Hill of Somerset> what hills??? by Roger

Memorial weekend is always a big race weekend > there used to be a nice stage race in Lake Placid > Cloudspliter> nowadays if you are not a crit guy , the Hills of Somerset is the only major road race around here. I have done it a few times before and kind of know the course , but this year they shortened it a little and took a couple of hills out ! So the first 50 miles were petty much flat, with some small rollers.

I did not start this race with any big expectations , but you newer know if with little luck and good legs, you could get in a good move and place > oh well not today!! I had good legs > a break went very early ( 10 miles in to the race ) two Empire guys , Creed and King . I thought that was a little early and there was still a lot of good guys in the field , so I figure I would wait until we got to the actual hills . Nobody was that strong and a no big separation accured on any of the hills. I had great legs in the last 20 miles , but after about covering 10 attacks and attacking about 5 times myself , we were at 1K to go!!

I did not think at 41 I would be such a marked man in a pretty strong field with some domestic pro's and top amatures, but every little break I was in, seeemed like everyone was chasing down eventhough there was 6-7 guys up the road. I did not mind , I felt great and it was very fast, a stretched out field and only about 30-40 guys left , being at the front then is a good sign !!

I race to win every race I start, but I also know racing is the best training I can get , specially in the pro 12 races !

Then after the race off to Chris Facas 40th birthday party with my wife and daughter!! Chris is a great guy, very well conected to the bike industry. He used to work for Accelerade and I still get swag from them thru him. Training and riding as much as I do , I go thru a lot of Gels and Drinks , if I had to pay for all that I think I would be drinking water and be broke by now!! Chris now works for Specialized and has the whole basement full of all kind of cool toys!!

The jumping castle was the highlite of the party besides the cake !! Love cake!!

Speaking of cake Sunday is a traditional Nyack group ride for me on Memorial day weekend and no different this year. I brought a few clients with me and next thing you know we are all apart of the crazyness!! Yes crazy ride , in my opinion ! These guys do not value their lives much at all it seems, red lights, crashes and poor bike handling skills> I think I will stick to racing for now!!

Ride was fast and good training. Riding with a few clients in a group setting was very beneficial for all of us > so a good day!! The day was just getting better after the ride > my wife Kim had planned a little birthday party that afternoon and that means "more cake " . My good friend & business partner Andreas and his wife Monica came over and we fired up the grill!! Andreas is a classy guy and the birthday gift was of the same caliber and Monica baked this killer cake , unbeliveble !! I finally got my Garmin GPS from my wife and daughter> no more getting lost and barely making it to the start of a race !! Thank you , best gift I ever got other than my daughter being born!

Mon ( Memorial Day ) ride with Team FGX. I brought a few other clients with me as well, so a pretty big group . The Orchard was the destination ! When you have this many guys riding together , there is always a little competition going on . No different today , the final miles are uphill to the Orchard, one of my favorite roads around here. Evan Cooper and Alvin both weigh about a 100 lbs and they were throwing it down on this stair stepper. Everybody were scramling to hold on >a nice friendly competition and great training after riding 2 hour endurance pace .

Everybody was winners and the Orchard made some good business on water, Gatorade and cookies> yummy!!

Ride back we took some roads these guy probably never seen , a nice route!! Somewhere along the way a bearded , "earthylooking"guy tags along > nice guy ! All of a sudden somebody is yelling "Crash" sure enough this guy hits something on the road and head first into a bed of multch > definitly got a mouthful there, lucky >nothing broken and only minor scratches just a beard full of dirt!! After getting the dirt out of his teeth we get going again and a couple of miles down the road "Bang" the multch guy's tire explodes !! It is getting late , I am paying for a baby sitter > I was pretty close to my house so it was time to bail > Juan A and Evan C shepared the FGX boys back to the GW bridge > Nice ride , eventfull for sure, but I think all of the guys enjoyed the ride!

I picked up my daughter and we are off to my friend John L and Amy's house for a swim and some food and maybe cake! John and Amy are super nice people and live in super nice house with a pool in Ridgewood , my daughter loves their kids and it is fun time for her > the hardest part is to get her to leave and go home !

A few glasses of wine and some great food . Dip my legs in the cool pool water that is a nice recovery from a nice training block and now ready for a few days easy and then get ready for the next weekend > Tour of Connneticut!!

Read about my new TT machine in the next blog and see how fast it goes on Saturday's TT!

