Team Colavita All Smiles After a Great Weekend

Junior girls Briana Luthman, Michelle Blake and Zoe Mullins proudly show off their medals from the weekend's LAJRS races, where junior girls and boys are scored seprately

Casey Braga explains his category 4 race in great detail with Colavita coach Carlos Soler

Alex Spook, category 3 Colavita racer, and his dad, Steve Spook

Taylor Warren, category 4 Colavita racer, and his dad, Dean Warren, playing around at Saturday's race. Carlos stands in the background with a look of "what have I gotten myself into coaching these kids."

Christian Teather describes to his dad the events of his first ever category 4 race.

Taylor Warren and Ian McGauvran enjoy the free massages provied after the race

Michelle Blake still grinning even after crashing in the final lap of the Womens 1-4 race on Saturday. She showed her recovery skills by coming back the next day to win the womens 4 race in a field sprint.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Walter Rentz and everyone on Team ORC who worked to make this weekend a success. We really appreciated the effort you put out to have prizes and primes for every category as well as scheduling the junior races as LAJORS, you guys put on a great race.

Photo Credits go to Brad Gordon, Jan Chalmers, Michelle Blake and Dean Warren

Orlando Time Trial February 23rd

Jos Chalmers 1st 14:55
Dean Warren 4th 15:51
Taylor Warren 6th 16:07
Bradley Gordon 12th 16:40
Brandon Forman 15th 17:10
Anselm Teather 25th 18:14
Michelle Blake 30th 18:29
Anne Teather 36th 21:55

ORC Race Weekend Results

Saturday

Winter Garden Circuit Race

Junior 10-12
Tate Harper 1st

Junior 13-14

Anselm Teather 4th

James Mertens 9th

Zoe Mullins 10th

Junior 15-16
Casey Braga 5th
Michelle Blake 7th
Christian Teather 8th
Briana Luthman 9th

Junior 17-18

Bradley Gordon 6th

Jos Chalmers 8th

Taylor Warren 11th

Alex Spook 13th

Brandon Forman 14th

Ian McGauvran 17th

Category 3
Jos Chalmers 4th
Alex Spook 45th

Category 4

Taylor Warren 3rd

Casey Braga 23rd

Ian McGauvran 29th

Dean Warren 31st

Brandon Forman 41st

Women 4
Michelle Blake 8th

Sunday

Lake Mary Criterium

Junior 10-12

Tate Harper 1st

Junior 13-14
Anselm Teather 7th
Zoe Mullins 8th
James Mertens 12th

Junior 15-16

Casey Braga 3rd

Christian Teather 7th

Michelle Blake 8th

Briana Luthman 14th

Junior 17-18
Taylor Warren 5th
Ian McGauvran 6th
Jos Chalmers 9th
Bradley Gordon 12th
Brandon Forman 13th
Alex Spook 15th

Category 3

Jos Chalmers 7th

Alex Spook 41st

Category 4
Casey Braga 7th
Ian McGauvran 11th
Bradley Gordon 13th
Taylor Warren 15th
Christian Teather 33rd
Dean Warren 34th

Women 4

Michelle Blake 1st

Zoe Mullins 7th

Anne Teather 10th

Florida Racing Magazine

The Florida Racing Magazine has become a very popular source of cycling information lately, with over 2, 500 fans on facebook and countless readers of its bi-monthly issues. In the latest edition, released just today, Team Colavita's Josiah Chalmers is featured on the front cover, celebrating his Cat 3 win in the first race of the year. Dean Warren contributed some beautifully written articles about the Junior races so far this year, highlighting the achievements of everyone who raced and the success of some of our prominent junior teams in Florida. (Mr.Warren's junior articles can be found on pages 26-29 for Deland, and 38-39 for Gainesville). Michelle Blake received some recognition for her placing at the Gainesville Crit in the article by Heather Davis (pg 40-43) and Jos is mentioned in the breakaway for the San Antonio Road Race (pg 58).

To read these and other articles from the current issue of Florida Racing Magazine, click here

Dade City Road Race

Congratulations to Jos Chalmers who won the Category 3 Road Race this weekend in San Antonio. A race report by Tony Chalmers:
Saturday's Dade City road race was a combined Pro 1 2 & 3 field of 120 men racing over a 68 mile undulating course. There was an early break by 3 pro riders followed by an 8 man break of 7 pro 1 2 riders and Jos. The 8 man group bridged to the leading 3 and that contingent stayed together and built a 4 minute lead over the chasing peloton. Jos won the Cat 3 race by over 2 minutes and came 6th in the Pro 1,2 race, finishing 4 minutes ahead of Brevard Pro 1,2 riders Earl Bradley and Gary Stern.

Ian McGauvran also competed on Saturday, finishing midpack with the Category 4 racers and coming in 28th place.

No one from Colavita raced Sunday at the criterium because there were no junior races being held.

Gainesville Photos

Alex Spook, Jos Chalmers, Casey Braga, and Ian McGauvran (not in picture) get ready go right before the start of their team time trial Saturday

Team Colavita riders warm up on trainers Sunday in preperation for the junior race. Look at all that red and green! We had a total of 11 juniors competing this weekend, wow!

Colavita juniors sprint off the line in Sunday's 10-18 race

Alex Spook and Jos Chalmers in the Category 3 pack made for an interesting race through the streets of downtown Gainesville

More photos can be viewed here by Michelle Blake

Gainesville Race Weekend

Results

Saturday Time Trial

Junior 13-14
James Mertens 31:08 6th

Junior 15-16

Casey Braga 24:14 1st

Briana Luthman 30:03 3rd

Junior 17-18
Brandon Forman 24:58 7th

Category 3

Josiah Chalmers 20:28 1st

Alex Spook

Category 4
Casey Braga 22:30 3rd
Ian McGauvran 23:13 4th

Women 4

Michelle Blake 26:06 3rd

Team Time Trial

Category 3,4,5

Team Colavita: Jos Chalmers, Alex Spook, Ian McGauvran, Casey Braga 30:29 2nd

Sunday Criterium

Junior 10-12
Tate Harper 1st

Junior 13-14

Zoe Mullins 6th

James Mertens 9th

Junior 15-16
Casey Braga 1st
Briana Luthman 7th

Junior 17-18

Alex Spook 1st

Ian McGauvran 2nd

Bradley Gordon 6th

Jos Chalmers 7th

Brandon Forman 15th

Category 3

Jos Chalmers 3rd

Alex Spook 36th

Category 4

Bradley Gordon 7th

Casey Braga 10th

Brandon Forman 23rd

Ian McGauvran 24th

Women 1,2,3,4

Michelle Blake 3rd (1st in Women 4)

Please comment on any results that are missing or incorrect.

Team Colavita Gets Press

Spook, Gutterplan fly to firsts at wet and windy Spring Fling

Hometown bicycle racers Alex Spook and David Guttenplan dominated the top categories of the Spring Fling road season-opener last weekend near Deland. The first race date on the Florida Points Series calendar drew the Sunshine State's elite riders, some snow-bird pros fleeing wintry northern weather and even a few warmth-seeking Europeans
Riding for his new team — the nationally prominent Colavita/ Sutter Home Racing Team — Spook repeatedly attacked the 30-man Category 3 field. Halfway through the cold and windy 42-mile road race in horse farm country, the Chiles High junior escaped in a breakaway with five other riders.
"We cooperated until about 500 meters to go," said Spook, who won the juniors Georgia State Criterium Championships last summer.
After bridging a one-minute gap, Spook's teammate Jos Chalmers caught the breakaway and kept on going. Spook jumped on Chalmers' wheel and the pair left their dumbfounded rivals behind.
Chalmers gave the perfect lead-out to Spook who came around him for the victory at the finish line.
"I owe the win to Jos. He gave an amazing performance," said Spook who plans to race most of the FPS and Florida Cup events, the Athens Twilight Criterium, the UCI Tour of the Red River Gorge, and the Canadian Tour L'Abitibi.
Leon High alum and recent University of Florida graduate David Guttenplan is one of only three Tallahassee natives to have made it into the national ranks of professional bicycle racers.
The other two are Team Type 1's Phil Southerland and Morgan Patton.
For the past four years, "the Gut," as his teammates call him, has managed to juggle earning a cum laude degree in civil engineering with winning a few big races, breaking a few collarbones in crashes and working for his Mountain Khaki's/ Jittery Joe's team.
Now that he is free of school, Guttenplan decided to give himself a year to see how far his legs can take him as a professional cyclist. If his 2010 racing debut at the Spring Fling is an indication, Guttenplan's dream has begun to come true.
Online Article: Here

