Final Stage of Redlands Classic

Jeff Louder enjoyed the help of a very strong BMC team to hold on for the overall victory. Louder is penned to make the start at Paris-Roubaix, so its good to see the American in excellent form. Hopefully he can keep it up.

Jacques and I found that the Mall in Redlands is stuck in the 80s which made for amazing memories, so I included those pictures in the slide show for the final stage.

Redland Bicycle Classic Stage 3 Criterium Pictures

Redland Bicycle Classic Stage 1 TT Pictures

Tweet of the day...

From Rory Sutherland

@bengay78 your gay....about 8 hours ago from web

After Ben Day clobbered the field of 196 riders in the uphill Redlands Time Trial. Pictures to come in next post. (I should point out that Ben Day's Twitter is actually benday78)

Red Trolley Criterium wrap up

The crit race in San Diego which came a day after the cold and wet Boulevard Road Race was also expected to be quite wet, but luckily remained dry. Making for a fast and safe race (well as safe as any race can be). This crit boasted a power packed field. According to Rahsaan Bahati, Rock started four guys (including two US criterium champions)

Justin, Iggy, Danny and I started the 80min crit out numbered, out powered but not out smarted.

The field was composed of Jelly-Belly (10guys) Virgin Blue (10guys) Team Type One (10guys) and a bunch of trigger happy local guys putting the smack down.

Bahati gives a great first hand account of how he saw the race unfold during the last laps.

3 to go jelly belly is on the front setting up x-uspro crit champ Brad Huff and with Type 1 and V-blue around it was very important for us to set up right behind the first lead-out which we did and with 1 to go I hit hard with Justin on my wheel and passed the jelly belly guys going as hard as I could taking Justin into the last corner waaaaaaaaay to hot...that [put] him in 3rd position with about 150 to go. As I pulled off I watched Justin go from a all out sprint to sitting down (I got really nervous) but soon after he stood back up to sprint again. I later learned he had to sit down to switch to a bigger gear.

Justin passes Huff and Cantwell to takes win #2 of the year and I have to say he beat some fast guys.

Its interesting to note that he (the US Pro Criterium Champion) is working lead out for the Junior US Criterium Champion. These guys must be pretty close, which can't be good for other teams if they are both willing to race unselfishly.

The Swami's Developmental Elite team made a good showing of their first run as a team with the big boys by placing a rider in the top 20. The Swami's have a different perspective of how the race finished.

Alex and Daggs rode attentively in the closing laps staying near the front and actively covering each and every attack. A dangerous move with Brad Huff and Justin Williams as well as two Fly V Australia riders slipped off the front going into 3 to go, and the selection seemed to have been made. In a last ditch effort to keep Swami's in the race I bridged across bringing the field with me and keeping Alex and myself in the mix. I made a mistake as we started the bell lap, finding myself on the outside and getting swarmed up the inside. By the time I was able to slot back into the forward moving group Alex and I were twenty riders back and, at those speeds, were unable to move up anymore.

One thing I know from racing against guys in the lower ranks of this team, is that they know race tactics and use numbers to their advantage. I will be looking for this new elite amateur squad to steal some victories from the pros before the year is done. Be sure to click the links and read the full posts. Bahati has been nice enough to include a video of Justin crossing the finish line, which can be found here.

The final podium went as so:
1 Justin Williams Rock Racing
2 Brad Huff Jelly Belly Cycling Team
3 Jonathan Cantwell Jittery Joes Pro Cycling Team

Akward blog response from Fly V Australia to Ouch's account of the Boulevard Road Race

Evans earns first podium for OUCH Presented by Maxxis at Boulevard Road Race

His group also contained three riders from the V Australia/Successful Living squad, including eventual race winner Ben Day. When they caught the front duo, which included another V Australia rider, it put the numbers in their favor.

“The guys from Fly V were very aggressive on the last lap,” Evans said. “With four of them up there, I knew they would attack, and I figured one of them had a good chance of winning the race.

“First, I wanted to make sure I was at least on the podium,” he continued. “After all the attacking, it was down to me, Ben and David (Kemp; V Australia). With about 1 km to go, Ben rolled off the front and got a gap. At that point, I didn’t want to chase and drag his teammate up there, so I made sure I could at least secure second place in the sprint.”

This sounds exactly like what tattoo face did at Sea Otter last year, and is a basic cycling tactic. If a team has numbers they can attack fr the win, if the team without numbers decides to try to pull the break back, he ends up pulling the guy who attacked's teammate(s) with him. Now he is outnumbered in a sprint and might get 3rd or worse. Ironically Successful Living was the victorious team that day as well.

Team OUCH spin on Fly V Australia's Win at Boulevard

So was this just tactics or does Cameron Evans from Team OUCH know he is out classed by Ben Day....

Why was this post even necessary? Ouch did not make their report look like Ouch could have won that day but decided not to or anything like that. Evans admitted Ben was strong. To say someone was outclassed by another rider who had a teammate with them is just bush league. If Ben Day had pulled away from Evans when the two were alonein a break and Evans couldn't match him, then you say he was outclassed.

2009 Boulevard road race

Floyd started his first race of the year, which turned out to be quite eventful for a race in San Diego. Snow marred the start of the race, and was only followed by cold and wet conditions for most of the rest of the day.

(from VeloNews)

Ben Day ended up taking the race at the end of the day, a race which only had 32 riders finish.


Out of the four Team Type 1 riders who started the race, only one finished. TT1's lonely survivor leaned on his experience gained during the US Open of cycling a few years ago:

Hanson, who competed in that epic edition of the U.S. Cycling Open two years ago, said he took a few lessons away from that race. Most notably, to be prepared for even the worst of conditions. (Link)

Ken Hanson finished 13th for Team Type 1.

Ouch p/b Maxxis had a good showing with a second for Cam Evans. Also, Floyd Landis and Rory Sutherland managed to finish the race, both showing good form with 16th and 17th place respectively.

Team Jelly Belly rider Matt Crane suffered a very short day.

Sitting on the start line in 40 degree sleet, I still couldn’t help relishing an opportunity to test out the legs and get back to the world of clicking gears and whirring wheels that I love so much. However, the aforementioned weather conditions made for treacherous pavement, and I lost control of my front end when I tried to flick the bike over a crack in the road...


(from Matt Crane)

Team Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living was extremely excited with their result after only having 4 of their riders stateside for a few days.

After all was said an done the podium looked like this: Ben day (Team Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living)in first, Cameron Evans (Ouch p/b Maxxis) in second, and David Kemp, Charles Dionne, and Bernard Sulzberger (all Team Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living) took 3rd through 5th

(from Velo News)