PAA Cycling

SCNCA Time Trial & Velo Allegro Criterium

Becky Siegel — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:52:07 +0000

By Becky Siegel

This past weekend, the PAAWT attended the Southern California and Nevada district time trial championships as well as the Velo Allegro criterium in Long Beach.

Time Trial Championships

I’ll spare any details here as time trials are pretty boring. Vikki was going for the women’s 40-45 title and I was going for the Women’s cat 3 title.

We both earned spots on the podium; I placed first and Vikki placed third.

Me with my gold medal

Velo Allegro Criterum

Vikki, Caitie and I raced the 3/4 race. Vikki won a prem for $20 at Surf City Cyclery, and I won a prem for 2 bags of coffee. It was pretty apparent that this race was going to come down to a field sprint. I tried to be in good position coming around the final turn, and Peta (a good friend of PAAWT) from Ritte, went early. She was able to hold us all off, but Vikki & I came in 2nd and 3rd. Caitie also had a good finish, being in the top 5 of the cat 4 finishers.

Mother's day flowers for the non-mothers

Vikki and I also raced the 1/2/3 race. The Canadian national track team was out again, and they were determined to win. A group of 5 got off the front relatively early, with two canadians, an SC Velo rider, a Helen’s rider, and a La Grange rider. Team Canada did a good job of controlling the front of the main field, and the break stayed away the whole race. I took some rotations at the front in hopes of making up some time, but they were just too fast! We both finished mid pack, but I’m constantly learning so much by racing in the elite level races.

Velo Allegro Criterium by Brandon

Bailey Eckles — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:34:35 +0000

This past Sunday I competed in the Velo Allegro Criterium Race. As usual I had to wake up extra early at around 4 to ensure that I got to the race on time and was able to get a proper warm up. Before I got to the line I ate a cookies n’ cream Powerbar to get some of my energy back. Raphael and I were lucky enough to get good positioning and stayed together for most of the race. I stayed behind for most of the race and tried my best to conserve my energy. When there were three laps to go I started drafting off of others who were trying to move up as well in order to not use as much of my energy which turned out to help later on. During the final lap I was able to get great positioning for the final sprint. The final sprint turned to out to be great because of the fact that there weren’t any people in front of me holding me back. In the end I was able to get 7th place which turns out to be my best performance so far. Altogether, I learned many different techniques and tactics that helped me to improve my performance.

Barrio Logan Criterium by Joey

Bailey Eckles — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:42:48 +0000

There were more people than usual at this race, about 25. We were given a lap to see the course, which was tight and twisty, with 8 corners and no long straight section. From the start, the pace was fast. More and more riders got dropped, reducing the size of the lead group, although there was never a successful “breakaway”. I tried to stay near the front, but was pushed back a few times when there were attacks. A few laps into the race, I developed a tactic that I believe is great for these races; to just stay on the outside. This way, I could pedal and speed up through the corners when everyone else is braking. However, I was not able to get into the draft, but that was not a problem due to the short straight sections. The race went on, very fast, and time passed quickly. I do remember that for one lap, about three laps to the end, eveyone rode slow. Finally someone attacked but the whole lead group just sped up. The pace increased during the last lap, but I was able to keep up. I got stuck on the inside on the last corner so I ended upin the back, but I did chase down one of the lead riders who was too tired to sprint. Counting the riders ahead of me, I finished 11th. After a short cool down, the “chase”, a similar sized group, rolled in.

Devils Punch Bowl by Devin

Bailey Eckles — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:28:58 +0000

Waking up is always the hardest part, but once you’re up, it all seems to pass by too quickly. We left the house around 6:30am and headed off to the course… not before picking up some Starbucks for breakfast! On our way there, we did have some difficulty finding the actual course, but thanks to my mom’s great sense of navigation and a little help from her husband Andres, we found it. My warm up only took about 30 minutes before I started heading to the line. One look around with my junior teammate Brandon by my side, I could tell we had some pretty tough competition. Before we knew it we were off!

The first 3 or so miles were as relaxed as a race could be… no really. It was a pretty slow pace. However, once we hit the climb, the front 17, including myself took off. The hill itself was quite difficult because it consisted of rollers within the climb. This caused fluctuating speeds, making it harder to stick on with the group. Before I could react I was spat out of the back, no more than half a mile away from the downhill. Unfortunately once the group gained its momentum, there was no way I was going to be able to catch back on. It was long though until a group of 3 caught up to me coming down and from there we worked continuously to chase. Still no ground gained on the front though. One by one each dropped until it was me and another who we had also picked up. From there we began our second lap. We quickly caught up to two more stragglers. Again, though, two more dropped and it was another and myself alone finishing the 2^nd lap. We were both struggling to maintain speed in the head winds and especially on the climbs. The rider I was with attempted several times to sprint away, but I quickly latched back on every time. However, the last sprint attempt he made was cut a little short so I quickly countered it and took off right past him. As I came close to the finish, I could see a group of four just beginning to sprint. At that point I got out of my saddle and gunned it for the finish. Overall finished 13 out of 23.

