3/30/2009

Maple Park Fire Dept. Pancake Breakfast on Sunday

Looking for the perfect pre- or post-race meal for the John Fraser Memorial Time Trail on Sunday? Then look no further.

The Maple Park Fire Department is having their annual pancake breakfast fundraiser this Sunday, April 5th from 7 a.m. until Noon. The price is just $6 for adults and $3 for kids. It’s an all you can eat feast of pancakes, sausage, apple sauce, milk, juice and coffee.

The Fire Department is located on the West side of County Line Road in between Main Street and Route 38. Please be sure to stop in and support the community that has been such great hosts for our event.

3/24/2009

JFMTT Registration Closes Sunday; TT Bike Rental; Equipment Blowout; 40k TTT & Masters Weekend

We are quickly approaching maximum capacity for our John Fraser Memorial Time Trial on Sunday, April 5th and pre-registration will be closed this Sunday at Midnight! Based on the current number of riders registered we cannot guarantee that there will be any spots left for race-day registration, so we STRONGLY recommend you pre-register if you’d like to race.

UPDATE: The first rider will officially go off at 9:01 a.m. at the JFMTT. The early flyer stated 10:01 but with so many participants we’re going to have to get started earlier.

Race details and overall results are available at www.ABDcycling.com and you can also follow our updates at www.twitter.com/abdcycling

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Wondering how much faster you could go on a dedicated TT rig? Prairie Path Cycles is one of ABD’s biggest supporters and is now offering rentals of TT and Road bikes at their Batavia location.

Full details are available at: http://prairiepathcycles.com/page.cfm?pageID=147 or contact Mike or Joe at 630-406-9749 for more information.

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ABD Equipment Blow-Out!

We have ONE lab-tested Computrainer, a handful of Blackburn stationary trainers and just three ABD 2008 LeMond Triomphe Ultimate team frames and Dura Ace gruppos left for sale. All the products and prices are available at:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD2UGnLl-8p8ZenpQkiXzXw&gid=2

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Mark Your Calendars!

Flyers will be posted soon for the ABD 40k Two-Person Time Trial on Saturday, May 9th and the Memorial Day Weekend Masters Races on May 23rd, 24th and 25th.

3/19/2009

Freund Report: Spring Training with Ebert

First I suppose an introduction would be appropriate.  I am Ryan Freund and I suppose the newest member of the ABD elite team.  I have been racing for quite a while now... probably about 10 months, so almost a year... OK so maybe not that long.  I played football at Elmhurst College and after 4 years of that I decided it was time to give cycling a try, so I bought a bike in January however I was not able to ride it until may.  My first race was actually the winfield crit and to this day was probably one of the hardest races I ever have done.  I lead the entire race only to get caught.  Which led to a break of 2 guys which I then joined immedietly then won the sprint.  I went on to get a little smarter about how to race and had a fairly decent year last year and hope to have a great year on ABD.  

Well I figured the best way to make up for lost time would be to spend a week training with none other than Thee Mike Ebert.  So for my spring break I decided to fly out for a small training camp.  I figured since Ebert lived out where it was warm and he has actually climbed mountains before I would show up and he would be dragging me up and down those things.  However this was not the case.  My days have been filled with comments like - "you go ahead, I'll meet you at the top" or "hey easy man were on a downhill".  No I'm just kidding it has been great out here and all of this climbing is definitely a different type of monster.  Anyway here is what we've been up to.

Sunday  I flew in and when we got back to Ebert's I assembled the madone (the team bikes are great) and we went for an easy 1.5 hr spin.  I like the bike alot however I had some derailleur problems but I think that its taken care of now.

Monday - We rode for about 3.5 - 4 hrs about 65 miles.  Ebert let me loose on some 10 - 15 minute climbs and most of the day we kept at a moderate pass.  The ride was big rolling stuff with those 2 climbs back to back in the middle.  This was pretty much my first experience with climbing and suffering.  The problem I quickly came across is that I need to get used to a different suffering position.  No longer am I all over the front of the bike and over the handle bars.  Now I'm kinda pushed back and my chest is up and I'm using a lot more glute and hamstring.

