Ciclismo in Utah!

After a couple days spent driving and collecting team members from the airport, the Ciclismo Racing team is all together in Utah. My travels were a breeze. On Sunday, I had the privilege of driving down from Fort Collins with Nick and Ian. Much of my ride was spent listening to Ian and Nick discuss business plans and strategies (wow, those guys are smart!)...I just sat in the car with my jaw slack and tried to soak up some intelligence. Besides Nick spilling hot oatmeal ALL OVER ME, and me getting REALLY angry at Nick, the drive was easy.

We've settled into some wonderful host housing. Paul and Rose have opened their beautiful home to us, and we are all super comfy. We are also very well fed thank to chef Jim Whalen who has been cooking amazing meals for us non stop... this guy is good!

Today the team went out for a ride, the weather was awesome and the roads and climbs we got to see were great. Ben saw some wildlife including, he claims, a unicorn...he also claims this is a good sign.

Everyone is excited to start racing, and it kicks off tomorrow with the prologue. It's gonna be fast and fun. Check the blog and the twitter for results...

-Dan

This Weeks FoCo CIC Successes

Last night was round two of the Tuesday night criterium series, sponsored by New Belgium Brewery, Ciclismo Racing, the City of Fort Collins, yourgroupride.com, and the cycling-faithful Dr. Tim Anderson. (I'm sure I'm missing some sponsors so I apologize if I neglect to acknowledge you.) I wasn't present so I'm speaking through multiple story tellers, but apparently the star of the show was Mr. Aggressive, Brad Cole of Ciclismo Racing. Attacking multiple times lead to Brad and the ever-tenacious Dan Porter, owner and Godfather of yourgroupride.com, establishing a two-man breakaway that sustained until the finish. Dan said, "Brad pinched me into the dumpsters before the finish", but in the end Brad wound up his ferocious sprint and beat Dan to the line. Visit yourgroupride.com and check out the video produced by Dan--what a fun way to watch the action as it unfolded.

Day two of the weekly training race schedule included Wednesday Night Worlds, starting at the Budweiser plant off of I-25, heading north along the frontage road to Buckeye Road where the race headed west. The final leg includes heading south on north Shields, jogging a couple miles along Owl Canyon Road to the west, heading south on north Taft Hill Road, and finishing west to the Cement Plant where the finish line lies at the top of the leg-breaking climb.

Tonight was unique in that very little wind forced selections among the riders even though numerous attacks began after the town of Wellington and persisted until the finish. In the end Dan Porter of Team Rio Grande and Jonathon Garcia of BMC held a sizable lead up until the final climb to the sprint. I was lucky to have a couple faithful strongmen, including Brett Kirby of Team Rio Grande, Rich Davis of Spike, and teammate Alex Hagman, take some strong pulls to reduce the gap before the finish. After the guardrails, Alex started to fade so I started sprint #1 to bridge to Dan and Jonathon. Sprint #2 took place as soon as I made contact with the pair, allowing me to open a gap on the competition. New talents Aaron of Rio Grande (sorry can't remember last name) and Troy (don't know last name either) held my wheel and I caught a glimpse of Aaron under my left arm which initiated sprint #3...there would be no easy victory tonight. Sprint #3 was the nail in the coffin and Ciclismo Racing took win number two of the week.

I'd be remiss to not acknowledge how grateful I am to be a part of such an incredible Fort Collins cycling community. The old school persistence to see the weekly training race scene prevail and the cultural components of the tough-man attitude and ruthless competition allow us 'newby's' to establish a solid foundation that we can take to the national race scene. From all us 'newby's', THANK YOU!

Dead Dog is this weekend...more exciting things to come!!!

-Phil

State TT

This is a little late, but better late then never. Anyway, last time I blogged I was beating up on some masters riders nothing too great. However, this time is a little more exciting I actually beat some good riders. We had the state TT a week ago and I have to be honest I didn't know what to expect. The last time I did a TT with any significance was in Irvine, Ca and that ended with a flat tire. I felt like my form was good and was expecting to win, but then again you never know. There was a good turn out lots of people sporting very expensive bikes and gear that I sure that they only ride five times a year. Things started out well we got there early and drove the course. I had never raced this particular course before and wanted to see it. It was a 23.25 mile out and back course with rolling hills at the beginning and end. We headed north first and then turned and went back south. This being Nebraska wind was going to be a factor. However, the wind was blowing north to south so we had a tail wind first. I started fast catching my minute man pretty quick and then I started pulling back people the rest of the way. I wanted to have something left in the tank toward the end so I tried to be steady in the middle and hammer the last half. Everything was going good until the end when I started to get tired the last 1.5 miles. My time was good but I still need some work before nationals. All in all it was a good race.

Jarred

Nature Valley Grand Prix pictures from Stages 1-3

Credit goes to Cyclingnews and VeloNews for these!

This is probably 100m before the TT finish, on a very long and painful small-ring climb. OUCH!!

It was definitely worth it, though! Snagged both the top amateur and the top under 23 jerseys with a time of 13:09, good enough for 14th place overall.

Getting called up to the front for these NVGP criteriums is crucial--they're only 60 minutes and all-out from the gun, so staying up front is both safer and easier. It's also awesome to be up there with guys who fight for stage wins at Tour of California!

Standing next to my good friend and former teammate Tom Soladay in the orange Wheaties sprint jersey (AND the red Most Aggressive jersey, to boot!).

Here is our super-fast climber Rolf Eisinger putting in a monster effort to set up our other climber, Ian Grey, for the first King of the Hill--they went 1-3! Awesome team effort and way to stick with our plan: attack from the gun on the tough initial climb out of town.

This part was a blast--the entrance to the hectic, technical finishing circuits was a deep gravel road followed by a FAST minefield of a downhill. WOW. I knew it well from last year and followed a nice little breakaway about 1 mile before the entrance, then dropped the guys in the break to just barely stay in first going into the gravel. The entire OUCH train basically absorbed me and, like in Tour of the Battenkill, I simply followed master 'cross racer Tim Johnson--always a safe bet in conditions such as these.

I think Rory Sutherland (in the black/green King of the Hill jersey) found the only guy he can actually draft that isn't already a teammate!

Awesome company on the podium after Stage 3!

Tonight is going to be a FAST, technical run through uptown Minneapolis. I've heard that it's the trendy, hipster part of town and the Friday night crowd should be going insane! The race doesn't start until 7:45 PM, and Dad is driving up to watch! My plan is to stay at the front and be safe while conserving as many matches as I can for tomorrow's queen stage in Mankato.

Thanks for reading, and follow our team's awesome Twitter account for live during-race updates!!

Good, clean midwestern fun...

Beginning where IG, inc. (aka Ian) left off, the past two weekends have been some of the most fun racing all season. Gotta' love midwest criterium racing...90 min maximum of work per day!

So the past two weekends, I was able to do 7 races in 10 days...the perfect preparation for Nature Valley Grand Prix. The final day of Quad Cities weekend was a dead flat figure eight, which doesn't exactly bode well for us smaller guys. It's better to have a more physically demanding course to sap the energy from the competition, and finish by hitting them hard in the sprint. Unfortunately, the last day wasn't such, and too many guys had fresh legs leading to a crash infested finale.

Tulsa is one of the most fun places in America...an amazing underground bike community is the driving force behind great rides and an even better weekend of racing known as Tulsa Tough. Three days of criterium racing, each day with its own unique vibe. The first day, a twilight criterium, was its usually fast pace but was unusually safe...probably because the city of Tulsa did an amazing job of repaving the roads 3 days before the race. The second day had a small climb, which passes right by the Soundpony, a bar which attracts only the best, most outlandish beer-drinking cycling fans (aka the American Hooligan). (Stop in and see Josh Gifford, the owner of the Soundpony. Tell him he's a hero.) And the final day had a very steep climb (aka cry baby hill) which covered half the course, and the fans (manly the same Soundpony hooligans from the night before) were actually asked by the race promoter to party their asses off and pinch the road giving the racers only about 5 feet from side-to-side to pass. My body was telling me I had a 1% survival rate to finish the race, but that 1% prevailed, because who quits when you are being cheered on by the best fans, EVER?!

