Archive for category: Uncategorized

AZ Crit State Champs Pro 1-2

Race Report by Nathan Grill
I’m not ready for this temperature. It was hot. L-shaped course with a hard u-turn for the first corner and a long, long sprint. I’m guessing 300m from the corner. Anyways, it was Pro12, but 2s were scored separately. It made it interesting, to say the least. The 2s had different colored numbers and that made it a bit easier. For the first few laps it was hard, but that’s because I haven’t been riding that much lately. I tried to get in a few early moves, but after a few failed attempts, I decided to simply mark other 2s and only react if they got into something.

A move with 1s would have been a free ride to the line. A break gets up the road, all 1s and the 3 major teams represented, and then come all the little counters and chasing and whatnot. I’m still just marking 2s and letting the 1s do whatever they’re gonna do. Lap after lap after lap. Bell lap arrives and out of the first turn, a 2 attacks. 1s stay kinda chasing, but I attack approaching turn 2 and I’m closing. Doesn’t look like I’m being followed at this point. Go through turn 3 and… drop my chain and one of my shoes unclip. WHAT THE I CAN’T EVEN. I’M GOING TO CRASH ARGHHHHHH. Somehow get my foot back into the pedal and chain back on before turn 4 and get back into the strung out field around 4th wheel with the one cat 2 still ahead. Everyone starts sprinting out of the last corner. OMG IT’S SO FAR. I give it a go and kick to stay on. Then I kick again and get around a 2. Closing, closing, and I get the one guy that was ahead a few meters before the line. Couldn’t close the other 2, though.

Great Work Nathan!!

Jurupa Valley Criterium

Cat 3/4

Race Report by Danny Pearce

Jeff, Tyler, Zac and I lined up for the 3/4 race. The goal was to discourage breaks and lead Zac out for a sprint. The race was shortened to 25 minutes due to a crash earlier in the day. Being a short race, the field wasn’t letting anyone get away. Any attempts were squash quickly. A lot of them due to Jeff and Tyler. As expected, they crushed their “break duty” role.

Crossing the line with 1 lap to go, Tyler and Jeff were 1 and 2. With Zac on my wheel, we rode up to 6th position. I’m feeling confident with our team setting the pace and Zac on my wheel with a ½ lap to go. A surge comes up the left side. They created a pinch in the group from cutting right, while individuals in the pack cut left trying to get on. This causes a rider to go down, taking out Zac. [Insert multiple expletives]. I made the quick decision that I’d be plan B.

I put in a couple big efforts to make up position. I was 7th wheel coming into the last corner, jumping up another two positions after the turn. Sit-in…. Try to recover for a second…. Nope, not going to happen. Bryan Wierzchucki jumps. I match his sprint but didn’t have the legs left to come around him, ending in a 2nd place finish. Kudos to Impact. They ran a legit 4 or 5 guy lead-out train.

Overall, the day was bittersweet since Jeff and Tyler did a great job putting myself in a position to lead-out Zac, only to have Zac taken out. I’m confident our plan “A” would of gotten Carefast on the top step. Great Job guys! Thanks Elliot for the solid workout plans leading up to Saturday.

Cat3

Race Report by Tyler Chairsell

We lined up with Mike, Yash, Jeff, Danny and myself. Zac was taken out in the 3/4 race on the last lap, so he sat out on this race. The plan was to take Jeff to the line for the sprint finish.

We decided that that we need to push the pace of the race so that we can position ourselves for the finish. Mike set the pace early consistently catching break attempts without surging. Yash did a great job covering attacks from some strong riders. Jeff and I stayed up front for most of the race. With 4 laps to go I found myself up front setting the pace with Jeff on my wheel. No other teams wanted no part in taking the lead. So I just up front going as easy as I could without going too slow.

With 2 laps to go Yash and Mike took turns pulling in the front. I took over again and attacks started. We slowly brought them back then Danny took over the pacemaking with one lap to go with Jeff on his wheel and then myself sweeping for Jeff. Impact team came around Danny on the third turn. Jeff tried to join their train but too many guys followed so we were drag racing right next to them. Then crash out of turn three caused a Cast Shadow rider to attack so we followed. Jeff put an effort into and out of turn 4. Then we started to get swarmed. That’s when I went with everyone else. I held good position until the slight uphill to the finish. I started to get passed right before the line. I probably got a top 10-15 place finish. I thought we controlled raced pretty well. We just came up short at the end. Timing is everything. Great work boys!

Masters 50+

Race Report by Mike Allec

I was solo in a good size filed of around 50 racers. There were a few decent size teams, most notable was BBI, a regular force in this age group. I kept to my standard plan when solo, only follow good looking breaks, freelance the sprint if it stays together. I was really focused on keeping my mind in the race for the whole 40 min (well 35), keeping position and anticipating moves.

