Carter Closes Out 2008 With a Win

Josh Carter – ABD / GEARGRINDER PDT

Race Report: The Last Race

The venue at Eagle’s Canyon Raceway was really nice.  The course was awesome; It was a 2 ½ mile circuit with 11 sweeping corners and two slight uphills.  The heavy, gusting winds at up to 40 mph gave it a unique twist though.  A course that looked like it would typically be fast turned into a situation where you were going really fast in the tailwind, really slow in the headwind, and hanging on for dear life on all of the crosswind curves.  With temperatures in the upper 40s – lower 50s at race time, the wind went through every piece of clothing I had on.  For the record, it was warmer in Chicago today!  Having just moved to Texas from the Midwest, I am not used to winds like this.  I chose to use my Bontrager deep dish carbon wheels, which were good until every time I hit a corner with a crosswind.  It literally felt like my bike would be blown out from underneath me.

Being the new guy in town, I pretty much just knew my wife Julie’s collegiate riders on MSU / HHH.  With that being said, I had no idea what to expect.  My only goal was to dismantle my wife’s team and beat them … which equals beating her!  I wanted to have fun and ride aggressively.  After many attacks from the field the front group whittled down to about 10 guys.

Somewhere near the four laps to go mark Collin Davis from the MSU / HHH cycling team attacked and got away by himself, putting about 10 seconds on our group.  Shortly after that Corey Ray from Metro Volkswagen attacked and made it about half way across before I attacked and bridged across to him.  The two of us closed the gap to Collin, forming a 3-man breakaway.  For the next two and a half laps we stayed about 20 seconds ahead of the group.  Finally with about a lap and a half to go the elastic broke and the gap went out to about 45 seconds.

The finish came down to a 3-up sprint as I had hoped and anticipated.  We had a tailwind sprint with a chicane between the last corner and the finish line.  I wanted to be first through the chicane because my wheels and the wind were not working well together; With that in mind, I had to open the sprint at about the 300 meter mark.  The finishing order was me 1^st, Corey 2^nd, and Collin 3^rd.

After having such a rough last few months with breaking my arm in August, it was nice to feel good and win the last race of the year and end the season on a good note.  I would like to thank everyone who helped in the organization and promoting of this event.  It was very well done and it was nice to have a race to break the training monotony in November.

See you next year.

Josh

 

Schroetlin Takes Overall Win at Tour of Elk Grove

After winning the first stage out of a breakaway and taking the 20
second time bonus, ABD/GEARGRINDER rider Jeff Schroetlin went into the
final day with a cushion of 22 seconds over second place.

The team did an excellent job of keeping it all together and Jeff safely
tucked in the field, but time bonus sprints and a last lap dig by ISCorp
rider Steve Scholzen almost unseated him. Schroetlin himself drove the
front of the field to keep Steve within two seconds at the finish line,
and two seconds was also all the the margin Jeff ultimately needed to
hold on to the jersey and one of the team's biggest wins of the season.

Schroetlin Wins the First Stage of Elk Grove!

        ABD/GEARGRINDER’s Jeff Schroetlin took home the first stage of the 2008 Tour of Elk Grove, jumping away from his three breakaway companions with 600 meters remaining and holding off the rest of the field by 10 seconds.
        There were several breakaway attempts on the long, L-shaped course, with the entire ABD/GEARGRINDER team getting in on the action. There was only one move that the team didn’t make, but ABD/GG’s Steve Spencer quickly organized the chase with teammates Brett Stewart and Andy Skeen and the three pulled it all back together. With two and a half laps remaining Schroetlin and five other riders formed the break that would stick. The group of six gave it their all and two riders fell off the pace, leaving just four leaders with one lap remaining.
        As they neared the final left turn before the long, winding, finishing stretch, Schroetlin give it one final attack that proved too much for the other three. Pat Lemieux of Bianchi/Grand Performance finished two seconds back and the other two riders were six seconds back, just 4 seconds ahead of the field.

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Superweek Day 10: Evanston Criterium

The series returned for south for another round in Illinois, and as Luke's reported over at Chicago Bike Racing, crashes were the order of the day. The Pro 1/2 race was neutralized not once, but twice, and the second neutralization couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for the ABD/GEARGRINDER squad. 

With less than 10 laps remaining Josh Carter and Jeff Schroetlin were in a group with a small advantage over the field, and Schroetlin had just attacked off the front of it. And at that point in the race, most of the riders who were still feeling strong and were legitimate contenders for the race had made their way towards the front of the field. 

However, after the unfortunate crash and ensuing 20 minute delay, riders cooled off and all those from the back made their way up front. The officials restarted Schroetlin with a small gap but didn't give one to the other riders. With a fresh field behind him, his solo move lasted approximately two blocks.

All in all, a frustrating day at the office for the team, but it could have been worse. We hope the best for the riders who crashed, and that they are back in action soon.

Superweek Days 8 & 9: Rain, Pain & Return to the top 10

        The last two days the tired legs and minds have started to show at Superweek with eight of racing remaining! Fortunately, the forced off-days due to school and work has helped the ABD/GEARGRINDER riders and in Saturday’s eighth stage in Waukesha Rob White made the break of 13 riders to ultimately finish 8th and return the team to a top ten in the results. Jeff Schroetlin’s strong riding continues as well, as he escaped the field with four laps remaining in the race and held them off as he solo’ed to 14th place.
        The course for Friday’s stage in Ripon features tight turns and two challenging hills, so when the skies opened up it wreaked total havoc on the field. Several riders were dropped or crashed out every single lap, including overall leader Sterling Magnell, who fortunately returned to action on Satruday. ABD/GEARGRINDER rider Brett Stewart was the only finisher from the team, and although he rolled across the line last in the field, he still finished in 29th place!