They don't call it Tulsa Tough for nothing, because it's almost impossible to bring home the bacon when you're riding solo. Each race I was super aggressive following and bridging to very powerful breakaways, but too many full-sized teams were active and unsettled without the formation of large leadout trains and bunch finishes. (At least it wasn't the Toyota-United show this year.) In the end, although I only finished in the money (15th place) the final day, the Ciclismo jersey did what it does best...race aggressive and make some other people suffer.

Coming up the team has Nature Valley Grand Prix. Stay tuned for more rider incite on the blog...

Thanks for reading,

Danger (aka Phil Mann)

Ciclismo wins again in KY

May 15 and 16
Ciclismo wins again in KY.
It was the final weekend of the Kentuckiana spring series. Both races were flat, windy crits with local fields. First race started with small breaks rolling off the front until about 20 minutes in, when a break of 5 of us were let go. We dropped one guy and it ended up bringing myself and 3 other guys all from the same team. In the process of dropping the 5th guy, one of the 3 guys made it up the road. His teammate was able to bridge after I had made the move that caused the 5th guy to be dropped. I pulled their other teammate around for the last 25 minutes and ended up 4th. That night Elizabeth and I joined 6 of our friends and went camping and hiking at the Red River Gorge. Very cool place, despite the rain. We were able to make a fire and roast marshmallows.
The next morning we went hiking for a couple of miles before we had to drive back to Louisville two or so hours for the final race of the spring series. We had just enough time to take a shower and grab a sandwich before we had to leave for the race.
The race started out fast with attacks from the gun. After several attacks, 12 guys ended up creating the break. It was myself and 5 Roadhouse guys, and 3 Panther/RGF pb Felt Bicycles teammates along with some other teams who all had a couple riders. It was attack after attack as I had to cover if a roadhouse guy went with a Panther/RGF pb Felt Bicycles guys or vice versa. The break stayed together as we headed into the last lap. I attacked right before the last corner, which was a sharp horse shoe shape and I got a gap. The rest of the guys tried to catch my wheel but couldn’t before the corner and one of the guys towards the back of the break went down in the corner. I increased my lead through the corner and put my head down and peddled. The finish came down to mere inches as a couple guys almost caught me after a 300 meter downhill in the wind finish. It was too close to call but the finish line camera showed me just inches ahead. I won! I ended up wining the weekend omnium and placed 3rd in the overall spring series, despite racing only four of the ten races.

At Quad Cities, everyone has a story...

... it's true, you travel to the Mississippi Delta, Memorial weekend to collect four separate stories, each with their own seemingly epic plot...

...A windy road race, with cross winds and a break that almost always comes back...

...The Snake, with it's storied cobbles, large fields and critical starting position...

...Melon City, which takes place in Muscatine, which we're still trying to figure out; with its big circle, mile laps (we do 40) and incredibly important positioning for the finish...

...Quad Cities Crit, with it's super tight turns, fast pace and chain link fence that keeps the riders in and the hundreds of fans out...

Three of the stories have been written and for Ciclismo racing, our stories reflect those of decades past...

Sparing the reader my prophetic (or long-winded) prose, here's the recap...

Day 1 - 80 mile Road Race - this day was all Phil, as Jarred and I stayed behind in Lincoln with babysitting trouble... yes, the proud daddy Berger had to watch the little-one. The break was caught with 500 meters to go and as Phil knows best, he went for the win out of the swarm. This story, however, ended with a near collision with one of the most classic figures of these races (no names... sorry) and Phil settling for sitting up to reach 12th.

Day 2 - Snake Alley - as Jarred and I arrived in the afternoon, it was hot and humid, with storms looming on the Mississippi horizon. I start with a weather report because that was our story... it rained and rained hard. With the cobbles wet and slick, we were to set up for the storm positioned at the back of the 100+ man field. Let's just say the first time up the Snake we were shrugging our shoulders with crashes all around us and unable to navigate through... the leaders already had 60 seconds on us, 2 minutes into the race... I chased to 24th, Phil was 31st and Berger was pulled even though he was only 10 seconds back of my small chase group... did we mention the rain, the entire race?

Day 3 - Melon City - 135 starters and a whose who of current and former pro's, national champs and typical corn-fead, yet crit starved midwesterners, we were ready to race... our story began with a script that read... "attack, but attack smart, for when we go, we are to go so hard we are eyes go crossed." Attack we did and on no fewer than 3 occasions the pin stripes of Ciclismo were out in front in some incredible breaks. This story, however, was about positioning and a field sprint and no-one better than our midwestern sprinter (yes, we feed him corn even in Colorado) to get into position and take 7th...

