Three Boys Went to War Like 10 Men

Today, June 14, 2008, was the Road Race of the Western Slope Omnium hosted by the community of Glenwood Springs. The race course was an out-and-back starting and beginning just east of Glenwood Springs in Dotsero. The course traversed a beautiful canyon heading northeast from Dotsero, covering a 12 mile dirt section at the northern tip of the course, which had a short steep destructive power climb and turned the field around to battle a strong headwind out of the west on the way home.

Heading into the day, Team Legacy Energy’s riders including Dan Workman, Paul Esposti, and Phil Mann, anticipated that a breakaway would win the day’s race. Our tactics with three riders, racing against some larger teams including Team Rio Grande, Vitamin Cottage, and Tokyo Joes, were to get into the breakaways. The race became animated right from the gun and Phil found himself in the first well-established breakaway with two other riders (Allen Krughoff and Christian McArthy) that rolled for about 20 miles. Unfortunately, Phil’s front wheel went into the back of his breakaway companions rear wheel destroying several spokes. Frustrated he was forced to wait for the wheel vehicle and chase back to the main field.

The pace remained high for the most of the day but it did not prevent Dan from following the next aggressive move off the front. Charging hard for several miles, the field eventually caught Dan a few miles before the race hit the turn-around.

Following the races only challenging climb, the field split up a bit only to come back together for the remaining 40 miles. Phil, Paul, and Dan continued to execute their plan and covered every breakaway, until one finally stuck. Phil rode away from the field with what would eventually become a 4-man break including: Kevin Nicol (Tokyo Joe’s), Taylor Sheldon (Rio Grande), and Lachlan Morton (Real Aussie Kids).

The break hovered around the one minute mark for the last 30 miles of the race, and managed to stay away until the end. Phil unleashed his sprint with 200 meters to go and took home the win for Team Legacy Energy!

The following day the same three Legacy boys showed up to race the Glenwood Springs criterium and try to defend Phil’s omnium position. It was a very hot and sticky day. The course contained freshly tarred chip sealed roads as well as some technical corners that made the race single file for much of the day. Paul was all over every important move that went off the front after the first 20 minutes of the race.

The field was dropping riders every lap as the heat and technical nature of the course proved too demanding for many. Eventually Paul made it off the front with a group, and it was clear it wasn’t coming back. Many riders from the peloton tried to get across to the move, with Phil and Dan covering these many bridge attempts. After a brutal chase Phil made it across to the lead group, which had grown to about 10 riders. Paul worked to keep this group together and his efforts found him off the front chasing the 2 riders ahead of him. He worked alone for the next 6 laps and rode in solo for 3^rd place on the day. Phil managed to sprint it out for 6^th. Team Legacy Energy’s efforts over the two days were enough to secure two podium spots in the overall omnium competition, with Phil taking the win, and Paul getting 3^rd overall. It was an awesome weekend!

The Time Between and Restarting the Lawnmower

As in life, after every high there is the letdown afterwards. The same is true with bike racing. Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo has had great success this spring with Phil Mann winning a National Championship and the team achieving best amateur status at the Tour of the Gila. The team is coming off some needed down time. This was supposed to be a time of recovery, but more times than not it becomes a time of stress. Bike racers are happiest when they are a little tired but still going fast. Now we are starting the summer racing season and it is time to get the wheels rolling.

Trying to start my lawnmower after arriving home last week made me think about how hard it is to get momentum going. The Team has had some changes to our racing program this summer. We didn’t get into the Nature Valley Grand Prix or the Tour of Utah. Our big goals for the summer are now Tulsa Tough (this weekend!), Cascade Cycling Classic (July 9-13), and the amateur Road Race, Time Trial and Criterium Championships in August.

The Team left for Tulsa Tough on Wednesday in the “Team Car,” my 1998 Saturn sedan, with four guys, four bikes, and racing stuff for the weekend. The car looked like it had a brick strapped on top of it with all the bikes and wheels as the boys rolled off to Oklahoma. One hour and forty minutes into the drive the team passed through Deer Trail, Colorado. The tree-lined highway ended and a crosswind hit the car blowing the car into the left lane and ripping the bike rack off the car!! The rack bounced once and landed in the median sitting like it was still on the car, everything still in place.

Two bikes were damaged but the other two were not. Fortunately, Patrick was able to pick me up with his bike in the car and we picked up my bike and drove out to Brad’s car at Back On Track PT (it turns out he is most likely racing on broken fingers this weekend). I drove out to Deer Trail in Brad’s car. We swapped cars and got everything loaded up and the team was off! Damn, it is hard to get momentum going again.