Superweek Day 7: the Columbian Caused Carmage Continues

Superweek headed north yesterday for it's first stage "home" in Shorewood, Wisconsin. The course features long straightaways that favor the powerful riders. Mike Farrell referred to the pack sprint in Shorewood in 2006 as looking like a "charging herd of Clydesdales" as the sprints wound up their huge gears. Well, there was no bunch sprint this year- but pure power prevailed.
A break containing a Columbian National Team Rider (we'll have names soon) and Rock Racing's Pete Dawson stayed away from a KBS/Medifast lead peloton. ABD/GEARGRINDER's Jeff Schroetlin and Ryan White both raced, but once the break was established Schroetlin said the day was pretty much over for everyone else. "The last couple of days the Columbian guys are really making the domestic teams look bad. Their riders are powering these breaks that big teams can't chase down, and then the other Columbian guys are taking quite a few primes."
The ABD/GG pair are looking forward to this weekend, when the rest of the team rejoins them.

Sent from handheld.

Superweek Day 6: Schroetlin Goes for the Late Flyer

        Superweek returned to Bensenville for it’s sixth stage and for the first time this year a solo rider take the win - but unfortunately wasn’t one of our guys and the ABD/GG Top 10 streak counter will be reset going into Day 7. A Columbian National Team Rider escaped the field before the final point sprint and held on to a 25 to 45 second margin for the entire race, despite the chase of the entire Rock Racing team.
        In a late bid for glory, Jeff Schroetlin was part of a six man chase group that formed with just four laps to go. When they group stopped working cohesively, he set out on a solo mission for second place with a lap and a half remaining. He held on to the slimmest of margins as he came through the start/finish on the bell lap, but the sprinters’ teams swallowed him up on the back side of the course.
        Joining Jeff in the race were ABD/GEARGRINDER teammates Andy Skeen and Josh Carter, but after six straight days of racing Carter admitted it was time for a rest, “I probably should have taken today and Thursday off to be ready for the weekend, but now I’ll take off Thursday-Friday and get back in to it on Saturday” Fortunately, Schroetlin will be joined by the White brothers as the race heads North - the pair should be fresh after a few days off from racing. With 11 stages remaining, there is still plenty of time for the team to grab more stage wins.

Superweek Day 5: Schroetlin Keeps the Top 10 Streak Alive

Today Superweek moved to the Chicago suburb of Bensenville, which was the site of the ABD team's first ever Superweek win- by none other than Josh Carter last year. This year Bensenville is hosting two consecutive days of racing, but on an all new course. It was similar to Sunday's course in that there was a tight technical section that teams could use to slow the field down significantly. 

Although this was the fifth day in a now of racing for many riders, the attacks started once again from the gun. The ABD/GEARGRINDER squad of Josh Carter, John Meyers, Jeff Schroetlin (back from spending a whole day in the office) and Zach WAtson all went with as many moves as they could, but eventually a group of 8 riders escaped up the road that included Rock Racing's Rahsaan Bahati, two KBS/Medifast riders and team San Jose's Carlos Vargas. With those riders having solid teammates back in the field it didn't take long before the eight leaders made their way around for the lap. But just before they caught the field, Reid Mumford (KBS/Medifast) put in an attack and was joined by ABD/GG riders Schroetlin and Watson, along with his teammate Johny Sundt and Jitter Joe's Chad Hartley. 

Eventually the group grew to 15 and were the leaders on the course after the initial group of eight had lapped. It appeared that it would be a group sprint for 9th place, but with two laps to go a Columbian National Team rider slipped off the front for 9th, and with just over a lap to go Jeff Schroetlin followed suit to nab another ABD/GEARGRINDER top 10. Watson continued his strong "re-debut" with 17th and Carter came across in the money as well in 22nd.

Superweek Day 4: Watson is at it Again

        The fourth stage of Superweek took place at another new venue in the Chicagoland area, and again it was ABD’s Zach Watson that made the break and ultimately lapped the field en route to a 5th place finish.
        The team was down to just three riders today as the majority of the squad needed to head back to put in a few hours at their weekday gigs, but lining up for another round in Richton Park were Watson, Josh Carter and John Meyers. With only three riders it was difficult to cover every move and a couple of times it looked like the team would only have stories about the one that got away, but then Watson bridged across to a large group and was joined shortly thereafter by Carter. The group swelled to 16 but continued to attack one another until only a group of seven remained, including former ABD’er/now-KBS rider Reid Mumford.
        The group lapped the field with 11 to go and although Meyers and Carter worked to set Zach up for the sprint, the earlier effort (and no doubt yesterday’s breakaway effort as well!) had taken a bit of a toll. Regardless, his 5th place finish added to what has certainly been one of the team’s strongest starts ever at Superweek.

Carter Wins the Olympia Fields stage of Superweek

        Josh Carter scored ABD/GEARGRINDER’s first win of Superweek, winning out of a break of four that had also been powered along by pseudo-teammate Zach Watson. The four riders escaped with 30 laps remaining, and in the finale Watson set Carter up to handily take the sprint.
        Superweek’s third stage was held on a tight, technical course that was just under a half-mile in length. Early on in the race a Columbian National team rider broke away solo and maintained a steady gap over the field. Rock Racing took the front in order to set up Rahsaan Bahati for the intermediate sprint points and at that point ABD/GG rider Jeff Schroetlin joined in the chase effort. The rider was caught just before the final point sprint, which Bahati won, and that’s when Carter immediately attacked with Watson glued to his wheel. A lap and a half later a chase group of six riders formed, and soon after Bissel rider Richard England and a Kahala-LaGrange rider jumped from that group to get across to Carter and Watson.
        Back in the field, and on such a tight course, John Meyers and the White brothers just had to stay near the front and follow wheels to protect the gap. Not the easiest of jobs, but they handled it well.

