A PanAm Champ in the Chrabot Family

Mazatlan PATCO Triathlon Pan American Championships

U.S. Sweep at PanAm Champs (April 20, 2008 )
Two relative newcomers to the Elite triathlon world pulled upset victories today at the 2008 PATCO Triathlon Pan American Championships in the resort city of Mazatlan, Mexico. Jillian Petersen and Matt Chrabot of the United States ran away with the continental titles after thrilling break aways on the bike in both competitions surprised many top veterans who were unable to close the gap. This is the first major title for both young athletes and makes it the second year in a row for the U.S. sweep of the gold medals.

In the women’s race Petersen, who’s highest finish in an ITU race was third at the 2008 Nevis Pan American Cup a month ago, crossed the line first in a time of 1 hour 56 minutes and 36 seconds. In three short years the ex-Collegiate runner has gone from competing in her first triathlon to Pan American Champion.

“It is my first time in Mazatlan and I love this kind of weather,” said Petersen of the hot and humid conditions. “It was an amazing race, the team work with Alicia [Kaye] on the bike was fundamental.”

Petersen used her strong swimming skills to exit the water in the front group and joined an efficient lead pack of two to put almost a minute on the top runners in the field. From there the former USA Age Group champion put more time into the chasers and finished almost two minutes ahead of second place and 2008 Olympian Lauren Groves of Canada. In third was hometown favourite Adriana Fabiola Corona of Mexico, a further 40 seconds back.

In the men’s race, the 24-year old Chrabot, who’s previous best result was a second at the 2007 Kelowna Pan American Cup, comfortably finished in a time of 1 hour 47 minutes and 9 seconds, over a minute ahead of 2008 Olympian and pre-race favourite Jarrod Shoemaker from the U.S. Shoemaker, who skipped this weekend’s U.S. Olympic Trials as he has already qualified for Beijing, managed to nudge out Francisco Serrano of Mexico in a final sprint for the silver.

“I live in Virginia so I am used to these kinds of aggressive waves,” said Chrabot of the 15-foot waves greeting the athletes as they started the ocean swim.

“I expect the same race in my next competition at the [Richards Bay] World Cup.”

Just as in the women’s event, Chrabot broke away early in the bike leg with only one other athlete after exiting the water in first, building his lead to insurmountable two minutes 30 seconds after the bike.

From there it was a battle for second as the young American’s proven run speed ushered him to his career’s first ITU title.

Earlier in the day the younger athletes took to the beach for the Junior Championships over the same course. At the finish it was Canadian Sarah-Anne Brault and Mexican Rodrigo Gonzalez who claimed the title of Continental Champion.

In the Under23 competition it was rising star Barbara Riveros Diaz from Chile to claim the women’s title with Jeff Symonds of Canada winning the men’s race.

Virginia Tech Wins ACCC Title

Conference Championships 4/19-20

Day 1

ACCC Road Race Championships

Coming into the road race championships, the team's plan was to have Steven (2nd overall) shadow Navy's Ryan McFeely (1st overall), while Bryan tried all he could to advance his 3rd overall spot. This kind of omnium makes for interesting racing.

Flash forward to 2 laps to go, a break of 4 gets up the road with my teammate John Zaccone. I was near the front and was able to jump onto Georgetown's Sean Barrie's wheel who towed me all the way to the break. Another group of 2 bridges right behind us, followed by Bryan, who ended up dropping Wake Forest's Eric Fonville (and fellow VT alumnus) on the way.

VT now had 3 in the break of 8. Bryan attacked off the front and John countered in the final 3 Km. The break completely shut down.

John soloed for the win. Bryan took 3rd in the bunch sprint while I forgot where the finish was and ended up last in the bunch for 8th, awhoops.


ACCC Team Time Trial Championships - 45 Km in the rain

Unfortunately, I was not apart of the TTT team. My teammates complained that they never could get a draft off me while I'm in my TT position, so I gladly obliged to not race.


