Trofeo Karlsberg Stage 1

Pays de Vaud

Right now I'm over in Germany after spending the last week in Switzerland. From last Thursday through Sunday the Junior National Team competed in the UCI 2.1 Pays de Vaud. This is one of the most challenging junior races on the calendar with the tough competition and the extremely challenging profiles up in the Swiss mountains. The race kicked off with a 2.5 kilometer prologue. I ended up taking the win over a Swiss rider and then Lasse Hansen of Denmark (bronze medalist at the world time trial championships last year). Stage one was 98 kilometers and wet and rainy throughout the stage. The team rode great together and we were able to bring back a two and a half minute gap to the break. Going into the sprint I was in great positioning, but my front wheel was taken out by the eventual winner. I nearly went down but somehow kept it up although I completely ruined my front wheel. Stage 2a was a tough stage with two extremely hard climbs in it. The plan for the team was have the break within a minute at the base of the climb with about 25 kilometers to go. We executed the plan to near perfection with Kristo Jorgenson, Ryan Eastman, Anders Newbury, Benny Swedberg, and Nate Geoffrion, pulling the break from a minute and a half to 50 seconds by the base of the climb. After the climb started only Anders and Ryan were left. They pulled hard for as long as they could and when they pulled off the break still had a minute on the pack. I then got to the front and started pulling. When I looked back a few minutes later I saw that only one rider was able to stay with me. I kept the tempo up and barely bridged to the break at the top of the climb. After a long descent and another 500 meter climb to the finish I ended up sprinting to third place and extended my lead in the GC. That afternoon was a 12 kilometer out and back time trial. I won the TT by 10 seconds over Hansen and grew my lead to 16 seconds over Hansen and 52 seconds to third. The third and final stage was definitely the hardest of them all. Including the dismal weather, cold and raining, it was set for an epic day. After an extremely hard climb about 40 kilometers into the 120 kilometers I was isolated from my teammates and was bridging up to the lead group of 10 that including second place on GC. Over the next 70 kilometers I made sure that none of the riders got a gap off the front of the group and kept an eye on all the riders that were still up there on GC. With about 15 km to go Hansen attacked. I quickly covered him along with the rider that was 3rd on GC and a few others. I was subjected to many more attacks over the next few kilometers and it wasn’t until about 5 km to go that I finally cracked. I ended up losing almost a minute on the stage and dropped down to third overall.

Overall, this race was a great success. The team proved that they were one of the strongest in the world and earned a great deal of respect from countries all over. We also ended up with two stage wins and a third place overall. This definitely boosts our confidence going into the UCI Nations Cup Trofeo Karlsberg here in Germany starting tomorrow and ending on Sunday.

Houston Grand Crit

Photos courtesy of Peggy Keedy

Once again Bike Barn put on another Houston Grand Crit. Located in Downtown Houston, this race always offers a great atmosphere for riders and spectators along with some tough racing in the good ol' Houston heat. After spending the majority of the past month in Europe I was in no way ready to be out racing in 90+ degree weather, but as these conditions will be similar to those in Italy during the World Championships in August I sucked it up and sweated it right back out. The course is basically a huge drag race with about a half mile out on Allen Parkway before turning around and heading right back. This made for an extremely fast race with the pace going over 30 mph frequently. I mainly just sat in for the first 40 minutes or so, and only went with a few attacks. When Mark Purnell gave the pack six back-to-back primes the racing really started to heat up. With about three laps to go and after prime number five I got to the front and drilled it. When I looked back I was in a selective group of about eight including a past winner of the Houston Grand Crit, Kevin Kremke (Bike Barn), along with about all of the major teams in the race. Over the next lap Kremke and I were the main contributors to the pace and were able to create a decent gap over the field. With a few more people helping with the work load over the next lap and a half I was sure that the break would stick and started to position myself for the sprint. Knowing that Kremke would be the man to beat I fought my way onto his wheel and sat there as many last minute attempts to break away were foiled. With about 200 meters to go Kremke jumped and started the sprint. I attached myself to his wheel and with about 150 meters to go I started my own sprint. I was able to come around him and hold off a charging Brian Fawley (Parks Place Dealership) for the win!

Europe...again!

I'm back in Europe, but this time with my team out of Massachuttes, Hot Tubes. We got to Belgium last wednesday, and left the next day for a 3 stage Friday-Saturday Stage Race in Holland. Friday included a 5.6 km time trial early aftrnoon and then a 60 km crit (yea...a crit in Europe. Crazy, right?) later in the night. I ended up winning the TT by about a second and a half and another 7 seconds ahead of 3rd. Despite some great team work in the crit I lost the yellow jersey due to some time bonuses offered in the intermediate sprints. The next day was a little under a 100 km circuit race. I was in second overall and four seconds down. I was feeling good during the beginning of the rainy race, but crashed only 5 km in. By the time I had gotten back up and worked out the kinks in my sore body and bike (my handlebars were crooked and the shifter lever was turned all the way in) the pack was long gone, and without a caravan to help me get my way back up to the pack it would be near to impossible to catch back up. I ended up finishing the race early and watched the remainder from the sidelines. What sucks the most though is that my ENTIRE team dropped back once they saw that I went down, including Yannick Eckmann who was in 6th overall and in the white young riders jersey and Stuart Wight who was in 10th overall. When I got back up and realized that my bike was too messed up to ride on, and told them to go on without me it was too late for them to get back up to the lead group due to the fact the peleton had split in the strong crosswinds. They ended up chasing for the rest of the race, but never made it up. Yesterday we had sweet revenge on the European peleton in a kermesse in Vinkt. I ended up taking the win with Stuart getting 5th and Anders taking 11th. The team rode great the entire time and at one time had four guys in the eight man winning break. From that break I attacked with about 60 km to go and went solo for the next 45 km. I was caught by two others with about 15 km to go but one of them got dropped right away. The last 5 km was a game of cat and mouse, and I ended up leading the sprint out from about 200-250 meters to go and was able to hold on for my second win of the trip to put up a victory salute and an amazing victory cry! We go to France on Thursday for our last race in Europe, Morbihan. It's on Saturday and Sunday with a road race on Saturday and a TT and another road race on Sunday.

Paris-Roubaix Juniors

What an experience! Just to be competing in Paris-Roubaix is a dream to most people and until last Sunday it had always been one for me. Now it's a reality. I was able to not only race in Paris-Roubaix, but I was also one of the front runners. After about 90 kilometers out of the 125 I was one of the only ones that was able to stay with the World Champion, Jasper Stuyven, of Belgium along with Daniel Mclay of Great Britain. We were later joined by a Russian rider. We stayed away until the end of the race and fought it out for the win on the famous Roubaix velodrome. I was able to take third place in the sprint with Stuyven winning by about half a bike. It was incredibly close between me and Mclay, but he nipped me with a bike throw. For the podium we stood on the same podium that the pros stand on, and with the pro race being the same day there were tons of fans all around the stadium. It was definitely a moment I'll never ever ever forget! The team did an absolutely amazing job, and I honestly would not have been able to do what I did without them. About one kilometer from the first section of cobbles (one of the most crucial points in the race) I flatted, but one of my selfless teammates, David Kessler, stopped and gave me his wheel. I was then able to make it back up to the peleton with the help of Peter Taylor and Matt Libscomb who basically motorpaced me up to the pack. For the rest of the race Juan Carmona was an excellent teammate by helping me move throughout the pack and giving up his water for me and my other teammate, Ryan Eastman. It really was a team effort and a team podium place. Also, without the encouragement and advice from our team director, Ben Sharp, we couldn't have done it.

Photos of the race:
http://www.velofotopro.com/coureur;6873;1;CRADDOCK-Lawson.html#

Video of the finish on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=412383343178&ref=mf

Video of the finish and podium on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZW9T7KMdr0

Limburg and Roubaix

The last two stages in Limburg went pretty well, or a lot better than the second stage at least! Stage three was definitely a race I would call epic with hail starting to come down from the skys about 40 km into the race. Being a true blood Texan and everything my first instinct was to attack. I rocketed off the front of the pack on the next KOM and brought 6 others with me including my teammate, Ryan Eastman. We worked well together and quickly built up a lead of about a minute. On the finishing circuits with about 12 km to go I blew HARD on the long, steep climb and ended up getting caught by the pack and then spit off the back of that. I ended up finished 8 minutes back...haha. The final stage was probably one of the best. I got into a 10 man break about 10 km into the 125 stage. A group of about 5 that had Eastman in it bridged up to us about 15-20 km later and we had about a minute. We all worked somewhat well together and stayed away until about 20 km to go. I looked back and saw the pack about 5 seconds back on the climb. I then attacked off the front of the break and three others came with me. Next thing we knew it was about 8 km left in the race and we had 45 seconds. Two others bridged up to us which made it 6 of us. We ended up staying away until the finish. I tried to suprise the break going around a turn with 250 meters to go and got a small gap, but I blew up with 50 meters to go and ended up finishing 5th on the stage. Still not bad at all. Tomorrow is the junior Paris-Roubaix and the for the first time in three years the Junior National Team will be lining up on the start line.

Belgium!

So, I definitely should have updated my blog a looong time ago, but I kept putting it off. I'm currently in the Limburg region of Belgium for the Ster van Zuid Limburg Stage Race. We have a few hours before we depart for the next stage, so I thought what better time than now to update my blog. The race started off pretty well when I won the 5 km prologue by 6 seconds over Danny van Poppel and 8 seconds over Mike de Bie (both riders have amazing racing blood). The team (Ryan Eastman from Cali, Juan Carmona from Conneticut, Peter Taylor from Cali, David Kessler from Colorado, Matt Libscomb from Georgia, and me) did really well with Eastman placing 7th and Kessler getting a solid 11th place. Stage 2 didnt really go too well and we ended up losing the yellow jersey due to a break going away on the finishing circuits, and we didn't have the horsepower to bring them back. Stage 3 starts in a couple hours and it looks like its gonna be another epic day. It's about 9 degrees celcius and raining, woohoo!! I'll keep ya'll updated on how it goes.