Steffos racing blog

Yes that is me in the purple helmet

2009-05-18T00:58:00.001-07:00

Yes that is me in the purple helmet
Originally uploaded by chrissteffanoni

MTB Podiums & New Zealand Snowstorms

2008-11-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

I think the last blog post that i wrote was wheni was still in the USA.
I have been home to Australia for about a couple of months now. It was good to get back and see the missus, friends and family.
I have had a solid break from racing due to some health issues which have been giving me some grief this season. I am now on a fancypants new diet and i think it is fixing the problems. No more gluten or dairy for me so my diet now consists primarily of meat and grass. Just like a caveman.

'rounding the final corner...cramping'

Anyway along with my stopping training, i also had to pull my name off the entry lists of a few big tours around the place. The one good thing to come out of this is that i was able to enter the MittaMitta-Mt Beauty MTB race. This is a race i have wanted to return to for a few years and try to win. I competed in it a few years ago when it was part of the UCI MTB Marathon World Cup.

This year it did not have the UCI points so i went up there seeking the win. My sponsor FELT had supplied me with an awesome race machine to ride so i new i would have no excuses if i got smashed.

On the very first climb of the day i managed to put some pressure down and split the main bunch. 10k into the race there was only three of us in the leading group. Fellow FELT rider and local rider Neil Vanderploeg, and the bloke who won last years race...I cant remember his name.

'post-race with my bro jonno'

We raced the race hard up the climbs, a few little attacks here and there but nothing that stuck. The race winning move was made by Neil on the final descent. we just could not hold his wheel on the super fast descent. He probably put 1 minute in to us.

The final 10k was basicaly a time trial, something which i'm not renowned for. I brought back half the gap before the finish line to come in second. My old man checked the times and my finishing time was ranked 7th of all time, so i was pretty pleased with that.

I will return next year to go one spot better.

STEFFO

iphones, birthday cake & things i've missed

2008-08-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here i am enjoying my last couple of weeks in the states.
I'm enjoying the weather and finally some time off the bike. It has been a long season for me which started in 2007. A few weeks recovery now is what i need before i fire the legs up and get ready for the Tassie and the Tour of Southland in a couple of months.
Having the spare time and all i decided to catch a bus down to Santa Monica yesterday to visit the apple store. I wanted to get one of the new i-phones here as they are so cheap. They are selling for under $300 At home unlocked phones are selling for over $1000. Hmm makes sense.
When i got there it looked like a night club at 1am. Big line of people waiting outside with a bouncer and list at the door. Apparently you have to book an appointment to shop at an Apple Store at the moment and then wait 2 weeks for your i-phone to arrive because they are all sold out. Bummer!

Anyway last post i said i would get a photo of Pete in his new jersey up online. It is so funny to see a US national champ winner wearing his jersey and then speaking in a kiwi accent. It confuses the odd person or two.

on the left of the photo you will see casey fixing his 5th puncture of the day

Also if i get my way, we will have three new team members on the team for next season. Two of them enjoy wearing masks just like me!

I have had a few people disbuting my tastes of America post last week. I have conferred with a Pom, a Kiwi, a Canuck and another Aussie and we all agree that the facts are correct.
The only raised was if the Dill Pickle should be added to the list. With a little research i discovered that Americans consume 26,000,000,000 pickles every year. That is a lot of pickles. Maybe in Australia we should stop flicking our BigMac pickles onto the roof and windows and send them back to the US. The Pickle is on the list.

Dill Pickle Pringles?...at least it stops you from eating the whole tin.

Anyway the question has been asked "What aussie foods would make America a greater place to live?"....so naturally I made a list.

.

Meat Pies-(everyone loves a pie at the footy)

Vegemite-(combine with cheese and scroll to make CHEESEYMITE SCROLL!!)

Milo- (make sure you don't mix it too well and always sneak an extra scoop)
Tim Tams-

Tim Tams- (the perfect straw for any beverage)

Fish & Chips-(wrapped in butchers paper and stinking up your car)

Fairy Bread-( despite the name, not only for fairies)

Weet-Bix-(moist but not soggy)

Caramello&Freddo- (My heroes)

Allen's Lollies- (It is surprising how big our lollies isles are compared to the candy sections in american supermarkets

There you have it.
Its my birthday today so thanks to everyone back home for remembering.

STEFFO

"Stars, Stripes & Kiwi Fruit" NATIONAL CRIT CHAMPS RACE REPORT

2008-08-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey all. we just finished a big race today. We claimed the teams biggest win ever with Pete Rennie taking out a US National Championship. Bellow is the race report written by the Kiwi. When i get some photos I'll upload them.
STEFFO

RACE: FIAC USA NATIONAL CRITERIUM CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM: Casey Weaver, Chris Steffanoni & Peter Rennie
PLACES: Pete 1st. Chris 8th. Casey 10th.

