UC Davis Cycling News

Boggs Metal Madness - Cancelled

UC Davis Cycling — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:49:39 GMT

Boggs has been cancelled, more information to come.

Presented by the UC Davis Mountain Bike Team: PDF Flyer.

AC-DC - XC
Saturday 10am (Registration begins at 8:00am and closes at 9:45am)
A course fun for experts and beginners alike. The 95% single track, 13 mile loop gains 2000 ft in elevation over multiple climbs interspersed with ripping rollercoaster sections. The trail surface is pine needles over hard pack with some pretty rocky sections. The course will be the same as last year.
Men's A / Women's A / Expert: 2 laps
Men's B / Sport: 1 lap
Men's C & D / Women's B & C / Beginner : 1 lap

SUPER DIO
Sunday 9:30am (Registration begins at 8:00am and closes at 9:15am)
Le mans start. Downhill single track, double track and fire road sections. Windy and rocky but not too technical. A course appropriate for short-travel suspension or hardtails. Point-to-point, the few mile group ride to the top of the course leaves shortly after registration closes. A shuttle to he top will not be available. Self arranged shuttles out from the finish may be possible depending on road conditions.

SHORT TRACK TO HELL
Sunday 12:00pm (Register at the same time as Super D)
A classic short track course with a little of everything. This half mile course laps around the campground making for easy spectating. A long fire road section for passing precedes a short technical climb followed by a loose descent. Single track completes the loop for a well-rounded course of varying terrain.
Men's A / Men's Expert: 30 min + 2 laps
Men's B / Men's Sport: 20 min + 2 laps
Women's A / Women's Expert: 20 min + 2 laps
Men's C & D/ Men's Beginner: 15 min + 2 laps
Women's B & C / Women's Sport: 15 min + 2 laps

FEES: For collegiate riders: $15 for the Cross Country, $15 for one Sunday event or $20 for both. For NORBA riders: $30 per race.
CAMPING: Free camping is available (and encouraged) at the race venue. Also, bring water as the facilities are primitive.

DIRECTIONS:
From Humboldt: 101 south to 20 east. Turn right on 29 south. Turn right on 175 AFTER the town of Kelseyville (there are two 175's). Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is on the left side of the road a little past Hobergs. If you come to the town of Cobb, you've gone too far.
From Chico: West on 32. South on 5. Turn right on 20 west. Turn left on 53 south, continue straight on 29 south. In Middletown turn right on 175 (it's hard to see). Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is on the right side of the road a little past Cobb. If you come to the town of Hobergs, you've gone too far.
From the Bay Area: Take 80 east. Turn onto 37 west toward Napa. Turn right onto 29 north. Turn left on 175 in Middletown. Boggs is on the right side just past Cobb.
From So-Cal: Take 101 north, 680 north, 780 west. Merge onto 80 east. Take 37 west toward Napa. Turn right on 29. Stay on 29 until the town of Middletown. Turn left on 175 in Middletown. Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is on the right side of the road a little past Cobb. If you come to the town of
Hobergs, you've gone too far.
From Sacramento/ Eastern California: Take 80 west to 5 north. Turn left on 20 west. Turn left on 53 south. Continue straight onto 29 south. In Middletown turn right on 175 (it's hard to see). Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is on the right side of the road a little past Cobb. If you come to the town of Hobergs, you've gone too far.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Helmets required, no exceptions. All NORBA and WCCC rules apply. A NORBA license is required and is available for purchase at registration. Additionally race participants must obey a 15mph speed limit for motor vehicles and must not discharge firearms near the campground as requested by the forest manager.

CONDITIONS FOR RACE CANCELLATION:
Due to conditions of our permit the race may be canceled if there is more than 2 inches of rain in the two weeks leading up to the race. The possibility of cancellation will be determined on the Thursday (11/19) preceding the event.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Race Director:
Cory Guebels - caguebels@ucdavis.edu (530) 219 - 7447
This is a family event and disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated.

