RACING

May 5, 2009

Squad: Sky, Zack, Alex, Jason, Pascal, Orion Berryman, and myself.

Goal: Redemption

The Barrio Logan GP/SLR RR is my favorite race weekend of the year. These are two of the best courses in SoCal (anywhere for that matter). It's a classic Crit/RR weekend, reminiscent of the races I did growing up in the Midwest. And if I had to pick one race of the entire season to do well in, I'd pick SLR (or Nationals, but Nationals can be a crapshoot). But this year I wasn't expecting much for SLR even with the new course-sure there was less climbing, but that just means we'll go faster on the climbs! I hadn't been doing much climbing in training lately so I was planning on a supporting role at SLR. I was bummed after Barrio and so was the rest of the team; that one seems to escape us every year. The saying goes "You're only as good as your last result" and after Barrio that was 21st and missing the break! The Swamis DET is better than that; everyone was determined to put Swamis back to the top of the results sheet at San Luis Rey.

Our pre-race meeting was quick: be aggressive and make the breaks! We had many Swamis feeding us: Gary and Luuuuuke Emerson, Kevin Davenport, Fred Muir (who drank half our beer), and many others. The feeds and cheers were awesome. Behind every good team is a good support system and the Swamis were tip top in that area Sunday.

From the gun an attack went. Two riders rolled away and no one chased. Zack took over to cover it and soon it was Zack leading the race. A lap later another group took off and Alex covered that. Perfect. Jason has been riding really well and is our ace climber. His job was to follow Adam Livingston. Earlier in the week Adam told me he was skipping Barrio to win SLR. Jason rode great and did his job to perfection; Adam was very aggressive in the early laps and Jason was right there. Finally Rock Racing decided to shutdwon Alex and Zack's break. The race officals threatened to neutralize the 1/2 field if we got caught by the master 35+ field. If that happened the break would get a huge gap and our race would be over. Good for Swamis, but bad for Rock! They put the hammer down for a lap and brought the break back.

We passed the halfway mark and the field was more or less intact. Two riders had jumped away. Guys were tired. I had been feeling strong and decided to save my legs for the finale to help Jason or do something myself. As we neared the feed zone the 4th time a strong group attacked and I was in a perfect position to go with them. Before I knew it we'd caught the lead duo and put a good gap into the field. I had been feeling really good on the climbs and was usually in the big ring; I could tell I was on a good day so now I had to finish it off for the team. We motored for the next couple laps: we were doing 27-30mph on the flats and 14-17mph on the climbs! On the last lap we got word our gap was close to 2mins. I was starting to feel crampy so I drank up and sat on as much as I could. I had been working a fair share, but 2 guys had been sitting the whole time. Now it was my turn to sit. We started attacking each other in the valley on the way to the turnaround. We traded attacks but everyone was saving it for the final climb. After the corner more attacks came in the tailwind. Rudy from Liquid Fitness, attacked on the first ramp and our group split. We came back together at the base of the main climb and then Nic Sanderson from Rock attacked and shattered the group. Of course the two wheelsuckers had the juice to go with him and so did Rudy. My legs were locking; I quickly decided that I'd better just ride my best pace to the top. I didn't feel too bad, but there was no attacking left in my legs. I kept the pressure on and was soooo relieved to see the cones for the finish. The chasers were nowhere in sight so I had time to enjoy a nice hard fought result. I ended up 8th, not too bad at all.

The field came through soon and most of the guys were in there with Pascal mixing it up for 19th. The guys were awesome today. It was really awesome to have Swamis yelling for us all day.

Thanks Gurus. I'll see you on the road.

Chris Daggs

PS- check out swamisracing.blogspot.com for pics (courtesy Kevin D) from SLR

May 4, 2009

Saturday was a rough day at the office.

Barrio Logan is a tough crit and one of the best SoCal has to offer. Figure 8 course. Uphill. Tight corners. Always a bit windy. Cool venue. We had a good size squad: Myself, Skyler, Zack, Alex, Jason King, Rob Carr and Joel. We were excited to have Joel racing with us; his finishing speed and smarts are a great asset! After Zack's success last week we were looking for more results. Our game plan: Rob was super domestique today; Jason and I were to cover breaks and work on keeping the race together if it came down to a sprint; Joel, Sky, Alex, and Zack were our sprint team with Alex and Zack also watching for a break. Attacks started rolling from the gun and we were on it. Rob was a regular sight at the front pulling and closing breaks down; he had a great race. Jason and I were covering little breakaways and making sure Swamis was in the mix. Alex and Zack also made some excellent moves. things were looking good until 20mins to go. The field got strung out and gaps started top open. Before we knew it a small group had snuck away and we missed it!!! I jammed hard and closed the gap and caught a few guys who got dropped from the break. Luckily for us SDBC lost a man out of the break so they had to chase too. But we just couldn't coordinate our efforts and the break steadily pulled out of sight. In the end Sky finished 21st, 1 place out of the money. We were all disappointed with the outcome of the race. That is the roller coaster of racing: one week you're winning and the next you're 1 place out of the $$$.

