed Gerlach around for a lap and sure enough, he launched with me and Dibble in tow. We got two Webcore riders, Lucas Binder, 3 Berries, and Andy Goessling with us and started to hammer.
The problem was that we didn't have Jackson with us, and he brought us back with 5 to go. We were out there for a good while and I was totally cooked. Russ tried setting up Keith for the sprint, but he got boxed.

So there ya have it, an update on what has been going on as of late. I promise I will keep this thing update more regularly.

Keep suffering

The Twitter Hype

2009-05-07T22:55:00.000-07:00

So as you know I have a twitter and it seems to be sweeping through Davis. Even people that had previously made fun of me for it or said things like "I'll never get that rig, looks stupid" not only have a twitter account but update regularly.

One of these newcomers has recently become completely addicted. That's right, PMTG is on twitter and is heavily addicted. It is the only thing I hear him talk about now, and when meeting new people one of the first things he asks is "Do you have a twitter?".

Zach has one.

Cody has one.

The hair has one.

His kid too.

Even Andreas has one.

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If you do not have one, well you better get on it. If nothing else you can updates from the man himself.

It is quite addictive, I must admit. Add one more to the list of things that take up too much time on the computer, but I can't go on with my day without checking it.

What will they think of next.

Improvements

2009-04-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Wente RR was sort of disappointing for me, but also shows that I keep on improving everything from last year.

This time last year I was a 3...
At the Wente RR I got dropped fairly early and DNF.

Today I was at the tail end of the splits on the main climb, but managed to get back into the pack until we came in to see 1 to go. My legs weren't happy from the start, but that time up the climb they just told me to go fly a kite and left me on the hillside. I finished the lap with Trashton and some Cal Giant guy. Probably finished in the low 30s, still fairly decent and a HUGE improvement on last year... still got a ways to go though ;)

My team mate Keith did his first 1/2 race today and rocked it. I think he finished somewhere in the 20s. He was in the chase groups with me and worked a ton. Good job mate!

Battling The Elements

2009-04-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

So normally I have class on Tuesdays and don't get to ride at all. Since I am on spring break this week I went out and did the infamous "Double" (two race rides equaling 4 hours of fast past stankyness).

PMTG called me up and changed the game plan a bit... now it was starting the first race ride then going off and doing some hills with some other fast folks and then coming back into town on the second race ride.

As I was driving to d-town I was getting tossed around, in my lil wabbit, a ton! The wind was relentless during our whole ride. On our way out to the first sprint the wind tossed a couple guys around, who were overlapping wheels in front of me, and a few of us went down. Nothing major happened to anyone, thank goodness.

After the first sprint we were checking the ominous clouds over cantelow and figured they would blow away. On the slopes of cantelow the Viper was injecting everyone with his venom and it was painfully delicious. Once we reached the top there were some harsh words thrown about and it seemed slightly childish, but the approaching rain seemed to simmer things down a bit.

We all got a bit wet, but rode super hard and outran the cloud of death with a sweet tailwind for most of the way home. We decided the second race ride would be a sketchfest and did a little longer loop on the way home to get some more miles in.

Solid ride, good company. Harsh, harsh day today but it makes us stronger in the end.

Not much to say

2009-04-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

This sums up my saturday in Napa.

With lung issues doggin' me from San Dimas weekend I didn't have the chance to ride much in the last two weeks and I paid for it in Napa (as you can see by the picture).

The crazy P is pretty bogus to say the least, and multiple crashes happened there every race. I agree with Zacko, if they extended the course up one more block to go around the P it would have a nice right-hand sweeper for the finish and possible be a little safer. This thing does make for an epic race for a solid solo rider like the guys who have won it in the last two years, but for the field it was... SPRINT, coast, pedal a little bit, coast, go really hard, coast, brake, try not to wash out, SPRINT.

Cobbleropolis is up next...

Followers

2009-03-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

So over there, to the right ---->
you will notice a box named "People who dig my reports" (right under the "About Me"). Well that is where I encourage all of you people, who read this madness I call race reports, to become followers.

Thanks for the support ;)

1000 Words

2009-03-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Veronika Lenzi has pictures up from the San Dimas Stage race! Awsomeness.

The above photo is from the RR, and there is a picture of me in the cave during the hillclimb Here.

Enjoy, she has some sweet pics of the other races as well.

San Dimas

2009-03-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

San Dimas Stage Race = Paincave
Gotta love it

Stage 1:
Hillclimb TT, well my climbing has gotten much better and I placed a solid 23rd-54 seconds off the leader- with a time of 15:09, which is 2.5 minutes better than my time last year! I can't really complain about that, but it sure did hurt. The Viper beasted and finished 2nd!

Stage 2:
The road race was a 7mile circuit with one hard climb and another on the back side that wasn't as bad. We did 8 laps of the course and on laps 3,5,7 there were sprint points for the green jersey and time. I tried to go for those since I wasn't too far out of the top 15, but I couldn't get up to the front in time for them because of the climb. On laps 2,4,6,8 there were KOM sprints on the harder climb just about 2miles from the finish. Those laps were generally super fast and painful!

