Aaron's New Machine

Aaron is trying out his newest machine...you won't find this in the wind tunnel...

2008 Sea Otter Circuit Race Report

From Morgan Schmitt:

This is now my second year racing the Sea Otter Circuit race. After this year, I am beginning to wonder if the race is ever held under calm weather conditions. Last year torrential downpours flooded the track and delayed the race. This year 40 mph wind gusts blew race fencing and dust clouds in the paths of the racers.

BISSELL brought a smaller team compared to the full 8 rider squads of Kelly, Rock, Successful Living, and Colivita. In attendance for Team BISSELL were Graham, Burke, Joao and myself. The race was held on Laguna Seca Raceway and consisted of 31 two and a quarter mile laps with a total of 7000 ft of climbing.

The break went surprisingly early containing Grabinger, Jensen, White from Successful Living and Clinger from Rock Racing. Many of the riders did not know there was a break up the road until we started hearing time gaps of two minutes. Halfway through the race a split occurred, containing around 25 riders. I was the only BISSELL rider who made the split. Right away the four Colivita riders in the split started chasing hard but were unable to take time out of the four-man break. After this no one else chased and there was very little action from the split until one lap to go. Coming through the start/finish on the final lap two riders successfully attacked up the right while I was boxed in on the left. At the base of the hill the reining champion Daniel Ramsey from Time Pro Cycling attacked. No one went with him until I bridge a gap to get on his wheel. The two of us had a gap until the top of the climb when the group clawed their way back onto my wheel. The counter attack came on the descent from the Healthnet rider John Murphy. Murphy then managed to bridge up to the two riders racing for 5th. Our last half lap was filled with attacks none of which stayed away. Our group then came down to a sprint that Colivita's Alejandro Borrajo won. I finished 16th, Joao 28th, and Graham 44th,

The team has the form, we just need some better luck. Expect big results at Tour of Gila. Until then…

-Morgan

Brad Lewis Memorial Criterium Report

Photo courtesy of wheelsinfocus.com

From Morgan Schmitt:

Sunday, the 13th, I scored my first local win of the season at the Brad Lewis Memorial Criterium in Seattle. This race is one of the major criteriums in Washington that all the local racers and sprinters want to win. The course is a relatively flat three corner course that is less than 1k in length. It was against all odds for me to win, as flat crits are among my biggest weaknesses.

Shortly before the start, rain began to fall. It is in conditions like these where I rely on my cyclocross background to maintain traction in the corners. The first couple of laps I noticed I was ridding through the wet corners better than any one. I was opening a gap on the field coming out of every corner, and early in the race I went on a solo breakaway that lasted 10 minutes before I rejoined the group. The last 20 laps a break finally went away with me and three other riders. Our break worked well together, keeping our distance from the pack. With 2 laps to go, our group started attacking each other. I made the last attack, which strung out the group and I was able to hit the finish line first!

Winning this race tells me I have pretty good form. I can't wait to see what the racing holds in the next couple of weeks.

-Morgan

Graham Howard Wins the Tokyo Joe's Spring Crit!

From Graham Howard:

This past Sunday Garrett and I attended the Tokyo Joe's Spring Criterium held near Golden Colorado. The course was a simple 1k loop with half the course being slightly uphill and the other half slightly downhill. Garrett and I were active early and about 15 minutes into the 75 minute race were both off in a group of about ten others, including Frank Pipp of Health Net, Henk Vogels of Toyota United as well as riders from Vitamin Cottage, Slipstream and Team Type 1. The break stayed out all day, but was never very clear of the field. Attacks started to go from within the break with about five laps left in the race. Slipstream had numbers and they did the bulk of the chasing. Inside the last lap the break was all back together just dangling in front of the field, and as everyone let up to set up for the sprint, I took off. I came around the last corner knowing it would be close and just held off Vogels and Pipp at the line. Ohhhhhhhhh it feels good to win. I'm off to Seaotter this coming weekend with Joao, Burke and Morgan as the rest of the team heads to Georgia. Hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling.

School Talk

From Teddy King:

Pretty poor picture but it documents that we were in fact there!

Jeremy, Tom, and I talked everything bikes to a few hundred 3rd and 4th graders this morning. Tom was worried that they jump him in the playground so he wisely wore his helmet all day.

Santa Cruz Classic Crit

From Scott Zwizanski:

Raced solo again today. About 75 riders lined up for 50 laps of a hard circuit with a little climb every lap that was made extra hard because of a big headwind. Several breakaways happened throughout the race, but none got further than about 15-20 seconds up the road. I got into a breakaway of 9 riders with about 12 laps to go that finally got a big gap. There was lots of attacking out of this group but nothing getting away until i launched an attack at the 5-lap to go mark. Finally everyone was out of gas and no one wanted to chase, so i was gone. I started catching groups of lapped riders with 2 laps to go. And i held on to win solo. It was cool crit course, super hard. And the course has been used since 1970, so it has some history too.

Also, here is the newspaper article:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/sports/ci_8837205

Jeremy's First American Race Experience

From Jeremy Vennell:

San Dimas was the first race in America with my new American team, Bissell. Having ridden in just about every other country that holds bike races, I thought at least I should be able to adapt to the scene in America without too much trouble. I was told all the inside information on the way American’s race - what to expect, what to do, and what not to do. I started my first race with a fare idea of what was going to happen.

Still, I had some nervous feelings in my stomach. Just how much of what I had been told was true? If it was all accurate, I was actually about to start one of the most dangerous races of my carreer. So I was a little relieved to find out that, for the most part, the race was what I would normally get, anywhere.