The Race:
with chris and pete only having 3 races left here in the u.s befor we get deported, it was decided that its about time to bring out the A game and win a race for a change.
with a typical four corner crit on a fast road the game plan was to keep the race aggressive and try to set casey up for a fast finish. so first lap and the gas was on ,down under style in the gutter, single file untill pete got bored with that, deciding it was time to find out who else really wanted to win the race, and went off the front just to see who would follow and who would chase. so after the strong guys in the race were identified, we just started attacking for fun to wear some legs out. if there was a rider off the front, a now-ms rider was there. so after a lot of breaks (almost all initiated by pete) one finaly stuck, starring guess who... with 15 minuits to go pete was in a four man move that was riding well clear of any chase. After that, things became very easy for Casey and Chris, it was all covering moves and following wheels with the occassional roll through to mess up any organization. so it came down to a four man sprint, lighting it up with 400m to go pete rocked it up the outside thru the gutter to take a close photo finish.and claming a new jersey with some stars and stripes. For the bunch kick, Chris came through the final corner 4th wheel, casey in tow, but got caught by a perfectly executed, yet entirely unintentional sweeper by Bearclaw. We'll take the win and three in the top ten.

Tornados, Earthquakes & Deep Fried Cheese Sticks

2008-08-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well i am back home in LA now. Should have been here a few days ago but my flight got cancelled out of Chicago. I'm glad they made this decision as i would not have liked to be in the plane when our pilot tried to fly straight through a Tornado. Nature is pretty wild over here. While we were stuck indoors because of a tornado in Chicago, back home in LA they were having an earthquake. I am disappointed that i missed the quake but apparently it was a pretty good one.

Anyway our old mate tornado in Chicago caused a little bit of havoc. The town where we had been racing earlier that day got pounded by the beast apparently. I'm glad we were not racing in the evening because that would have been the second race that they have had to stop due to tornados since we have been here out east.

When we finally arrived back in LA we were greeted by our lovely sponsor Elle in our new team car. I hope that next year our kits will be designed to match this car.

Anyway with not too long to go until we return home to Australia, I am going to try to squeeze in as much stuff to these last 3 weeks as i can. Tomorrow we are going to race the CBR National Criterium Championships down in the O.C. This should be a good race for our team and I''m sure there will be a pretty decent turn out for the race. Although I'm not allowed to win the title, wouldn't it be nice to win the race and give them all the shits.

The following weekend we have our last big race here. The Brentwood Grand Prix. This is basically our home race so we should have a big team there to light it up.

Hey i have just found a photo i want to share with you all. It was from the first week i was in the states after the San Dimas Stage Race. I get heart burn just looking at the photo. And yes i did eat it all, and yes i felt very very very sick.

Whilst on the topic of food glorious food, i also stumble upon this photo i took of the sandwich that we got every day for lunch at the Tour of Pennsylvania. It shows a real American sanga. Check out the ratios there. Meat:Bread:Salad 65:25:1

It is surprising that the sandwich does not have what Pete and I have decided are the 4 flavours of the USA. The 4 tastes that they love more than anyone. In no particular order, they are as follows.

CHEESE (cheese is too America what wheat is to Australia)

CHILLI (Mild American Chilli =Superdooper Hot Aussie Chilli)

PEANUT BUTTER (If you can name a food, there will definitely be a peanut butter flavoured version.)

CINNAMON (They all deny it here, but i have never seen so many Cinnamon flavoured foods and beverages in my life.

STEFFO

Elk Grove Report (partly scrambled version)

2008-08-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

Steffo's Racing Blog Full Post View List View
G'day, my name is Steffo. I am an Australian road cyclist, currently racing for NOW MS-Society in Califoria USA
Tour of Elk Grove Report

