Brett Does Bakersfield!

Hi Everyone

My first race as a cat 4 didn't turn out as I had planed. I got off to
a good start, the climb on the first lap was fast but I hung in the
with the lead group. On the descent I fell off for a bit (I need to
gain some weight) but I was able to get back on. Near the bottom of
the decent we were going about 38-40 mph. The guy in front / side of
me decided to cut to the right abruptly taking out my front wheel, and
down I went.

At first I thought I was dead, but when I gathered myself and saw a
second group of guys coming straight at me, I new I was probably still
alive. I got back on my bike and went at my own pace for a couple
minutes to assess the damage. Realizing I didn't have any broken
bones, I decided to finish off the next 10 mi and call it a day.

Then a group of 5 riders came up on me and told me to get on, so I did.
We kept up a good pace and before we knew it we had the lead group in
sight. We got into a pace line and managed to catch them right before
the start/finish. I told myself if we caught them I would stay on and
finish the race. My body had other idea's. After the feed zone the
pain really set in on my hip and knee. I started feeling a little
blurry in the head and decided to pull off for the safety of others.

Synopsis: Me, lots of road rash and a bruised rib. Bike minor scraps
and damage. Kit, completely destroyed, cracked helmet. And in the
tradition of race crash photos, my wife included the one below. (funny,
I don't look as happy as Druber did)

All in all, it could have been worse and I am very lucky. See you guys
out there soon.

Cheers

Brett Harrison

San Dimas Race Report (from first to worse)

Hello everyone,

Well here's my attempt at a San Dimas race report. Actually lots of things to report this time. Let's start with the good news. Gabriel Garcia and Brett Harrison were the big stars of the weekend in their respective classes.

Brett rode a solid uphill TT to put himself in 6th place. In the RR he rode with the leaders but was unable to move up in GC. But the crit is where he earned his stripes. He took 3rd in the time bonus sprint to move up to 5th in GC and by the end of the race his field was blown apart and he ended up moving up one more spot to finish 4th in GC! Excellent work Brett way to be aggressive!

Gabe was bummed after the TT. I think he placed 48th and he was all down on himself. But in the RR he more than made up for it. He rode smart at the front of the pack all day, and when he crested the final climb he was in group of about 10 that had a few seconds on the rest of the field. As they came to the line Gabe lit the after-burners and won it going away by probably 4 or 5 bike lengths. Then he thrust his fist in the air and let out a "cave-man" like scream that scared all the birds out of the trees. His wife Kate told me he did the same thing on their wedding night. He followed that performance by riding strong in the crit and finishing 2nd and secured himself the green points jersey. Of course why would you want to wait around and stand on the podium with your hard earned sprinters jersey when you can go to a free breakfast buffet at the Hotel? So both Brett and Gabe missed their awards ceremonies 'cause they were busy stuffing their faces.

Kimberly Turner and Susan Farber both rode in the womens 3/4 race. I know Susan wasn't feelin' great and abandoned during the road race. Kimberly improved each stage with a 23rd in the TT a 16th in the RR and a 14th in the crit. Nice work Kimberly!




In the 3's we had me and Steve Swartzendruber. We both rode marginal in the TT with me finishing in 28th and Druber a few seconds back in 32nd or something like that. The RR was fun and we were both in the lead group at the end for the wild sprint finish. Our group had been caught by about 10 of the cat 2's that had broken away. We were all mixed together as we lined up for the sprint, and the lead motorcycles for some reason felt inclined to go across the line with us. We had 40 cat 3's, 10 cat 2's, and 5 motos all duking it out for position. It was crazy! I managed a 10th and Druber got 23rd. Nothin' to write home about but we were in the mix.

Sunday's Crit is when the real action took place. I started the day with high hopes but 20 minutes into the race my hopes were dashed when my legs and my brain apparently got into an argument and decided to stop talking to each other. I was unceremoniously dropped from a crit for the first time in my life. I wish I had a great excuse or could say that I later discovered that my brake was rubbing but no such luck. My bike was in perfect working condition. After riding with my tail between my legs back to the car and changing, I walked over to watch the end of the race and see how Druber would finish. Unfortunately, Druber finished strapped to a board in the back of an ambulance with his pupils the size of quarters. Steve has little to no memory of what happened, but according to eyewitnesses just after a prime sprint somebody in front of Steve crashed. In his attempt to avoid that rider he became entangled with another rider and went down hard. By the looks of him his head and body took the bulk of the damage. But further inspection also revealed a broken Cervelo frame, broken handlebars, a broken Zipp front wheel, a broken helmet, and a severely dented pocketbook! After a few hours in the hospital they released him with a concussion and a lifetime worth of roadrash! Steve was one tough customer in the ER talking cheerily with the nurse as she scrubbed his wounds with a stiff bristle brush and hydrogen peroxide. A quick shot of morphine in his butt and he was all set for the drive home!

