Astellas Oncology Team p/b ABD Report: ToAD

The team racing at the Tour of Dairyland displayed grit and dedication. In early April, the team kicked off the season competing in the grueling Tour of Battenkill. Since then there has been no break as the team consistently obtained results and gained experience by racing a rigorous schedule.

The Tour of Dairyland marked the last series of races before the team took a mid-season break. Tired legs were excited for a deserved rest. At times like this it is easy for racers to mentally check out. Yet, the boys displayed their ability to focus. The first night in Sheboygan, the team shook out the legs and got back into action, ending with Brandon placing top-20 in the field sprint. The following night, in Fond du Lac, the team stayed aggressive and learned some hard lessons from expending too much energy early on. Determined to stay focused and get a result, the team designed a game plan for the most important and prestigious Tour of Dairyland criteriums: Downer Ave.

An hour before the race, the team gathered together and discussed the plan, where each rider would have a specific role: Zach, Andre, Matt, and Bryan would stay aggressive early on, making sure to cover every attack and stay up front in the thick of it. Brandon would conserve energy for the sprint and Dan would conserve energy for a late attack to take pressure off the team, thus allowing the Astellas boys to form a lead-out train for Brandon.

By far the fastest and hardest night of racing, with a massive Milwaukee crowd buzzing full of energy and well “lubricated”, Downer Ave was flooded with festivities. And the team followed their game plan exactly. Aggressive tactics equaled an Astellas jersey in every move. Andre even positioned himself for the gamblers prime, narrowly missing out in the sprint for $6,500.

Directly after the gamblers prime, with 16laps to go, there was a huge attack by two of rides favored to win. Dan quickly recognized this was a dangerous move and joined a breakaway of nine riders. As Dan and the breakaway gained more and more time, Andre, Zach, Matt, and Bryan surged to the front of the pack to position Brandon for the sprint. On the last lap Dan sprinted against heavy hitters and came out 5th overall. Back in the field, Brandon and Matt had a solid run, both placing top-20 and in the money. These solid results came purely as a reward from the aggressive and cohesive teamwork.

After the big success at Downer’s Ave, the team carried the focused momentum into the last race on Sunday in Madison. The team pushed hard, despite the now very tired legs, determined to finish the races on a high note. Racing around the Wisconsin State Capital building, Andre nabbed a big money prime and Brandon led out Zach and Dan who both finished top-20 and in the money.

Enough can’t be said for the focus and commitment these Astellas boys had to stay competitive after a long season of racing. They can now all rest easy and recuperate knowing every one of them did their job and performed as a team. For a first year team, Astellas Oncology has clearly shown they are force to reckon with. Stay tuned for more results sure to come during the second half of the season.

Thanks for the support
Astellas Oncology Cycling Team p/b ABD
www.facebook.com/astcycling

Astellas Oncology Team p/b ABD Report: Nationals

This year the US Elite and U23 Cycling National Championships were held in Augusta, Georgia which is more known for being the home of the Masters Golf Tournament. Although for this one week everyone in town welcomed the cyclist and knew what was going on as this was the towns second time hosting the event.

The Astellas Oncology p/b ABD Cycling team members partaking in the races were Nick, Dan, Bryan, and Jake in the elite races and Andre, Brandon, and Zach in the Under 23 events. The first race was the time trial and the only team members racing were Nick and Dan. Both went out and put out great efforts. Held on a rolling course in very warm conditions both were able to place in the top 20.

The following day were the criteriums. First up was the 80km Elite Men’s event held in the middle of the day under very warm conditions. All members raced near the front of the 144 rider field. A late crash took down Jake, but Bryan was able to keep pace near the front and finished in the top 25.

Later in the day was the Under 23 event. They young guys really put on a show. The racing was super fast laps consistently coming in under 2 minutes on the 1 mile course, which is over 30mph average speed. A lot of riders in the race fell off the pace early on, while Brandon, Andre, and Zach were able to keep up front and in the heat of the action. Brandon once again showed he was on great form by finishing in 13th place. He has 2 more years in this category to improve on this great placing.

The following day the Under 23's were the first to take to the 104 mile road race. Once again the heat was a big factor in the race. Unfortunately an early mechanical took Andre out of the race leaving the Astellas guys with just two riders. The field blew apart under early pressure into many small groups. Brandon and Zach both made it into groups that finished the race which was good as only a small amount of the race actually finished.