Men's C Race Report from San Luis Obispo

UC Davis Cycling — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:52:41 GMT

Saturday's circuit race started out with a pretty huge pack of about 60 riders. We made sure to assert our dominance right from the start as Davis lined up at the front spreading across the entire start/finish line. It was great to see almost the entire team lined up to cheer us on, and especially Phil who kept yelling things like "sandbaggers" and "watch out...Carlson's going to attack first lap." They were also quite intimidated by Tony's monster beard, Granola's Rudy Project facemask, and Juan's, Dave's, and my terribly ugly mustaches.Not much happened for the first few laps as the pack was willing to coast along with CalPoly sitting at the front. Then things got a little interesting as Dave started setting pace at the front, and from then on we had the pack's attention. Juan later bridged up to an early solo break, but the pack wasn't willing to let anything go as CalPoly brought them back. For the next few laps the pack mostly stayed together but we now had Dave and myself near the front doing some work and protecting the rest of our guys for a possible sprint. Second to last lap after the short incline and the nasty gravel covered left turn, I was 5th wheel and noticed that CalPoly had disappeared from the front of the pack. I saw 4 guys from four different teams, and before blinking an eye jumped like crazy through a small opening in the middle of the pack. I got a good amount of separation and was off the front while the rest of the Davis guys sat up a bit. But, again, CalPoly wasn't willing to let anything get away for too long and noone wanted to bridge so I was brought back about 300m from the start/finish. As I was picked up by the pack I got back on and attached myself to Tony's wheel as we moved back up through the pack. The pace picked up and Dave was back at the front setting tempo. With 200m to go we had ourselves a massive field sprint. Dave got boxed in by two UCSC guys who almost took him down on the center line, Tony Granola took a great line on the outside to nab 3rd, Michael "I forgot to sprint" Spady took 5th, and I squeezed back through the middle for 11th.

After having witnessed Jon Teeter blow the men's D field to smithereens we had our work cut out for us on the crit. As all races that day did, the pack took off at the gun. Within a few laps the pack had splintered to well under half its size. By about the 4th lap we had Dave, myself, Juan, Tony, and Spady still working hard near the front. Soon I found myself moving up to 3rd wheel, where I stayed for a few laps as the pace stayed high. Coming hot out of the last corner I heard the bell for the first prime and attacked at the start/finish line hoping to pick up some pts and again split up the field. Both happened, as I picked up third in the prime and the lead pack was now down to 11 guys. What I didn't expect was how I would blow up and lose contact with the main group after 3 more laps. The good news was that Tony and Dave had eaten their wheaties that morning and stayed with the lead pack. In fact, Tony dominated by taking 1st in two primes while Dave picked up a 2nd! In the finish the final pack of ten riders took a sprint to the line where Tony took 4th and Dave took 8th. I rolled in soon after in 11th and Spady in 12th.

Jay

Men's B Race Report from San Luis Obispo

UC Davis Cycling — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:51:27 GMT

Clarity marked the road race on Saturday. We took 8 aggies into that race. Alex, save him, crashed in the first lap. Riley, Ben, Danny, Ian, Anthony, Chris, and myself were left, a strong bunch. We launched attacks, each of us, each being pulled back, but more slowly each time. Eventually Danny and Ben got away with three other guys. We ran some interference, stopped attacking to support our break group.

As they got out of sight, Chris jumped on an attack, I jumped when I saw them off the front and kept anyone from joining me. Chris and I were in a break with two Stanford(?) riders. After sitting in for a moment, with Stanford pulling, I decided to attack. Chris was third wheel and followed me, along with the second wheel Stanford, and we peeled the second Stanford rider away, a successful move. After another half lap, a small chase group including a couple SB and CPSLO guys were hanging in with us. I couldn't see the pack at this point. We were off the front, but I quickly found no one was working. Frustrated, I should have pulled off, dropped back with Chris and planned to attack and separate. We were one lap from the finish and would have been better off as a pair. Instead, I sat up with everyone else, waiting for the pack to catch us. It was a wasted gap.

Danny and Ben stayed away, and we came in as a pack sprint. I heard a Cal rider labeling Riley and me as trouble for our attacks earlier. CPSLO, out in force, got what they'd wanted, a mass sprint with a lot of their guys. They'd been sitting up the entire race, just doing enough work to control breaks. The sprint finish was a mockery of the centerline rule, ten feet wide with a charging field, several guys getting DQ'd. We got 4 guys in the top 15 (5 if not for 1 DQ) and rode like a team. It felt good.

Sunday's criterium was another type of race, tough from the start, with most of the field being pulled eventually. I had a different perspective of it from having crashed early, 5 laps in I slipped through turn one and buried myself into the curb (taking a CPSLO rider with me). I got up with all sorts of adrenaline and started sprinting up the hill as soon as the marshal would let me. I spent most of the rest of the race trying to bridge up to a group ahead with Riley and Alex. Alex made like superman after turn 5, onto the front staightaway, bravely blowing through another kit. I grunted through to finish, but in no good form, my hip having stiffened and swollen lovely. I found my rear wheel spilling in a number of turns, I'm convinced I was riding with too much pressure (120PSI/160lb rider) for the handling I sought.

