Giro di Coppi

The wheelsucker has fond memories of the Giro di Coppi in 2007. Two years ago, in the wheelsucker’s second race in a 40+/50+ field (the wheelsucker was 40+ at the time), he managed to make the winning break (largely due to blind luck and excellent timely advice from Doug Milliken), and finished 6th with riders like Ramon Benitez, Art Brown, Randy Thrasher, and Andreas Gutziet. Unfortunately, being so new to racing, the wheelsucker did not realize how incredibly lucky he had been, and started to think that this sort of result was reproducible, and that he had some ability to race bicycles; it turns out neither is true!
Coppi was racing by cat only in 2008, but a master’s field was back in 2009. This time the wheelsucker was hanging on for dear life about 10 seconds after the rollout started, and went off the back on the first lap near the top of a medium length shallow climb. OUCH! He chased down a group of four riders a short distance ahead, but only one of them hung on to the finish, so it was a long ride with no other 50+ riders in sight. Fortunately for the wheelsucker's placing, he was not the first 50+ rider to be gapped, so he did finish above middle in his field.

Other Team Latitude riders had great races with Art Brown winning the 50+ and demonstrating yet again that he can be a very serious threat in the 35+ field against some of the strongest riders in MABRA. Sara Clafferty was a very strong second in the women’s cat 3/cat 4 race, coming very close to winning over Team CycleLife’s cat 3 star, Sara Zeigler. The amazing Amanda Wu was 8th and Amy Westenfeld 13th.
Rockstar Denzil Hathway WON the master’s 4/5 race with Jerry Chapmon 10th.
In the cat 4 men, Chad went down in the sprint when he could not avoid a rider who flipped in front of him, and ended up in hospital. Chad reports that he is OK. Iain Banks was 20th. Iain’s immediate concern must have been for Chad, as when the wheelsucker rolled through with one other 35+ racer to finish his race he saw the ambulance, the paramedics and Iain, all trying to help an injured rider, but did not yet know that the injured rider was Chad.

Chris Thater Memorial 2008

Team Latitude/ABRT went to Binghamton, NY and competed in 4 races over 2 days. The races were extremely well organized and the people of Binghamton were amazing and super friendly!!!

Representing the team- Chris Harshman, Lance Lacey, Keith Reeder, Back from the Rockies- Nat Thompson, and me, Chip Hoover. Lance, Chris and I traveled up late Friday night. We should have gotten there a bit earlier but Chris and I waited around for Lance to catch some fox with a trap stuck to his leg. Seriously! Reeder and Nat traveled up saturday.

Race #1 was the 30+ masters race. All but Nat were racing. The race started with me attacking and getting a good gap. Mark Warno bridged up to me and I worked with him for a few laps, then I decided, due to a lack of confidence in being able to stay in a break the whole race, that I would drop back to the field (mistake #1). Ramon from Artemis then put in a few attacks but never was able to get away early on thanks to Lance, Chris and Reeder covering his every move. Reeder then countered one of Ramon's attacks and got away with one other rider.

Now there were 3 guys up the road a quarter in to the race. A few others try and get away including Ramon but all covered nicely by Team Latitude. I then attacked the field on the one climb on the course and manged to gain a nice gap. I was quickly joined by Ramon and we began to work to catch the chase group.

Speed up to 10 laps or so to go and we reach Keith alone along the start/finish stretch. I began a solid pull prior to the first turn and climb once we reach Keith (major mistake #2). Ramon then attcks us and I am not able to go with him. So now it's Keith and me in the chase group racing for 4th and 5th. Ramon reaches the lead group and they began to pull away from us. That was the race. I ended up 4th and Keith 5th!

40+ Race- Keith did this one and landed another impressive top 10 with 8th place. Ramon and Jamie Carney lapped the field. Carney Won.