The last event was the Elite Road Race Championships. The race started off fast and aggressive with a group of 12 forming off the front after the first of 7 laps. The team saw this as a threat and Dan tired to get across. After not making it he took Jake to the front on one of the bigger hills on the course and Jake bridged across with 3 other riders. The 15 rider group would ride much of the race off the front only a minute or two from the field. Some more riders would bridge later on, but coming into the last lap 3 riders shot off the front. Then on the last lap the remaining break away riders would be caught by the field. From there Jake, Dan and Bryan did what the could to try help bring back the 30sec gap unsuccessfully and finished in the group 17second behind the winners.

The team didn't come away with any medals or jerseys but they put themselves into position in the race to have a chance to win and that is more than half the battle. You can't win till you are able to put yourself in a position to win.

Thanks for the support
Astellas Oncology Cycling Team p/b ABD
www.facebook.com/astcycling

Team Report: Quad Cities to Mount Pleasant

The team had very busy, but very successful, several weeks starting with four big races in Iowa/Illinois Quad Cites over the Memorial Day Weekend holiday. First up was the Burlington Road Race where Jake Rytlewski soloed home to take the victory while Adam Kaye came in for a strong 12th place. In the Melon City Criterium, Brandon Feehery and Jake both finished in the top 20. The team finished the weekend strong with putting 4 riders in the top 20 in the Quad Cities Criterium led by Andre Vandenberg's 8th place finish.



The following week the team spent time up in the Chicago area as they were part of the Astellas Oncology booth at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual meeting held at McCormick Place. 

In between riding rollers at the booth, the riders raced in the Lake Bluff Criterium where Adam took 7th in the Cat 2 race and the Glencoe Grand Prix where Brandon won the Illinois State Criterium Championship.

Wrapping a couple of very busy weeks was the Le Tour de Mont Pleasant held in Michigan. It was a 3 day race that included a 4mile time trial, a 75 minute criterium and a brutal 120 mile road race. Jake took 6th in the time trial to start off the weekend. Then in the criterium the team rode very aggressive leaving many of the other teams to chase us down. However race came down to a field sprint where Brandon finished 3rd, Jake finished 4th and Kiwi Matt Gorter rounded out the top 10. 

In the road race, the team continued its aggressive strategy. Jake took his turn to attack and found himself in a 4 man group 30 miles into race. The rest of the team sat back and watched as other teams tried hard to chase them down. Jake won all the the KOM and Sprints while building a lead of over 5 minutes and riding his breakaway companions off his wheel, soloing to victory. Brandon came across next for the team in a solid 4th place finish. With the victory in the road race Jake also took the overall victory.



While most of the team was in Michigan, Dan was back home out west and competed in the Wenatchee Omnium where he was 2nd in the time trial, 4th in the criterium, and also soloed to the victory in the road race that featured over 6,000ft of climbing!

Thanks for the support
Astellas Oncology Cycling Team p/b ABD
www.facebook.com/astcycling

Bryan McVey Season Update

I think I would like to keep my five sentence writing limit to emails.

And so, I'm currently in the middle of Superweek, sitting at my gracious host's house in Mequon, WI, just north of Milwaukee. The season has been going fairly well and I am happy with some of my performances. Here are some quick notes about the major races I have been doing.

Joe Martin stage race at the beginning of May was exactly what I needed to bring my form around. It started with a challenging TT the first day in which I rode the same exact time as the year before. The racing after that must have been much faster than previous years, because I was in the pain cave both road days and got time cut the 2nd to last day, so was not able to compete in the final crit on Sunday. I still don't know if the racing was just faster this year, or if I was slower, or maybe a combo of both. The previous 2 years I finished the entire series, but unlike those years, the second road day was completely blown apart, which could show the difficulty of the new course and how teams rode it. I did get some great training in at least, and the whole week the weather was awesome.

The memorial day races were again good for my form, and I was consistent each day (minus the snake, which I still cannot figure out). Unfortunately I kept finishing a few places out of the money, which always stings a bit.

