Taking the racing into September @connorspencer finishes 3rd at the final CCCX. @digableblankets finishes 6th. Big thanks to @lazersport @focusbikes @freshairbicycles @zippspeed for the awesome support and equipment! #britesport #freshairfocus

Giro Di San Francisco. #freshairfocus #zippwheels #britesport #lazersport Photo from @scottsawyer - check his gram

Fun day with my @britesport squad racing our home race #GiroDiSanfrancisco we all rode really well and were active but couldn't quite piece together at the end for Ryan @digableblankets A couple of us got caught up in a crash with 6 laps to go and expected a free lap, but we learned that wasn't the case. Great job and proud of by teammates; @connorspencer @grizzlyprince @rognab @digableblankets #mesa It might be off season time for me!?! #freshairfocus #britesport video by @davidselman thanks for the cheers! (at METROMINT Giro DI San Francisco)

Good morning

Suisun Crit was a fast one! Attack after attack, there was always someone off the front! @travisvanhalen and Mesa rode awesome to help @connorspencer finally make the right move with 10min left to go. With valuable Cal Cup points on the line he helped drive break to stick, but got swarmed in the sprint to finish 12th, just outside of points. Ouch! What a day out! #freshairfocus #britesport #lazerhelmets #focusbikes #lazersport

Stage 1 today - For some riders this is their first "international" racing experience and for others on our composite  #TSELLICYCLINGTEAM have raced all over the world, so nerves and expectations were varying this morning. The day started with short travel by bus to the start and ceremonial parade around Cayey, PR. The mayor gave a speech and huge jeep motorcade lead us to the official start line. We all lined up and boom we were off. A full sprint as if there was a prime 500m away... but ya there wasn't. We had to dodge people, children, cars, cats and dogs during the fast explosive start. Attacks left and right and a set of hard rollers before a long and dangerously fast and twisty descent with our whole team stayjng near the front.  The course profile ended up being 75km and 4,500 feet of climbing in 90+ degrees made for a hard day (the race profile which was provided in the race bible was... just a bit off, with just wee bit more elevation haha) - we got our main GC guy Thibault Jeannes up front for 6th a few minutes down on 1st and 2nd. Randy @theurbanathlete led home what was left of the chase group taking the sprint somewhere around 20th. And the rest of the the boys @blakeanton @nanthanael @naveenmolloy @jgerhardt58 were just a couple min behind. The guys showed great teamwork especially when Randy got involved in a crashed as we were approaching the sprint prime. He landed on his feet and somehow didn't hit the ground, we picked up his bike and quickly chased back to the main field. We have a good shot at moving our man up onto the podium in GC and to take a stage win over the next 2 days. Lets get it! @illest @markfatlace  @capocycling @fatlace #tourofpuertorico #tsellicyclingteam #tselli #britesport (at Cayey)

I just spent a week back home in Donegal Ireland for my Grannies 90th. She’s so full of life it’s not funny. Rode around the Inishowen peninsula, broke my chain on Mamore gap, an old goat track that rises about 400 meters in 1/4 mile! It gets pretty sticky towards the top but what really racks the nerves is the descent, not just for its lumpy Tarmac but the fact that sheep are always walking across the road from one side to the other, depending on where the grass is greener. FYI, it’s fucking green whichever way you cut it. I wanna bring the Britesport crew here next year to race the RAS, an 8 day race around these parts. Thanks for looking, Jaffa

Day 1, we arrived in Puerto Rico this morning after a long red eye from San Francisco, CA. We were picked up at the airport and driven to the training sports complex where we are staying in a dorm room with bunk beds...yay bike racing! We then sorted out the race paperwork, license, and team registration. We are here racing the CLÁSICO INTERNACIONAL DE CICLISMO COQUI DORADO' as a composite team for @tselli as TSELLI CYCLING TEAM. We are all very excited and thankful for their support! We then ate some lunch which is provided to the racers, rice and beans, pasta and plantains. Fruits and veggies where no where to be found. Next up we assembled our bikes, and then we went out with some other racers for a spin. Everything is different; the roads, riding style, and weather, as we got stormed on for a quick 10min.  We came back to find our two other teammates Blake @blakeanton and Thibault had arrived. Dinner consisted of exactly the same thing we are for lunch, so we ate it and decided to walk to the supermarket to find more food.  We are all exhausted, going to rest up and get ready for another ride tomorrow and then the team presentation tomorrow night. Stay tuned for more race reports and photos of our experience racing here. @illest @fatlace @markfatlace @tselli #tsellicyclingteam #tselli #britesport (at Complejo Deportivo de Caguas Roger Mendoza)

Cal Cup Weekend #1 - Warnerville TT, Patterson Pass

First weekend of Cal Cup is behind us.  It's Monday night and I'm already planning for Dunnigan Hills and Suisun Crit, but here's a quick recap of the Cal Cup openers.

Warnerville TT - I woke up way too early for this one, but had a good breakfast and coffee before 4am, got in the car and drove solo to Knights Ferry, CA - just east of Oakdale.  Warnervile is probably my favorite TT on the Northern California calendar that I've done - the course is undulating, there's turns in it, and it's pretty.  The effort was good, not great, I felt good on the way out, but the wind on the return just sucked the life out of me and I really started to suffer, just couldn't raise the power like I had planned.  I hit the final uphill and dug deep - good enough for 3rd, but barely - 4th place was only 8seconds slower.  Lesson for TTs - if you're suffering everyone else is probably doing the same - don't ease up!

That's the TT file - HR totally pegged.  Power relatively even for the whole effort - it was supposed to be higher after that middle dip.

Patterson Pass RR.

What can you say about Patterson Pass?  It's hard, it's windy, it's a big race of attrition.  The first lap was insane, super fast from the gun, made it over the top with the main group, 2nd lap was really hard too, just hung on to make the main selection, 3rd lap wasn't so bad and we shed some more people, but our group wasn't working that well together to try to catch Rodrigues who had attacked on the very first lap and was doing a fine job of beating everybody.  Our group of 11 or so split on backside of the course  and the 4th time up Patterson Pass I got detached from my group of 5.  I thought maybe, just maybe I could catch back on if that group was messing around so I kept a steady effort over the rest of the climb and the rest of course.  4000kj later I rolled in solo for 12th - just missing out on Cal Cup points.

Next weekend I look to collect some more.

-CS

Huge shout out to @illest @markfatlace for supporting our composite team - Tselli Cycling Team - racing in Puerto Rico this weekend. Check back this week for updates and reports from the team - @naveenmolloy @theurbanathlete @blakeanton @nanthanael @britesport #tselli #illest #britesport #tsellicyclingteam #puertorico

Knights Ferry, CA. #britesport #freshairfocus #warnervilleTT #instasport

Albany crit with Naveen, Mesa, and Bangor. Fun course new course with Bangor making the winning breakaway in the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately 45 minutes later, with great positioning for the win, he was crashed out in the last corner. He had to run his bike across the finish line to still get 6th. It was a great effort and a great chance for a solid win, but this is racing and thankfully he is okay.

Nice Tahoe wedding/ ride. There's something really grounding about watching friends solidify their future followed by some introspective alone time to ponder your own. Ps, I'm cooked! Jaffa. #britesport #focusbikes #illest

Day 6 - On our way home we split the drive up and stayed in Mt Shasta. For a nice recovery ride we did a 3 mile spin and the 13 ascent up to the old ski bowl at around 7700 ft. It’s been a great trip and we can’t say enough for the wonderful support we got form our friends at illest - Thanks for letting us represent the Tselli Cycling Team at the 2014 Cascade Cycling Classic.

CCC - Day 5 - Stage 4 Awbrey Butte Circuit Race - This was the last stage of the race taking us on a punchy circuit, 4 times around the outskirts of Bend. The classic 17 mile course started at the local city college this year, quickly making it’s way out of town and into the rolling hills. With some short climbs leading from the The Deschutes River and a new finish on the steep 500 meter up hill drag at the base of summit rd, this was going to be a fun race. This course seemed to be perfect for a breakaway and as we got ready that morning, Jaffa, Mesa, and I set some plans for making an early move. We took a nice spin to the sign in, checked out the finishing climb, and then waited around in the shade for the start. The one thing we really underestimated was the dealing with the size of the field on such small roads. It almost seemed like the opposite situation of the road race on Friday, but with the same difficulties of moving through the field. So once again, positioning seemed to be the most important thing in order to catch the breakaway. As we rolled out on the neutral start, I made my way right to the front and waited for the green light. Unfortunately Mesa and Jaffa got bottlenecked towards the middle of the field and it would be a little bit until they made it closer to the front. As soon as we got the green, attacks started to go. One by one, people went off the front only to be reeled back in by the field. It was about waiting for the right numbers and the right guys, just when the field seemed to be a little tired, and then BAM, go 100% into a breakaway move. But to my frustration, no one seemed ready to fully commit, and the few moves I did get into, were squashed out by some bigger teams that were really trying to keep it together. Eventually I met up with Mesa and on the second lap he made a move off the front, but to my disappointment no one went with. I came to the front and started to set a slower pace, trying to give him some time to build a gap and hope some others would bridge, but soon enough some other teams just came to the front and set tempo to real him back in. So as Mesa was coming back into the field I went to the front, railed one of the turns, got a slight gap, and punched it. But again no one wanted to commit and I was brought back by the efforts of the bigger teams. If anything was going to stick, it needed at least 4 riders, but no one wanted to go for it. Everyone was content to just sit in and wait. So we waited and frustratingly dealt with the state of racing being forced by the field. The consistent surging, the sketchy bike handling just to make up a space even when there was no room, and the chaos of the feed zones. On the third lap Jaffa fell victim to the the feed zone chaos and was off the back. Then as we crested the final summit of the course, I was cut off and pinned between the guard rail and a rider who jammed his chain, which left me off the back and chasing for the last lap. I buried myself and took every advantage I could to get back on. For 2/3s of a lap I was going all out, catching riders and working to close the gap, the whole time knowing that I was burning my matches for the finish, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to get back and help Mesa if I could. I finally got back on right at the base of the climb leading to the feed zone and sadly was dropped from the leaders after some attacks. Mesa stayed up in the front, but was screwed out of positioning on the final climb and had to settle for a finish in the top 1/3. I settled into my rhythm and then started to plug away at catching as many people as possible. I did a good job of really emptying myself and left nothing behind while catching riders even with 100 meters to go. Too bad I had to waist a lot of effort earlier in that fourth lap. So once again things didn’t work out as planned, but that’s racing, and specifically that’s stage racing. Things get pretty complicated and tactics can get pretty frustrating at times. Overall we learned a lot and really got some excellent training in the legs. Now with some proper recovery we are going to ready for some great racing in the following weeks. After the race we relaxed a bit, ate lunch, packed up the car, and headed to the river once more. Mesa creeped under the bridge and did a flying squirrel attack on some river folk while Jaffa found a fellow Irishman from space. It has been a great trip and we are so incredibly grateful to Joe for housing us and all the support from our friends at illest!!! We are a tight team of working class athletes and the support we have received this trip has made it so much easier for us to focus on the races and leave it all in the road. Thanks again to all out supporters in our lives and thanks to all our sponsorship support on the road. We are already looking forward to our next race.

- DB/JP/DM