Tuesday:  A 65 mile ride with a good amount of climbing and rolling.  Also one climb that started not so bad then kicked up a little and then all of a sudden a wall for about 3 minutes.  Must be about 12% grade maybe steeper.  Ebert let me loose at the bottom and I was going along pretty good.  In fact I kept up the pace cause it felt almost easy and then I got to the wall and it was all I had just get to the top.  There was no hiding on that climb.  I was at probably a 70 or 65 cadence and in the 39X26 cog.  I was worried I was going to fall off the bike or that my heart would explode.  However when I got to the top I had some time to recover (while waiting for Ebert) so I decided it would be a good idea to ride the steep section again.  It seemed like a good idea until about halfway up when I thought it was the worst idea ever.

Wednesday:  A slightly shorter day at just under 3 hours for total ride time however the first hour and a half was spent going uphill.  We had a pretty decent pace for most of the climb and talked about tactics and lead outs.  Kind of Ironic considering we were climbing the whole time.

Today will be a day off before the San Dimas Stage Race. 

Happy riding,

Ryan

3/16/2009

FREE Training Presentation this Saturday at Prairie Path Cycles - Batavia

Saturday, March 21st - 6pm @ Prairie Path Cycles - Batavia

"Effective Coaching for the Time-Limited Triathlete: the Benefits of Flesh-and-Blood Coaching vs. Online Coaching.“

Plus,
A few triathlon racing & training tricks, and everything you ever wanted to know about swimming efficiently, biking fast, and running strong, but were afraid to ask."

Speaker:
Greg Grunner
B.S. Exercise Physiology
USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach
LTF Endurance Coach

Hosted by Mike Farrell, owner of Prairie Path Cycles and former professional rider and team manager.

Results & Pics Posted! Trainer, Frame & Gruppo Blowout!

Results and photos from ABD Indoor TT#4 are posted at www.ABDcycling.com and www.ABDcycling.com/gallery. Over 200 riders joined us for the final ABD Indoor TT of the year and once again PACT-Dish Network’s Dan Verner and ABD’s Jessi Prinner posted the fastest Men’s and Women’s times of the day.

Thanks to all of our competitors, officials, Winfield Middle School, Bontrager, Trek Travel and the 60+ ABD Volunteers that chip in to help pull off the biggest indoor TT events in the country!

Now we’re taking outside! Just one event remains in the 2009 ABD TT Series: the John Fraser Memorial Time Trial on April 5, 2009 in Maple Park. We already have over 180 riders registered for this event and as in years past and as in years past we are capping registration at 250 riders. THIS EVENT WILL FILL UP so if you want to do it be sure to pre-register!

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We have one Lab-Tested Computrainer left for sale and ready to take home for just $1250 as well as a handful of the Blackburn Trackstand Ultra warm-up trainers for just $185! All the trainers were only used during the four 2009 indoor TT events. Contact Prairie Path Cycles to reserve yours.

We’ve lowered prices on all remaining 2008 ABD 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

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Upcoming ABD Events:
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

3/12/2009

Carter Race Report...Or How to Take Dead Last in a TT and Still Finish 2nd Overall

Horse Country TT, Denton Rhapsody Crit, and Jesuit Road Race

So it was another exciting weekend of bike racing for me and my family. My wife, Julie, took her college riders to Tunis Roubaix for the first collegiate racing of the season. I decided to stay close to home and went to the races near Denton,TX. At first I was going to race just the crit and RR because I am not that good at Time Trials. I was home alone for the weekend with no wife and kids and I got incredibly bored so I thought “what the heck, I have nothing else to do,” so off to the TT I went. Now for those of you who do not know me very well, I do not Time Trial at all. I do not own a TT bike, the closest thing I have is a pair of short clip-ons to put on my road bike. So I must have been REALLY bored to convince myself that this was a good idea. I am also one of those guys that coaches hate because I do not warm up for anything, just a little bit of a ride from the car to the line and I am ready to race. Just for the record that is not a good idea for Time Trials. Hindsight is always 20/20. I started out really good and after about 3k I thought I was catching my 30sec man. Well, it went all down hill from there. I quickly remembered why I do not do Time Trials. They hurt way too much and I do not have the desire to push myself that hard by myself. So needless to say I got dead last. It was expected though and it was worth laughing about so I had a lot of fun regardless.

