Jordan Carelli - 2006

Dinuba Crit
02/20/06
Jr. 17-18
Place: 6th
Field: 9
Teammates: Tyler, Lars, JP, Julian, Ye

This was my last race of the weekend. I must say it was a relief to have that in my mind. Being that we had the majority of the field, the basic idea was to have someone either attacking or off the front every second of the race. I don't remember all of the moves during the race, but I remember Julian (I think) attacked, then when he got caught I countered and got away. I think I was solo for around 4 laps until Lars bridged. I think we stayed away for around 12 ish laps. We worked together very well, but in the end it was just a few laps too far. JP's tire blew on the last lap, so Lars lead it out. I didn't have much left for the sprint, but Ty won it. So good race guys!

Waking up for day 3 of a race weekend is not one of the easier things to do in the world of bike racing. Getting dressed and on the bike is a whole other story. By the time Jason and I were rolling over to the course from our hotel, there were only two things in my mind: 1) "ow" and 2) "COLD!". I didn't get such a great warm-up because riding around was just making me even colder. I resorted to riding back and fourth on a road that had some sun on it.
I have to say that I didn't have a whole lot of impact on the majority of the race. Jason got in a break with a couple CVC guys and someone else. It seemed like a good break because the rational thought would be that the 2 break CVC guys would have their 9 team mates blocking in the pack. Not the case....in fact, the CVC team chased down their own break...weird. Coming into the last few laps I just followed Jason's wheel. We had good position with 2 to go, by coming into the last lap, we had drifted to the back (we were boxed in). Jason pulled me around half way up the pack, and in the 3rd to last turn, I moved up to around the 7th wheel or so. I sprinted decently considering the circumstances and ended up with a 5th. Thanks for the help Jason!

So this race started with a "holy crap it's snowing like 100 feet above us". Yeah, this was a very, very cold race. So it started without a whole lot of excitement. By the time we hit the flat section, the pack was starting to be quite aggressive. With a couple miles to go before the turn into the rollers, we were cruising really, really fast. I dropped back to talk with Jason for a min and get an extra water bottle from him and before I knew it, I had lost 20 feet and I had to chase like the dickens. I was asking my legs for quite a bit more than they were used to ever giving.
In the rollers, a couple guys got away. A guy from some team started to get things organized and we started chasing hard. At this point there were 2-3 riders off the front, and around 10 of us chasing. This is where things started to go wrong. The guy who was organizing things attacked, and around 6 guys went with him. I couldn't go, my legs just didn't want to push that hard. I realized that if I wanted a good placing, I would have to bridge. I gave it everything I had to bridge. Two guys had fallen off the lead group, I passed them and just kept on my way. I had just caught on when we entered the really hill section where I was promptly dropped again. This is where my race went from difficult to a death march. My legs locked up, then released into a state of total exhaustion in about one minute. This may have been from nutrition, or possibly just from too many hard miles. My legs forced me to practically crawl the final 10 miles in the most humiliating manor.
Hopefully I'll be able to return to this race next year with some better legs or maybe just a better diet, because besides my own condition and the freezing cold weather, I think that this is an awesome course.

So this race started with an "ugh...78 miles with 8 other guys?". For the first two laps my legs felt not so hot. A CVC guy was anxious to do a bit of attacking, but he never really got anywhere (thanks Jason). The way this race is laid out it an out-and-back course with a little rolling stuff by the start/finish. Other than that the biggest hill on the course is an overpass. On the "back" part of the second lap, a Simply Fit kid, and two guys who weren't from teams went off the front. One of them got dropped pretty quickly from the break, and we figured we could give the two guys some time to kill themselves, being that they were going with a lap and a half left. We also figured that when the time came, the two CVC guys would be down to chase. We were oh so very wrong. Apparently, one of the guys in the break was a friend of one of the CVC guys, and the CVC guys were only interested in blocking for the break. Jason promptly got to the front and started taking some good pulls. The CVC guys were blocking very efficiently by not giving their places up in the single file pace line. I took up leadership and got everyone coming around the CVC guys for a good while.
By the time we came around for the last "back" section, we had dropped one rider, and we lost Jason at the turnaround. At this point, my legs began feeling pretty darn good. I was taking the longest and hardest pulls in the group trying to bring back the break which had around 3 min on us. It took a lot of vocal work on my part, but I got all the non-CVC guys in what was left of the pack working to bring back the break. By the time we reached around halfway back from the turnaround, I realized that we weren't going to make the catch. I continued to motivate the others to take good pulls, but I took some time out to prepare for the finish.
Coming into the last 2k or so, we were at a crawl. Everyone had realized we that we were racing for 3rd and no one wanted to lead it out. With 1k to go, one of the CVC guys tried to go, but I easily covered his wheel. Coming into 200m to go, I got anxious and made a very bad decision. I jumped HARD (not realizing that I couldn't hold that for 200m on an uphill). I blew up with about 50m to go and two guys came around me. I finished the day with a 5th (which I could have turned into a 3rd if I had some brains, but hey, learn from mistakes!)

Cherry Pie Criterium
02/12/06
Jr. 15-18
Place: 6th ish?
Field: 29
Teammates: (17-18) Tyler, JP, Lars, Julian, Nick, Ye, Andy

I was shocked at the strength of the junior field this year! We were hauling for the majority of the race, yet the pack stayed pretty big without too many people getting dropped. Davis was extremely aggressive today, they were attacking efficiently and relentlessly. None of the attacks really had a chance of making it, but they forced us to be on the defensive and do a lot of covering. I ended up in a situation a couple times with two Davis guys and myself a little off the front with the Davis riders taking turns attacking me. That's not a good situation to be in!
Coming into the final straight, I had a decent wheel, around 6 or 7 back with 3 teammates in front of me. Right before the final corner into the hill, we swallowed up a lapped rider who moved in front of me just as I was trying to come around him. I ended up loosing maybe 4 spots and entering the hill too far back to contend. I ended up with 6th, so I'm not too agitated, but again the finish has proved to be where I loose concentration and mess things up.
Congrats to Tyler, Andy, and Ye with the sweep of the podium! That's how Tieni Duro does it!

Apple Pie Criterium
02/11/06
Jr. 10-18
Place: 7th or 8th?
Field: um, yeah, no idea
Teammates: (17-18) Tyler, Lars, Nick

This was the first race of my 2006 season (not counting an early season MTB 2 weeks prior), also my first race on my new ride! I felt pretty good for the whole race, actively attacking and covering throughout the whole race. Around 20ish minuets into the race I decided to attack and see what I could do. I attacked maybe a little too strong and I came to the realization after about a lap and a half that going solo on a flat course hurts like crazy go nuts! Tyler tried to bridge and yelled for me to SPRINT when he was about to catch me. I got confused and didn't, so he blew by me and I had to chase hard to find his wheel. That attack came to a close shortly after when I think LGBRC turned it up and shut us down. At one point during the race, Tyler, a swift guy and myself got into a break the we should have made work, but it fell apart when the swift kid didn't want to work.
The finish was the one truly weak part of the race for me. I slipped back too far going into the last turn and wasn't near a teammate to lead out/get lead out. I ended up with a top 10 so this race counts as a success for me, I just need to focus on the last couple laps.
Congrats to Tyler with his second place finish!