Friday, June 19, 2009

Karlsberg Stage 3-5
















For the first time in a few weeks this is actual myself blogging instead of my dad. I arrived back into Houston on Monday and have been extremely busy with finishing my school. Here is an update on how Trofeo Karlsberg finished:

Stage 3A

Stage 3a was an 11 km tt. The course was somewhat rolling for about 6 km before a 500 meter monster cobbled climb. The course then descended for about 1 kilometer before a long 4 km haul all the way to the finish line. Nathan did an amazing time trial to take 2nd on the day while I grabbed 9th and Adam finished out the top 10. This moved me into 3rd overall and Nathan into 5th. I was also 2nd place in the young rider competition, but because the leader in that competition was also the GC leader I wore the young rider jersey.

Stage 3b

Stage 3b was probably the easiest stage. We rode about 50 km out to a circuit and did 5 laps of about 6 km each. I just chilled in the peleton the entire day to conserve energy for the queen stage the next day. With about 500 meters to go I was taken out by a Slovenian, but thankfully the UCI 3 km rule saved me and gave me the same time as the peleton. Gavin was able to take 6th place in the field sprint.

Stage 4

Stage 4 was definitely the hardest of them all. It was a whopping 140 km over 5 laps, and each lap had 2 monster climbs. I stayed in the pack for the majority of the race up until the last lap and a half. A group of about 10 had gotten away in the early part of the stage and got about 2 minutes on the field, and the Dutch weren't chasing (they had the leaders jersey). Starting with about one to go, Team USA got to the front and brought the gap down to about a minute with 15 km to go. The yellow jersey then put in an attack, and I immediately jumped onto his wheel. The two of us worked pretty hard and eventually bridged up to an Italian that had been dropped out of the lead group. Nathan then bridged up to us and was later followed by a Danish rider. This made five of us and I thought for sure that we were going to stay away, but the German that was in second place sent his team to the front and eventually brought us back. By the time we got to the base of the last climb the gap was hovering around 45 seconds. Nathan then went to the front and hammered up the climb and single-handely brought the gap down to about 20 seconds by the top. With about 5 km to go the gap had only gone down to about 15 seconds. The entire USA team along with the Germans led a frantic chase and we caught the break with about 500 meters to go. Unfortunately, a Danish rider had gotten away and took the win by about 15 seconds. He also took home the overall which bumped me off of the podium into 4th place.


I'd really like to thank my parents along with Source Endurance, USA Cycling, and everyone else that has supported me this year along with the rest of my cycling career. There is no way possible that I could be out there doing what I love with out the support that I am given. Thanks!!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Trofeo Karlsberg Stage 2


Here's a translated summary of yesterdays stage -
Mark Barry is the first winner in the 22nd Trofeo Karlsberg. The price of the waterworks Bliestal he sprinted after 2:26,06 hours the finish line in Wittersheim the yellow jersey of the Karlsberg brewery. Five kilometers before the end had a group of five top 15 seconds ahead out there. The complete field of 21 teams from 20 nations chased the runaway, she is just 500 meters from the finish. In the mass sprint, the Portuguese had Daniel on Friday and the Russian Matvey Zubov beaten type. Best German was Niklas Arndt (Germany I) as a fifth. The 108 kilometer stage was started in Blieskastel been partially suffered torrential rains and strong gusts of wind. The 126 were mostly drivers together, Außreißversuche have already been nipped in the bud. The mountain jersey of Kunststoffwerke Marquardt secured the Americans Lawson Craddock, while Marco Haller from Austria, the green sprint jersey from the travel service Feibel & Tuillier and Luxairtours streak was over. First winner of the blue team jersey of Stadtwerke Bliestal and Enovos was currently in the rankings Gesamtnationencup leading Russians. The red jersey Rilchinger the mineral source of the best in the more recent vintage bears on the second stage, the price of saarVV, which concluded on Friday, 18.30 clock in Völklingen gestartetet is, the Italians Luca Wackermann. (Wolfgang Degott)
Stage 2 is 78km from Volklingen to Grosrosseln. With 3 kom and 3 sprints

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Trofeo Karlsberg







Trofeo Karlsberg starts today with a 105k stage. There's 5 stages to the Nations Cup race.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Tour du Pays de Vaud Photos







Tour du Pays de Vaud Stage 2, 3, 4 and 5






Lawson has limited Internet so I'll try and fill in the blanks ~ Tom

Stage 2 was 103k from Faoug to Blonay. The group stayed together until the tough 3k climb to the finish. The goal today was to protect Nate's yellow jersey. Jensen from Denmark attacked on the climb and finished 14 sec ahead of 4 man chase which included Nate. Lawson finished 15th 34 secs down. Nate held onto the jersey and Lawson is in 15th overall. Third in the Young Riders category.

