Sugarloaf Moutain Race Weekend Report
Clermont, FL // September 19-20, 2009
by Cat 3 Neal Shepherd
The Sugarloaf race weekend has always been held dear to my heart ever since I wont it in 2008, my first Cat.4 win. My coach had mapped out the final climb for me to ride indoors on my Computrainer to prepare for that 2008 edition. Without exaggeration, I literally rode the front side more than 30 times indoors to prepare that spring! Almost nothing was as magical as crossing that finish line first, without even the need to pedal the final meters in the race that I prepared so heavily for. So to my initial disappointment the front side wasn’t included this year, but I was willing to give the new course a chance. After riding and racing the road race course I can say I am thoroughly pleased with the alteration. In fact in ways it was much harder!
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Sugarloaf Mountain Pro 1,2,3 Road Race
Clermont, FL // September 19, 2009
by Cat 3 Neal Shepherd
Understandably, even though I was racing in a new category with the Pro 1-28 0s I still wanted to make a statement as a returning winner. Our six-lap race wasn’t too long but it certainly wore on each and every one of the participants without a doubt. I promised myself I would conserve for the first 3 laps, and so I did. After those 3 laps is when I started to light up. In one instance I bridged to an early break with Grant Potter, which seemed very dangerous! We were caught soon after, and minutes later the penultimate break went clear with seven Pro 1-2’s. They were hauling and I was weary of overextending again so I steered clear. Not soon after, Grant Potter and another 1-2 broke clear to form the chase group that gained over a minute after several kilometers.
With 2 laps left, Kevin McGuire kept the pressure on hard when the pack slowed and continued off the front. I followed my instincts and jumped right on his wheel. Before I knew what we had done, we were closing fast on the chase group and leaving the pack behind! Those last 10 seconds to close took forever to close but we made a junction with the two before we made the climb up to Sugarloaf. As soon as they looked back to notice us I yelled, “We’re both Cat.3’s!” to assure them that we were only help and no danger to their results. For the most part we all worked in concert, in one case Grant intelligently suggested he should pull=2 0on the flats where he could in fact aid the break the most.
Approaching the final climb to the finish we were being chased by a group of a few Pro. 1-2’s at 15 seconds back. This led to a few attacks by our Pro breakaway companions, in the end the four of us ended up together at the base of the climb. I rode the climb up to Sugarloaf as hard as I possibly could! So hard that my Garmin registered 223bpm at the finish line, and that is most certainly not computing error! Kevin McGuire jumped around me in the final meters with a great finishing kick! I finished 2nd in the 3’s and 11th overall including the Pro1-2’s! I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, to make a statement.
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Sugarloaf Mountain Criterium
Clermont, FL // September 20, 2009
by Cat 3 Neal Shepherd
This new course I also had the privilege to pre-ride and it was love at first site for a light, strong guy like me! Its impression did not disappoint and I now hold it as my new favorite Crit. course of the season. It was up and down the whole time and it whittled at the field until it absolutely exploded with a great attack by Eric Stubbs, the current FPS leader, I was the only one who followed. After about a la p we were caught by a group of four or five others. We all rode hard for those final laps and the most earthshaking attacks were once again done by Eric, which I was once again the one that covered them. The last attack of his I followed was with two laps left. His final, and successful attack was on the last lap where he popped me with no strength to follow. I rode the last lap as hard as I could to maintain my position so I would lead through the last corner. My sprint up to the finish was really strong and I held of all the remaining challengers coming in for a hard-earned 2nd place. Congratulations to everyone who finished that course, that is no mere accomplishment!
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Sugarloaf Mountain Road Race
Clermont, FL // September 19, 2009
by Cat 4 Mitch Grabel
This is the way I saw it go down ,first lap I was in the pack then we came to the back side of sugar loaf .I got up it fine then came the stare steps I got up that fine then I had to get up the wall and I all of a sudden didn’t have the lungs so I dropped back but I did not give up I just went on .So then a good size group came by and I jumped in and recovered , But the only thing was there were only like 4 out of 10-15 people pulling and I was one of them so we really did not make the time up I would have liked to but we were picking up rider right and left still .So when the finely lap came I got up the hill first in the little group I was in . I am still contesting what position I came in with Tim. Wow this Race was a lot harder then I thought it was going to be but it gives me a idle of what I need to do for next year race .