3/4 Race- Chris and Lance suited up for their 2nd race of the day and represented well. They put in multiple attacks but were counted, then they worked hard to bring them back. Eventually 2 guys got up the road. With about 5 to go Chris put in a huge effort to bring back the break but other teams were content with racing for 3rd and did nothing to help. With 2 laps to go Lance put in a huge attack and managed to get about 8-10 seconds on the field. Keith and I were screaming at him to stick it. With one to go he had about 10 seconds but was caught on the last corner with about 300 meters to go. Great Move- Lance would have stuck it if had fresh legs- No doubt!

Cat 2/3 Race Sunday- All of us raced! Strategy was to, quote Keith, "race positive". And that's exactly what we did! Lance went from the gun just liked we discussed and that triggered a number of attacks with Nat finally sticking one solo. Here's Chris Harshman's recap of the Cat 2/3 Race prior to the Men's Pro Race!

"After cramping up on lap 3, getting caught behind a crash on lap 4 and sucking a@@ at the back of the race for the next 10 or so laps in the Cat 2/3 race, I went into photog mode for the remainder of the day. When you scroll through the photo's, notice Nat is getting a neutral bike from Mavic. Not only did Nat get a bike, but at some point Keith also required a neutral support bike.

"Nat was in the 5 man break that he started after countering Lance's initial attack from the very start of the race up the climb. He and another rider got clear but were joined by Chip and two other riders a few laps later. With about 6 laps to go Nat's chain broke about half way around the course and he had to run to the pit plus get there before 4 laps to go before the free lap rule went away. Nat made it in time as was set up the bike and was able to rejoin the break which still consisted of the 4 other original riders. They went on to lap the main field just before one to go making things a bit difficult to sort out for the finish. Nat attacked immediately after the start finish to try and draw out the riders from the break but it stayed together for a bunch sprint with the field. Keith was in the 8 man chase group when his chain broke but rejoined the group and eventually attacked solo out of the group to get 8th."

"Lance was The Man this weekend. After doubling up Saturday riding two strong races in the 30+ and the 3/4, the later of which he was so close to holding a two lap solo effort to take 3rd behind a 2 man break but was reeled back in just before the finish, he still had the legs to attack the 2/3 field after turn 1 up the hill to set up Nat for the counter which resulted in the winning break from lap 1 of a 25 lap race. Lance continued to work in the field disrupting attempts to bring back either the break of the chase group including Keith."

"What a great weekend of racing. It was great to go to a race out of state where no one knows who you are and hearing the announcers call out your team and rider names the entire race and making your mark there. 6 top 10s on the weekend, representing in 4 different races with just 5 riders. Incredible! Great job guys."

During the final lap there were multiple attacks by the breakaway guys. Nat ended up 3rd and I ended up 2nd.

It was a great weekend of racing and I believe we all learned a little more about each other and our capabilities on the bike! I look forward to more of these type weekends in the future!

Thanks for reading!

Highway to Heaven Pantani Style

Before we get to the fun stuff, congratulations to all of the Team Latitude riders who rocked the Highway to Heaven time trial, notably Ali Meller (2nd 50+), Ken McDowell (1st 30+), Dave Bradshaw (3rd Cat3), Tom Mackay and Aaron Canale (1st/3rd Jr 18) and Chris Harshman (2nd Fixed Gear).

Full Results
Pictures

Now for the fun stuff...

The most expressive faces:




Climbing Pantani Style:

Who needs Sleep? The story of the Tour de 'Toona.

At 11 p.m. last night I received a text that If I was going to be racing The Cranky Monkey MTB race today I would be alone. Another friend told me around 8 p.m. as well, so I was kinda bummed. I wanted to race a crit so I set my sights on the 'toona for the next morning. I set my alarm clock for something like 4 a.m.

I couldn't sleep though so I started piling everything into the car. When I was done I figured I should just drive, Screw it. Leaving at 11:55 pm The roads were empty.

I stopped a few times for coffee and mountain dew. When I finally got to Altoona at about 3:30 a.m. (time got fuzzy for a while) I found a field that a parked along the edge of. It was next to the Lowe's Home Improvement, how romantic. I reclined the seat and got what sleep I could

I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. but woke at 6:30. I Rolled out with enough sleep to make me feel better then the night before. I hit Sheetz, YEAH MAN. Coffee and breakfast (I had packed some PBJ's and yogurt so my breakfast was reasonable).

