Base Camp International

PedalMag

Fast and furious, the Base Camp International bike race in Basking Ridge, NJ is always the last fitness marker before the historic Philadelphia International Championship. With full squads from UHC, Smartstop, Predator, Optum, Jamis, Champion System Pro and Jelly Belly, is was full gas right from the get go.

I had terrible sensations for most of the race today after waking up this morning healthy for the first time in 2.5 weeks, so it was up to the other guys to fire the cylinders early. That they did and numerous times the race shattered in large, dangerous groups of 15 riders. Each time, our guys stacked those moves and it is very unfortunate that they didn't stick as it would have nicely put UHC on the backfoot.

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Tour of Somerville: Race Recap

A short recap of the 2013 Tour of Somerville. With fulls teams from Champion System, United Healthcare, Team Smartstop and smaller teams from Jamis Hagens Berman, Predator and Garneau, plus the entire state of New Jersey, it was sure to be a fast event. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees with a slight wind and the legendary crowds in Somerville, complete with a backstraight lined by front yard cookouts, created a great racing atmosphere.

In the finale, the team came together to challenge alongside Champion System and United Healthcare with 600 metres remaining but the win once again went to the blue train with our Shane Kline powering to a 5th place finish.

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Joe Martin: Stage 3

Misty, a little rainy and just windy enough out there today to make for some tough racing. A large breakaway went early (8 riders) without the yellow jersey so Optum rode the front most of the day. On lap 3 of 4, 5-hour Energy blasted the field on the climb, with only Clay and I making a select 20 man group. Although the field did eventually catch back on, it took a major dent out of the break's advantage. After another similar selection on the final climb, in which Haga  (yellow), Hamilton (Jelly Belly) and possibly 1-2 other riders managed to slip away over the final metres of the climb, bridging the now 50 second gap, the responsibility of the peloton's speed moved to Champion System and Cashcall. With 5km remaining the gap dipped to 20 seconds, prompting Mancebo to bridge in the fast rolling terrain. With Uberti, Winsor, Clay and I all attentive near the front, Uberti was able to put in a mean bit of work to maintain the speed of the peloton but ultimately the 15 man group up the rode was determined to stay away. The sprinters team's jockeyed for the remaining places and after we lost Clay to a flat, I surfed the sprint to go 3rd in the bunch.

Joe Martin: Stage 2

Great team unit today. Monte, Uberti and Patton especially worked tirelessly today until Winsor joined the break. With 20km to go, 3 riders remained off the front (including two of the original 4). In the finale, the team was lined out but three untimely flat tires took Clay, Simes and Livermon out with a few kms remaining. Winsor helped Ben in the finale but the hectic run into town, with cars all over the place made for very challenging positioning. However the team is looking strong and tomorrow will be a more traditional sprint.

NCC #3: Delray Beach Race Report

NCC #3: Live Feed Information

Today Team SmartStop p/b Mountain Khakis races at the Delray Beach USA Crits/NCC twilight criterium. Since it is a USA Crits events, SmartStop Self Storage is once again providing you with great camera coverage of the event. Hopefully the course lighting, the local ambiance and the race commentators help you feel like you are right there, a part of the action. 

Check out the twitter and facebook tags below to get instant updates from the race, maybe you even want to actively participate! See the full article for the embeded live feed.  Race starts at 8.30pm EST, 5.30pm PST.

    

Enjoy and thanks for watching!

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NCC #2: Race Recap (Video Blog)

Team SmartStop_Mountain Khakis @ Cigar City: Race Recap from CyclinginaToque on Vimeo.

Cool photos in our Team Newsletter (March 18th, 2013) 

Subscribe for next week!

On-board footage with Thomas Brown (Team SmartStop)

You be the judge...should the guy that ruins my teammates' day be reminded by USA Cycling officials that it is a privilege, not a right to race the Pro event.

More footage from the race



Video of the first crash from a spectator: Link or click picture

NCC #2: Cigar City (Video Blog)

Team SmartStop_Mountain Khakis @ Cigar City from CyclinginaToque on Vimeo.

NCC #1: Old Pueblo Race Report (Video Blog)

Team SmartStop_Mtn Khakis @ Old Pueblo GP from CyclinginaToque on Vimeo.

Canadian Criterium Championships 2012: THE MAPLE LEAF!

