Marc Pro - Strava

Racing Mt. Hamilton was a pretty late decision for me. After a solid week of hard training in the hills, I thought it was time to give a mountain a try. After talking with teammates Kris Lunning and Art Rand we figured it would be a good opportunity to test out our climbing legs before we head up to Mt. Hood with the rest of the Marc Pro-Strava crew.

Unfortunately, we were grossly outnumbered by a strong Cal Giant team, who would go on to sweep the podium. Aside from being outnumbered and out-ridden, I think we had a pretty good showing overall. Lunner worked hard to chase down some moves mid-climb and unfortunately paid for his efforts towards the end of the climb to the observatory. Art and I managed to go over the top in the front group, just a bit behind an attacking Nate English and Ozzie Olmos. About halfway down the descent, Art flatted, leaving me in a 1-to-4 against Cal Giant. I raced as conservatively and smart as I could, but just wasn't able to respond when the attacks game flying. I ended up sprinting in for 9th place from our chase group.

We all rolled in safe. Although a bit disappointed, I think we all agreed we are happy with out form and ready to rip at Mt. Hood next week.

STAGE 1

Today's stage was a 94 mile point to point from Silver City to Mogolion. The course profile for today is the easiest on paper mostly flat with a final category 2500 ft climb. After seeing the wind absolutely howl yesterday the entire field was well aware that a flat race with 40 mph winds will be anything but easy.

We started with a climb up to the continental divide which was just enough to remind me that I definitely live at sea level. From here we descended and the road was mostly flat and the wind was still. Riders shed their warm clothes and pulled to the side for nature breaks. The 185 man field would occasionally get strung out into a one mile colorful line. There was a perpetual breakaway which would get caught, shuffled and go again. None of the big teams seemed worried. At mile 60 the race finally got interesting. We crested a climb to be greeted by a blistering cross wind from the left. The peloton immediately shattered into echelons. I was in the second echelon with a hundred meters up to the first group. Before I could even worry about potentially being relegated to the second group a Trek/Livestrong and Jamis rider touches weels and fell in front of me. The Jamis rider rolled right in front of my wheel so I grabed sone brake and swerved. I probably got within inches of crushing his fingers but luckily he pulled them away just in time. Although I avoided crashing I was now I a smaller third group and needed to work with the other riders to stay in contention.

We got close to the back of the field which turned our somewhat organized group into a every man for himself as we dodged out way through the follow caravan. Luckily this is one of the skills I'd gotten pretty good at racing in Spain. Hang in a car's draft, sprint to the next one, rest the. Do it again until you're back in. In all the excitement a couple riders had gone off the front, a Garmin and a Kelly Benefit.

The climbing started and I found myself within spitting distance of the leaders pealing pretty easily. As we turned onto the road that would take us up to 7500 feet I was feeling good and hanging tough. Then.... on a steep stretch... chain falls as I'm shifting into the small chainring. I try to push it back on with the shifter but I'm going to have to get off and fix it by hand. I stop. Unclip. Put the chain back on. Get on and ride. The field has already gone up the road, I'm with the stragglers. I decide to limit my losses and climb at my own pace. I'm completely out of water at this point so I figured I'm better off getting up this mountain sooner than later. I managed to pass quite a few people and got to the top without having to take out a loan on my body. Bad luck in a stage race is something you have to deal with, there is another road race tomorrow so I'm better off saving it for that rather than worrying about a small mechanical. Tomorrow is 85 hilly (and windy I hear) miles. I guess there is also a pretty hairy descent.

STAGE 2

Sometimes it actually occurs to me how racing at this level really rides the line between being insane and incredibly focused. Not only does’t require the fitness to ride a bike up mountains but also the acrobatics to master the hairpin turns on the way back down throw in an unhealthy level of fearlessness to ride so close to other riders that you can hear them breathe down hills at 60 miles or hour in your underwear and you've almost got all the pieces to be a racing cyclist.

Today went better.