I found the race. I parked and did all the sign-in stuff. I felt really tired now, so I tried to get on my bike. I remember feeling bad until the start.

**The Actual Race**

8 corners. basically a rectangle with S bends thrown in to break up the straights. It was fairly technical, not as bad as Wilmington or Reston though. There were 20 laps. The field wasn't super-huge but I planted myself in the top 5. It was really fun just sitting in, when I have teammates I feel obligated to help the team and do stuff like attack. Today I wasn't racing for anyone except me. However, I did find myself on the front for a time. I put in some hard efforts on the turns to get people breathing heavy. It worked well. Then to top that off I did attack them anyway. At around lap 3 I was making them chase me, but my HR was around 150, (my max is around 207 as a reference point) so I wasn't wasting myself.

The announcer said the field split when I finally drifted back to the group. I really wanted to see if everyone was tired, or at least more tired then I was. (Hard to do considering the night before). I was 5th again.

Laps 6-12 were nothing special. The field regrouped.

NCVC Put 2 strong guys in the front, Greg and someone else I didnt know. The first guy and Greg attacked to get away. I stayed glued to Gregs wheel. When the first NCVC rider had finished his part he pulled off and Greg continued where he left off. We rode maybe another lap like this. When Greg needed his breath We both paused. I only paused long enough to see we had a big gap. I wanted to hurt em' some more so I did a move to get away.

"Tom, only 6 (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) LAPS TO GO, Hang In there man!" I remember hearing the crowd. I remember this one guy that I saw with maybe 2-3 to go. He yelled something. I was in good shape by the time I saw him.

On every corner I looked back. I was able to get about 3-4 corners ahead, but they still saw me on the straights. (They were a few blocks long). I rode really easy on those parts. On the corners a motored and thats were a gained my time. Recover, attack, recover, attack. ITS JUST LIKE A TUESDAY/THURSDAY Ride!

A guy gave me a time-check, 30 secs. I had 100 yards to go to the finish. I thought I zippered my shirt...... can't remember. I put my hands up, everyone was excited.

I hate sprinting on brick anyway. I was interviewed by the Altoona paper. Then we had the podium ceremony. I was interviewed by the Altoona TV news. Then I drove home and slept till I started writing this. I won the Maillot Jaune for a former stage race.



Young Tom

AND CHIP WON TOO ABRT ALL THE WAY!

Hagerstown Challenge - July 12, 2008

Thanks to everybody that raced Saturday. It felt great to have a lot of teammates in the race and know that everything was under control for the most part. It would have been nice to get somebody up the road, but I can't have everything in life. We made sure nobody got up the road if we weren't in it and with 1 to go Tom was right at the front and I was right behind him fighting for his wheel. In case you don't already know, Tom placed 3rd and I placed 7th, and I am positive that it was a direct result of the hard work from the rest of the team chasing people down and making others chase them down as they tried to get off the front. Saturday's race was really encouraging from a team standpoint. If Sean didn't go down on the last lap, I'm pretty sure I would have been sprinting against him for that 7th position. I hope you feel better Sean, and if you need any help working on the bike, let me know. My tools and I speak Campy very fluently.

With that said, we still have some areas to work on (e.g., bridging up to breaks that we think can stay away so that we can have people in the break, breaking up chases after getting somebody into a break, initiating breaks that will stay, and leading out the sprint). From what I saw, we have a bunch of strong riders that can ride at the front, we just need to coordinate a little better to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I'm not a greedy person, I'll let the others take 4th and so on.

Another thing we should think about, is who is looking to upgrade and who needs what to upgrade. We don't want Lance racing in the 3's next year all by himself. So, for those of you that want to upgrade, send me an e-mail with what you need (e.g., points, top 10's, number of pack finishes) to get your upgrade. As a team, we should work on trying to get as many people into the 3's that want to be in the 3's.

Hope to see some of you 4's at Hunny Bop this weekend.