Crank Indoor Cycling

WCCC Criterium Champion

jesse — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:57:21 +0000

Crank cycling wants to congratulate Colin Ng for his win at the western collegiate cycling conference.

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!!

Winning Lots of Races

jesse — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:08:27 +0000

This past weekend was a solid weekend of racing with lots of wins.

First off was Justin Farrar in Maryland. He entered his 2nd category 4/5 road race of the year. There were 75 riders in his field. The race was on an 8 mile circuit on slightly rolling terrain with 2 steep power climbs. After lap 3 a 5-man break got away for 2 laps. Justin’s teammate Iain reeled the break back in on the final lap, with one mile to go. With about 300 meters to go, Justin was boxed in 12th position looking for an opening. He had to push his way through other riders in the field. By the time he hit the front , he was only chasing one other rider to the line and he took 2nd.

Good job Justin.

Justin killin it!

The UCSD Cycling Team managed to pull off two wins, three 2nd places, one 3nd place, and a smattering of top 10 finishes. The first race was the Golden Acorn Road Race on Saturday. Colin Ng (AKA Quadzilla) took 3rd followed by Ben Ostrander taking 4th in the men’s C’s.

The second day of racing had the mens C’s and D’s combined. UCSD fielded a 12-man team and was aggressive from the gun. They sent riders off the front every lap until a break of 3 finally stuck. Colin (Quadzilla) was in the break.

The break put 40 seconds into the field and if the race had another 15 minutes, they would have lapped the field. Coming out of the last corner, Colin turned on the gas and destroyed his opponents. After the race, Colin Marveled, “ I thought it was some sort of new tactic they were doing, going slow to the finish line.” Nope, Colin was just faster!

Matt McKinzie easily won the field sprint taking 4th overall and 1st in the D’s followed by Jeffrey Skacel in 2nd overall.

The athletes coached by Crank Cycling dominated this past weekend. Good job guys and gals!

Coach Jesse

Qaudzilla in the Break

Matt sprinting away from the Field

Opening Night TNR

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:14:42 +0000

The first night of Tuesday Night Racing for 2009 at the San Diego Velodrome was last night. It was a nice warm evening and everyone had a great time. Coached rider Todd Woodlan was looking strong in the C group, and will be surely upgrading after a few nights. Chris Daggs raced with the A group and was looking pretty strong himself. I played race director for the evening, so no racing for me just yet. Below is a photod of me motorpacing the A group to get them warmed up.

-Sean

Power Tap Tandem Indoor Bike!

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:46:59 +0000

Ryan Dotters with CycleOps Power dropped off a special prototype bike for me yesterday at Crank Cycling, the Pro300T Indoor Cycle. That’s right. The “T” stands for tandem. People want to train like they ride, so for all of you tandem riders, here is your chance to ride INDOORS with your riding partner. The PT300T… is the only tandem bike made more the indoor market and it features 2, Joule computers, so each rider can see the power output. This one is just a prototype, so there may be a few changes, but I hear that the production model is going to be ready by Interbike 2010.

Crank Cycling Athlete Podiums Again

jesse — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:56:56 +0000

Crank Cycling’s Justin Farrar got on the podium Again this past weekend.

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?

What it takes to ride with the Pros

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:56:20 +0000

We put a SRM on Elite amateur riders at Redlands Stage race, and then Daggs and I did a write up on his power output.:

How much power does it take to hang with the pros in a big American stage race? For the Redlands Bicycle Classic, we put an SRM power meter on the bike of Eric Marcotte, a 30-year-old chiropractor who races as a Cat. 1.

Marcotte’s power decreased each time up the climb on stage 3. (Wattage is yellow, elevation is red.)

Marcotte lives in Arizona and races with the California-based Pista Palace squad. This year he won stage 2 of the Valley of the Sun and placed fifth in the GC. He then won stage 3 at the Tucson Bicycle Classic from a break. At Redlands, Marcotte was racing in a 190-man peloton that featured 13 pro teams. Here is what the numbers revealed.

Crank Cycling Time Trial Clinic

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:28:35 +0000

This clinic is designed to help you get fast! The focus is primarily road time trials, such as the 20K and 40k events, but triathletes can also benefit from this clinic. We will also devote a portion of the class to special events such as team time trials and track events like the 4K, 1K, and team pursuit. The morning session will be indoors at the Crank Cycling Training Studio and the afternoon session will be on the bike at Fiesta Island. This clinic features coach and exercise physiologist Sean Burke, coach and Fiesta Island TTT record holder Chris Daggs. Classroom topics in the morning include: exercise physiology basics and energy systems used during TTs, on the bike training, weight training, flexibility training, warm ups, power outputs, pacing, aerodynamics, and more. The afternoon “on the bike” topics include: proper starts, turnarounds, course management, TTT practice, and more.

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

Crank Coached Athletes Win Again

jesse — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:29:55 +0000

Just got off the phone with one of the Crank Cycling Coached athletes, Justin Farrar. He just won his first crit of the year. He has spent a good part of the winter doing tempo efforts and sprints. He is diligent at following his workouts and is a really good listener. He sat in for the 1st half of the race and watched the other riders tire themselves out. Right at the half way point the only move that could stick got away. Justin made sure to bridge across to the move up the road without bringing the field with him. The move was caught a few laps later so Justin sat in and waited for the finish. With 2 laps to go he move to the front of the field and with half a lap to go he turned on the juice and easily took the win.

There are quite a few more wins in his future. I will keep you updated on his progress.

Coach Jesse

Crank Kits

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:40:29 +0000

We are happy to to let everyone know that we are putting an order of Crank Cycling shop kits this week. Let me know asap if you want a set of bibs or a jersey. Skinsuits are gonna be about $100, and bibs and jerseys are gonna be about $70 each.

You will find a size chart HERE: http://www.pactimo.com/static/size_chart.pdf

Team UCSD Wins

jesse — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:42:57 +0000

This past weekend the collegiate team I coach (UCSD) won there first race. It was a 2 day race weekend.

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