RACE: The Tour of Elk Grove, Illinois WHO: Kiwi (P.Rennie), Yankee (N.Martinez), Aussie (C.Steffanoni) FINAL G.C.: Yankee 32nd, Aussie 33rd, Kiwi 35th
At this point, i'm sure you are all thinking, "were those hubbards handlebars all tied together or something?"...fair question, but the truth is that the race organizers use the term 'criterium very loosley over here in Illinois. Our tour consisted of one 70km criterium on saturday and another 80km criterium 24hours later, on the exact same course. In the end basically everyone finished on the same time.
An Elk in the Grove
Stage 1. The course for stage 1 was one of my favourite variety. Back at home we would call it a 'hotdog crit' because it has tight hairpin turns in it. Actually the course was more of a bent hotdog crit, or maybe even an 'L' shaped crit as it had an extra turn in it. Either way it was much funner and more technical than your stock standard four corner block crit. We came into the race with a plan. With our sprint ace Yankee looking like he had some form, the Kiwi and Aussie would try to hold the race together so it would come down to a bunch sprint for our big legged Septic Tank (Yank) to take out. It was not too far into the race when we suffered a bit of a blow i saw the Yankee decide to exfoliate his backside, arms and palms by sliding accross the stinkin hot ashphalt on a corner. I had almost got the smell of burning flesch out of my sinus' from Superweek. Oh how we all love that smell dont we. Anyway, with both his wheels tacoed Mexican style, Nick got some fancy new ZIPP wheels from SRAM and re-entered the race. With adreanalin still pumping through his veins Nick was now ready to contest some of the big money intermediate sprint primes. Kiwi and I did our best to get the Yank into position at the pointy end of the field on these sprint laps. That bloke certainly has a nice jump on him, but unfortunatelly got rocked by one or two other big sprinters. He still managed to pick up some money though which was nice.
At various stages in the race the Kiwi and went off the front of the bunch with a number of groups, none of whichpeloton
In the last few laps of the race a couple of riders got away from the peloton and bad pelotonning prevented us from pegging them back. With no teams taking control of the peloton the last 3 laps became what can only be described as a $H!T-Fight. We just couldn't get close enough to the front (without hopping up onto the footpath/sidewalk) Still we got some cash and the race commentators were grrring about us all race...even if they did think we mmme all called Peter Rennie...grrr Then we rode home and i ate two bloody steaks mmm.
STAGE 2. It was convenient having our new sognieur Molly along for the weekend. She could chauffeur our wounded warrior Nick to the start of the race, whilst the Kiwi and I rode down to the race start. It became apparent along the way that both of our legs are pretty cooked at the moment. My legs are starting to feel the effects of 2 months 'On Tour' with lots of races and also coming off a week crook. It is a great feeling when you cant get your legs to put out any power. They just seem to be stuck on weak autopilot mode the whole time. I call this feeling 'DISNEYLAND LEGS' ...and it is not a good feeling.
This race seemed to be a bit more aggressive than the previous day. Probably because the Kiwi went blocks from the gun which is always interesting to watch. He was all fired up to be the most talkedprimét man for the second day running, and obviously was trying to catch some sprint primé money. I also tried to smack it off the front. Although it didn't take long for Mickey and Minnie to start eating at those Disneyland legs. Those two are even worse than old mateshivveringtate when he makes an appearance in your legs. I spent the next 20 laps shivvering cold with goosebumps at the back of the field in 95degree weather. In the mean time, Kiwi and Yank were contesting the big mid-ndce sprint. The Kiwi brought the Yank to the front of the pack safely and they ran 2nd and 3rd indthe sprint.thucks that you got half a grand for 1st over the line but nothing for 2nd, 3rd or 79th. A few laps later there was another sprint. I drilled it up the gutter with the big-legged sprinter on my wheel and positioned him for the sprinballancesime he pulled it ofYAYdestroying all his opittytion and increasing our bank ballances at the same time. YAY go team! It's a pitty that we couldn't replicate the sprint again for the final lap. Instead, we all just through elbows, headbutts and shot gaps to finish a few places back in the field.
All in all we came away with a bunch of positives from tWoohoo grove tour. We all STEFFOack to LA now to knock up the local scene.
Woohoo Good Horse!
STEFFO
Please note that any information i have just writwrittingbe completely and utterly incorrect. If pete is the case, pledefinitylain in writting to Peter Rennie.
pete says would have most definity won if he had just been faster

Oooo look steffo has a new blog

2008-08-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Ooo look Steffo has a new blog.

Alright then "So Chris, what have you been up to?"
In The last blog entry that i wrote, i was kickin back, being a bum and racing in Chicago. Currently I am in Chicago being a bum, racing lots and kickin back.
The last few weeks have been interesting. There were many days when i thought that i must have been back home in the land of Oz...not because of all the munchkins and tin men, but because i have been racing against a whole bunch of Aussies in the Superweek International Cycling Classic. It was interesting racing. 100km criteriums every day for two and a half weeks. The best way to describe these races is, just like the Bay Criteriums, but twice as long, all at night-time and not nearly as many crashes...and maybe a few more Aussies. My plan to win a whole bunch of these races by lapping the fields didn't seem to work. Instead i only got in the money on one occasion, as did two of my team mates. With our team not winning, it was good to see another Aussie take out the overall title.
Jonno Cantwell of the Jittery Joe's pro team managed to beat all the other Aussies, Yanks, Columbians etc. to take home the yellow jersey. The Ausralian Virgin Blue team also had a good race with Bernie Sulzberger getting a whole bunch of podiums but unfortunately no wins. When Superweek headed to Milwaukee, our team stayed at a pretty cool host house/mansion Bellow, i will place some interesting photos of our house.

As you can see, the strict dress code was adhered to...and it was a whole bunch of fun.
We did get some interesting looks from the locals when we went for recovery rides to the coffee shop though.

Oh this is a funny video that my team mates filmed one night. I believe that they intended to come up to my bedroom an try to scare me. Unfortunately for them, i don't think it worked out as planned.

yfla.wrap("This multimedia content requires Flash version 9 and above.", "Upgrade Now.", "http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash", "");

Function VBGetSwfVer(i)
on error resume next
Dim swControl, swVersion
swVersion = 0
set swControl = CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." + CStr(i))
if (IsObject(swControl)) then
swVersion = swControl.GetVariable("$version")
end if
VBGetSwfVer = swVersion
End Function
Anyway as i mentioned earlier, we are now back in Chicago. with a small team which includes the masked kiwi crusader, Nick 'sprints fast'Martinez, our new sognieur Molly and me.(also known as 'that hairy guy with mask, cape, bad tan-lines and small jocks'. We are racing the Tour of Elk Grove. Today i appeared to have Disneyland Legs so we were just trying to get our sprinter Nick to win the stage. Instead of winning though, he decided to leave half his bum on the road, which sucks for him, but was a little bit funny for the rest of the team. He did still manage to re-mount his trusty steed and get some cashola in a big money prime. Good on-ya mate. When i get a photo of his skinless rear end, i will make sure i blog it for all to see.
Hopefully tomorrow we will ride our bikes faster than all our opposition riders and will win enough money to pay for our flights back to Los Angeles. otherwise it will just have to motor-pace the whole way back behind some hillbillies.
Not too long now till we head back down under...but I'll make sure i blog yas all well before then.
Cheers big ears.
STEFFO