Next up was the Rhapsody Crit. This was a cool little course. With wide open corners I figured that this was going to be a very fast course. The race was very aggressive from the start and I quickly found myself in a 9 man break. Just as we were getting ready to lap the pack, Brett Crosby (TX tough) attacked to be the first to lap up. This was a great move, if he could make it to the pack before anyone else from the break could, he had his team there to drive the field and make it hard for the rest of the break to catch up, if not impossible. Ryan Dewald (Batley-Harley Davidson) chased after him immediately. I recognized the potential danger that was happening and I went after them. It was by far the hardest effort I did all day, and the only thing that was going through my mind was “why did I do that Time Trial this morning, this is not good”. I finally made it to the pack and was able to rest only to find out by the time I made it to the front of the pack that Ryan had gone solo off the front. Now we still had something like 30 laps to go and after what I had just gone through to get to where I was, I was happy to cut my losses and take a chance that I was racing for second place, knowing that I had a good shot in the sprint. Long story short that is how it ended up, Ryan made it look easy and rode away from us and I won the sprint for second, and my man Jesse Moran finished third.

Finally was the Jesuit Road Race. This race was pretty straight forward, it was the last race of the weekend and I just really wanted to ride as hard as I could to get some good race miles in the legs. After the first few miles of just “chilled riding” it started to get aggressive. Team Velossimo was on the front trying to keep it all together until, their man who won the Time Trial, Vasanth Coorg, could get into the right move. After a few attempts at establishing a break, I finally was able to get away with 7 other riders including Vasanth, Ryan Dewald, Brett Crosby, and Colt Trant. It was a good move; the elastic broke from the field and we were gone. With 30 miles to go, it was a nice steady ride to the finish. With 3k to go I expected some of the guys were going to start attacking to try and get away, but that never happened and I thought “this is good for me, I can win this”. With 1 k to go we started playing cat and mouse with each other, no one wanting to pull and work. With 300 meters to go I started my sprint and was able to take the win with Ryan getting second and Vasanth coming in third.

This weekend was a lot of fun and it helped out a lot of high school junior racers. It was a lot of good race training and it was good to see some old friends. See you at the races.

~ Josh Carter

3/11/2009

ABD TT#4 Start Times; Event is Saturday; Blackburn Warm-Up trainers for sale!

Preliminary Start Times & Instructions for the final ABD Indoor TT of the year are posted at www.ABDcycling.com.

The event is this SATURDAY and race-day registration is still available. 200 riders have already signed up to join us on this 10k ROLLING course! Please be sure to read through all the event instructions posted before the start times, and best of luck to all our participants.

Prairie Path Cycles is selling all of the Blackburn Trackstand Ultra trainers that were used for warm-ups at the TTs are for sale for just $185! These are ‘09 models that retail for $299 and were used the four days of the events. Call 630-406-9749 to reserve yours.

Representatives from Bontrager and Trek Travel will be on-site Saturday to show off their 2009 Products and Tours. Be sure to check out the new line of Bontrager Shoes, InForm saddles and Clothing.

We also have just two Lab-Tested Computrainers left for sale for just $1250! These units were used only four times for the Indoor TTs and the manual, software and original cables are unopened. The units are available to take home after Saturday’s event. Email abdcycling@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Don’t forget that online registration is still open for the first outdoor TT of the season- the John Fraser Memorial Time Trial. Over 180 riders are already signed up! Full details and registration information are available at www.ABDcycling.com


trek_travel.UP7s7gExQL8V.jpgbontrager_aeolus.tH4dRmxVITA9.jpgbontrager_shoes.Pc0WXCAhjDn8.jpg

3/07/2009

KV Criterium Flyer is Posted!

From the desk of ABR this morning:

Where or where is the Kenosha Spring Race Flyer, right here! Their quest for a good race venue on a NEW COURSE has materialize in the great City of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. At the LakeView Corporate Park. Wide smooth roads, a slight hill, plenty of parking right next to registration and the course. Be there March 15, 22 & 29, 2009 to race the opening events of the TOI/W Series. TOI/W ROTY Kenosha Velosport Spring Criterium Series, Mike (262) 948-0497 or mikchi90@wi.rr.com or Han (262) 697-0625 orwishusker@yahoo.com http://www.kenoshavelosport.org

Placed under the above the following is in news section.