The first two hours of the race today were probably the hardest hours I've raced a bike. It saw us traverse the continental divide at 7500 feet and rip downhill on a one lane road through alpine pine trees.  I was able to stay with the leaders up the climbs and hold position down the hill although I probably would have had an easier time if I hadn't read the race description which called the descent 'very dangerous'. I mainly struggled with the short surges at the field accordianed in and out of the turns. Altitude makes it very hard to recover from maximal efforts. Down in the basin the race was a little more calm as RealCyclist.com (the leader's team) kept the pace consistent. I did notice that the peloton was considerably smaller at this point. Through the basin a break with all the main teams represented drifted away and the rest of the riders were content to get water bottles from their team cars and conserve their energy. At mile 65 we began climbing again. One of the defining difficulties in cycling is the face that a lot of the time you're forced to ride another rider's pace. When I found a rhythm I held the leaders fine but I knew that not getting feeds or water meant that my body was a ticking bomb. Over the divide again and over the large rollers back towards our start town we descended a large freeway at what had to be 60. It was at this point that the Jamis team and RealCyclist decided to reel I the break and set the race up for their sprinters. The speed for the last 2 miles was incredible. The remainders of the peloton stretched in a line going so fast you could not tell we had already ridden 78 miles and climbed mountains. I finished just behind the sprint, totally wrecked but happy that I made all the crucial selections.

I've talked to a couple experienced riders who say that having done this race before and knowing the courses pays huge dividends. I'm riding with a vague idea of what's coming and basically trying to stay with riders who I think are a little better than me - in order to improve. Tomorrow is a short time trial then a downtown criterium before the 106 mile alpine monster of a race sunday. Taking it one day at a time.

The opportunity to do two races in one weekend that are both within an hour of home doesn't come too often, so I had to jump at the chance to do Scotts Valley Grand Prix the night after Cat's Hill. Teammates Art Rand and Kris Lunning were just as excited as I was for a Sunday night of Twilight racing.

We were totally outnumbered, but still rode the best races we could. None of us had raced many criteriums this season, and I definitely noticed some riders in the field had much sharper elbows than I did. We rode our typical aggressive style; attacking, covering threatening moves, counter-attacking each other, but riding to conserve when the time called for it.

A few highlights from the race:

- Lunner heading straight for a median at 30 mph with two laps to go, bunny hopping onto it and back into the field; nearly giving Art a heart attack.

- Me getting some Marc Pro-Strava face-time by being off the front solo for two laps.

- With maybe 5 laps to go, it was getting DARK. And AGGRESSIVE. I'm honestly shocked that no one went down. The course was quite wide, giving everyone the perception there were 15 different lines through the corners, all which could be take simultaneously....

Without taking any unnecessary risks, Lunner and I finished 11th and 9th, respectively. Twilight races are really exciting, and I can't wait for the next one with a full Marc Pro-Strava squad.

The Golden State Circuit Race presented by Rio Strada Racing took place on wide sweeping roads around a business park near City Hall in Rancho Cordova.  It was basically an office park crit on a slightly longer course than normal (2.5 miles).

It was just Dustin Hahn and I representing Marc Pro - Strava in the 60+ field.  Cal-Giant, Webcor, Team Clif Bar and Freemont Bank fielded full squads.

3 laps in, an 8-10 man break literally rolled off the front of the field, with all the big teams represented (minus Marc Pro - Strava), and that was it.  Cal-Giant and Webcor did a spectacular job of nullifying any move that went up the road, and successfully blocked the field from getting no closer than 30 seconds to the break.  The two big teams were actually cooperating by the end of the race, taking turns covering moves and blocking.  One word, BORING!

So I sat about 10 guys back the whole race, dick in my hand, practically falling asleep as attack after attack was reeled back in.  (I'd show a picture of this, however it is a very unsafe maneuver and highly inappropriate for this blog) To give some idea of the effort of sitting-in, I average a measly 220 watts for the 60 minute race.  However, neither Dustin or I had the kind of horsepower to bridge a 45 second gap, and the blocking was so effective that attacking was truly pointless.  It was just a matter of waiting out the field sprint.

I was 7th wheel going around the final corner into the finish, as Mr. 6th wheel decided to just sit up 200 meters from the line.  Sitting up before the finish line, what the fuck...  Jumping around the untimely gap, I sprinted for somewhere around 15 - 20th place.