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Drew’s Landing Criterium
Clermont, FL // June 20, 2009
by Cat 4 Ryan Burns
This Race is the same course as the New Years Day practice Crit. The course is located in an undeveloped neighborhood in the Clermont area. It is a very wide open course with all lefts. There are no real corners except for the 90 degree left hand turn leading to the start finish. It is dead flat on the backside of the course, and the Start/Finish is located on a small hill. Our 4′s race started off with about 30 or so riders. Coming into the race, I wasn’t too sure about how i would perform. It was around 100 degrees almost the whole day, and my legs just weren’t feeling it.
We started the race, and it was fast and steady. The lowest number I saw was 22 on the climb. I stayed up front the first few laps, but my legs felt like lead pipes, so I drifted back to about mid pack. There were a few attempts at a break, including one that looked like it would stick. It contained the top 4 in the FPS rankings, including my teammate Lucas. The attack came about 8 laps in. I thought for sure it would stick so I began to move my way up to the front to block. As soon as I got close to the front, the attack had already been reeled back in. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the heat, or them not cooperating, but I figured if this wouldn’t stick nothing would. I then decided to slide back into the pack because I knew it would come down to a field sprint. About 20 minutes into the 40 minute race, I ran out of water in my bottle. I tried for three laps to get someone from our team to throw water on me as we came by the team tent. I guess I wasn’t yelling loud enough because it never happened. I thought for sure this was the end of my race. I started sliding back through the pack and ended up being the very last person. I looked to my right and Lucas was right next to me. I told him I needed water and on the next lap he yelled as loud as he could for someone to throw water on me. Sure enough they did. I was feeling better but i was still really dehydrated. I was trying to relax at the back of the pack when Ian Mcgavuren from Colavita rolled up next to me and handed me a fresh bottle. I drank about half of the bottle, passed it to a few teammates and handed it back to Ian. I was now feeling refreshed and began to move back up into the pack because we only had about 5 laps left. On the last lap, coming into the last corner, I was about mid pack. I was on the outside and I knew riders would be flying by to get to the front so all I had to do was wait. Sure enough, Ian from Colavita rocketed by me and I hopped on his wheel. He drilled it all the way up the outside and pulled into the draft about 5th wheel. I eased in right behind him. We were now taking the left turn and i was in perfect position. Everyone took the inside line and held it even after the corner. Luckily I was on the outside line and wasn’t boxed in like the majority of the pack. The sprint was on and I was just following wheels until about half way up the hill, then I made my move. The riders in front of me hesitated, so I took off up the inside. I passed third place and slid over forcing him to go behind me. I was now fighting for first place. We were skewer to skewer the whole time, and at the end he nicked me on the line with his throw, which happened to be a little further then mine. I ended up second place by not even a tenth of a second. This was my first podium finish in a category race and I was ecstatic. I would like to thank all my teammates for being up front and controlling the race. I would also like to thank Ian. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been there for the finish. I think it says a lot about his character to help out a fellow friend and racer even though we are on separate teams. (He even gave me a Muscle Milk after the race )!