Tour of Galena brought some fantastic racing to hilly Illinois (I never would have thought) and I look forward to this race growing over the years. When I first rolled into town, the first thing it reminded me of was the rolling terrain of the Ardennes of southern Belgium, when I did the tour of Liege there in 2008. We also had a decent squad there both days, which was great since we were able to ride in support of Ben. After he smoked the time trial the first day, we were able to set him up well in the road race, in which he crushed and won. The final day crit saw many attacks but Ben did a great job of hanging tough and staying safe while the rest of us tried to keep everything together, and he took the overall!

The T.O.A.D. series again brought some very organized and fast racing to the Milwaukee area. This is definitely the race series of the future in the Midwest. I rode almost all the days (10 of the 11), finished in the money some and again enjoyed some fantastic weather. If they can add one or 2 more road days, this will series will be perfect.

The next 2 weeks off consisted of a trip around lake Michigan with Kim for a 4th of July vacation, which was Pure Michigan™ fun.

Now it's back to Superweek. The dynamic of the Superweek series this year has been different than in years past, with smaller field sizes and not quite as much power it seems in the field. Regardless, the racing has still been fast and it's great to be able to race so much in July, so close to home!

The first day of Superweek at Beverly I saw the winning break roll off the front, but was able to make a 1 lap bridge to make contact. After 3 more guys joined us, it was 9 total and we eventually lapped the field. It was a good thing, because I fell apart in the last 5 laps, getting dropped from the field and almost lost my lap lead. Luckily another rider helped pace me the final few laps so I retained my 9th place position and I kindly paid him for his services from my winnings.

Day 2 at the Geneva crit was another great day for ABD, as we did the ole 1-2 punch with Freund countering my solo move and lapping the field with Chad B. from Texas roadhouse. I know Ryan has been wanting that top step bad and I felt bad that I wasn't able to help lead him out more in the sprint, but my legs were fried and Texas roadhouse has some strong guys.

Richton I was 2nd at last year, so I wanted to do well again. After I missed the first break of 3 that lapped the field, I found myself in no man's land for 1.5 hrs of hard riding in a break with 2 others. It was a very hard way to take 6th place, but I managed.

The Willow Springs road race is a great course, and one that I also did well at last year. I got into an early break of 4 that put a minute into the field, but we were missing a couple key team representatives, so we got chased down. After a slurry of attacks went and got brought back, one finally stuck, but I was absent from it. I managed a 23rd overall, after the break of 10 stayed up the road with a few more hanging in the middle. Ben was with me today as well, but neither of us could manage to pick the right move.

Thursday and Friday took me up to the greater Milwaukee area for 2 races in which i took 24th in both, barely making some $$. The races so far in Wisconsin have seen double the numbers in field size, with the typical Superweek dyanmics of many attacks, and strong breaks getting away. Last night in Brookfield was especially hard, with a course that was both technical with a very long start/finish straightaway that saw very fast speeds. After the initial break of 8 got away the pace went down some, and I missed another large group off the front. Luckily the previous nights winner missed this move as well, and he put a huge bridge in, which I followed to regain contact to this massive group of about 20 riders. We stayed clear of the field, and this group broke in 2 before the finish. I finished in between both groups as I tried to make a late bridge to the first chase, but couldn't quite make the catch.

Downer ave is tonight, which is always a great venue! Oh and Voeckler is a beast.

Also, I wanted to give a huge thanks to the support this year from ABD, Prairie Path Cycles, Mike Farrell and Mike Ebert, and of course as always, my parents and my girlfriend Kim!

Monsters of the Midway: Hogan Takes the Win

Reposted from Hogan's Heroes

I didn't think the day would ever come, but it did. School actually ended! My sacrificing of my social life and training paid off, and I'm now officially a junior. What a relief! Now training to become the next Cancellara commences (yeah right Hogan, in your dreams). I've got a big year of racing ahead of me and I'm going to need all the training I can get. On the schedule are races like Dairyland, Elite Nationals, Superweek, and Elk Grove, to name a few. I actually raced my first criterium of the year, Monsters of the Midway, a week after school got out. The weather was just great. I mean 50 degrees, raining, and 20 mph winds, what more could you ask for? I was planning on riding my new team Trek Madone for the race, but with all the great weather, I didn't want the sun to glisten off the frame and blind the other riders.

