Italy and Croatia

Three of CMG's juniors will be assembling in Italy tomorrow for a two week European trip with the US National Team. Jacob, Austin and Ian will be taking part in two stage races one in Italy and the other in Croatia. Both races have strong fields but the US team is packing some power as well. The blog will be updated throughout the trip so stay tuned.
CMG also had a very successful national championships in the TT all four riders were in the top 13. In the Crit Jacob made the podium with a strong 5th place finish after being off the front for a long time. In the road race things didn’t go as well but Ian took 6th Jacob 8th and Austin 13th with Marcel just a few spots back in the field. Nationals showed yet again that CMG is one of the strongest junior team in the county
CMG juniors.

A Win in Kentucky!

We are back after a very successful race in Kentucky. If you haven’t yet heard Jacob won the race giving him an automatic spot on the worlds team.
The race was held in the Red River George of eastern Kentucky, on a rolling course. The area was beautiful with all the rolling hills, creeks and jungle like forest. We stayed in a cool cabin way up in the hills, 30 minutes from the closest grocery store. It was a great place and perfect spot for a hard bike race.
The day after we arrived we had the chance to go and do a longer ride and start getting use to the humidity and hot weather, which we haven’t been having in Oregon. Our rides the two days prior were great, we saw some of the course and had some good team bonding and even got chased by some dogs.
The 69 mile race started at ten am after a short delay because of some morning fog. Fifty-nine of the nations top riders where at the race and CMG was ready to show them our strength. The first forty miles were fairly uneventful, a few riders got of the front here and there, but for the most part the field stayed together. Then after a long decent two riders just kind of rolled off the front, they were soon joined by two other riders one being Jacob. With around twenty miles the go the group off the front containing Jacob had around forty-five seconds. It was a hard finishing twenty miles containing two of the harder climbs and a long hard rolling section, however the group had some good horse power with; Jacob Rathe, Nathan Brown (last years national champion), Andrew Barker, and Adam Lebowitz (who won the TT the day before). With such a strong group up the road the gap quickly opened up to over a minute.
When the leading group hit the second to last climb of the day they dropped Leibovitz but carried on strong. Back in the field things started heating up as everyone knew that the climbs would be decisive. On the final climb of the day Jacob and Andrew dropped Nathan and were left with just the two of them for a hard eight miles still to the finish. In the field things started breaking up, and by the time they reached the top of the hill Ian was in a group of six while Austin and Marcel were in a group of seven just twenty seconds behind.
As Jacob and Andrew kept driving on towards the finish things behind began to get more tactical as everyone was wanting to save up for the finish. The group containing Austin and Marcel rejoined Ian’s group and the group was about fourteen riders going down the last decent before the flat finish. Meanwhile while all this was happening behind Jacob and Andrew were holding their lead and realized that one of them was going to win the race and go to worlds. As we all know Jacob is one of the fastest finishers around so Andrew tried to get away before the finish but Jacob was right on his wheel.
Just like every good story ends this one was no different, Jacob won the sprint and won the race, while Austin and Ian took 6th and 7th in the chase group which finished a minute behind their teammate and winner of the race. Marcel had a bad day with lady luck and had a flat on the final decent with three miles to go. There was no car to give him a wheel, but if there was it was sure that CMG would have had four out of the top ten spots.
It was great to see all four of us juniors racing at the front of the race with the best kids in the nation. CMG was by far the best team as far as having three riders in the top seven and knowing that Marcel would have finished well had he not flatted.
Next on the schedule is Elkhorn stage race over in Baker City, OR this Friday and there is not break after that either. Marcel and Austin will be leaving after a 112 mile road race on Sunday and driving to Boise for a week long USCF junior regional camp. Jacob will most likely be leaving sometime shortly after the race for Europe with the National team in preparation for worlds in South Africa in mid July.
We have been having a great time and are all enjoying the atmosphere within the team and would like the say thank you to all the people who made this happen and have given us the chance to race our bikes and special thanks to; Butch Martin for getting us all on this team and teaching us how to win races, the Swans (moms and dads who plan the trips and do everything for the riders from cooking great food to washing clothes and bottles after the race and everything else which makes it a lot easier for us to win the race), we would also like to thank all the team sponsors for their help and support .
http://cmg-racing.com/blog/sponsors/
Thanks for reading and we will keep you updated
CMG juniors
that is Andrew Barker in the picture with the tunnel behind him that we went through in the race.

Final check list

Well the team is all back in Portland getting ready for our trip back to Kentucky. We went on our final ride in Oregon today and it was great.
The bags are packed and everything it good to go (we hope), we'll be leaving early tomorrow morning and try and keep you posted.
CMG Juniors.

Photos

Some photos from the races this weekend courtesy of Marcel's father John.

Butch gave us some good advice before hand and was cheering us on out on the course.

Silverton Road Race

Yesterday was the Silverton road race. All things considered it went well, an early group containing most of the strong guys and two CMG senior riders went off the front. After that its was kind of just a race for 7Th. Marcel, Jacob and Austin all rode aggressive and were in several moves before the finish trying to get away. With 3km to go Marcel got in a group of three off the from and looked like they might hold it out till the end. However they were caught with less then one km to go on the uphill finish. Jacob won the field sprint taking 7Th with Ian right behind him and Austin behind Ian. Marcel still had a strong 18Th place finish after emptying his tank on that move right before the finish.

As a team CMG took five out of the top ten going 1(Chris)4(Seth)7(Jacob)8(Ian) and 9(Austin).

All of us are tired after a hard week of racing and training, so we'll rest up before getting in some final efforts before heading back to world trials in Kentucky on the 15Th.

CMG Juniors

TTT

Well we didn't' beat the senior team, but we still had a fast ride. We rode the 28 mile course in 57minutes and 55 seconds. It was faster then our goal so we were all happy with the result. Our time was over two minutes faster then last year and placed us sixth overall.

Today we are going down to Silverton for a 70 mile road race which should be fun.

Stay tuned

CMG juniors

Vote!!

Vote at the bottom of the page for who you think will win the TTT.
check it out

Team picture$

Some pictures from the rehearsal road race last weekend.

PIR madness!!

Tuesday night as us four juniors were heading to PIR for the weeknight race things got crazy! As we were descending a step hill Marcel’s front tire blew of the rim. He was able to stay up right but demolished the tire and tube. As we ere scrambling to get it fixed Doug Ollerenshaw came flying down the hill, but then turned around to provide some assistance. We got the wheel ride able again with a five dollar bill as a boot and about 10 psi. Then Doug offered that we go by his house and pick up a new tire. Marcel slowly rode to Doug’s house trying not to get another flat with only 10psi and a five dollar bill. Well, we made it to Doug’s house and got everything sorted out, and then were off to the race.

We arrived at the race with five minutes to spare, so everything was great. The race started off fast and stayed that way. Lots of groups got off the front but were then pulled back. With three to go CMG's own Jacob Rathe went with one other guy and were off the front. Going into the last half lap it was close whether we would catch them or not. Jacob was able to hold it and finished second with the main field breathing down his neck. The rest of the juniors finished in the field. It was a fast race, one of the fastest average speeds ever recorded around 29M.P.H.

Next up is the team time trial, we are all ready to go and are setting the bar high.
Stay tuned
CMG juniors

Training Camp

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the CMG junior blog. This week all the juniors are together in Portland to do a little training camp before we head east to Kentucky in June for the worlds trials. We are also getting ready for the team time trial which is next weekend.

Tonight we are all going out to PIR for a some weekday racing. It should be fun and stay tuned for more posts and photos.

CMG Juniors