Besides the crashing part, we all had a great time racing and hanging out in San Dimas. We went out to a couple nice dinners with a few of our Platinum friends. One of whom was the Devil himself disguised as Mark Fennel. I know Steve will recover and hopefully we'll see him on the bike again soon. At least one good thing came from the crash. It temporarily drew attention away from the fact that I got dropped........in a crit!!! Thankfully, Gabriel and Brett's triumphs made all of us feel like winners at the end of the day....except Steve... I think he just felt sore!

Can't wait 'till Island View and Ojai.

See you out there,

Matt

Cantua Creek Race Report

Thanks for the report Craig! Welcome aboard! By the way if any of you are noticing I'm trying to teach myself how to use Google maps by trial and error. Thanks for you patience

Hi everyone,

My report for Cantua Creek is nothing to brag about but considering I just finished a round of antibiotics for a sinus and respiratory infection I did OK.

I was one of two ranchers to race Cantua and I apologize to my teammate who was there I don't remember your name(old age).

The weather was chilly about 40 degrees at start time.

I was in the 45+4,5 race,The race was pretty mellow no attacks that stuck until we hit the turn around of lap two,At this point one brave soul went of the front on his own and proceeded to get a pretty big gap so much so he was out of site.

No one was willing to work the front to pull him back,But as we got closer to the finish it was clear that if we didn't start a chase he was going to win.

One rider was complaining so much so that I told him if you go to the front and work I will follow.

This started the chase and we went from about 22mph to 27-28mph and held this consistently to the base of the 2 mile climb to the finish.This blew the field up and it became a group of twenty chasing one.

We caught him on the climb at this point due to illness and with the work I did in the chase I could no longer hold the pace up the climb(so sad).

Not sure of my placing but I believe it was just outside the top twenty.

New Rancher,

Craig Foley



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Mitch Karno Race Report, Pine Flat

Chicken Ranchers,
While the rest of the team was at Valley of the Sun, Dan Rudd and I headed up to exotic Fresno for the Pine Flat RR. For the first time in recent history it wasn't cold and rainy up there. Hooray! The day started off around a brisk 40 degrees, but it quickly warmed up once the sun rose and it was really a beautiful day for racing. Dan rode in the 45+ 4/5 race and I did the 35+ 4/5 race. Each field had about 35 riders.

In Dan's race a sizeable group stayed together almost to the bottom of the steep climb around the 54 mile point. Dan was just off the back of the final select group with a few other riders. He ended up doing a lot of work pulling at the front of a small group in the downhill/flat sections between the 2 climbs. Being unfamiliar with the course (this was Dan's 1st time doing Pine Flat), he arrived at the bottom of the final climb not realizing the hill was coming right then and he needed some time to recover. By the time he recovered on the hill, 2 guys passed him and crossed the line in front of him. Dan had a great 8th place finish. Evidently he still had a bunch in the tank at the finish, but had just mistimed his effort right before the finishing hill. Way to go, Dan!

In my race there were a lot of attacks all along, a few which got pretty far ahead but were eventually reeled in. The pace was quick much of the way, except for a time during the flat section in the valley. As we headed back into the hills there was a big acceleration and a group of 12 of us pulled away from the rest of the field. After a few minutes I looked back and the rest of the field was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't sustain that pace and soon resigned myself to ride as hard as I could maintain at my own tempo. I summited the steep climb with no one else around and went into TT mode on the descent and flat section after that. I passed one guy about a mile before the last climb and came close to another guy as I approached the finish. Then the guy I had passed minutes before passed me on the climb. Try as I might, I couldn't catch him or the guy just in front of us. I finished 10th and, in contrast to Dan, I had nothing left in the tank.
All in all it was a great trip.

See ya on the road,
Mitch

Kimberly's Valley Of The Sun Race Report

Kimberly, congratulations on finishing all your races and having the Chicken Ranch go for it attitude. Rest up, the season is early.


Hi Everyone!

Well I survived the valley of the sun weekend :-). I am sure people
will report on all sorts of fun (and fun-ny) stuff that went on...but
since they haven't yet, I'll start things off with a report of my race.
I don't have any photos for the team blog, but considering how many
times I saw the camera out this weekend, I'm sure there are MANY that
will surface.

I don't have any stellar results to report....other than that I had a
blast, and did manage to finish the thing, and not DFL either! Here is
my brief report.

Day 1: Lots of riding in the car...hours and hours of it! Much of this
time was watching the weather on my iphone and watching the chance of
rain go up and up. I thought we were going to Valley of the SUN!????

Day 2: TT. Woke up early. My start time was not until 1:54! However,
Brett's was early, so we were off bright and early. We raided the
hotel's free breakfast on our way out. They caught on to us by day 2
and put out less of the "portable food." The rain started
mid-morning...and depending on when your start time was, it was either
cold, windy, rainy, all, or none (I had wind and a teeny bit of rain
during my 38 minutes of pain)! The people in the morning claimed that
the way out was harder, and there would be a tailwind on the way
back....but alas when I reached the turnaround it was not to be, and I
found myself facing a headwind the entire way back. Oh well. I
actually felt pretty good, and rode a good TT (for me), although
afterwards I found myself in 15th place. Oh well...this is early season
for me, and there were some FAST women here! The most stressful part
of it was 5 minutes before my start time when I discovered my rear brake
was sticking really badly. Everyone was trying to fix it, and it turned
out to not be fixable in 2 minutes or less...so off I went, with the
words of wisdom from the guys "don't use the rear brake...you don't need
your brakes in a TT anyway"... Thankfully even in my delirious state, I
remembered not to touch it, and so I don't think it cost me
anything.... I won't spoil the other results...

Day 3: RR. I was worried about the road race. Coming off the flu, and
this being really early-season for me, I knew my climbing was not going
to be where it needed to be. And alas, it wasn't! It was a 58 mile
race, with what turned out to be about 3000 feet of climb. (at least
thats what my computer said afterwards) They combined fields with the
women's P/1/2 so we had a field size of ~75! It was by far the largest
and fastest field I have raced in. The road was narrow, and the CL rule
was in effect, so it was really hard to move around. I was fine on lap
1, and on the first half of lap 2, but since it was a QOM lap, the pact
was blistering, and I got gapped. My flat riding skills and descending,
however, are not so bad, so I started chasing on the backside
immediately. I quickly caught up to a woman from the P1/2 race who had
flatted, and we chased the pack back down. She was very strong, and we
shared the work. I sat in the pack and recovered until the hill came
around again. Alas, I got gapped on this hill, too. This time, there
were 3 of us reasonably strong who started a chase. However, one of the
girls was not quite strong enough, and she let a little gap form. The
other girl was REALLY strong, and she kept saying we were going to have
to pick it up to catch on. I was willing, but I got caught when the
other girl started to drop off and I was behind her. I tried in vain to
catch the other girl, but I didn't quite make it. I let the other girl
catch on, and we started hammering. Soon we caught 2 other girls who
were OTB as well. The 4 of us kept pushing, but never quite made it.
The peoloton was hovering like a mirage...close enough to make me want
to give it everything, but too far. There were 2 girls fading
fast....complaining about bonking, so 2 of us did most of the chasing.
However, we didn't ever quite make it, and finished off the back.
Bummer. When I looked at my data, I saw that I worked harder in the
last 16 miles of the RR, than I did in the 14 mile TT the day before!
Oh well. I was pretty disappointed, but at the same time, I was happy
with my perseverance, and I can't really kid myself about being ready
for climbing races, even the smaller hills...I guess I've gotta get out
there and do my climbing intervals...
I think I was in 20th place after the RR...

Day 4: Crit. The crit was an 8 corner number...kind of a figure 8
shape. I usually love crits, but I have only done one other 1-2-3 crit,
and that only had 12 people...so I must say that a crit with over 75
people did really intimidate me! I was feeling severely outclassed from
getting dropped in the RR, and so I just didn't have my usual fire. By
the time it started, I had seen a few crashes in other fields, and was
kind of letting it all get the better of me. Then in lap 2, someone
bounced right into me, and although I was able to easily save it, it
freaked me out and I hovered in the back for awhile. A long while.
About 1/3 of the way in, I realized I was plenty strong, and my legs
were feeling good. I didn't have any problems following the surges and
I can corner fine, so that was ok. I was just a little scared of the
pack size, and some of the sketchy riders. It was a really fun course,
though, and I think if i had to do it again, I'd have a lot more fun
with it. I had bad positioning coming into the final lap, and so
although I passed a bunch of people, I still managed only to get 14th in
the 3s. Oh well. I feel good about the race, though, and about my
power on the flats. It will all come together eventually! It is really
easy to get ahead of myself, and expect too much, but the bottom line is
that I have only ever raced a handful of crits, and experience seems to
count for a lot!

My final result was 18th I believe...not that it matters much!

I have to say that the whole experience was a lot of fun, and I'm
already looking forward to the next one! I cannot express how great it
was to have so much team support and comaraderie. Having the trailer to
sleep/eat/hang out in during the day was invaluable, and everyone was so
helpful and supportive. It was really great. I think everyone had a
good time. And all the joking around even made the drive seem less
long and unbearable :-). Thanks to Craig and Matt for doing all the
driving!

I'm sure the jokes will get around in time...or maybe they won't!
You'll have to just go on one of these team trips to see for
yourselves! I highly recommend it.

Cheers,
Kimberly (recovering today).