2nd part of the season

Bikes make good clothing racks as well!!

It has been 3 weeks since Fitchburg and I have been sleeping in my own bed now for a few weeks. Yesterday was my first race back , Tour of Hilltown. I like to ease back into it , yeah right. Tour of Hilltowns are one of the hardest and most painful races around here due to the distance( 97 mile) and hills! A tall order for a 40+ guy.

Rewind a little , after Fitchburg which went Ok , raced the 35+ , I was maybe not as hungry to win as previous years, but by Saturday starting to feel back to normal . I managed to get 2nd overall and win the road race stage after the the National tabacle , so not all that bad ! In addition team Westwood Velo won the crit stage with Troy Kimball , now also coached by Finkraft!

Just a lots of ice baths and all the other trick you have to pull out of the bag to keep going!

I still did a few more days of training after the 6 days of racing and then pulled the plug. 4 days off the bike for some family time , wedding and chilling out in pool was a nice time and a big mental recovery. The body just does not like it all that much , it really does some wired things and even it is very good for healing , 4 days not doing anything makes you feel awful!

No comments!!!



Back to work and training , low intensity , just volume, 28 hours ( first day short and easy on the Power Cranks) and 7th day the Rocket ride to introduce some intensity back to the system. Felt surprisingly good and motivated again . More Power Cranks the second week , but recovery as well and only two longer rides one little faster one up to Bear Mountain with Andreas, Evan and Allan . Come Saturday recovered just in time for the Tour of Hilltown.


Powercranks , coke and BearMountain ..........life is good , but painful!!

A little race report , very fast as usual right from the gun and 10 miles into the 97 mile race a split in the field happens and I was not going to miss that!! Who ever did miss that one would be chasing a looong time ! About 20 riders with most team represented and the pace remained high. We built up a lead pretty quickly. The real race always starts on the second lap when we get to the BIG climb, a 5 mile wall . Dan Vallencourt, Mike Barton, Mike Margarite, William Goodfellow and myself separated ourselves from the rest and this was the race !! Funny 2 years ago , it was almost the identical break. Dan, Mike B and myself. Just 2 new guys . There was definitely a few spots of bother, like Phil Liggets says . This race is very hard at times and the suffering is unbelievable if you want to be there in the end. You always have good moments and next thing you know you almost get dropped. That is the time to pull yourself inside out and hope to come back. It happened a few times and I think that is when the experience comes to play. I think a probably felt the best 1K to go ( go figure) It was a tad to late because Dan attacked and got away 2K to go , he was no doubt the strongest in the break and I new he was the guy to beat. It was a 3 man sprint for second , I just got past on the line , but held on for 3rd . Not too bad for an old fart like Lance refers himself amongst the 20 year old fast men!

Now a day rest and spend some time with my daughter then an other big training block . I do not race that much in August because it is in September when it all starts , CycloCross!! Every weekend Saturday and Sunday until pretty much Christmas! This puts a lot of stress on everything that involves me , family, work, my body and even on my car! I am pretty excited , two new X-Nights are on order I am prepared more than ever! Before that still 2 more months of hard road races, this is the halfway mark !!

In training mode , this bike weighs at least 45 lbs , should meet the USA cycling standards!!

Thanks for reading again

Roger

Taking the lads to the Tour de Quebec

This past weekend I had the extreme fortune and pleasure to act as directeur sportif for the Bikereg.com/Cannondale amateur team in their trip up north to race in the Tour of Quebec. They are an excellent group of lads whose goal is to be the number one ranked amateur team in the United States. They are well on their way.

Some of you may remember that before I came to Finkraft I had been the manager and director of a local U-25 team for a few years. This was the best experience of my life. Being able to teach developing riders about racing and how to handle all aspects of life on the road, both literally and figuratively. Well, I was equally excited to be asked to help out for this four day, five stage event in and around the City of Quebec.

With only five riders (the sixth was home nursing injury) on board, we made the long drive on Wednesday to the race hotel at Mount Ste Anne; famous for its mountain bike races. The first stage was the next day on the Il d'Orleans, a windswept farming community in the middle of the Lawrence River. The race was a major success with the lads taking 2nd and 4th along with the climbers jersey. The raced very "heads up" always initiating or following attacks so that the pressure was on the other teams to respond.

