Cipollini, McKeun, Valverde, Lindine?

I am not going to lie to any of you, my faithful readers; writing the weekly race reports for the TARGETRAINING U-25/Elite Development Bicycle Racing team is not very difficult to do. They are all simply amazing. Each and every week they perform at the highest level, work perfectly together as a team, stick to the plan, intimidate the living heck out of the competition, and always score and mostly win. It is simply beautiful.

Well, at this past weekend's Capital Region Road Race in Ravena, NY the team excelled as always. Some of you may remember this race as a very difficult course with steep farm roads, wind swept flats and fields full of racers trying to redeem their seasons now that it is mid August and GMSR is on the way. TARGETRAINING sent Eneas, Justin, Adam, BFD Dave, Will, Nate and Gabe to use this 83 mile road race as the last prep event for Labor Day's Green Mountain Stage Race. (Don't worry, nicknames will be overused later in this email!) A small but dangerous field was present, including arch rivals Kenda, some stinking Fruities, our NJ fiend Roger and the Nerac boys. Not too shabby of a group.

The plan was simple: get Bomb and New Guy off the front early while everyone was bird dogging Eneas and Wolverine Lindine. Then, as the legs got weary, BAM! the two of them bridge up and we take the win. Seriously, that is simple.

So, on the first lap Adam and Gabe went for it. Turns out that everyone wasn't so willing to just let us do our plan and they were chased back in. Adam tried to explain to the competition that there was a plan, but they were very uncooperative. So, Gabe attacks. Adam attacks. Eneas and Justin counter. The field goes crazy. Then Gabe goes again and drops a Nerac. Then Paul "No Longer Tailgunning" Levis brings Adam Bomb back to the front and whoosh! he attacks down the left side and is away with two others.

A bit later a dangerous Nerac sprinter comes up, but da Bomb is not scared, there is a plan.

Soon, the plan comes into play as a small green dot comes over the horizon at ramming speed: Justin. So, the break comes through the first zone six strong, Adam and Justin, two Kenda, a Nav and the Nerac. They already have a minute on the field as the rest of the feed zone workers and officials shake their heads. Not again they all say. Why won't they just give everyone else a chance they say. I smile quietly. Well, not really, but you get the drift.

For over fifty miles they are away until the last lap when Adam attacks so hard up a hill that he actaully pulls the cleat off of his team issue Crank Bros road pedal. The cleat is still attached to his pedal and three lonely screws are showing on the bottom of his (also team issued) Diadora shoes. Uh oh, the ratios are off. Kenda tries to seize this opportunity and start to double team attack Justin. The Nerac tries to play it cool and stays with them all.

Meanwhile, back in the remnants of the field, Will and Eneas come through the last last two laps about four minutes back. They have decided to start messing with the remnants and one of them said "slow down Eneas". Not smart. He attacks and solos off the field. Zing.

At the pointy end, the rest of the breakaway is trying to hurt Justin, but it is not working. He finally attacks with 1.5k to go to the finish, but they bring him back. So, he goes again at 200 meters to line and it is now a two up sprint with the very quick Nerac. Its Green, then grey, Nerac, then TT, Justin, then the other guy and then the line: a flash of light for the camera. The official: too close to call, they go to the film...then Alan shouts from the tent - Kyle, he's got it.

Holy freaking cow. Justin has won the race in a sprint! It was awesome. The sparse crowd goes wild. I go wild. It was awesome. Then, Eneas comes in for 6th. Then, Monster Will Nowak out sprints the field for 7th and Nate is behind him for 10th! What? Awesome! Two weeks in a row! Thanks for the great day guys!

Special shout out to David Nowak, Will's father who comes to each event to cheer and help and will give neutral water to anyone that asks. Thanks.

There were also some other races: Joe Regan finished in the lead group in the cat 3s while Sprinter Ben and blue Trek guy had mechanicals and Badger, Hh and Dr Rob Weiss did the masters events. Hard course and a tough day.

All of the teams are definitely on form for the upcoming Green Mountain Stage Race! Look for more updates soon! Thanks for reading!

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