Colin is the 2010 category C champion. This years Championship criterium was a challenging .5 mile Course with last 200 meters being 7 percent grade to the finish line.

As soon as the whistle was blown Colin moved quickly to the front and stayed in the top ten to avoid any mishaps. UC Davis immediately started sending attacks up the road. Colin had won his last two races. UC Davis had made it there goal to tire Colin out so he would not have anything for the sprint. Colin had to chase the UC Davis team down as his teammates were suffering. Colin spent the majority of the 30 minute race in the front chasing moves down.

With one lap to go Colin was in 7th place and his teammate Matt McKinzie came to the front and protected him from the wind for half a lap. Colin was 4th out of the final corner and drove hard to the finish line. Matt hung on to take 6th. Good Job UCSD, and good job Colin, and Matt.

Colin (Quadzilla) driving to the line!!

After a short drive from Maryland up to New York Justin entered and competed in the Prospect Park Circuit race.

The Race was a 7 lap 3 mile circuit with one big ring climb right before the Finish.

Justin sat in the top 3rd of the field right in the sweet spot not doing any efforts till 1 lap to go. With about half a mile to the finish one rider attacked before the big ring climb. About 12 riders from the field (including Justin) followed the rider who attacked off the front.  At the base of big ring climb the initial attacking rider went again. Justin was boxed in against the curb in the group of 12. Justin slowed down to go around the 12 man group and then accelerated away from them to the finish taking 2nd place.

On the phone Justin said: “If I had 20 more meters I could have caught him and taken 1st”

Great Job Justin!

Justin Sprinting to 2nd Place on the far left of the picture

Justin in Early October of last year. Right before Snow Storm 2009/2010

Next Blog Post: What is the sweet spot, and training with Todd (The Beast) Woodland?

This clinic can accommodate a maximum of 20 athletes. To to make sure you don’t lose out,  sign up HERE.

Chris Daggs On The Way To A TTT Record

The first day was a criterium and the mens D racers were very aggressive, making many attacks and finishing in the top ten. Annabelle racing in the women’s Ds took 4th.

The following day was Road Race on a technical course. The Mens Ds started out aggressive again attacking and counter attacking the field till Josh Rudiger and Useff Azzasi from (UCSD) got off the front. Within a lap Josh had a minute on the field with help from Useff who then drifted back to the field. By the beginning of lap 3 Josh had 4 minutes on the field.

Thats when the rest of UCSD went into action they destroyed the field in the crosswind doing an echelon. 6 man chase behind the solo rider 5 of them being UCSD. Josh hung on to win and UCSD also took 2nd, 4th(Useff), 5th, 6th and 7th.

I lead race tactic clinics for the mens and women’s Ds in the off season and all their hard work and willingness to listen is paying off.

Go UCSD!!

Till next time
Cheers,
Coach Jesse

They kept using the word  “on”.  ” Shortly after going on XYZ supplement… I won XYZ race”    ” When going on one  XYZ company’s supplements,  you are guaranteed….”

I’ve received other emails from this company, and they always use the same “on”  language.     Regardless of whether the stuff  improves performance (and I’m skeptial of that), the language is similar  to what is used when talking about drugs.  My grandmother is ” on”  anti-inflammatories and pain meds for her arthritis.  My uncle is “on” beta blockers for his high blood pressure.    Riccardo Rico was ” on” CERA.

I think this habituates  athletes to being “on” something, and it can be a slippery slope.

My guess is that it is a marketing thing that they use, because if it sounds  kind of like you are using a  drug, than it must work like a drug, only this “drug” isn’t  banned.  ( never mind the fact that if their products had the drastic effects they claim, they  would be banned from sport anyway)

The whole email kind of reminds me of  one of my favorite SNL clips.  The All Drug Olympics.

For a copy of that supplement email I received today, go HERE.

What do you think?

Here it goes:

USAC Insurance fees: $2000

USAC Permit fee: $100

USAC Officials Fees: $1900

Prize Money $1750

SDPD Traffic Control at the Corners: $1300

Ambulance: $1300

Race announcer $750

City Permit Fee: $ 100

Race Numbers and Photocopies of waivers: $350

Safety Equpment( barricades, cones, signs) $450

Toilets and handsinks: $300

Garbage and Recycling bins: $300

Pizza, Coffee, and drinks for Volunteers and Officials: $125

The biggest expenses are: Prize money, Ambulance,  SDPD Taffic control, USAC Fees, Officials Fees, and Announcer fees.

Our Mens Pro 1,2 race has decent prize money, but the prize money for our other categories is admittedly small.  The ambulance is required by the city of San Diego.  In some municipalities you might save ~$700 by having an EMT but no ambulance.   But you have to have the Ambulance in San Diego, and its probably a good  idea anyway.  The SDPD traffic control is required by the city.  It  would be nice to be able to use volunteers, but the city wants to send out their own people.   To be honest, its probably better that way anyway.  I think you get less BS from drivers when the traffic controlers are wearing a uniform that says “SDPD” on it.   the USAC insurance fees  are charged per rider.  They’ve gone up by 50% over last year.  Officials fees are  the single biggest expense.  It seems like alot, but you have 8 people working almost a 12 hour day.  Some of them are coming from LA,  so  that may include hotel and/or mileage.    All of them are pocketing less than $200 for the day before hotel expenses, so it’s not like they are getting rich.  Ralph Elliot does and AMAZING job as race announcer and he is well worth it.  He actually gives us a deal on the annoucing because he has a soft spot in his heart for the SDSU team.    All of the  volunteers  working at registration  are SDSU kids, or riders that have volunteered   for a few hours in exchange for a few entries.  I also typically trade a few entries for people that bring good primes.  We have a few other little things that people do  for free that really help, Like Andrew Lee from Adama Ave Bikes working in the wheel pit.

People always say stuff like ” Hey, Why don’t you get a corprate sponsor or something?”  Well that’s far easier said than done.  Espcecially when we are in recession.  

The fact is that we made a little money this year ( split between the SDSU team and myself), but there is always the possibility of losing money.     As of wednesday, the prergistration  was only at $6,000 dollars.  If the weather report had not improved, we may have lost money.     A few years ago when it did rain, we only had $500 in  day of registration. The SDSU team made a few hundred dollars that year, and I personally  walked away empty handed. ( after countless hours of prep work and a 13 hour day in the rain!) It would be a bit easier to make a few bucks, or at least ensure you aren’t going to lose money if we  only had USCF races.  But we do collegiate races all morning, and the collegiate racers only pay $15 each.  Most of your costs are fixed costs, so we are essentially losing money all morning long, and trying to make it up in the afternoon.   In fact it is always a stressful coming into the race and being concerned that we are going to lose money  on the thing, but thanks to the rain staying away for the day, it all worked out.

  Many people walked up to me yesterday and told me they thought it was a great race.  That is rewarding  for sure.   Thanks to everyone for coming out, I hope to see you out there again next year.

Sean