The maple leaf! YES! Finally! I was so close last year and not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about it...so I'm extremely stoked to have made it happen this year. I'd like to extend a huge thanks to my Team Exergy staff and management for providing a racing calendar that prepared me for this race and to CyclingBC's Jeff Ain, Tim Sherstobitoff and Richard Wooles who made this past week a real highlight of the year.  Music: jSparls

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Tour de Beauce 2012: Cookie Monstar

Steeped in the tradition of Quebec’s sporting culture, the Tour de Beauce is Canada’s longest standing race for good reason. With a first class support caravan, six selective stages and lots of media coverage, it is no doubt that the field for the prestigious race always includes a large collection of strong riders. This year Team Exergy came to the race for the first time and after three days we finally found our rhythm and helped our super climber Matt Cooke launch in the stratosphere on the steep pitches of the 5km Le Magantic climb to claim the biggest stage win of the Cookie monster’s career!
jSparls: Fresh Beats

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Philadelphia International Championship 2012

Music

This morning I woke up in a quiet and well-shaded room in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, a welcome change from the erratic and storming events of this past weekend.  Although feeling rested on Monday, my long sleep-in today is unusual and shows just how hard the event was despite changes in 2012.   The 28^th annual Philadelphia International Championship is the most prestigious 1-day race in North America and is the site of our team leader’s 3 National Championship titles. This year a thunderstorm, a shortened course and peloton without ProTour teams shook up the usual tactics of an early
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Wilmington GP: NCC Podium

The course has everything required to make a hard criterium: 3% shallow climb along the main straightaway, bumps and small cobblestones to lose one's water bottles, elevation change to suit the technical rider and weed out the weaker, a long run down to the final corner for the brave and a good-sized crowd for the mid afternoon time slot. Things to expect: run out of water, have to pedal as hard out of corner 8 at 7th wheel as you would at 30th wheel and that in the finale, the run down to the downhill corner 7 will be crazy fast...so save some energy. 

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Wilmington GP: Prologue TT

Blasting out onto the flat surface of the 'car'walk, it's big power time and high speed all the way to the finish line. Get aero! I can feel at this moment just how much I am losing over a TT bike, headwind pushing against my shoulders.  Head ducked down and tucked in to clean up my frontal area, eyes burning out the tops of their eye sockets...just like tucking in a ski race. Oh the good old days....HEY...FOCUS....this is the hard part.. PEDAL and GET OUT OF THE HEADWIND SECTION! But my legs hurt today...ya well you are a professional so you pedal no matter how you feel.  The two tight changes of direction at the final bridge crossing included trips from sidewalk to sidewalk, lightly kissing orange traffic cones along the way.
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Tour de Grove: No Dice

Good Morning!

Since the conclusion of USA Crits Speedweek two weeks ago, my Team Exergy teammates and I have posted up some impression van hours as we’ve traveled across the eastern US in search of good training rides in between our races in St. Louis, MO and Wilmington, DE. With Carlos joining the stage racing squad for the Tour of California, I’ve had the opportunity to take leadership in the finale so although I structured my year’s training for June, I’ve had mid-May on my mind for many months.

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Tour de Grove 2012: Day 1

The word of the day: crashes, or should I say flashes of horizontally spinning bodies and fractured bikes. After picking himself up from a large accident on corner 3 with 6 laps remaining, Quinn watch one rider try to untangle himself who had placed one leg in between the triangle of his bike and the other wrapped up inside the hook of his handlebar.....
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Global Sports Sandy Springs 2012

2012 USA CRITS Speedweek is over and my Team Exergy teammates and I couldn’t be happier. We showed strongly every day despite changes in temperature, course type and competition to win the overall Omnium, lap leader and U25 competitions, with a close 2^nd place finish to Mountain Khaki’s in the Team Omnium. The last three days of Speedweek were also ranked as NCC events (National Criterium Calendar), increasing the purse and allowing the Division 2 United Healthcare riders to compete. Despite their strong legs after a successful campaign at the Tour of Turkey, Team Exergy was able to hold on with Carlos besting the UHC riders in the sprint finale of two of the three finale stages.

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Electric City Criterium 2012

I think the hardest part of the end of Speedweek is not the transfers or the fatigue of the week’s racing but the change in start times for the final two stages. Our body clocks are pretty set for peak performance between 7-10pm, so starting the race at our usual 3pm nap time makes for a difficult transition.

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Spartanburg Classic 2012

MUSIC

I call Spartanburg the circus. Why? Well first off the entire downtown is closed off with live bands, bouncy castles, a farmer’s market and an entire block of food karts. The total footprint of the event is at least 10 square blocks. Secondly, it was at last year’s edition that I stopped referring to these twilight criterium races as “races”; they were more like “shows”. This is all about entertainment and sometimes I feel a bit like an animal on display but hell, when the spotlight is on you and the announcer is screaming your name, it’s a good feeling and makes the pain the legs melt away...well at least a little.

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Downtown Walterboro 2012

Walterboro, South Carolina. It is day four of USA Crit Speedweek and we haven’t won yet. But we have done everything else: leadout trains, stacked late race moves, won mid-race points primes, controlled the race early, taken the lap leader’s jersey, taken the week’s overall jersey, placed three riders in the top-ten earning pre-race call ups and garnered great praise from the race commentator. But we aren’t here for praise or to do a pretty leadout until a ½ lap to go. We are here to win races and tonight that is exactly what we did.

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