Author Archives: Gene Dan

Hey everyone,

I’m doing a special report on my first stage race, Fort Davis Hammerfest out in the Texas hill country. In my opinion this was probably one of my favorite races – I made some new friends, ate some great food, and had some experiences that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Anyways, today I’m writing about the 10 hour drive to Fort Davis. I usually don’t do race reports without racing, but I thought the drive there was important enough to merit its own post.

About a week before the race, Daniel was coordinating two races simultaneously: Fort Davis Hammerfest, which is a non-Collegiate USCF stage race, and the Baylor Collegiate Race which happened to be on the same weekend. Since Daniel’s strengths were both climbing and time trialing, he opted to go to Fort Davis because it featured both types of events. Likewise, I thought that as a light rider I would be good at climbing, and if I had gone to Baylor instead of Fort Davis, I would be racing much of the same stuff as I had at the other collegiate races – a fairly flat road race along with a technical criterium. I figured that going to Fort Davis would give me a good amount of variety in my racing portfolio.

The rest of the team opted to do the Baylor race. However, one alumnus of the team, Clay Dalton, decided to go with us to test out his climbing legs. As a 180 pound racer standing over six feet tall, you wouldn’t at first glance call him a climber. However, he’s super powerful, and we figured he would do well at Hammerfest.

There was one logistical problem, however, which was that we had to transport three riders and five bicycles, along with spare wheelsets by using one car. Since my van had the most cargo space in the back, I volunteered to drive us all the way across Texas. The ride would take us roughly nine hours so I was somewhat anxious since I had never driven that distance before. However, it would be good driving practice for me so I didn’t mind so much. When Clay arrived at my apartment the Friday before race weekend, he lent me his bike rack to help out with the transportation. However, my vehicle didn’t have the correct mounts on the back so the rack was a no-go. We were stumped for a few minutes until Clay told me that we could probably fit all bikes in the back of my car. It was a stretch, but we could do it.

After loading up my van with Clay’s two bikes and my bike, along with spare wheels, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up supplies for the road trip. It was a long trip so I brought a few gallons of emergency water along with some rations in case we got stranded. I also bought some instant coffee, which I wouldn’t normally drink but I brought it along with me just in case I needed it. After getting a cup of joe, we headed out to UT campus to pick up Daniel at his dormitory.

Daniel came down with his luggage and two bikes, and I was quite impressed with his time trial equipment, which consisted of an aero bike with a disc rear wheel, and a 100mm deep rim carbon front wheel. It took us about ten minutes to figure out the right configuration of luggage, but we made it all fit, with Daniel sitting in the back to make sure everything was secure. There was a lot of expensive equipment back there so it would’ve been a shame if any of it would get damaged.

We managed to fit all five bikes, spare wheels, and luggage in the back of my van.

After leaving UT campus we stopped by Mellow Johnny’s for some race supplies, then headed out to Johnson City, which would be our last stop before the long ride to Fort Davis. It took us about an hour to get there and we stopped by a fast barbecue joint at which I ordered catfish and shrimp, which was excellent. I also stopped by Whittington’s Jerky and bought half a pound of turkey jerky and half a pound of beef jerky, of which I believe was one of the best jerkys I have ever had, rivaling the Woody’s beef jerky  that I had at Centerville.

Clay tries on his aero helmet.

After we ate, we went on our long drive. After about one or two hours of driving we his Fredricksburg. I vaguely remember the town from the last time I went through it but not really. It was a tourist town with a long German immigrant history, but when I rolled through it it looked as if it were specifically catered to tourists. There’s actually a road race held there in the summer, and I’m currently thinking about doing it. Anyway, we quickly rolled through the town and hit the Texas hill country.

Taking a break at Junction, Texas.

There’s not really much to say about it because there isn’t really anything out there but pasture. Once we hit I-10 the speed limit jumped up to 80 mph! I had never seen speed limits like that and it was pretty crazy. I could really feel the crosswinds rocking the van as we went along. We stopped by Junction to stretch our legs and get ice cream. After about 4 more hours on the road, and seeing nothing but chaparral along the way, we made a stop for gas and we got food at an Ihop in Fort Stockton.  An hour and a half later, we arrived at Fort Davis.

The views were great.

We stayed at a place called Prude Ranch. We were originally listed to share a cabin with ten other people, but there were some safety issues with the bunk beds so Clay, Daniel, and I got to share our own cabin, which was a great deal. One of the interesting things to note were that the staff didn’t lock the doors at the ranch. I guess since the location was so remote there was little chance of theft. Anyway, Clay did some maintenance work on his bike while Daniel and I prepped for race day. We had to wake up at 5:30 AM so we hit the hay, anxious for the next day.

Hey everyone,

This is a race report of Ronde von Manda, which was held the day after Manor. The race was mainly characterized by the intense winds which would shatter the peloton. At the end of Manor, I had asked the rider with whom I had ridden at both the Driveway Crit and Manor if he would be racing Manda the day after. He said that he probably wouldn’t ride the next day as the current day was hard enough, and the following day would be even harder. He gave me a fist bump for encouragement and then went his own way. It wasn’t until I arrived at the Manda course that I realized what he was talking about…

One of the main differences between Manor and Manda is that the Manor race went through a fairly wooded area and the wind wasn’t too bad to ride through. However, with Manor, the race was held on an open field with no protection from the wind. I realized how strong it was the moment I stepped out of my car at the course. When I tried to open the door to get my gear, it closed immediately and I had to prop it open with a weight. Likewise, my teammate Daniel told me that when he tried to get out of the car, the door slammed shut on him and he had to go out the other way. Thus, today would present a new challenge: the wind was forcasted to gust between 25 and 35mph so it would be intense.

When I arrived at the starting line I noticed that the field was significantly reduced from that of the day before. About 50 riders started Manor, whereas today there were only about 25, and perhaps only 5 riders, including me, had raced at Manor the day before. As we waited for the start, Mark Heady, one of the riders with whom I worked at Manor, rolled up to his teammates after he had finished the 4/5 race. He looked utterly exhausted and recognized me from the day before and wished me luck. Before we started, the race official said that the winds were so strong that they would surely split us apart into echelons, and went on to explain the usual rules with bicycle racing.

When we started, we could immediately feel the pressure put on by the crosswinds. Most of the riders in my pack were inexperienced Cat 5 riders, so we didn’t know how to properly form an echelon. Thus, we pretty much strung out in a single file line and I found myself completely exposed to the crosswind. One of the guys who wanted to gain pack position came up next to me so I found some shelter against the wind. However, he had so much difficulty in controlling his bike he was weaving back and forth like a drunkard, which made me extremely nervous while riding next to him. I had learned earlier that he was responsible for one of the crashes the day before, which didn’t add to my confidence.

I dropped back behind him to find a better rider to ride with, but the pace was so relentless at the front that I couldn’t hold the wheel, and I dropped back in the crosswind after the fifth mile. I can’t really say much about the rest of the race except that I rode it entirely alone. I saw another rider in front of me but at some point of the race he disappeared and I never caught up. The wind was definitely the most intense wind I’ve ever ridden against but I know I’ll face something similar in the future so I’ll have to learn to cope with it the next time. I was quite exhausted from the race before so I suppose that I simply haven’t developed the level of endurance to race multiple days in a row, as well as ride for long periods of time against the wind. I had learned later on that the race officials in the follow car would give the pack tips on how to form echelons, but since I wasn’t there at the time I guessed I missed out on a crucial lesson.

Since I had paid my race entry fee, I felt like I might as well have made the best of it and decided to turn the race into a 38 mile workout, rather than quit. so I trudged my way until the end of the course, where I was caught by a pack of professional riders, of which contained former Texas Cycling member Peter Carey, who now rides for the Bahati Foundation, a professional team.

So, it turns out I finished last out of the finishers. The good news is that a handful of riders abandoned the course, so I suppose I get a leg up on them, morally. However, there aren’t really any good things I can say about this race, other than the fact that I mainly rode it to work on my endurance and gain experience from racing. As for the things I did badly, I couldn’t find a good position in the crosswind, and I just didn’t have enough energy to keep up with the pack. When I finished I saw Ken receiving medical attention from a crash. He wasn’t seriously injured, but he received a lot of nasty road rash and was bleeding quite a bit, and his bib shorts looked as if they were torn beyond repair. He told me he had got stuck in a crack in the road and couldn’t get out, and then fell over. He had a very good top-10 result at Manor and I’m sure had he not fallen over that he would have gotten a very good result at Manda as well. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very good day for Texas Cycling as Hogan, Day, Dalton, Varela, and Dodson all abandoned the race. Kearns stuck it out and got 12th in the Mens’ 3/4, while Carey had a very good result and finished 4th in the Pro Competition. Hammerfest race report coming up next…

Carey stayed in the break for 4th place. Photo courtesy of Velossimo Racing.

Hey everyone,

This is a race report of Ronde von Manor, a single-day race hosted by Velossimo Racing on the 27th of March. It’s been a while since I last posted, so my memory is kind of hazy with this one. My participation in this race was pretty much on a whim, especially since the Texas State collegiate race, which would have coincided with this race, was canceled the week before. This was the first USCF race that I’ve participated in besides the Driveway series, so this would be a pretty good way to test myself against the more serious racers participating in the Texas Cup and regional competitions.

The race was held at J. Lorraine Ghost Town

I entered the race as a Category 5 rider, which is the lowest possible level rider you can be at these races. In order to move up to Category 4, you need at least 10 mass-start races, but most people chose to move up after they’ve done reasonably well in Category 5. When I was at the Texas Cycling meeting a couple of days prior to the race, my teammate Ken said that in his experience, all of the Category 5 races started out really fast, slowed down in the middle, and then picked up speed towards the end. So he told me that if I felt like I was hurting during the beginning, all I had to say to myself was “just a little longer, just a little longer…” and eventually the pace would slow down so I could take a breather.

The P/1/2 pack contained Peter Carey.

So, on Saturday morning I headed out towards Manor and arrived a little later than I would have like, 15 minutes before the start line. When they called out the Cat 5 field, I lined up and scoped out the riders. I was very surprised at the equipment they had, as I seemed to be the only rider who wasn’t riding on a $5000 all-carbon bike with deep-rimmed wheels. Thus, I was a little intimidated but I would have to learn how to keep up nonetheless. The race officials told us the usual rules, such as no crossing the center line, and what to do if we needed mechanical service. Then, the race was off. The field was neutral for maybe a couple of miles but the pace picked up quickly. I would say that once we hit the fourth mile, the field was going very fast, about 28 mph.

Riding in the pack was incredibly intense. For the most part, I was in the rear and it was very hectic as the pack kept speeding up and slowing down for some strange reason, and at one point of the ride I even had to unclip my pedals since we came to a full stop. Also, the pack always accelerated through each turn in order to lose inexperienced riders. I managed to stay in contact through each turn, thanks to the practice I had at the Driveway the Thursday before.

After about 5 or 6 miles we hit a small hill and everybody seemed to be in a rush to get over it and drop a few riders. A couple of riders were dropping back so I just maneuvered out of their way and stayed in contact. I could tell that there were a lot of riders that were very inexperienced, and they couldn’t handle their bikes smoothly so I was a little nervous riding next to them, in case they bumped into me. Anyways, after we finished riding up the hill we turned right into a crosswind, so I made sure that I was on the right side of the pack. We took another right-hand turn to the finishing straight on the lap, which was mostly downhill. The front of the pack must have been charging downhill as I recorded speeds of over 40 mph easily, and I wasn’t even pedaling on my bike on the way down a not-too-steep slope.

I finished the first lap without any problem, and the pack seemed to take it easy the second time through. We crested up the hill a second time, but a few riders crashed which caused a split in the peloton. I reacted by accelerating hard and I inadvertently ended up at the front of the pack exposed to the crosswind. Since it was as crosswind, riders started being aggressive and every time someone tried to break away the pack chased them down hard. In my opinion that was NOT smart racing. If you let a few riders get away instead of chasing them down, you’ll save a lot of energy. Plus, we would soon hit a downhill section and a tailwind so it would be very easy to catch them then. I think maybe 5 or so riders tried to break away successively and I think we were going about 24 mph into a crosswind, and since I was on the left side of the pack this time I was completely exposed. I suddenly ran out of steam and dropped from the front to the back, and then off the back.