Damhoff Report: Hot Times at Hammerfest

This report originally posted at DamhoffRacing.com

I hoped after last week’s race being partially cancelled due to hurricane force winds, my next race in Fort Davis, TX would go off according to plan. Little did I know that high winds would be the least of our worries when a much more threatening natural disaster blew into town resulting in a race (or lack thereof) that I won’t soon forget.

Fort Davis is a small town nestled in mountainous terrain at about 5,000 ft elevation (yes, in Texas...) and home of the annual “Hammerfest.” I have been looking forward to this event for some time, having heard good things about it and the fact that it includes some good climbing and a long time trial.

I headed down with my friend Chris from Silver City a day early to check out the courses and enjoy a couple days of camping in the Davis Mountains state park on the race course. We checked out each of the three courses beforehand, including a ride on the mostly uphill 16 mile mass start race, which kicks off the three stage event. After a day of scouting the courses, we grabbed dinner and headed back to our tents for a night of sleep (a recovery tactic sure to catch on amongst Protour riders soon) to rest up for tomorrow’s two stages.

I was up well before the dawn on Saturday, as the hill climb started just after sunrise. After breakfast at the campground and getting in a good warm up, we started the 16 mile hill climb. The first 10 miles were relatively flat, and the group largely stayed together until the last climb of the race. I didn’t win the stage, but finished in 5th place, which put me in a good position for the overall with a 16 mile time trial and a tough road race still to come. After riding back to the campground from the race finish at the McDonald Space Observatory, we grabbed some lunch at our favorite local cafe and rested up for the early afternoon time trial.

The individual time trial is where things begin to take a turn for the worst. Upon arriving at the start area, we wondered if the race was still taking place, as there was absolutely no one else in the parking lot. At this point, the winds were gusting up to 40 mph. We proceeded as usual, and found a good place to warm up tucked out of the wind behind a building. Finally, the masses slowly trickled in and it appeared the race would go on as usual. While waiting in line to start my TT, the wind was howling worse than ever and tumbleweeds were striking riders as they waited to race. A Pro/1 rider just ahead of me was literally blown off the road when a gust came up just as he attempted to start. I thought to myself, “this should be fun... nothing like starting a perfectly flat TT in the small ring.” The tailwind section was a little more enjoyable and I had a high speed of 45 mph on flat ground.

After returning from my time trial and getting ready to go for a cool down spin, I noticed the sky was becoming increasingly hazy off in the distance. After last week’s affair, I first chalked it up to just another dust storm; however, as the haze continually got worse, it became evident that a fire was headed our way. Soon even the city streets were becoming hazy--not good. When Chris got back from his TT, I already had the van loaded and we threw his bike in as fast as we could and headed towards our campground. As we drove through town, visibility was becoming very limited and it appeared the massive fire would hit the town directly. When we arrived at our campsite on the opposite side of a mountain ridge, the scene was not much better, and dense smoke was already rolling over the top of the ridge. We packed up our camping supplies and decided to drive up to the Space Observatory and survey the situation from higher ground. From the Observatory, we could see the full force of the fire. The entire sky to the east was filled with smoke and the fire appeared to be hitting the town directly. We watched the fire grow throughout the evening. Eventually, the flame came over the ridge outside of town, and burned down the state park we had been staying at just the night before.

The fire continued raging to the west, and we learned that the town had been evacuated and the race had indeed been cancelled. Luckily, we found another place to camp with a fellow fire-onlooker. We ended up with a great camping spot in the mountains and a night of good company. With Sunday’s road race being cancelled, we used our extra day to spend more time exploring Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande before heading back to New Mexico. On the way back, we visited the charred remains of the time trial course and the town of Fort Davis. The fire had indeed blown right through the time trial course and staging area, and had burned several structures in the town. Amazingly, the majority of the town was saved, but many houses were burned in the area. Even as we passed through days later, the fire was still raging out of control.

Quite the bizarre weekend of racing. Not exactly what I was expecting, but going to Big Bend was a fun diversion from racing after finishing up another hard block of training. Now it’s back to preparing and resting up for the Tour of the Gila followed shortly by the Joe Martin Stage Race. The Tour of the Gila is just over a week away and it’s exciting to finally be competing in something I have been training for months for. Stay tuned, the next installment from the Gila will be coming soon. Hopefully my streak of bringing natural disasters to each race I attend has come to an end.

