January 28 - Early Bird Training Criterium and Clinic
Race info

Pictures:
Hanan Alves-Hyde and Hanns Hartman
JAMFoto Photography By Chris Patterson
Garrett Lau
Mike Norris

Report: by Keith David Szolusha, Pacific State Bank/ Anderson Homes / Delta Velo Racing Team, 

Report by Keith David Szolusha

We started our 2007 campaign with the entire team at the Early Bird crit yesterday. It was a really fun team race, with our new jerseys. We really like the new designs.

Our team basically traded off attacks and jumps the entire short sixty minute criterium. It was a good field (big in size) with a mix of all levels former national champs, current and former pros, and cat. 3's. It was first time riding together with everybody, so we figured each other out quick. Everybody looks fast. Our new cat. 1, Eric Ransom, rode well after his eight hour trek the day before. Andres and Todd attacked hard at times - with our numbers, we even had a few guys up there in breaks together at times.

We all eased up towards the end so as not to be involved in a big crash. I was the only one that found myself in position to sprint for top ten at the end, but I had to slam on brakes when a cat. 3 gave up and swerved out in the final 200 meters. I got my front wheel severely crossed once during the race and had I not held it up, I would have gone down hard and taken down many good riders such as former TT champ and current AMD masters member Dylan Casey. Wow - we were scared of some of the riders out there. In the end we were all happy and psyched to start our campaign at Martinez ($7.5k prize list) crit and then Cherry Pie.

Lessons to learn - when you are mixing it up with the big boys and want to be in front, watch your line. Everybody is going 30+ and expecting you to be strong. If you give up because you don't have the legs, don't choose to suddenly swerve out of the pack. Stay straight and let riders come around you by choosing their own lines around. Don't suddenly change your line. If you decide it is too slow and want to get out of the pack to attack, when you stand up on your pedals, your bike jerks back suddenly. If you have one hundred riders behind you, don't take the guy out behind you by standing up on your bike and shoving your rear wheel into his front wheel. Make sure there is an opening before you decide to shoot out of the pack to attack. You can cause a bad crash.

See you out there.

K

This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari. This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari.