PAA Race Team Blog
SCNCA Time Trial & Velo Allegro Criterium
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. Â Vikki was going for the women’s 40-45 title and I was going for [...]
Velo Allegro Criterium by Brandon
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 [...]
Barrio Logan Criterium by Joey
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 [...]
Devils Punch Bowl by Devin
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 [...]
Chuck Pontius Criterium
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. It was a field of 25 with a nearly even [...]
Rosena Ranch Circuit Race By Nathan Hickey
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.
Sea Otter MTB Race Report By: Sean Robman
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 [...]
Vlees Huis Road Race By Jeff Moreton
Vlees Huis road race is in Bakersfield where I envisioned dirt, dust, oil pumpers, and bad pavement but found beautifully paved, rolling roads among some of the most picturesque farm and grazing lands I’ve ever seen.  I hear our state championships will be here on a modification of this course.  I’m looking forward to it. [...]
Devil’s Punchbowl By Joey Li
Prior to the race, I had fully expected to get dropped. After all, I was 20lbs to heavy to call myself a climbing specialist. Let’s just say that I did not live up to my original expectations, as I finished with the “main pack” (I still need to shed off the 20 lbs though). The first [...]
Sea Otter Classic MTB Race report By: David Turner
Those that have been to Sea Otter know that it’s more than a bunch of races and Gran Fondo rides, it’s a cycling extravaganza of vendors, cycling and racing in beautiful Monterey over four days in almost every cycling discipline. Â This is my second year racing Sea Otter and I’m already looking forward to next [...]
Sea Otter MTB race: By Jerry Sanders
I need to start by saying if you enjoy riding or racing your bike, you should head up to the Sea Otter Classic held in April every year in Monterey. The Mecca of US based cycling events where some 8000 cyclists show up to race their bikes in all disciplines. I’ve been three years in [...]
L.A. Circuit Race
By Vikki Appel The PAA Women’s Team had four riders in the W3/4 field of Sunday’s LA Circuit Race. The goal of the race was to get the team’s sprinter the win (wait, that’s me?!). Jenn Gill and I attended the Redlands Women’s Clinic on Saturday (which was terrific; highly recommended). We discussed our race [...]
De Vlees Huis Ronde
Shannon and I raced the Women’s 1/2/3 at Vlees in Bakersfield, which is a 60 mile race (in the heat) with approximately 4500 feet of climbing. There was an early breakaway with 2 SC velo riders and stayed off the front until the beginning of lap 2 (the race is two 30 mile laps). Â LaGrange [...]
Coach Rick’s Clinic #5 Reports
On Wednesday 4/18 I went to Coach Rick’s clinic. It was a great experience, I was able to ride the time trial bike Eddie Ramirez let me borrow for the first time. Coach Rick was a very understanding and helpful at the clinic. The warm up was very relaxed. Then we moved into riding a [...]
SoCal Cup Crit (CBR) #4 by Raphael
Last night I had great expectations for this CBR #4 race. I had a mental picture of me crossing the finish line as a winner. That morning I woke up fairly tired and my allergies were acting up. After a big breakfast I was off to go and race. I arrived at CBR slightly late, [...]
San Luis Rey & CBR 4
This past weekend, the PAA Women’s team attended the San Luis Rey Road Race & the CBR criterium. San Luis Rey In the Women 3/4s, Jenn completed her first road race ever, accompanied by Vikki, Ericka, and Alicia. Â The race had a large field (44 women), was tough and broke apart on the first (of [...]
Easter Sunday GP by Joey
This was an unusual race, and I felt that I could do better, but I did end up in third place (out of 13). I started of in the back, but chased to the front. For the first several laps, it was a regular “Junior” race, ie, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes really slow (10 [...]
US Cup Riverside by Sean Bird
Race Report:    US Cup Riverside    Cat 1 15-16 Men    2nd place    3 laps/16.5 miles total With wild weather forecast for the race, ranging from heavy rain to strong gusts of wind, I was intrigued to finally be at the Riverside race venue and find out what was ahead of me. On [...]
Torrance Crit by Joey
After last week’s terrible race at rosena rance, I wanted to at least finish mid-pack. I did not ride the previous day and had a good warm up. Due to lining up in the back row and starting in my small chainring, I was near the end of the pack for some time, but made [...]
San Dimas Stage Race 2012: Cat 4 Report
By: Chris Schaper It all started on Friday, March 16th at 9:08am for me. That was when the guy in the tent yelled at me to “go – climb Glendora Mountain Road as fast as you can…” and I was off. As you all know, this road is unforgiving and to ride it as hard as you [...]
Rowena Ranch 2012: 55+ Race Report
By: Jeff Moreton What? I didn’t win? First, look at the picture.  See that perplexed look on my face?  I’ll explain. Rosena Ranch 55+.  It isn’t easy finding a whole field of guys that are 55+, so they mix us with the 60+ guys and score us separately.  Where are all the racers?  Stick around [...]
San Dimas Stage Race 2012 By Devin
SDSR Race Report by Devin Arenas, Junior 17/18 Category You never truly realize it, but every race takes plenty of preparation. Whether it is weeks or months of prior training, it all leads to your one set goal.  In this case, that one set goal was the San Dimas Stage Race, a three day stage race [...]
Rosena Ranch Circuit Race by Ericka Bettge
This was the first year for Rosena Circuit Race. It consisted of a 3.75 course consisting of rolling hills with the finish at the top of a 3/4 a mile gradual 4-5% climb. The field had 26 women and the first few laps were uneventful. Â Going into lap 4 I saw a group of 4-5 [...]
Race Report Cat 3… Amigos: San Dimas Stage Race 2012
 How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rain  By Ryan Hopman Stage 1: TT Between the 3 of us, we have participated in this race some 11+ times. As such, the morning check-in and warm up had a familiar feel. The biggest difference was that the course had been shifted up the hill [...]
San Dimas Stage Race by Becky Siegel
Shannon Castle & I decided to truly test our legs by racing with the Pro women at the San Dimas stage race. Â In addition to the already difficult race, the weather didn’t make things any easier for us. Stage 1: GMR Time Trial Friday was an uphill time trial. Â Shannon finished in 52nd, and I [...]
Madera Stage Race
This past weekend, Shannon, Vikki, Ericka, Becky, and PAA 4/5 rider Albert trekked up to Madera (just north of Fresno) to contest the Madera Stage. Since Shannon just received her cat 3 upgrade, Ericka had to battle the Women 4s alone while Vikki and Becky had some welcome company in the 3s. Stage 1: Criterium [...]
Tale of 3 TTs: Trifecta Omnium by Christina Ting
While most of the team was up north racing (and dominating!) the Madera Stage Race I was racing something more low key: the Trifecta Omnium out in New Mexico. The most difficult thing about racing in NM is that you’ll be racing at altitude. Luckily, I had an interview at Sandia National Labs earlier in [...]
US Cup Vail Lake by Sean Bird
US Cup Vail Lake Cat 2 15-16 Men 2nd place 2 laps/17 miles total Vail Lake may be one of the most wild places to ride a mountain bike. With the temperature hovering around 80 degrees throughout my race, a course filled with drops and plenty of rocks, combined with my hard-tail 29er made for [...]
Ontario #2 By Brandon
This past Saturday I attended my first Ontario race. It was also the first time that I did two races in one day (17-18 and Cat 4-5). I arrived early for a proper warm up as stated by Coach Rick and felt completely warm before the race. I did not have any kind of bar [...]
Merco Almond Blossom Road Race Report
Last Sunday the PAA Women’s Team raced the Merco Almond Blossom Road Race in Merced. The team raced in two fields with two distinct goals: Shannon and Alicia raced the Cat 4 race with the goal of getting Shannon another win and securing the last few points she needed for her Cat 3 upgrade. Becky [...]
MTB Kenda Cup Race #1 Vail Lake By: James Sabelis Cat 2 (40-44)
Pre Race I came into the race thinking I was just going to give it a go and see how it turns out. Since racing my last CX race in January, I haven’t had much time to build back much, if any racing form. I figured I’ll just use the first couple of races, (or [...]
Vail Lake Challenge By Bailey Eckles
This weekend I swapped out my skinny road tires for some mountain bike ones out at Vail Lake in Temecula. Â I also swapped from a PAA Jersey to a San Gabriel Valley (SGV) High School Mountain Bike Team Jersey. Â I wan’t actually planning on doing this race until last minute when I decided to do [...]
Ontario #2 by David
Last Sunday 2/26, I raced 17/18 Juniors at Ontario #2. It was my first race since I’ve started riding. My goal for the race was just to finish it. I thought the race was pretty fast but I was able to hang in with the pack. With 3 laps to go I got dropped. Even [...]
Ontario #2 by Joey
One of the main rules of racing in a peloton that I recently learned was to find a juicy, delicious wheel and suck on it. Having not raced too many races prior to this one, I learned it the hard way. I lined up in the second row, but due to slow clipping in I [...]
Ontario #2 by Raphael
I had a great time in Ontario this weekend racing my 5th race of the season. When I got to the race area I immediately registered and went to go warm up on my trainer. 10 minutes before the race I went to chill close by the start line. When the whistle went off everyone [...]
USAC SoCal Cup Crit #2 by Raphael
CBR 2 was my second race in the Dominguez Hills Series. My hopes were very high for a good race. I had no idea that the course changed to the other side of the Ave. So when I got there I was at the original course. Out of confusion I got 15 minutes late. Luckily [...]
USAC SoCal Cup Crit #2 By Brandon
So today I did my second race of the season which happened to be the SoCal Cup crit series #2 in Carson. I raced cat 5 and was a bit of a challenge since I had never officially raced with adults. Since this was the first race of the day I had to wake up [...]
Ontario #2 Women 4s by Christina Ting
This last Sunday five ladies (Jenn, Alicia, Ericka, Caitie and myself) represented PAAWT in the second of the Ontario crit series. While the course stayed the same, a few things had changed: we were now “seasoned” racers, we didn’t team moms Becky and Vikki to make sure us cat 4′s weren’t pinning our numbers upside [...]
Cantua Creek & Pine Flat by Shannon Castle
Before I knew about the dates for the UCLA weekend of racing, I had planned to head up north to the Fresno area (yippee!) for the opportunity to race two back-to- back road races. It turned out to be a pretty good decision! Cantua Creek This is an out-and-back course with a short, 1 Km [...]
Palm Spring Century by Raphael
When I got to Palm Springs to start riding the century I didn’t know what to expect. The first hour of riding was extremely intense due to restricting headwinds. Throughout the rest of the day I was fine. Consuming a powerbar energy gel every hour and a half or so with lots of water for [...]
Valley of the Sun Stage Three — Criterium & GC
In case you haven’t already heard, four PAA women got on the podium for the General Classification at Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Phoenix, AZ. Â In fact, they podiumed TEN TIMES between five riders over the weekend. Becky Siegel swept the time trial, road race, and criterium in the Women’s cat 3s to [...]
Valley of the Sun Road Race by Ericka Bettge
I was just telling myself this morning that I don’t really like road races. This is probably based off my two former demoralizing road race experiences, but I was a little apprehensive about today. There were about 33 in the pack and the first lap was very uneventful. Â I kept finding myself pushed mid pack [...]
Valley of the Sun Stage Two — Road Race
I’ll keep this one short as the results were just posted online (were not at the venue today) — Ericka and Shannon finished 5th and 7th in the cat 4s in a breakaway group. Â Ericka moved up to 4th GC and Shannon remains third. Â Alicia moved up serveral places in the GC. The cat 3 [...]
Valley of the Sun Stage One — Time Trial
The PAA squad sent five women to Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix, AZ. Â The roster includes: Vikki Appel — Cat 3 Ericka Bettge — Cat 4 Shannon Castle — Cat 4 Alicia Chang — Cat 4 Becky Siegel — Cat 3 The first day is a 14 mile time trial, and the [...]
Red Trolley Collegiate B/C by Christina Ting
This past weekend the PAA ladies headed down south to San Diego and made a strong (top 3!) representation in 3 separate races: Boulevard, Red Trolley and Fiesta Island. After Saturday’s broken spoke mishap in the second lap of Boulevard, Shannon, a San Diego native, took me to Moment Cycle Sport to get my wheel back in working order [...]
Boulevard W3/4 by Becky Siegel
I have always come up with a reason not to do Boulevard: I can’t climb, it’s too cold, the it’s going to rain it’s going to snow.. you name it! Finally this year, I decided to give it a shot since I had a team who wanted to go. A few days out, the weather was [...]
Mothballs Crit by Sean Bird
On the morning of January 29th I was out at the Mothballs Crit along with teammates Devin and Brandon. After a solid Ontario race a couple weekends prior, I made the decision to race Junior 17-18 as well as Junior 15-16. Both races were filled with intense moments with a few close calls on numerous [...]
Mothballs Crit By Brandon
This past Sunday Devin, Sean, and I attended Mothballs Crit in Goleta, near Santa Barbara. It was my first race of the year as well as a cyclist and turned out to be great. Thanks to great support that PAA provides I was able to get a ride to the race. The ride was fairly [...]
![Field Sprint [Photo: Christina Ting]](/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/327734_10101562714160170_7908853_75401720_1570689616_o-150x150.jpg)
Poor College Kids W1/2/3 by Becky Siegel
Poor College Kids was my first cat 1/2/3 road race– a 58 mile two-lap race. Unsure of what to expect, Vikki and I went out with a plan of just trying to stay in it and not making many moves. A few attacks early one kept us on our toes, but the group mostly stayed [...]
CBR Anger Management Crit W3/4 by Vikki Appel
The PAA Women’s Team had six riders in the W3/4 field of Sunday’s CBR Anger Management Crit. We practiced some smart (and some not-so-smart) race strategy and had two riders finish in the top ten. Very early in the race, Becky launched an attack and we managed to get into a break with an SC [...]
PAA Women’s Team Kicks Off 2012 Season
The PAA Women’s Team (PAAWT) had a busy and very successful start of the official race season with: a Pablove fundraiser kickoff party, team training camp and clinic, the Ontario Criterium and a race video analysis/potluck. Our kickoff party was a tremendous success as we celebrated our strong 2012 roster (SIXTEEN WOMEN!) at Pedal Spin [...]
Ontario #1 Women 4s by Christina Ting
Having been to many races as the cheerleader, I finally made the jump to join the PAA Women’s team for a piece of the action! For a team with many girls who hadn’t raced together, let alone at all, we spent the weekend bonding and learning the basics of racing tactics from the experts (many [...]
SCNCA Junior Training Camp 2012 By Joey Li
On January 7-8 (saturday and sunday) I attended the SCNCA training camp with Devin, Bailey, Tyler, David, Josh, and Brandon. Apart from all the (on-bike) pain, torture, and suffering, it was great. And it was totally worth it, as in addition to the instruction you get food for free. The first morning was spent practicing skills in the parking [...]
Ontario #1 By Tyler Gilmore
This Sunday was the first race of the road racing season and it was also my first road race ever. Since this was my first road race I learned that there is a lot of more that goes into road racing than mountain bike racing. Devin Arenas was my team mate in the race and [...]
Ontario #1 By Sean Bird
On the morning of January 15th, I was preparing for my very first road race, the Ontario Grand Prix. The nerves were beginning to set in during a short pre-ride involving shaking and many questions. Once back at the Start/Finish it was time to begin revving up for the race itself. A solid 30 minute [...]
SCNCA Junior Training Camp 2012 By Brandon Arizmendi
So this past weekend the PAA Junior Team attended the 6th annual SCNCA Junior Camp. It was a great experience as well as a learning one. Throughout both days the camp started at around 7:00a.m. and ended at roughly 5:00p.m. We were able to get just over 80 miles over the two days with a large [...]
SCNCA Junior Training Camp 2012 By David Kennedy
The SCNCA camp was a lot of fun! The first day started off by going through the basics of riding a bike. It helped me remember some good cornering and straight line riding techniques. Later on that day we split up into groups and rode out and we raced a practice crit. The practice crit [...]
Welcome to the PAA Race Team Blog
Welcome to the new PAA Race Team blog! Stay tuned for news, race reports and more from our race team captains.