Panoche Valley Road Race

100° temperatures greeted Luca, Jim and I (Justin) at the start line of Panoche Valley Road Race- and it was only 9:30! Instead of doing a proper warm-up on the bike, I just stood in the sun for a few minutes.

The race was 67 miles with 3500’ of climbing. We began in earnest with attacks within the first two miles. Fabrice Dubost (Webcor) and Luca managed to get away from the group and quickly gained thirty seconds. As we reached the first set of rollers, Andrew Talansky (Amore-Vita-McDonald's) and I broke away to bridge with the two riders up the road. At the top of the pass, we caught Luca who had separated. The three of us worked together for the next ten minutes until we reached Dubost. For the next 10 miles, the four of us took equal turns pulling. After the turn-around we climbed up and over a steep but short roller. As we crested, Luca could not quite maintain the pace and dropped off.

On the return climb up to the pass, I attempted to ride away from the other two, hoping to drop at least one of my break mates. However, neither rider took the bait and rather than attempt to ride solo to the finish, I drifted back to rejoin our 3 man break.

As we hit the three hour mark in the saddle, the heat was really starting to take its toll. Although there were feed zones with neutral water stationed every twenty miles, it was not nearly enough to replenish the water I needed to drink and dump on myself to stay cool. My legs burned, my head burned, even my feet felt like they were on fire. With 10k to go, I ran out of water. It was going to be a long hot slog to the finish.

At the 1K to go mark, the cat and mouse game began. We dawdled for 800m, no one obliging to take the lead. Finally, with 200m to go, both Dubost and I jumped. We went wheel to wheel to the line. Fortunately, even in my heat altered state, I had the sense to throw my bike and take the win by no more than 6 inches. Luca courageously rode by himself to the finish to take 4th place.

Meet the Team: Jim Wingert

Height: 5'9''/175cm
Weight: 155lbs/70kg
Years racing: 3
Strengths: time trialing, climbing
What I want to improve: climbing

Favorite/top results:
3rd – San Dimas Stage Race (Cat 2)
3rd – San Diego Cyclo-Vets Omnium (P/1/2)
2nd – Berkeley Bicycle Club TTT
6th – Stage 2 (TT), Madera Stage Race (P/1/2)
4th – Esparto TT (P/1/2)
1st – Wente Vineyards RR (Cat 3)
1st – 2007 WCCC Conference Criterium (Men’s B)

Goals for 2009:
Get faster.

Sporting background: a little bit of high school track/cross country
Hobbies: music appreciation
Favorite post-ride food: honey and yogurt, mixed 1-to-1
Favorite x-power: regeneration
Favorite grand tour: Giro d'Italia
Favorite riding or racing memory: Crushing it with the Mooney Express at the Berkeley TTT.
Worst cycling habit: blowing myself up
How and why did you start racing? I lived an unhealthy lifestyle in college and my buddy Pat encouraged me to buy a bike senior year.
What will you do when you stop riding? It’s anyone’s guess

Berkeley Hills Road Race

Sunday, May 10

Team: Justin, Nate, Shawn, Luca, Ed, Steve, Jim

The rolling 19-mile loop in Orinda, CA, is familiar territory and frequent training ground for many of the ZteaM riders. Having won the race in 2008, Nate was marked by many of the other teams, and his aggressive racing and hard tempo-setting distracted many of the teams from chasing down an early break that included Justin, Shawn and Jim... half of the team in a group of 15 or so (not bad!)

Knowing that Justin was one of the stronger climbers in the field, ZteaM rode a canny race, allowing the break to gain 4 minutes on the field by the second of five laps. Protected by Shawn and Jim's excellent work in the break, Justin was well set up to make a go for it with an attack on the final climb, as per the original plan. It was only too bad that Kelly Benefits' Scott Zwizanski was a force to be reckoned with and surprised the break with a winning attack with 20 minutes to go. Justin finished high in 7th, Nate attacked the remnants of the field for 11th, and Ed and Shawn finished strong in a race that left half of the field by the sidelines.

Wente Vineyards RR

April 25, 2009

Nate, Lucas, Jim, Shawn and Ed set out to conquer the rolling Livermore hills at the Wente Vineyards Road Race. Against the fierce winds generated by the towering Altamont fans, the boys in blue charged hard, attacking, bridging, and generally setting a hard pace to wear down the competition.

With one lap to go, Nate attacked a 10 man break, taking James Mattis (Cal Giant) with him. The two established a significant gap over the chase group and approached the final climb together. In the end, Nate's smart racing and the work of his teammates set ZTeam up for the win, as Nate was able to out-climb Mattis to the finish line.

Sea Otter RR fun

The Sea Otter RR was not a high priority on our team's calendar, but some of us were interested in doing it for the fun of it and because it usually attracts a fairly strong field. Both the fun and the quality field turned out to be true to form.

The course rolls and winds around enough that a 30 second gap puts you out of sight on most portions of the course, and I knew from experience that an 8-10 man break should stay away if it had anyone particularly strong in it. So, I was at the front for most of the first lap, but didn't want to waste myself following or initiating useless moves and decided to drift back for a bit. Somewhere early on lap 2 some 3 or 4 strong guys went up the road. Less than a lap later, Levi and a few other pros started moving up the road too. Seeing that 10 of the stronger guys in the field had already gone, I was like, darn... might as well try to bridge up.