Day 4 is tomorrow... Berger and I are ready to write a script for Phil, taking him to the finish... he will tell the story tomorrow...

- I

Iceman to Mellow Johnny: SEE YA!

Tour of the Gila Stage 4: Silver City Criterium

I'll leave the Stage 2 blogging for somebody else

Wow, you just can't beat the quality of people (community members, race organizers, racers) here in Silver City. The race is yet to end, and I don't want to jinx my expectations, but the Tour of the Gila is, simply put,...outstanding.

Today, stage 3, was the individual time trial, an out-and-back, in Tyrone, New Mexico, just a stones throw from downtown Silver City. The course commenced with a gradual 5 mile uphill followed by a steep downhill, which led into a few rollers before the turn-around. Returning to the finish included a steep 2 mile climb and a ripping-fast 5 mile descent. Today's weather was comfortably warm and the wind was at our backs on the way to the turn-around and directly at our heads on the way home...better than a crosswind, but still not easy.

The fastest on the day for Ciclismo Racing was our daily dose of "Sunshine" and GC leader, Mr. Benjamin Kneller, covering the course in 35:22, which equated to a 12th place finish. In a field of over 140, and with 3 riders preparing for the Giro d'italia, one of which was slower than Ben, trust me 12th place is a truly special and spectacular result. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, and this result came after a malfunction of his front derailleur, which Ben overcame by ramping his speed up to 45 miles per hour, putting his hand down to grab his chain, and returning his chain to the big chainring to finish the race...talk about staying cool-headed in a could-be disastrous situation. As a teammate, when another teammate rides so hard that they can barely finish the short spin back to the house, a performance like Ben's encourages us to ride even that much harder for our GC leader and glues us that much tighter as a team.

Thanks for reading,
Phil Mann

On a side note, and to give all you readers some perspective, I rode 20 seconds faster today than last year on the same course, but I was 52 places higher, 39th last year versus 91st this year (don't judge my placings, I wasn't hired as a time trial specialist :)). Hopefully this incite sheds light on the depth of talent in the field of racers.

A Trip up the Mogollon

Today we went bike racing in Silver City up to the Mogollon. This was the first day that I have raced with the team, it was awesome. We rode really well as a team and everything went good.

To elaborate on this we had Spotti and Workman make numerous perfect feeds from the car all day long. They kept us fueled and ready to get the job done. Nick, Phill, and Shaggy kept us out of the wind and up in the front of the field. The stage is set up to where it is mostly flat until the last five miles of the race where you take a right hand turn and go up to the finish. This is where the race really started. When we hit the wind going up the hill Nick kept me in the front group and kept my legs fresh for the final climb. From the help of others I was able to have ony of my best days climbing and finshed 18th out of the field. Rolf was not far behind in 28th.

It was a great day of racing and am looking forward for more to come.

Ben

Lance at the Gila...

So as with all of us, this is the first time I have ridden with lance, and as expected it was quite the experience. The start line was buzzing with Lance mania and it was clear that the field had great respect for the man and his achievements, and rightfully so. You would see the peloton giving him the extra space that a man of his stature commands. Needless to say I had my own little moment with Lance, though not so sedate. Coming into the finish with 8 miles to go I found myself at the front of the race. I was riding just outside of the echelon and next thing I know I caught an elbow in the ribs. I was a little shocked and wasn't sure what had just happened. In the next moments Lance rolls up next to me and not so kindly informs me that, I shouldn't be in the line. I suppose if your going to hear that I guess it is better to hear from a seven time Tour winner than anyone else. I guess I'll see what tomorrow brings in the Lance Armstrong show...
Brad

Ciclismo wins again!- Brown County Road Race, Nashville, IN 4-26-2009

Brown County Road Race, Nashville, IN
Ciclismo wins again
5 miles loop x 12 with 2 bigger climbs.
First lap started out fast and we dropped ½ the field as we crested the second climb. By the 3rd lap we were down to 4 riders and then the next lap we had only 3. we lapped everyone by the last lap and it came down to a sprint finish. I was able to out sprint the other two for the 3rd win of the season! I would like to thank Elizabeth for providing feeds during the race. If it wasn’t for her I would not have had a chance. After to race we went shopping for a few before we made it home around 8pm. I put the bike in the box and slept until bring dropped off at the airport at 7:30am for my trip to Gila. I flew from SDF to Midway then to St. Louis and finally to ABQ where the guys picked me up and we drove another 4 hrs to Silver City. It is awesome to be with the team again!