We can only blame ourselves for not making it into the initial winning break.  Next time.

At the Golden State crit it was Keith Hiller and I representing.  We planned to get in a break and hopefully stay away.   Keith was up the road most of the race in an assortment of small attacks.  About 30 minutes in I found myself in a pretty good move with Evan Huffman (Cal-Giant), Rand Miller (Webcor), Mike Jasinski (Freemont Bank) and 1 or 2 others, but for some reason it wasn't working.  Keith countered but no break was going to stick.  I tried to get away with 3 laps to go and had a decent gap and was on my own for about 1 and a half laps, but it was a feeble effort.   We were in all the moves, but all for not.  The end was a sprint and won by Team Specialized.

I headed out to modesto with no real hopes except yhat if I hung in Roseville by myself I probably wouldnt ride. I made the decision to head to rose ville saturday before the race while drinking a beer in incline village with my brother in law and some friends. We were supposed to stay in Incline to celebrate his B day but snow in the forecast led us to head back to their house early. While I went out on the town, I conserved and only had a few brews. After 5 hours of sleep I got in the car and headed for Modesto, sweet! The race saw no rain and about 45 riders ready to let it rip.

I tried to get in a break early but sat up after about 10 minutes because none of the represented teams were really in it. Immediately as we got swallowed up another break went with some pretty good riders. we chased for the next 4 or 5 laps then caught the break, turns out there were 2 riders still up the road, 3rd pillar and a specialized master. In the end it came down to a sprint and I finished 11th. pretty fun race for a flat super long crit like course.

Last weekend, we had a solid turnout for Cat's Hill Classic in Los Gatos, CA – the group was me, Nate Freed, Frank Spiteri, Keith Hillier, Nick Schaffner, and Jesse Miller-Smith. The weather was great, the field was big, and the Hill was steep as ever, but in the end we didn't quite have it on this particular Saturday. There were 9 CalGiant guys to contend with (and their stupid false tempo tactics to start breaks), along with all the top riders from Yahoo!, Specialized, and co. Not that this is an excuse – I know we can take those guys – but a few of them were just on better form. It happens...

With all that said, there are definitely some bright notes to take from the race.  Number 1: we all stayed upright... which was a pretty good feat considering the chaos. I think there were a couple crashes, lots of dropped chains, and cheaters taking advantage with "free laps" left and right. Number 2: we were all super active. Keith and Jesse and Frank in particular – none of us managed to get in the break that stuck unfortunately. And number 3: (and this was more from me), it got me super fired-up for Hamilton and Hood on the horizon. In the end, I think we all have Hood on the mind, and Cat's Hill might have suffered a bit for it. 3 weeks to go! I think we'll have a great showing up North.

This article was originally published in the Sierra Sun. This Tahoe area paper is available for free in newspaper boxes around Truckee and Tahoe City.

Have you ever tried ridding your bike up Donner Summit? I have. I've been going up and down that thing for years. Sometimes fast. Other times slow, like how I imagine a cannibal's party to be. The Donner Summit climb rises for 3.2 miles out of the West Shore of Donner Lake snaking it's way through Donner Peaks tumbling granite yard and ends at Sugar Bowl Academy. Though not deadly, with an average gradient of 6.5%, this snakes does bite.

Wanting to bite back I went in search of advice on climbing and caught up with local cyclist Andy Scott. A strong, talented and training oriented cyclist, Andy races with Truckee's very own Marc Pro-Strava Cycling Team. This guy blasts off, up and over Donner in 16 minutes regularly, has passion and bite. He may not hold the Donner KOM but what he says is sage. Check it and ride:

Q What up Andy? Hope all is well. How would you rate the Donner Summit climb? Compare it to other local climbs and or climbs in Norcal races.

A Well, firstly I will say that is my favorite 3.1 miles of pavement to ride, in the world.  90% of the time I am cruising, just riding and thinking.  It's always different.  Maybe there are 20 foot snowbanks.  Maybe there is a 50mph headwind and oncoming storm.  Maybe the fall colors are blowing up and Donner Lake is glass.  I'm watching rock climbers, scoping ski lines, seeing bears.  It's a beautiful spot.

