Mr. Storm Is Back...

Ryan Storm (pictured above at Can-Am 2006) is back from a winter of ski racing in the Colorado Rockies and set to attack the tarmac. Storm gathered some excellent results for CRCA JrDev in 2006, and we are all eager to see what he can put out for 2007.

CRCA Jr. Dev at Battenkill-Roubaix 2007

Khary Ward and Liam Quigley line up for one of those "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" races.

The 2007 episode of Battenkill-Roubaix was contested by a 25-strong junior field. Several prominent east coast kids were present: Bethel series leader Bob German of CCNS and Ryan Barlow of ACT, as well as CRCA JrDev's grizzled veteran Lewis Almonte, and Ian "Embedded Journalist" Harris . Rounding off the team were road racing newbies Khary Ward, Liam Quigley and Evan Cooper. CRCAJrDev's 2006 Battenkill victor Pascual Caputi has been on the bench all season with knee problems and the remainder of the category three squad -Connor Sallee and Graham Lang- was absent for SAT prep .
The action was schizophrenic in a way unique to junior racing; the field would be blown apart on the climbs as the stronger more experienced riders pushed the pace, and then come to crawl on the flats, allowing for a general regrouping. Indeed the junior field, embarrassingly, had the slowest overall time of any field on the course, including the Category Five Masters 45+, and the Category Four Women. Evan Cooper reported "we were going, like, 15 miles an hour at some points".
"I got dropped five times and got back on five times," said a satisfied Ian Harris when it was all over.
The yo-yo effect was too much for Liam and Khary who had never experienced a course like Battenkill, either in training or racing (see their reports below). Liam and Khary wrote their own solo epics, finishing many minutes down.
At the head of the race a twelve-rider group stayed together until the final climb where Ian Harris was the last to get popped. Harris finished tenth, 44 seconds behind eventual winner Bob German.
On the final downhill run-in to the town of Salem Almonte put in a last minute attack, splitting the remaining group of nine; but the move was too little too late. Evan Cooper covered the pursuit as the two Colavita riders in the split chased Almonte down, resulting in all nine riders coming to the line together. Almonte couldn't recover in time to launch a proper sprint and finished fifth, with Cooper just behind him.
Director Sportif Craig Cook was pleased with their performance until he saw their final overall speed. "These are guys who could be top ten in the Category Three field which rode the circuit 28 minutes faster!" Cook said. "I think there was a lot of negative racing in between the climbs. We had three riders in the lead group, we should not have let that happen. In general I expect more proactive racing from the guys."
Still, with 5th, 6th and 10th places at the end of the day and all five riders finishing, it was not a bad showing for one of the hardest circuits in the New York area.

Lewis and Evan respond to pressure from CBRC's Mackenzie Wilsey as the field passes through Cambridge.

"For me this was not so much a race as it was a test of just how long it takes you to finish a 55 mile course after 4 hours of sleep and 2 weeks off the bike. A few sections of the road early on were full of holes - these areas were easy to identify from afar by the water bottles strewn across the course. I stopped seeing other riders . The only way I knew I was in a race was from the tossed water bottles and gel packs on the road every few hundred feet."- Liam Quigley

"CRCA Junior Development Team Director and Coach Craig Cook told me before the race that “ the first ten miles or so will be warm up miles, they have to be idiots to be riding hard” After like 3 miles riders were already pushing the pace on the first real climbs and I wasn't physiologically prepared for these efforts. I thought to myself what did I get myself into. At mile 7 I felt as though I completed a Cat.5 prospect Park race. After the first couple long steep climbs I was really feeling it , was tired and thought ohh I've been riding for a long time this race must be over soon. I look at my odometer and it says 24 miles, not even half way, I wanted to cry and call my Mommy to come pick me up!

The last 20 miles or so I worked with a Coltavita Sutter Home junior named Chris and we diligently worked hard together trying to finish this race. Looking up the road seeing what’s coming next we were literally swearing at some of the climbs. Its better to suffer with someone else(laugh). This was by far the most pain and suffering I've ever experienced in 4 hours. After the race my teammate on Team Organic Athlete, based on his Computer, said that we've completed a little over 4,700 feet of climbing. That’s a colossal figure for me given that I've never did even a quarter of that figure before, even during my most intense training. Although at times I felt that I was going to pass out on some climbs or roll over and die I am glad I did this race. As a matter of fact when I was gasping for breath on the 1 miles climb going like 2-4 mph I saw a couple of riders walking their bikes up the hill. I've only seen that on TV on Paris-Roubaix. All in all "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger“. I did this race for the experience, now I know what real competition is. I don't know how to thank Craig Cook enough for this type of exposure." - Khary Ward


Liam Ian...and Mud.

