"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Who is your top dog?

Who is the top dog where you race?

Around here, the main guy seems to be Michael Barton.

He was 2004 Division II National Collegiate Champion while riding for Dartmouth.

This guy is a monster. He toys with the 'A' racers around here it seems.

He races for Boston Scientific.

Man, watching this guy is an experience.

And he passed me last night in my first TT. I was dying, and I don't think he was even sweating.:(:D

We've got an elite team here, Abercrombie and Fitch, that do some damage. Also, pro Kirk Albers from Jelly Belly races on the local scene. There is also the junior national RR champion in our fields every weekend.

It's hard to say in SoCal. Some races have full squads from Successfulliving.com and Rock & Republic. Throw in regular visits from Jittery Joe's and Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada riders and even Tony Cruz on occassion and the races are pretty hard. Oh yeah, Karl Bordine, the elite time trial and masters 30+ criterium champion, is local. But there are two guys in their mid 40s that are always in the hunt and are ranked 2nd and 3rd in the yearlong points standings, Thurlow Rogers and Chris Walker.

there is some guy from team dayton that sandbags in the 4's. he has q-rings, and i think his name is slome or sloney or something like that. that guy is a crit animal. easily cat 1 material. ;)

we actually seem to have several really competitive guys in every level. there are no odds on favorites to win any race. kinda nice.

Pro/1/2: Andy Crater is always in the mix. Formerly Bryce Mead, Reid Mumford, John Puffer and Frankie Dierking. All four raced for ABD, the #1 ranked amateur squad in the nation last year. Bryce and Reid went pro this year.

Masters:
Team Delta Faucet/Indy Velo
Dave Stone: 2007 IL Masters 1/2/3 State Crit and RR Champion
Mark "Druber" Schwartzendruber: 2nd at Master's National TT
Kelly something: 2006 Masters National Points Race Champion
Chris S.: Bad Ass.

If they all show up, you're f***ed. Really. The cool thing is, I run into and ride with Dave all the time, and Druber on occasion. Nice guys.

there is some guy from team dayton that sandbags in the 4's. he has q-rings, and i think his name is slome or sloney or something like that. that guy is a crit animal. easily cat 1 material. ;)


Must be my brother then. :D

I'll be the one to say it...

it's me of course!

haha!

We've got an elite team here, Abercrombie and Fitch, that do some damage. Also, pro Kirk Albers from Jelly Belly races on the local scene. There is also the junior national RR champion in our fields every weekend.

Well Kirk's on Roadhouse this year... and I'd also say that Paul Martin (also on Roadhouse) can tear it up as well.

We've got an elite team here, Abercrombie and Fitch, that do some damage.

Yes they do a ton of damage, to your retinas! Those are some of the most God awful ugly cycling kits I've ever seen. Good team I hear though.

More like packs of wolves around here, at least in the Master's stuff. Lots of rainbows and stars and bars on the sleeves. And GWHBNAH.

More like packs of wolves around here, at least in the Master's stuff. Lots of rainbows and stars and bars on the sleeves. And GWHBNAH.Yeah, in the really old farts (60+) category in Norcal you've got the dude who won four (4) Masters Championships last year: Road, ITT, Crit, and Cyclocross

Well Kirk's on Roadhouse this year... and I'd also say that Paul Martin (also on Roadhouse) can tear it up as well.

Paul Martin is a beast. I saw him win the 35+ road race at nationals (they finished behind us) in Pennsylvania. Three days later he won a stage at Superweek in the Pro/1-2s, solo. Two days after that he won the elite road race at nationals for the second time. His first elite national road race title was in 1997.

Levi's usually the top of dog in NorCal when he rides early in the season in a black jersey. :)

Pro/1/2: Andy Crater is always in the mix. Formerly Bryce Mead, Reid Mumford, John Puffer and Frankie Dierking. All four raced for ABD, the #1 ranked amateur squad in the nation last year. Bryce and Reid went pro this year..

Yeah, Bryce runs around here now when he's not out running around the world with Jelly Belly. I regularly trounce him in the local TT... well, if he'd spot me a good 5 or 6 minutes, I'd trounce him anyway.

Levi's usually the top of dog in NorCal when he rides early in the season in a black jersey. :)

and Bobby J on this side of the hill. Its humbling to watch them ride off even on their "slow" days

The cool thing is, I run into and ride with Dave all the time, and Druber on occasion. Nice guys.

A little off topic - I don't know Druber, but I have loved his race reports and other musings on truesport.com. He is a very entertaining guy.

Doug Ollerenshaw (HealthNet), Chad Hartley (BMC), Aaron Olsen (T-Mobile - although he races in the area only very rarely), Aaron Tuckerman (Rubicon). I am sure I am forgetting a bunch of other really fast riders.

