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first win of 2010
sean neilson ripped the field at the red trolley crit in san diego this past sunday [7 feb 2010] and took the first win of the season for team becher+. we are all on cloud 9.

not only did sean rip it up on sunday in the crit, he mounted a superb campaign on saturday at the epic boulevard road race, coming in 8th after a long cold, wet effort.  any top 10 finish at boulevard is a huge achievement.

the team is looking forward to giving sean and others more support in the coming months, so look for more wins and plenty of top 10 finishes, as this is finally our year to dominate. our whole team this year is full of depth, strength, courage, discipline and all out desire by everyone to work for the team and attack the field, good results will only follow.

i have a few more posts coming, as we have had our first team camp a few weeks ago, which was a huge success and other team news. we would of course like to thank our sponsors for helping to make sean's win possible, becher+, enervit, bobo's hamburgers, masi, midnight oil creative, iMartin, and greg jarrett. we would also like to thank all of those companies that give us support, especially louis garneau.

[sean's race reports]

boulevard road race

Today was the boulevard road race and someone ordered a lot of rain.

The day was filled with rain and cold. The highest temp I saw all day was 46 degrees. The course begins with a fair climb that leads into a long shallow descent then climbs back up to the start. Climbs are average 5 to 6% grade. We did roughly 50 miles, 2 laps.

100 people strarted in the rain and cold. But once we were rolling the temp wasn’t such an issue as the body heat rose. With the centerline rule in effect and a full field I knew position was most important. I got a good start and was never outside the top 10. The first half lap was fairly easy with a tempo pace. After that first half lap though legs and lungs were burning. Being at 4000 feet the air was thin. A group of us began to ride away from the group, about 15 of us. The pace was high and I was sucking air on the climb. I was shelled and in pain.

The rain didn’t let up and the chase began as I was beginning to feel better. I chased for a bit and caught up to a group of 4 guys and worked with them trading pulls and trying to close down the gap. On the last big climb I was feeling good and went to take my pull and just kept pulling until I realized I had some how ridden the whole group off my wheel leaving me to cross the line alone. Ended up 8th, unfortunately out of points and money.

Boulevard Road Race  (Rank 2.0)
Category 4
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	270784	Brian Wilson	Moment Cycle Sport	28
2	256517	Henry Valenzuela lll	PAA / RE/MAX	22
3	294285	Marco Menchaca	TriSports Cycling/Eclipse Racing	20
4	269508	Nick Gillock	Herbalife LaGrange	18
5	292387	Brien Miller	Unattached	16
6	295278	Roman Gama	Citrus Valley Velo	14
7	288624	Jonathan Hornbeck	Team Ranchos	12
8	288949	Sean Neilson	Team Becher+	10
9	272524	Taylor Vaccari	Coates Cyclery Racing Team	8
10	20386	Jay LaRiviere	Peninsula Cycle Club	6

red trolley crit

Red Trolley Crit. Today was the exact opposite to yesterday. Nice blue skies with some clouds and a bit of wind.

The course is super fun with turns 1 and 2 flat and turn 3 being a fast sweeper downhill and a bit tighter but fast and fun! After turn 4 is a big ring climb that flattens to the start/finish line. Front straight had a bit of a head/cross wind and between 1 and 2 a cross wind. Rest of the course was tailwind and fast.

After yesterday having a good night relaxing and resting I felt good. From the start pace was high and the group was dropping riders every lap. I would consistently keep myself at the front being protected on the headwind and using the tailwind to my advantage to move forward. With about 20 minutes left I and another fella gave it a go and attacked the group on the climb. We would last for 1 lap as the group wasn’t going to let us go. So I would just make sure I wouldn’t let myself get swarmed and as soon as it would begin to get crowded at the front I would get up and push the pace a bit to keep position. Halfway through last lap attacks started to come so I pushed to keep with front group. Went so fast through last corner I drifted a bit before opening up a sprint on the climb probably about 8th wheel back. I went wide while everybody was wrestling for inside line and just put my head down and butt up. I was able to hold pace and come accross the line arms in the air and a loud ‘yeah!’

I couldn’t be any happier to deliever the first win of many for Team Becher+ in 2010!