I have mentioned before that what you read here each month is rarely what I have planned. It is more of a "spur of the moment" thought. This month I had been working on a great piece about... well I might have to keep it a surprise for another time. What shoved me in another direction this month is far more important.

On Saturday March 1st, Matt Peterson out sprinted two of our Chico Corsa teammates to grab his first ever win. On that same day Kristy Gough, an Olympic hopeful, won her 6th consecutive race and made it 7 wins in her first ever 7 races the very next day. One week later on Sunday March 9th they were both killed in an accident. 

Hi All, Coach Mike here...

The racing season has begun. Some of you might be doing your first race(s) and others might be into their 2nd, 3rd or more seasons of racing. Or you might be focusing on a Century or other non-competitive event where you set your own performance goal.

Okay, so you went and did your first race or event for the season. You'll probably have a few questions or thoughts after the race. "I should have done that". "This happened to me"... etc, etc. We all can remember what happened right after the race. But how about 6 months from now... or even more importantly, how about a year from now when you are planning to do the same race again?

Okay, lots of people have been asking about the Chico Velo Thursday night time trials coming up in April. And yes, they will be starting up again. The first Time Trial of the year will be held out on Chico River Road on Thursday evening, April 3rd at 6:00pm. This is a 10- mile time trial - 5 miles out, 5 miles back in, all flat. We start where West 5th Street turns into Chico River Road......right near Miller Avenue.......just look for us at the start location. It is a GREAT idea to get there early to get signed up and ready to go. I usually show up out there around 5:30ish or so. First rider will go off at 6:01pm and we will go in 1-minute intervals.

We will be doing these flat time trials almost every Thursday evening from April 3rd until the beginning of October. April 10th and April 24th, we will be doing the 10-mile time trials out on Aguas Frias Road again. April 17th will be the River Road course again. In addition, through the coming season, we will be doing some 16 to 20 mile time trials, as well as the 25-mile time trials out on Aguas Frias again(prior to the District Championships). And, we will be trying out at least one new venue on Meridian Road this season (details to be announced later).

So, the April Time Trial schedule looks like this:

April 3rd - River Road - 10-mile Time Trial
April 10th - Aguas Frias - 10-mile Time Trial
April 17th - River Road - 10-mile Time Trial
April 24th - Aguas Frias - 10-mile Time Trial

Hope to see you out there!!

This month will be the last club Meeting until September. So... our largest sponsor, Tri Counties Bank wants to host the April Meeting at there 5th 5th & Salem location. They will provide Pizza and soda, (Do I hear a Hip Hip Hurray for Tri Counties? I hope to see all of you there.

The CAT 5 team lead by Dave Kyle, Tyler Honeyman, and Alex Blease has racked up some early season points.
Mike Rick, Jeff Galand, James Plummer and Geno Gruber did a 4 man Team Time Trial in Berkeley. They made special arrangements and allowed Levi Leipheimer to do the race solo. He beat our time by just over 7.58 minuets and the best team by just over 4 minuets. Those Pro Tour Guys are crazy fast.

Merced Criterium, Merced
2nd Place - Tyler Honeyman CAT 4/5

Merco Credit Union Cycling Classic Downtown GP Merced
4th Place - Jeff Galland CAT 3

Merco Credit Union Foothills Road Race, Merced
8 th Place Colby Elliot - CAT 4

Land Park Criterium, Sacramento
2nd Place - David Kyle CAT 5

Bariani Road Race - Zamora
1st Place - Dave Kyle CAT 5
2nd Place - Alex Blease CAT 5
3rd Place - Linda Zorn W CAT 4

Copperopolis Road Race, Milton
2nd Place - Colby Elliot CAT 4
3rd Place - Dave Klye CAT 5
9th Place - Tyler Honeyman CAT 4

2008 NCNCA Best All-round Team (BAT) Points
Our Cat 4 Team is tied for 3rd. This is great when you consider that all of our point people from last year upgraded to CAT 3 where they are in 6th place. Look for Chico Corsa to move up in both CATs.

1 ROARING MOUSE CYCLES 50
2 Action Sports/SSC Racing Team 30
3 Berkeley Bicycle Club (BBC) 29
3 Chico Corsa Cycling Team 29
5 Tieni Duro Junior Cycling Development 26
5 Webcor/Alto Velo 26
7 Metromint Cycling on Marin Bikes 23
8 Kaiser Permanente/ Team Oakland Cycling 19
9 Sierra Pacific Racing 15
10 Dolce Vita Cycling 11


See the full list

On a side Bar: Our friend Steve Vickery crashed his TT bike while motor pacing. Broke his clavicle and 3 ribs.
Lets wish him a speedy recovery.

We had great weather for the Chico Corsa Cohasset Time Trial - and 45 riders took full advantage of it to take part in this grueling effort! Thank you to everyone who came out to ride, race and help out. A HUGE thank you goes out to Jeff Ochs, Kirsty Ochs, Jemma Ochs and Geno Gruber for helping with registration, starts and timing for this event - without your help, this event would not have happened. So, Thank You!!! We will do the Chico Corsa Cohasset Time Trial again in September - so start training now to see if you can beat your time!

1. Tyler Honeyman 20:46
2. Mike Cordova 21:53
3. David Kyle 22:01
4. David Albrecht 22:07
5. Roy Steves 23:07
6. James Plummer 23:11
7. Rob Bishop 23:39
8. Jeff Galland 23:46
9. Dan Weintraub 24:32
10. Charlie Dawson 24:42
More...

Thanks again to everyone! Chico Corsa will be doing the Honey Run Road Time Trial in May - and get ready to start up Chico Velo's Thursday night Time Trials in April! Hope to see you all out there!!

I went down to the Sacramento finish of the Amgen Tour of California. Things have changed since the days of Greg La Mond. Today there are VIP tents, media boxes, media circles, and commercialism everywhere. For a lot of reasons this is good for the prosperity of the sport. For a long time fan it is sad. Bicycle racing has lost some of the personal touch.
The promoters of the Amgen Tour of California would like you to belive that they were the first to bring the cycling greats to race in America. If you were following cycling 23 years ago like I was, you would know that Amgen has done a great job but it was the '86 worlds that brought ALL the active cycling greats to America.

Here is a link to some cool photos I took as a kid watching the Coors Classic. To put how close it was into perspective, all of these photos were taken by me with a 110 camera. (Do they even make those anymore?)
Enjoy.