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.

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.

GEARGRINDER Site Open for Business!

The website for GEARGRINDER Cycling Inspired Apparel for Your Active Lifestyle is up and cruising in high gear!

Throw on some GEARGRINDER apparel, and get that sun on your face, wind at your back feeling even when you're off the bike...so come on, let's SHOP NOW!

See you on the road...and hopefully in your closet!
 
GEARGRINDER
Cycling Inspired Apparel for Your Active Lifestyle
www.gear-grinder.com

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