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Ferndale Circuit Race
Clermont, FL // June 21, 2009
by Cat 4 Ryan Burns
This was my first time ever doing this course. It is a 2.2 mile circuit in the heart of Ferndale, Florida. The course is really flat and shady. This was a lot nicer then Saturday’s course because there was no hill to suffer up, and we were blocked from the heat. Coming into this race, we decided as a team to work for Lucas because he was our closest man in GC. The plan was to control the race, and on the last lap get a break with Lucas, Fernando and Francisco. This way all three big teams would be satisfied and wouldn’t chase. Also Lucas was the only rider from those three who had a chance at affecting GC. So basically the whole race everyone relaxed and made sure nothing important went up the road. About halfway into the race, Lucas asked everyone to start moving up through the pack. I was leading the way with TT on my wheel and David on his wheel, with Lucas on the back. We made it about halfway when the two riders in front of me got a little too close and went down. I hit my brakes and tried to slide through the small hole in front of me when all of a sudden half the pack went down and closed up any hole that was there. I almost made it through when someone behind me hit me and I flipped over my bars and landed on the pile of bikes. I never hit the ground, so I escaped with no road rash, but I did have a few cuts on my body from all of the spokes I landed on. Everyone went down from ORC except for Eric and Lucas. However, Lucas did get trapped and ended up having to get off his bike to go around the crash. Apparently he did a mini time trial to catch back onto the pack. After the crash, I just rode on my own to finish the race. Lucas ended up at the back of the main field. It was a weekend of ups and downs and even though we didn’t get our desired result, we still worked well as a team. I would like to say thanks to the team for staying strong. Everyone who went down in that race got back up and continued the race. Congrats Everyone.
Also, thanks to Jon Meyer who was there for the team with the tent. It really makes a difference and we appreciate it!!!!!
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Drew’s Landing Criterium
Clermont, FL // June 20, 2009
by Cat 4 Lucas Wardein
This is about a half mile loop with only one real turn going onto the final straight-away. It was a pretty small field, only about 30-35 riders. Barely any wind, nothing really recognizable. I got a first row starting position and felt good before the start. Lap one was really just a warm-up lap for me. I followed a wheel the whole first lap and then sank back a few spots to chill out and watch wheels. About 7 laps into the race I thought I would try my luck and go with a break I thought would stick because of the strong people going with it: Francisco Hernandez (points leader), Fernando Acevado (4th in points), Jon Manwaring (3rd in points), and Jonathon Moon ( winner of this stage race), and I. We went and had a 10 second gap in no time, unfortunately all of us were marked men in the field and it was chased down as fast as it went up. 2 laps later, the time bonus sprint prime was the prize of the winner of the next lap, and I thought it could be useful to have some extra time, so I went for it. I took the final turn in 3rd wheel and thought that would be perfect, and to my luck a sprinter went for it as well. I took the turn in 3rd and ended up about 8th. After that I was toast. I sat at the back for the rest of the race getting ice cold water splashed on me and drinking lots of fluids to replenish myself for the last lap. About 5 laps to go Rye-Rye showed up next to me and I gave him the heads-up, I told him that based on the up-hill sprint we needed to wait until half way up the hill to start our real sprint. Last lap I am close to the front, but I thought I wasn’t close enough to the front for a good sprint. I moved up 3 more spots and was sitting about 5th wheel, little did I know that two sprinters were lurking behind me waiting to unleash their power. Half way up the hill I start my real sprint and so did the two sprinters, they flew past me and the other people that were in front of me for spots 1 and 2 on the podium, those two were Rye-Rye and Francisco, I came out 7th, it’s alright and I still got the time of the winner. Congrats on your first podium Rye-Rye, you will get him next time!
