Wishing a speed recovery to Sal Abbruzzese

Sal is a very good cyclist who has been riding extremely well this year. He trains with Paul Levis, one of TARGETRAINING's Cat 2 riders, and also with Ed Espitia, one of Sal's teammates on CRCA/Blue Ribbon Translations. Sal recently won a time trial event.

We wish him a speedy recovery. Yesterday at the Gimbels ride, he crashed into a pole and got badly hurt. Apparently he cracked a number of ribs, punctured both his lungs, and so severely damaged a kidney that the doctors had to remove it.

For those who would like to wish Sal a speedy recovery, you may email plevis@mac.com. Or you may send cards to Sal's home at 180 Palmer LaneThornwood, NY 10594.

Sal is an expert cyclist. We don't know exactly what happened, but he hit a pothole at high speed, hit someone's wheel, and lost control of his bicycle, jumping a metal divider (where his bicycle apparently broke into 2 pieces) and then slamming into the pole at around 30 mph.

Sal and Paul usually don't do the Gimbels ride -- it was a fluke they decided to do it (convenience, boredom, who knows). They decided on a whim to do it.

The Gimbels ride, named after the Gimbel Brothers store that used to reside at the start of the ride on Route 100/Central Avenue in Yonkers (there is a Macy's there now) is a very fast, famous training ride done every Saturday and Sunday (almost every weekend of the year) . Many experienced, very talented racers go there. Sometimes, a TARGETRAINING rider will go. In fact, just plain a lot of cyclists go there -- it is a melting pot of cycling.

It can also be a dangerous ride. It can be dangerous for many reasons. First, it goes through crowded streets all the way from Yonkers through White Plains through Greenwich, sometimes New Canaan, to Pound Ridge, then Rye and back into White Plains (it is not quite a loop -- the official start is about 10 miles from the finish). Second, there are no pace cars, no officials, no coaches keeping the ride under control, no marshals ensuring that oncoming traffic knows the ride is coming. In other words, it is a race/fast ride that tries to police itself. Third, it is a crowded ride. Over 100 riders will show up for the ride. Fourth, it mixes fitness and skill levels. While the groups split up and selection separates riders, riders who were dropped can re-appear (via shortcuts). Riders pressed to their limits are usually more dangerous in group situations -- try seeing straight when you are going all out.

Please train, but please do so in a way that mitigates risk to yourself. We want you fit, but most of all, we want you healthy. Please everyone wish Sal a fast and full recovery.

Cox Charities Criterium

This past Saturday was the Cox Charities Criterium up in Providence, RI. This year there was a 2/3 and a P/1 race but on the NRC calendar; meaning big money and big teams. Very exciting.

The 2/3 race had Adam, Will, Josh and Dave in a 125 person field racing a 1+ mile loop with a nice headwind section, a steep hill, and lots of corners. Adam Bomb and his friend Gabe made short order of the race by attacking about 9 laps in and making a huge gap. Then 4 really good sprinters bridged up. None of them on TARGETRAINING. BFD blocked like hell and the break was gone. Up front, Adam (who is running for Mayor of Providence, FYI) was a crowd favorite and tired to drop his companions on the hill on each of the last 3 laps, but nothing stuck. He got beat in the sprint and took 4th, but is definitely coming on to form for Fitchburg later this week. Good stuff. Next time guys, don't let the 3 fastest cat 2 sprinters in New England bridge to your teammate!!

Then, there was the Pro/1 race. This was interesting. More interesting however, was the look on Matt Baldwin's face everytime Richard Friese announced a different call up to the front line: Ivan Stebic (UCI B world champion); Henk Vogels (didn't he used to lead out Robbie McKuen?); Davide Frattini (U-25 Giro D'italia, whatever); Kyle Wamsley (Sommervile x2), Jon Page (cross worlds silver medal), Mark McCormack (USPro Champ), blah blah, blah. Some of these guys have ridden the Tour de France. Is that a big race?

Oh yeah: we had Eneas Freyre, Craig Luekens, Ben Zawacki, Matt Baldwin and Justin Lindine. Either good champions or sunglass wearers each of them.

The race started off fast and Justin and Eneas were super active. A large break got up the road and then when Stevic bridged 45 seconds in about a half a lap (wow!) the break exploded and Wamsley beat two others at the finish.

