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!