Playin for keeps down at Redlands!

The boys getting ready for the Prologue


Webor women on the attak (racing on the 19's)

Look at those sweet 19's

The great Amy D.

Ted warming up on the TT course

Rand warming up on the TT course

Fabrice warming up on the TT course

Serious racing going on in SoCal last weekend. The best American teams showed up with all guns blazing.

I went down to direct the Webcor Men's team and display my wheels to the SoCal market. Unfortunately, I got a nice case of the flu on Friday which sidelined my wheel display plans. I focused what energy I had on the Webcor boys helping them dance through a very difficult 4 days of racing. Stage racing is like war. I compare it to getting up every morning, mounting your armor, collecting your platoon mates and walking into a 20-way battle zone. There are no prisoners and no place to hide. It's a wide upon battle zone.

First, I want to say how proud I am of the Webcor boys. We had 8 great guys led by the legend Ted Huang. Actually, we had to beg Ted to come out of retirement to lead the boys. Thank goodness he agreed to ride with us. Just having Ted with us was a huge benefit to the riders...and me.

I could write a book about how difficult stage each stage was. Well, I will give you the mini version.

First, uphill TT. Hard, steep and easy to completely time your efforts wrong and blow up on the course.

Stage 2: Wind blowing at 40 mph. Cross wind, climbs, peleton blowing into pieces from the gun mayhem. I remember watching one of our guys, James Badia rolling at 50 mph on a flat section with the wind at his back spun out in his 11. At that speed, things get a little scary.

Stage 3: 1.5 hour downtown technical crit. This spelled for 90 minutes of single file suffer fest. VERY HARD CRIT.

Stage 4: The legend...the Sunset loop. Imagine a 5 k climb, a 5 k descent....do over 12 times. Nasty, Nasty, Nasty. Our GC rider Fabrice Dubois crushed it here moving himself up to a top 30 on GC. A super effort from a the nicest and most mellow Frenchie you will ever meet.

All in all, we finished 18th on team GC ahead of a handful of division 3 US Pro teams. Not bad for a bunch of 9 to 5 guys and a couple college kids. I am very proud of their performance, attitude and willingness to put themselves out there with the best American Pro teams.

The boys are ready!

Rand Miller still sporting the Irish leprechaun look. Dude can lay down the power. That's my bike hanging on the tent behind. You would think since I own the company I would be riding the "bling - bling" wheels. Nope, I train and race on the 30's.

Ted Huang's Redlands bike. Ted will be sporting some prototype carbon hoops for Redlands. I'll have three riders on prototypes at the race.

The boys warming up for a local crit last Saturday. They slayed um. Rand and Brian Bucholz taking 1 & 2 off the front, while Ryan Parnes wins the field sprint. Ted Haung, James Badia, Greg Gomez and Matt Beebe covered every move from the field.

Next up, Redlands!

Picture Time

James Badia's Webcor team bike.

Fabrice Dupios of Webcor. He is our GC man for Redlands next week.

Rand Miller's arsenal of Williams Wheels. Rand races for Webcor and is one of our main test riders. A PHD in chemical engineering helps to become a tester. The great thing about Rand is that he is honest. If he thinks something sucks....like my jacket, shoes, prototype wheelset or whatever, I can count on him to tell me.

Peter Cotsis

Chris Fisher (in the red, white and black Williams kit) A great guy.

Chris Adams "SWEET RIDE"

Menlo Park Grand Prix - Hollywood Again

I am sponsoring the Webcor Elite Men's team this year. We have some VERY fast guys on the team. Above is Rand Miller racing on some Williams prototypes. I love the way this guy races. Full throttle from the gun every day. He is most comfortable off the front doing his thing. Here he is with Holloway, Andy Jaques Maines and the speedy Dan Martin off the front.

The kid is unbeatable. Daniel Holloway won the P/1/2 race with a blazing sprint. Of course, he did it on a set of Williams 58 full carbon tubulars. I really enjoy watching Daniel sprint. He is as smooth as glass. He just floats right by you. BTW, Daniel is off to the Track World Championships later this month representing the USA. He will metal.

Hernando. To know him is to love him. On the mike all day. Dude knows his bike racin'

Andy Jaques Maines with the promoter. It's great to have Andy here in NorCal. He is such a powerhouse strong man. I like to say that if Andy was in a bar fight, he would be the last man standing...not because he can fight, but because he is just tougher than anyone else. Also, I owe Andy a lot. He has offered me great advice over the last year. Andy is an engineer and worked at Specialized for 5 years designing many products you see today on road, TT and cross bikes.

OK, I'm a bone head. Here I am setting up neutral for the days racing. I planned to race the P/1/2/3 race but forgot my bike at home.

Lucinda Griswold takes on the Tour of California

I met Lucy, her husband Terry and few other great people from Buffalo NY at the Tour of California. We had a great time at the Solvang TT. I was able to set up a little suprise for Lucy.

Lucy riding shot gun with Jonathan Vaughters. TOC Solvang TT following Tom Danielson

Lucy and Tommy D after the TT.