A Trip to Dunkin Donuts

A Dunkin Donuts recently opened close to my house and I have been wanting to make a store stop during one of my rides for a while. Today I finally got the opportunity. Out for an easy spin I decided to stop in and grab a small coffee and a sprinkled donut. I must say the donut was delicious and Dunkin Donnuts has some great coffee. The caffeine made it very easy for me to get home. On the way home I passed 2 geese and their chicks. I stopped to take a picture and they got very irate. They started grunting and squawking and flapping their wings. I have never seen such a thing in my life. Tomorrow I head to Spartanburg to tackle another Speedweek Crit. Hopefully I have a good race. Also the semester is coming to end which means a ton of studying for me to do. Exams are next week for me then its time for summer vacation!

Very Delicious

You cant tell it here but they are very protective.

Ring of Fire

So tonight was the start of the Ring of Fire. Its a great training race that happens every other Wednesday until about September. The "A" race which consists of Cat 1,2,3s is 60 laps. Every 5 laps is a sprint lap and points are awarded to the top 4 places during the sprint. The object of the race is to end up with the most points. Tonight Josh, David, and I would be tackling the Ring of Fire while some of the team would being doing the Speed Week crit down in Walterboro SC. I didn't feel that great but I did contribute to bringing some moves back and Josh did a great job of protecting David. David did his part and ended up getting 2nd. Good job Forkner.

Race Update

Since my last update I have been doing a lot of racing. I have had some good and some bad results and also have learned about racing with the big boys. I will list my results so far this year. The team is also doing great! Steve Sperry is the Masters 45+ SC state champion and Tyler Hawes is the Pro 1/2 SC state champion! Great job to you guys. Check out the team website Here.

5th Greenville Spring Series Fork Shoals
3rd, Winter's End Criteriums, Columbia, SC
6th, Winter's End Criteriums, Columbia, SC
8th, SC State Crit Championships - Charleston, SC
4th, Athens Twilight Pro am, Athens, Ga

Athens Twilight Finish

Hopefully I can get a win up there soon and get my cat 1 upgrade! The next month is going to be a ton of racing for me. I leave next week for Joe Martin; I have been training for that race all year so hopefully I can get something good out of it.

May 1st- Spartanburg Criterium (Speedweek)
May 2nd- Sunny King Criterium
May 3rd- Sandy Springs Criterium (Speedweek)
May 7th-10th - Joe Martin Stage Race
May 29th, 30th, 31st - Tulsa Tough
June 16-20 - tour of Ohio

Thats all for now,
Andre

Ready to race!

So the first race for me of the 2009 season will be on Saturday. It will be the Greenville Spring Series. This weekend the races will be at the Donaldson Center. I am excited to see how the team works together and to test out my fitness from the winter. I will post about the race after the weekend. I have also had my new bike for 2 weeks now and I must say it is awesome! I love it. I am going down to Greenville tomorrow to pick up an ibike. Pretty excited about that. On other notes school is going good; lots of work to do but not having a job makes it easy to handle. All I really do is go to school and work. Thats all for now

-Andre

Team Camp

So this past weekend was team camp. I rode down on Friday afternoon with David Forkner, and Josh Whitmore. We met the team at the Donaldson Center and went on a 2 hour team ride followed by dinner. On Saturday the team did the UWBL, which was 104 miles. There was a bad accident in the first 10 miles and it involved one of my teammates and also my coach Jim Cunningham. He ended up with a concussion and the doctor said no riding outside for 90 days. Get better soon Jim! After the ride on Saturday we met at Carolina Triathlon to have dinner and have sponsors talk to us. Sunday we had a delicious brunch at my teammate Paul Mills and his wife Carolines house. That was one awesome brunch. That was followed by a 2 hour team ride. I am really looking forward to this year and being part of such a great team and great teammates. We also got our team helmets, socks, and water bottles this weekend. Hopefully we will have our kits for the spring training series. The teams website is up, and you can visit it at www.teamglobalbike.org. It is still under construction but the sponsors and such are on there. My winter training is going great and I will be at the Greenville spring series to test out my form.

Josh driving the sag vehicle. Knee surgery had him out.

Making the paper

So today I went on a ride in the frigid cold. I was to do 3x20 min zone 3-4 intervals. I did them on Bearwallow as I usually do. On one of my cool downs I stopped and talked to a guy taking pictures. It turned out he was from the Hendersonville Times News. He sent me the pictures and he also posted a story on the internet.

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090203/NEWS/902030299/1151?Title=Snow_begins_to_fall_in_Hendersonville

Adam took this photo of me.

