Life on the road

As an admissions recruiter and a bike racer I spend a LOT of time on the road.  Essentially every weekend from March- November can be packed full of races from road to cross, the fall is constant travel in new cities for work, and the spring and summer brings random work trips as well.  It is a random, obscure, non-stop, crazy schedule.

Of course being on the road I cannot be far from my bike(s) and they come with me wherever I go staring at me from the back seat, heckling me wondering why I don't pay them more attention.  Being on the road isn't the 9-5 job leaving you time before or after work to ride, typically I am up at 6am and my days finishes around 9pm.  Being creative with your time management and efficient with your training time is key.

If you have a 2 hour window in the middle of the day that means a quick parking lot change and an hour of tempo before another parking lot change and back to work.  I was complaining about traffic on the ride from Lake Placid to Princeton, NJ to my good friend Allan Rego, his advice "pull over, get the bike out, ride for an hour and let the traffic pass."  Rego gets it, ride when you can.

Amazing things can happen when you are always ready for a ride, crossing paths with old friends, getting tours of Bicycling Magazines HQ, or exploring some of the dirt roads of eastern PA.  I could be missing out on the sock/dirt line from pave roads or amazing views.  Tomorrow will be an early morning meeting, morning ride, and meetings till 9pm.  Another day of riding when you can and doing what you want with what you have.

The week by the numbers:
1600 Miles in the car
5 major cities
4 rides
1 bike shop happy hour
1 wedding

2011 Jersey Presentation

The yellow jersey is known to be the leaders jersey, depending on the race, and for that I'll make it our most victorious jersey. For a win at binghamton and becoming the NYS Men's cat 3 Crit Champ, Bruce Beauharnios is awarded the yellow jersey


The Green Jersey represents the points leader in the Tour De France, for us it represents most top ten finishes for the season. For this Kyle Gagnier is awarded the green jersey.


The Polka-dotted jersey, also known at the climbers jersey. Well i am going to make it the diverse riders jersey, which will be awarded to Ashton Momont. For not only competing on the road for a majority of the season, but competed competitively on the dirt as well. This included racing the newly organized Wilmington Race, which was a Leadville qualifying race.




The White jersey is known to be the best young rider in a peloton. I am not going to change it's meaning on bit and say Phil Neisser get the White jersey. Phil, in his first year, remained young at heart and never lost a smile throughout any race, no matter what devil's kitchen he was playing in.



The red jersey, known to be the leader of the vaulta, but the color can also be used for most aggressive rider throughout a stage. That's what i am going to make it, most aggressive. For his attacks at Syracuse, Concord, and GMSR Jeff Krywanczyk is awarded this jersey.



Pink Jersey - leader of the Giro. but we already have a leaders jersey. Therefore I will make the pink jersey the most improved rider. This I have to say is a tie between Mike Klein and Eric G. Mike showed tremendous dedication to racing this year and perhaps came into the best shape of his life. while Eric also showed the same dedication, making a huge leap in his racing career.

Season recap … for me (jeff k)

No, not everyone is done, just me. I wish I could race year round, but at times we have to step back and look at what is best. Right now it’s the best decision financially, I mean I need money to race next year. But not all WOE-ians are done, I believe Kyle has another race left in him and I just found out Phil is egger to get one more in.

In my point of view the 2011 season was a huge disappointment, for me. In the winter months I put in countless hours to prepare for the season, only to get nothing in return. I constantly struggled with my bike and fought off an injury for a majority of the season, starting at the 3^rd Johnny Cake race in late March. It was not until the Concord Crit and GMSR that I felt I was coming around. Even then in GMSR I was involved in three crashes, two of which banged my up a little, but I could keep on riding.

My goal for this year was to become a Cat 3., well unless they count coming in 5^th out of the cat 4s in the men’s ¾ Saranac Lake Downtown Crit, I didn’t even get one Top ten. Meaning next year I have so much more work to do, to recover from this disaster of a season. As most of you and my teammates know, I never quite. What does this mean….this winter season is going to be hell for me, but there will be logic to my insanity.

Although there were many negatives, there were many positives throughout the season. Overall I believe I became a smarter racer and had a lot of fun. Perhaps the most fun was being a domestique for Kyle at GMSR. He finished 5^th overall, so I’m just going to toot my own horn and say that was all me J .

Now it is time to get to the nitty gritty work of building the team for 2012. Lots of paper work to so and sponsors to find. So if you are interested in helping us out, PLEASE let us know. But even with all the paper work there is still time to play, aka building my new bike.

Cheers everyone,

See you in 2012