So you are going to a Bicycle Race. First time? Second year? Or been there decades. Have a great fun time, be competitive using your skills to place well. Race wise and safe.

Here are some simple courteous rules:
No Bare bottoms,
 keep it to yourself, do it in the car or rest room, bare bottoms will be DQ. No Litter Bugs take your trash, banana peels, apple cores, orange peels, gooey wrappers, water bottles, tissues & diapers home with you or place in garbage can. Use Toilets not the area around the toilet, behind a building, next to your car or at a tree, your a human not a puppy. human puppies will be DQ no matter how old or young.  No Fouls users of foul language, threats, striking or attempting to strike and knocking a person down are DQ offenses. Beware GPS satellite security cameras are watching every where!!

3/06/2009

ABD Sponsor Update: PPC Now Offering Rentals!

Wondering how much faster you’d be on a TT bike? Contemplating the upgrade to carbon? Looking to escape the grind and go for a leisurely spin up the Fox River Trail on something other than your race bike?

Prairie Path Cycles, ABD’s primary sponsor and unofficial headquarters, is now offering rentals at their Batavia location on a full range of bikes from the comfort line up to the Trek Equinox speed machine. All rentals include a complimentary floor fit plus there’s a “rent to own” option on the road and TT bikes.

Check it out at www.PrairiePathCycles.com

3/05/2009

ABD Club Update: 3.4.09

In this edition:
- Voler Orders Due Saturday
- Bontrager & Trek Travel Deals at TT4
- 2009 Midwest Race Calendar Listing and Meeting Podcast
- Team Equipment Blowout & the PPC Clearance Page
- ABD on Facebook & Twitter
- Looking Ahead: Upcoming ABD events, Skills & Drills and a Call to Arms

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Voler Clothing

Just a quick reminder that now is your last chance to order team kits for the 2009 season and orders are due this Saturday! Check your inbox for the message from the YahooGroup with details and you can
download the form here.

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Bontrager & Trek Travel

Next Saturday, March 14th is the final ABD indoor TT of the year (and a certain club presidents’ birthday). Reps will be on hand from Bontrager and Trek Travel with special deals for ABD club members.

ABD’ers will get deals on just about everything Bontrager makes, including their swanky new kicks and the ever-popular 6-pack o’ innertubes deal.

Trek Travel and Prairie Path Cycles are also extending special deals to any club members who’d like to join Mike Farrell and Mary Lee or Joe and his wife, Teresa, on their respective trips this year. Joe and Teresa will be sampling ‘La Dolce Vita’ in Italy while Mike and Mary Lee will be enjoying the fine domestic ‘good life’ in Northern California. Call Prairie Path Cycles at 630-406-9749 or be sure to stop by the Trek Travel booth on March 14th for more details.

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2009 Midwest Racing Calendar Meeting Podcast

A couple of weeks ago Mike Farrell and I were joined by about 20 club members to take a look at the season ahead and discuss some general training tips for meeting your goals.

A quick mock-up of the ABR and USAC Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri calendars is available here

I put together a quick podcast of the presentation that you can download it from the ABD podcast page at: http://web.me.com/m.ebert/ABD/ABD_News_Podcast/ABD_News_Podcast.html (This site is password protected since we do offer some top secret advice and occasionally drop in a personal email address or phone #’s. Email abdcycling@gmail.com if you need the password.)

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Team Equipment Blowout & the PPC Clearance Page

We’ve still got a few team bikes, some wheels (Aeolus!) and a Dura Ace gruppo up for grabs over at the PPC Clearance page. We’ve also added links to detailed photos and even some videos of the bikes. Please pass these deals around to anyone you think might be in the market for a sweet bike.

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ABD on FaceBook & Twitter

It’s an all out social media explosion in the ABD front office. In an effort to keep in touch with our super-hip, jet-setting and tech-saavy membership (who simply can’t be bothered to read their e-mail), various ABD’ers have set up a group page for us on FaceBook and a Twitter feed at ‘abdcycling’. Shoot me an e-mail if you need more details on how to hitch a ride in our information superhighway hot-rod.