Cool video about Athens Twilight crit

Nice ride

I went on a ride with my good friend Adam Penny today. He is a really strong cat 3. Hopefully he will be a 2 this year. It snowed yesterday and the temperature did not get above 27 yesterday. Today there was finally a warm up of the weather. Thats if you consider 35 warming up. haha. Adam was doing form sprints today and I was just taking it easy, this is a recovery week for me. I brought my camera so here are some pics from the ride.

No I was not trying to get a picture of his butt, he is starting his sprint

Yeah it was cold



Catching up to Adam after a sprint

Epic mountain bike ride

With the temperatures being in the high 20's and the low 30's myself, Adam Penny, Josh Whitmore, and David Forkner decided to do a mountain bike ride instead of riding on the road. We went riding in Dupont State Forest. This was the second time I had been there so I did not know any of the trails, which made it exciting for me since I usually ride in Pisgah. When we departed the temperature was 27. The first hour was spent climbing with some good tempo and a little bit of downhill. We climbed slick rock which is a sweet climb on a big rock. Josh flatted at the top, so the rest of us decided to keep riding to keep warm. This resulted in David getting a flat. After they got there flats fixed we continued on only to come to a river crossing. This is where the ride turned epic. I figured since it was so cold outside we would turn around and find another way across. Nope not the case. Time to take of the shoe covers, shoes, and socks off and cross the river! The water was fridgid. Probably 34 degress, there was ice along the bank. The crossing was made even crazier by the bottom of it being a flat rock surface that was super slick and the current was swift. Halfway across I felt myself sliding down the river. That was pretty scary because I did not want to fall and get wet. My feet were so cold after crossing I could not even feel them. They would stay that way for the next 3.5 hours. I wont bore you with the rest of the ride except we climb some insane climb, so steep indeed we had to push the bike up the top section. With a couple miles to go after the climb, David got another flat. Our ride time for the day was 5 hours. 6,500 feet of climbing and 32 miles. Im thinking we did a little extra miles than that but im not sure. My foot is still numb as I type this up. I will try and get some pictures of the ride loaded when I recieve them from Adam.

Slick Rock
there was ton of ice on this rock. I did not take this picture though. Got it from google images just to show what it looks like.

Crazy climb

Yesterday I went on a ride with my good friend Adam Penny. Toward the end of the ride we saw an interesting hill, little did we know this climb would gain 650 feet in under a mile!

More to come later

I will post about Christmas in a couple of days. In the meantime here is something to keep you entertained.

This past weekend

So this past weekend was pretty good. I got out of school for Christmas break on Thursday morning, got a good ride in on Friday and the real excitement started on Saturday. On Saturday I met two of my teammates and we rode down to Greenville SC to do the Sulivan charity ride. The charity ride was in place of the Winter bike league. The ride was 63 miles and included Craig Lewis and George Hincapie. After the ride about 4 of my new teammates and I went out for another 20 miles which included a climb over Paris Mountain. Sunday included a one hour recovery ride and another dinner at my girlfriends grandparents house. I am headed for Shreveport Louisiana on Thursday to spend a week with my mom, stepdad, brother, and my grandpa for Christmas. Also next year I will be riding a Specialized Tarmac SL Pro. Thats all I have for now.

Front

Back

The bike I will be riding next year

New Team and having fun while riding

So I thought I would let you guys know that for 2009 I will be racing for Globalbike presented by Catoma outdoors. The team is made up of 10 cat 1,2 riders and is based out of Greenville, SC. I am very excited about next year and being part of a great program. You can check out what Globalbike is all about by going here. So be looking out for us all over the southeast and more in the 2009 racing season! I also went on a pretty cool ride today. I decided I would climb one of of my favorite mountains, Barewallow. The climb is 2.5 miles long and averages 7%. I took some pictures of todays ride and also some video climbing up the mountain. So here they are:

Wearing the jersey I won from Dilworth Crit








The start of the climb



The top of the climb.

UWBL

Yesterday was the first Upstate Winter Bike League. There were about 140 people riding in the A's. It was a fun day riding with the new team and meeting some new people. After the ride about 25 people went to Barleys for some pizza.  If you have not done the UWBL before I highly recomend it. Its a great way to get a good ride in and practice skills for bike racing. Starting in January the rides will be 90-100 miles and there will be attack zones. Points will be awarded from the placing in the attack zones. There will be a points leader vest and an overall leader vest. The rides are every Saturday and they start at 10a.m. at Carolina triathlon. Thats all I have for now but I leave you with this funny video. I will also be posting about my new team in the near future.