So, I rate it #1 for awesomeness.  In terms of difficulty, it's a lot shorter than something like Rose, and less steep than something like 267 (Truckee side) -- and very steady gradient unlike Tahoe Donner . . . It is a great distance to be good at for Norcal races as not many of them have climbs that are any longer.

Q What do you feel physically when ridding up the summit in 16 minutes? Does it hurt?

A Yeah, I think hard efforts at altitude always hurt more, the whole less oxygen thing gets a solid burn going in the chest.  That said if you want to talk pain that would be doing the same effort indoors on a trainer.

Q When riding up the summit what do you feel mentally? Whats your focus?

A Well, the beauty of the climb and relative solitude make it a great place to visit the proverbial pain cave for any effort.  I'm just thinking about finding that spot right on the limit and making it steady.  I haven't actually "timed myself" on Donner Summit since getting a power meter a couple of years ago.  My best time on the climb actually was me just being focused on holding a certain power threshold — that steadiness translated to my fastest time last fall, I never even looked at the time/progress on the way up.  There is almost always some kind of wind or temperature thing going on so just accepting those variables and settling in and going steady are the keys for me.

Q And lastly. Any tips on how to ride up hill faster? Specifically up Donner Summit?

A Donner Summit: Punch it hard from Donner Lake to the 'green gate' but don't overcook it.  Recover a bit on the flat 100m or so after the gate.  Then go right on the limit 'till the bridge,  and open it up for that last Kilometer so you explode right at the top but not any earlier.  The wind is usually kicking through the summit notch right on your nose so don't blow to early!

Any Hill: Be Jesse Miller-Smith (crazy radical cyclists from last weeks interview).  Lose 5 pounds.  Sigh.  Seriously, for me the things that have helped are learning how to pace myself and be as steady as possible — constant smooth power to the pedals.  Accept the road and conditions, don't fight 'em, they don't care.  Sitting is always most efficient, only stand to stretch the legs and kick/finish or deal with a super steep pitch.  If it's truly a long climb like over 45 minutes don't forget to eat/drink.  Wind resistance matters too, even when going at climbing speed — especially when the sierra wind is kickin.

The Berkeley Hills Road Race is somewhat of a Nor-Cal classic in that it's one of the first races of the season that offers substantial climbing.  The field is typically composed of slightly different people than who would have been at Merco a couple months earlier and usually includes riders coming back from Tour of the Gila and training for the Mt. Hood Stage Race.

With that in mind Marc Pro-Strava showed up with a team to handle all comers: Justin Rossi, Keith Hillier, Jesse Miller-Smith, Kris Lunning, Dustin Hahn, Nick Schaffner, Frank Spiteri, Nate Freed, and myself.  The race starts out at the somewhat unreasonable hour of 7:30 - luckily the weather in the Bay Area has been descent (as opposed to the rain last year) and we all were relatively well equipped with our vests and armwarmers from Panache.  From the beginning we decided to have Keith and Frank look for break away opportunities early while the rest of us waited for later in the race.  Within the first 5 miles Marc Pro-Strava had guys off the front, and the back.  Keith managed to get in a 4-man break and Jesse got a flat.  Nick gave Jesse his front wheel, and waited for the car.  Dustin waited for Nick to pace him back up.  WIth Keith off the front with guys from Yahoo! and Cal Giant the field was content to ride pseudo-tempo for the first couple laps.

We were all feeling pretty confident that the race was up the road when we got word of a 6 minute gap to Keith's group.  The strong riders in the field started getting antsy and attacks came fast and often.  With our strong numbers we always had someone in the move and counter attacked ourselves whittling the group down.  Rossi put in a strong effort over the rollers on the back side and dropped Huffman (Cal Giant) and the remaining Webcor riders.  

This left Jesse M-S, Rossi, Lunner and myself to contend with Jesse Moore (Cal Giant), Ozzy (Cal Giant) and Nate English(Yahoo!).  Over Pappa bear we saw Stastny (the Cal Giant rider in the break) on the side of the road, Moore was not pleased.

I was happy with the situation because it meant that Cal Giant had to chase.