Ciclismo comes out on top in Cincinnati OH

4-19-09
Road race 64 miles (8min laps)
Night before the race was Thunder of Louisville. Big deal for the region with over 800,000 people showed up to watch the biggest fireworks display in the country and air show. Once the fireworks were over Elizabeth and I managed to make it to our car which was the first goal. The next was to get home. Within 10 mins of not moving in the car the gas light came on. We watch the gas mileage go from 50 down to 19 when we finally make it 2 miles which took 1 and ½ hours.
The race started with a break which lasted about a lap. There was another move as we went up a slight climb. I made an effort to join the 3 other riders. We rolled away from the rest of the field and never saw them again. It was the slight climb on the last lap where I made a slight effort to see how the other 3 were feeling. One guy fell off and the rest of us kept going making sure he did not catch back on. Four miles to the finish I made another move dropping another guy but he was able to crawl his way back on. Once he did he attacked and I went with him and we dropped the other guy. It was only me and another rider who kept trying to attack but did not have any luck dropping me. I attacked 400 meters to the finish and dropped him and Ciclismo won!
Rolf Eisinger

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

So I race a TTT and a crit this weekend. Since none of my teammates live here I had to ride the TTT with a couple of former teammates from Team KAOS. It was a pretty good race about 8.5 miles technical course. I think we won by over a minute but it was nothing really special. All we won was our entry fee to the crit later that day. The Good: I won the crit lapped the field I'm not too sure that anyone else even pulled during the entire race. I went off the front on the lap and tried to make it fast. Someone told me that there were guys off the back after the first couple of laps, which brings me to the Bad: the field. It was by no means a star-studded field but some local racers showed up and road hard. Being the first race of the year many people around here are just getting into it, Im sure races are just going to get faster. Next is the Ugly: A crash that happened at the end of the race as I was finishing with the lapped group, a tight corner 75 meters from the finish claimed a victim. Some guys were sprinting for 5th or 6th for no money, no prizes, nothing really. I have never seen a bike fly so high up in the air. They took him away in an ambulance I think that he is going to be ok though. It just goes to show how competitive cyclists are at any level or any commitment. These guys with nothing to gain or win threw caution to the wind and were sprinting like mad for a nothing more that pride. All in all it was a great day of racing and hopefully there are many more to come.

Jarred

Race Reports from KY

KY race report
Sunday, April 5, 2009

It was a beautiful day for a bike race here in Kentucky. We drove 45 minutes outside of Louisville to the nondescript Waddy, Kentucky for today’s 50 mile circuit race. Though storms were promised for early in the afternoon, they held off and we had 75 degree weather with sunshine and a strong south/southwest wind.
The race started out quick; in the first thirty seconds attacks were firing like the fireworks at Kentucky’s Thunder Over Louisville (look that one up!). I did my best to cover and found myself in a break with five guys. About halfway into the first lap, I attacked and stayed off the front with one other guy, who just sat on my wheel. I made it all the way to the end of the third lap with the same guy still on my wheel, though he was starting to get fatigued when I continued to attack him on the climbs. We were caught by two others towards the end of the third lap and I attacked starting the fourth lap. This time I was by myself, so at least my work was a little more productive.
Three-fourths of the way through the fourth lap, I was caught just before the big climb. I rested for a few and a few people caught up to me. As I crested the hill, I attacked again and soloed the rest of the fourth lap and half of the last lap when a few guys caught me. I rested for a couple minutes before I countered a move. Another guy just sat on my wheel and I asked him if he wanted me to counter my own attack or are you willing to rotate with me. After a couple pedal strokes of silences I countered my attack. When I looked back I saw his legs locked up and he was done. I rode the rest of the way in and finished well over a minute ahead of the chase group of three.
Eisinger's 2nd Race
Ciclismo