Friday morning saw a tail wind driven 5.1 km time trial with speeds over 60kph. Crazy fast. The team took 4th and 5th, but only by 0.2 seconds to the GC leader, a Canadian strong man. That afternoon was a very hard and fast criterium. Now this was fun. Justin Lindine made the race an absolute horror show for everyone else. Literally constantly on the attack, Justin put so much pressure on the GC leader that he completely burned up the other team one by one! Only 20 riders finished on the lead lap from an original 115, and all five of them were Bikereg. Very nice.

On Saturday, the rain came. With the course around the old Garneau RR loop, the pressure was on the local riders to score, but no such luck. Things were getting edgy all around including with the team staff. They were trying to sabotage us, and several pushing matches and umbrella fights started in the feed zone. Not to worry, I am a professional. Cold, wet and windy, Josh bridged up to a faltering breakaway about mid way through the race. He did this by having two riders constantly attack again to tire out the favorites and other strong riders. Once a low placed break got up the road, he then used two other teammates to make a finish sprint type leadout going into a steep hill. He launched off that lead to attack and bridge up to the break; attacked the break solo, and hold off for the stage win and snatch the overall lead. Very nice indeed.

Sundays final stage was no joke. It was 17 turns of a 5.7 km loop with a 800 meter long 21% hill each loop. Yes, you read that correctly. Ouch. One of the riders, Thom, had been so active in attacking and covering all week that he was in third place for the Maillot Noir, or the black jersey for the most combative rider. It was on the shoulders of a rider from a French team, and they looked pretty serious. We discuss it and how there were sprints early on the first and third lap into the race. He scored on both times and then settled into sitting on a small breakaway until the next sprint on the 11th lap. He easily took that and secured the jersey. Amazing. Meanwhile, back in the field, the race was down to about 15 riders when Justin covered an attack at about 80kph with 2 to go. This blew up the rest of the riders and only 5 were left with Josh sitting pretty. He basically led the finale and sat on the back of the small sprint to take the overall win. It was really great.

With such a small team, I had multiple duties as cook, soigneur, directeur, manager, mechanic and chief bottle washer. But watching them race so well and take the overall win was worth every sleepless moment. There were lots of strong riders there that weekend, and it took smart racing to take the win. Congrats to the lads for a great showing.

One final note: it was the first time I had ever been to Quebec. What a beautiful place with a real European feel. The people were nice and the weather and scenery just awesome. We do suspect however, that polar bears roam the streets come winter, but with a passport, we can just cross back down to safety!

Still keeping it together! by Roger

It is a long road to nowhere! The picture above is the TT course at the Masters Nationals. One of the nicest roads in America !!


Me and Mark Pohndorf made the drive to Louisville , yet an other National Championship Race . I did the race there in 2003 and got 2nd in the road race that year in the 35-39 , so I knew the course and since I won the CX Nationals last Dec a lot of good things has happened . I was willing to drive 12 hours each way and spend my money on 3 nights in a hotel , food and everything that goes along with it. If you pay $ 80.00 bucks to race each event and there is no price money the only way this trip would pay off was to win the Jersey! Long story short , I did WIN!! The Jersey went to the guy that would have truthfully finished 5th though .

The road race was held in a park on a 4.8 mile course , a 10 lap roller coaster with 100 guys . Is that really a road race ? circuit race ? or just a freak show that was poorly organized and the easy way out to hold this race. Look at the TT course what does that tell you . I have travelled and raced all over America and there are really nice places and roads in this country, but why use them when we can make a lot of money on entry fees and just have the race in a park.

There was a 4 man break including myself towards the end of the race , we come around NO BELL, so we are racing and trying to stick it. Half way thru that lap I asked the Moto Ref " how many more to go ?" He put one finger up and says one ! I attack the break and it splits , me and David Henderson are the 2 leaders . We are going into what we think should be the last lap , Moto says 15 sec to the 2 chasers . We make it , David is really drilling it up the finishing climb( just a hill) he pretty much went 500 meters out . I was just waiting for him to fade , which he almost did not , I got by him right at the line and won the National Championship by a couple inches! Mission accomplished , now the rest of the week just race for fun.....wrong!!!