        [An update on who Zach Watson is and why he’s wearing traditional ABD clothing. The real question should be coming from Zach and is “who they heck are all these new ABD people?”. Zach was actually one of the original members of the ABD team back in the mid 1990’s that included Lucas Wall, Dalton Koprek, Brian Miles, and current US National Crit Champion Kirk O’bee. He took a hiatus from racing for a few years, married fellow racer and Iowan Erin Anderson, and the couple settled in Boulder, Colorado. He got back into racing a few years ago and when he asked us if he could fly the ABD colors again we were ecstatic. He wasn’t sure how much racing he could do with the team being so far away, so he’s signed up under the USAC registered “ABD Cycling Team” instead of the USAC registered “ABD/GEARGRINDER Team”. Either way, we’re happy to have him back in the fold and that he’s on our side! -Ebert]

Superweek Day 2: Carter takes 7th, White Tied for the Sprint Lead

        Day two of the International Cycling Classic found the ABD/GEARGRINDER squad in the Chicago neighborhood of Blue Island. Josh Carter managed finished seventh in a chaotic field sprint that was won by Rock Racing’s Rahsaan Bahati. “I was right on Bahati’s wheel with only two turns to go because he was definitely a guy to watch”, said Carter. “Then in that second to last turn one of the Canadian guys totally chopped me in the turn [for Bahati’s wheel], and then what really killed me was that he couldn’t even hold Rahsaan’s wheel!”
        The racing was aggressive all day as riders attempted to establish the breakaways typical to Superweek. At one point ABD/GEARGRINDER riders Jeff Schroetlin and Zach Watson both made it into a promising break of 14 riders, but after a few laps it too was swallowed up by the field.
        At the end of the day Rob White managed to maintain first place in the points competition, but now he shares that lead with both Bahati and formerABD’er Chad Hartley, who now rides for Jittery Joe’s.

Superweek Day 1: Meyers Takes 5th & Rob White Scores the Points Jersey

The ABD/GEARGRINDER squad started off on the right foot last night at the opening stage of the International Cycling Classic in Beverly, Illinois.

The team started off racing aggressively and just 20 laps in Rob White joined three other riders off the front, and shortly thereafter Ryan White buried himself to help get both he and John Meyers into the group as well. Eventually the group grew to 11 riders total, but the earlier effort took it’s toll on Ryan as he fell off the pace but managed to recover well enough to finish in the chase group. So that left John and Rob to duke it with Pros from Kelly Benefit Strategies and Rock Racing, and with 10 laps to go the leaders lapped the field.

At that point Josh Carter and Brett Stewart moved to the front of the field, where Carter rode a quick enough tempo to discourage any late breakaways. Meanwhile, up the road in a chase group that now numbered 15 riders, Ryan had been joined by an ABD “original”, Zach Watson, in town from Boulder to race the first week of the ICC with the team.

In the final lap, Carter was able to position his teammates near the front and John Meyers had enough kick left to take 5th place on the day and Rob had earned enough points to take the lead in the Sprints competition, which means he’ll start tomorrow’s stage in Blue Island wearing the red jersey.

Check 1-2, Check 1-2: all systems go for Superweek.

This past weekend the ABD/GEARGRINDER team finished 1-2 at back-to-back races.

On Saturday at the UWW Road Race Rob and Ryan White executed perfect tactics to spring them both along with and one other rider to form the winning break of three. Then they alternated attacks until Ryan rode away for the victory and Rob won the sprint for second.

On Sunday, Jeff Schroetlin opted to use brute strength to win the race, lapping the field solo and then tearing through it to bridge up to the eight rider chase by himself before catching the field for the second time! Then he lead out teammate Josh Carter who'd been "along for the ride" in the chase group! Josh won the field sprint for second with Jeff rolling through safely for the win.

Schroetlin also has a "season recap" race report for your reading pleasure, posted at his blog: http://ihatechrissprock.blogspot.com/

There is also a pretty exciting video clip courtesy of the Keeley's that is the finish of the Grafton Twilight Criterium. Josh Carter is the only rider from the field to catch and pass Bissell pro Garret Peltonen in the final straightaway for the win!
http://www.abdcycling.com/public/grafton/Grafton.mov

Carter and the ABD/GEARGRINDER Team take back to back wins in Wisconsin

Josh Carter sprinted to back-to-back victories at this weekend's Grafton
and Sheboygan Criteriums, besting strong Midwest fields with the help of
his teammates.

Both races were fast and aggressive, but the team shared the workload
amongst themselves, with Rob White, Ryan White, and Jeff Schroetlin all
taking turns covering and initiating moves in Saturday night's event.
Professional rider Garrett Peltonen took a flyer with three to go and
almost everyone thought he'd created enough real estate between himself
and the field to hold on for the win. However, strong pulls from
Schroetlin and Texas Roadhouse's Adam Bergman reeled him in just enough
that Carter was able to jump with 400 meters to go and catch him by the
line, the only rider from the field to pass him.

In Sunday's race the team gained the strength of John Meyers, who drove
straight to Sheboygan after finishing the five-stage Tour of Ohio. Again
the riders all took turns making moves throughout the day, but when it
was all together with two laps to go the team massed at the front to
string it out for Carter. He again took the sprint from a long way out,
which bodes well for the team as they make their final preparations for
Superweek.

This weekend's races also marked the "call-up" for ABD Cat. 2 rider Andy
Skeen, who donned the ABD/GEARGRINDER kit and did an admirable job of
helping his teammates move around in the field and be in a position
where they were always ready for the attack.

White Brothers Reclaim Wisconsin State Criterium Title

After a one year hiatus, Rob and Ryan White have brought the Wisconsin State Criterium championship title back to the family.

Rob joined a group of three riders early on that went on to lap the field. Shortly thereafter, a group of 11 escaped the field, including the original three breakaway riders that had gained a lap and now Rob was joined by brother Ryan.

On the finishing lap Ryan took the front to leadout his brother, but the stretch from the final turn to the finish was so short that Ryan held the front and was able to roll across the line first for fourth place overall, and Rob stayed tucked in safely on his wheel for the victory.

Spencer Report: Tour de Winghaven

Winghaven Race Report:

The team headed down to just west of St. Louis to do the Tour of Winghaven this past weekend. This is a large payout and the team was keen to do well. Rob White and I drove down on Sunday morning as the challenges of balancing family, work and racing can prove tough at times. We decided to compromise by being gone all day on Sunday. I think it is fair to say that both of us married VERY understanding women who clearly don't know how much better they could have had it. But, I digress...

While the sun appears to be in the sky each day, it actually lives just west of St. Louis and our race was held on it. It was roughly 100 degrees at the start, but at least it was crazy windy. We were to do 75 miles over 25 laps at a 2:30pm start. The scheduling of this event is interesting in that it is held the same day as Philly, so with one exception there were zero pros in attendance. This is good and bad. Good because we stand a nice chance to make some money, bad because we are good and marked accordingly. Essentially, this is a regional race with a huge prize list and extra motivation to make a little money.