As we were coming into the climb for the second to last time Chuckleberry came up to me and gave me some encouraging words because he noticed that I was in the cave. Thanks mate. On the final lap I decided to sack-up and give it all I had over the climb to stay with the top 20-30 over the top. I was about 30th or so over the top and after the decent there was a bunch of about 20 and then the rest of the guys in front of me were single file. I moved up as best I could on the protected side so as to not lose too much valuable energy. With about 1k to go the field sat up because no one wanted to come around Sean McBride of Lombardi, who had been pulling. Since I was coming from the back I had more speed than those at the front and decided to launch.
I heard Sean yelling at everyone "GET ON THAT! COVER THAT! SOMEBODY GET THAT!".
After I launched my first goal was to catch Evan Pickett who was dangling off the front from the top of the climb. As I caught him I went straight through him and looked up to see that the finish was still REALLY far!!! I gave a quick glance back and thought that I may have a chance in holding everyone off. Well I did, and it was an epic win! Tyler Brandt was 3rd and Julian Martinez got 4th. (The top 5 was all U25 guys).
They gave me a 3second time gap on the field, a 20second time bonus, and 25 points for the green jersey!

Here is a clip of the RR finish that my dad filmed.

RR Podium:

Stage 3:
I started the final crit in the green jersey and 6th on GC. I was feeling pretty good going into this stage and was going to try for the intermediate sprint points and the final sprint to see if I could move up any more places on GC.
The first time the bell rang Chuckleberry led me out perfectly for the dub... but it wasn't a time bonus sprint, but I got a sweet arm warmer/ leg warmer prime. Damn man! To add to the frustration they rang the bell for a "Hot Spot Sprint" (Time bonus and green jersey points) right as I crossed the line. I tried to stay up there for it, but I was too blown to sprint for it.
The second time bonus I got 4th (Just out of the points) and crashed soon after because I was being an idiot coming into turn 1. Accidents happen.
I got back in and soon after that it was 4 to go! Still a little sore and shook up from the crash I told Greg and Charlie to go for the stage, but none of us could get up there.
We all finished with the group and I ended up dropping a spot on GC and finished 7th. Still an amazing result for me!
Mike Margraf from Safeway rode a very smart race this weekend and gathered up enough time bonuses to edge out the win in the overall by hundredths of a second, the U25 competition, and the Green jersey. Pickett took home the polka-dots for KOM.

Pre crit:

Post Crit: (Note: Paul Mach is in the background! He is a sneaky one)

Mad Era

2009-03-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Man, what a cool stage race... well except maybe for the pain and all.

Ben Hur Hillclimb TT:
PAINCAVE. I had a decent time (beat DER VIPER by about 7sec) and finished 27th - 4min down on BJM. Yes, that's right- 4min down after a 10mile TT. It was 6miles rolling and finished on a 4mile climb. I had a difficult time finding my rhythm on the rollers, but settled in on the climb. I caught my min man, who definitely mailed it in, fairly early. My two min man came into sight at the bottom of the climb and I reeled him in by the summit. It was a nice mental boost.

Flat TT:
Not my event, but I'm working on it. I improved my time by a minute and a half, which is awesome. Der Viper redeemed himself and placed 6th on the stage! Noice. Russ also did a good time and put around 30sec into me I think... I lost another min and a half on BJM. Man, what a beast.

Crit:
Barely got recharged in time for this one, and let me tell ya, it was very very painful for the first half of the race. The pace wasn't too bad, but the legs were screaming at me to stop turning over the peddles. A large group went up the road with everyone represented except for DBC and Metromint. Greg, Zach and Charlie took a few efforts with some Minty boys but it wasn't helping too much because Cal Giant and Bissell decided to line up 5 guys each starting from 2nd or 3rd wheel. Once the Safeway guy fell out of the break, they got on the front and helped us to bring the break back. With two laps to go the break was about 3sec up the road and everyone sat up with Cal Giant creating a sort of wall at the front of the field. I barely got around it and saw Charlie Avis launch on my right. I hopped on his wheel going into turn one and by turn two we blew through the break and reestablished their advantage by turn three. With one to go we had a slight advantage, but I was sort of doubtful about the outcome. Now that I think back there really wasn't anyone in the pack besides metromint to bring us back, because a Safeway guy made it across to us with one to go.
Coming around the last corner I went under the safeway guy on the inside and prepared for the sprint. I gave it all i had and barely nipped a Webcore guy for third! Keith Miller from Cal Giant won with BJM taking second. Scott Z from Kelly Benefits was also in the break. They gave our group 3sec over the field, sweet!! ... as if that helped me any, i actually lost time because Ben got second and got a better time bonus then me haha.

RR:
Zach went into beast mode to make up for his busted pedal in the TT and broken spoke in the crit with 2 to go, not allowing him to finish either.
I felt like garbage all day and coming through the bumpy section when we were about to see 1 to go I was too far back when the crosswind hit. I was just closing the door of the hurt locker, after climbing in, when some gaps started opening in front of me. BOGUS!
Big ol' Z got across to the lead group and finished in the pack that dropped down to about 30 or 40 riders! Nice ride bro!
I DNFd, Chuckleberry's dropout busted which made him crash (He is ok, just scraped up), Russ and der Viper flatted, and Greg finished just off the back of the lead group.

FYI- Chuckleberry is Charlie Alexander. Keep that in mind.
-Der Viper... you all probably already know this one, but if not it is Jim Wingert.

I have some video that I will piece together and post on here as soon as I have time.

San Dimas next week, I'm looking forward to this one!