MARIO KART (REMI GAILLARD)
by nqtv

Off Season

Its been a while since I have updated this blog. I find it hard to sit down and come up with something entertaining to write about. I ended the season in October on a high note by getting 4th place in the Greenville Spring Series and took about 2 weeks off the bike. Lately I have been riding 3 times a week and running 1 or 2 times. Last night I went to The Orange Peel to see one of my faovrite bands Puddle of Mudd. It was amazing! It was the 3rd time I had seen them and it was by far the best show they have done. Sadly I forgot my camera and was unable to get any photos. Thats all I have to talk about now but keep checking back because I will be posting about the new team  I will be riding for next year in the coming weeks.

-Andre

One of my favorite songs from Puddle of Mudd

Carolina Cup

Yesterday I did the Carolina cup in Greensboro NC. I did the Juniors in the morning and the Pro 1/2 in the afernoon

Juniors: The first lap everyone was very ancy and guys were trying to get away. Every move was brought back and I just sat in and saved energy. Went the field went across the Start line for the start of the second lap they just sat up so I decided it would be my turn to out in an attack. I quickly had a gap and I got to work to stay away. I was joined by Alder Martz and Daniel Greene. We worked together pretty well with me doing most of the work. Alder tried to get away but I was on his wheel like glue. I was on the front for the whole last lap and at about 250 meters from the line a started my sprint and held off Alder and Danielle for first. It was a great race and I was confident going into the Pro 1/2.


Pro 1/2: My goal for this race was to sit in and try to get a top 20 because that was how deep the payout was. The start of the race was pretty chill with a break going away early. Eventually things started to heat up and the field got serious about catching the break. Guys were attacking like crazy and my legs were tired from the Junior race earlier in the day. I just barley missed the group of guys that went up the road and caught the break. Not for sure what place I got but I think it was at least top 25. I was happy considering it was only my 3rd pro race. Not many races left in the season, but here is what I have left.

September 13: Asheville Grand Prix
September 20: Dylan Mitchell Memorial Crit
October 11,12: Downtown Greenville Cycling Classic

National Crit

So today was the National Crit. There were 134 riders that started the race. We did 30 laps which was 50km. I felt really strong and was able to move around easily and even went to the front to help pull breaks back. I was getting really confident with 2 laps to go that I might be able to get a top 5 but I used a lot of energy bringing back the 6 guys that were up the rode. Once I brought the break back guys countered and I could not go with it. With 1 lap to go 6 guys were up the rode once again and the field pretty much gave up on chasing them. Coming around the final turn some guy slid out right in front of me which slowed me down a little but I still managed to get 23rd. I am pretty happy with that but bummed because I felt really strong and could not get a higher result. The road race is on Sunday so hopefully I will get a good result from that. I'm feeling really strong and I think I can get a top 5.

-Andre

Day one in Cali

So nothing really to exciting going on today. Dad and I went to Huntington Beach this morning to check out the surfers. That was pretty sweet. I put both my bikes together and sadly during transportation my fork on my TT bike got pretty gashed up. I went and rode the TT course and let me tell you it is one hard course. Im not really expecting to much from it. Im more focused on the Road Race and the Crit. I will keep yall posted. all for now

-Andre

Nationals

So the trip to California went smooth. There were no delays and the flight was not bumpy at all. My dad an I didn’t get to bed until late. Like 2 Eastern time! Ouch. I’m going to go out and ride the TT course today and get to know it the best that I can. I go off tomorrow at 1:30. Im not really expecting to much from the TT but who knows maybe I will put in a good ride. The qualifying Crit is Thursday morning at 7. The National Championship Crit is later in the afternoon at 3:30. I have nothing going on Friday and I will be going and seeing my aunt who lives an hour and a half away. Saturday I have a 50KM qualifying Road Race and Sunday is the 110KM race. I will keep yall updated as much as possible. All for now

-Andre

Update

Wow, I really need to update my blog. It has been like a month. I told myself I would not do that but it happend. So I am now a cat 2! WOO HOO! I am heading to Fitchburg next week for an awesome junior stage race. I hope to do pretty good. I have gotten in some good riding here lately. After fitchburg I am doing the French Broad then its off to California for Nationals. After Nationals I am doing the NC/SC state road race championship then I will take a little break and do the Downtown Greenville Cycling Classic. I know I am in for a world of hurting when I do my first cat 1/2 race. I will try to update more often now

-Andre