Later we find out that the other guys finished on the lap before , the 2 chaser turned around and as they were going into the finishing shoot 3 guys caught them and beat them to the line ! The field was a minute behind.

This is what happened in the race , I was in it and everyone else knows what happened as well , but the Officials made so many mistakes and did not really know the facts of the race . No bell, the Moto ref can not use his radio or count for the matter to 10 , lapped riders not pulled ( because they would get pissed ), not closing off the course to direct us towards the finish and not knowing what lap we were on . The whole race just turned into a total disaster. It could have been corrected and the winner could have been awarded with the Jersey, but instead the officials just lied and covered up their incompetence and over ruled the protest and the finishing order was the order we crossed the line ! I finished 54th and David 55th, so that means we lapped half the field . The guy or typical " I do not know what happened " I guess I won , even there was 4 guys ahead of me , felt good about it and is going to wear the Jersey as a proud National Champion!

I lost every bit of respect for the Jersey or any official that had anything to do with organizing this event! The US National Champion Ship does not mean anything to me anymore. I will probably never take part the Nationals again . If it was not for the sponsorship deals from the CX win , I would mail that Jersey and medal back to USA Cycling for sure . I feel embarrassed wearing that after the disrespect in Louisville. In the past I thought that was the race to win and a very proud thing to wear if you were able to pull it off. No more, now it feels like being the Clown of the circus ! This even feels hard to write about , as of today I would enjoy winning our local "Thursday night Worlds "( Rockleigh) a lot more than wearing the stars and stripes , not a thing for me anymore!!!! All the support I get from Mark @ Westwoodcycle , it means a lot to deliver and win big races . That is my way of saying "thanks" and this sort of thing (stupidy)takes a lot away from the sport and makes it hard to feel good about a lot of things! Hey it is only a bike race at the end of the day!

The freak show did not end on Tuesday . The next day was the National TT . I was not really into this at all , but Mark was here for this event and if there was a slim chance of beating Feldman , I would be up for that. In addition , if I was to win the TT , I could have stuck it to the USA Cycling and not accepted the Jersey , that was the plan , but ....it did not happened ! There was a 2 hour delay for all starts due to POOR organization once again , no marshals to close of the exits ramps to our Interstate TT course, what a surprise! I did not bother to warm up, a waist of energy at this point . Some guys warmed up 3 times due the delays , I rolled up to the start , with my now UCI legal TT bike after hacking my nose of the saddle to get the 5 cm behind the bottom bracket! I felt fine , no fire though to race !! Just kind of rode a fast pace and finished 10th , I guess better than 54th , but did not really care! Mark got 13th and within 1/2 an hour we were out of there!!!! On the road again!! Racing to make it to the start of our next TT , the first stage of Fitchburg! My starting time was 11.07 , a mere 23 hours late!


Cracker Barrel, one of the best pancake stops on this trip, a first for Mark. When you spend 30 something hours in a car and you do not see anything but chain food crap , you have to pick one to survive !

This race and trip was a serious mental challenge and a test if you really like racing and riding your bike . Thanks for reading !

My biggest fan....

What do we need to perform well each week in the races?
For once it helps to train smart, eat wholesome food and get enough rest.
Another factor that surely helps is avoiding too much stress whenever possible.
Often overlooked is the support of your spouse/partner in this equation.
I celebrate my 14th wedding anniversary today and I dedicate this brief write up to my wonderful wife Monica.
As cyclists we tend to become one-dimensional and often overlook the needs of those around us. "Got to go for a ride now!", "have to take a nap", "this weekend will not work well (neither will the next one, or the following one for that matter)" are some of the standard answers to our spouses at times when they try to get some quality time in with us.
It is no different for Monica and I, and I have often looked at myself in dissappointment for this type of neglect after a filled weekend of driving and racing.
I am fully aware of it and truly make the effort to balance things, but is it enough? Hardly!
Monica on the other hand is the kindest most generous person one can wish for as a wife and supports my cyclist life and racing with an attitude that is absolutely wonderful.
Not only does she understand how much I enjoy this sport but she tries to be involved by going to races with me, waiting in feed zones handing water bottles to me and my team mates, taking photos during and afterwards, giving me moral support when needed and ground me when necessary.

So, this blog is to you darling! Thank you for everything.

P.S. and sorry to those of you who are absolutely not interested in my private stuff....