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