We'll just have to throwdown at San Luis Rey!

Chris

February 8, 2009

Boulevard was insane! Zack, Corey, Jason, Jose, Orion Berryman and I lined up for the Pro/1/2. It was a stacked field with Floyd, OUCH, Jelly Belly, Team Type 1, Rock, Team V Australia/Successful Living, and many other good guys.

About 15mins before the start it started to rain, then it turned to big snowflakes! WOW! On the start line the snow was blowing sideways. We asked about doing 3 laps instead of 4 and the officials said "Nope you're doing 4." WTF? Seriously it was like 35 degrees and, honestly, really dangerous for crashing and our health - the chances of hypothermia were there. I wasn't too cold. I had on a LS baselayer, 2 jerseies, leg warmers, arm warmers, a water proof hat, vest, rain cape, and waterresistant gloves and shoecovers.

We took off and it was FREEZING. The legs did not want to work. The guy next to me turned around after a mile! In the first mile we had a crash! You were constantly getting gapped by guys. IT was freezing on the descent. I couldn't feel my hands or quads! On top of that my brakes weren't working well at all. We finally hit the climbs and the field had already thinned out. I sat in the group on the climbs, but felt horrible. It was going to be a 1 lap race for me. I cruised in and it was snowing heavily on me at the top of the climbs.

Apparently half the field quit! I rode down to the car with Zack and found Jose already warming the car up and Jason trying to get warm in Corey's car. We finally warmed up and headed out to help Corey and Orion. Corey toughed it out for nice top15 (I think); on lap 1 he was talking about quitting to save it for VOS, but he must've felt better. Orion rode awesome for a guy who says he hasn't been training! About 25 guys finished total. Not a bad showing for the Swami's! What a day! I'll not foret that anytime soon.

Hopefully we'll get a report from one of the other guys too.

Chris

February 5, 2009

It's hard to believe the season is already here and underway! Before we headed up to Santa Barbara for the Good Ole Days RR and Mothballs Crit we went to the Long Beach Criterium on January 25th. Alex, Zack, Corey, and I were there and Joel Stranglehold joined us.

I gotta say, I've been racing a loooong time and I was really excited for the first race more so than years past. The team has really come together this offseason and I can see the guys are going to be good and that's something to look forward to. I signed up for the masters race to get some extra training in and maybe snag a result. Doubling up is an art form. You can't go to hard in the masters race if you're doing the 1/2 race, but it's hard to turn off the competitive fire! The field was huge (over 100 riders) and it looked a lot like a regular 1/2 race-lots of fast guys.

Besides Joel and myself, Josh Zlotlow was racing. I was so excited to be racing again that I went with an attack on the first lap-woohoo! I ended up being pretty aggressive all day, but no breaks would stick. I finished off the race by trying to help Joel go for the sprint. I dropped back with a lap to go and I think Joel got swarmed on the final lap. One down, one to go.

The Pro/1/2 race had a big field. Both Pro and U23 National Criterium champs (Rahsaan Bahati and Justin Williams) were in attendance along with some local pros like Tony Cruz. Swami's was represented by Zack, Alex, Corey, Joel, and myself. The race got underway and breaks started going on the first lap. There were a lot of excited racers with some horsepower so we regularly doing 30mph down the straightaways. Zack, Corey, and Alex were doing a great job of covering moves and keeping Swami's at the front.

Alex rode super smart and made the break of the day. He was away with a few pros from Rock and Jelly Belly as well as some strong local guys. Zack and I covered the front and helped shut the race down. As laps went by it was starting to look good, but before we knew it the field started chasing furiously (under the impetus of Tony Cruz) and the break started splitting up. Alex was on the wrong side of some pro team tactics in the break and came back to the field in the last few laps. We were wasted from our efforts so not much happened in the sprint for Swami's. C'est la vie. We couldn't be too disappointed-for our first race the team rode great; it showed we'll be right in there for the rest of the season.

More good news to come.

Chris Daggs