New Meet and Greet ride announced

Jerry Sanders — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:36:15 +0000

We’re starting a new ride called the Meet and Greet. It will roll once a month from Lot K at the Rose Bowl. This is a very easy paced ride specifically targeted at promoting the Community of PAA and introducing new and potential new members to our club.

The first event will be held Wednesday May 30^th at 6:15p.m. We’ll be meeting at the Rose Bowl Lot K spend the first 15 min introducing ourselves, and then rolling out (at 6:30) for a 10-15 mile ride. Please join me as this is an excellent time to meet new people who share something in common, and introduce them to our great cycling club.

If you have any questions, please drop an email to membership@paacycling.org

Hope to see you all there.

Jerry

Chuck Pontius Criterium

Becky Siegel — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:11:41 +0000

By Jenn Gill

A few of the PAA women raced the Chuck Pontius crit in Valencia this past weekend. Caitie, Ericka, and I did the 3/4 race. This was Caitie’s second race coming back from an injury and Ericka’s first of two races that day.

Caitie and Jenn driving the front (Photo - LA Sports Photography - http://www.lasportsphoto.com)

It was a field of 25 with a nearly even split of 3s and 4s and many familiar faces from our local races. The race did not start at an overwhelming pace and pretty much stayed that way the entire time. There were a few attacks but overall it seemed no one wanted to really push the field– possibly as a result of Devil’s Punchbowl the day before.

Somewhere in the second half of the race as we were rounding the first turn, one of the girls slid out right next to Caitie and me. As she went down, another girl ended up going down with her. Luckily, everyone else was able to avoid the crash. I stayed on Caitie’s wheel as she maneuvered around it without even blinking.

As we neared the end of the race I was concerned that everyone still had fresh legs due to the pace of the race. With this in mind I worked my way towards the front of the group knowing I had to be there when we rounded the last corner. I don’t consider myself much of a sprinter so I need all the advantages I can get!

As we approached the last turn the speed kicked up and after the turn the sprinting began. I was just hoping I could hold it through to the finish. I ended up 5th overall, 2nd among the 4s. Catie was close behind me coming in 5th in the 4s.

An enjoyable course and a fun race!

After the race we checked on the two girls in the crash. Aside from some road rash, they seemed fine.

Rosena Ranch Circuit Race By Nathan Hickey

Bailey Eckles — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:16:35 +0000

Rosena Ranch was my first circuit race. I had a great time. I came home with a second place finish. I learned how to pace myself, not sprint too early, and that I need much more experience on my road bike.

Pasadena Bike Week – Volunteers and Event Info

Eddie Ramirez — Wed, 02 May 2012 05:17:08 +0000

We have a great opportunity to help our community for Pasadena Bike Week (May 14 – 19). The coordinator of the week-long event is excited to have our Pasadena Cycling Club help out with events to encourage new riders and to make the city a more bike friendly place – it sure is a cause that is near and dear to all of us! As a non-profit organization, we are bringing as many opportunities such as this to you in support of our mission to promote bicycling as a sport and for enjoyment of its members. Let’s share our interest in the sport and biking skills with our community!

There are volunteer slots for most days of the week to help for just an hour or two, or three. I love that we have all these options!

Do you have or know kids who need community service credit? Sign them up to come with you! I can sign a letter of participation for the student if you wish – just email me directly to coordinate.

Here is an online volunteer link for Bike Week Pasadena: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/27NWBHG

Here is the Bike Week Pasadena webpage for more on the events for the week – invite your friends and family to join in on the fun!: http://www.cicle.org/attend-an-event/bike-week-pasadena.html

Thanks so much and send me jtokunaga@yahoo.com an email with your volunteer selection as well as the names of others you are volunteering with.

Johanna Tokunaga

Sea Otter MTB Race Report By: Sean Robman

Sean Robman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:24:58 +0000

This was my second time at Sea Otter. Last year I raced road and loved the course. This year I set my sights on racing mountain bike this time around. I got to the race track late Thursday and was able to squeeze in a ride just before dark. It was my first time ever being on the course and I didn’t ask anyone what kind of course it was. Assuming it was like most courses in Socal, short with about 6 miles a lap, I set out to do about 2 laps assuming that it was a short course. Well I quickly figure out just how wrong I was. I was enjoying the fast flowing section of the course and about 6 miles in I noticed 2 things, first I was still heading far out into the mountains, which wasn’t a problem except I had somehow sent my only water bottle rocketing out of my water cage. With no water I then assumed, well maybe this is about a 10 mile course, I could hold out 5 more miles without water. After traveling about 10 miles I realized I was doing one giant lap. I was spared dehydration when I reached an unmanned rest stop that was left set up for the next day. I was able to find plenty of water. After about 10 minutes I had had my fill. I headed back out to finish the route. I was amazed heading back towards the track how amazing the view are near dusk and how much really need to haul it to get back before I found myself riding by moonlight.

