Wednesday, September 9

We're Back!


We're Back! The team has been swarmed by new interest and with the help of all our returning riders, we have plenty of rides going out into the wheat fields.

Last week, the first week of school, each day featured something different, a different route and a different treat, on thursday we dropped by fast eddy's for a milkshake.

We all excited for cyclocross season to start up in the next few weeks. We also have our 2nd Annual Edison Elementary Bike safety rodeo coming up this weekend with the help of Kay Barga and her grade two class. September 27th will be the Gran Fondo Cancer ride followed by our first bike rodeo at Green Park elementary on Oct.3.

All those abroad, we are looking forward to you coming back, but remember that there may be some super quick freshman to contend with!

Ride on.

Ben

Wednesday, July 8

boy oh

Hello, world!!!

You know, most of the time, when you ride, you learn something. Sometimes you eat it major in a crit, and you figure, maybe I won't pull that stunt again. Sometimes you don't eat during a cold as balls race, and bonk so hard you almost cry, and you learn to do the nom nom nom more during races. But sometimes, you just remember something that you forgot for a while. That's what happened to me today.

For me, it's been the summertime blues. I'm workin and workin to make that money so I can give it to Whitman. With all the working, and the racing, I'm pooped. Heck, I played bump at my workplace (the beach) with a group of 10-year-old kids, and my calves were sore for four days. FOUR!! And so the last couple weeks, I've been slumping on the bike. I'd look at my fire engine red maching, and I wouldn't want anything to do with it. No yearning to clean it's shiny gears, no itching to thrash it out on the roads, no stokage to race it. Noo!

So after a couple weeks of barely riding, I begin to look at the bike, and it starts to look attractive again. Am I wearing beer goggles? Is the 9 of a bike I'm looking at now really a 4 that I'm going to regret riding the morning after? Nope. It is only the bike that I really knew. The bike as it has been the last couple weeks has been a poisoned bike that needed nothing more than some rest to be cured.

And so today, I remembered the exhilarating flow into my legs. My riding company helped my memory. There was the Whitman Team founder:



And our own kendi thomas. You all know how she looks, but for our dear audience outside of Whitman...



And this one:



So we rode like the wind for a couple hours. After, I tried to figure what was so terrific about the ride, and I think the thing was, I had rose-colored glasses on, instead of beer-goggles.

I hope everyone's Rudy's are tinting the world well while they ride their bikes.

Tuesday, June 9

Nature Valley!

By Kendi "OMG stage racing" Thomas

Based on the Omnium at Collegiate Nationals, I have the incredible opportunity to race for the Ryan Collegiate All-Stars Team at Nature Valley Grand Prix. The Ryan team is made up of 7 collegiate riders from all over the country and half the women who have ridden for the team have received pro contracts. It's cool. Really cool. We get the celeb treatment, for sure. For example, yesterday we went to a St. Paul Saints baseball game, decked out in gear, with our bikes and handed out trading cards (yeah I said TRADING CARDS) and Nature Valley bars. A few of us even got to ride around the field after first inning behind the Saints' mascot, the pig, on a 4-wheeler (I don't know either) and wave at the crowd. Then this morning Sinead Miller (Division I Criterium Champ and Marian College student) and I did a few radio interviews on the phone. Tomorrow we're even doing a television interview! Hopefully I will erase any goofy smiles that I may or may not have had in previous interviews. The great part is, though, that I get to wear my Whitman jersey with Ryan shorts. So I'll be representing the team!

So I'm in Minneapolis right now, sitting at our director's house, playing scrabble, cuddling with the first standard poodle I've ever met (it's not shaved or anything, don't worry) and hoping to GOD that I don't disappoint my soon-arriving family by being pulled from the race. I'm feeling good though. We prerode the TT course a few hours ago, which is the first stage of six. Then tomorrow night is the first crit in Uptown St. Paul. Should be exciting! I'll be twittering and blogging on my own blog, so be sure to cheer from afar!

Monday, June 8

Bounced checks

So back home in New England, it's been a not too shabby first few weekends of racing.
First up was the Tour of Connecticut, a little stage race that looked to not be too hard, but then all of the New England elite squads showed up with full teams. Long story short, it went well, I ended up 17th and the road race was hard.
And I almost forgot to mention how much 5 hour training rides suck when they're in 49 degree steady rain instead of 75 degree sun.
And back to the racing... last weekend was the Auburn, ME weekend. All was looking good until none other than New England (and what's more, NEW HAMPSHIRE) homeboy Ted King, fresh off his first Grand Tour last week when he finished the Giro right in the middle of the field, decided to gate crash our little race.
Tactics were pretty straightforward: be in the break, so when Teddy bridges up you're already up in the break. I was in a few promising moves that didn't stick, but missed the move of the day. While covering stuff, I ended up at the front at the top of the main climb when Ted decided to start playing. Myself and one other guy managed to get onto his wheel before he clicked it into Real Legit Pro Gear (several clicks up from the dreaded Pro Gear that signifies that upshift the pros make that amateurs can't follow). And then the two of us held on for dear life as he just brought it up to 35... for a long time. And then 45+ on a little downhill. We brought the break from not in sight to about 50m back in maybe 4-5 minutes. So after this downhill there's one really short tough kicker, 30 seconds of pain, and Ted notifies us we'll need to give 'er up this kicker to get to the break. Both of us sort of swallow some vomit and get ready. Somehow we held his wheel up the kicker and around the chicane at the top. At this point, we've caught 2 guys (including Ted's brother, Robbie) just behind the break who were bridging up, and are probably 15 meters behind the break. Ted just keeps accelerating up to the group with Robbie and the rest of us can't go harder (on the flat). We got dropped (after the hill, on the flat) and watched the King brothers ride up the break and start rotating, we chased for a short while before blowing sky high. I ended up in the main field, took about an hour to recover and when moved up from last wheel I realized there were now 15+ guys up the road and just rode tempo at the front to get the race finished up with. Ted and Robbie rode away from the break and finished something like 3.5 minutes ahead of 3rd place. So that is my story of the Ted King Express and how I'd like to be able to ride it but it's actually too fast for me. It's like trying to play with the school star in gym class but he smashes you into the pain locker and locks you in there, so you're suffering in the locker room before the game even starts.
The next day in the crit I was in a 3 man break for about half the race, then was dropped from the break, then was off the front with a teammate from 7 to go (he got 3rd, I was 5th). So even though we salvaged the situation that was the second time in two days my enthusiasm wrote a check my legs couldn't cash. Lessons learned (?) and lots more good racing to be had this summer.

Sunday, May 31

So Colin Gibson and I headed down to Enumclaw on our way home for summer this past weekend. Gibson threw shit down! Winning the Cat 3 men's TT, only six seconds off the course record, then broke away in the crit, even though there weren't any semitrucks to follow and then won the two up sprint for the victory and a stranglehold on the omnium points, here are a few highlights.

He made the poster shot!
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/


No idea what is going on here:
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Enumclaw/RR/3/pages/94AD7154esr.htm


Suffering in the road race:
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Enumclaw/RR/P12/pages/94AD6966esr.htm


Ian crane taking a break:
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Enumclaw/RR/P12/pages/94AD7041esr.htm