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Looking Ahead: Upcoming ABD events, Skills & Drills and a Call to Arms

As mentioned, March 14th is the final ABD Indoor TT of the year, and following that will be the John Fraser Memorial Time Trial on April 5th. Next up will be the ABD Training Camp on April 16-19, and in preparation for what looks to be like a camp of 20+ people and the impending area group rides, I’m penciling in “Skills & Drills” clinics for Tuesday, April 7th and Tuesday, April 14th. I’ll run the usual gauntlet of on-the-bike drills but also plan to discuss the important do’s and don’ts of riding in a group and how to be safe and comfortable riding and racing in tight quarters.

Then in May and June, it’s ABD “go” time with the 40k Two Person Time Trial on May 9th, the Memorial Day Masters Weekend races on the 23-25 (including a unique duathlon on Monday!!!) and then the Winfield Criterium Weekend on June 6th and 7th.

All the basics are being covered and a crew is in place to run the Memorial Day Weekend Races, but we still need help with the 40k and the Winfield Weekends. If any ABD’ers have ideas for these events or are interested in jumping in and helping out with some of the “behind the scenes” work like promotion and organizing now is the perfect chance to get involved. You’ll get to work with a lot of fun people and learn some of the ins and outs of grassroots bike race promotion. We’ve also got a few carrots to dangle out there as well. Just shoot me an e-mail or give me a ring if you’re interested .

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Thanks for reading.
-Ebert

3/04/2009

Kenosha Velosport Announces Spring Series Date and New Course

The following is now posted on the ABR website.

3/15
TOI/W ROTY Kenosha Velosport Spring Criterium Series, Lakeview Corporate Park, Pleasant Prairie, WI
NEW COURSE Race flyer will be available soon!

3/22 TOI/W ROTY Kenosha Velosport Spring Criterium Series, Lakeview Corporate Park, Pleasant Prairie, WI
NEW COURSE Race flyer will be available soon!

3/29 TOI/W ROTY Kenosha Velosport Spring Criterium Series, Lakeview Corporate Park, Pleasant Prairie, WI
NEW COURSE Race flyer will be available soon!

3/02/2009

We're Taking This Thing Outside! John Fraser Memorial TT Flyer

http://www.abdcycling.com/racesevents/2009/indoorTT/JFM_TT09.pdf

ABD Pro Development Team Weekend Race Report

The ABD Pro Development Team riders are spread out around the country right now prepping for their assault on the Midwest and they are showing a lot of promise for the season ahead.

Josh Carter has been racing for over a month now and already has two wins and a handful of podiums finishes under his belt. There's a great pic of him at the Texas Bicycle Racing Racing Assocation site winning the field sprint ahead of Steve Tilford and Chris Wherry and ALMOST catching Phil Wikoff, who’d been off on a breakaway. This past weekend Josh raced “La Primavera @ Vista Del Lago” and on Sunday had 14(!!!) Kelly Benefits/Medifast riders to contend with. Unsurprisingly, KBM put four riders in a break of six that stayed away, but their leadout for the field sprint was foiled by Carter, who beat their man Jake Keough to the line for 7th. Josh is currently leading the Texas Central Regional Cup.

This weekend also provided opportunities for ABD rookie Ryan Freund and team veteran Zach Watson to test out their early-season legs. Ryan started off with some Midwest collegiate racing and Zach raced a crit on the campus of my alma mater in Colorado Springs.

Ryan finished third in his road race on Saturday and second in the criterium on Sunday. He was actually away solo in the criterium but decided to wait for two riders coming across to him- not knowing that the duo contained none other than UW/ISCorp’s fast-man Steve Scholzen. Steve won the race, but Ryan’s solid results make him the early leader of the Midwest Cycling Conference Standings.

Zach went on the attack early in his criterium as well, powering a four-rider move that stayed away. Focusing on early-season fitness instead of tactics, Zach swapped pulls with Caleb Fairly of Garmin/Slipstream for most of the race while the other riders sat on and just sat on the front as Caleb stopped pulling with one to go. Caleb won the sprint but Zach had enough left in the tank to handily take second.


Carter Report: VOS, the Walburg Road Race & the Pace Bend Road Race

Here’s a quick recap of the races down here the past few weekends.  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