Stage 3 - 84k Penthalaz - Corbeyrier. This was a flat stage for 78k and the last 6k was about 1400 feet of steep climbing. The plan was for Lawson, Gavin, Jacob and Adam to set tempo in the flats and for Connor and Nate to be ready for all comers once they hit the finish climb. Nate was able to go with the breaks and finished 3rd but lost the yellow jersey to Jenson by 5 seconds. Lawson had laid in on the line in the flats and gave up over 4 min by the finish. Lawson is 38th overall.
Stage 4 - 12k Individual Time Trial -Aigle - Yvorne. This stage started at the headquarters of the UCI and was pancake flat for 11k with a nasty 1k climb to the finish. For team strategy most of the riders were instructed to take it easy for the TT so save their legs for Sundays last stage. Nate and Lawson were given the nod to ride the stage all out. Nate plan was to take back the yellow and Lawson's plan was for a top finish. It was raining on and off throughout the stage and a few riders took some spills. Lawson continued exactly where he left off in Franklin TN and won the stage by 4 secs. This makes it two years in a row that an American has won the ITT at the Pays de Vaud, Taylor Phinney won it last year! Nate finished 5th 23sec off Lawson's pace and take back the yellow jersey with a 40 sec cushion over second place. Lawson moved up to 28th in the GC.

Stage 5 - 112k Villars-Sainte-Croix - Chavornay. The final stage was the the toughest of all the stages and everything was on the line to take home the yellow. The stage had three climbs totally 2900 of climbing. 13k's into the race a group of 7 got away and opened up a gap of 2 1/2 minutes. Team USA got to the front and drilled it taking the field down to about 60 riders. By the end of the stage the break away gap was less than 45 seconds and the yellow jersey was Nate's for good. Gavin and Jacob finished in the top ten for the stage

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Tour du Pays de Vaud Prologue





























Tour du Pays de Vaud Prologue
by Tom Craddock
Due to lack of internet in I'm going to post for Lawson

The first stage of the Tour du Pays de Vaud was a 3k prologue and as Ben Sharp described it on his twitter, was 1k up 1k down and 1k flat
The race was held in Lausanne, along the north shore of Lac Geneva Switzerland, no doubt amongst architecture of medieval times and gothic cathedrals (too bad I don't have photos) There's 19 teams entered and 112 completed the first stage.
Team USA took the top three spotswith Nate Brown in 1st, Adam Leibovitz took 2nd (2 seconds down) and Lawson rounded out the podium in 3rd (4 seconds down).
Team USA has will be sporting the Leader Jersey (Brown), Points Jersey (Leibovitz) and the Polka Dot Jersey (Craddock) in tomorrow's 103k stage with 810 meters of climbing! Brown actually won the three jerseys but could only wear one so his teammates are helping him out. Lawson also won the Young Riders Jersey.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

World Qualifiers and Airports




I'm going to have to cut this post short due to the fact that I'm about to lose internet and my computer is about to die. Just to recap the World Qualifiers; I won the 18 km TT over Charlie Avis and Adam Leibovitz, and qualified for the Junior World Time Trial Championships in Moscow, Russia this August. For the road race I just committed myself to the team to try and get another teammate to qualify. For the first lap and a half I sat on the front monitoring the breaks and making sure they didn't get too far up the road. During that time I dropped my chain twice on two different hills and was forced to chase hard for a couple of minutes to get back on. About halfway through the second lap, coming up the feed zone hill I got a front flat and by the time I had gotten it changed I was too far back to chase back on. I tried extremely hard for about 10 miles, but could never close the gap. Teammate, Nathan Brown, ended up taking the win to also qualify for the World Championships in Moscow.

I am currently sitting in the London airport after a trip full of problems. The US National Team (Nathan Brown, Gavin Mannion, Connor O'Leary, Adam Leibovitz, and myself) where scheduled to fly out of Nashville, TN on Monday for Chicago, but that flight was cancelled due to weather and we were rescheduled for a flight to Miami the next morning at 6:30. We stayed in Miami for about seven hours before flying out here to London. Unfortunately, that flight was delayed and we missed our final flight to Basel, Switzerland. This forced us to wait at the airport for the next flight out which was in about six hours.