Nate started looking for an opportunity:

Nate did manage to break away on the last lap, Jesse Moore followed.  Jesse M-S wasn't feeling awesome so Rossi man-ed up and attacked in pursuit.  Rossi would catch and pass Moore and I won the sprint from the lead group.  Turned out Keith was pipped at the line for 2nd.  All and all Marc Pro-Strava got 2nd, 6th and 10th a very good showing in a race that suited us all very well.  We're all keeping our minds on Mt. Hood.

Conrad, Ramsey and I lined up to race this bad boy in somewhat cold and windy conditions.  Not to worry said the strong men from the hills (who are sick of being cold!).  I see, 10 Iron Data/Thirsty Bear riders led by Chris Phipps.  Hmmm.

Well, I had good legs, and proceeded to waste all kinds of energy in the first 2 laps with half-assed attacks and covering silly things.  Learning.  Unfortunately Ramsey got popped out the group.  Two got off the front, and I found myself doing a lot of the chasing.  Thank god Conrad threw himself into the fire with a solo bridge effort.  I sat in.  Lot of wind.  Conrad battled out there solo for 20 miles before we absorbed him . . . some where in this mix we got the other two and Phipps got off solo, later.

The race got frustrating, nobody worked, attacks were just covered, stiff headwind in face on climbs making them less selective I think.  We got neutralized and mixed in with other fields.  A surfer on a cruiser passed us I think with his longboard in the racks.

The final lap featured hard riding, finally, with Specialized saying screw it I'm gonna be late for lunch and need a flogging so heck with it.  Thank you.  Phipps won, or I guess maybe sat at the line and let his teammate win who was first up the finishing climb.  I followed an early finish line push by a stronger rider and popped in the last 50m with that dreaded feeling of dudes sailing by while I flailed up the hill.  9th place for me, 20th for Conrad, Ramsey DNF.  With smarter racing maybe we improve on those -- not guaranteed but frustrating that 'not smart' racing leaves it in the 'will never know' camp. Next time, I'd like to know.

Conrad and I rode around and stayed warm while waiting for P12 to finish and saw our boys Keith Hillier pull 2nd and and Justin Rossi 6th and Jesse Miller-Smith also grabbing a top 10.  Those dudes continue to crush!  Old guys will learn, must learn, tactics and team racing.  I am first in line.  It was a great day for me to be in the break, make a break, needed more commitment to the moves.  Classic day of good legs and wasted energy adding up to no result.  Stoked to give it another go soon w/ more of the Masters boys.  As always a great time out w/ the crew - and special thanks to my Wife and Kids for letting me race on Mom's day!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to ride in a professional bike race like the Tour of California? Check out this week's Spoke n' Word column, a questions and answers interview with Jesse Miller-Smith, published on sports page of the Sierra Sun. You can read the article online here, or grab your printed copy from Wild Cherries Coffee House in Truckee.

What is Marc Pro?

With Marc Pro being new to the market this year, we get asked this question a lot.  Marc Pro is an electronic muscle conditioning device that is focused on two separate yet closely related issues; facilitating muscle recovery and enhancing muscle performance.  The brand name Marc Pro is new for 2011, however the product is based on patented technology used by athletes for over 20 years.

How does it work?

The Marc Pro unit is portable enough to fit in a gym (or bike) bag, holds a 20 hour of usage charge and is designed for use at home, on the road or anywhere you can be in a prone or sitting position.  It is used by placing 4 electrodes from the unit on the skin around key areas of muscles.  Electric signals are then sent to these electrodes creating a muscle stimulus that increases the flow of fresh oxygenated blood and nutrients to the area.  This greatly improves recovery between workouts.  Furthermore, this same stimulus promotes the development of new blood vessels (capillaries) – a process known as angiogenesis.  More capillary blood vessels in a muscle equals more oxygenated blood and related supplies in the muscle and more deoxygenated blood and waste out of the muscle. By increasing the overall throughput of nourishment and waste to and from the muscle through angiogenesis, the muscle has an increased capacity to do more work – it performs better.

But does it work?

Of course, and there are scientific studies to back this claim up.  Every team member on Marc Pro - Strava is using a Marc Pro device for recovery and performance enhancement.  Marc Pro enables us to train harder and longer, and then recovery faster than our competitors.  The proof is right here on our results sheet.