Tulsa Tough is made up of three criteriums: Friday night at 9:25pm, Saturday at 6:35pm, and Sunday at 3:25pm. The race is on the National Racing Calendar and has $175,000 in prize money. Guaranteed, this race will be superfast! With all but one of our riders weighing less than 144 pounds, the team is not designed for this kind of racing. That said it doesn’t change much for us. As always, Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo is showing up prepared and counting on success! Phil is the team’s champion sprinter and the team leader this weekend – he has great form! Jarred is only getting faster as this year goes by and will be racing aggressively with Brad and Rolf. This is Rolf’s first race with the team and we are excited to have his power, experience, and class. This weekend will be a big test of how we are developing as a team and to see if we can get the damn lawnmower going again. This lawnmower we will transform into a Ferrari.

Andy Clark

Director Sportif

Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo

www.ciclismoracing.com

Phil Mann WINS

Going out on top is hard to do; defending a championship in your home town is harder than getting it the first time. Everyone is watching you and your team. They are looking to you to see what is going to happen next. It is like having the whole field racing against you. The Legacy boys were up to the task this weekend racing for Colorado State University at the Collegiate National Criterium in downtown Ft Collins. What a great place for a bike race!

It was a hectic criterium with a number of crashes, one causing the race to be restarted after only 20 minutes of racing. Phil, Brad, Dan and Dan Lionberg (CSU rider) rode a brilliant race. They covered every important attack and were never out of position. Dan Lionberg was not out of the top 15 riders during the race. It looked like it was coming down to a field sprint and then with 4 laps to go a Virginia Tech rider made a good opportunistic move and soloed away from the pack. He was holding 15 seconds and if it were not for the determined riding of the Dans he would have won.

With two laps to go the Dans started to ride down their victim. Dan Workman took a lap-and-a-half pull, riding so hard he was involuntarily yelling as his spleen came out of his left eye socket. Two turns to go the Dans' work was done; Phil had been given the opportunity he was hoping for.

Coming into the last left hand corner Phil made the choice to win! He did not follow; he took control, moving out to the right-hand gutter he sprinted to the front and led into the last corner. Right hand gutter to leading through the last left hand turn, DAM! Standing up and sprinting the last 200 meters to the line was a true show of dominance--Phil finished off the team's work and made victims of the rest of the field to win! They all knew it was coming and there was nothing they could do to stop the repeat. Phil now leaves collegiate cycling as a two-time National Champion. Going out on top looked so easy.

Great riding by the whole team!

Tour of the Gila Recap

Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo had a great first NRC (National Racing Calendar) race at the Tour of the Gila! With 9 pro teams represented and over 120 starters, the team rode with class and showed that we are a force in the peloton. We finished as the first place amateur team and the 6^th placed team overall. Jarred Berger finished as the second place amateur rider with his teammates, Ian Gray and Paul Esposti the 3^rd and 4^th placed amateur riders. All this success came with the team being soooo close to truly rocking the race every day. Unfortunately, we seemed to end up behind every crash or mishap that went down...it was a learning process. As a first year developing team this is what we are doing, developing.

Day 1 Recap: 95-mile day with the finish on top of a 5.5 mile Category 1 climb. Legacy has 5 riders in the 40 rider selection with 3.5miles to go. The attacks start, wheels get overlapped and the entire team is caught behind the crash. They stay cool and finish 29^th through 35^th. Great rides by all and sooo close.

Day 2 Recap: 80-mile day with 6,000 feet of climbing - a hard stage. Coming into the finish the peloton was diminished to 50 riders. Team Legacy was leading out Phil for the sprint. We were on the radios and the boys were ready to go for the win! The team comes up the gutter with 800 meters to go and heads into the last corner 10 riders back. The Colavita team train comes on the outside of the corner and puts the Legacy Boys out of it. Just like that, bike racing changes incredibly fast. Phil and Paul ended up with good finishes in 19^th and 20^th place. Soooo close!

Day 3 Recap: 17-mile Time Trial. Brad finished as the 2^nd best amateur and to the man they each road their best TT at an NRC event. Jarred was on a ripping fast ride and with 5 miles to go flatted. He rode his rear flat the rest of the way and still finished 50^th place. The time he was riding to that point would have put him between 8^th and 12^th place. Soooo close!

Day 4 Recap: 45-mile Criterium with one power climb to keep the legs from recovering. We split the team into two groups for the race. GC riders where sitting in and resting for the last day and Phil and Paul where racing for the stage. The two of them covered every break! Paul was in a break for 5 laps and when it came back Phil was in the next move and it went away. With 5 guys and all the right team represented, it looked like they were in it for the win. It was not to be. With half a lap to go the break was caught and finished in a field sprint. Soooo Close.

