Team Newsletter 7-23-08

Sorry this week’s Team Newsletter is a day late. What we lacked in quantity we will make up in quality. This week we have a couple of great reports from the past week’s road & mtn bike racing.

There is lots of racing on the calendar this coming weekend so best of luck to everyone!

Schilldog does the Boise Twilight Criterium & Idaho State Champs

Brian Schilling headed to Boise to make a weekend out of riding his road bike around little cirquits really, really fast. In all seriousness, the Boise Twilight Crit and the Idaho St Crit Championships are big races on the road calendar and Brian represented Team Fitzy in great style. Nice work Brian!

Brian sent in this report from the weekend:

“I traveled to Boise this weekend to do the Twilight Criterium and the Idaho State Criterium Championships. Boise seems to be a pretty cool cycling culture town, with the downtown basically a bike-dominated street fair of outdoor patio seating restaurants, ice cream shops, bars, live music, public plazas, and hipster chicks and dudes on cruiser bikes. I even saw a bike with a fur-covered frame.–however, it was after my race so I could have been hallucinating. I think Jackson could take some cues from Boise in terms of creating a very fun, very local-community atmosphere in its downtown–maybe starting in the SoBro area behind Fitzy’s shop and creating some ped/bike only plazas and streets. I have to say that the bike cruising scene is a pretty sweet way to spend a few hours. I’ll work on getting the Jackson town planners started on it.

Okay back to racing news…

My first Twilight Crit experience proved to be a pretty fun race, although it would have been more apt to call it the “Late Afternoon Heat Haze Critierium” for the 2’s race since we started at 6PM and the temp was probably still in the 90s. I was somewhat disappointed in my finish place of 14th, feeling like I had some good legs and a good aggressive attitude for the final laps. I was hanging comfortably in the group for the whole race, helping a little in chasing down some breaks but making sure the guys with lots of teammates were doing their fair share. The finish was lining up well, I was about 4th wheel coming into the last lap and the pace was pretty stout, but I got horribly boxed in on the 2nd to last curve, had to hit the brakes twice, and was totally out of contention half a second later. Bummer. Still, lots of fun, lots of good hard work in the legs, and not too much argy-bargy.

The next day was a little less of a cool scene. Instead of being in the heart of downtown with a couple thousand people watching, we were out in a ill-located creepy little insta-community called Happy Valley or Hidden Ranch or something similar. Perfect little houses, perfect lawns, a Commons with a totally fake little “Merc” store, and all the trappings of a 50’s-style suburban dreamscape, but no people actually living there as far as I could tell. Unless everyone in the entire community happens to be a bike racer.

I did the Masters A race (50 minutes) followed immediately by the Pro-I-II race (65 minutes). Tried to ride hard and chase down attacks and just get some good efforts in the legs for the Masters race, but man it was getting hot. I ended up 6th–again had to hit the brakes in the last turn which means I’m having some trouble seeing good lines right now, or not being aggressive enough early enough. I remember the shape of Brian Harder, having done a better job of picking a clean line through the group, coasting past me as I scrubbed all my speed.

With just enough time to switch numbers and douse myself in a gallon of water, I lined up for the Pro-I-II race and positioned myself firmly at the back of the group. I felt strangely relaxed the entire way–I wasn’t even breathing hard and was able to handle every acceleration. There’s something to be said for a hard 50 minute warm up. With a few laps to go, I made the executive decision to sit up and withdraw. I hate having DNFs next to my name, and it was weird to sit up when I wasn’t even feeling winded, but the heat was starting to play some tricks on my body, and I was getting goose bumps in the 90+ degree weather. Feeling that I had proved my point, I headed back to the car for another parking lot shower. By this time the “Merc” had closed so I couldn’t even get a cold chocolate milk. Never trust any place called Happy Valley.-Brian”

The Breckenridge 100

Gabe Klamer is piling the race miles and sent in this report from Breck:

This year’s Breckinridge 100 had perfect weather for mountain bike racing. Rain showers in the days leading up to the race put the trail in great condition. The course consisted of technical single track descents and 12000′ of fire road climbs with several 15 minute hike-a-bike sections over steep loose rocky terrain. The 2nd lap was HORRIBLY marked. 10 minute periods of time went by when there was no trail markings. When you are descending down fire road at 35mph passing road junction after road junction, a 10 minute error could result in a 45 minute backtrack up the mountain! There were several flat or semi flat dirt/asphalt road sections which the 29er played a big advantage on. I flatted on the last lap. Put a hole in the tread of my Racing Ralph. Some of the single track sections consisted of long unridable rock garden/baby head/tire destroying trail.

This race is definitely one of the hardest 100 miles around. Roughly 1/3 of the course was on challenging single track and many of the climbs were similar to Snow King but with more vertical.

I was pleased with 4th in my age group and 15th overall. - Gabe”