Stage three ends in a W!

Today's circuit race started off with a bang for the Kudzu boys, literally. Two laps into the 16 lap race, Jafer's chain became twisted in his derailleur forcing him to pull into the pits for service. A frustrated Jafer waited for assistance from the Sram service pit to help fix his problem, only to be shoved back in the race before the chain became realigned. Today's course took no mercy on fallen riders as 95% of the time the peloton was in excess of 30 mph; the only hard part was the 400 meter finish climb which split the peloton every lap. Jafer was forced to pit the follwoing lap, this time receiving a neutral Sram bike while his bike was repaired, but once again he was shoved off to soon and had to stop the next lap to have his seat lowered. The following lap he stopped in the pit again since his bike was fixed and ready to go, this time in perfect working order.

Meanwhile, Oscar faced his own problems as a rear puncture ended his bid for the overall. After a quick wheel change in the pits he was back on his way, waiting for the field to catch him. The peloton finally caught up to Jafer, lapping him with five laps to go and Oscar became lapped with three to go. What made matters even worse was that Jeremy was near the pit but his radio wasn't working well, which made it difficult to communicate with him.

On the final lap, Jafer was in the top 10 over the finish climb but couldn't see Thomas or Oscar, but heard Jeremy's voice over the radio, "Oscar and Thomas, Jafer is at the front so find a wheel and get up there now!!!". A few seconds later Jafer called Thomas over the radio to see how far back he was. Thomas responded, "I'm pretty far back you might want to pick me up". After a few seconds of drifting back Thomas found Jafer's wheel and held on as they began to move back up through the field. Jafer signaled to Thomas to get ready and hold on as he moved out to the left side of the road, opposite of the peloton and began his charge. Thomas stayed glued to his wheel as the move worked and they gained an advantage over the charging field. Thomas was in perfect position, about third wheel through the final turn, where he unleashed his sprint easily taking the win by many bike lengths! Even though the race started out a disaster for the team, we didn't let that keep our spirits down. It's almost comical how two out of our three riders were lapped but we still managed to pull of a victory!

Time trial course preride

Today we rode the time trial course and the last couple of kilometers of the road race. The time trial course is about 90% uphill with only a few rollers and a short downhill to the finish line. It should be a good test of the legs tomorrow, as we begin stage one. Last year's winner set a blazing pace riding under 17 minutes for the 10 kilometer course. Pretty impressive considering that there isn't much recovery on the course. The first half isn't too bad as you get some recovery but the last uphill section is pretty long without much chance to recover.

We also got our start times for tomorrow with Jafer off fist at 2:31:30, then Joey at 2:35:30, followed by Thomas at 2:43:30, and finally Oscar at 2:55:30 pm. Hopefully, the time trial results will be posted before we leave the course so we can give an update. With 118 registered riders the top times should be close but look for riders down on the general classification to try and make up lost time in the remaining stages.

The last two kilometers of the road race course is very challenging, as the road pitches up with no rest. It should be a battle all the way to the finish as the strongest riders set the tempo after 90 miles of racing. Hopefully, we will be able to play our cards and shoot for a breakaway about midway through the race. We will definitely be active throughout this race and hopefully the results will show!

Our new host home

After what seemed an eternity, we finally arrived at our host house in Leominster, MA after a 1pm departure. We want to give big props to Verizon Wireless and the VZ-Navigator; since we left Atlanta a month ago, we've had to rely on the vznav to get us out of a "spot of bother" during transit (especially the New York area). In case you are unfamiliar with vznav it is a real-time GPS system on Verizon capable phones, so all you have to do is plug in the address and it will give audible and turn by turn directions. Pretty cool feature when you are late to a race or need to find the closest Subway. Shortly after we left Kutztown, Oscar popped in a book on tape, which made the long ride more enjoyable, but we still haven't finished it. (I guess we will either have to go sit in the car or go drive around today). Through wrong turns, bumper to bumper traffic, torrential rains, and some more traffic, we arrived a little after 7pm, with just enough light for a quick ride. Joey, Thomas, and Oscar headed out for a quick spin (in the rain) while Jafer stayed dry and meet our host's very friendly and welcoming neighbor, her son, cat (Scout), and dog (Clifford), since Brant (our host) was not home. Brant arrived a few minutes after Jafer went next door, so Jafer excused himself to go meet Brant.

Brant helped Jafer bring in the bikes and gave him a tour of the hose while introducing himself. The house we are staying in has a wonderful open kitchen, a big basement (where we will be sleeping), and a bike room to store all of our bike crap. After they got back from their ride, they introduced themselves to Brant, then we headed out for a quick dinner. After making a few runs up and down the main strip we decided on Grillalicious, a nice Greek themed restaurant. After dinner we drove around to find the grocery store but it had already closed so we headed back home. Grant explained the tt and road race course to us and pointed out a few ride options for today. We will be scoping out the time trial course later today and we might also ride part of the road race course. We would also like to thank Brant for letting us stay in his house this week!

49th Annunal Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race

3 days until the start of stage one

There are currently 115 registered riders for the cat 2 event. We are leaving around 1 pm tomorrow which should give us enough time for a quick ride when we get there. For this race we will be staying in host housing courtesy of our team director's friend. We will be slightly outside of Fitchburg, in a town called Leominister. Without host housing most teams couldn't afford to race around the country, so we want to send a big thank you to everyone that offers their home to cyclists, especially Mr.Hornberger.

