A Quick update

We haven't updated this in a little bit, but here is a quick update on 2 great things Friends has going this month.

First Jordan Haggard took second in the El Dorado Tuesday night crit a few weeks ago and followed it up with a phenomenal break away first place finish the following week to take the overall series lead by 1 point.

Second, Michael Roecklein took third overall in the Bob Hansing Memorial Cup in Encino by riding to a first place finish in the points race. In the 40 lap race, Mike took 1 point on the first sprint then went on a solo break away to get maximum 5 points on the second and third sprint. Then with 2 laps to go he closed in on the back of the field to lap the entire field for 20 more points sealing the victory.

Now that mid season is in upon us, we will, hopefully, have more great news to come.

El Dorado Twightlight series 4/22/08

El Dorado's Tuesday night crit series provided a great race on April 22nd. Friends Cycling was able to break away from the group with 2 teammates and 2 future teammates. Jordan Haggard led the charge, followed by Michael Roecklein, Jake, and Matt. A few other riders managed to gap to the break before we really pulled away, giving us about 9 riders in all. And although some riders were not able to pull a maximum effort, the break managed to stay away until the last few laps. Michael Roecklein fell back to the pack with a few others leaving 5 in the break for the majority of the race. What the break away group had not discussed, though, was who would take the 2nd prime and when one rider sprinted for those points, the break started to fall apart.
Even after bing in the break for most of the race, Jake was still able to pull off a victory when all was said and done, thanks to a move by Jordan Haggard to rev up the speed of the pack going into the last turn, effectively preventing a bunch sprint.

Sea Otter Day 2 - Circuit Race

The Circuit Race took place on Laguna Seca Raceway, and was by far the best road I have ever raced on. The road was simply pristine. However by the start of the Cat-5 race at 9:00 am it was extremely cold and extremely windy once again. The wind was so bad that it blew you sideways once you got to the top of the main climb in the track. Official results are available for the entire Cat-5 race, but we do know that Jacques Johnson finished around 35th and Michael Roecklein finished a few minutes behind him. Jacques managed to stay with the breakaway group for much of the race, putting him in great position to finish his second race ever in great form. Later on in the day around 3:00 pm the Cat-4s took to the same track, in what would turn out to be a great race for Friends Cycling. Jordan Haggard took advantage of the infamous corkscrew to keep a prominent position in the main group, while Kyle Stallings saved his energy near the back of the same pack. Both men finished with great results.

Jordan Haggard took 7th place

Kyle Stallings took 19th place

Sea Otter turned out to be just as hard as advertised, but much more fun than we could have imagined.

Sea Otter Day 1 - Road Race

We left at 12:00 am so that we would get to the race at around 6:00 am. We only had hotel rooms for Friday night and Saturday night, so we decided to drive through the night.

Jordan and Kyle had the first race of the day at 8:00 am. The road course was long hard and cold. The boys did a great effort and managed to stay towards the front of the group.



Kyle Stallings took a 17th place finish





Jordan Haggard took a 25th place finish.




The race took a lot out of everyone. Much later in the day, around 5:00 pm, because the race had been pushed back 2 hours, Michael Roecklein took to the same course. He found it much more difficult, and extremely windy and cold (42 degrees).

Michael Roecklein took 43rd place.