Most of the turns were technical but manageable. Turn one was wide to narrow with plenty of extra momentum to burn off to make the angle, the site of many crashes including my own. Turn two was near the top of the climb, easy. Turn three was great, directly following the backstretch, you could carry as much momentum you wanted to, leading into a wide stretch before turn four. Turn four was super wide like turn five, each in the down hill section.

Dan

Men's A Race Report from San Luis Obispo

UC Davis Cycling — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:48:37 GMT

2-28-09 Saturday Road Race
The men�s A team woke up early and drove down to Camp San Luis Obispo for a bright and early 8am start. The course was 11 laps of a 5 mile course around the base, with a small riser, lots of corners and some interesting pavement conditions [sectional concrete galore!]. The course was a little bit confusing- even to the officials. After a flurry of Davis led attacking, the lead moto got lost on the first lap and the first two laps of the race were neutralized. After we got back on course the attacking continued, spurred on by a Stanford rider who commented that the race was organized by a �state school.� Not a smart move by a rider surrounded by cyclists from state schools. A few moves tried to get off the front and finally one stuck with Harmen and three other riders. Davis decided that this was a good move and Phil, Nils and Will controlled the pack to let the break establish the gap. Once the break was safely up the road, Phil attacked and took Nick Martinez (UCSB) with him. Will then attacked solo. Harmen ended up 4th in the sprint, Phil beat Nick for 5th, and Will held off the field for 7th. One the last lap a RV blocked the road about 100m from the finish and Nils, wily to the end, scooted around the RV to grab 9th.

3-1-09 Sunday Criterium
After a relaxing morning cheering on their teammates, the men�s A team took to the course under perfect racing conditions. The team�s goal was to be aggressive from the start and keep the rubber side down on the technical course. The course had a small, steep hill and two fast downhill turns. Davis attacked early and often. Phil attacked near the top of the climb on the third lap and drew Nick Martinez, Joe (CPSLO omnium) and Fred Stamm (CPSLO) with him. Phil pushed the pace in the break and nabbed a few early primes. Will then attacked and spent about 40min bridging to the break. Phil used his top rate negotiating skills to control things up the road until Will bridged to the break. After a short truce, Will attacked and forced the other riders to chase while Phil sat on. Phil then attacked with two laps to go, and held a small gap to the line. Will rolled across for 5th out of the break, while Harmen sprinted for 8th and Nils came in for 9th after controlling the field for most of the race. Their incessant attacks whittled the pack down to a handful of the strongest riders in the WCCC. All in all it was a good weekend for UC Davis. Go Aggies!

Will

How to Join the 2008-2009 Cycling Team

UC Davis Cycling — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:51:49 GMT

I hope everyone enjoyed the meeting last night. Now you may be saying to yourself, well that all sounds fun, but how do I join? Below explains the details:

Filling out Sport Clubs paperwork (everyone needs to do this)
If you're going to participate with the cycling team in any way, such as 3:15 rides, you need to have a sport clubs waiver signed, as required by the university's lawyers. Signing the sport clubs waiver involves no financial commitment, so there is no reason not to sign. Signing up this year is way easier than in years past as it is all online. Simply go to the link below, click on "online registration", and fill out your information. After submitting that registration information, click on join a club, choose cycling team, and sign the forms. I'm the only one on the roster as of right now, so everyone still needs to sign up.

http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/sport_clubs/joinaclub.php

When you should pay dues by:
Now, for people interested in signing up for the team, all you have left after the online forms is to pay dues. Please make checks out to "Cal Aggie Cyclists" in the amount of $110 for the club team, or $200 for the race team (and please write in the notes section that it is for dues). At any time you may choose to upgrade to the race team, but you potentially miss out on training plans, or testing that has already passed. It is recommended that dues be paid by Tuesday November 25th for the club team. That is the last day to turn in clothing orders for this year. After that date we cannot guarantee the free jersey in the correct size, or at all. It is recommend that one join the race team before Saturday November 8th, otherwise you will miss out on the conconi fitness testing on that day. You will need to have paid dues before taking advantage of any team benefits such as participating in skills clinics, sponsorship discounts, training consults with the coaches etc.

How to turn in the check
The easiest way to do this is to turn the check in to me (the team treasurer) at the meetings. If you need to turn a check in earlier than that to be able to take advantage of a certain benefit, email me and we can make special arrangements.

Danny
UC Davis Cycling Treasurer

3:15 rides on the 20-mile loop

UC Davis Cycling — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:50:06 GMT

Every weekday during the month of October the Aggies will be leading casual, "no-drop" rides along 20 miles of flat roads south of Davis. A strict 19 mph speed limit will be enforced; as coach Judd Van Sickle said, "If you want to hammer, go someplace else!"