Delivering Far and Wide...

The CRCA JrDev squad divided and conquered this weekend, with representatives at events spanning the region and everyone bringing back results...below is the tally:


CRCA JrDev graduate and team Sakonnet superclimber Amaury Arias (right) congratulates "Booya" Lewis Almonte - Prospect Part 4-1-07.
Photo © Marco Quesada / nyvelocity.com


Graham Lang aims for the overall series victory at Bethel next week.
© Andy Shen/ nyvelocity.com

GRAHAM LANG: 1st at BETHEL, CT - Lang took top Junior honors at Bethel Connecticut this Sunday in the combined Junior-Masters event, with a fine assist from teammate Connor Sallee who captured a mid-race prime. Here's how Sallee described the action:
"I got on the back of a three-man chain of Bethel riders doing a leadout, but I went wide and got the prime by a bike's length. After the race, I reminded the main official of my prime. The usually cold and silent official made off with a jovial comment, "Yes, you sure did win. Pretty impressive for a junior to beat all these guys with the huge gears!" That was pretty nice....anyway, I found myself back in the pack when the second bell rang, and a lot of people were off the front at that time so we didn't go for the second one. Eventually, in the last five laps of the race, I was glued to the wheel of another junior also in contention. Graham and his main competition of the day (Bob German) made their way up to my wheel, unintentionally together. Graham and Bob fought hard to get my wheel but with half a lap to go Graham eventually got on and we went like two demons up the right side on the gutter, and Graham got the win. It worked out great."
Graham Lang is now in second place in the overall points for the series.




This is the face of suffering? Khary Ward warms-up before the Kirkwood Road Race.

KHARY WARD: 4th at KIRKWOOD, PA - Ward made a heroic effort on a circuit not at all suited to his talents, and he got results: third in the 17-18 year-old age group, fourth in the combined 14-18 scratch. Here's the race in his words:
"The course was like nothing I ever experienced in NYC or 9W. It was really not in my favor. I am a big dude around 200Lbs and its really hard for me to keep up with a 120-135lb juniors on 6 tough climbs. I never suffered on a bicycle like this before. Besides the 6 or so River Road like climbs on this route there was a sweet 40mph+ descent and a sharp uphill right turn immediately after it, nirvana. There were some attacks but they all failed. All in all the experience was good. I got into my first breakaway for more than a minute and I actually pulled the entire field on the flats for like 2 miles until the barrage of steep hills came one after another and I was barely able to get on the back . I shouldn't have pulled, trying to push the pace for no reason, waste of energy. I should have recovered instead (lesson learned).
I got mad complements on the kit though, looks even better now that I got white bar tape!
Sorry I couldn't bring one home for the team but when the course description said rolling I thought "ahh pshh!", Central Park is rolling! But CP is pan-cake flat compared to this."
 




Evan Cooper (right), showing excellent sprinting form.
© Andy Shen/ nyvelocity.com

EVAN COOPER: 3rd at CRCA "C" RACE, CENTRAL PARK, NYC - Evan Cooper finally shed his goalie's mask and padding now that the high school hockey season is over, and he's come out to Central Park to play. Look for Evan to move up rapidly now that he's actually riding his bike. Evan was 3rd in the four lap- 24 mile "C" race on Saturday, March 31st, missing the win by a little more than a bike length.




Lewis Almonte on the prowl (2nd from left) Photo © Marco Quesada / nyvelocity.com

LEWIS ALMONTE: 3rd at the SPRING SERIES 3/4 RACE, PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN, Sunday April 1, and 7th at CRCA "A" RACE, CENTRAL PARK, NYC - Almonte is honing his field sprint and seniors best watch out..."Booya Lew" navigated a hair-raising finale in Central Park on Saturday as ace sprinter Anthony Lowe had an accidental 100 meter clip-out in the CRCA "A" race, throwing the field sprint into momentary disarray. Almonte came up the inside for seventh place. He repeated this show of velocity in Brooklyn the next day, taking third in a hotly contested lunge to the line at Prospect Park. Do I see an eventual run of one-two trade-offs between Almonte and his older brother Euri Madera (Empire Hotels-CRCA) this season? Madera garnered two 3rd places himself this weekend, in the CRCA "A" race and Prospect Park 1-2-3 event.

IAN HARRIS: Took the weekend off to celebrate his admission into every single college and university he applied to... most likely destination: Brown.