First half of the race was pretty quiet, just a few half-assed break attempts. Now that I’ve done a couple of races around this category, it’s easier to know what attacks you never follow. In the 2nd half of the race BBI starting launching attacks, so I ended up following more than a few, but nothing stuck. Things calmed down after the lap cards came out so I got ready to for the sprint. Elliot had pointed out a guy with a big spring number, so I was watching for him.

With 3 to go, I got swarmed in the last corner, lost some positioning. After hearing Elliot yelling at me as we came by I started moving back up. I ended up a little too far up, sitting 3rd wheel behind 2 BBI guys. One guy pulled for a lap, and as we came into the final lap I knew I was not in a great spot now sitting 2nd wheel. I decided to stay there and wait to either attack if the guy pulled far enough into the lap or fight the swarm when he pulled off. The latter happened, and as he pulled off I got into a pretty good position. The guy Elliot had pointed out made a move to the front, and I thought ‘ah perfect!’. Not sure what happened, but he only made it about half way up the little hill, then slowed up and pulled off. I got caught in the swarm and about 20 guys went around me, race over.

Boulevard Road Race

Cat 3

Race Report by Yash Gokul
Cat3

Lining up up with a field of 70 in one of the toughest road races on the calendar. So. Cals best climbers were all there so the plan was to stay close to the front and avoid any mishaps on the twisty 10mile decent and take as much cover and hold on for the 10 mile accent ….. for three laps.

The eventual victor solo’d away in the first lap of a quite windy day. No one could survive a solo dash for 50 miles…. Right?

With a strong tail wind blowing up the tail end of the main climb. It felt like a fast paced furnace. Literally everyone was hitting PR’s and a new KOM was crowned.
Unfortunately for me I found myself in a chase group maintaining a 1 min gap to the leaders after the first lap. After the second lap I found the chase group dwindling down as guys quit or got dropped.
At the end I rolled in 20minutes behind the leaders with 3 others….. Just happy to finish such a brutal race.

Some things I learned and Notables:
-Cattle guards are dangerous…. A guy went in one on the descent … handle bars hitting the ground in a crash of epic proportions. (taking out several racers)
– The best moves are the ones no one believes have a chance…
– Don’t come back to Blvd unless you are 140lbs or under

Masters 35+

Race Report by Elliot Grothe

This may get lengthy.

Lined up against Monster Media (Tintsman, Coxworth, Demarchi, Easter, Bordine, Big Bill, and friends) and Helens squad (Wikstrom, Manzella, Moston, and more friends). Between these two teams, fifteenish, they had about half the field of 30-35.

My plan was don’t follow anything until after the first lap, figuring a break would be up the road already by that point and perhaps I get in the second chase group.

First lap, a group of 5 get away before we even start the descent portion. The pace is easy, until we hit the first gradual backside climb, which isn’t even part of the actual main climb. I’m in the gutter, trying to draft going 17mph and people are getting dropped. For reference, last year in the 3’s we went 14mph on this section, with triple the riders. I just make it over and start thinking, wow the main climb is gonna get crazy. Oddly, we take the climb really easy. Over the top I look around, The group is roughly 10 now, with the break still up the road. Over the top there are 6-8 attacks as MM and Helens are blitzkrieg’n each other. I follow a few, even putting in an attack of my own. All together though as we descend.

Again I find myself in the gutter on the first gradual climb on the backside, 6-7 mins of just hanging on for dear life. Our group is single file, ten guys, it hurts, legs are heavy but I make it. We get to the main climb and I am hoping we go easy again. No, not this time, it’s harder and the struggle is real. I start getting dropped at the KOM sign. I’m 15 seconds behind over the top. Another rider has been dropped, I catch him and proceed to drill the rollers as hard as I can. This rider never helps, just stays on my wheel which is smart. I get us back to the group just as we start the last 300m climb to the finish, I get popped right away, while the rider who made it back with him, is able to stay in the group-he would end up getting 12th.

Anyway now solo, Karl Bordine and Chad Moston catch me on the descent, now three of us working. We get to the backside climb and drop Chad, so now just Karl and I. We catch Tintsman, back to three. Onto the main climb, we catch Randall Coxworth. Now 4 rolling to the finish, I’m kinda pissed, about getting dropped, but I’m finishing with three strong strong riders on a brutal course. Bordine hits it hard up the last 300m, I am empty but I see we are catching Mike Easter. I dig harder, Karl is about 10 seconds in front of me, Tintsman and Coxworth are about 20 seconds behind me, I just want to catch Easter now, Karl catches him first and pushes him the last 50m to the finish.