It was a highly strung race, especially the Circuit race. The criterium was like watching a hedgehog playing with a balloon. The riders just got faster and faster around the circuit until Bang, down they went!

I guess Americans show their commitment by putting it all on the line.

With many friends I haven’t seen for a long time, the same old friends, and adding new ones every day, I am finding American racing to be the friendlest place to ride.

I am looking forward to more racing and more fun times. Who knows, I might just become a little American (without the accent I hope!)

Martinez Bay Front Classic Criterium

From Scott Zwizanski:

The two teams with a lot of decent riders in this race were Rock and Cal Giant. Cover a ton of moves that got nowhere in the first half of the race. With 30minutes left to race i bridged to a group of 3 riders, one Rock, Cal Giant and a BPG guy. We had a good gap and everyone was working, this was the move. Much to my disappointment, i look back and Rasaan Bahati is bridging and he makes it. So now we have five guys and 2 are Rock and Rasaan will win a sprint. I assume they are all sprinters and i start trying to get away. It doesnt work and then i get worked on the last lap. Jeramiah Wiscovich from rock gets away solo with a half lap to go, cal giant second, bahati 3rd, me 4th. Ugh.

The Bright Side

From Tom Zirbel:

What's the best part about crashing during an early spring local race???

It's usually cold enough that you're wearing lots of clothing (ie. protection) if you eat pavement.

So yeah, my crash-less streak (369 days for those of you counting) came to an end on Sat. during a local business park crit. I clipped a pedal going around a round-about because I was sick of the Pippster gapping me off every corner we went through. Kinda backfired.

Little road rash, little collarbone scare but turned out fine, considering. And I clotted!!! Yay!

Casualties included bib shorts, jersey, left glove, left knee warmer, and right arm warmer - not to mention scrapes on shoes, left pedal (duh), skewers and shifters. Sorry Mr. Olson. Pretty sure I was going to win that race, too. Hadn't decided how I was going to beat Frank Pipp, Pete Lopinto, Henk Vogels, and a few others to the line but I still had 6 miles to figure that out. I'm pretty sure it wasn't going to be by out-sprinting them though. :) I decided to jump back on my steed on Sun. for another business park crit in boulder. It was just your run-of-the-mill local crit with 7 Toyota Uniteds, 2 Health Nets, 2 Slipstreams, 2 Team Type 1's, 2 THF Realty, a Jelly Belly, a slew of super strong amateurs....and don't forget the 2 Bissell riders! (Garrett and I)

A little aside: not only was Toyota fielding an entire team with 2 team directors at this local college crit, they were also radioed up. I guess they really wanted that $200 first place prize. Sounds like someone is bitter... As you could probably guess, I didn't do all that well in this
one either. My main objective was to make it really hard and get a good workout by attacking at every opportunity - which I did to my own peril. After my 3rd attack got reeled in, the break that stuck countered and I wasn't able to follow. A few minutes later my 5 or 6th attack resulted in a gap over the field along with Ben Day.

We were making ground on the lead 5 (which he had 3 teammates in) when he attacked me after a pull into the wind and I had no response. I was little irked at this (mostly at myself for getting dropped) so I let the field catch me and made it my mission to help pull back the break so Garrett could contend for the sprint win. I rotated on the front with 3 other dudes for a few laps until it got to 4 laps to go. I then put in a really hard lap on the front, pulled the break to within 8s or so, and looked back to pull off and had 3 Toyota guys right behind me just smiling. It was clearly on me to bring it back at that point so I went all out for another lap but I made no dent in the advantage and so when I pulled off w/ 1 to go, the field was left to contend for 6th. Grrrr. I was really irritated w/ myself for a) getting dropped by Day during our bridge attempt, and b) not being able to pull back the break. BUT, looking at the bright side - I felt really strong again, I got a really good workout in, I'm not going to race w/ reckless abandon (r.e. like an idiot) in our team races coming up, and Toyota is not going to have a numbers advantage on us at the big races. Oh, and it's a LOCAL MARCH CRIT.

Oregon Race

From Omer Kem:

Hey all. I won a race in Oregon! Here is how it unfolded. Oregon has a spring series of races called the Banana Belt. It is basically 3 races over consecutive weekends that get longer every time. Graham and I made the trip from my home for the 3rd race which is also part of the season long Oregon Cup.

The race with the typical cast of Oregon characters. Pros from Jittery Joes, Rock Racing and Jelly Belly were in attendance and when combined with the locals and some pro mtn bikers, it was a tough field. A break went early and rode about 1 minute off the front for 3 of the 7 laps. A big effort by Graham set me up to bridge with 3 laps to go. After riding for a lap with the original break away, I thought it would be best to whittle things down. I attacked on the main climb of the race on the next 2 laps and dropped everyone except a super tough pro mtb racer. Luckily for me, his sprint was slower than mine.

All in all it was a fun day and great way to introduce the local Oregon scene to the Bissell Pro Cycling Team. Thanks for reading....Omer Kem

Hanford Criterium Race Report

From Ben Jacques-Maynes:

I participated in the hanford crit this last weekend, a local figure eight course that served as a last tune up for the opening NRC races next week.

The start was fast and I immediately made a break with my brother Andy, his teammate and defending champion ken Hanson, and symetrics strongman svein tuft. We rolled hard for about 45 minutes and when the late race attacks opened up we caught the third group with 2 laps to go. With 2 giant strawberry riders we were hard pressed to overcome their combined efforts, and a few heroes from the lapord group also confused things. In the end I battled through lapped traffic and came just short at the line for a second place finish.