Pro Men

66th

Teammates: Zach

I had been looking forward to this race for a while. The climbing and fun terrain of this course suited me perfectly. The start was one of the best I've ever had. For the first 15 minutes I found myself mixing it up with the top 25 guys before the single track hit. Unfortunately, on the last climb before the single track descent, my chain fell between my hardest cog and my derailleur hanger, not letting me pedal. I couldn't figure out what it was, but eventually I just took the rear wheel off and put it back on, which fixed the problem. 2 minutes behind, I was determined to make up the spots I lost. I went harder than I should've, made it up to the top 40 by the beginning of the final climb, but due to my poor pacing and heat, I completely blew up and just coasted in. All in all I felt strong, but I should've raced a smarter race.

Tony

Keyesville Classic XC

3/31/2012

4 8 mile laps

28 starters

1st

I was pretty excited for this race because the course is really fun. It's not very technical but there are some really fun descents and it is an all around fast course. The race started out a bit faster than last year, and I made sure not to go too hard since the race would be over 2 hrs. I found myself sitting 3rd wheel half

way through the first lap, with a gap on the rest of the field. Jim Hewett was leading, but I soon passed him to try and break up the pack. Before I knew it I was off the front and just riding my own race. I kept it smooth and made sure to finish strong, since last year I bonked hard on the last lap. This time I ate 7 GUs and drank 3 bottles, and it made an enormous difference, finishing over 4 minutes ahead of the 2nd place finisher and beating my time last year by over 10 minutes.

Tony

65+ riders

6 laps 1 start loop

teammates: Zach

24th

It looked like I had a better call up this race, but I still ended up starting in the second to last row. The start lap had lots of places to pass so I wasn't too stressed. The gun went off and I started to make up as many spots as possible. I had to go off the trail a couple times but the extra effort payed off and I was able to make it into the top 25 by the end of the start loop!

From then on I found a pace that I knew I could hold for the rest of the long race. I passed some people and some people passed me. I tried to keep consistent lap times and my strategy paid off. I finished strong as was able to pass a couple of bonked riders on the last lap. Granted the fastest guys weren't out there, I was still stoked to pull a top 25. Hopefully I'll be able to improve next time with a better call up!

Nice job to everyone who raced!

Tony

Pro XCT #2 Fontana City National
Fontana, CA
Cat 1 17-18

Teammates: Keegan, Max, Bobby

Result: 2nd

After coming off a solid race at Bonelli two weeks prior to Fontana, I was pretty confident in my fitness and had a good idea how the race would play out.  The course at Fontana was awesome this year.  They extended "the wall" (super steep climb in the beginning of the race), which in turn added a long, fun, technical descent that I had never ridden before.  On top this, the dirt was super tacky from the rain earlier in the week, making the course much faster and a blast to ride.

I had a great start to the race.  I was able to line up in the front
row right next to Keegan and Max, giving me a clear line without
having to worry about anybody messing me up.  One of the AZ Devo kids took the whole shot, and I was content to sit on his wheel and have him lead out the fire-road section.  Before entering the flat singletrack, I passed the rider with Keegan right on my wheel.  After about a minute of hammering, I noticed we already had a bit of a gap, and I made sure to ride nice and smooth to give us the biggest advantage possible before hitting the wall.  

As soon as the wall came, Keegan went ahead and got a couple bike lengths ahead of me.  I was holding the gap, but suffering pretty hard.  Not only was a I burying it up this climb to stick with Keegan, we were also beginning to pass the field ahead of us.  On one of the steepest sections on the wall, I went to pass a rider on the left, but he then dismounted and got in my way, forcing me to run.  Riding was always fastest on this section, and Keegan just rode away, getting around 20 or 30 seconds on me.

From here on out I tried my best to catch Keegan, but was not able to succeed.  I kept a fast pace going and used the field that started ahead of us as motivation and eventually finished in 2nd.  I'm stoked with the way I rode and will take a 2nd place any day.  Congrats to Keegan for taking the win, and to Max and Bobby who killed it as well.

Tony

Category: Pro

4 laps, 32 miles

Teammates: Will Patterson

Placed: Tony 3rd, Will 7th

This course was really fun. I pre-rode it the day before with the Colbeast. It really flowy with many short, steep punchy climbs. None of the climbs were very long, but they totalled to be 1200ft/lap. It was really similiar to Fontana. Pros had to do 4, 8 mile laps, so it was going to be a really long race.

I was really surpised how smart everybody started out. I was expecting everybody to kill it off the line, and eventually blow up half way through the race. However, everyone seemed to be aware of how long the race was going to be, and they didnt start out very fast. I found myself sitting in the top 5 when we entered the single track, just behind Tinker, and pattycakes a few spots behind me. Soon after, Vince Lombardi, a top 25 finisher at last week's Bonelli ProXCT, went off the front and wasn't seen again.

As soon as the first descent came around, Tinker took an off-camber line and washed out right in front of me, and I just barely missed his face with my front wheel. I had to come to almost a complete stop, but luckily I didn't lose my position. I quickly caught back up to the group I was in, only to be passed by Adam Craig, who was rocking a prety sweet AM bike.

By this point we were a group of six, with Jim Hewett leading the group, two other guys I wasn't familiar with, Adam Craig, and Will. Jim kept going at a pretty solid pace, and unfortunately Will wasn't able to hold on. Adam wasn't having too much fun either. His big bike wasn't a great choice for this course, and he was having a hard time accelerating out of corners and on climbs. He eventually got dropped in the beginning of the second lap.

It was then down to just me, Jim, and those two unknown dudes. Vince was still up ahead. We kept the pace going pretty fast until half way through the third lap, when I decided to attack on one of the more consistant climbs. Jim thought I was going too early, and decided to stay back and plan his attack later. One of the unknowns hopped on my wheel and stayed there for the rest of the race. He wouldn't help me or do any work, even when I asked. This annoyed me. I tried to drop him on the punchy climbs, but I didn't have much power left in me around the 2hr mark. With about 10 minutes of the race left, I started to bonk, and just decided to recover and hopefully beat him in the sprint. However, after sitting on my wheel for over an hour, I was no match for him. With about 200m to go, he attacked. I was about to sit up, but then I saw Jim hauling ass, about to catch me. I gave it everything I had and finished in a solid third place. I didn't even think I could podium in this race, so third was a nice surprise. Also congrats to Will for doing so well in his first MTB race of the season, and to Colby for not finishing last even with a flat tire!

3/13/11
Category: Cat 1 17-18

3 laps
Teammates: Keegan

Result: 2nd

 

This was the most punchy course I have ever ridden.  We were either going up or down.  There were two main climbs: one in the beginning of the lap that was about a minute and a half long, and another half way through the course that was about three minutes long.  Juniors only had to do three, six mile laps, so the race was going to be short.

 

The AZ Devo kids hammered the start.  I couldn't even make it to the front of the gruop, so I was pretty surprised.  However, once the first climb came, Keegan and I passed them on the outside and dropped the hammer to the top.  We got a small gap there and just kept pinning it throughout the course to make it even bigger.  I was able to keep up with the swenmeister on the short, punchy stuff, but when it came to the 3 minute climb on the back side of the course, I was hopeless.  Keegan turned it up a notch, and I just couldn't hang.  Throughout the rest of the race I was all alone.  I would maintain the gap between us on the punchy terrain, but over those consitant climbs he just seemed to just get farther and farther away from me.

 

Despite not being able to match Keegan's crazy climbing speed, I felt really strong for my first big race of the year, and I'm really happy with how it went.  Next stop is Keysville and then Fontucky!

 

Tony

Pro Category
4 x 5 mile laps
Teammates: Dario Fredrick & Riley Predum
Results: Tony 1st, Dario 2nd, Riley 10th (broken bike!)
 
So this course has always been a fun one -- technical in some sections and really fast and smooth in others.  Due to rain earlier in the week, the course was very, very muddy, adding to the technicality.  I decided to race the pro category for fun, not really expecting a very outstanding result, considering I was racing some really fast dudes such as Kris Sneddon (Kona), Jim Hewett (Summit Bicycles), Kevin Smallman, and of course our very own Dario Fredrick (Whole Athlete - Specialized).  This also being my very first race of the season, I wasn't totally confident in my fitness yet. 
 
The race started out at a pretty fast pace, but I didn't find it too hard to stay up front which is always a good sign for me.   I was sitting in 4th going into the singletrack, but soon dropped back to  around 8th when I got out of control in a mud section and completely missed the bridge we had to cross to get to the other side of the course.  I quickly got back up and waited for a fire road to move back into 4th. 
 
Towards the end of the 1st lap, it was down to me, Dario, with Kris Sneddon and Jim Hewett a little ways ahead.  Right before the start/finish, however, Kris got a flat, leaving Jim a few seconds ahead of me and Dario.  Half way through the second lap we caught Jim, and we just rode together at a comfortable pace.  On lap 3, Jim got a bit sloppy on one of the most technical descents on the course and crashed, got back up, and soon crashed again only to snap his brake off of the handlebar.  I quckly passed him and caught up to Dario, leaving just the two of us.  Once again we just kept a quick pace and made sure that nobody would catch back up to his. 
 
After the first descent on lap 4, I realized that Kevin was gaining some time on us.  Since Dario was awesome enough to let me sit on his wheel for the entire race so far, I was feeling really fresh and ready to push the pace a bit as to make sure we didn't get caught.  Unfortunately Dario had some derailler issues, and wasn't able to hang on.  I just tried to ride as smooth and as fast as possible, and eventually came up with the win. 
 
Despite it being a total mud fest out there I still had a lot of fun, and I'm super stoked to kill it at Bonelli with the Swendogg!!!
 
-Tony