Torque Support (Fri/Sat Rides)

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Torque has gone big. He is officially entered in the American Mountain Challenge as an elite/pro division contender. In support of this epic commitment, we are all going BIG this weekend. (We all know Chad will still manage to go bigger!) The infamous Ryan Damato will be joining us from down south as well. We therefor have the craziest climber and craziest decender together at the same time.

Here are the rides for this weekend:

Friday 08.01.07
Time: 5:30
Meet: Poly Cyn Entrance
Route: Up Poly Cyn, tracks to Stagecoach, up to Morning Glory, down and over to Shooters, up Shooters to the ridge and over to Dairy Creek, Down Dairy Creek to Hwy 1, TT home!!!!


Saturday 08.02.08
Time: 6:00
Meet: Bottom of Ridge Trail (MDO)
Route: Every stinkin trail out there!!!!!

Come one come all!!!! These routes allow you to go all the way or cut out at various points. Come on out and join us.


Levi (aka Scarecrow)

Wednesday, 07.30.08: Ridin' for Tyler

Time: 5:30 AM
Place: Corner of Perfumo and LOVR
Ride: Through Irish Hills, up Modonna, the follow Chad

Young Tyler O'Brien will be there for his inaugural OneSource ride. The future of OneSource is NOW!

See you there, too?

Poly Canyon 5:30 - Monday, July 28

Let's meet at 5:30am sharp at the entrance to Poly Canyon. I'm jonesing again from Dairy Creek but we'll see how if that sticks. The plan is to be done by 8:00am. There is rumor of big Friday / Saturday rides this coming week. Mountain. More to come from Levi. Congrats to all those who threw down at the SLO City Tri. Looking forward to some posts and pics.

Tour of Missouri

Tour of Missouri is calling.


JD (my dad) is selected for the motor marshall team for the TOM. He and his compadre David Walls (fomer owner of Velo News and multi year RAAM solo rider) will leave September 2 to hit the road from SB for their adventure on the road. So thankful for my dads courage and willingness to participate in promoting the sport of cycling and the safety of our professional cyclists.

Please pray for their safety during the travel and the race.

JD is the real deal in domestic road racing in serving in 2 Tour of CA's and the previous and inaguaral Tour of Missouri.

God Bless them with their special endeavors...

Onesource Pics

SLO Crit website released some very high quality photos and tons of them at http://garagemahalstudios.smugmug.com/

Check out Sean and Skippy in some great photos including Sean just after the carnage complete with his scarecrow hat complete with straw in it. Sean - you are now the real deal bro!

Mike Easter is posted everywhere in the pros but pay special attention to photos 291 and 287. He is on a break in one and the other on Toni Cruz' wheel.

Don't forget to check out David "Jens" Leece and his team-mates in the masters race.

Sweet showing by all of you and love the photos...

Planning Ahead - TOC

Just thought I would do a little planning ahead...

TOC stages announced. See it, love it, ride it.

The plan is:

Stage 6, Thursday Feb 19 - Visalia to Paso Robles

Stage 7, Friday Feb 20 - Ride from SLO to Solvang

Stage 8, Saturday Feb 21 - Santa Clarita to Pasadena

Stage 9, Sunday Feb 22 - Rancho Bernardo to Escondido (hear it is a mountaintop finish on Polamar!).

Limp home after this ride. Beauty is fellowship, fun, early season fitness, and watching our sport of Cycling in our back yard. Some benefits are eating like a pig for several days, great racing, and truly something to remember.

Rabbit - you are in and there is no discussion about it! Plus, I need your iphone for race results...

Ciao

Showdown at Le Tour

CSC has shown a more refined element to the Tour that may have been lost in the last decade. They have really demonstrated team strength (serious horse power) and multiple plays. Over the past 10 years plus, the Tour winners really dominated and there was less focus on such overly powerful teams. This is not to say Discovery did not control the race, it was just different and there was no question of the real contender. Tonights play on L'Alpe was no accident and was likely plannned for a while. All of CSC should get credit for getting Sastre in play. Comparing last years TT means that Cadel put approximately 2 plus minutes on Sastre. Cadel only needs just over a minute thirty seconds. It is going to be close but I predict Evans will likely win the GC on the TT course considering nobody is in striking distance. Never know though since I have seen the yellow jersey change the confidence and ability of a rider to pull off amazing things. This is really a great race.

Taking nothing away from brother Franks accomplishment and yellow jersey. But I have to say Andy Schleck is going to be a real grand tour winner and likely many for that matter. The guy was never really breathing today!

VDV was really exciting today and he was riding out of his skull.

Got to hand it to Cadel since he really has not had a team in the mountains at all. You can guarantee he will be moving to more competent tour support in 2009.

L'Alpe is the real deal and man I gotta go there some day... Hope you all are enjoying some of the stages.

Vive Le Tour!

Wed Morning ride

Posting for Torque:
Meet at Poly Cyn entrance at 5:30
Ride as long as you want.
I am guessing Torque will be hammering as it is go time for his American Mountain Challenge training
.
Hasta la manana

levi

L'Alpe d'Huez

Just a reminder for the great stage 17 showing at the Wolfeden. There will be food items, coffee and a great time. Come and go as you like.

Stage 17 to L'Alpe d'Huez, Wednesday July 23 5:00-9:00 AM

Place: 245 Clover Dr., SLO
Telephone: 543-1507

Please arrive at the creek walkway which will have sign posted. I know the stage starts at 3:30. You can watch it at home and drop by at 5 for the croissants and revelry.

Jens may be going for a post stage 17 ride......

Rollin in the hay (SLO Criterium)

So my first crit experience (or any road race for that matter) was fun. What a rush it was bumping bars downtown. I went in to knowing absolutely nothing about it. Coach, being true to his name, was very helpful, calling me while on his camping trip to offer some pointers. I stuck to is advise best I could and great advise it was. Having done somewhere around 10 laps (i think?), I was feeling like the plan was perfect as I heard the "5 laps remaining" call from the booth. I felt great and was ready to rock, hoping I would be in the running for the final sprint. Unfortunately, a lap later, a guy slid out in front of me on the turn that takes you into mission plaza with 4 laps to go, sending me over the bars superman style. Fortunately, I ended up landing square on a hay bail. No injuries and the worst side effect is the allergy flare up for the rest of the day....I'll take it!

-Skippy did well, hanging in there with the main group until the final sprint.
-Jens was looking strong and picked up a Sycamore Hot Springs sprint bonus! How sweet is that, getting to race and bring home that gift cert to the wife!
-Mike Easter represented in OneSource gear in the Pro race. Man are those guys impressive! We figured at the end of his race that they ran at over 30 mph average for the whole race, lasting 75 minutes and covering almost 40 miles. (This info taken from the computer on Mike's bike) All the more impressive was the fact that Mike got ran into with two laps to go, causing his wheel to be bent and brakes rubbing pretty bad, and the guy still finished around 12th we think! This was in a group of guys that included olympians, nation crit champion, a guy that just road in the giro.......and the list goes on! Very entertaining to watch. Thanks for representing Mike!

Ready to do the next crit that comes around........hopefully staying upright!

Levi

Monday Morning Quicky - Madonna

6:00 am
Meet at Lincoln Market
Up around the ring going counter clockwise, up to the top, back down the ring the way we went up and then finish out Lemon Loop.

Post if you are in so I know to expect you.

Levi

Sisquoc Race Report

Sisquoc RR was a family affair today.  Steve raced his first road race today at the State Junior RR championships nonetheless.  Steve has been riding a very short time and really only training for a few weeks but decided he wanted to do a RR.  We've been on a few rides together and he has been doing some rides with his brother and friends.  I have to say he is a natural talent on the bike.  His body type and position are a carbon copy of my brother Mark who rode on the Junior national team for a couple of years.  He has fitness from swimming but I think he can already almost match me on short power bursts of 1 and 5 minutes.  He lined up with about 30, 17/18 Juniors.  The field was full of carbon fiber and mostly guys 2 years older (you race your age on 12/31 and Steve has a November birthday, 16 now).  He was up to do 5 laps, 10 miles each with about 1000 ft of climbing each.  The first lap was med pace as people warmed up.  The second lap about 1/3 of the group got dropped on the big hill.  He hung on the back of the lead group.  Unfortunately he flatted 1/2 way through the 3rd lap but was feeling good.  A junior from Rock Racing Junior team won in a breakaway.  Without the flat I think he could have finished in the top half of the field.  Not bad for a 1st race in a stacked Junior championship race.  Already asking about the next race.

The old guys race 45+ was also 5 laps.  2 main teams there with Amgen having about 5 riders and Simple Green having about 5 riders.  About 40 in the field total.  The first 2 laps were steady tempo.  A few attacks but nothing stuck.  I pushed up the hill the 3rd time hard and had a gap with a few riders.  No one shared the work at the top but I accidently set up the break for the day with 1 Amgen and 1 Simple Green attacking on the false flat after the climb.  No chase and they were off.  A temporary organization of no teamate riders tried to organize on the last lap to pull them back but nothing really stayed organized.  No major attacks on the last climb.  Had better position for the sprint and finished 6th in the pack sprint and 8th overall.  Was shooting for a top ten so felt good.  Was definately a solid race.  Did 53 miles, about 5000 ft of climbing and we averaged 23 mph.  Not sure what the legs will be like tommorrow.

Check out pics on flickr site:

www.flickr.com/photos/slodocman/

Ciao,

David

 

SLO Crit

Well......it should be interesting tomorrow. OneSource will be representing in two extremes.
Mike Easter will be ready to rock in the PRO division and Levi & Skippy will be giving it a whirl for the very first time in Cat 5. Should be a fun event an I am looking forward to the new experience!
Hope to see some of you down there.

Jens - How did the Sisquoc race go?

Levi

Friday Ride: Lopez

Meet at Osos and Pismo at 6:00
Ride out to Lopez lake campgrounds turn it around and head for home.
If you want to go longer post it up b/c we could easily turn down Hi Mountain Rd. and go for another 8 miles out or so. Current ride length is 32miles but could go up to 50 pretty easily so lemme know.
Ride time is around 1.5 hrs. be done by 730ish.
cool? Not goin huge b/c of race on sunday.

RIDE CANCELLED!!! Will be riding with lefty sometime tomorrow. call me if you want details.  Lefty back on the bike first time in 6weeks!!! oh ya!  
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Wednesday Roll Out

Rolled up to Highland and Highway 1 at 5:34... I had been left. I was matter-o-factly reminded by Torque later who said, "Did the ride start at 5:34 or did it start at 5:30?" Gotta love it! Anywhoo out in the gloom all alone I started calling and calling and about 8 minutes later good ol' Levi picked up to inform me that I was about 2 miles back. I said that I would just sprint to try to catch them, implying that it would be sweet for them to have a slower pace for a bit so I could join up. I knew this was not going to happen and even though I was cranking by the MPH sign at 27 infront of the CMC I knew it would take a miracle to catch these boyz. That miracle came about a mile from Morro Bay when the Lord did smiteth good Levi with a flat. We continued, excuse me, we hammered up Turri and back home on LOVR where Rabbit hit a new high on his HRM at 182 (i know he would be excited to know I posted that). Great ride for sure, hammerfests usually turn out that way.
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