Where can I get one?

Production models are now available to public at marcpro.com.

This was a fairly straightforward flat, 4-corner crit in an office park. The two factors that would decide the outcome would be team composition (Marc Pro - Strava, Webcor, and Cal Giant were all present) and wind (it was windy!!!). Our squad for the race was Nick Schaffner, Justin Rossi, Dustin Hahn, and Nate Freed. Essentially, the race played out very much as we thought it would. It started out very aggressive, and stayed aggressive until the three big, strong teams allowed a break to get away. The day's break formed about 10 or 15 minutes into the hour-long race. Fortunately Dustin and I managed to both make the break of eight guys. We worked very smoothly together for the duration of the race, and surprisingly nobody even sprinted for the few primes that were called out.

With about five laps to go, it got a lot more aggressive. Dustin and I traded attacks with the hopes of softening up our breakaway group. Eventually a couple of guys managed to sneak away off the front. Dustin got on the front and tried to pull them back to no avail. It seemed that Webcor and Cal Giant were more concerned with marking each other than bringing back the two guys off the front. In the end, one of those two guys hung on for the victory. I was forced to lead out the last 200 meters of the sprint, which is definitely not my strong suit. I was passed by Webcor and Cal Giant right at the line and finished fourth. Dustin rolled in seconds later for eighth. Nick and Justin finished soon after in the pack.

Live streaming has changed my life, at least in terms of how much bike racing I watch.  A good buddy of mine turned me on to steephill.tv, where one can find live streaming feeds of most bike races throughout the year.  Before live streaming I never watched racing.

May is a wonderful time of the year for the viewer because of the Giro; as I saddled-up to the computer this morning with my coffee and surfed my way to the Eurosport feed it was apparent something had gone wrong at the Giro.  There were 15km left when I started watching and the announcers were talking about a horrific crash by some Trek Leopard rider.  That rider was Wouter Weylandt and he is now deceased.  I'm sure there is video of the crash out there somewhere but I know I don't want to see it.

My oldest son Louden has become quite fond of bikes, bike races on the computer and I've already wondered if he'd want to be a bike racer.  And then things like today's crash happen and I start wondering if I would llike him to be a bike racer.   I don't know the answer.  What I do know, however, is times like these help put things in perspective for me.

Be safe out there,

Jason

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/news/wouter-weylandt-biography_171968

Two hill climb TTs in one week?  Is that good?  Normally I'd say "yes", but since my effort on Tuesday was protested for wearing headphones, and knowing I wouldn't be wearing them on Saturday because of it, I wasn't sure Kingsbury was a good idea.  How do you do a hill climb without headphones?

So I left Reno at 8:15 am, thinking I'd get to the base of Kingsbury around 9am and have ample time for a warm-up.  I don't know what it is about going to do races in the Carson Valley but I always misjudge how long it takes to get there.  It didn't help that I thought I had time to get gas at Costco on the way.  I arrived at reg at 9:43 am - first rider off at 10am; my start time, 10:13:30.  I wasn't going to get the 45 min warm-up I wanted.

I've only ridden the east side of Kingsbury 3x.  The first was 3yrs ago, the final climb in this same series and I was a lock for 2nd place with no chance of getting first, so I soft-pedaled it.  Then last year on the way to a mother's day weekend in the eastern Sierra, hot springs, camping, etc.  I barely broke 40 min.  This year I told myself I would love to break 39 minutes.  I feel like I'm in better shape this year but Justin said there was going to be a 25mph headwind, so i wasn't sure what to expect.

Well, conditions were pretty good and even though I only got a 13 minute warm-up in, I felt pretty confident, at least for the masters.

And so I started, and probably a bit too fast/hard.  Does the power meter thingy always have to tick down during a TT?  Can one figure out how to meter your effort properly and get it to tick up?  I doubt it.

I felt pretty good for most of the climb and was thinking sub-39 was a possibilty but I kept getting more and more uncomfortable on the bike.  "Well Jason, you should, it's a TT after all."  Yeah, yeah but I just wanted to turn around.  Near the end I passed a guy who was going pretty good and suddenly the wheels fell off - I couldn't hold 250 watts.  I wasn't sure what to do and I didn't know where the finish was but I knew it was close.  Stand up, move back on the saddle, stand back up, make the pain go away.  Then I rounded the last left turn and saw people and that gave me a boost.  I finished at 39:05, just outside my goal but my power was better than it was for Geiger, so I felt pretty good about the effort.  And I won.  Not so bad.

But as a masters rider, it's a bit about the race but maybe more about the apres race.  This was apres race:

The beer was unspectacular but the nachos were pretty good.  But the coolest thing about the day - remember the dude I passed near the end of the race where I almost bonked?  Just happend to be Jason S. from Gray; we talked at the top of the hill and decided it would be a good idea to go to the factory and get that rear disc I need for my TT set up.  He showed me around and I got to geek out on some of the cool things they have to offer.  Thanks Jason.

Until next time...

For more photos of the event, check out the gallery on Thomas Compton's website.

Since the first day of training camp, there has been talk throughout the Marc Pro - Strava team of tackling the famous Old La Honda climb. With Old La Honda being one of Nor Cal's most famous benchmark climbs, and what I would consider Strava's most important segment, we felt that someone on the Marc Pro - Strava team should own the KOM.

Eric Heiden holds the OLH record, with 14:10, but fortunately for us, Strava wasn't around at the time... The Strava record was held for a long time by Chris Phipps (Thirsty Bear-IronData.com) at 15:31. We figured Jesse would be able to steal the KOM, we just weren't sure by how much. After talking with Chris after Wente, we found out he had done with climb with his Zipp tubulars in full race gear.



The plan was do tackle the climb with race wheels, but unfortunately Jesse flatted just a mile after leaving the house... Fortunately we had some fairly light clinchers to use and headed back out. We showed up at the bottom of the climb, stashed our bottles, vests and spare tubes, and took off up the climb. Before I could even get on Jesse's wheel, he dropped me. I guess I was going to pace myself.

Fast-forward 8 minutes...

Just as I was about to give up, I remembered what Jesse told me on the ride over. "I don't think the physiological differences are that big sometimes. I just really know how to suffer and put myself in pain. Sometimes I pass other guys and they just don't look like their hurting that much." I figured I was hurting probably just as much as Jesse at the time, and he wasn't going to ease up, so neither was I.

Fast-forward another 7 minutes...

I reached the top, absolutely thrilled with the time I had just acheived: 15:48. I never in my life thought I would get under the 16-minute mark. What had me even more stoked was that Jesse was WAY out of sight, so he for sure beat Phipp's time. Jesse told me he was right around 15:00. I wasn't really surpised; afterall, this is Jesse Miller-Smith.

Coincidentally, I had ridden the climb exactly one year before, besting my previous ride by 1 minute 16 seconds.

After a solid all around performance by the team on Saturday at Wente, the team was hoping to keep our form rolling at the Downtown Auburn Crit on Sunday. Kris Lunning (Lunner), Dustin Hahn, Nate Freed and I took one look at the main climb and descent on the historic downtown course and knew this race was going to be both fun and painful. In the pre race tactics chat we decided that racing aggressively early in the race would give us the best chance to put multiple guys on the podium because of the technical course profile. 

About 7-8 minutes into the race we upped the paced and started throwing out attacks which weren't really sticking but were definitely taking their toll on the peloton. Around 15 minutes in, Lunner decided he was going to make his mark on the race and threw down a savage effort which gave him about a 15-20 second gap within a lap while the rest of us got to sit in and watch the peloton chase. After Lunner was off the front for about two laps I figured he would start to get reeled in or better yet someone would be able to bridge and give him some help. But not today, Lunner was riding like an absolute beast and the peloton wasn't even cutting into his now 25 second gap. In fact, the peloton was starting to spit guys out the back just attempting to catch him. This craziness lasted for at least the next 30 minutes when finally the gap started to shrink. I figured that the best way to capitalize on all Lunner's work was to immediately counter attack once he was brought back. What I didn't expect was that Lunner would still have enough juice to stay with the next move but somehow he did and before I knew it Lunner and I were off the front for good with Jesse Moore and Max Jenkins.