70 mile flat windy road race with a stronger field:

I arrived at the race about 40 minutes before it started. The drive took around 3 hours. It was sunny but the wind was intense. The race started with a break out of the gate. I hung in trying to hind from the wind. The break was pulled back after about 12 miles and then people started to attack. I caught on a couple but then saved my energy since all of these efforts were being brought back. It wasn’t until the small incline in the course that a break started to roll off the front. I caught a wheel and worked to bridge to the break. We had 8 guys. Two teams had two guys each and we all worked well together just rotating until the last 4 miles. I know the finish was on a downhill and with a cross / tail wind. Most of the guys in the break were sprinters and I knew it would be tough to beat any of them in a sprint finish especially with there teammates. So I attacked mid way up the hill and got away with one other guy. He was kind of soft pedaling looking back and we were caught by 2 other guys (one was just sitting on) about 2 k out. We dropped the rest of the guys. Once we were caught there was a little hesitation and I attacked again. The guy who was doing all the work to catch us blew up and the guy who I was working with tried to reel me back in with the other guy on this wheel. He managed to catch me about 200 meters out and blew up but the guy who got the free ride went around both of us. I managed to place 2nd and felt good about the effort. The other guys in the break were impressed with the move and congratulated me instead of the guy who own.

Upen races, DONATE!

I'll keep it short and sweet . . .

First off, I'm BEGGING you all, my wonderful readers and devoted friends/family/fans and the people who keep me motivated and going 110%, to PLEASE DONATE ANY SMALL AMOUNT TO MY TEAM, CICLISMO RACING!! It means a ton to us and we'll get you hooked up with the bi-weekly team newsletter, and with your help we'll even be able to afford chamois cream.

Here is a link to sign up for our NEWSLETTER, and here is the flyer for our soon-to-be-famous launch party:


On Saturday I had planned to ride from Princeton down to the Philly circuit race, do the race, and ride home. Well, I got started a touch late and ended up doing a decently hard TT with a full backpack on for two hours, only to get hopelessly lost in a great part of North Philly (wink wink). I ended up watching the race and heckling some guys, then rode home. But again, the ride home was a bear because I had a headwind the whole way and took an even longer, more circuitous route! ARGH. Got home after 6+ hours of riding and 5000kJ.


Notice the large spike in HR and elevation at around mile 50? That's the Manayunk Wall! Brought back many fond memories . . . it's crazy to just ride it after only racing on it, and it definitely hurts at the top!!


The team got up before dawn on Sunday (I didn't even get off my bike on Saturday until 8PM!) to drive down and race the TTT and criterium. We rode the TTT on our fast bikes, but did about 85% to just get things smooth and figure out our communication and rotation. We pushed it a little near the end, but were really happy with how controlled and smooth the effort was. We won by over 20 seconds!


The criterium was a very fast but easy race on a wide-open flat course with only three huge, smooth turns. A sprint finish if I've ever guessed a race correctly! With 6 laps to go, a break had been off the front with a consistent ~10 second gap for much of the race, and Austin and I finally decided enough is enough so we got to the front and ripped it. We had a lot of help from Chris Ruhl which lead us to bring the break back in just under 3 laps! Argh . . . to early. After some amazing late-race moves by UVM and the ever-powerful Josh Lipka, Austin and I did our best to get Big Bennette a leadout. I was tapped out just about 50 meters too early, and Nick had to do the whole final drag against UVM's endless stream of guys--he got third to a fast Colin J and a coordinated UVM team effort. Kudos.


Now I've been locked in my room for over a day writing my nuclear physics paper--AHHHHHHH!!! Then tonight/tomorrow I have to do my automatic control systems take-home midterm--DOUBLE AHHHHHHHHH!!!

"Just four weeks left, Nick . . . "

I'm gonna need a 58t . . .

I just clocked ~6 hours putting this baby together! I've you'll look closely, there is no rear brake cable . . . ran out! Oh well, brakes are only for slowing down.

I rode her on the trainer for about 1 minute . . . WOW!!! I can't wait for the UPenn TTT this Sunday! I'll try to get some pics and/or video.