Day 5 Recap: The Gila Monster! 106 miles over 9,000 ft of climbing and most of it coming in the last 40 miles. This is the day! The atmosphere in the team was high. The talk on the radios was positive and deliberate. The boys were ready to do this ride! Coming over the top of the first of the three main climbs of the day the race was coming apart! There had been an attack over the top and Team Bissell was chasing down the descent. All hell was breaking loose and the Tour of the Gila was being decided. The Legacy boys where there and a huge crash happened on the way down. Brad was on the ground with his dislocated finger sideways and a hole in his blue and white helmet that saved his life. Jarred hit the ground flatted, got back up, changed his tire and was back racing. Paul and Ian got caught behind and had to chase too. Other than the finger and needing a few stitches, Brad was OK and heading to the hospital while the rest of the race was in chaos. The team was able to get reorganized and worked with Toyota United to chase back to the front. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it back to the front, but the boys kept fighting and riding hard to the finish. Sooo close!

The class the team showed to overcome the adversity that we encountered speaks volumes about the character of the riders on Team Legacy Energy Ciclismo! The Tour of the Gila has shown that this team is going places!

Team Lecagy Energy is made possible by the community of Ft Collins, our sponsors, and our Fan Club. We thank you all for being part of this great experience.

See you at the races,

Andy Clark
Team Director
Team Legacy Energy
www.teamlegacyenergy.com

Tour of the Gila Stage Race

Team Legacy Energy is in Silver City, NM this week enjoying our first big race of the year--the Tour of the Gila Stage Race. The five day race runs from Wednesday to Sunday and is comprised of three road stages, one time trial and one downtown criterium. Daily results will be posted on the race website and daily race reports will be posted on our team blog.

Haystack Individual and Team Time Trials

Saturday, April 12th, 2008 Team Legacy Energy started off with an individual time trial just north of Boulder on an undulating 16.8 mile loop.

The field was stacked with pros and pro-lites since there was no National Racing Calendar race that weekend. Ben Day, a Toyota-United rider and former Aussie national champion, took the spoils with a time of 32:54.

Patrick McGlynn was the first Team Legacy Energy rider through in 13th, followed by Jarred Berger in 14th, Brad Cole in 17th, Dan Workman in 23rd, and Phil Mann in 33rd. View Results.

About two hours after the finish, the Team lined up for the Team Time Trial. The five man team consisted of Patrick McGlynn, Jarred Berger, Brad Cole, Dan Workman, and Phil Mann. The team traversed the course in 33:43 and ended up third behind Team Slipstream and Toyota-United.

Sunday, April 13th the team opted for a ride in mountains around Fort Collins.

The team rode down to Rattlesnake and climbed up to the top, then rode up to Stove Prairie, down to the Poudre, back up to Stove Prairie, up the backside of Rist Canyon and down for a nice 5 hour day

Brad Cole and Jarred Berger set the bar for the fastest ascents of most the climbs; Director Sportif Andy Clark set the bar for minimum speed on each of the day's climbs. Twas a good ride and not too dissimilar in topography from the last day of Tour of Gila - the Gila Monster stage.

Plagued by Runner-Up

This past Sunday [April 6, 2008] was the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) criterium, and Team Legacy Energy's Patrick McGlynn, Dan Workman, and Phil Mann represented Colorado State University (CSU) in the collegiate race.

The course differed from last year with more turns and a shortened climb, but nonetheless presented itself to be much more of a challenge; less recovery made ascending the hill 25+ times during the 60 minute race incredibly demanding.

The race started off at a blistering pace splintering the 45-man field in half within the first two laps. Subsequent laps would see the field dwindle and only 9 riders would emerge to finish the race. Early on, CSU was very aggressive launching attack after attack ultimately leading to Dan Workman and a CSM rider, Zach Grabowski sustaining a two-man break away.

CSU, including Phil Mann, attempted to send support to Dan Workman by bridging several riders to the break away but all attempts failed. The hill was simply too demanding and the final seconds separating the bridging attempt and the break away could not be overcome.

In the end Zach launched a powerful attack to overtake Dan Workman on the climb deferring Dan to second place in the finale. Caley Fretz of CSU was able to initiate a powerful leadout to propel Phil Mann to third place and allowing himself to finish in fourth, and CSU rounded out the top five with Dan Lionberg finishing in fifth.

Phil Mann