... Been A While

2009-03-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

So I haven't posted anything in a while on this thing...

I haven't had much to say really, Merco was a really cool race, but I didn't have any results to write about. It was the fastest racing I have done thus far and got completely destroyed. I was happy to have finished the grueling 120mile road race (even though they have me as a DNF on the results, I assure you I finished... right behind the BMC car and infront of the DBC car). The crit was tough and ridiculously fast. I stuck my nose out into the wind once or twice, but nothing was going anywhere with the amount of cash up for grabs almost every other lap. The final few laps were ridiculous to say the least and I'm thankful to have stayed upright.

Sweet pic but I'm not sure how they managed to catch me on the front with how little time I actually spent up there. Legit.

Menlo Park:
... was interesting because it was a p/1/2/3 race aka sketchfest. So when I saw dholla moving up the side I hopped on and ended up in a 6man break for the first half of the race. It was looking pretty good for a while and we had a 20sec gap at one point, but ultimately we got brought back. I guess Jackson and AJM weren't excited about our little adventure, but I'm not really sure who actually brought us back.

Here is a pic of our break early (while my legs were still relatively fresh):

Decent gap (field isn't even in sight!):

Oh and I forgot to mention the Tapinator was also in the race and managed to hang on. Great job for a fresh cat 3. Big things to come for that skinny kid.

Here he is on the rivet towards the end of the race:

As for the finish... well I had goo position at the beginning of 1 to go, but the course was insanely long and I lost my position. I battled hard to get it back but that didn't go over too well. I need to take the Bahatti class of crit racing. Dholla won and I ended up 22nd. Not very great...

Also, I have a Twitter so please follow me. I think it is pretty cool and no I will not stop posting on here just because I have a Twitter *cough* Zach *cough*.

http://twitter.com/TheStaz

Check me out yo!

Madera this weekend, pretty excited about that! My TT is still a work-in-progress so don't be expectin' big things.

News10!

2009-02-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

... 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!!

2009-02-03T18:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Early Bird Video

2009-01-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well here it is:

Turn it up, the beginning is quiet then the music kicks in.
Enjoy

Early Bird #1- p/1/2/3 race from Chris Stastny on Vimeo.

First Crit of the year!

2009-01-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

So we ventured down to Fremont to test out the crit legs in the first Early Bird crit of the season. It all went pretty well, try out some breaks, try not to die, and set somebody up for the sprint. Alex, Zach, and I all tried our mid race breaks but they all ended fairly quickly. The longest break of the day was probably somewhere around 3 or 4 laps. Jackson Stewart was the main man bringing everything back it seemed. I got in one break with him for two laps hoping there wouldn't be much of a chase, but we got brought back as well.

With two to go I followed a guy attacking, not realizing we had two to go until I was committed to the break, and we barely held off the field until about 400meters to go. I ended up about 2nd out of the 4man original break and finished 5th overall I think. The guy who won bridged across to us with a half lap to go and had the freshest legs for the sprint.

Good race, tons of fun and I can't wait for the next one! My dad filmed some stuff and I put together a video. It should be up later tonight or tomorow.

San Bruno

2009-01-01T21:34:00.001-08:00

Ah, what a race. The fog was so intense that I could only see about 100ft! I had a very good day and it seems that the hardcore winter training has payed off.

My goal time for this race was 17minutes, which seemed a little unrealistic since my time last year was 21minutes. 4minutes in 3.5miles is no easy task. Turns out that wasn't too unrealistic at all.!

The start was fairly mellow compared to the cyclocross madness that I've been encountering lately. I was sitting about 3rd-5th wheel most of the way until we went into the park. I lost a couple of spots, but still kept up with the lead group of about 6 or so. I wasn't really sure where the finish was because of the fog, but once I saw the large crowd in the distance I looked back to see some red in my perifs. I got out of the saddle and sprinted to beat Rob Anderson just before the line. I finished 11th out of the entire first wave and 13th overall out of all 200 or so starters. My time was 16:02.28, which was good enough for 5th in the p/1/2's. I am very happy with my result, and pretty surprised with how well I felt.

Results are here.

My dad got a new video camera, so I will be having video footage of races now to post! Pretty exciting stuff. The song is way longer than the video, but whatever. Good video to get an idea of the conditions up on the hill.
Enjoy.

San Bruno Hillclimb 2009 from Chris Stastny on Vimeo.

MUDFEST!!

2008-12-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

After my overall victory in the LARPD (scroll to p15) series in the B's I decided it was time to try my hand in the A's. During the drive to Granite Bay I was getting pretty excited, because it was raining quite a bit. I was thinking that this was finally the day I get to race cross in the mud!! oooh yeahh.

Once we arrived we caught a glimpse of the insanity of a C's race that was happening. Everyone covered in mud, but for the most part there were huge ear-to-ear grins on their mud covered faces. Shortly after reg I saw Bruno in his rain gear and he seemed pumped about the course and said he was going to hop on the trainer now that he rode the course... crap! Forgot the trainer at home. At least Bruno was nice enough to let me borrow his sweet rain pants while he used his trainer.

The warm-up lap was fine, pretty slippery but fine. I felt pumped for the race to start, but it felt like an eternity before it all got going. Once we started I, as usual, got a horrible start and was about 20 after the first few corners. I looked up and couldn't even see the likes of JSnead or the other leaders. I dug pretty deep for the next few laps and clawed my way into a group of about four with 2laps to go. On the last lap I gave it all I had and dropped the group going through the sand pit. I held them off to the finish and ended up a solid 7th. Bruno finished 15th I believe, and I don't know how many started.

A really fun race, but now I have to take my whole entire bike apart because there is sand absolutely everywhere. That's a drag, but I think it was worth it. Hope that the Sac series finale will be as muddy as this one was!

Here is a picture of me leading a small group, I'm in orange this time- left the white stuff at home =p

Video of all the madness- I'm not in it, but there are some shots of the leaders of the A's in there as well.

BASP Golden Gate park!

2008-12-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well I finally made it up onto the BASP podium after my near success at the night cross. I've got to admit, this was a really savage course and a true hard man's race.
Once again i got screwed over by all of the call-ups and what not having to start from the 4th row this time. Everything will be much better for the last race of the series because I move up to 19th overall! Being one of the last to be called up will be a slight advantage, and I hope to get a good start finally.
As for this race at Golden Gate Park, well it went very well for me. The start was horrible, as always, and i was somewhere near 25th or 30th and caught up in a small wreck after the first corner with sand in it. After everyone got untangled it was time to pick my way through the riders in front of me. The crowds were awesome and the run-up was an intense section of the course with tons of people yelling at the top of their lungs. With two to go Stevo yelled that there were 4 guys ahead of me and that I had podium in the bag. I could see the guy who placed 3rd not too far ahead of me so I tried to get up to him, but that didn't work out.
Coming around the last corner I pinch flatted getting onto the pavement. I rode the slight uphill on a flat rear sprinting with a guy who was running his bike that he seemed to have flatted as well. That was a intense finale because the guy who was running was the guy who was supposed to be 5th and I barely got around him in the last 50 or so meters. What a bummer for him...

Anyways, I'm pretty excited for next sunday. The 5th and final race of the BASP series is at coyote point and it should be epic. Maybe I'll get a medal from this one, but they are only for the top three.

Crossin' and Designin'

2008-11-25T19:59:00.001-08:00

So my boy Z and I went to Livermore to race some cross down there. I'm chasing points to win the B's overall and Zach just borrowed a bike he wanted to test out. I think hes hooked even with his misfortune of a wheel coming off on the second lap incident. He had to stop and remount his wheel due to a loose skewer. Pretty weak, but he still managed to get back up and finish a solid 8th.

Here he is in the sandy section, I swear he didn't deck it after this picture was taken even though it looks like he is about to:

As for me, well I went on to win again and I'm pretty close to that top spot with just two more races to go in the series! I might get that sweet T-shirt my dad has been eyeing since we started racing there.

Here is a sick picture my dad took of us warming up:

As for the designin' well I found this sweet website on BSNYC's blog and I got hooked on it for about an hour and designed a wide range of scrapper bikes, super hipster fixies, and even a couple of savage BMX bikes. Haha, check it out y'all Pedal ID. Feel free to post your designs on my comments I'd love to see what ya got.

Here are a couple of my fabulous works of art:

Night Cross!

2008-11-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

So I raced the night cross at Sierra point as part of the BASP series. My race started at 5pm so it was the first race to finish under the lights! At sunset i positioned myself on the front line of the start line in preparation for the intense first left- turn plus bunny hop at 30mph:

Well that was a great idea, except that they insisted on calling up the top 20 in the series to the front. That pushed me back to the 3rd row which made things 10times sketchier. About 10 seconds into the race there was a pile-up to my right and after the first corner I was in about 25-30th place. As the race got progressively darker the fans began to get livelier while fatigue was settling in on us racers. With 3 laps to go I clawed my way up into the top 10. I came into the barriers a little too tired and dropped my front wheel into the second barrier and then, with my bike way in the air behind me, I hit the third barrier with my foot. i somehow managed to get over the fourth one without crashing or dying so I hustled up the run-up and proceeded onward. Luckily my mom got this on tape and it was pretty sweet to watch. I'm sure everyone watching got a huge kick out of that. Someone yelled "Keep your feet up man!!" at me as I was struggling with my bike.

Once the race was over the officials thought I was a lap down, but confused my number with someone else's. After all the dust was settled, literally, I was 6th and just one step off the podium. Worst part was that I could see the 5th place guy about 10 seconds ahead of me crossing the line as I outkicked one guy for 6th. Totally the most fun I've ever had on a cross bike and i wish all cross racers were twilight races. So much cooler!

Here is a picture I found on cyclocross magazine's flicker set:

CX and Jesse Rides

2008-10-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

The world famous Jesse rides have started with the wild and exciting courses in full swing yesterday. I felt better than last year, but this was the first ride and they will surely get much tougher. I'm excited!

On saturday I ventured out to Livermore to hit up a very sweet cyclocross course in and around the Livermore Rodeo. No hills, but quite a few barriers, an amount of turns that would be tough to count up in one sitting, and a sweet fast flat section. I raced the B's race where I placed second! Lots of fun. Heres a picture my dad took that was pretty cool of the three leaders in the B's race. More pictures are on http://wordpress.ncncaracing.com/?p=51 from Casey K.

Winter training has begun

2008-10-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

So I have started training again... watch out! Ha, well I'm pretty excited for the winter season this year for some reason. I want to do this again:

Doesn't that just look fun right now? Yes after a week or so of that things will change, but for now the excitement is still strong. -Not sure who the rider is, but i found the picture on Google.