Jeff S. got into an early move of 6 which proved the winner. The heat and wind helped temper the chase a bit and they rolled on and on to get a good gap. Unfortunately a second group noodled away with no ABD/Geargrinder representation. I will say however, that there were a couple of other teams that put nobody in either move which meant they were now racing for 12th at best. Again, maybe the heat and wind played a factor, but I was quite surprised by the lack of cohesive response. I asked one leader of these teams what gives and was told where I could go and how I could go there. While I don't think it is physically possible to do the things he suggested, I understood this to mean he was disappointed in the proceedings. Jeff's group and the second group rolled away quite quickly never to be seen again.

The remainder of the field beat up on each other for what seemed like two days and finally we got some guys into some field splits. Fortunately for everyone the laps were dwindling. Jeff S. and his group actually caught my pitiful little band and we were given a reprimand by the officials that we could not help our teammates and to stay out of the mix. This was disappointing because at that point, it was the sole reason I was still pedaling around this crazy course and no one else in my group had a rider in Jeff's group. While I am not sure this is an accurate ruling, I was not in a position to argue and/or ignore it and hope we were not disqualified. So, we stayed out of the way and I pulled out with 2 to go.

I find that Karma has a way of being kind sometimes. As a team, we respect our competitors and all associated with any event we attend. We have had a couple instances this year where the result may have suffered, but the team felt we did things the right way. It is my feeling that this paid huge dividends as with 1.5 laps to go Jeff crashed. John Meyers happened to be right by him and was able to give his wheel to Jeff to prevent what could have been a disaster (Reason one why I am not convinced on the above ruling). Amazingly, Jeff was able to catch his group and still beat two of the guys in it. I am quite certain that had Jeff not crashed, he would have pummelled the lot for the win. The only pro in the field won the race and the subsequent large check while Jeff ended 4th. Rob and Ryan rounded out the placings for cash and that was that.

Overall I think the team is coming together nicely. We have a good balance between young (John, Brett and Andy), mid (Josh, Rob, Ryan and Jeff) and old (me). Thanks goes especially to Julie Carter who fed the whole bunch of us all by herself in addition to "communicating" (read: yelling) at us over the radio. I think she likes bossing us around, but she did not have to provide such diligent feeds when we missed that second group.

Thanks for reading.

Steve

Rob White Report: USA Crits "Speed Week"

Well, Ryan and I (Rob) loaded up Ryan's Jeep and hit the road on Thursday a little later than we wanted. We traveled most of the night and got to Knoxville, TN. Spent about five hours sleeping and got back on the road to get to Athens, GA, before our time trial. The time trial didn't go as planned, but it did get us the good start for the Athens Twilight race. I think that the twilight race was the craziest and fastest race that I've ever done. From what we were told there were over 35,000 fans to cheer for the Pro-Am. I couldn't believe how loud it got. I did good rolling in 26th place with Ryan and Josh Carter not far behind, finishing 30th and 35th.


We settled down and went back to the hotel. We got up the following morning and went for an easy ride and than traveled about 4 hours to Beaufort SC. I can not believe how nice the weather has been. Monday we hung out and went riding down to the race course. The course looked like it would be crazy. Tight corners and only one line straight away. Tuesday we got an easy ride in in the morning and the we relaxed until the race that night. As Julie Carter said, "this race will be a crap shoot." And it was, The race got split up and I missed the break, but I hung in there to finish to try and keep me up there in the overall.

Our numbers that we got showed us how we were in the overall. It was like a surprise every time that Julie Carter would come back from registration on where we all were in the standings. Well by Wed. I was 15th overall. I was excited, cause they call up the top 15 and not knowing that I was even going to get to the top 20 in the series, I was pumped and so was the rest of the team. We all had a goal and that was to get me in the top 10 and and maybe the top 5 by the ten day series with Josh, Ryan and I winning some primes on the way.
After the long nights of racing, we (Ryan, the Carter family, and I) got some food and went back to the motel to eat, get massages and talk about the race. It was almost the same routine for the whole week. We would race at night and the following day we would do a nice easy ride when we got up. We would either travel to the next location or we would just hang out till the event that night. I thought that the weather was perfect. It was in the upper 70's and mid 80's during the day and by the time we would race it would be in the middle to lower 70's.

As the nights and the days went by it was Friday morning and I have moved up to 11th overall. Like Josh said baby steps on moving up and that is what it felt like. I moved up a couple of spots everyday. As it came to race time on Friday night in Spartanburg, S.C. we were all feeling good. Josh had a rough start to the week, but his legs finally were under him. With only three of us we made ourselves known that night. With about every lap they were talking how aggressive the ABD/Geargrinder team was riding. If Ryan wasn't going off the front for the early moves and the primes it was Josh Carter. The both of them were all over the front of the field "Racing their Bikes". At the middle of the race they give out a half way prime (cash and overall points to the top five). I knew at that point that Josh was feeling good so I said lets go for it. Josh gave me an incredible fast lead for about a half of a lap and I jumped off his wheel and got the mid-race prime. After that we sat-in and waited for the end. With to laps to-go Josh got Ryan and I all the way to the front of the field, and left it up to us to finish the job. Well we were going to do that, but going into the last corner of the race we were sitting 4th and 5th wheel for Ryan to give me a lead out and someone came into the corner too hot and slid from corner to corner and took the front of the field out. Ryan went down but I caught myself and came to stop. Got going again and rolled across in 18th. We didn't win, but as a team we "Raced Our Bikes".

After a tough day on Saturday I was 7th going into Sunday. I was only 11 points out of 6th and about 100 out of 5th overall. The teams goal for the day was to cover attacks, win some primes and make sure nothing got away without me in it. The plan worked! I jumped across to a four man break early in the race after Josh just got done covering an attack. I was then in a break of seven guys, as the Toshiba team was trying to chase it down as Josh and Ryan were shutting it down with Team Inferno and Rock Racing. From what Julie said at the end of the race....Josh and Ryan rode an Awesome race. I know they did too, and all week. I won the mid-race prime and three other ones while in the break to gather up some points. When it came down to the sprint at the end I made a mental error. I finished 6th in the race and at the end of the day I was 6th overall in the Crit Series. After our cool down I talked to Josh to find out what I could of done better to win the race and he gave me some very good tips. He told me, "not to be disappointed with 6th. We rode as a team and this is a learning curve for us, our results were awesome." So I kept my head high and was happy on how well I did with my first big long stage/series Pro event. I was somewhat disappointed that the week was over. Hopefully next year we can go down there with more of our teammates.