Eoin getting molested by Owen


The team takes 2nd place for the TTT, trailing Navy by 1 minute. Perhaps with aero equipment, the team may have won.


Good job guys, work together! You hear these same words of motivation whether you're in the breakaway or tailing off the back with other dropped riders.


ACCC Championships Banquet

There was an ice sculpture, a slide show, and an awards ceremony. Lots of food was eaten and good times were had by all.



Day 2

ACCC Criterium Championships

Before a big race, Owen likes to get dressed on the bike.

Because of Bryan's 3rd place the day before, Steven got bumped to third place in the overall. Now Bryan was 2nd, trailing to Navy's Ryan McFeely by 5 1/2 points. We had to get Steven as many points as possible through primes and good placings for the finish, while Bryan simply had to come in front of Ryan at the finish for VT to go 1-2 in the overall.

The criterium was really fast and really hard. I had super legs because of not doing the TTT the day before.

I was Steven's man for all of the 6 primes (ouch!). I covered alot of attacks and got into some breaks of my own. We rode a super aggressive race and Virginia Tech dominated with 7 riders in the race.

In the last 3 laps, NC State's Matt Howe attacked as we were organizing for the field sprint. He got a good gap. The leadout train was set for Steven and Bryan with Eoin McDonnell, myself, and Owen Nielsen taking charge. I pulled the last lap and pulled off before the last turn. Although we didn't catch Matt, Steven got 2nd and Bryan came in behind him. It was perfect textbook Fassa Bortolo lead out techniques. I am pleased with how well we raced considering the depth of the field and speed of the race.


ACCC Championships Awards Ceremony

Tim recieved the individual title for the Men's B category, and a really big trophy.

Steven got the overall individual title, a jersey, a really big trophy, and a photo with an old woman's grandson.

We are the champions, my friend.


Overall Results
I narrowly squeaked into the top 5 for the overall (1 point difference, schwing!) I will be looking forward to applying this good form when I return to race with the JBCA this summer.

Cool pic. April 13, 2008 - WVU Men's A Road Race finish

Photo Op

One of the duties of being Top Sporter is that sometimes you are required to participate in photo shoots. It is one of the more glamorous roles because you get to clean yourself up as if you're going to the prom...or racing in France.


For this, Top Sporters make sure that they're 1. Clean shaven from head to toe 2. Bikes are flawlessly clean 3. Shoes are polished 4. Legs are baby oiled up 5. Smelling fresh with expensive cologne 6. Hair is slicked back with too much product 7. Wearing their bling bling


It is incredibly important to have the director of the shoot instruct the Sporters and Top Sporters alike how to pose in the pictures. This coaching is necessary because we are bike racers, not talented actors. Note: Because the video is being taken for the official Virginia Tech Commercial, to be aired at all home football games on the JumboTron for the next 5 years, hand gestures and the like must cleverly be used.


VeloNews Magazine cover shot

beans 'n rice

My last post had begun to come to fruition when I was eating dinner about 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have failed to complete it. Let me blast you to the past for a quick recap...

Virginia Tech 4/5-4/6

I was so happy to be ready to go for the home race! After all of the trudgery of Presidential duties to the team, the race was actually happening. I was in charge of the volunteers but a BIG thanks to the VP Reid Beloni for making this whole thing happen for all of us.


A knarly course at that. I got into the break after two laps in. It was rockin'. B Mac bridged halfway through that lap. Now it was Bryan, Steven, and myself in the break. The 7 of us put 7 minutes into the peloton. OUCH! I think the peloton shattered and lots abandoned but a group of about 5 finished?


Cool beans picture. I had "promoter's legs" the whole race and never had the power. Bryan won and Steven came in right behind him. As for me...a respectable result. 7th.


Smiling because I will be drinking Chinese bubble tea later that night.


Day 2
Enter Mountain Lake. Interestingly, it is where Dirty Dancing was filmed. This day was filled with pain. I ended up covering an attack at the base and the legs wouldn't go the rest of the way. I ended up 1:18 seconds behind Bryan and placed 5th.


My man B Mac and Cheese with one of the most epic wins on record. Steven took 3rd. It was super foggy at the top.



West Virginia University 4/12-13
This is the New River Gorge Bridge. It is the 2nd highest bridge in the world at 867ft! My brother Matt whitewater rafted under this back in the day with Venture Crew.



This is really funny because B Mac found this scratch and win lotto ticket on the bathroom floor of a truck stop. I didn't pick it up because it had hepatitis on it.


Day 1
This was perhaps one of the strangest days on a time trial bike for me. Due to only having ridden once that week (Wednesday for 4.5 hrs) and having had no openers, I was absolute garbage. Third from last and something like 4 minutes down on the winning time. How did I still end up beating people? Aye carumba! I guess it didn't help that I was stuck in the 53x15 the whole time. Reality check: Make sure your bike is functioning properly.


Day 2
Sunday was a breath of fresh air. I gladly got 2nd behind my teammate, Steven Gordon (bike racer)after getting into the break of 4 during the 2nd lap. The climbs were tough but I was feeling probably the best other than Ryan McFeely from Navy, as I was pacing Steven up the climbs and over the crests. The ending was somewhat anti-climatic. Ryan is really strong but needs to work on his tactical sense. The sprint was won with whomever jumped first. Steven went and I followed. The ride of the day award however goes to Owen Nielsen for getting into the break of 3, 1 mile in, then finishing 5th. Please note that it was extremely messy that day. I think it sleeted on us going up the 1st climb on the 2nd lap.

"Sponsor Me." My cycling cap needs another paper clip.

4/3 wetsuit

Today rivals one of the coldest, wettest periods of sporting that I've ever experienced.

In high school my sophomore year, my friends and I got the bright idea to go surfing in January. The waves we not good but we felt like getting out and being bad asses. Needless to say, 1 hour after getting in we were shivering on the boardwalk, unsuccessful in our quest to get any kind of good wave catching in. The lobster gloves and booties designed to keep out extremities warm failed after about 15 minutes, or just as the water was beginning to soak through the lyrca. The wetsuits we had were 3/2, meaning 3cm on the chest, and 2cm thickness on the arms and legs. In January, you definitely would've needed a 4/3. The painful part of the whole experience was when you had to duck dive under the waves while paddling out so as to avoid getting reamed by the white wash from the previous wave. This involves dipping your board under water and following through as if you were swam diving under the wave. The frequent duck diving in January is usually followed by the famed "ice cream headache." This is where you eat ice cream too fast you and get a weird pain in the frontal lobe region of your brain. The pain subsides after a few minutes, but the initial shock really isn't pleasant. If you are lucky/smart you do in fact have gloves and perhaps a hood even; this happens to make surfing in the winter all the more enjoyable.

Riding bikes for 3 hrs in the rain while its 45 degrees is roughly the same kind of pain, only you can't just turn around when you're halfway through. The option of stopping at a gas station is also impossible when you decided to leave your apartment at 4:30 and it gets dark at 7:30. Throw in soaking wet gloves and inability to wear them longer than the first 45 minutes of the ride makes things a bit more interesting. Shifting when you can't feel your hands or feet and standing up to pedal for longer than 15 minutes at a time due to the inability to shift into an easier gear hurts the legs a bit more than normal.

Needless to say, the whole experience was probably as epic as they get and it brought me back to the good 'ol days of high school wave riding tomfoolery and ice cream headaches.

Thanks for reading,

-E

Why did Peter Rabbit cross the road?

I was riding today on 311 near New Castle when I was exposed to DEATH!




Was it some type of flesh eating disease that can only be cured by vomitting popcorn flavored jelly beans onto a blowtorch and scooping ice cream onto the wound then calling for some Gumby's Pokie Stix to soak it up? No.

This was real DEATH!

A large furry bunny rabbit, whom I cleverly named Peter Rabbit, had been chilling in his foxhole that he had cleverly dug to hide from birds of prey on the side of the road when suddenly a TOP SPORTER swished past him! ZOOM! Peter Rabbit wondered what kind of excitement could be stirring outside his nest. Was it perhaps the Tour of Flanders? No, he thought; too early and unfortunately the wrong country. Rabbits are smart.

Peter Rabbit dashed out of his hole and began to cheer on the cyclist along the busy, dangerous 2 lane road. ALLEZ!


Suddenly Peter Rabbit crossed in front of the TOP SPORTER to tell his friends when fate stepped in! A large truck had swerved and almost hit Peter Rabbit! Good thing Peter Rabbit had the reflexes of a real rabbit so that he could offer the rider a chocolate version of himself in a late celebration of Easter! YAY PETER RABBIT!

APRIL FOOLS! He actually wasn't so lucky...Poor Peter Rabbit

In other news, I found a cool road.

The long and windy road

ASU - 7th, 1st, 20thish
The last two weekends the racing turned up, literally. Last weekend, we raced at App State Univ in Boone, NC. Sat was a 54 mile RR with a 3 mi climb each lap. We did 6 laps. The first lap B-King lit it up and shattered the field. I was able to hold wheels and crest with a group of 3 other guys just behind the lead group. I wasn't feeling spectalcular considering the 5 min warmup and the climb hitting us within 5 min of the race. We rolled it pretty good, dropping a rider, then picking up Scott Jackson from LMC/DLP about 1 lap later. We ended up almost getting caught the last lap so I pulled with Scott up the hill really hard. We came into the finish 7 and 8. Props to Scott for letting get some conference points, as he was out of conference from the SEC...Always a class act! Ben racked in the win and B-Mac took 4th. Schwing.

At 4pm the TTT was set for 1 lap on the RR course. My team and I put in the fastest time by 40 seconds. Booyakashawigwam.

The next day was the crit in a mall parking lot. It was hard. It was fast. I did some work and got Bryan into the break. He did well and finished 1st after 25 laps off the front. I might have gotten 20 something. Shattered? Yes. No good legs? Maybe. Able to drive hard? Always.

JMU - 3rd
Yesterday was the uphill TT at Reddish Knob outside Harrisonburg, VA; the road was 6 miles flattish/rolling, 6 miles straight up a mountain. I put in a good effort and got 3rd. My man Ryan McFeely, from Navy, scorched it and put 2 min. into me...in season for him? Yes. 2nd place was 15 sec faster than me (I think I was 49:08). I had a sweet skid into my start time and barely made it by 5 sec. Unfortunately I was in the 53x11 after warming up and it took some time to realize this before shifting and getting up to speed. The course didn't seem impossible, and I think I may have given the only woman on our team a push! Foul? Yes and extremely not allowed while sporting. Nonetheless a pleasing result.

Today...err UVA - 2nd
60 mi course during Jeff Cup race: We started at 9am in the snow...basically. I was really warm, I had some super hot flaming sports balm on...everything?I put some on my legs and arms and down where I should'nt have (on accident!). I was hurting and wanting to get into the weather and race. Luckily I had a rain jacket b/c the roll-out soaked everyone. I ended up ditching my rain slick 3 laps in right before my man Reid was getting towed in after a stupendous breakaway effort with a NAVY compadre. We rode hard and I "attacked" on the first hill of the 5th lap. It shattered guys then the attacks began to fly. I ended up rolling off the front with a UNC rider and a UMD rider. We rolled it pretty good. I was bonking by the middle of the last lap and got dropped with 800m to go. Bummer? Yes. 2nd place was nice though because my parents were able to see me race today and fun was had by all. (Back to back podiums? Fun also.)