It's On! Another Saturday Night at the Races this Weekend

The Prez is throwing down the gauntlet again. This Saturday he's hosting two heats of 8-up, drafting-enabled racing on the fabled Morgul Bismark course! First race is at 4 PM, second race is at 5:30 PM.

Cost is $10, refreshments will be available and remember "No officiating, No complaining. No prize money. Just a great time."

Email your reservations to prairiepathcycles@gmail.com and you can check the schedule at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD2UGnLl-8p-F4o51paVnAA

TT3 Results & Photos are Posted; ABD bikes, parts & Trainer blowout!

Results and photos from ABD Indoor TT#3 are posted at www.ABDcycling.com and www.ABDcycling.com/gallery. Over 200 riders joined us for their final shot at the Flat 10k course, with PACT-DishNetwork’s Dan Verner and ABD’s own Jessi Prinner posting the fastest Men’s and Women’s times of the day.

A huge thanks again to the army of ABD volunteers that helped us pull it off.

Just one Indoor Time Trial of the season remains: Round #4 on Computrainer’s Official 10k Course on SATURDAY, March 14th. Joining us at the event will be representatives from Bontrager Components & Shoes and Trek Travel. All competitors will receive special discounts on orders or reservations placed the day of the event.

At TT4 we will also have our remaining two Lab-Tested Computrainers on sale and ready to take home for just $1250 as well as the 16 Blackburn warm-up trainers! All the trainers were only used during the four 2009 indoor TT events.

But that’s not all: ABD is blowing out all previous’ years team equipment including 850gram LeMond Triomphe framesets, Dura Ace gruppos and Bontrager Aeolus Carbon Aero wheels! A complete list is available at:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD2UGnLl-8p8ZenpQkiXzXw&gid=2

Last but not least, we just wanted to put a bug in everyone’s ear about upcoming ABD Events in the first half of the year:
4/5/09 - John Fraser Memorial Time Trial
5/9/09 - MATTS 40k Two Person TTT
5/23, 5/24 & 5/25 - Memorial Day Weekend Masters Races!
6/6/09 - Winfield Twilight Criterium
6/7/09 - ABR National Championship Criterium

Carter Report: Pace bend RR and Walburg RR

Hi ABD'ers
 
Thought I would drop a short recap of the races down here.  I will start with Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, AZ.  It was a 3 day stage race with a TT, RR, and Crit based on time.  Now, it is no seceret that I hate TT's, but I actually was ready to really try and do well at this one, full on areo set up.  5k into the 22k TT I managed to find the biggest nail on the rode that went clean through my wheel.  Two thoughts went through my head: 1st- I am so glad that I have a great excuse as to why I did not do well.  2nd- Oh crap I have to ride the next 17k on a flat wheel so I can start the next day, I hope somebody will be there to score me in a hour or so.  Lucky for me they had a sweeper to pick people up in my situation and they gave me 5 minutes slower than the slowest time of the day, so I could start the next day.  RR went well, the results show me as getting 2nd (and I still would have done well) but with 1k to go they neutralized our finish because of a crash at the finish line in the 3s race.  So it did not really count.  The Crit went well also, long story shot, a Rock Racing guy and Waste Management guy got off the front with 1 lap to go and I got 2nd in the field sprint for 4th.
 
This last weekend I went the suburbs of Austin, TX to the Walburg and Pace Bend RRs (two big TX races that everyone has been talking about).  Saturday was Walburg- it was a long hard day in the saddle.  We had cold, clouds, rain, sun, warm, and wind (a lot of wind).  It was so windy that for about 5 miles in the cross wind I was trying to control my deep carbon Bontrager wheels at an angle as if I where going through a corner (only I was going straight).  I could feel my bike sliding sideways on the wet road.  I missed the 3 man break.  In the last 10 miles a 4th guy got away and I won the sprint for 5th.  Sunday was Pace Bend, it was a very cool race.  A 6.2 mile fully enclosed wide road loop with rolling climbs and a lot of dudes (130+ starters)  I quickly figured out that this race was going to come to a field sprint, it was too easy to sit in and to many guys with fresh legs.  Now with that being said it made it very hard to position for the finish.  There was a corner 400 meters to the finish and it was all up hill (not exactly my cup of tea) but I was ready for the fight.  I got boxed in coming out of the corner and had to soft pedal to get an open lane with 200 meters to go.  I got boxed in again and soft pedaled to get the line.  By the time I hit the finish I had caught all but 1 guy, all I needed was 10 more meters, but that is bike racing.  I will take 2nd place anytime.  That is all the races I have to report for now!  I will be at it again this weekend at Lago Vista.  Wish me luck!
 