However, the other pro teams were nervous about Justin Wolverine Lindine and decided that he had to carry an extra bike with him for the last two laps.

Yes, that is Sebe Haedo on the ground and yes, that is his bicycle hanging off of Justin's handlebars. Ouch. Neither Justin, nor his two bikes were able to finish.

Matt and Craig rode strong despite the fast 50 mile race and finished safe and sound. Ben admitted that he should have actually ridden his bike during his training sessions and promised to do better next time. I completely understand. In the resulting sprint, Eneas was able to avoid some of the chaos and finished a strong 15th. Nice job against a stupid fast field. These guys can move!

Next up, Unionvale RR for some and Heartbreak Hill CR for others. Stay tuned!

Kyle WolfeManager, TARGETRAINING Racing Teams
http://www.targetraining.com/

A few cool pictures to admire

I wanted to add a few pics for everyone to look at:

First: the squad after winning the Housatonic Hill Road Race

Pictured: David "BFD" Hoyle, Matt Baldwin, Will "Monster" Nowak, Adam "Bomb" St Germain, Justin "Wolverine" Lindine, Eneas "I Crush You" Freyre, Stephen "the" Badger, Lee "Leero" Rosenthal, "Stylin'" Ben Zawacki, and Nathanial "No Nickname Nate" Ward

And a cool shot of the Tour of Ohio as seen from the caravan in the team Volvo

Tailgating? I wasn't tailgating.

I hope everyone likes these!! Thanks for reading.

Kyle.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

As you all know, Justin had won the last stage of the Tour of Ohio last week. To say that the team had a few beers afterwards to celebrate was an understatement.

It was the bottle of champagne, however that led to the idea that we should race a small criterium on the way home to Connecticut. Hahaha, we all said. Wouldn't it be funny if we pulled up and raced a local crit, we all said. Genius' all.

Well, as fate would have it, there was a small criterium in Bloomsburg, PA at 2pm on that Sunday. It was 2 miles off of I-80 and we were going that way anyhow. So we went and did the race. There were only 20 local entrants and this one guy from Rite-Aid. Clayton Burrows. Is he fast? I wasn't sure. It was the beer talking.

We started off pretty strong with 8 green guys patrolling the front at all time. The attacks and counters were constant on this flat 4 corner course. We went five for five with primes until finally Justin got away by himself. Surprise. You may have read about this scenario before. However this time, the Rite Aid and another bridged up to him. This was not good. Justin sat on the break and the team chased from behind. Will He's A Monster Nowak and BFD were at the front just killing it until the move came back. Phew.

Then, Nate jumped off with 6 laps to go and held the hard chasing field for 5 laps when Lee and BFD Dave made some last minute jumps and moves while Justin and Will set up Stylin Ben Zawacki for the sprint. Unfortunately, the beer and that EXTREMELY FAST Rite Aid guy beat him and we had to settle.

Oh well, it was still a good race and they were awesome. I guess 7 races in 8 days was a bit too much. We got back in the car and continued to drive East. More on that later.

Kyle Wolfe
Manager, TARGETRAINING Racing Teams
www.targetraining.com

Stamford Triathlon

Like my friend Mr. Yockelson, I was rather concerned with the pre-race logistics involved in two transition areas and sending my wetsuit and goggles in a bag prior to the race hoping they would arrive at the water in time for the first wave. My swim went well and myself and two others duked it out around the furst two buoys and then I eventually settled into and held on to second place in our wave, seconds behind the race leader. Once on the bike I was just behind the race leader for about a mile before I decided "what the heck" and overtook him. This was the first time I can ever remember getting a police escort for 24 miles, and I enjoyed every minute of it! Behind the police car was the WEBE 108 car and then some jeep with a guy with a TV camera. This allowed me ample time to see all of the sharp turns and corners navigating the bike course. I felt good on the bike and pushed quite hard the whole time. I had a feeling I had not dropped the guy behind me, but refused to look back.
As I pulled into T2 I was feeling pretty good, and hoping my race lead may be able to hold up. These thoughts were quickly shattered-- Tim Snow (pro from Mass) had been letting me lead the bike course for a reason-- he ran by me at mile 1 like I was standing still! I was thrilled to be able to hang on to second despite a run that was less than blazing.
All in all, I had a lot of fun and was happy to make a nice showing. Another great race for Targetraining with wins in several age groups. Rhode Island 70.3 is next!