Team Colavita Junior, Bradley Gordon, also made the front picture of this article in the Gainesville Sun

Click Here to read the full article

Deland Race Weekend

This past weekend, Team Colavita sprinted off the start line to begin the 2010 Florida Racing Season. With 15 racers coloring the fields in red and green, we accumulated 4 spectacular wins over the first two days of racing. Saturday's races were weighted down with rain and overcast skies but the wet did nothing to dampen Colavita spirits. Jos Chalmers and Alex Spook lit a flame when they were able to do some successful team tactics and launch Jos off the front of the category 3 field. Teammates warming up for the next race kept track of time splits, while Jos powered away from the pack with two other riders and Alex countered every single attempted chase, stretching the break out to a full minute. Coming down to the final sprint, Jos defeated the others to take an amazing win. Later in the day, all of the Colavita youngsters assembled on the start line for the Junior 10-18 race. With a field of 30 riders, we were the best represented team with 12 Italian colored jerseys, earning us a couple mentions on the microphone. Right from the beginning, there was a breakaway of 4 riders in the 15-18 race lead by Bradley Gordon and Alex Spook. With the help of teammates back in the field blocking, they were able to stay away for the entire time and when it came down to the sprint, Bradley and Alex placed 2nd and 3rd in 17-18. Casey Braga started the year off right , winning the 15-16 race.

Sunday's road race was kicked off by Michelle Blake who took the win in the Women 4, aggressively out-sprinting her competition. Jos and Alex pulled out another astounding show in the category 3's. Alex made it into a breakaway of 4 riders, gaining 30 seconds on the pack, ably held up by Jos. With one lap to go in the race it seemed that no one could catch them but Jos took off and soloed up to the break just in time to lead Alex out for the win, claiming 1st and 2nd places. In the category 4 race, Casey Braga, Taylor Warren, Ian McGauvran and Bradley Gordon worked together to strategically place attacks during the race but finished in the field. Brandon Forman had a spectacular finish in junior 17-18, sprinting to a 2rd place, just .3 seconds behind John (Mateo) Zuluaga

Results

Saturday Circuit Race

Junior 13-14
Zoe Mullins 6th
James Mertens 8th

Junior 15-16

Casey Braga 1st

Michelle Blake 4th

Briana Luthman 5th

Junior 17-18
Bradley Gordon 2nd
Alex Spook 3rd
Taylor Warren 5th
Jos Chalmers 8th
Ian McGauvran 9th
Brandon Forman 10th

Category 3

Jos Chalmers 1st

Alex Spook

Category 4
Taylor Warren 9th
Casey Braga 14th
Bradley Gordon 15th
Ian McGauvran 25th
Brandon Forman 34th

Category 5

Dean Warren 21st

Women 4

Michelle Blake 8th

Masters +65

Neville Brabrook 2nd

Sunday Road Race

Junior 13-14

Zoe Mullins 3rd

Anselm Teather 6th

James Mertens 8th

Junior 17-18

Brandon Forman 2nd

Category 3

Alex Spook 1st

Jos Chalmers 2nd

Category 4
Bradley Gordon 11th
Taylor Warren 14th
Casey Braga 15th
Ian McGauvran 28th

Women 4

Michelle Blake 1st

Masters +45

John Gibson 20th