P.S. DONATE TO MY TEAM, CICLISMO RACING!!! Any amount, even if it's just $20, is super helpful. We're going to some big races this year and I want to keep everyone updated, so sign up for our excellent email newsletter (probably bi-weekly updates on the team) and help us out with some spare coin for tubes, bar tape, and beer---er, Gatoraide.

Ian, what a stud. We got punished up the climbs by the local Silver City group on the last day of camp.

I am actually in serious pain with a horrible sunburn at this point! ;-)

I don't know about living here, but I'll definitely be down here for a lot of training in the coming years!!!

Hopefully they let me come back!

The requisite team headshot . . . mine wasn't as hilarious as some of the other guys' pics, but I'm actually pretty happy with it.

Princeton Criterium, a B-day, and Silver City!

A great 22nd birthday present!

TEAMWORK AT RUTGERS!

The skinsuits are key.

My good friend Doug came to the race with his parents!

That was worth it!

Wind is not your friend.

Those BMC SLC01 Pro Machines are sweet.

I'm going to miss my time at Princeton.

"REALLY?!"

I almost killed Chris Wynnyk here . . .

Corner three was pretty sweet, especially since I had to rail it each time to keep my gap!

Well, the weekend of March 7-8, just before my 22nd birthday on March 9th, was a BLAST! Dad drove across the country from the land of corn and hogs, sat in on some classes, had dinner with the Princeton team, and watched us tear it up at our home race and the Rutgers circuit race.

It has been a hectic, stressful couple of weeks leading up to Spring Break, as it always is with our midterms and problem sets due just before we leave. I made it through without cracking, and did a respectable job with [most of] my work. I went into our first races of the season knowing I had good form, but also not feeling quite right on my brand-new BMC . . . I decided to just enjoy things and let it rip! Sure enough, I felt good in the Princeton criterium and went off the front just three laps in to solo to a win--but not actually. I had missed the start after warming up for a little too long and just jumped in midway through the second lap! Argh . . . a sophomoric mistake, but oh well, we put on a good show and I confirmed to myself that I'm riding well at this point in the year.

It was a blast seeing all of my old collegiate racing buddies! I love the vibe of collegiate races, very fun and not too serious, but the guys don't pull punches--the races are 100%. It's a great way to have fun, get in some seriously intense training, and hopefully get some wins and bring up new riders through the categories by passing down the incredible knowledge we've accumulated by touching a hot frying pan many times!

Dad and I had a great time at Princeton, and I know he really soaked it in since I'll be moving on in just another couple of months. I had some intense problem solving sessions post-Princeton-race in order to get my final loose ends tied before flying to New Mexico, but sure enough I had my things packed and ready to go come Thursday night . . .

Woke up late--8:20 for a 9:30AM flight IN PHILLY, a 1.5hr train/cab away. No worries, changed my flight on Southwest--love them! Well, got my things together, made a frou-frou soy capuccino and headed down the stairs to grab my bike bag and go. Uh . . . NO BIKE BAG!!! Maybe it's in the bike room? Maybe I just had some dream about leaving it there to pick up in the morning . . . nope, it's gone. Wow. Well, better get the old Ibis fixed up and ready to train on so I have a reason to even go to training camp!

Long story short, I made it to Silver City, New Mexico with the Ciclismo boys, ready to ride my bike up many thousands of feet of amazing Tour of the Gila courses while burning a nice farmer's tan into my arms and legs! While I am very jealous of the other guys' sweet BMC SLC01 road bikes, I've got some good legs and I'm SO excited to be racing with the new team. We've gelled amazingly in a very short time, and we've got the advantage of being under the radar while having a great card to play on the climbs, in the sprints, and in the time trials. I can't wait to graduate and get out to Colorado to pursue racing as well as selling the best bamboo bikes in the country. Big things to come . . .

Silver City Team Training Camp 2009

Hello faithful followers,

We are incredibly excited for a second year of racing under the incredible management of Ciclismo, LLC.  I'll leave more in depth posting to others, but I just wanted to update you all and let you know although the Ciclismo Racing website continues to evolve, we are now able to once again begin blogging.  We are currently down in Silver City, NM for training camp staying with our wonderful hosts who continue to open their doors, although I'm certain we over-due our welcome.  Here are some pictures to entertain your curiosities (yes, we are actually training).

All the best,

Phil (Pocket Rocket) Mann