~Josh
 

Indoor TT #3 Pictures Posted

Check out the pictures from the 3rd. installment of the ABD Indoor
Time Trial.

http://www.abdcycling.com/gallery.htm

Enjoy

Ken Glinka
"The Locomotive"
ABD Cycling Team

http://gallery.mac.com/kglinka#gallery

The greatest day for a kid is the first day you get your bike
It's a day of freedom.

LiveStrong

Where are You Racing this Year? Race Planning Meeting on Feb 18!

Now that both ABR and USA Cycling have released their respective 2009 calendars it's time to plan your attack on the 2009 events.

All ABD members are invited to a strategizing session with Mike Farrell and Mike Ebert at Prairie Path Cycles-Batavia at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18th. We’re going to discuss the highlights of this season’s calendars PLUS offer some training ideas for you to keep in mind when preparing for your goals.

After that we’d like to break out into small groups based on your racing category to open the dialogue with your teammates about your collective assaults on the season ahead.

Please send an RSVP to abdcycling@gmail.com if you plan to join us.

Carter Report: Another Win in Texas

Hello all,

I just wanted to drop a line in and give an update on the start of the elite team's season.  This last weekend I was able to race the Tour of New Braunfels in New Braunfels, Texas.  I will start by saying the weather for the weekend was great (80's and sunny both days).  The race included a crit (that was more like a circuit) through a national park and a RR in some very wide open, rolling grasslands.  The crit was Saturday, which is new for me to race a crit first, and after a rest week in training I was a little nervous about how I was going to feel turning the pedals over in anger.  The course was a 2.1 mile rolling loop with 2 good 30 sec. climbs.  Talking to coach Julie before the race we came up with a good game plan.  I would sit in and try to get my legs under me for the first 15 min, with 80+ starters I also wanted to stay up front to stay out of trouble.  During that time two guys got away and put 40 sec. on us.  I felt good so I started to help bring the break back, the gap came down to about 10 sec. and just as I was pulling off one of Julie's MSU riders that rides for RBM during USCF races attacked and bridged the gap.  It was a great move on his part but that sucked!  The gap went back out to about 40 sec. and with 2 laps to go I thought "I am racing for 4th place, sit in and make it a good sprint."  With one lap to go Julie tells me that the gap is down to 20 sec. but we could not see the break up the road. At about the one mile mark there was a large curve that you could see about 10 -15 sec. and to my suprise there was the break playing cat and mouse with each other.  I thought yeeaaa I'm going to win this!!  During my pre-ride of the course I scoped out the spot that I wanted to start sprinting, it was a boat dock ramp about 300 meters from the line.  On this course you could not see the line because the road was too curvy, but I knew that this was my spot.  I passed the remnants of the group with about 150 meters to go and never looked back.  It was great to get the second win of the season (two in a row was cool too!).  The kids had a count going on.
 
Day two was not as good.  It was a long, windy battle of attrition 80+ starters only 22 finishers.  The trick of the day was to be in the top 5 in the crosswind.  For the record it is sooo much easier to rotate and pull through with a strong crosswind than it is to fight in the gutter with everyone else who is not getting a draft.  On a 15 mile course we had to do that 5 times and it did not feel good at all.  Long story short, 5 guys got away and I could not chase.  I ended up in an 8 man chase group that was killing me and 3 of those guys got away, by this time I just wanted to finish in the money (top 10).  Of the 5 of us left 1 guy attacked with 1 mile to go and I bridged up to him and told him that I would not sprint him as long as he pulled the rest of the way in and I just wanted 10th place.  He said "Thanks," and that is how we finished.  I was so wrecked at the end all I wanted to do was go home.  It was great early season race training.  I am looking forward to seeing you all soon.  I hope your training is all going well and you are all staying warm. I also hope that you are all as excited about this season as I am, big things are going to happen this year ... I can feel it.
 
 -Josh
 

Indoor TT #2 Pictures Posted

To view some pictures from ABD's 2nd indoor TT for 2009, click on the
link below.

http://www.abdcycling.com/gallery.htm

Ken & Sandy Glinka
No excuses !!!
ABD Cycling Team

http://gallery.mac.com/kglinka#gallery

The greatest day for a kid is the first day you get your bike
It's a day of freedom.

LiveStrong