The days seem to go by so fast. We did get the chance to go swimming in the ocean. Ryan and I couldn't believe that in just one month we saw both oceans. We are blessed with what we have. We are riding for a team (ABD/Geargrinder PDT) that can make all of this possible. We are traveling, racing our bikes and seeing parts of the south and the west coast. I would also like to thank all the other sponsors and the people that made this happen.

Thanks,

Rob White, Jr.

ABD/Geargrinder PDT

Ryan White Report: USA Crit Series

well we were in GA on thur-sat and are now in S.C. and haveing a great time racing with the PRO's...we finished 26th and 30th and 35th on Sat. and that was out of over 180 riders and only just over 40 finished and our coach was there and was really impressed with our job in the race...we averaged 31mph for just over two hr in the fastest crit in the world...u wouldn't understand on how cool it was to finish the race...you were like a god to all the fans...but on the other hand if you dropped out they had other things to say about or to you...the reporters mentioned in the newspaper that it was a crash fest witch a few i just missed by the turn of the wheel that looked like they may hurt a little...but there were a few that were to far back in the feild that i would have no part of...that's why its great to ride in the front of the feild...with just a few laps to go there was a little move that went off the left of the feild and i jumped on a wheel theat was making a flier and when we came into turn 3 and 4 we were going well over 35mph and that was so cool we were diving corners like CRAZY...i don't know how we got through those turns but we did...then i turn my sholder and josh i right behind me and we had a good move going but with the force of the feild we were caught by the end of the next lap and i was wondering how or why i just did that move...but i saw the chance to get in a move so did and to josh with me was even better even though we got caught...but ther will be alot more chances in the rest of the series...

you can follow with usacrits.com or athenstwilight.com

ryan

Great Dane Crit 2: ABD/GEARGRINDER Scores Another Win

After Rob White took the two Kenosha crits last month, he was kind enough to let twin brother Ryan White take the “W” on a day when they both had lapped the field in a 9-man group.

Going into the final turn Ryan was set-up to lead Rob out, but as Rob knew the riders behind him were setting up to jump, he backed off just enough to let Ryan’s gap open up through the last turn so that he could power it home.

Next up, the White brothers reunite with Josh Carter at the Athens Twilight Criterium and USA Crit Series.

Brett Stewart: the Spring Break You Never Dreamed Of

Boy, so much to talk about. The last couple of months have been off the hook. “Off the hook?” you ask. Yeah, that’s right,….the early 90s just called and they want their catch phrase back.

Early March marked what college students like to call the “Spring Break”. Perhaps you’ve heard of this exciting event: essentially a bunch of college students embark on a quest to ingest as much alcohol as physically possible, while getting extremely burned on the lush beaches of any number of exotic resorts. Not for me, my friends! I took a 6-day training trip to Greenville, South Carolina, and that place is awesome. The first two days were perfect with temps in the mid to high 70s. Not too shabby considering 40’s marked the daily standard previous to training trip. However, our luck soon failed with somewhat sub-par conditions; culminating with what was supposed to be an epic 6 hr ride. My roommate David Caughlin and I set out to bare witness to this “impossibly tough” ride of absolute attrition, with over 10,000 feet of climbing and topping off at 6,000 feet of elevation. It rained, and by rain I mean poured, and by poured I mean absolutely saturated us. But this only occurred for the first 30 minutes of the ride, just enough to completely soak both of us! The next 3-4 hours were much better, the roads on the Blue Mountain Parkway are gorgeous and challenging. Locals wave as they pass you every so gingerly, children laugh, the elderly seem a little less hard of hearing…Life is GOOD! We started the most difficult climb of the day, and about 45 minutes into the climb the temperature dropped from the mid-50s to 30 degrees! As we neared the top, snow was all around us, but we kept trucking on with complete confidence that our collegiate ignorance would somehow get us through this gloomy situation. We arrived at the top of the climb about 25 minutes later and it started to rain/sleet; a very bad situation preceding a technical descent … and not to mention we were completely underdressed!

The descent took nearly 40 minutes as we screamed down the mountainside in search of refuge, but alas, there was none. After another 40 minutes or so we finally came to a small town and stopped at a McDonalds- where we called for help. Now I’ve been riding for quite some time, and I’ve always made it a point to NEVER call for help unless absolutely necessary…sadly, this was one of those occasions! David called his uncle and about an hour later we were warm and toasty. As bad as I initially felt having to use my get out of jail free card; we were informed that there was a plethora of tornados all around the Greenville area, one of which was only 40 or so miles away in Clemson! In the end we still got close to 5 hours in with just shy of 8,000 feet of climbing, so all in all it was still a good day.

Spring Break is Great.

- Brett “I may not be quite as sweet as the White brothers…I mean, come on, those guys are sweet! But yes, definitely much cooler than John “TSK” Myers” Stewart

Ebert Report: Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix

(Originally posted at Ebert Checks In)

Sunday's Garret Lemire Memorial Criterium was HOT! And not a fun, exciting, (miniskirt) hot, but as our favorite Uncle Fred would say, "Africa hot". When we rolled up to the line for our 2 p.m. start the mercury sat at 96 degrees (just two away from Ryan White's favorite boy band).

Needless to say, two boys from the frozen tundra and my embarrassingly-low weekly training volume were not very effective against squads from HealthNet, Toyota-United, Successful Living, Colavita, Jelly Belly and others. But the team that proved our undoing were some riders from Kahala-LaGrange, who would drift to the back only to let massive gaps open up-- not even allowing us to tailgun in peace, licking our wounds to the finish line. Nope, chalk up three fat D-N-F's for us.

At least we're all re-motivated to get back to the drawing board when for our races that matter in May, June, July and August.