Check out my commercial

2008-08-08T07:52:00.001-07:00

Check out my new Commercial Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Alright for those of you who have not seen my new TV commercial, here is the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steffanoni/2670342862/
I am the rider in purple and white.It is hillarious.
STEFFO

A Half Decent Race in Chicago

2008-08-08T07:51:00.001-07:00

A half decent race in Chicago Category: Sports
Hi all.
With Pete Rennie and myself currently in Chicago ahead of the International Cycling Classic which starts next week, we decided that we would ride our bikes down to a local crit. It just turns out that the local crit for this week happend to be Illinois'state championships.I thought this would be a good opportinity to blow out any of the left-over crap in my system which haunted me during the Tour of Pennsylvania and we were both fired up to have a good race.With the big race starting in Chicago next week there was quite a few out of towners like ourselves at the race, using it as preperation.
It took us like an hour to find the bloody race becauuse i left my directions at te house but when we got there we decided that the course looked fast with windy conditions so we would go blocks from the start! (or maybe Pete was just joking about that?) Anyway i took it seriously and after the second lap of the short course, i tried to lay the smack down.Half a lap later the field had splintered into about 6 groups according to Pete who happened to take a glance back. We were both confident that the 3 blokes who were with us off the front would be able to keep the hammer down and stay away. As it turned out though, the other three blokes would not even roll through when we were driving.Soon we were joined back by a large group.
Whilst i tried to recover my legs a little, Pete was winning some intermediate primes. Actually he even strained his hamstring throwing his bike over the line so many times. Throughout the day we won about 10 primes between us which was great. we love winning energy gels.Anyway as i was recovering and Pete was grabbing at his sore leg, another few moves went up the road without us.A few laps later Pete decided that he would get me accross to the break. It was great, i basically just held onto his seatpost and before i could say boo, we were both on the bunch ahead. With his job done he eventually cruised on back to the peloton.
As this is the first race i have done in over a month in good health, i was struggling to keep my eyes from going cross-eyed for the next 45 mins.
I still managed to pinch a few sprints along the way as we wanted to win some stuff for the bloke who is putting us up on his couch at the moment.It is gonna feel like christmas when we give it all to him. Sunnies, pumps, saddlebags, toolsets, energy gels. He will be stoked.
Anyway as it turned out we never caught 1 rider who went solo and lapped the field to win the race and the championship.
In the final few laps i decided to wait for the first attack and commit to it. As it turned out the group stayed together for a final sprint.
Obviously i need to buy some sprinters legs because mine were a little slower than a few guys in the group. In the end i crossed the line in 6th place and Pete was 8th overall. and 1st and 2nd in the U23 catagory.At least we won enough money to buy some beers for the ride home.
Anyway the International Cycling classic Starts next week. almost 3 weeks of 100k crits every day. Should be fun especially if we wnd up riding to the races.
Good Horse
STEFFO
23:05 - 4 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I'm Alive!

2008-08-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 03, 2008
I’m Alive...just Current mood: distractable Category: Life
OK I hear you people who send me agry blog emails.. I am sorry for being a slack arse with my blog over the last little while.
A fair amount of stuff has happened since my last entry. All my training was going well in preperation for the tour of Pennsylvania which started last week. I was really looking forward to this race. I knew that it would be the hardest race i have done but was still confident that me and the team could shake it up with the bigger teams.Unfortunately the day i arrived into Philidelphia, i managed to get pretty crook.After the prologue i knew that i was in some trouble and by the criterium i could hardly pedal the bike. After visiting the race doctor a few times it was decided that i had to pull out. I did try to race the first big road stage but had to pull the pin early on. Pretty dissapointed but out of my control.A number of you have noticed that i did get a good photo on Cyclingnews.comI think the photo is inappropriate for my blog so you will all have to check it out by clicking the link bellow.http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2008/jun08/pennsylvania08/pennsylvania085/SWS_0111
Anyway i am now in Chicago ahead of SUPERWEEK which starts here in a week or so. Pete and i flew straight here from Pennsylvania and are now backpackers. Yep we each bought a big pack and posted all our bellongings back California.
We look pretty funny riding expensive race bikes with huge packs on our back. We will be backpacking up to Milwaukee where we will meet up with our team for the second half of SUPERWEEK.Before Pennsylvania Jane made it over here for a few weeks. After California we travelled to North Carolina where i finished up my training in the mountains and stayed with some friends.
Other interesting things that have been happening to me of late.
1.Some solid top 10 results in races but no wins.2.Driving cars on the wrong side of the road.3.A rattlesnake missing my face by only an inch!4.Jumping off a 20 meter bridge and Jane breaking her arse5.Racing past Armish people in Pennsylvania6.Getting on national television in my underwear7.Chopping the head off Petes toy Kiwi'8.Sitting next to a CRAZY lady on a plane flight9.Becoming the star of a Belgian TV commercial10. Getting my own stunt double for a commercial.Oh one other cool thing was on the last stage of Pennsylvania whilst ubdertaking my Assistant Directeur Sportiff duties there was a Tornado and we all got rushed inside buildings in downtown Pittsburg...Quite exciting!
Signing out from Chicago...it's Independance Day tomorrow. I cant wait to see the aliens.
STEFFO