While in this reconstruction phase I attempted track racing and cross racing, both of which are intensely fun, but the road is where its at for me!

Mt. Tam

2008-09-28T17:49:00.001-07:00

Well Mt. Tam was quite an adventure. I didn't train for it at all and ended up with a much better time than I anticipated. My unrealistic goal time was 45:00. I ended up a little shy of that with a 45:57. On the flat section I felt amazing and for the first little while going up the climb I managed to stick with the lead 5 for a short while before blowing off the back. During my ascent I integrated into a couple of different groups, where I usually sat on the front doing my own pace so as to not blow up too hard. Ultimately; I blew up anyways and finished a mere 57 seconds slower then the goal that I had set as "unrealistic" for myself.
By far the coolest part of the race was the view over into San Francisco on the back side of the mountain (pictured). It was such a lovely day that the whole skyline was visible along with the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate. Sweetness

Now I'm pretty stoked for some time off from the bike and gaining weight again... shoot. I may try my hand at some crazy track races as well =] we will see.

The Final Day to a Great Era

2008-08-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Davis Junior Race Team may not be coming to an end, but most of it's riders are now over 18, leaving only a few up- and- comers to take over the throne. One thing is for sure, Taylor, David, Alex, and I are all done with junior racing. We have all been through a lot of different triumphs and struggles. I just want to say thank you! special thanks goes out to Steve Wick who organized everything and helped me in a major way to get my cycling career rolling. Without him and my dad, who supports me more than 100%, who knows what kind of crap I would be getting myself into.

Thanks everyone who was ever part of the DBC juniors, your all amazing people!

** race updates from Dunnigan and the Giro coming up real soon.

My First Weekend as a 2!

2008-08-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

I finally upgraded and decided to try my skills last weekend at the Winters R.R. and the Suisun crit. Both of these races were fairly close to my home so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do both. The winters race was very tough with 4 laps of fast flats plus cantelow equaling 90 or so miles. The first half of the first lap was fine, the climb was fine, but the gradual descent down pleasants valley after the descent off of cantelow was crazy fast. We were going 40mph for... I don't even know how long, and finally eased up going into the start of the second lap. The second time up the hill was very fast through the fed zone and pushed me towards the back of the group. The final section of cantelow I was put into some difficulty and started the descent a little off the back. I caught up to the last group on the road at the bottom of the descent, looked up, and saw 6 or 7 small groups of 10 going balls out infront of me. Physically I felt alright, but my lungs decided to catch on fire after about 5 minutes of spinning my 52x14 at over 40mph. So, naturally, I blew up... was pretty dissapointed to get dropped on the flats, but what can ya do. Next time.

In Suisun I wanted to test out my sprint with the big boys. The race was pretty fast, and super long. Throughout the race there were always small groups up the road that never seemed threatening. With about 6 to go a large group of about 12 rolled away and I thought it was over, but some how the group I was in decided to go for the win. Seeing my opportunity get closer I began moving up and positioning myself for a bunch kick. With 3 to go the front group was within reach, and one guy drove the pace too high into the first turn washed out. I was 3rd wheel at the time and barely managed to get under him and the guy infront of me who felt the need to slam on his breaks. Now I was on the front too close to the group to sit up, and not sure how things were behind me, so I decided to bring the group back. One to go and the group was together for an ideal sprint finish, but I was too tired from the previous effort to get into the right position and ended up somewhere in the top 20.

Now I look forward to a huge showing of DBJRT at the Dunnigan Hills R.R. First time I will be racing that race eventhough I have been there watching twice now. Both times I had fallen ill a few days before. Lets hope for the best this year because it is going to be a memorable one.

An Update at Last

2008-08-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lengthy absence of a blog entry. My computer had crashed just before leaving for nationals, and we have just gotten it back today. Here is how nationals went:

Day 1- T.T.

The time trial, not my best event, was more of a hill climb then anything else. Most of the course was gradually uphill with a slight descent toward the turnaround and then back up a little ways to the finish. The climb wasn't too steep, but definitely enough to hurt the legs. I felt pretty good about my ride, and placed much higher then I thought I would. My time was 30.49 which gave me 46th place out of 102 finishers.

Day 2- Crit.

After finding out that the reigning national crit champ was not going to be racing, due to a broken collar bone he got in Canada, I became pretty excited about our teams chances for a jersey! A major setback though was that Alex Wick became ill with strep throat and could barely talk or even breathe. A-Dub gave me a short talk about how I was the strongest sprinter out there now and I could come up with the goods to win if I was in the right position... Well I guess the pressure got to me and my mind was not in the game at all during the crit. I ended up riding in the worst possible position ever imaginable in a narrow sketchfest in the Angel's stadium parking lot with 130 crazy 17 and 18 year old punks. With one to go a break of 4 got up the road and stuck it... as for me, well I came in somewhere in the middle, sketched out, full of brake dust, sore from a long crit, and a very sore head beating itself up for doing so poorly. To make matters worse my dad decides to rip me apart afterwards. Man does he know how to make someone feel horrible.

Day 3- Rest Day for me

Went out to ride the road race course with Taylor and Jimbo after watching Zach crash out of the 15-16 RR in the second lap. Crazy descents after the start are just too intense for us youngsters to handle.

Day 4- Another rest day

Rode the course again and decided I may be able to hang in for this race!

Day 5- 17-18 RR 7:00am

The start time was looking pretty early on paper, 5:30am breakfast and arriving by 6:00, but it turned out to be better because the heat wasn't as unbearable as it was in the crit and TT. Taylor and I had set a game plan of just sitting in and following wheels while watching out for the favorites. Alex had decided to race despite still being very sick and managed to hang out for quite a long time. We rode the first two laps according to plan, but there was a break of about 8 up the road 45 seconds ahead of us. With 2 to go the break got gobble up and another went up the road. A couple people bridged up to them including Taylor and eventual winner Evan Huffman. Now my goal was to wait for the final climb and sprint it out in the finish for a top 15 or 20 spot. The group of 7 riders stayed away with Huffman outkicking Taylor in the closing meters of the climb. As the rest of the bunch hurled up the feed zone towards the finish, a minute behind the winner, my legs caught on fire but I managed to finish in a very solid 19th place.

For being my first ever nationals I am happy with how I performed and intend on improving on my placing next year in the U23 race.

Oh and I also just received and E-mail from Casey K. letting me know that my upgrade to Cat.2 has been approved... So I'm doing the winters road race with the big boys the Saturday, should be a blast.

=]

Nationals!!

2008-08-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

So in a few days we depart to Anaheim for the crazy event called Nationals. This should be tons of fun. I can't wait to see how this parking lot crit course is going to look... should be quite interesting to say the least. Oh, the road race and crit heats should be a blast too! I'm most excited for the time between races and all the nonsense being tossed back and forth between us. I hope El Gigante brings his PCM2008- Game is SO SICK!

On a side note... My dad and I have to room with PaulMach.com. It seems as though we will have to test out his Czech language skills ha ha. As Zach would say, "Ser Na To!"

Updates and hopefully some sweet pictures to come after nationals!

The Spring HILLY Road Race

2008-07-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

This Sunday was the Spring Hill R.R. just outside of Petaluma. On the drive up to the race I started to get very nervous because there were big hills all over the place. My dad was laughing at me, and poking jokes about when I was going to get dropped.

Goal for the race: Don't get dropped and see how the legs feel for the sprint.

When we arrive at the race I see Chad and he tells me about our 8 person team we had for the race. I was pretty excited to have such a large Davis team at a hilly road race. Andreas and I, being the only juniors in the 3's, had to go through the roll out routine and before we knew it... we were off. The start was at the bottom of the finishing climb which was quite steep and tough. Thankfully Chad got on the front and set a very calm pace at the front so we could all warm up. Thanks dude! =]. The first half of the lap saw tons of people trying to get into early breaks. We had one DBC rider initiate a four rider break on the second larger hill on course. The break stuck for a while, but never really had a substantial gap. When they got caught I decided to counter it, hoping someone would follow my wheel. I guess no one wanted to go for another break that early... so I was solo for about 5 miles towards the end of the first lap. 'Great man, 2.5 more 22mile laps to go and your solo' is what I said to myself hoping not to blow up when I got caught. They caught me right before the feed zone, located on the finishing climb. The next lap was full of breakaway attempts, I was in a couple, but nothing seemed to want to stick. On the third lap, with our field smaller, a solo rider went up the road. Two more people bridged up to him, and everyone stopped working. I attacked the group with one guy on my wheel and we worked together for a short time before the group caught us again. After that the group started to work together nicely and we brought back the break with about 3 miles to go to the finish. When I saw the '2k to go' sign all the pain left my legs and I felt great for the final climb. We hit the feed zone very quickly, someone attacked, then Andreas attacked, I followed. With 500 meters to go I was 4th wheel with Andreas a little up the road and two more guys between us. I knew that I could get past those two guys if I could get to the 200 meter sign on their wheels (was a false flat down from 200 meters to the finish). I got on the wheel of the third place guy and we blew by the guy who was second. We hit the final bend and I gave a sore legs version of my sprint to nip the guy on the line for second. Andreas finished 1st by about 25 meters! Great day for DBC juniors!

So I have gotten a little bit of confidence in my climbing now, but it still needs a lot more work. More of those Diablo rides I guess, because they sure seem to be helping.

This air is not fair

2008-07-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to watch the finale of a great stage won by Ricco. After that I went to throw away the garbage outside in the dark sky and smelled smoke. I'm pretty angry about this because last time I could smell smoke in the air, which was not too long ago, I did not ride very much. Because of this smoke, and the very hot days before, I have been watching the tour multiple times a day, watched I AM LEGEND on demand, played my fantasy cycling league on http://www.versus.com/kenda, and checked out all of the sweet pictures on http://www.ncncaracing.com/.

Also I went to http://sparetheair.com/aqirealtime.cfm and found out that I'm probably not going to ride today... this is really not fun at all.

Well I guess I'll resume reading through other peoples blogs about the tour and whatever else might catch my eye.

Update

2008-07-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Just updated the layout... tell me what you think.

I like the picture, but I still think it needs something different there. Any ideas?