Come out and meet the team, practice riding with a group, and enjoy the perfect October weather. We depart from the bike barn at 3:15. Helmets and brakes are mandatory.

Route map, usually rides clockwise.

Stanford Men's B events

UC Davis Cycling — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

In the Road Race the men's B's started off at a moderate clip in a double pace line. Ten miles out the hills started kicking up and people started attacking.

Anthony, Adam and I all contributed to a couple of them to get the pace going. By the top of the hill (18 miles in) about a third of the pack had been dropped. Adam kept the pace strong down the backside of the hill, but no one was interested in a serious early attack so we let the rest of the pack catch up by the turn around.

A mile after we started heading back a Stanford guy shot up the road. Adam was getting frustrated with the slow pace in the pack and bridged up. A minute later a Berkeley guy also bridged and Anthony followed. With two of the four guys in the break Chris, Nate, and I had the difficult job of covering attacks from a pack that was interested in having a tea party. Up the road, the Stanford guy attacked on the hill and Adam was the only one with enough legs to follow. With regular time checks from the motorcycle ref, the pack was assured the break had enough distance, and that the leaders knew they were going to stay away. The break and chase were able to stay off until the finish as no one in the pack from the big three wanted to work to bring it back. The Stanford guy sprinted to take the win leaving Adam to take 2nd, and later Anthony to take 4th. Back in the pack at 500 meters to go there was still no action to speak of. A hole opened up on the windward side of the echelon and I took the opportunity to lead out Chris and Nate who scored 6th and 7th. Our guys definitely seemed to have more legs than the rest of the pack in the hills so we are excited to get in some races with some bigger hills.

--Danny

In the Men's B crit, Nate, Chris, Adam, Anthony, I all sprinted for the primes, coming in behind Stanford's Brian Percival each and every time (he also won the RR, BTW). Adam initiated two breaks, neither of which stuck. I got off the front for about half a lap with Brian and an SLO guy who wouldn't pull, so I drifted back pretty quickly. Swinehart covered each and every attack for the first 25 minutes and rode his heart out (pardon the pun).

On the penultimate lap a different guy from Stanford (Stefan, I later learned) shot out of the pack on the start/finish, got a huge gap, threw his arms up, and then hung his head as he realized the race had a lap to go. However, he got such a huge gap that he stayed away. I was on the front with a UCB rider behind me. Neither of us chased as hard as we could, assuming the Stanford guy would crack. Of course, he didn't. SLO and another Cal rider came up to help me pull, but by then it was too late and we couldn't coordinate. Stefan won, Brian came around me for second, and I rolled in a pretty frustrated fourth. Nate, Adam, Chris and Anthony all finished top 10.

We have some legitimate sprinting power again this season--now we just have to learn how to maximize it in the last two laps of a race. But I'm very excited by the prospects of Danny and Adam kicking butt on the hills and Nate and I motoring along the flats. Chris and Anthony are both active all-arounders, so we should be able to contest climbs, breaks, and sprints this year.

--E.O'B.

UCLA Race Report

UC Davis Cycling — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This past weekend Nate Anderson, Emily Foxman, Adam Smith and I traveled to Lancaster and Pearblossom to race the UCLA time trial and road race. Here is the report.

Saturday's Individual Time Trial (ITT)
Adam and Nate had lobbied for a 4am start in order to get down to Lancaster in plenty of time for the race. At 4:20 Adam woke me up by knocking on my door. While we were struggling to get the bikes on the car, Nate called to say he had just got up at 4:50. We eventually hit the road at 5:30am.

Six hours later we arrived in spacious Lancaster and registered for 12:45ish start times. This gave us plenty of time to warmup, yet somehow Adam, Nate and I only managed about 15 minutes on the bike. I'm glad at least Emily had it together. The weather was in the 70s with a slight cross-head on the way out and a nice cross-tail on the way back. Perfect for this almost-flat course.

The top 3 in the Men's As where within 1.2 seconds.

   Paul Mach      30:27.5
   Max Jenkins    30:28.6
   Evan Pickett   30:28.7

After I saw the results I was very thankful for that extra 0.05% caused by the chaotic boundary layer on my unshaven legs and face. It was also nice to bring out all the areo gear for the first time.

In the Women's As, Emily, with the new bike (but no other gear) was 3rd only 9 seconds off of 2nd in a 36:24. Adam was 4th in the Bs with 33:34. After groveling for a D to C upgrade Nate dominated by over a minute to win.