Until next time !

Somerset TT and Bear Mountain

I have not done any TT’s this year yet and that is something I always think is cool, “the funny bikes”( can not wait to get the new Giant TT machine once available) just makes you feel fast !! I ride my TT bike once a week, but no crazy TT workouts to talk about! I am a break away guy in road races, so that is my TT training! I could probably improve quite a bit on this department, but I try not get too obsessive about TT’s!! Mark @ Westwood Cycle hooked me up with some new cool carbon Dura ace brake levers and a Syntace carbon wing this year on my TT rig, I also switched from an 808 Zipp front wheel to an Hed Tri spoke front wheel > looks very cool <>it is all mental!!! Then the icing on the cake, I am sponsored by UVEX this year and they hooked me up with their super cool aero helmet FP 2 TT!!!
Mark has been my biggest sponsor for the past 10-12 years of my racing career and still is the most instrumental guy behind all the cool bikes and equipment I am so lucky to be able to ride and test out > with out Mark and Allan @ Westwood Cycle I would not have had the success I have had in bike racing for sure > bike racing is such an equipment sport and if you do not keep up with the technology your are beaten before the start!! Any little thing helps, but the help I get from these guys is no comparison to others!!

I checked out the TT course forehand with my clients/buddies <> that helped all of us , it was a lot of turns and up and downs!! Liked it!!
The race ; I had Mike Rosenhaus in front of me , so a good carrot!! I never had time to put my SRM on the TT bike (which is a plan for the future) so I just went by feel, speed and cadence, which was not a bad thing on this course!! I felt pretty good and I did not really hold back anywhere, but also did not really fade either> the hardest part was the Readington course, a slight down hill roll> go figure!!
21.20 a thigh with the TT master Will O!! 3 sec off the course record!! I know where those 4 secs went!! Readington course!! Bummer, but it was fun hanging out and a good leg opener for the next day Bear Mountain race!

Bear mountain is always somewhat an important race to all of us, it is right in our back yard and we ride there all the time > I was telling Evan Cooper while pre riding the course during the week that I have probably done over 200 laps there over the years > so I guess you can say I know the course> no excuses there!! The race is hard to read, you kind of have to be on top of things at all times > it is hard to bridge late in the race if you missed the move!! There was a couple of bigger teams and also a lot of young guys that I do not see that often, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary <> it happens a lot of times to me in the masters races > it makes the race very negative and a lot of times there will be guys up the road that are not even that strong. This year it was little of this going on the first 3 laps > I just waited!! I wanted to make sure every major team had some guy up the road, it really did not matter who at this point> on the 4th lap there was a few attacks on Tiorati Brook rd, but nothing got away, after that a few guys start trickling away and next thing you know , my plan started to look good <> flat and easy <> we drill it pretty hard and in 2 miles we catch the rest and we have a good gap on the field, so now it is time to commit!! I look at the guys in the break > two bigger guys, I was think maybe not the greatest group to be in!! Not very impressive!! Gavi was by far the strongest and he was willing to work and so was I! I always race hard <> you are in a Pro 1 2 race, there should not be any sitting on or soft pedaling if we have a chance to stay away!! So Gavi and Myself keep the pace up on the hills and the other guys sit on!! We try to get them to work on the flats > kind of half hearthed efforts > helmet straps are white from salt and a lot of drooling going on!! Does not look good!! I make the first attack on top of Tiorati and we drop 2 out of 6 > the come back and are pissed!! I tell them to work or I will do it again!! Next attack was by Gavi and 2 get dropped again!!
Now it looks good, but Pojo and the Empire guy (Clayton) still does not contribute much!! Last time up the Tiorati (the 7th time) we are going kind a of slow again and there a few new guys bridging. We were never that far ahead of the peleton, with all this conserving bull going on !! So next thing you know there are about 10 guys in this break and nobody still not wanting to work!! Some attacks, I am just following and not doing anything> we come past the feed zone and about 1 K or less to go <> I get caught right on the line !!! Oh well I tried > No Nature Valley spot <> then a little R&R (my friend Mike Calderone’s wedding). I am looking forward to the next couple of months of racing > made it thru the spring races with some good results! Not sick or injured > still a lot of room to improve on the race fitness!!


Thanks for reading and from now on you can follow my life as a racer and coach, I will try to keep it interesting!!

Until next time!