Upcoming schedule...

Currently our plan is to leave for Fitchburg,MA on Tuesday, which is about a 5 hour drive from Kutztown. The Fitchburg Longslo Classic Stage Race starts on the 3rd with a 10 K time trial, followed by a 92 mile road race, a 50 mile circuit race, and a 25 mile crit, for a total of four days of racing. We will be racing in the Category 2 field, so expect some news as we take on some of the best cat 2s in the country. After the race is over we are heading back to Kutztown for a few days.

After a brief rest, we will once again pack the car and head to Chicago (12 hour drive) to start Superweek, a 17 day long series with 15 crits and 2 road races. We will hit a few races around the Chicago area, then go to the Milwaukee area to race, then back track to Kutztown. Once we get back, we have to box our bikes and ship them out to California for nationals. If that wasn't enough, we have to clean the house and say good bye to Kutztown, as we have to drive back to Atlanta (12 hours). Once we get back we have a few rest days until we board the plane for California on August 2nd.

On August 6th we have a 35K time trial in Anaheim, CA followed by a 60 K crit on the 7th. Then we get a day to prepare for the 129 K road race on Saturday the 9th. Hopefully we will return to Atlanta in good spirits on August 12th! After nationals we will regroup, rest, and figure out the rest of the season.

Change in plans....

So we didn't end up racing this weekend in the New England area, instead we hit a local race yesterday, about 45 mins away in Brownstown, PA. For those of you not familiar with the area, it was basically farmland surrounded by farmland but that didn't deter the fans. The local Amish farmers came out and supported the race near the start/finish, as well as a few other families watching along the course. We even passed a few horse and buggies during the race. The race was 50 miles, which saw us complete 10 laps on a rolling circuit with a couple of hard rollers. As everyone prepared for the start of the race the sky opened up and rained for a few minutes as the wind picked up but then died down with the rain.

As we took the line for the pro/1/2/3 race sometime after 12pm, we realized that the field had not grown since pre-registration had closed Friday afternoon. With an astonishing 17 rider field, we made up nearly one fourth of the peleton. After the race started we initiated a series of attacks that split the pack on the second lap. Joey and Oscar were in the front group with about 6 other riders as Jafer and Thomas blocked the riders behind. After the gap grew to about 25 seconds, Jafer and Thomas began their plan to bridge across to the front group without taking the remaining riders with them. Thomas initiated a series of attacks while Jafer blocked. Finally Thomas gained a big enough gap on a roller that allowed Jafer to jump hard enough, to bridge across with only one other rider. For the next three laps, Thomas and Jafer worked overtime to close the gap down and finally rejoined the front group only to watch the race split again. Moments before they made contact two riders attacked and gained a substantial gap as nobody chased. Thomas and Jafer tried to help but after their chase were not able to offer much support. Now we had four riders in the front group with about four other riders and there was no cooperation to chase. Finally, Jafer told Joey and Oscar that they better do something about the break before it gained too much time. It still took a few minutes before the chase begin in earnest, a lesson to the younger riders on the team. Never let the pace ease if there is a break, especially if you can barely see it!

Shortly after Joey attacked riding up the road solo, trying to reel in the break with 4 laps to go. Now the field had grown even smaller with just Oscar, Mike (he is staying at our house) and one other rider as everyone else succumbed to the pace. Jafer dangled behind Oscar's group, finally catching them after 3 miles, only to see Oscar attack and ride away solo. So now there were two riders way up the road, Joey, Oscar, then Jafer and two other riders. With 3 laps to go it narrowed again as one rider was dropped from Jafer's group, after he and Mike attacked him. Unfortunately, this meant that Jafer was now trailing Mike in sixth place and was not able to bridge back up to him, since he was still trying to keep the other rider at bay.

Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, bam, the rain came in so fast that it looked like a hurricane, as the wind blew from every direction. The road turned into a river as all the dirt from the fields now ran down the street creating a nice brown smelly grime. I think it even started to hail at one point, either that or the rain was blowing so hard that it pelted your skin. Rain, like most things is both good and bad at the same time even though it can suck, the drop in temperature was welcomed as the temperature was around the 90s. It even has a weird therapeutic quality that makes you feel like people must have felt centuries ago in a summer downpour.

Even though we didn't get the results we wanted (Joey 3rd, Oscar 4th, Jafer 6th) we still got a great workout that will hopefully prepare us for the upcoming Fitchburg Longsjo Classic Stage Race.

Team picnic

Tonight we enjoyed a great meal courtesy of Thomas, at the Kutztown Gun club's pavilion. Here is what was on the menu: Awesome turkey burgers, potato salad (sweet and golden brown), fruit salad (Joey actually made this, pineapples, bananas, and kiwi) and for dessert homemade chocolate-chip banana bread. For beverages, we had a great selection of Kutztown Soda from the bottling plant next door. After a great dinner, it was hard for everyone to move as we were all stuffed. Sorry there are no pictures, but after a mishap last night at the track my camera (Jafer) is not working right now and is in for repair at the Casio headquarters in Dover, NJ. Hopefully, I will have it back on Friday!