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Ferndale Circuit Race
Clermont, FL // June 21, 2009
by Cat 4 Lucas Wardein
This is a 2.2 mile loop with a cross-wind sprint and a tailwind on the back stretch, I was sitting in 4th in the GC starting stage 3. Our team strategy was simple, keep the team in the race until two laps to go and then go to the front and block while I shoot off the front with Fernando and Francisco, they are in last and second to last in the GC and they are strong so it’s safe to go on a break with them. I was about a minute back from the leader starting the stage. The race was horrifically fast the whole race, my computer said we had an average speed of 26 mph when we were done. I sat at the back basically the whole race because I wanted to save it for the last two laps and I had a strong team that could chase down anything if anything so happened to go off the front. Nothing managed to get away so I was safe at the back. 5 laps to go I started to move up and as I passed ORC people I told them to start moving to the front as well, everything was going perfectly smooth when halfway through lap 5 a massive crash occurred, it took out half the field and all ORC members were on the ground except Eric, since we were all together moving up, when the crash happened we all went down right next to each other. I never went down, I managed to stop in time. I immediately got off my bike, ran right through the pack on the ground, put my chain back on and luckily Mitch was already up and riding. I called to him to tell him to wait up so I could get some help for the chase back on. We picked up another guy soon and then we slowed down a lot, I decided this wasn’t a fast enough pace to catch the field. I took my pull at 28mph and for some reason Mitch didn’t hop on my wheel. I was on my own. For the next three laps I averaged 27 and caught back on half way through 2 laps to go. I was still planning on going on a breakaway, I told Eric to get on the front and right when I said that a major attack came and I never got the chance to go. On the final lap a two man pack managed to get up the road and I couldn’t latch on, and nobody would chase, we were sprinting for 3rd. I moved up into 2nd wheel to start the sprint. We took the final turn and I gave it all the THUNDER I had but it was all gone ): By the time I crossed the line I was at the back again ): I finished 4th in the GC and missed 3rd place by 24 seconds
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Lake County Stage Race
Clermont, FL // June 20-21, 2009
by Cat 4 David Ballagh
I suppose that you could say that I had a rollercoaster of a weekend. I was feeling really good and confident after winning this week’s Lake Louisa Race. So coming into this weekend, knowing that I have done both these courses before, I thought for sure that I would do really well. By the way, for the video of the Sunday Jr. Race, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDsSTi61WFU
Cat. 4 Saturday Criterium
Sunday’s course was held in Ferndale and was 2.2 miles long. There were only two corners and one sharp turn about half way through on the back stretch, so the course was not technical but it did have narrow sections. The race started at 8:00am so the temperature was barable. Being that this was the last stage of the three stages a few kids wanted to get in breaks to help their overall time. I even got in a break with two laps to go. It showed some promise but no one was willing to work so we just got reeled back in. From the last corner it is still too far to start sprinting, but it is close enough to the line that position is crucial. Coming out of the last corner I was fourth wheel. The Sprint started and I was able to hold on for fifth in the overall sprint and thrid for the 17-18 category. I’m very happy and proud with my finish. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to represent ORC on the Podium. I’d like to also congradulate Mitch for a great race. He finished one spot behind me in the group sprint and got fifth for the 15-16 category.
This is where my weekend took a downturn. Going into the race the team plan was help out Lucas because he was our best placed General Classification (GC) rider. Nothing really exciting happened for the first half of the race. The pack kept a steady pace. I tried to stay very close to the front because I didn’t want to be caught in the back with the pack going through narrow roads. With six laps to go we had a time bonus sprint. This hurt my position and put me about mid pack. With five laps to go Lucas came up to me and told me he wanted us to move up to be ready for the sprint and any attempts at a break away. As our team was trying to move up someone in the pack touched wheels and caused a masive pile up. I think that everyone (except Erick) either went down or got caught behind it. I tried to ovoid the wreck but couldn’t and went down with my knee taking almost all of the ground impact (it hurts really bad). fter the crash I decided to stay in the race. On the pack’s last lap I was lapped just before the last corner. Though my knee hurt and was bleeding bad, my legs felt good so I went to the front of the pack and tried to do a lead out with Erick on my wheel. I was hoping that Lucas would see this and hop on Erick’s wheel but I guess things didn’t work out. Lucas didn’t get on Erick’s wheel and Erick couldn’t stay on mine. I finished just behind the pack and got 23rd.
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Florida State Criterium Championship
Lakeland, FL // May 17, 2009
by Coach Bob TylerThis was the warm-up race for the State Criterium Championship and a good test of form. I’d been training for the State Criterium using the course on the Computrainer for the past 3 weeks and going pretty hard to gain back some of the form I lost by missing a lot of training due to doing extra time at work in March and April.
The course was a classic 4 corner crit. course that was pretty much flat except for a slight downslope going into turn 1. The distance from turn 4 to the finish line was about 200 yards and there was a bit of a headwind coming from the South that you felt on the back side of the course.