Long Weekend of Racing

2008-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Friday:

This weekend's adventures started at the 4th of July Crit in Davis. I arrived in Davis at 7:00am to do my duty as a corner marshal for the early races before I took the line for the junior race. The race went pretty smoothly, I took a two lap flyer early on to launch either Taylor or Alex up the road and make Evan Huffman chase. Well all three of those guys went up the road, which meant the race was over for the rest of us. Zach and I had to cover anything that tried to go up the road, and just sit on everyone. I ended up in the second group up the road, with four others, where I picked up a prime and won the sprint to finish 4th. In the front group there were some tactical imperfections between Alex and Taylor allowing Evan to outsprint Alex in the finish.
After the Juniors Zach and I had an insanely long rest period before the start of the 3's. Neither one of us really wanted to warm up, which made for some painful first few laps. I have not figured out why, but that was a very odd race. The pace seemed pretty slow and there was always someone up the road. Midway through the race I tried for a few primes and won a large tub of cytomax. On the last lap one guy went off the front and everyone was certain we would pull him back... but no one was pulling. I went to the front a few corners sooner then I wanted, but I dug as hard as a could and brought Zach 2nd around the final corner (one guy still up the road). The solo rider up the road hung on for the victory, Zach got nipped at the line by one rider to bag 3rd place, and I came in at the back of the front group at 12th. I guess I caused a wreck in the right hander from my speedy cornering on the final lap ;)

Saturday:

Leesville Gap Road Race... That was an insane course. I had a ton of fun, but I definately need to work on my climbing more. Not too much to say about the race because my vision was so blurry from all of the bumps. The gravel was fun, the bumpy roads hurt, the climb hurt more, and I will be back next year better prepared... I hope.

Sunday:

Vacaville Grand Prix- A technical course with a hill in it. I enjoyed the course that they set up, it's challenging and fun at the same time... I thought so at least. In the 3's race we had 16 laps to do, and after about 8 my legs started to feel a little better. With 7 to go I covered some moves and got into an 8 person break that had a tiny gap going into the hill. Josh Rennie and I drove it hard up the hill and got a larger gap as the rest of the 6 riders sat up going up the hill. I don't know how long it was, but I think it was a few laps untill Russell White decided to make the bridge up to us. Once he joined us we stretched out our advantage, but never had a big enough one to hold off the charging pack. On the bell lap the field caught us, and I attacked again going into turn one knowing I could get a good gap through the tight corners. I got a pretty decent gap, but didn't have enough juice to make it over the hill infront of the group. It came down to a sprint and Zach got 9th along with some money. This was a very tough weekend and I am super excited to take the day off from my bike today.

Burlingame Crit...

2008-07-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

After a smoke filled training week, it was finally clear enough to race in Burlingame. Waking up at 5:00am is not very fun when your body has become used to 11:00. We arrived in Burlingame... freezing. Zack and I walked the course and decided it was a pretty cool course, but I wasn't loving the sweeper too much.

The race went smoothly except for a few sketchy parts and bars into my hips, but that has become pretty normal. With about 9 laps to go I dropped back to pick up Zacko and position him for the sprint. Now moving up for one person is hard enough, but doing that and making sure Zack stays on my wheel is even harder. It takes more time, so we started early. We have done it before to get a win for him on Memorial Day, and we can do it again. I moved him up to about 15th spot for the final lap (a little too far back, but maybe a top 5 in the finish??). We go into turn two, a guy washed out on the inside on the cobbled crosswalk. Another rider plowed into him and went over the bars. Zack and I, on the outside, made it around that mess and headed out of the corner with sighs of relief. BUT... a rider on the outside right in front of me, on the exit of the corner, locked up his rear wheel and crashed himself out. I tried going around him, got hit by his bike, bumped a guy to my outside, (which I think put him into the curb, sorry man) and went into the curb myself. When I dismounted I saw a bare parking meter getting close to me quickly. I turned my back to it very quickly and blasted it going about 25mph. I seriously thought I broke all my ribs on the collision... Just get up... get up... if you can get up your o.k., I thought to myself. I got up very quickly, got a cramp in my hamstring, and saw that Zack had made it through but was off the back because he had to come to a stop to get around me. No points. Weak. At least I survived the parking meter. All I have is scrapped up shifters, a dent in my wheel, bloody hands, and a sore back. Pretty lucky.

This weekend will be fun =] 4th of July, Leesville, and Vacaville!!!

Heat Wave in Napa, and a hill climb to forget

2008-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend started off with the usual crit prep. As we arrived in downtown Napa, we discovered a not so usual crit course. This course had a "crazy P" on one end, and a "box" at the other end. Personally I loved the "crazy P" and the "box", it gave an interesting twist to the race. After Zach and I got done investigating the course we took to finding a shady spot to warm up in. The heat in Napa on Saturday was borderline unbearable, and it didn't help that the 3's race had to start at 1:05pm. Warm up was a drag, but Stevo did try to liven things up with the ice down the bibs trick. ;]