Island View Criterium, UCSB & Views from Ojai

On Friday night the White brothers, Rob and Ryan, flew into town for a weekend of racing. The docket included a collegiate race on Saturday at the University of California Santa Barbara, and this afternoon's race is the Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, a National Racing Calendar criterium in Ojai. Ojai is where Rosa and I lived with with her dad, Jeff, for the first few months we moved out to California and where Jeff published his "Ojai and Ventura Voice".

The Saturday morning drive up the ocean was a pretty ideal start to the trip. Spring here in Southern California means lots of green, and the ocean is always good scenery. Then we arrived on the UCSB campus... and we instantly learned why people say that UCSB stands for the "University of Casual Sex & Booze". The campus is a sprawling fantasy land sitting smack dab on the beach a few miles north of Santa Barbara. An extensive network of bike paths runs for miles in and around campus, with a fully-lit path running down the coast to downtown Santa Barbara. When we went to pick up our numbers at 10 a.m. in the morning, the bike paths were full of well-tanned young men shirtless and young ladies in bikinis riding cruiser bikes barefoot to the beach or to various parties. At turn 2 on the race course a frat party was already spilling out into the street, again the dress code apparently calling for as little clothing as possible. This place is not real, and did I mention it was just past 10 AM?

And then there was our bike race. The White boys asked me to what expect and were already eyeing the prize list with dollars in their eyes. I tried to explain that in a place with 20 million people, lots of mountains and never any snow, there are a lot of bike riders in good shape - but I don't think they got it. Then we lined up with 110 riders including three HealthNet riders, a full Successful Living squad, 9 riders on some British team in town, and 90 other guys that have been racing full tilt for three months.

We averaged 30 mph for 75 minutes, and the White boys saw average heartrates not seen since Superweek. They both covered a lot of attacks and managed to finish right around the top 20. As for me, I was just happy to be there. 75 minutes would be my longest ride in three weeks and this was really my first race since the San Dimas debacle didn't turn out so well. I actually hung out at the back with Mark Swartzendruber (of ABD TT Series domination fame), who's brother lives in town. I made up to the front of the race for a few minutes and jumped into a two lap breakaway that ended up with a lot of horsepower (most notably Rory Sutherland and Karl Bordine), but I'm pretty happy we were caught so quickly since four pulls through that rotation made me want to hurl.

After the race we did a sweet little ride down the coast to cool down, grabbed lunch at the delicious Brewhouse in Santa Barbara, and then drove the back roads up to Ojai through the mountains and past Lake Casitas - the same route the Tour of California takes. The night was just too nice to sit in the hotel room, so after showers and a few minutes of tv-watching we drove up through the East End and upper Ojai. The Orange Blossoms are in full bloom and you can smell it throughout the entire valley. I took the boys up Sulphur Mountain Road, which after 4 miles of single lane, twisty road, crests the mountain ridge to the south of Ojai. Anyone who lives up there might have some of the best views in SoCal: the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands to the Southwest, the Ojai Valley to the North. I'll let the pictures posted at the end do the talking.

And today we take on the Garret Lemire NRC Crit: 50 miles, $15,000 in prize money, and a race time temperature predicted to be 97 degrees. Should be awesome for a couple of guys coming from the "neverending winter".

The view to the north of Sulphur Mountain Road. Those are the channel islands on the horizon.

And the view to the North: Looking down on the Upper Ojai Valley.

Josh Carter Report: Team Camp, Hillsboro, and CSM Oredigger Classic Circuit Race

March 27^th – 30^th was the ABD/GearGrinder Team Training Camp, with the Hillsboro-Roubaix Road Race as one of our ‘training’ days.  All of the guys except for Alex and Ebert were able to attend.  Camp ran smoothly so there’s not much to report.  We all just hung out, trained, had some good meetings, and made fun of each other for four days.

Hillsboro went pretty decent too.  Ryan went off the front with Jordan Roessingh (ISCorp) and Bill Stolte (HRRC/Trek) mid-way through the first of four 22-mile laps and the main group never saw this 3-man group again.  It was nice to see Ryan's form coming along so well.  The rest of us took turns going with chase groups, sitting on the back – not wanting to be active participants in chasing him down.  This went on until there was one lap to go [which is good … I like it when we’re in control].  Julie was giving us split times when possible; I remember that with two laps to go we were almost 6 minutes down, we were in a good position.

Then things started getting a bit more exciting when Steve Tilford (HRRC/Trek) went off the front with one lap to go.  Six more of us joined him, including myself and John Myers from our team, Brian Jensen (Successful Living), Adam Mills (HRRC/Trek) and a couple of other guys.  So we formed a 7-man chase group.  Out of the 10 riders off the front, 3 were ABD/GearGrinder … in that field, I was pretty happy with those odds.  Our only ‘casualties’ were Steve and Jeff.  Jeff almost crashed going into the last lap.  He destroyed a wheel and got a wheel change.  When most guys would have just dropped out, he decided to train.  He TTed the last 22-23 miles and finished only about 2 minutes behind the main field!  Steve had been in a chase group on the first lap for quite a while and covered a lot of other moves.  After making sure he positioned each of the rest of us where we belonged in the front, he dropped out with one lap to go.

Without going into too much detail, we made a few SMALL mistakes that may or may not have cost us the race.  Unfortunately, I ended up alone with Tilford and Jensen in the lead group and they took turns attacking me until I was dropped.  It’s always hard to beat Tilford and his crew anyway … especially when you throw Brian Jensen into the mix.  After being dropped by those two, I was also passed by Adam Mills and Bill Stolte.  I rode in alone for 5^th place, Ryan hung in for 7^th, and John came in 9^th.  Rob won the field sprint for 11^th.  We did not win but putting 4 guys in the top 11 is a good race and a great start to the year.   Then Sunday night I flew back out to Colorado to go back to work.

Next up for me was the CSM Oredigger classic which consisted of a 4.5 mile TT up Lookout Mountain and a 2K circuit race.  Since I go uphill like rocks swim, I decided not to do the TT and just go for the circuit race, but our long lost teammate Zach Watson came out of hiding and did a great ride for 10th with a time of 19:07:40 ( for the record I would still be climbing it). 