It occured to me when I read the topic that whenever we get a 'top dog' in my races (Cat 3), they always move up.

A little off topic - I don't know Druber, but I have loved his race reports and other musings on truesport.com. He is a very entertaining guy.

Yep, he's a cool dude. It's hilarious to watch the Master's races and place names with faces and try to remember who all of the people are from his race reports. The crazy thing is that they really DO play out how he describes them, most of the time. He'll hammer at the front for a while, a teammate will attack, a break will form, and then a certain opposing team will berrate him for not chasing...his own teammate. It's good stuff. Dave is also a really cool guy. Great sense of humor; master of the deadpan.

Doug Ollerenshaw (HealthNet), Chad Hartley (BMC), Aaron Olsen (T-Mobile - although he races in the area only very rarely), Aaron Tuckerman (Rubicon). I am sure I am forgetting a bunch of other really fast riders.

It occured to me when I read the topic that whenever we get a 'top dog' in my races (Cat 3), they always move up.

I didn't mention Aaron Olsen. He and his wife (girlfriend?) spend late winter in San Diego so he has been at the first couple of races in SoCal the past couple of years.

and Bobby J on this side of the hill. Its humbling to watch them ride off even on their "slow" days

Oh yeah. And that guy.

It's pretty cool to race with some "top dogs", interesting to read the names that alot of BF members line up with, pretty exciting to compete against "name brand" racers.

In MABRA land, there arent the pros that Cal/Az/Colo boast, but the amateur scene is loaded - particularly at the masters level. We have the 3 time defending M30+ TT champ, who is also the runner up in the elite TT the past 2 years (Josh Frick), his team is a regular in the 123 and 30+ races. One of his team mates (Ken Young) was the subject of an article posted here about the guy that was a Cat 5 last year and won a crit with a pro field last month. Then there's Russ Langley, another TT monster who was wearing the leaders jersey at the Tour of Virginia earlier this year, and his team mate Evan Fader, a Cat 1 who was a 3 last year, and got into a break with a Navigator rider to finish 2nd up at the Iron Hill Twilight Crit last month.

There's also local M40+ celebrities Ramon Benitez and Super Dave Osbourne, both have won like 300 races in their careers at the local and national level, and cant forget Juniors Ben King and Nick Bax on the hot tubes development team, Pete Cannel, the current Masters 30+ RR champ, or current Navigator rider Matt Cooke ...

We have a few around here.
Perry: Races or used to race Masters with the Smith Barney/CitiGroup team. He's famous for ripping legs to shreds.
Derek: Former trackie with good flatland fitness. If you're near him in a sprint, well, you lose.
Some random guy on a Kane: Skinny guy, I've never seen a toothpick with as much top end.

Pro/1/2: Andy Crater is always in the mix. Formerly Bryce Mead, Reid Mumford, John Puffer and Frankie Dierking. All four raced for ABD, the #1 ranked amateur squad in the nation last year. Bryce and Reid went pro this year.

Masters:
Team Delta Faucet/Indy Velo
Dave Stone: 2007 IL Masters 1/2/3 State Crit and RR Champion
Mark "Druber" Schwartzendruber: 2nd at Master's National TT
Kelly something: 2006 Masters National Points Race Champion
Chris S.: Bad Ass.

If they all show up, you're f***ed. Really. The cool thing is, I run into and ride with Dave all the time, and Druber on occasion. Nice guys.

Kelly Sparks.

Chris S - Chris Samora (sp?), right. Nice guy Chris - he is the crazy loon that got me into racing a few years ago out of the Naperville Spokes shop. Now I'm just fat with bad knees. Haven't seen him in a while.

steve and chris tilford.

Where to start?
Kent Bostick (Discovery Masters), Spencer Beamer (VMG/Development Team), Thad Dulan (Jittery Joes), All of AEG, Jeff hopkins (Jittery Joes), Caesar Grajales (jittery Joes), sometimes George Hincapie, Andy Applegate (A&F), Mark hekman (A&F), Craig Lewis (Slipstream) and Eddy Hilger (Priority Health). The south is a hotbed for good cyclist and pros. Makes it difficult for a Cat 2 to get points when at most races you have AEG and Juttery Joes going eating up the top 10.

And he passed me last night in my first TT. I was dying, and I don't think he was even sweating.:(:D

That kind of reminds me of when I went to do collegiate track nationals many years ago. I did the pursuit against (I think) none other than Chris Horner. He caught me just before the halfway mark and said something to me that I couldn't hear because I was about to black out. I'll just keep living with the notion that it was encouragement.:rolleyes: