Freund Report: Spring Training with Ebert

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy riding,

Ryan

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ Josh Carter

ABD Pro Development Team Weekend Race Report

The ABD Pro Development Team riders are spread out around the country right now prepping for the pending Midwest race season and they are already showing a lot of promise for the year ahead.

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s a quick recap of the races down here the past few weekends.  I will start with Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, AZ.  It was a 3 day stage race with a TT, RR, and Crit based on time.  Now, it is no seceret that I hate TT's, but I actually was ready to really try and do well at this one, full on areo set up.  5k into the 22k TT I managed to find the biggest nail on the rode that went clean through my wheel.  Two thoughts went through my head: 1st- I am so glad that I have a great excuse as to why I did not do well.  2nd- Oh crap I have to ride the next 17k on a flat wheel so I can start the next day, I hope somebody will be there to score me in a hour or so.  Lucky for me they had a sweeper to pick people up in my situation and they gave me 5 minutes slower than the slowest time of the day, so I could start the next day.  RR went well, the results show me as getting 2nd (and I still would have done well) but with 1k to go they neutralized our finish because of a crash at the finish line in the 3s race.  So it did not really count.  The Crit went well also, long story shot, a Rock Racing guy and Waste Management guy got off the front with 1 lap to go and I got 2nd in the field sprint for 4th.
 
This last weekend I went the suburbs of Austin, TX to the Walburg and Pace Bend RRs (two big TX races that everyone has been talking about).  Saturday was Walburg- it was a long hard day in the saddle.  We had cold, clouds, rain, sun, warm, and wind (a lot of wind).  It was so windy that for about 5 miles in the cross wind I was trying to control my deep carbon Bontrager wheels at an angle as if I where going through a corner (only I was going straight).  I could feel my bike sliding sideways on the wet road.  I missed the 3 man break.  In the last 10 miles a 4th guy got away and I won the sprint for 5th.  Sunday was Pace Bend, it was a very cool race.  A 6.2 mile fully enclosed wide road loop with rolling climbs and a lot of dudes (130+ starters)  I quickly figured out that this race was going to come to a field sprint, it was too easy to sit in and to many guys with fresh legs.  Now with that being said it made it very hard to position for the finish.  There was a corner 400 meters to the finish and it was all up hill (not exactly my cup of tea) but I was ready for the fight.  I got boxed in coming out of the corner and had to soft pedal to get an open lane with 200 meters to go.  I got boxed in again and soft pedaled to get the line.  By the time I hit the finish I had caught all but 1 guy, all I needed was 10 more meters, but that is bike racing.  I will take 2nd place anytime.  That is all the races I have to report for now!  I will be at it again this weekend at Lago Vista.  Wish me luck!
 
~Josh

Carter Report: Another Win in Texas

Hello all,

I just wanted to drop a line in and give an update on the start of the elite team's season.  This last weekend I was able to race the Tour of New Braunfels in New Braunfels, Texas.  I will start by saying the weather for the weekend was great (80's and sunny both days).  The race included a crit (that was more like a circuit) through a national park and a RR in some very wide open, rolling grasslands.  The crit was Saturday, which is new for me to race a crit first, and after a rest week in training I was a little nervous about how I was going to feel turning the pedals over in anger.  The course was a 2.1 mile rolling loop with 2 good 30 sec. climbs.  Talking to coach Julie before the race we came up with a good game plan.  I would sit in and try to get my legs under me for the first 15 min, with 80+ starters I also wanted to stay up front to stay out of trouble.  During that time two guys got away and put 40 sec. on us.  I felt good so I started to help bring the break back, the gap came down to about 10 sec. and just as I was pulling off one of Julie's MSU riders that rides for RBM during USCF races attacked and bridged the gap.  It was a great move on his part but that sucked!  The gap went back out to about 40 sec. and with 2 laps to go I thought "I am racing for 4th place, sit in and make it a good sprint."  With one lap to go Julie tells me that the gap is down to 20 sec. but we could not see the break up the road. At about the one mile mark there was a large curve that you could see about 10 -15 sec. and to my suprise there was the break playing cat and mouse with each other.  I thought yeeaaa I'm going to win this!!  During my pre-ride of the course I scoped out the spot that I wanted to start sprinting, it was a boat dock ramp about 300 meters from the line.  On this course you could not see the line because the road was too curvy, but I knew that this was my spot.  I passed the remnants of the group with about 150 meters to go and never looked back.  It was great to get the second win of the season (two in a row was cool too!).  The kids had a count going on.
 
Day two was not as good.  It was a long, windy battle of attrition 80+ starters only 22 finishers.  The trick of the day was to be in the top 5 in the crosswind.  For the record it is sooo much easier to rotate and pull through with a strong crosswind than it is to fight in the gutter with everyone else who is not getting a draft.  On a 15 mile course we had to do that 5 times and it did not feel good at all.  Long story short, 5 guys got away and I could not chase.  I ended up in an 8 man chase group that was killing me and 3 of those guys got away, by this time I just wanted to finish in the money (top 10).  Of the 5 of us left 1 guy attacked with 1 mile to go and I bridged up to him and told him that I would not sprint him as long as he pulled the rest of the way in and I just wanted 10th place.  He said "Thanks," and that is how we finished.  I was so wrecked at the end all I wanted to do was go home.  It was great early season race training.  I am looking forward to seeing you all soon.  I hope your training is all going well and you are all staying warm. I also hope that you are all as excited about this season as I am, big things are going to happen this year ... I can feel it.
 
 -Josh
 

Carter Opens ABD's 2009 Campaign with a Win!

Although it may be hard to believe, some places have actually started racing their bikes outdoors. One of those fairytale places is Texas, and ABD's Josh Carter opened the Pro Development Team’s 2009 season the same way he closed 2008: with a notch in the victory. 

Carter won the 83-mile Copperas Cove Road Race in brutally windy conditions that tore the 90-plus rider field apart from the start. Early on a group of riders escaped that maintained a slim margin over the field. Carter bridged across to the leaders with a small group shortly after the first time over the course’s most significant climb, about 25 miles into the race.

The newly formed group quickly started rotating through and the weaker riders fell off the pace until 11 remained, including three Richardson Bike Mart teammates. Carter used his quick jump and explosive sprint in the finale to foil any team tactics and take the win.