The circuit race was not flat!!  I don't think they like flat courses here.  It was very technical, probably one of the hardest courses I have done.  My plan was to stay up front out of trouble, avoid crashing on the descent (because we've had too much of that on the team lately), try not to get dropped on the climb and somehow find a way to fake myself into a split.  From the gun I got into a 3-man break and we stay away for about 10 minutes but we never cut the elastic.  As soon as we got caught Zach makes a monster attack and starts the winning move with 3 other guys that are all on the same team (oops).  They get 30 sec off the front and start working him over until he gets popped off.  While he is having fun up the road with these guys I get into a 4-man chase group (a THF guy and 2 HART racing guys).  I see Zach up the road by himself so I stop working the chase because the 3 guys in front are gone, and I want Zach to get 4th.  This is one of my favorite positions to be in; I don't have to do any work!  And usually the guys I am with get mad at me for not working with them but they get over it.  I sat on the chase, Zach stayed away for 4th and I won the UPHILL sprint for 5th.  I am happy with these results.  I got the chance to work with Zach and the altitude is not hurting me as bad.  Next up is the Tokyo Joe's crit this weekend.  I would really like to win while I am out here so we will see!

Josh

Rob White Report: Burnham Criterium

Well, training has been going really well. I feel twice as strong as I did last year. Ryan and I traveled down to the Burnham Spring Super Crit on Sunday April, 6 2008. We felt that we had the win in the bag. But that wasn't the case. Ryan crashed about 4 laps into the race and I was left out to fend for my self.

Two guys got away late in the race and I was tring to get away myself, but I think everyone was watching me. That they thought that those guys would get caught. Well they didn't, and it came down to me in a pack of about 25 for the field sprint for third place. Yes, I did win the field sprint by a couple of bike lengths, but I didn't get the win. Things may have been different with Ryan still in the race to bring the break back. But, lesson learned. Never let anyone get to far out that I can't bridge accross.

Next weekend it's out to California to play with the big boys at the National Racing Calendar's Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix.

-Rob White

John Meyers' Report: Hillsboro Roubaix Wrap

Ah yes, Hillsboro…the first “real” race of the year. This race is what motivates us in January and is one of the classic races of the Midwest. Epic roads, a smattering of cobbles, a couple of short climbs, and (hopefully) a little wind to boot all make for a great race.

Before I go on, I’d like to mention the fact that the lady friend got 2nd in her race. A late hillclimb attack netted her a big gap, and her compatriot just barely came around her at the end. I have the feeling she’ll be winning some races soon.

Anyways, us ABD/Gear Grinder boys met up in St. Louis region for a few days of training camp prior to the race; we did some motorpacing, poked fun at each other, and generally had a good time.

We showed up for Hillsboro ready to rock. The plan A for the race was to hope for wind, and do some damage as a team early. Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t quite as brisk as we had hoped/expected. Plan B? Race hard and smart. Be present in the inevitable early break, and be a force in the later breaks. Keep the numbers in our favor.

The race rolled out fairly lacsidasical, and it took a couple miles before attacks came. There was a brief fury of moves, and when they all came back, Jordan Roessingh of ISCorp fired off an attack that no one wanted to chase. Soon, Bill Stolte of Trek/VW took chase with our very own Ryan White. This was to be the three man break of the day. The three of them had an 80 mile time trial ahead of them. Youch. Sounds like something I would do.

That left us ABD/Gear Grinder boys in the position of playing defense. We sat on everything, conserved energy, and waited. Many times things would start to heat up in the field, but never was there quite enough impetus to blow things apart—likely due to the fact that any time someone attacked, we were right on the tail end enjoying the free ride.

Anyways, little of notice occurred in the first 2/3 of the race as the gap to Ryan’s group got as big as 6 minutes. I covered lots and lots of moves, watched Steve Tilford remove half of his clothing in the middle of the pack, and also saw the biggest horse I’ve probably ever seen in my entire life. Unfortunately, we lost Jeff Shroetlin, a valuable teammate, to a crash and a slow wheel change. He did a 40 mile time trial and still rode through blown riders to grab 28th.

The last 30 or so miles saw the pace start to ramp up. Solo flyer Mr. Druber put his nose to the wind and dragged the race out in the gutter at the end of the third lap, and coming into town the pace got a bit hotter. ABD/Gear Grinder was at the front the whole time. At the start of the final lap, a group of 7-8 riders finally broke the elastic. Josh was in it alone. Not good. I bridged up with another rider. Better. We now had 3 riders in the top 11-12 spots with Ryan still further off the front.

This larger break started to bust at the seams due to attacks from the likes of Brian Jenson (Successful Living) and the Trek VW guys (Tilford, Mills). At one point I looked back and saw the field no more than 20 seconds back, and decided I’d do my best to push the pace, keep the break together in front of the pack, and hope that my teammate Josh Carter could outkick the guys who were left in the break. Bad call. I took a pull, flicked off, and got slammed with an attack near the bottom of the hill. There was no getting on the train at that point.

I went into TT mode, and slowly caught dropped riders from the break. We duked it out, and I got 2nd of our shattered group of four riders for 9th. Josh’s group had caught the early breakaway of Jordan, Bill and Ryan in the closing miles, but was tag teamed by the three Trek VW riders to finish 5th. Ryan White held on for 7th after 80 miles in the break. Rob White got away from the bunch at the very end for 11th.

While we were definitely looking for the win, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th, isn’t too bad. Overall, a solid race. Had I played my cards a bit smarter, ABD/GG would have perhaps had a more solid position going into the finale. Lesson learned. Overall though, I think we showed we are a force to be reckoned with, and the cards should be falling in our favor soon. Only more top results to come!

Back to collegiate racing for me next weekend. I love the Marian crit course so much that I might even race it twice on Saturday!

Josh Carter Reports in From Colorado

3/19/08

I'm heading back home to the midwest after a 3 week work trip to Denver, CO. At first I was looking forward to training at altitude, but then I got there ... I felt like a smoker! After a few days of riding by myself in the mountains, I called on our long lost ABD teammate, Zach Watson to see if he'd take me out on the local training ride. We hooked up with the Saturday group ride in Boulder and I was thinking 'I'm in in good shape, this is going to be fun.' Boy was I wrong. I never thought that I would ever say I hate riding on flat roads ... but when you throw the flat roads a mile above sea level when you're used to training at about 200 ft. elevation it really changes things. And then we went uphill. It wasn't the climbing that hurt me the most. It was being dropped by the women and being passed by the guy 4X my weight ... and then chasing the group for 30 minutes to catch back up to the group as they stopped for a break. Four and a half hours later we ended up back at Zach's house and I was a mess. It literally feels like you're breathing through a stir-straw out here.