I roll in 5 seconds later-15th. I’ll take that.

Great work guys on such a gnarly course!

Race Report by Terry Steeves

Team Carefast | Storck spent the weekend mixing it up in early season racing action between SoCal and the UCLA Road Race and in Arizona at the Valley of Sun Stage Race.

The team had some great success this weekend on all fronts across multiple categories. When the dust settled, here’s where we stood.

Valley of the Sun Stage Race

A big thanks to all the volunteers WMRC pulls together for this event, and Landis Cyclery for all they do to support such a great event.

Cat 2

Kevin Turchin and Nathan Grill took on the Cat 2 field and came away with solid performances overall. Kevin was a little disappointed in his Stage 1 TT, but a solid road race performance in Stage 2 moved him up in the GC. Nathan managed his RR effort to maximize his crit performance in Stage 3. He spent much of his time near the front of the crit race and both guys would finish in the lead group with the same time.

Masters 45+

Mike Allec, Terry Steeves, and Tony Rago raced in the M45 category. After the Stage 1 TT all guys were comfortably inside the top 20. The Stage 2 Road Race ended in an uphill sprint to the line with the reduced field down to about 28 riders in the lead group. All three of the Carefast/Storck boys made the final selection and earned the same time as the winners. The Stage 3 crit was a short race where we needed to do all we could to move everyone up in the GC. A last lap boggle with an inattentive spectator on course caused havoc and evasive maneuvers in the field causing an ‘every man for himself’ scenario, and we held our own. At the end of the day we had all 3 riders in the top 15 GC with Terry 9th, Mike 12th, and Tony 13th.

Masters 35+

Elliot Grothe raced the M35 category and started off Stage 1 with a solid TT performance putting him just outside the top 10. A good showing in the road race moved Elliot up to a top 10 overall. Elliot put himself on the podium in the stage 3 crit to move up two more spots in the overall to 8th in GC.

Cat 3

Andy Erickson took on the Cat 3 field by himself and was largely focused on using this as an early season training block. Andy bettered his 2015 TT time at this event in Stage 1, put himself in a solid break move in the Stage 2 Road Race before it was eventually brought back and positioned himself well the Stage 3 crit, responding to few breakaway efforts before finishing in the lead group.

Cat 4

Sergei Vasilyev raced the Cat 4 field alone and took advantage of the race environment to build on some early season training. Using his road bike in the Stage1 TT would put him out of contention but Sergei was focused on the Stage 2 Road Race and Stage 3 crit. Sergei comes away with a good training block in a great race environment.

UCLA Road Race

Shannon Larsen and Yash Gokul made the trip to SoCal for the UCLA Road Race.

Shannon raced the 35+4/5 race and having just recovered from the flu his expectation was simply to use this as a training effort.

Yash Gokul hit the Cat 3 race with a view to take on some of the areas best Cat 3 climbers. First lap went good… everyone hit it pretty hard but on the first lap most everyone was fresh enough to stay on. The 2nd lap is when most of the damage happened. Yash missed move that took a front group containing about 10 riders up the road. Yash kept it going for a possible top 20.

Desert Crit Series Race #2 – Ivins Park

Photos by Taylor Sisson

Cat 3/4

Race Report by Jeff Mitchell

This was the second race in the Desert Crit Series and we had myself, Daniel Pearce, Sergei Vasilyev, Tony Rago, Chris Pearce, Shannon Larsen, Yash Gokul, and Tyler Chairsell. We had the numbers and talent to control the race.

The race started with some aggressive breakaway attempts but nothing stuck for the first few laps. Eventually Charles Mcfarlane from Canyon Sports initiated an aggressive attack. I decided to chase; our break stuck and by about mid race we were able to lap the field. Once we lapped, it was all about keeping him in our control. Danny, Tyler, Yash and Tony did a bunch of work to keep the pace hot, and catch other break attempts.

Charles tried to break off in the last lap, Danny & Tyler brought it back. I took the win, Tony took the field sprint for 3rd, Danny 5th, Tyler 6th and Yash was 9th.

Great racing boys, another dominate performance!

Cat 4:

Race Report by Shannon Larsen:

This was the first race of the season for me. Both Sergei and myself lined up for this one. Plan was to stay up front and watch for any breaks to get into with the strong riders I knew of. There were several breaks early in the race but all looked pretty weak looking at who was attempting them. Later in the race the eventual winner got away on his own. With 2 to go, I got a little distance between me and the group but they brought me back just at the top of the hill. So here we go with 1 to go. I was trying to recover as best as possible from the dig I put in on the start/finish stretch and downhill before the back stretch. Hitting the top of the hill and through the corner I sprinted with what I had left and finished 7th.