Currently listening : Viva La Vida By Coldplay Release date: 2008-06-17
14:15 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Big Races Ahead

2008-08-08T07:49:00.002-07:00

Thursday, May 08, 2008
Big Big races ahead. Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes
Ahoy there readers. just yesterday in the form of an email i got confirmation of an invitation for out team to ride in the Tour of Pennsylvania. This is a pretty big deal as it is the richest Under 25 event in the world. $150,000!! All training is now targeted on reaching peak form for this week long tour on the other side of the country. There will be ten international teams and ten US teams racing. Cant wait.
Have been getting in some big miles over the last few weeks. Doing a few little races here and there but just using them as training. Still managing to mix it up with them though.Last weekend we did an epic training ride in scorching heat. We rode 90k out to a race, raced and then rode back home. It was awesome. even made the winning break in the race and picked up some cashola.
Oh we have just moved into another new house two days ago. We are now right on the beach here at Venice. It is awesome. 43 steps from door to surf. 62 steps to an awesome ice-cream shop.I will be here for a month, then Jane is coming to visit so we will travel around the country a little and then spend the following month basically racing on the east coast.
(Yep canals out our back door)
(Bike path and beach out the front)
Life is good.Hope yours is too.STEFFO
16:26 - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Pigeons, Squirells and Sea Otters

2008-08-08T07:49:00.001-07:00

Pigeons, Squirels & Sea Otters Current mood: awake Category: Religion and Philosophy
G'day cobbers,Something weird has been happening lately when i have been tapping away on my training rides. It appears that native fauna of these parts of the world have developed a sudden attraction to the bladed spokes on the front wheel of my bike. (who says sand is bad for drivetrains?)Two days ago whilst cruising down the boardwalk at Venice, a senseless pigeon decided that he would like to become a spokey-dokey on my bike. He was just sitting on the path and decided to fly straight into my wheel. You should have heard the sound as his silky feathers slowly began to disintegrate. Then less than 24 hours later, we were riding up a canyon and a stupid little squirel decided that my wheel resembled a hoola-hoop. Naturally he tried to jump through and consequently he didn't make it the whole way through...So comical, yet disturbing at the very same time.anyway on the topic of silly animals, last weekend we headed up to Laguna Seca Raceway to compete in the Sea Otter Classic. Luckily sea otters are not as curious as pigeons or squirells.Anyway this race is a pretty huge event. It is a NRC event so there is lots of hitters out there smashing it up.My first race was the PRO,1 road race. It was a killer of a course with not one flat section of road. By the end of the day more than half of the field would pull out of the race. My legs actually felt pretty weak from the start which sucked. Still i persisted with trying to find the winning move and hang-on to the bunch as it sped up the endless steep bergs lap after lap.The winning brake happened in the first half of the race. I could see that this move was going to stick so attempted to go with it. Unfortunatelly my legs were not packing much punch (or kick) so i did not make the selection of 10 riders.After rolling around with a very negative peloton, i hit the gas on the last lap and splintered the main bunch. I grovelled up the final mountain-top finish to finish 22nd overall and in 3rd place U23. Not too bad but had my legs not been so dead, i think i really could have fixed it up with the top guys.(Santa Monica bike path AKA The Gauntlet)We had a circuit race the following day but the 80k crosswinds managed to crach my legs and head about half way through the race. It has ben good though to get a couple of weeks with hard national road series races. The legs are slowly coming.
On a more important note, last night we found an English pub that serves real food. I was pretty stoked. Meat pies! I also found a shop on the other side of the country that sells Vegemite. $15 for a small jar!
Oh well tomorrow is ANZAC day so Kiwi and I are going to bake some ANZAC biscuits. (please note that there is no such thing as an ANZAC cookie...only biscuits)
avagoodone
STEFFO
05:45 - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