The race started out slow since I was pretty well warmed up and didn’t do my usual attack from the gun. I had no plan for the race other than to try to win it. They gave a $50 merchandise prime that Jeffrey Golden and I both went for and Jeffrey won. I screwed up the sprint for it by starting to go then backing off to wait till a little later. When we crossed the line I kept rolling to make it a bit harder on the chasers. When they caught me Jeffrey attacked. Then I bridged across and started working with him. Jeffrey is a pretty strong rider so I thought we had a decent chance of staying away. Unfortunately, 2 guys were able to bridge across and then were just passengers. When they wouldn’t or couldn’t work we got caught by the pack who were working together to catch us. Once we got caught I decided to save every thing for the finish and started planning how to win it. I decided to attack and try to get a gap going into turn 3 on the last lap and then go for it from there.
The plan worked like a charm. On the last lap no one was willing to go too hard into the wind and apparently thought it was going to come down to a sprint out of the last turn. I jumped hard up the inside about 75 yards from turn 3 and railed the turn as hard as I could. As I came out of turn 3 the bike hit something causing the rear wheel to jump sideways about 6” as I stood to jump coming out of the turn. I got it under control and hit turn 4 as fast as I could before taking a peak over my shoulder. I had a nice gap so I eased up just a bit. When I checked again the pack was closing too fast so I had to take another dig to be sure I held them off for the win. That was fun!
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Lakeland Cycling Weekend Criterium
Lakeland, FL // May 16, 2009
by Coach Bob Tyler
We all expected to race the Lakeland course with the fast downhill into turn 3 and the climb to the finishing sprint on the front side but, the promoter didn’t get the permit. So we were racing on the same course as the Saturday pre-race but, in the reverse direction. The only change was that they moved the finish line to the top of the slight grade making it about 100 yards up an ~2% grade from turn 4 to the finish line. This still made turn 3 the critical turn. There was no real wind during the M55+ race but, I did have a team mate today. Dave Viney and I have finished 1 & 2 the past 2 years and we wanted to keep this tradition going for ORC.
We knew everyone would be marking every move that Dave made so Dave suggested that I start out the first laps while he got a feel for the course at race speed. Besides that my plan was to try something at the end if we weren’t able to spring either Dave or I. It seemed like a reasonable plan since we knew they would be marking Dave more than me. Then if they didn’t chase me we had a guaranteed win. Dave was confident he could take the sprint from the pack.
Well, it didn’t work out quite like that but here’s what happened. When I went hard from the start no one really responded so I soloed for about a quarter of the race before I was reeled in. During that time my front wheel magnet slipped and started making a heck of a racket as it began hitting my speed sensor before falling off some where between turns 1 and 2. My solo gave Dave a free ride and perfect set up for his break away attack. When I knew I was caught I eased up and Dave attacked immediately taking Jeffrey Golden with him. I looked back and saw the pack was all strung out and knew I would stay away if I bridged to Dave. The only problem was that I had a Florida Velo rider on my wheel. When I saw that I eased up to make him do the work if he wanted to make it across the 25’ gap to Dave and Jeffrey. He didn’t go for it and I wasn’t going to give him a free ride so I sat up and rode at the back of the pack at a leisurely pace until Dave lapped the field. When Dave lapped us he went right to the front and kept riding at a good pace. I thought at the time that Jeffrey was tagged onto the back of the pack. So I figured that I would have to try to win the pack sprint for 3rd place. Then I saw Jeffrey up ahead of us. Dave had apparently rode Jeffrey off of his wheel and had now brought him back into the pack. So now I had a shot at 2nd place again if I could win the pack sprint.
After Dave caught Jeffrey he just stayed on the front riding at tempo. Dave’s tempo was fast enough to control the field and nobody was doing anything but sittin’ in. On the last lap Dave ramped it up on the back side of the course. Dave’s pace was perfect and allowed me to jump up the inside into turn 3 and use him as a blocker. Only one rider (John Butler) was able to catch my wheel and get into the turn before Dave. I exited turn 4 in first place and held off John to cross the finish line first and to finish 2nd place again for the 3rd year in a row.
It was a real blast to have a strong savvy team mate to race with. Congratulations Dave – great riding, and fantastic team work out there this weekend!!!!!