Pro 123:

Race Report by Terry Steeves:

Kevin Turchin, Nathan Grill, and Terry Steeves lined up for this race as our main event of the day, but we were fortunate to have a ton of support from many of our Cat 3 guys despite them already having 1 race in their legs on the day. The course was as short as any crit we have ever done with sub 1 minute lap times. Allegiant had a stacked team of fresh legs and they launched attack after attack. Grill or Kev covered most of them but as they would get brought back, as expected, a counter would go. Tony Rago stuck his nose in more than a few times to support the guys at the front, but the numbers weren’t in our favor and Allegiant got one guy away. Unable to motivate a coordinated chase from the field the laps ticked away. It would be a race for second. We had good position for the final lap and I was sitting 3rd wheel with Grill on the front. Terry kicked from turn 3, but the rider between he and Grill overbraked for the turn and the swarm was on them. Terry was pushed wide into the ribbon and the cones and had to ease off the pedals, now about 10th wheel with no momentum and 300m to go. Terry kicked again and managed to pull back to 3rd in the bunch sprint settling for 4th overall.

A good result and solid team effort. “I take responsibility for leaving the door open slightly in T3 knowing that that is what ultimately cost us the podium. There was plenty of room for the rider to my inside to exit the turn, keep his momentum and not run us out to the fence but he chose not to.” That’s racing. We had a great race, and the team is riding really well together. Congrats to Allegiant, they had a great plan and executed it perfectly deserving of the win.

Season Opener in So Cal at CBR

Cat 3

Race Report by Tyler Chairsell

This race had over 60 racers and it was an hour long. Mike Allec just finished a masters crit 10 minutes prior to the Cat 3 race. I literally talked to him 30 secs prior to the start. He gave me some advice to watch the Lux riders. My plan was to make it into the winning break. I knew the winning break would come later in the race. I followed as many breaks as I could that had 2 or more Lux riders in it.  With 20 mins to go, a break of 4 went up the road with 1 Lux rider. Then Lux went to the front and slowed the group down. I noticed that then attacked hard out the next turn and bridged solo. Then next 20 mins we had a few others bridge. Some worked, some didn’t. I did a little of both.

By the last few laps we had 8 in the break. Lux rider attacked with a monster media rider with a lap to go. I remained at tempo and eventually caught them with half a lap. I was sitting third wheel into the last corner, but I didn’t have the snap or power for the final sprint. I got 7th. Mike finished safely with the group.

I was happy with how was able to bridge multiple breaks without blowing myself up. I was happy how I was able to recover. I need to be able to think tactically and save as much energy as possible in the break. The guys who won did the least amount of work.

45+ 123

Race Report by Mike Allec

I lined up solo for this race, which means either follow a lot of breaks or just let everything go and hope it’s together for a sprint. I opt to follow breaks (shocker!) A couple of teams were pretty aggressive so there were plenty to follow. There was one about half way thru the race that seemed promising, but it was brought back. Right before the lap cards came out, a great break went, including a guy that was announced before the race as the winningest racer in US history. I was on the opposite side of the street when it went, so I initially missed it, waited for a few to see how promising it looked and then decided to bridge. A couple of guys followed, and we spent the next 3.5 minutes chasing, finally catching the 3 guys up the road. We all worked together, but the group closed in on us at turn 3 as we were coming into the final lap. I still had a small gap coming up the hill so I decided to make another jump. I made it just past turn 1 of the final lap and then was caught and swarmed by the group.

Thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters!

The Plaid Army is headed to Santa Barbara next weekend for the Santa Barbara County Road Race and the Carlos Soto Memorial Crit!

 

The Carefast | Storck Winter Training Camp 2015

During the week of Christmas 2015, December 20-25, while most were gorging on holiday food or traveling to see their loved ones, The Plaid Army held its 2015 Winter Camp.

Most of our riders were already in their standard winter training blocks but this weekend, and the days to follow, would prove to not only test their fitness but offer a great learning experience.

Dr. Johnathan Edwards and Pro cyclist Jon Hornbeck were on hand to help with questions and tips about nutrition, race strategy and training for the upcoming season.

Day 1 the team made their way into the Lake Mead National Park for 5-6 hours of saddle time and a plethora of drills on their Storck Bikes.

Day 2 the team launched from the M Casino and spent 5-6 hours of saddle time out to Jean, Goodsprings and Sandy Valley. More drills, more pain and more learning on and off the bike.

The subsequent days were peppered with group rides and all around camaraderie that this team is known for. We are looking forward to a great 2016 season where many of our riders will be racing in new categories and defending their stellar results from the previous season.

We want to thank our sponsors for making this possible and we hope you all join us in following the team throughout the 2016 season on Facebook, Instagram and through our new website carefastcycling.com.