crit coffe crit coff etc

2008-08-08T07:48:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 14, 2008
Crit, Coffee, Crit, Coffee, Etc. Current mood: sore Category: Sports
Well well well,
It has been somewhat of an eventful couple of weeks since my last entry.We are now settled into our new townhouse which is closer to Venice Beach than Santa Monica where we had been living. Before i came over here everybody kept telling me how many freaks there are at Venice. So true! (and now there are a couple more).
(inside our shack-it also has a pool/sauna etc which is awesome)
Training has been fun the last couple of weeks.I have managed to have coffee with Tyler HamiltonWatch dolphins surfing at Malibu with Hilton ClarkeTake dares to ride down sandy embankmens from Oscar SevillaGet lost with Victor Hugo PenaGive Santiago Botero tips on racing.You know that sort of suff.(yes all of the names i mentioned will mean absolutely nothing to all my non-riding readers)
Anyway we had a fairly good race a couple of weekends ago.Or team had 4 riders in the PRO/1/2 Anthill Criterium.We decided to make it an aggressive race, always having at least one rider off the front of the peloton. In the end we managed to split the race to pieces, with Pete finishing second place and myself getting pinged on the line in the bunch sprint for 5th place. It was good having 2 of us in the money but the greatest part of the day was that Pete Nick and I cleaned up about every single sprint prime of the day. We won so much product. All the other teams must hate us.
Anyway yesterday Pete and I raced our first National Road Circuit Race. It was a PRO/1 race which meant that nearly the whole feild were riders from big US teams and even some European teams. It was hard. Making it worse was the fact that it was over 100 degrees. (Yes the tar was boiling).As you can see from the photo, it was a fast and strung-out race.There was 120 starters but only 80 finished.A big breakaway group of 20 riders escaped up the road. I was not one of them. In the end i came accross the line in 40th postion. Was well inside the top 10 Non -Proffessional riders though which was good.It was a good way to shock my body into US Crit mode. The big crits over here are all about 100k long. Thats only about twice as long as the crits back home.(everyone loves hurt-faces)I did manage to hurt my back in the race which hopefuly will fix itself my next weekend when i should be racing The Sea Otter Classic at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Yeehaa.
STEFFO
17:17 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

time trials witches hats and yellow fences

2008-08-08T07:47:00.001-07:00

Time Trials, Witches Hats and Yellow Fences Current mood: full Category: Sports
Well well there are people reading this thing.Last week more than 200 visitors clicked on my blog. (Just a little bit scary)Not nearly as scary as the guys who were racing on the weekend.We competed in our first "Tour". Unfortunatelly we didn’t have the biggest team as most of our team mates were forced to race a catagory bellow us. It was just myself and Peter Rennie holding fort.
Stage 1 was an uphill time trial.TT’s are not really my forte but i am certainly working on them. It was uphill all of the way so i just made sure that i hurt myself the whole way up. Peddaling squares is not the most efficient pedaling technique but i just pig-rooted my way to the top and ended up finishing 14th on the stage out of 100. I was happy. Please note that my time was about 1 minute slower than this man bellow. His name Tyler Hamilton. (He looks a lot bigger when he is winning tours in France than in real life)
My teammate Pete. Smashed the TT finishing 5th
Stage 2 was a road race around a roling course.Pete managed to puncture right at the time when i launched an attack on the second of 8 laps. (Race radios would have helped here as he ended up having to chase the whole day and way the last rider to make the time cut).Unfortunatelly i missed the winning break of 8 riders and my attempts to get a chase group working were not going to work. So i ended up finishing the stage at the front of the bunch kick.Pete managed to go from 5th to almost dead last on GC (which was now about 60 riders due to people missing the cut-off time.
We were given orders to smash the race up in the criterium or be sent home by our team director.
Stage 3 was a Criterium.
Plan was to hold it all together until the final prime sprint and then launch a ferocious attack and win the race. Unless it started to rain, where we would launch early. (I love a hairy race)We did a fair amount of work controlling the race, it did not rain and after the last prime the attack was launched. Once again i found myself chewing on my headstem, desperately giving it my all with one other rider to hold on to the finish. We were caught with 4 to go. As soon as the catch was made Pete made a text book counter attack. He lasted lated 2 laps solo but as reeled back in by the hungry and negative peloton. (it seems that almost no-one over here wants to break-away but everyone wants to chase them down-very very frustrating).With one lap to go i was feeling confident for the final sprint.
(Steffo off the front again)Making my way to the front around the second last corner, i decided to take the long way around........unfortunatelly for me the outside barriers on the corner were coming closer and closer to my Panaracer tyres.......turning as sharply as i could, i was definitely going to eat the plastic barriers with my face....at the very last second i switched towards the barriers and managed to shoot through a 2 foot gap in the fence. Riders and spectators were all amazed at how i managed to ride through a barrier at 55kph and not kill myself or any people watching on the corner. It was good fun but i certainly missed the sprint.
Ended up finishing 16th overall and 6th in the white jersey competition. (Young rider)
On the way home from the race, Our lovely sponsor Elle from the MS-Society and Pro rider Curtis from Successfulliving.com shouted us dinner. Pete and I ate an enormous pizza. The photo bellow does not do it justice. We ate every last bit, amazing the staff at the pizza joint and now have had constant heart burn and nausea for 2 days. YAY!
(yes our pizza is considerably larger than the table behind us)
Next big race The Sea Otter Classic.
Ciao

Currently listening : Under the Iron Sea By Keane Release date: 20 June, 2006
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First racing experience