Ben

Ben Damhoff's Fayetteville Race Report

This report originally posted at DamhoffRacing.com

Ben warms up for the road race Texas style

Time for my first bigger race of the year, and only the second race total. After months of training, countless 6 hr days in the saddle, and nearly 5,000 miles of riding since the first of January it is finally time to start racing. It has been quite the journey from back home riding in the snow and on the trainer during December to sunny Tucson during January to riding at altitude in the mountains here in Silver City NM. Although my training has been going very well and I have been feeling good on the bike, you never really know where you are at until you line up on start line.

On the schedule for the weekend is the Fayetteville Stage race which I am going to do partially in hopes of qualifying for the Nature Valley Pro ride competition. The Fayetteville stage race is a well-run two day event in Eastern Texas consisting of a 70 mile road race on Saturday morning followed by a short 6.6 mile Individual Time Trial in the evening, and concluded with a 96 mile road race on Sunday.

The race is well known in Texas as one of the state’s biggest races which coupled with the fact that it is a Nature Valley Qualifier race this year resulted in a strong field. The Pro/1 field included a Kenda pro rider, Garmin development rider, as well as former Tour de France contender, white jersey winner, and current Mexican national TT champion...(Apparently Raul Alcala is making a return to cycling?), a rider from Columbia, and a couple of strong teams from the Texas area.

The first road race was a little tricky tactically because it was followed by the ever important time trial later in the day. My plan was to play it conservative to save energy for the time trial. This plan didn’t work out quite as planned when a small break that went nearly at the gun end up staying out to the finish which I was not expecting to have happen considering the size of some of the teams in the race. This was frustrating but I felt good in the race and was in a serious two man effort to bridge to the break with the Kenda rider but the pack decided it wouldn’t be a great idea to let us stay out and we were caught after about 15 miles. The break ended up gaining about three minutes on the field on the day.

I was looking forward to the time trial coming into the race as I have always done well in time trials and about a month ago I got my first real time trial bike. With some of my goals for the season being bigger stage races later in the year, along with the elite national time trial championships, I have been spending a lot of time on the new bike in training and was excited to try it out in a race situation. The course was just under seven miles with several corners, hills, and a very strong wind on race day. I got in a solid warm up and felt good during the race catching my 30 sec man and nearly my minute man but felt I could have gone a bit harder for such a short course. When the results came out, I had finished in 3rd place just off the leaders (4 sec to second place). For the time of the year, and the fact that I am just getting out of base training and getting dialed in on a new bike, I was very happy with the result. And I had beaten a solid field including the Kenda rider, Garmin development rider, and the Tour de France contender (sure some would argue that he is not at his prime at the age of 47...) by nearly two minutes in a 14 min TT. Unfortunately the early break in the road race was still hurting my GC hopes and I sat at 7th place even after the good time trial.

Going into Sunday’s road race I knew I needed to do go on the offensive if I wanted to move up in the GC and have a shot at getting the Nature Valley Pro ride. I ended up getting in a four man break in the first 20 miles of the race after bridging a two minute gap solo to an existing three man. There were a couple of strong riders in the break and for the next 60 miles we worked very well together and had a nearly 5 minute gap at one point and with about 30 miles to go it looked like the break would actually stick. A couple of my breakaway companions began to crack at this point and we ended up with only me and the Columbian contributing to the pace and a strong chase from behind that had dwindled the field down to only 20 riders. We were caught with only 15-20 miles to the finish but I still felt good enough to make the final 15 man selection and finish the stage in 7th place. This result maintained my GC position of 8th overall which was not bad for one of my first races of the year. Getting caught so close to the finish was disappointing but the hard effort in the breakaway provided a perfect training situation for harder stage races such as the Tour of the Gila which will be here soon. After putting in another two hours of training solo after the race a perfect weekend of training was in the books.

With my first race and a solid result under my belt I am feeling good and it is back to Silver City to continue preparing for future races by training at altitude in the mountainous terrain. Only after a day of recovery at the beach on the Gulf of Mexico however...

Notice that Ben scared away any surrounding sun bathers.