The story of the Los Angeles Olympics, from my perspective. First off, I did not stay with the team before the event, because of my positive test for ephedrine at the Coor’s Classic I ended up flying out to L.A. on Len Pettyjohn’s dime with my own support crew. So what ever did or did not happen with the blood doping scandal of those days I had no part of it.
I rode my bike to the start. With Len Pettyjohn carrying my spare wheels and bottles. When I got there it was tense. My instructions were simple, ride for Davis, I said fine, except that I told Eddy I would be going solo late in the race. He said ok. That was the race meeting for me, the first time Eddy and I had spoken in months.
In the race however and in my mind and prep I never gave one thought to really giving away my chance. I was there to win, it was all I knew at that point in life.
Once the race started, of course there are duties you must do, play your part in the race be present to observe and watch the front. On the very first lap I had worked myself up to the transition zone at the front, the place where you have to choose to follow moves or stay put. At the top of the first long climb both Ron Kiefel and I were present when a string of riders worked itself free as the climb crested and the road turned fast. We both looked at each other. For a second, I am sure neither of us really wanted to be exposed that early in the race. No matter his demeanor Ron Keifel wanted to win just as much as anyone else. I have always considered him a hard man to beat.
He hesitated, we were in equally good positions to respond. Intuition told me to go, so I wound it up, saving my legs as best I could and made the effort to bridge and join. The second I got there I knew it was good. A free ride with the likes of the Austrian Helmet Weshelberger in the move and willing to drive it.
From that point forward a certain rhythm was established. I was up the road ahead of the other favorites with the exception of Helmut. I did not have to work and I only had to follow one man. The latitude was there to let him go also. It was more or less the perfect place to be in. I knew it. I was not thinking what I could do to help Davis, I was thinking how I could use the situation to work all my rivals against each other, and conserve my legs which were marginal.
I am an observant bike racer, the tension on the U.S. team was visible. Thurlow was ashen, Kiefel was quiet, Phinney was wearing a skin suit. There was no doubt in my mind Keifel and Phinney were gonna be good. The skinsuit was information I filed away. Only one pocket was sewn into it and we faced a hot, hilly two hundred kilometer race. One feed zone per lap on a downhill, right near the start finish, wearing a skin suit with one pocket was to rely on the unreliable.
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Before
Below is the "Pincer Movement" Wade Moore confronted near the intersection of Hwy 160/550 and River Road on his cycling commute to work this Monday - just before an area were they're resurfacing the asphalt highway. Scary, huh? But worry not, Wade has contacted the proper authorities and CDOT has promised to rectify the obvious problem.
Our hats off to Mike McVaugh (CDOT Region 5 Traffic and Safety Engineer) who, when alerted by Wade to the aforementioned problem said, "Hmmm... that's not right!". Mike quickly contacted the proper personnel who immediately rectified the problem - as shown below. And as a bonus, they swept the shoulder of accumulated debris. Now it's a clean bike commute coming from east of town. Thanks Mike!
Tad Elliott at the Triple Crown finals near Harrisonburg, Virginia.
New Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory development team signs five
A new under 25 mountain bike racing team will appear on the US domestic racing circuit for the 2011 season. The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Devo Sweet Elite presented by Spine Colorado/Durango Orthopedics and Fort Lewis College is based in Durango, Colorado, and managed by past US pro road champion Chris Wherry.
The team will include racers such as Under 23 US cross country national champion Tad Elliott and 2009 US Collegiate cyclo-cross champion Teal Stetson-Lee, Collegiate and junior national champion Howard Grotts and junior national champion Alicia Rose Pastore. Fort Lewis rider Colton Andersen is also on the squad, which will be coached by Joey Thompson.
Wherry explained to Cyclingnews how the team came to be: "The team sort of developed from Durango Devo, a youth mountain bike program. They have kids from age five through high school. After that, the available programs drop off.
"We have super talented mountain bike riders coming out of the woodwork, and we decided that it would be a great idea to help these kids get to the elite level of the sport. They will have a chance to see where the sport will take them."
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Overend happily accepted James’s request. Had he raced with the pros, he likely would have beaten half of them. Instead, he became the new national singlespeed champion. “It was a good excuse not to race with the pros,” said Overend. “ That was going to be an ugly race.”
The former world champion duked it out with Cameron Chambers (Specialized Stumpjumper Trail Crew) for most of the race. The former 24-hour national champion was also on a Specialized, though a Stumpjumper with 140mm of travel. Read More HERE ...