2008-08-08T07:46:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
First Racing Experience Current mood: awake Category: Sports
Happy readers,
I had my first race over here in the US on Sunday.I was pretty nervous going into the race, knowing that i’m not in the best form of my life and that i have been hearing our team manager telling everyone how good we are for the entire week.The race was a Crit on the east side of Los ANgeles at a place called Ontario.
We had maybe 8 riders in our team for the day, but it was still just a little bit daunting racing against pro riders that you watch on TV and see in magazines. Rock Racing was probably the strongest team there as they had lots of riders.One thing i have noticed is how different US roadies are to the rest of the world. They certainly don’t follow the "Euro Cyclists Code of Conduct"Instead of everything having to be white (shoes/socks/seat/bars/gloves etc.) everything seems to be black...bad arse black.Roadied don’t get mistaken for Man-lovers over in this part of the world, but look more like gangsters, rockstars and drug dealers, with tatoos, punk haircuts and crazy dude attitudes to match.
For example, here is a photo of American National Champion Kayle Leogrande who tried to chop down on me through a corner in the race. I held my ground...gave him a little head-but...my foot went into his spokes...he had to bail out of the situation...and now he wants to kill me. I just hope he doesn’t know my address.
Anyway it was quite an aggressive race for me and my Kiwi team mate Pete Rennie, we were both in lots of moves and break aways. Unfortunatelly none of them stuck.
Bellow is a photo of me breaking away from the 120 strong field.There is a slideshow of race photos on my myspace page
www.myspace.com/steffanoni
Anyway the race came down to a mad bunch sprint. I tried to come 3rd for an all Aussie trifecta but failed miserably.
Karl Menzies won over Hilton Clarke and then a Rock racing bloke.
The Aussies sure know how to smash up the Yanks over here. Peter Dawson from the AIS was racing for Rock and was in a break with me also.
It was fun mixing it up with these boys.
Next week we have a big stage race, where we are gonna smash it up.
Adios amigos
Currently reading : From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France By David Walsh Release date: 26 June, 2007
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My New Home for now

2008-08-08T07:44:00.002-07:00

My new home...for now Category: Travel and Places
Hey just a quick one, i thought i would post some photos to show off my new home in California.
(this is our closest beach. lots of sand but not too many people)
Quite possibly the coolest pier in the world.
(the view of town from the end of the pier. yes those houses are on the beach)
(Run Forrest Run. Apparently this place has been around a lot longer than that movie")
(My Kiwi roomate Pete)
Our house
Our street
Currently watching : Road To Paris Nike Cycling DVD
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Argh No Bike

2008-08-08T07:44:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Arrgh! NO BIKE! Current mood: Mexican Category: Mexican Travel and Places
Hello happy readers, I am now writing these blogs from my new home of Santa Monica California YEEHA!
After suffering like a dog for 16 hours stuck in the tail of a plane, i arrived in LAX on St Patrick’s Day at 9.45 in the morning. This was the longest day ever seen as i went back in time, arriving in LA before i had even left Melbourne?? (left at 11.55 monday, arrived 9.45 monday)
I was greeted at the airport by a man from my team driving the biggest SUV you have ever seen. Turns out there are more SUV’s in LA than cars in Australia because the drivers all feel "safe" in these. (i’m sure the uzi in the glove box makes them feel safe too)
Anyway we picked up my new Kiwi team mate Peter Rennie from another flight and headed downtown to meet our team manager for a mexican lunch.It appears that 2 out of 3 food eateries are Mexican here. I don’t think they even have as many Maccas as we do at home. During or lunch it became evident that we had a problem. This problem was that our team bikes are not yet ready and that i should have brought a bike with me!!! Well that email must have got caught up in my SPAM filter because i definitely had no bike.No worrie though, within 24 hours i would be building up my clunker out of "donated"parts from club members...
I can’t blieve how nice the place we are staying in is in Santa Monica. Green and leafy like in all the movies and walking distance to the beach and Santa Monica Pier which has a theme park on it.We have recieved our new team kit which looks pretty sexy. I just hope it’s not too hot in summer being black.Anyway this weekend is our first race somewhere. I hope my bike stays sticky-taped together/The weekend after is our first big race. Apparently there wil be a full Rock Racing team and Toyota United Team racing. I wonder if MArio Cippolini can give me a lead out or if Tyler Hamilton will push me up the climbs.We’ll see.
Sorry for the long blog and thanks for reading.
Steffo
Currently reading : The Rough Guide to Los Angeles 4 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) By J. D. Dickey Release date: 21 November, 2005
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Ready Set Go

2008-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 02, 2008
Ready set go Current mood: adventurous Category: Travel and Places
READY SET G!!
The tickets have been purchased and the bags are almost packed.
It is only 2 weeks until i jet off for destination USA now. I have been getting lots of emails from the team management over there and it sounds like all the members are getting some early season results. Hopefuly i can find some form by the saturday before i leave so that i can put on a show for all you boys at the sunbury club, and defend my VISY Sunbury Classic title at Calder Park raceway. (i hope we can warm up on the THUNDERDOME). I think that instead of watching "Tour highlights"the night before, i will watch Days of Thunder! :)
For those who didn't attend, the Sunbury club put on a nice fundraiser night for me this past Saturday. It was a big one with a full house, lots of generous donations and now one 21 year old cyclist who is stressing a lot less about his financial situation when he heads overseas. THANKS BOYS & GIRLS
This weekend i have my final training camp before i leave. The Cycle City/FELT BIKES team will be headed to Bendigo for some good training and to watch the Madisson. For those who have never been to this event, you have no idea how big it is and how good the atmosphere is. There is always twice as many spectators as any of the other Track races inAustralia. (Yes that includes Revolution). It will be a lot of fun.
Anyway i am making the most of the time i have left here. Last week i did some cross training with Jane. We did a hike in the Lerderderg Gorge. It makes you really apreciate bike riding and understand how slow and crap walking really is.
Anyway i will try to keep you readers up to date on my big adventure, so keep tuning in to this blog.
Go Nuts! Chris
Oh i also did the Otway Odyssey Marathon last week. was going good until my bike and body failed. (more body than bike)..
Currently listening : The King of What's Poppin' - Michael Jackson Hits Remixed [Mixtape] By Michael Jackson
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Test

2008-08-07T17:20:00.001-07:00

theis is a test yep a test

Elk Grove Tour Race Report

2008-08-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Tour of Elk Grove Report

RACE: The Tour of Elk Grove, Illinois WHO: Kiwi (P.Rennie), Yankee (N.Martinez), Aussie (C.Steffanoni) FINAL G.C.: Yankee 32nd, Aussie 33rd, Kiwi 35th
At this point, i'm sure you are all thinking, "were those hubbards handlebars all tied together or something?"...fair question, but the truth is that the race organizers use the term 'criterium very loosley over here in Illinois. Our tour consisted of one 70km criterium on saturday and another 80km criterium 24hours later, on the exact same course. In the end basically everyone finished on the same time.
An Elk in the Grove
Stage 1. The course for stage 1 was one of my favourite variety. Back at home we would call it a 'hotdog crit' because it has tight hairpin turns in it. Actually the course was more of a bent hotdog crit, or maybe even an 'L' shaped crit as it had an extra turn in it. Either way it was much funner and more technical than your stock standard four corner block crit. We came into the race with a plan. With our sprint ace Yankee looking like he had some form, the Kiwi and Aussie would try to hold the race together so it would come down to a bunch sprint for our big legged Septic Tank (Yank) to take out. It was not too far into the race when we suffered a bit of a blow i saw the Yankee decide to exfoliate his backside, arms and palms by sliding accross the stinkin hot ashphalt on a corner. I had almost got the smell of burning flesch out of my sinus' from Superweek. Oh how we all love that smell dont we. Anyway, with both his wheels tacoed Mexican style, Nick got some fancy new ZIPP wheels from SRAM and re-entered the race. With adreanalin still pumping through his veins Nick was now ready to contest some of the big money intermediate sprint primes. Kiwi and I did our best to get the Yank into position at the pointy end of the field on these sprint laps. That bloke certainly has a nice jump on him, but unfortunatelly got rocked by one or two other big sprinters. He still managed to pick up some money though which was nice.
At various stages in the race the Kiwi and went off the front of the bunch with a number of groups, none of whichpeloton
In the last few laps of the race a couple of riders got away from the peloton and bad pelotonning prevented us from pegging them back. With no teams taking control of the peloton the last 3 laps became what can only be described as a $H!T-Fight. We just couldn't get close enough to the front (without hopping up onto the footpath/sidewalk) Still we got some cash and the race commentators were grrring about us all race...even if they did think we mmme all called Peter Rennie...grrr Then we rode home and i ate two bloody steaks mmm.
STAGE 2. It was convenient having our new sognieur Molly along for the weekend. She could chauffeur our wounded warrior Nick to the start of the race, whilst the Kiwi and I rode down to the race start. It became apparent along the way that both of our legs are pretty cooked at the moment. My legs are starting to feel the effects of 2 months 'On Tour' with lots of races and also coming off a week crook. It is a great feeling when you cant get your legs to put out any power. They just seem to be stuck on weak autopilot mode the whole time. I call this feeling 'DISNEYLAND LEGS' ...and it is not a good feeling.
This race seemed to be a bit more aggressive than the previous day. Probably because the Kiwi went blocks from the gun which is always interesting to watch. He was all fired up to be the most talkedprimét man for the second day running, and obviously was trying to catch some sprint primé money. I also tried to smack it off the front. Although it didn't take long for Mickey and Minnie to start eating at those Disneyland legs. Those two are even worse than old mateshivveringtate when he makes an appearance in your legs. I spent the next 20 laps shivvering cold with goosebumps at the back of the field in 95degree weather. In the mean time, Kiwi and Yank were contesting the big mid-ndce sprint. The Kiwi brought the Yank to the front of the pack safely and they ran 2nd and 3rd indthe sprint.thucks that you got half a grand for 1st over the line but nothing for 2nd, 3rd or 79th. A few laps later there was another sprint. I drilled it up the gutter with the big-legged sprinter on my wheel and positioned him for the sprinballancesime he pulled it ofYAYdestroying all his opittytion and increasing our bank ballances at the same time. YAY go team! It's a pitty that we couldn't replicate the sprint again for the final lap. Instead, we all just through elbows, headbutts and shot gaps to finish a few places back in the field.
All in all we came away with a bunch of positives from tWoohoo grove tour. We all STEFFOack to LA now to knock up the local scene.
Woohoo Good Horse!
STEFFO
Please note that any information i have just writwrittingbe completely and utterly incorrect. If pete is the case, pledefinitylain in writting to Peter Rennie.
pete says would have most definity won if he had just been faster