Buamann Podiums Two Days in a Row at Mizzou!

March 10th & 11th

I headed down to Mizzou University in Columbia, MO this past weekend to race with my collegiate cycling team, UW Madison. On Saturday we had a 60 mile road race on rolling hills, complete with beautiful 70 degree sunny weather. Our team made the race good and hard, attacking all race long and making a very elite selection for the finish. It ended up being myself and one of my teammates in the winning breakaway of 7 riders after I was off the front solo for 25 miles. My teammate attacked near the finish of the last lap, while I sat on the remaining breakaway riders. I ended up winning the sprint for 3rd, with my teammate up the road snagging 2nd place.


Sunday’s race was a 9 mile, very windy, rolling time trial. Due to some race organizer miscommunication, I only got 10 minutes to warm up! That made the legs hurt pretty bad, and consequently I felt ridiculously slow the entire race. I guess the legs weren’t too bad though, as I managed to ride into 2nd place with a time of 20 minutes, 40 seconds and an average speed of 44 Km/h.

UW Madison easily won the team competition for the weekend, and we are well on our way to having a very strong team for Collegiate Nationals in May. Last year we were 4th in the Team Time Trial and 3rd in the road race—-which is really great—but I think this year we can top those results.



This weekend I’ll be racing down in Ohio with ABD. Josh Carter will join me, and we’ll try to put together some good results for the team. A race report will follow. Time to rest up and prepare for another 8 hour drive!

ABD Reloads for 2007: Announces 2007 Elite Team Roster

With last week's announcement of the 8th annual ABD Indoor Time Trial Series (the largest event of it's kind in the United States), the members of ABD Cycle Club are hard at work putting on preparing for another successful run in 2007. They have their work cut out for them after a productive 2006 season that included organizing 21 sanctioned events, winning their first USA Cycling National Title with junior rider Jackie Kurth, and the Men's Elite team finishing as the numer one amatuer team in the country in USAC's NRC team standings (not to mention the landslide victory in the recent Druber awards at Truesport.com).

Much of the Elite team's success was due to riders Frank Dierking, Bryce Mead and Reid Mumford - and the club is very excited that all three of these riders have taken the step up to bigger programs for next year. Mead recently signed with the US Continental Jelly Belly squad and Mumford is also finalizing arrangements with an undisclosed Cont. squad. In addition, ABD alumni Ben Raby (2002-2004) recently inked a deal with the KodakGallery.Com/Sierra Nevada team and Frank Pipp (2003) moved to Healthnet, the U.S.'s number one continental Pro squad. The most winning ABD rider to date, sprinter John Puffer, is undecided on his plans for next season. "We have a lot of horsepower to try and replace," says ABD administrator, Mike Ebert," but I'm very happy for all of those guys. ABD is all about developing riders, and every club member can take pride in seeing our riders move to the next level."

With rider development in mind, the team looked for riders with a mix of experience and talent that could also be ready to head to the professional ranks within a year or two. They've found just such a mix in riders Ryan Baumann (Madison, WI), Josh Carter (Fairview Heights,IL), Jeff Schroetlin (Decatur, IL), Alex Sharon (Wheaton, IL) and Brett Stewart (Munster, IN). Both Carter and Schroetlin have raced the Midwest circuit and numerous NRC races for the past few years, whereas Stewart and Sharon are 21 year old ABD "veterans" who started out with the club as Category 4 riders and moved their way up. 20-yer old Buamann is a very promising young rider who's worked under the guidance of Jelly Belly Pro rider Nick Reistad for the past season.

The ABD Club at large, with over 200 members and growing, is also looking forward to another busy and successful season. Winter training classes in the ABD Cycling Center at Prairie Path Cycles are almost completely booked through March and the club has plans for promoting at least 12 outdoor races once the Midwest weather warms up. Ebert adds, "There are so many dedicated people not only in our club but all over the upper-Midwest. Everyone is working hard to ensure that 2007 is the best schedule we can offer for riders of all ages and abilities." More details and the most up-to-date Midwest calendar are available at www.ABDcycling.com.