I just have to thank Zach for helping me find some really awesome places to ride. He and his wife, Erin (who used to race with Julie back in the day), were awesome to hang out with.

Sunday. Race day. There was a criterium the very next day in City Park, CO (suburb of Denver). Criteriums = right up my ally, right? A 60 minute crit ... no problem, right? Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the day before because this was the best and the worst race of the year so far. It was a 1 mile loop in the shape of a triangle with three (yes 3) roundabouts. There were about 80 riders and a lot of them were pros. From the gun I made good position in the front of the race. I missed the first 6-man breakaway but a lap after the break got away I bridged across with Jonathan Clark and Henk Vogels from Toyota United. I tried to sit at the back of the breakaway and catch my breath, but after 4-5 laps I couldn't recover and got dropped from the group.

I stopped pedaling to recover and tacked onto the 3-man chase group that included Pete Lopinto, Tyler Hamilton, and another guy I didn't know. A couple laps later we made it to the breakaway ... so now I'm back in the lead group (go figure). Again, sitting at the back of the break I tried to recover and 4-5 laps later I got dropped again.

I went back to the field and I sat at the back of the pack for about 10 minutes, wanting to quit the whole time I was back there. I just couldn't recover without getting the oxygen I needed. While I was at the back another chase group got away ... now there were about 16-17 guys off the front and the race only paid 3 places deep. So then I thought 'there's no money left for the field, I might as well race hard and get a workout ... if I get dropped, I get dropped.' So I attacked again with about 10 minutes to go and formed a 3-man chase group. About a lap later there was a big crash in the pack (behind me) and the officials pulled what was left of the field. My 3-man chase group picked up a few of the guys that were dropped from the other chase group and I just kept pulling really hard, taking really long pulls. With two laps to go I decided I didn't want to risk anything with no money on the line with all of the roundabouts on the course. So I went ahead and pulled out early.

All in all, it was a good race. It shows that I have good form; I just can't breathe at altitude. I would have liked to see how this race would have finish had it been at sea level.

I'm now on my way back home to St. Louis. I'm looking forward to team training camp and the Hillsboro Roubaix. I'm very excited to be with racing with the guys for the first time together this year. I have to wish Alex and Ebert good luck out in San Dimas while we're racing in Hillsboro.

Until next time,

Josh

Kenosha Crit #2: The White Brothers Go Two for Two

In the days' main event, ABD/GEARGRINDER team members Rob and Ryan White joined Rob Jungels and Jeff Schroetlin for a sufferfest that saw Schroetlin, Rob White and Ryan White drive the winning break. In the finale Rob White soloed to the win on the final lap with Ryan taking second and Schroetlin coming across for 5th.

Jeff Schroetlin decided that one race wouldn't be enough of a workout last Sunday, so he also jumped in the Masters 30+ and took second.

White Brothers go 1-2 at Kenosha Crit #1

Rob and Ryan White took first and second at the first Kenosha Criterium last weekend, held in frigid conditions. The pair traded attacks until Rob escaped, only to be joined by Ryan a few laps later.

Meyers Nets a Win and Another Podium

Meyers Report: 2nd and 3rd on the Weekend

Last Saturday marked the return of the annual (for as long as I can remember) Depauw collegiate race weekend—I was excited. The road race has been a blast in the past, and this weekend was looking to be no different. Our official of the day made note of the fact that the previous race had been boring, and he had nearly fallen asleep in the chase vehicle. He said that since he had shortened the race for us, we should ride extra fast, and that our race should be more “interesting”. The field must have taken his words to heart as we started fast and more or less kept it that way. Attacks were made in the first lap, but none stuck. Midway through the second lap, a big group of 12 formed, and the field was nearly at its breaking point. I attacked out of this group and three of us rolled away: Erik Bean (UW Madison), Erik Loberg (UW Milwaukee) and myself. We hammered and hammered. Loberg forgot to eat, and suffered at the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. Bonk. Bean and I trudged on. As we got to the final lap, I came under the impression that we had something like a minute plus on the field. This was wrong. All of a sudden, Bean says “We have about 30 seconds on them I think”. I turned around to see the bunch closing in. I grunt “GO GO GO GO GO.” Bean and I put it into overdrive. With about 1 mile to go, I have no choice but to go at it alone. With the field hot on my tail, I punch it as hard as I could. Leg cramp be damned. I’m going to win this race with only one functioning leg if I have to.

A moment of bliss comes. I think I’m going to make it! I was wrong. Cross eyed, I see a blurred double image of Derek Laan (Purdue) screaming past me 10 feet in front of the line and raise his arms in victory. Second place. Dangit.

Brett Stewart (Also of ABD/GG fame) rides for Indiana. He was one of the nine Indiana University riders bringing the break back. An unfortunate crash took him out of the bunch sprint. Fortunately, I won’t have to ride against him this summer.

Sunday was a Crit. Warm weather greeted us. Wind too. This was going to be fun—as a 170 lb rolleur, I find flat, windy, power courses to be tailor made for me. 2nd lap or so I follow an attack by a Milwaukee rider. We work together for a few laps, but in a turn I ended up dropping him. I spent a couple laps off solo until a chase group of 5 caught up. We continued at a high pace. At one point I attacked for a prime, and dropped a couple people. It was now just four. Shortly thereafter, it became three. I was starting to cramp, badly. I told my two compatriots that I was not going to sprint. All of a sudden, it’s back to four riders. I had thought we had dropped one guy, but he really just flatted and took a free lap. I was OK with sitting on and not sprinting for 3rd, but didn’t feel that way about 4th. With the little legs I had left, and 3ish laps to go, I guttered it out in an attempt to pop at least one guy. Luckily I did. When the sprint came, I flicked off and watched the fireworks go off. I coasted it in for third, with quads in knots.