News from Joe Martin

So here we are after Stage 2 of the Joe Martin Stage Race and we have something to celebrate: Peter won the race today - solo of cause - and is now leading the GC! He was sitting 5th after yesterdays TT. The plan for today was to just sit back and see what would happen. 110 miles are a long time for events to unfold. Andrew got a flat and thanks to some "awesome" wheel-changing-action, where he lost about 2:30 minutes, he didn't finish today. I was a little more fortunate when a spoke on my front wheel broke and I needed to get a wheel change. I didn't loose too much time and was able to catch back on. So with a little less than 10 km to go we got to play out our little tactical game we had layed out before the stage: I was to attack first, maybe get away - but the likelihood of that was pretty slim - but mainly to give Peter a chance to counter as soon as I got caught. It worked perfectly and Peter was off the front solo for the last 6 km. I made sure no one would pull him back and covered moves. I still managed to come in 5th of the day, barely missing top 3. It would have been nice to finish in the time bonuses (top3) but Peters win compensated for that.

The only unfortunate thing about the whole situation is that we only have two guys left in the race: Peter and myself. Sooooo, tomorrow will be a hard piece of work...

30 minutes to the start of RR 1 at Joe Martin

Just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and kicking. Made it back from Speedweek last Monday and we are at Joe Martin right now.
More soon, hopefully tonight.

A VERY Short Update

Ok, so not a lot of news lately, sorry for that. I’ve been extremely busy between planning our trips, traveling and racing… and the lack of internet access also didn’t help. So here’s the rundown on the last 3 weeks of racing.

First up: Mississippi Gran Prix. The weekend went ok but not as good as we had hoped. We finished 5^th, 6^th and 7^th in GC, Peter and I were in a break in the road race and got caught within the last 10 meters and we finished 2^nd in Team GC. All right but we had come there with higher goals…

Next: Matrix Challenge. On Saturday I ended up in the winning break but didn’t feel too good so I was hoping that the guys would bring it back so we could set up Andrew. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I finished 4^th out of the 4-man-break… Sunday, we held it together for a sprint but Andrew got pinched in the last turn and couldn’t get the result we were hoping for, I think it was 6^th or so. Again not what we had hoped for.

Finally: Speedweek. We hopped in the van right after Matrix and drove the 17 hours to Baufort, SC for our first shot at one of the Speedweek crits. Considering the drive and the fact that the crit was one of the faster ones we did all right, Benji came in 13^th, Andrew 16^th and I finished 24^th. Yesterday we traveled on to Spartanburg, SC and the race itself felt a little better but the finish was a little sketchy and the best we could come up with was a 21^st place. Not too happy with that but we are all looking forward to tomorrow’s race. After an off day today we should be good to go and hot for the race.

For instant results and other race coverage go to the Speedweek Homepage or to cyclingnews.com

Off Week...?

Well, at least in theory. I did manage to cut back on my hours on the bike and did NOT race this weekend but I sure was busy the whole week long. I'm in the process of planning our next two road trips, the first this week to Mississippi for the Mississippi Grand Prix and the second in two weeks time to USA Crits Speed Week. Both are multiple day events and at least Speed Week requires quite some travel in between races. But it is fun to take care of the organization for those trips. But it keeps you busy.

On top of it, Brad got some of us out to ride on Thursday. It was a good ride but I ended up with close to 4 hours in the saddle that day. A little too long for my liking for an off week.

At least I had some down time this weekend. I finally got back on the trails to ride a little mtb on Saturday. The guys at the duck let me borrow an awesome bike again and Chlue, Pete, Demian and all the others have really done a great job on the new sections on North Shore. I had a blast. In the evening, Demian let me play around on his new PS3. Wow, that thing rocks but it got rather late... figure that. After sleeping in on Sunday, I headed over to Demian and Debbie again for a really nice Easter lunch. Got to watch Paris-Roubaix too and to prevent all the good food to slow me down too much in the weeks to come we went for an easy spin afterwards.

All in all an awesome weekend. Thanks to all the folks that invited me over and really made me feel at home.

Now we have only a couple of days left and it will be back on the road again. Looking forward to Mississippi and especially Speed Week. Everyone on the team is hot and ready to go so I'm sure we'll do rather well at the upcoming races.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday Night Crit

Didn't ride it yesterday but took some photos of the team. Andrew, Gonzo, Austin, Ashley and Brad were out there. Congrats to Brad for finishing 2nd in the B race and hanging in there afterwards in the A race. The boys rode a smart race and it payed off with Andrew winning the day and Austin coming in 4th.

Check out the pics on my Facebook

The first Metro Volkswagen Crit Skills Clinic

… was a great success. Thanks to all who made it possible and especially to all of you who cam out there. I think everyone who joined us out in Plano for the weekend could see some improvement in their riding by the end. Then we got to finish it up with a real race. Fun!

During the weekend the riders acted as instructors to teach interested cyclists about skills needed to ride a crit successfully. On Saturday we taught basic crit skills, like starting, cornering and moving in the group as well as riding in a pace line. We had a pretty strong wind out there so it made teaching pace lines a little easier as people could definitely feel when they were in the right position and in the draft. Cornering was a little tentative at first but that was also the area where most people made the biggest gains and by the end we hauling through the turns.

On Sunday Rahsaan Bahati came out to lend us a hand. He explained the basics of sprinting and how to position yourself for the final sprint. In the afternoon everyone could put their newly learned skills to the test in a real race. The girls blew their race completely apart. For the guys the main objective was to put the cat 2 riders into a position to where they were able to get some upgrade points. It was a hard race, especially with a strong wind blowing all day but we managed to achieve our goal. It wasn’t enough for a win but Gonzo got second (behind Rahsaan, no shame there), Phillip got 4^th and Evan 6^th, all in the points.

All in all, it was a very successful weekend. Maybe we will do it again but please with less wind and maybe a little later start times (I don’t like getting up at 5 am…)

This week is going to be pretty mellow for me as it is another off week. We’ll be racing for the next month straight with the Mississippi GP, Matrix, Speedweek and Joe Martin coming up all within 4 weeks. So I’ll enjoy a little time off and get ready to kick some serious behind on the upcoming weeks.

Cheers

Redlands Roundup

So we are finally back in Dallas after two weeks in California. On the one hand the trip turned out to be disappointing as the racing didn’t go as we had hoped it would. On the other hand, we had some awesome hosts and met some great people. Thanks again to Randy and Lisa, as well as the Gornays for taking such good care of us.

The second stage in Redlands was a crit which turned out to be a crash fest. I managed to stay out of trouble but Andrew and Chris weren’t so luck and hit the deck. Both were able to finish though. We got though it but weren’t a factor during the race. Benji (aka Princess Bebe) salvaged the day by finishing 19th. Not great but at least something. GC didn’t change a lot, I think I moved up to 78th maybe.

Sunday was the big one. A 10 km circuit had to be tackled 12 times (plus some out and back). The circuit had NO flat sections, either up or down. Whit time bonuses and KOM points in the first 3 laps the tempo was brutal and it didn’t take long for the field to fall apart. I held on the longest but also got caught on the wrong side of the split and ended up in what turned to be the main group. It was a decent result but nothing to brag about. I had hoped to do better but just did not have the legs to do it. As a saving grace, I moved up to 50th in final GC. Yay!

The drive back was pretty much a straight shot and we made it back to Dallas on Tuesday night, just in time to get ready for the FCS Metro Volkswagen Crit Clinic this coming weekend. Besides teaching some crucial crit skills we’ll also have a race on Sunday out in Plano. So, come out and join us for a great weekend.