So to recap: 1, 1, 3, 4.

While the other Aggies where honing their TTT skills back home, Stanford pulled a Davis '07 by winning every TTT they entered. I'm sure they won the ITT as well because they had some good numbers.

Sunday's Hilly Road Race
After many compliments last week about his ITT, Nate faced a much harder challenge, not the fight against the clock, but against gravity. He applied his trademark off the back strategy locking in 1 point with a 12th place finish.

Adam and Emily riding twice the distance against the same adversary both finished 6th. Though making all the initial breaks, Adam missed the main move and spent much of the race powering on his own.

In the 5 lap Men's A race Max Jenkins (Berkeley) attacked at the gun to have 4 minutes on the field after one lap. A three-man chase group including me and Evan Pickett (Stanford) finally caught him 2.5 laps in. At the top of the hill for the second to last time Max and I dropped the others and held it to the finish. The top 3 were the same as in the ITT.

As for team results, Stanford probably won, followed by Berkeley. Still, the Aggies that showed up gave the conference a taste of what's to come.

Paul Mach

UNR Mountain Bike Race Weekend

UC Davis Cycling — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The mountain bike season opener hosted by the University of Nevada, Reno at the Sky Tavern ski area ended up being a busy, four-event weekend. A light blanket of snow covered the trails on Friday night, making the race course absolutely beautiful for the first event on Saturday, the classic cross country. The men’s squad did well considering Davis sits at a measly 50’ and the race course traversed trails going from 7000’ to 8500’. For the Men’s A category, Danny Stuart finished 5th and Anthony Santamaria 6th. Karl Schwartz and Corey Guebles took 10th and 15th in the Men’s B race, respectively. The Women’s A squad represented Davis very well, with Corina Bigham taking 1st and Lisa Avchincloss taking 2nd for a clean sweep of the podium!

In the second event of the day, the Super D, Brendan Connors took 17th in the Men’s A race, Corina Bigham took 3rd in Women’s A, and Margarete Jadamec took 4th in Women’s A. Not being fully satisfied with the first gravity event, Corina and Margarete also tackled the technical downhill on Sunday; Margarete placed 4th and Corina took 5th. Travis Hill, known among his teammates as “T Chill”, also did the downhill and placed 6th in the Men’s C category.

Despite being utterly exhausted and stinky, the Aggies decided to bring it on for one more event, the gut-busting short track. Peter Dempster and Brendan Connors took 11th and 12th, respectively, in the Men’s A short track, while Corina Bigham took 1st in the Women’s A short track.

Tyler on the Men's Points Race at Track Nationals

UC Davis Cycling — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:00:00 GMT

In the morning, we contested the qualifying heats for the finals to be held in the evening. This was a tricky race because everyone wanted to qualify, but nobody was willing to go hard for long because of the finals in the evening. It made for some very unpredictable racing.

I discovered that I had the wrong gear on (oops), so I couldn't do anything in the sprints because people were flying by me when I was spinning what seemed like 200 rpm. After a few failed sprint attempts I got tired of all the other racers and attacked right after a sprint. Another rider came with me (who also happened to have no sprint power) and we ended up lapping the field without too much trouble (editor's note: winning a sprint earns a racer 5 points, but lapping the field is good for 20). Because it was the qualifying heat, I didn't want to expend any more energy, so I sat on the back of the pack and picked my nose for the last 10 laps or so. I ended up winning the heat because of the points we picked up off the front.

The evening race was going to be difficult. There were several riders who were very strong and rode in the other qualifying heat, so I had yet to race against them. Dan Harm from the University of Washington, was the defending champion and had destroyed me in the 3k a few days earlier, so I was expecting him to roll off the front with me on his wheel. The race was 90 laps total, which I think intimidated a lot of people. I was stoked for the long race because I am a roadie after all. The race was very, very aggressive from the gun, but nobody was willing to organize to lap the field. Groups would get a quarter to half a lap on the field and then just start looking at each other. Eventually Garrett got into a group off the front and I decided that this might be the move. I bridged up on another rider’s wheel and made sure Garrett knew that I was there. The group was working a little bit, but most of the riders were clearly hesitating even though Garrett and I were pulling like mad. After several laps, Garrett looked back and told me that he was only going to take one more pull. Well, it was the pull of all pulls. After he pulled off, I looked back and I was by myself with the other 4 riders about 5 lengths back. From there I put my head down and never looked back. I remained solo off the front for the rest of the race (around 15 laps) and almost lapped the field. Its a tough way to win a race, but it sure felt good afterwards!