I figured I'd rather burn myself up bridging to the winning move with the possibility of a good finish rather than spend my time in the main group with a guarantee of a lousy finish. I figured I might as well go hard trying to bridge up rather than go for a 3 hour group ride in the field. Anyway, I tried to bridge and Vince Owens followed me. We were out there for a bit more than 2 laps 20-30 seconds behind the leaders and 60 ahead of the group. Around lap 4, Holloway and somebody from Morgan Stanley bridged up to us. The four of us caught the main break within a lap after that, but Morgan Stanley and Vince were lost soon thereafter. The last 3 or 4 laps were just the 10 of us (Levi, Ben J-M, Paul Mach, 2 other Bissell, 2 from VMG/Felt, a Cola-Vita and Chris Jones from TeamType 1 and me). We rode together mostly, but there was a move with 3 guys made within 5 minutes of when Holloway, Vince, M-S and me bridged up. I chased them down, but nothing came of it...

It came down to the last lap with everyone together. One or two attacks were made, but nothing was serious. I finally made a move on the last roller before the sweeping descent before the finishing climb. I had maybe 10 or 15 seconds going into the last climb, but 1/3 of the way up Levi and Paul caught me and 2/3 of the way up the other 6 riders who had legs left had caught me. I ended up 8th, but I was totally happy with how I had raced and how my body reacted to the situations it was put in. I was also happy that I made it into the winning move, despite the incredulous comment made by someone at the head of the field when I made my move to bridge up. I heard someone say something to the effect that it was pointless to try to chase me or go with me because I would just dangle and get sucked back up by the field, but I was pleased to prove them wrong.

I heard Cal-Giant chased a bit behind us, but I don't think they were successful in their efforts, since I didn't see them after getting clear of the main field.

ZteaM 5th at Copperopolis

The Copperopolis RR is notorious for it's tough terrain and sub-standard roads. Some refer to it as the Paris-Roubaix of Northern California, and while I wouldn't go so far as to claim it's remotely similar to the famed classic, it did happen to fall on the same weekend, and it's a pretty cool race to boot.

The race was particularly special this year because local pros Levi Leipheimer, Scott Nydam, the Jacques-Maynes brothers, and a random assortment of Bissell, Team Type 1 and Garmin riders showed up to the race. Of course, Leipheimer, Nydam and the Jacques-Maynes were the riders to watch.

Our plan was to try to get in the early breaks if they looked promising and we got a free ride, but it ended up being that the only real "early break" was a 4 man break with no marked riders in it (one of whom got cracked out of the break on the first climb). So, with the group whole and unscattered, we wheeled around for an hour on the first lap with myself [Nate] rolling off the front before the main and somewhat sketchy descent for reconaissance purposes. We went into the second lap in much the same manner as the first lap, and nothing much happened all the way around to mile 42 and the start of lap 3... Lap 3 started with Nate setting a mildly challenging pace up the climb, which was augmented by Levi pulling even harder on the last portions of the ascent. Levi pulled out 4 or 5 other strong climbers followed by a second group that included roughly 12-15 riders, including Justin and Nate. It was a hard lap, but managable. Lap 4 was managable on the climb, but Nate got gapped off the back with a few riders once or twice and on his own once (immediately after chasing hard to catch the group), but it was generally no big deal. The pace was high enough sometimes to keep it hard to catch the group, but it also fluctuated, and allowed me to catch on with enough energy to attack a few times before heading into lap 5. Scott Nydam did, however, start to bridge up towards Ben Jacques-Maynes (who was still up the road from an earlier attack), with a Cal-Giant and Webcor rider attacking before the main climb. Justin still looked good but I was tired.

I thought that I might get dropped on the final climb, since I was pretty tired. But somehow, I pulled on the climb a bit and found only myself and Andy Jacques-Maynes left at the top, bridged up to Cal-Giant and Webcor, and then proceeded to trade pulls for a bit. Eventually, I attacked up one of the climbs getting closer to the finish, but didn't have the legs to make it worth while. Mostly it just initiated some shuffling around and it ended up that Andy bridged towards a 3rd place finish behind his brother and Nydam, while the guy from Webcor sprinted better than Nate in the 2-up sprint, with Cal-Giant finishing well behind (evidently with a flat). Justin finished in the main group with Levi and the rest of whoever was left out of the previously 20-person "break" that formed on lap 3.

All in all, it was a ton of fun, great weather, and a lucrative result, with Velo Promo paying out a massive $5 prize for 5th place to Nate. Awesome!!!

ZteaM races "home" crit

The Napa GP was marked by a close-quarters, tight-turning course with 1 man off the front. Having a man off the front kept the group strung out and the pace fairly high. It was our intention to try to get a couple of guys in the top 20 through the first few laps in order to keep from having all of our team shelled off the back of the yo-yoing field. With maybe 60-something starters, it was expected that 2/3 of the field wouldn't finisht the race, so we wanted to be out of trouble at the back.

Aside from a few friendly bumps along the way, and a brief stint running off the course and onto the sidewalk on the far side of some hay bails, the race was fun and pretty safe. All things considered it was a great time. Justin was able to finish in the middle of the main group of about 20 riders while a couple of us were pulled with just a few laps to go... evidently, with 1 man up the road 30 seconds, and our riders 10 seconds off the pace of the main group, the tail of the race was getting caught by the front on the sub-60 second laps.