It was at this point that I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch back on. After about 5 miles of riding solo, I saw a couple of stragglers behind me and I sat up to wait for them to catch me. As soon as they caught up, we formed a paceline and we tried to catch up to another guy riding solo about 15 seconds in front of us. As soon as I saw the gap closing, I upped the tempo until we caught him. Unfortunately one of the guys in my group couldn’t hold the pace and he dropped back. Incidentally, the new guy we caught happened to be the same guy I ended up with at the Driveway! What a coincidence. We worked together for the rest of the race taking turns pacing each other. When we crested the hill we saw a spectator dressed in a Death costume, which I found mildly amusing.

I dropped the two riders on the climb unintentionally so I waited for them to catch back up to me as I didn’t want to finish the race alone. It was then that I realized I would probably be able to beat the two riders once we headed to the finish line. The rest of the race was uneventful and consisted of us taking turns in the front. When we reached the downhill we called the alliance off as we would be trying to beat each other at the line. The Driveway guy opened up the the sprint, so I responded, but at the finish line I saw a whole group of guys walking their bikes and I was quite perplexed and I didn’t want to hit them while I was sprinting, so when I was dashing down the street I yelled, “watch out!” and easily outsprinted the other two riders.

It turned out that in the sprint to the line, there was a huge crash and maybe 10 or so riders went down. I don’t think it affected my placing as I think there’s a rule saying that if you go down at the line you’re accredited the same time as the bunch you finished with. There happened to be several crashes that day. I witnessed one of them, but I heard a more serious crash happened off the front soon after I dropped back where three riders went down, one breaking his femur and another breaking his hip…since the crash happened near where I was riding in the pack, I’m kind of glad I got dropped as I didn’t get involved, but it would have been a valuable lesson had I witnessed it. As for the things I did badly I think I shouldn’t have overreacted at the time of the first crash to catch back on, and I should have positioned myself properly on the right side of the pack as we headed into a crosswind. Positioning makes a HUGE difference in the amount of energy you’ll spend and it just takes a little bit of mental calculation. Furthermore, I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time in the back of the pack and probably should have stayed in the front. As for the things that I did well, I stayed in contact for a longer period of time then at DFW, and I recorded the fastest ever 33 miles I’ve ever done at 20.2 mph, which was only slightly slower than that of the Criterium, but over a much longer distance. The pack riders recorded 23mph and I heard from another rider that it was a harder than usual Cat 5 race. Personally, I would have only expected 21 mph from the Cat 5 pack, and 23 mph is kind of ridiculous given that we’re beginner racers…that just goes to show how seriously they take bike riding here in Austin. Anyways, I had fun and I was looking forward to the race the next day…

Mens' 3/4 pack containing Dalton, Hogan, and Varela

The Driveway promotional poster.

Hello everyone,

This is a race report of my first participation in this year’s Driveway Series, a series of weekly criteriums that last from daylight savings time to fall back weekend. I’ll probably keep this short because the race was only 30 minutes. Anyways, a little info on the Driveway. It’s basically a race held on an auto-racing course, except on Thursday evenings they lend it to the PURE Fitness people for bike races. The races are mainly used for training and gaining experience, but it’s icing on the cake if you win. The competition for the series overall title is based on a points system, in which points are awarded to the top finishers, with more points going to the higher finishers.

I decided to take part in the 4/5 race which contained new people like me, as well as the more experienced Category 4 people. Category 4 means you’ve participated in at least 10 races, but most people don’t move up from Category 5 unless they’ve finished well in the lower races. The location of the race had me confused for a while, because you have to exit the highway on a narrow street that had no indicator sign for when it was approaching. Thus, I missed my exit and continued for another 10 minutes are so until I realized I was lost, so it took me a while to find the course.

Unfortunately, after registration there was no time for me to warm up. I was a little annoyed, but it was my fault for missing the exit and there wasn’t anything I could do about it now. When they called our group to go up, I looked around and saw Robbie, along with a few other Texas cyclists with whom I’m not well acquainted. The race wasn’t too fast to begin with, but it was pretty intense. In my field there were 75 riders, definitely the largest pack I have ever raced in. This was the smallest field of the day, too! When we hit the first corner, Robbie had someone cut in front of him and he had to swerve as well, and someone yelled at him to hold the line, although there was nothing he could do. The first few turns were pretty scary for me as I have never cornered at such a high speed before (22-24mph). I told myself, however, that I would have to learn how to corner well eventually and it’s a noted weakness of my previous races, so I decided to trust my gut and just do exactly what the person in front of me was doing.

I tried to follow traditional turning guidelines, such as putting my inside pedal up, leaning my bike, and leaning my body in the other direction. It turns out it worked! I was able to corner much more smoothly than in the previous races, though I still need to improve. The bike can lean over a lot more than one would expect…it feels like you’re going to tip over!

After the first lap someone crashed and there was some panic in the field. People were braking, swerving left and right, and I just tried to find a clear line through the chaos. I was able to stay upright, thankfully, and I continued on. Unfortunately, the crash caused a split in the field and it took me a lot of effort to stay on…that’s why you have to stay in the front, I guess. I was able to hang on for another lap, but when the third lap came around I was getting pretty tired. It was going to be a very hard 30 minutes, and I had never done a crit that long before.

People were starting to fall off the back as the race increased in intensity. After I blew up, I tried to keep a reasonable pace and wait for some people behind me to pick me up so we could work together. Eventually three guys caught up to me, and I was able to latch on. We formed a paceline, though I didn’t contribute very much since my legs were burning. The people watching cheered and told us to work together. One by one, we picked up stragglers from the field and we had a pretty good paceline going. Some people decided to hang on to us, while others couldn’t hold the pace and dropped back. It was very exciting.

After about 25 minutes, the lead group lapped us. It was pretty chaotic as they tried to pass us. One of the guys in our paceline tried to catch back on to the group, which pretty much broke apart our paceline. I’m not even sure if such a move was legal in this race, because in the other criteriums I participated in, this was not allowed.

I think by this point the race was pretty much decided as they only count the top 20 finishes, and so the directors pretty much told everyone to vacate the course. I met up with Robbie afterward, he told me that his bike had leaned over so much that his pedal hit the ground while in the up position. That’s pretty far. Unfortunately, his pedal ran into his back tire and knocked the bead off the rim, which made it unrepairable. So, he asked me for a ride back and I agreed to take him.

I wanted to watch the other race, the pro/1/2/3 race which contained some professional riders, as well as good amateurs. Anyways, it was a weekday and I pretty much need to get back to town, so we decided to leave. I think overall, the race went better than the last few criteriums I’ve participated in, even though I didn’t hang on to the pack as long. The main improvements were in cornering, and the fact that I didn’t finish alone. I think there were plenty of people behind me, but I wasn’t really sure because by the time the race finished, the scene was pretty chaotic and you couldn’t really tell who lapped whom, and so on. That’s why the race officials only count the first 20 riders. I still have to work on sustaining a high power output for an extended period of time, but it’s improving. This race was much more intense than the collegiate races I’ve participated in, and I clocked in an average of 21mph, which was 4mph more than the first criterium I participated in, so it’s a good sign.

Hey everyone,

This is a race report of the final event of DFW weekend, the Jesuit Ranger Roundup. Unfortunately I woke up late because of some confusion over daylight savings time. Thus, we had to leave the apartment 15 minutes after we woke up, so I woke Joseph up and we hurried over to the race course.

We arrived in time to register and get ready. I decided to try my luck in the C’s race this time, so I asked the conference director to give me an upgrade. This would put me in a faster and longer category for today’s race. As Joseph was helping me pin our numbers up, we saw a pack of riders lining up to start, and he asked me if they were the Collegiate D group. At first we thought it was the juniors, but I recognized the riders in the pack and it was definitely the D group. Joseph had missed the start! So I told him to just grab his bike and hurry over there so as to not fall behind. The first couple of miles of the race were neutralized, so he had no problem coming back.

I had about an hour to spare before my start time, so I used it to study for my Government exam, as well as keep warm since it was around 45 degrees outside due to daylight savings. As I stayed inside my van, Sean and the other team members arrived to get ready. Soon, the officials called my group to go line up. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my extra set of wheels, so if I were to get a flat in the race, it would all be over. However, I wasn’t too concerned because the roads were pretty smooth and I had good tires, so the likelihood of a flat was very small.

In Collegiate cycling the Women’s B group starts together with the Men’s C. The two groups usually ride together in the neutralized zone, but afterward the men usually pull away from the women. It was nice to have them on board for a little while though because they can be fun to talk to. Anyways, the race started and we were off. The two Texas Tech guys who finished 2nd and 3rd at the A&M road race had also catted up and were racing with me. They’re actually pretty good, as they’ve gotten some good results in the C races already.

When the neutralized zone ended, the men broke away from the women and the race was on. After about 5 miles an attack occurred off the front and I decided to follow. When I bridged up to the group, they slowed down and the peloton caught us. The pace of the first lap was pretty fast. I was getting sore as we climbed up the hills but I was still able to hang on. When the second lap started another attack occurred, and I decided to bridge up. But again, they slowed down and we got caught.

Towards the end of the second lap we took a sharp right-hand turn and an acceleration happened in the group. I soon found myself hanging off the back and I got dropped as my splinter group tried to catch the pack. I had no idea what happened in the front for the rest of the race…

I decided to ride at my own pace so as to not blow up for the rest of the race. I contemplated quitting after the second lap, but I saw another rider struggling to keep up with the group ahead of me. I thought that if I tried hard, I could catch him and we could work together so as to not be alone. Thus, I gave it my best and did a personal time trial of about 8 miles in order to catch that guy. I was really digging in deep and when I was coming close, I saw him pass another guy who happened to be one of the remnants of the Masters category (age 35+). At first I thought that man was a collegiate rider so I was delighted at the thought of three of us working together. However, when I looked at his bib number I found out he was not collegiate, and thus we could not work with him since it’s against the rules.

Thus, when I saw the collegiate rider in my sight, I yelled at him to wait up. I’m not sure if he heard me, but I finally bridged up to him and took over the pacemaking. The rider happened to be Oliver Rivera of the University of Houston, and he rode in the C group last year, so it was good to have a more experienced rider with me. He told me that the C group this year was much harder than it was last year. It’s probably the way it is because of the creation of the new D group, which would contain the majority of last year’s C’s. To balance the other groups out, the lower B riders of last year would now be in this year’s C group, making the competition steeper.

Me and Oliver Rivera hanging off the back…

On the final lap we were about to be passed by the A’s. When I saw them coming by us, I was surprised to not see Sean anywhere in the group, so I had no idea where he went…Anyways, the rest of the race was pretty uneventful as Oliver and I took turns pacing. At the end of the race Oliver sprinted ahead and I decided not to contest the finish, though in retrospect I probably should have just to practice.

So, my first race as a C rider was pretty disappointing. There were a lot of things I did wrong, as I did not drink or eat enough during the race. Furthermore, as I said earlier my cornering skills aren’t spectacular. I think if I had stayed with the pack at that sharp hand turn, I could of held on for a few more miles. Anyways, I’ve decided to move back down to D’s in order to gain more experience, and ride in a group of riders with whom I can compete.

When I came back I met up with Joseph and we decided to go home. He told me that while his race wasn’t great, he did make it back to the pack and was able to finish ahead of a few riders. I don’t have too much info about what happened in the B race, but I heard that Ken Day was able to get into a winning breakaway containing a few riders. I think Roy Bracey got the better of Ken in that race since he won. Ken Day got fourth, disappointing for him, but I think he had a very good weekend.

Sean Kearns represented us in the Mens A.