More and More Racing

So sturbridge and palmer have come and gone. Both races are new england institutions, and both days provided the Kenda/Raleigh Team with good riding, and some reasonable resuts. Saturday was sturbridge and we were treated to a new course, which was far more selective than it has been in the past. For the first lap we were all at the front, throwing down attack after attack with the hopes of having numbers in the break that was sure to snap the elastic at some point. When the dust had cleared from the initial volley we had placed Jason Beerman in the move, surprise surprise, and were content to martial the front of the field with some help from TargeTraining. The gap grew and grew, and halfway through the race, Toby Walch slipped into a chase group that would get across to the front of the race. On the last lap, I put in a small effort on the climb and got a gap. Not to my surprise, I drew out a group that was eager to get up the road, and with the help of Robbie King, and Brendan Cornett, we charged across a near 2 minute gap in about 10 miles. Once we reached the break it was on. I threw down an attack near the base of the finishing climb. Robbie countered, and up the climb we went. It was hot up the hill, and the pace was high. At the finish I hung on for a reasonably satisfying 9th after a hard effort to get across and a solid attack in the closing miles.

At Palmer we raced hard again, with countless attacks we tried to break the field. We were once again represented in every move of the day, and at the final had Colin and Beerman in the move. After Josh Dillon from FiordiFrutta Made the winning effort, our guys were solid with a couple more top ten finishes for the team. We're racing well, and are always there and thereabouts, can't be long now until we grab some wins.

Bad Luck and Breakaways

This last saturday was one I wouldn't mind forgetting. The team made the long trek up to Salem, NY for the Battenkill Roubaix. Now this is somewhat of a new race, and it seems to get better every year. This year was no exception. We raced 90 miles or so in a Pro/1 only with more than 100 guys. It was well done on the part of the race promoter. I'll certainly go back. It had the feel of an NRC race with the relaxed atmosphere of a local crit. The racing was going well for us, as we decided to not be too active early and wait to the end to show our colors at the frint. After one of the more decisive dirt sections, the team was in good shape, with four of us in the lead group, which was getting pretty small at this point. That's when things went to seed. In the span of little more than ten minutes we all had bike problems, flat tires, or simply came unglued. Oh well. Thats part of racing I suppose.
Sunday was Myles Standish. Our plan was simple. Be aggressive and get in all the moves. Which we did. Jason was in the main break of the day again, and wound up third. I got in a long chase group and took 8th at the finish. Not bad, two guys in the money. Can't wait for this weekend, I think we'll win one of these.

Euro Trash to the Extreme

Why are the belgians so damn fast?

So this was the scene at the tour of flanders last sunday. With paris roubaix this weekend, we could see the belgians notch up another win in the classics. Are they just tougher than everybody else? Is it the beer? Who knows. Any thoughts?

Im still alive...I swear.

So I know it's been a while...but not for good reason. The reason being that I've been busy as hell, and tired as hell. Training has been taking its toll on me lately with a ton of structured work on the trainer in my living room. It's pretty tiring, but on the plus side it's making me fast, as you can see from my picture, and I'm catching up on a ton of early morning (think 6:00am) television. There really isn't much on at this time of day either. Typically I choose between sports center, which is great for the first 30 minutes of my ride, but then repeats itself, and gets boring, and old movies on AMC. I watched a kick ass movie about moonshining with John Wayne the other day, all before 9am. He's pretty badass. I think he could take care of Chuck Norris no problem, although, it would be a good fight. But in my mind, sixguns beat karate any day.

On another note, I've been eating a ton lately and still loosing weight, which means I'm either going to be really fast this year, or I have a family of tapeworms living in my stomach. Either way, I'll be fast, you wait and see. This weekend racing comes to the ocean state with the chris hinds crit on saturday, and then heads to NH for turtle pond on sunday. Team Kenda Raleigh plans of representing with a full squad at both races, so watch out.

One more not of importance. If you ever had a raleigh when you were a kid, like a million years ago, and wondered where they went, and why they're not still making good tenspeeds, the are. But now they have twenty speeds.

Peace

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April Fools...
I got you good.