Colavita Florida Fields Three Young Riders in CA Florida Juniors Represent Sunshine State in USAC 2008 Junior Nationals! A U-23 rider and sixteen juniors from all over the state of Florida ventured to Orange County, California from August 6-10 to race the Individual Time Trial, Criterium, and Road Race that made up the 2008 US Elite/U-23/Junior National Road Championships by USA Cycling. The youngest (and fasted 11 year old) was Anselm Teather riding for Colavita Florida and posting outstanding results of 11th in the ITT, 20th in the Crit, and 12th in the RR. Brother Christian and teamate Michelle Blake also rode the red, white, and green of Colavita Florida. Rounding out the central Florida contingent was Henry "Will" Willis of ASV. The "oldest" at age 20 was Jacquelyn Crowell racing Women U-23 for University of Florida Cycling. The Orlando Road Club had Lucas Wardein and Neil Shepherd racing the blue and yellow, while the orange clad Team Laser-Es of Miami brought Marcos Rodriquez and Andres Cano. Preferred Alliance also sported the duo of Eddie Solorzano and Amir Merali from South Florida, where Kevin McGuire rides for ACT and Jay Major races for JAR. North Florida was represented by Michael Neimi of Gainesville racing for Cycle Science, who also fielded Steven Rusnak from the Gulf Coast. Ashlyn Gerber pedalled to 7th in the ITT for Team Swift, then improved to 6th in the crit and 5th in the RR. Jacqueline Kurth of Team Kenda Tire posted the best results of a Florida junior with a 4th place ITT, 6th place crit, and 2nd in the RR. Congratulations to all those who participated in this National event which features some of the stiffest competition from all across the country. For more pictures see Michelle's photo album and Jr. National's 1 and 2 on this site. Read about the young racer's experiences in their blogs: Michelle, Ashlyn, Jackie C, and Will.

Christian Teather Smiles in Sunny California Older Teather Enjoys Fierce Battle in Junior 13-14 Road Race! Christian's road race began ominously with his chain jamming on lap one. He stayed calm and showed patience by pulling over and waiting for the SAG vehicle to fix it. This placed him dead last on the field, almost a mile adrift of the peloton and pretty far behind other riders getting dropped from the furious early pace. He stuck it out, dug deep within his reserves, and started climbing up to some of those ahead of him. After passing one that couldn't keep his pace he was able to pull a little group of three together, teaching the young riders how to work together in a pace line. They got the hang of it and towards the end of lap one had worked their way past a few more suffering riders but picked up another small group. At the end of the first lap they had a nice working group of seven. On the big climb Christian was sharing 4th wheel with one of the original kids he pulled up, when the rider elbowed him out of the line. At that point Christian thought "forget sharing and working together now", and employed the bumping skills taught on Heitzleman by Coach Diane, shoving the rider back out of the line. His competitor actually apologized at this point saying "OK, sorry" but fell away from the group. They raced to the finish with Christian getting to roll-out happier than ever, in 47th place, saying he never had more fun in a bike race and wished he could do it again! What a terrific experience in Southern California for the Colivata Florida junior!!

Concord Hosted a Short Track Downtown Crit CycleHardPaul Completes Crossroads Series Colavita Florida masters racer Paul Hardison returned to the Charlotte area July 25 to contest 13 criteriums over 10 days in a series promoted by Neal Boyd featuring local Carolina riders. In his 2nd visit to the series Paul brought new junior rider Peter Jones racing for Gruppo Strada presented by Sprockets Bike Shop of Saint Augustine, Florida. The masters and junior rider enjoyed the local competition, the southern hospitality of a number of small to medium size North Carolina towns, and competed through August 3rd when the series culminated with the NRC decades old Hanes Park Classic. The Salisbury Post ran an article covering the racers invasion into the NC town which features the Colavita Florida racer, one of only a handful to race the entire series and also double up on races at key venues. Race Management Services provided an extremely efficient process to allow competitors to focus on racing their bikes by creating a streamlined registration system and rapid posting of results at PRE-REG.com. If they missed the quickly posted results at the course, they could look them up online back at the local hotel! Some racers said this was helpful for checking out the competition when preparing for the next day's race. Italian riders Luca Damiani and David Frattini sprinted to 1st and 2nd place finish ahead of TIME's Thomas Soladay and TOSHIBA'S Mark Hekman in the PRO-1-2 July 31st Salisbury Criterium. The race was part of the Crossroads Cycling Classic Series which sees professional and amateur racers competing in nine criterium events over 10 days in the North Carolina Piedmont region. The Colavita Pro Cycling Mens Team was primarily there to prepare for the Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium where they fielded a team of 6 riders and delivered Alejandro Borrato to the frontstretch where he paid their efforts back with a dominant sprint victory. They also racked up a win earlier in the week in downtown Concord, NC with the talented Argentinean sprinter with Luis Alberto Romero in tow on the finish line. The night before in Mocksville Borrajo also edged out Mark Heckman for the victory.