After getting the final pieces of ice out of our bibs we set out to the start line with two bottles each. (First time I ever thought about taking two bottles for a crit). While I was standing on the start line I started to feel my foot catching fire from the hot blacktop. I thought i was just imagining it for a second, but Zach grumbled something about his feet burning as well before i said anything out loud, and ignored the feet. Since this was a technical course our plan was to stay at the front and make sure nothing got up the road, unless Zach (the upgrade points chaser) was in it. During the first trip around the "P" i was sitting about 4th wheel and the guy in front of me blows his tire and eats it. I start thinking that this is going to be another one of those fun 3's crash fests, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The next few laps were crazy fast and crazy hot, mainly because Zach and i were covering everything and I was pulling hard on the front in attempt to drop the sketchmen who can't corner. After hearing the announcer, Jess Raphael, getting excited about how the Davis junior squad had the race under control, we both jumped across into a break of two. James LaBerge also followed and it was the five of us working nicely. Slowly half, of what was left, of the field bridged up and there were 14 of us. At that point almost everyone stopped working and Zach and I tried telling people to work for about two laps. Nothing could get these negative racers to work so we gave up and sat on like everyone else... At this point my ice bottles were hot and almost gone. I was starting to feel the tunnel vision settle in, and even the occasional goose bumps. We finally got lap cards out and the field was all together again. With about 5 to go a guy decided to go for his solo bid for victory. I told Zach to just sit in, got no response, and moved up to the front to bring back the solo breakaway. After two laps of working on the front, and three laps to go, I heard Stevo on the sidelines "Zach is out!"... WHAT!... all that work, no points. THREE LAPS TO GO. Poor guy dehydrated and his world began to spin. Good thing he pulled out, could have cause a pretty nasty wreck. As for me, well my world began to spin a little too, frustration and dehydration settling in, so I decided to just play it safe and not try for positioning. I came in at the back of the bunch, with empty bottles, dry mouth, and a big headache.

All in all it was a really fun race and a cool course. Definitely going there next year again. As for Z's upgrade points, well.. 9 more points isn't too much, we should be able to handle that in no time.

Mt. Diablo, or as I told Zach... Mt. Dia-blow my legs.
I love this climb, as a climb. But a time trial up it?... Not for me. If this was a mass start race all the way to the top I would have done better, but the solo ascent killed me. Alex Wick had a fairly good ride to lock up second place in the Junior Points Series, but Charlie Avis was just in a different climbing league.

Alex may have been a better climber then me today, but his baby brother Zach, me, and Jan got the hard man points of the day for going all the way to the summit. (The time trial went to the halfway point of the mountain). As the two biggest guys on the team, we needed it for sure.

A big shout out to lil ol' Cody Tapley, the boy sure can climb. I can't wait to see what happens once he gets a normal sized head on his shoulders and starts to race smart. He's getting stronger, that is for sure. Nice ride dude

Nevada City Pictures

2008-06-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of me in Mikey's Vanderkitten kit to check out.

Pre- Race

Sitting 5th wheel

Post Race

The Podium

How I almost died in Nevada City...

2008-06-17T16:19:00.001-07:00

Father's Day...

We decided to try my luck in a very hilly crit on Father's day hoping to make my dad's day. Well we arrive, in beautiful Nevada City on a very nice day, perfectly on time and relatively calm. Everything goes smoothly, parking, reg, and watching the masters torture eachother on the climb. When we get back to the car to start getting ready and warming up I notice that I have left my little yellow bag sitting on my bed with my kit in it.... ooops. Now some of you may know Jan and can picture his anger/ frustration at this point. I am not going to lie to you, I was pretty spooked for my life.

After getting the "You can't do anything right" speech from my parents, my dad says calmly "Warm up, and I will find you something." Now knowing my dad as well as I do, i obeyed his request and began to warm up. My mom was sitting there trying to comfort me, which was not helping at all. As I was starting to doubt old man Jan's amazing skills at getting what he needs; the phone rang. It was a very excited Jan telling me that he got a kit from Mike Hernandez that will "Make me famous" as Mikey put it. At that point I didn't really care what it was as long as it enabled me to race without being in baggy shorts and a t-shirt.

When my dad came running down the street I got off the trainer and hopped into the car to change into my newly acquired kit. Funny thing is... I went into the car as a boy/young man, and came out as a Vanderikitten! Hmm. This race is going to be fun with a bunch of young category three males ripping me apart for my choice of kit. I proceed to warming up as I prepare for the laughter comming from everyone.

I roll down to the start/ finish line to a very lively commentator (Mike Hernandez). Mike takes one look at me, puts his mic down and takes a picture of me. All he had to say was "That's so hot!" Geuss I made Mikey's day, because he then decided to question me on how, and from whom, I got this sweet outfit in a pre- race interview on the start line. After that i got a couple of laughs from fellow racers and even got a "What the f**k are you wearing?!" from Greg White.

After all of this fame I was a little nervous about letting everyone down. I rode my heart out on the climb hearing things from "VANDERKITTEN!!" to "Chris is that you?!" on the sidelines. I thank everyone who supported me and my forgetfullness that day, it helped a lot. The race played out nicely and the pack was slowly thinning out lap by lap until it was just 13 of us. A Reno Wheelman rider decided to take a dig towards solo victory on one of the laps, and stuck it. Props to you man. As for the rest of us 12, well we duked it out on the final descent in a sprint. As Taylor would say "My 14 IS ON FIRE"... It sure was, because the guys I was sprinting past were fully spun out in their 53-11's.

All is well that ends well. My dad decided to spare my life, I placed second in a hilly crit, i won a downhill sprint in a 52-14, aquired some new popularity, and a new hero. Thanks Mikey! i owe ya one man.

New Blog

2008-06-17T15:39:00.001-07:00

Check it everyone,

The Staz now has a blog.

Due to recent events I have decided that i need to get one of these blog thingys to start telling people of my crazy adventures on and off the bike =]

More to come soon enough..... District Crits, and Nevada City