Since my race wasn’t till Sunday I found myself roaming the expo for about 5 plus hours on Friday. Of course it was my day to eat and drink as much as I wanted knowing Saturday was my prep day. Since the race is partly sponsored by Sierra Nevada I was enjoying plenty of proper hydration and eating plenty of very healthy German food as well as Pad Thai, Yum.

On Saturday they had the road Fondo which goes along the coast and turns around near Pebble Beach, we decided ride part of the Fondo route and head into Pebble Beach and ride part of the 17 Mile route, which is worth doing if you’re in that area, on or off a bike.

During the ride I discovered a weird bottoming out feeling coming from my front fork which made me nervous. Thinking something might be wrong I was able to take the bike over to Sram’s mechanic booth and have them look at. I discovered the front fork’s oil was below the minimum and I would have to have the fork rebuilt. I was lucky they were able to do it, and all in about 30 minutes! That’s quick service.

When Sunday finally rolled around I was thinking as I rose at about 5am, “This is going to be a great day for a race”, I quickly felt over wise when I got the track and found it to be about 45 degrees and heavy overcast and I was underdressed. Realizing I was going to have to tough it out I headed to the start and tried to warm up. I wasn’t really sure what my plan of attack was going to be for the race. As it neared closer to race start I assessed everyone that was in my class and figured I have a real shot at winning this or at least getting a podium.

When my wave went off I was racing with about 50 plus guys, YIKES, there were two divisions going off at the same time. Mine, the 30-32 and the 33-35. I was in the middle halfway up the track when I started to work my way towards the front allowing the first 3 guys that where pulling to continue to do so. I managed to get into 5^th place when we hit the dirt. Everything was going fine till about 4 miles in when me and 2 other guys ran into a Tandem that was clearly out there for fun and they started to cause a bottleneck, refusing to move we had to find a pocket in order to get by them. I was the first to try and at the last second they decided to move over, only into my path sending me down with the two other guys following. I was in no mood to argue I just hopped back on my bike and continued the race. Things ended up turning real nasty real quick when I was heading down a technical section that had a sandy beach like hill that went downhill. I was doing fine heading into the section until I came upon a rider that went down hard, managed to get around him. I made the mistake of looking over at him as a EMT was attending to him that I didn’t see bike just ahead of me sticking out from behind a bush, it managed to hook my front wheel and suck my bike out from underneath me. I went down hard at speed, which at least I hit sand but I also rolled over on my face and got a face full of sand and also felt my body get pulled in different directions. Leaving me dazed when I got back up, the EMT lady shouted at me asking me if I was okay, I gave her a painful, “yes”. I managed to make it to the bottom when I noticed my ankle was really hurting. Realizing I might have sprained it I happened to look over and notice an ambulance tending to another rider that when down hard and the poor guy could barely stand on his own without starting to stumble over himself. I decided to shake it off and tried to wipe some of the sand off my face. My glasses were useless since they were covered in sand too. Before I started off again I witnessed another cyclist go down hard, but landed into the very unforgiving bush that was anything but soft. I made the decision to continue to at least the rest stop and see how I felt since I was hurting on most of my left side as well. By the time I got about 10 minutes away from where I had the crash I started to feel better, I decided to push it to the end. I started to attack, but I wasn’t sure how many positions I might have lost due to the crash but I was determined to go all out to the end. I hit the halfway point rest stop and stopped and had one of the volunteers hand me several cups of water that I used to clean the sand off my face as well as my hands. I then hit the gas the rest of the way to the finish. Now, the last part to the finish is a long section of rolling hills. It was also heavy overcast so after the first two I thought it was almost over till I discovered there were many more small rollers. I had to push it even harder to fight off 3 guys that were coming in fast to over take me. I was able to draft a guy that wasn’t in my class that had a lot more gas than I did, which helped a lot since I starting to feel spent before the end. I punched the gas heading into the finish to fight off 2 guys that were in my class that were coming fast. By the time I crossed the finish line I was totally spent. I ran into David Turner and Jerry Sanders at the end as well. It was a great race minus the crash, but I managed to walk away finishing 16^th out of 31 riders which is awesome considering how much time I lost in the crash and having to stop again at the rest stop. I cant wait till next year to do this one again.

Sean

Sag supported club rides making a comeback!

Tim Moore — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:01:36 +0000

The board is working on bring back the sag supported ride. I’m volunteering to sag the first ride, but I will need a second chair.

We will need volunteers for sag drivers as well as second chairs for future rides. These rides are still in the planning stage, and all ideas and suggestions are welcomed. Due to the popularity of the various Montrose rides, I think the sag rides should be on Sunday. That’s one man’s opinion, please give us your thoughts. More details to follow….Tim