Once the 4 of us started working the lead grew and I immediately started thinking about the finish and how I could keep the race from ending up in a sprint because I figured Lunner was worked and I knew my sprint sucked. Fortunately I was wrong and before I knew it, Lunner attacked the break and was up the road with the winning move. It was pretty cool watching my teammate get to solo in for the win knowing all his hard work both during the race and throughout the season was paying off. The rest of the race played out pretty much as expected as the strong and crafty old veteran Jesse Moore took me at the line in the sprint for second. Nate and Dustin both finished in the top 15 to round out another great day for the team.

On Tuesday, May 3rd, Jesse Miller-Smith set a new record up Geiger Summit in Reno. His time of 29:18 bested the previous record set by former pro-rider Bobby Julich by 6 seconds.

Results

1. Jesse Miller-Smith, 29:18 (15.76 mph)
2. Justin Rossi, 30:31 (15.14 mph)
3. Bjorn Fox, 33:14 (13.9 mph)

Full results can be found here

After licking our wounds from the Copperopolis debacle, Marc Pro Strava came into Wente Road Race with a game plan and ready to throw down. Driving into Livermore, the winds were whipping the side of my car with 20mph gusts... Actually a large tree branch almost fell on top of my car while I was gearing up for the race. We had a quick team meeting prior to heading off on the 80 mile 6000' wind driven road race. The game plan was to put riders in the early break, protect a select group of our big guns and watch Jesse Moore like hawks.

Pretty much from the gun there were riders off the front trying to make a break stick. The first break of the day had two from MPS (Spencer Collom and Keith Hillier). That was quickly reeled back and then again there was a break of 5-6 with a couple of Cal Giants and our work horse for the day Keith Hillier. From this point all we had to do was sit and watch other teams scramble to try and pull back the break. Yahoo drilled it into the head winds, while we sat and fueled up on clif bars and fluids... waiting for the next move. The break was eventually brought back by the hard work of yahoo and webcor at the base of the Wente Climb.

Jesse Miller Smith and Jesse Moore (Cal Giant) drilled the climb and got off the front. They continued over the top of the climb full gas with a sweet tailwind and gap growing quickly while they traded pulls for the move of the day. There was also a selection of about 25 riders on that climb, 6 being in the neon green of Marc Pro Strava. Again all we had to do was sit and watch Webcor turn themselves inside out and watch them scream at the pack to recruit help. The gap grew larger every time check.

Going into the start/finish climb before the last lap, we wanted to make sure the win was ours today. Not that I doubt the golden calves of Jesse Miller Smith or his ability to out climb any competition, but Jesse Moore is a tactical fox and has been playing odds in his favor for many years of NorCal cycling domination. I didn't attack, but gently rolled off the front of the pack...I looked back and had a 10 second gap over the start/finish line...Nobody coming with...Motor on!!! Head down, legs driving hard and a tailwind blowing me up the course, I went for the solo bridge. Within about 5 minutes I had the Jesse's in my site. I looked back and there was chase group of 4, with at least 1 MPS, but unsure if there were 2. No need to risk it, Jesse and me vs. Jesse Moore is in our favor. JMS said he saw the yellow shoes coming and did a mental fist pump when he knew he had fresh legs to work against Moore.

With the bridge complete, Jesse and I had a quick tactical discussion and continued to trade pulls with Jesse Moore helping.

Rolling into the long head wind section, the plan was to continue to work together and then start attacking with about 5k to go. Jesse and I traded attacks and counter attack, playing the bullying game with Jesse Moore. Dude this guy is strong....He covered 3 moves before Jesse finally got up the road. Jesse turned up the final climb, and I chilled on Moore's wheel and watched my boy tearing up the final climb. Game over. I turned my head and saw Spencer Collom trying to bridge to us solo from the chase group. Could we make this 1, 2, and 3...Naaa...A little too much of a gap. Jesse Moore towed me up the final climb until about the 200m mark, when I attacked for 2nd and a spot in the celebration dance picture of Jesse Miller Smith. As Jesse and I high fived we turned to watch Spencer secure 4th and Frank smoked the chase sprint for 5th!!! 1,2,4,5!!! That's how you play the team game.