Preferred Care Elite Cycling

2007:

The season finished up with our young riders making their presence know and making great advances. Mike Mathis earned 55 points of the required 30 for his upgrade to cat 1! Jeff Zygo has a good start on his cat 2 upgrade and Ryan Nye completed his cat 2 upgrade in September. Watch these guys in coming seasons!

Also we added a new team member for 2008 - Jake Castor. Jake is a great fit in our team and is hungry for victories. He is also one of the most naturally talented athletes this area has seen!

Spain Trip - from Mathis

Hello everyone who is reading

I had spring break from the University at Buffalo from the 10^th to the 19^th of March which I had planned to go to Barcelona Spain. I would be traveling with Owen Wood and Aron Dinoto, and meeting Rob Wing in Spain. So the big day came and I was off to the airport with my bike case and luggage. I got to the airport at just about the exact time Aron was getting there. We waited in line with people asking the usual bike traveling questions. They seem to be very amused that you are traveling with a bike. So we were waiting for our first flight to Philly and the departure time was getting close and I was getting nervous because I didn’t hear any announcement so I made everyone go up and ask an attendant. It turns out they were done boarding and we didn’t hear them, I was just glad we didn’t miss the flight. Once we got to Philly everything went smoothly we got on the plane and took some sleeping pills which didn’t really help. I was just drowsy the whole time in that zone of nodding off just to wake up a minute later, very annoying. We arrived in Spain two hours before Rob, luckily our bikes didn’t arrive but other flights were due in before Rob arrived. So the bikes didn’t show and either did Rob, he was in a different terminal but we figured it out after a while. The only benefit to this is we could take a regular taxi to the apartment and save 60 euro and they would deliver our bikes tomorrow morning. Our first day on the bike wasn’t that bad 3 hours at an easy pace and we found a few climbs but none really went over the other side of the mountain. We decided that night we were going to ride to Girona the next day (120miles of riding). The only problem was Owen forgot to pack his pedals so I woke up early with him to go to a bike shop and get some new ones. So after 2 hours of walking we were ready to ride. It took about 7 hours and we were all delusional afterwards. When we weren’t eating or sleeping we were probably playing PSP or watching German MTV, that’s right German. Apparently they mainly rent our apartment to Germans so they have a satellite that gets only German programs. The next day we were going to take it a little easier so we were out the door. “so you got the keys?” no you do….crap we were officially locked out of our apartment with no phone, we don’t really speak Spanish and no one speaks English. After swearing at each other we calmed down and found an internet café and looked up the phone number to office of Home Advice Spain (the company which owns the apartment). We got the key and everything was fine for the rest of the day. The next two days were just over 5 hours with some really cool climbs and we either saw a Saunier Duval rider or some one who had the full kit (everything) and a team issue bike, which is totally possible. Friday we just road for 3 hours and road to the top of this mountain where there was this amusement park and I got some good pictures of the city from the top of the mountain. Food is a huge part of my trips because I am kind of picky but it wasn’t that bad. We ate what is called paella which is pronounced pie yay ya it was pretty good, It is a yellow rice dish that is served with meat and vegetables, I got chicken of course but you could get deer or what ever other crazy meat they had. I mainly only eat chicken, not a big fan of red meat so I didn’t eat any kangaroo like Aron. I did have duck for the first time and it was pretty good but there is an insane amount of fat on it. Owen at every bit of it even all the fat, yuck. The coffee was good and I enjoyed it every morning before out rides, at Jamie’s which was right around the corner from our apartment.

Also advice to anyone who travels to Spain or even any where in Europe bring some Euro with you, because Aron, Rob and Owen all planned to use their debit cards in ATM machine but their banks consider Spain and threat or a dangerous place or something and wouldn’t allow them to take cash out. They could however charge things but it is nice to have some cash.

Ascension Church 05 Crit:

The Master35 race went like clockwork for Jim and me. Nobody would let anything get up the road - so after We took 3 out of 5 primes we just waited for the end. After a 6 lap to go prime, Jim covered a few of the attacks and we took out the finish - albeit it was a little too close after some opportunists created a 30 meters gap on us coming into the final 300 meters. But, I was able to hit the jets though and with a 39.3 mph top speed, took the win.

The P1-3 was a disaster. First – Paul Martin just shellacked everyone. He went and I missed getting his wheel - you can't miss him cause you won't catch him. So I am burying myself John Roden (Shikluna) get’s on my wheel. I am 3 seconds behind Martin and figure Roden can take a pull and we’ll get one – heck I already towed him for a whole straight. But no – he pulls through with nothing and we loose more time. Ben (Shikluna)comes up and we hold steady but Roden keeps slowing us down. Then Dechau (Preferred Care) bridges but is too dead to help. Then Adam (Shikluna) comes up – but Paul is long gone. We are half a lap up on the field and Paul is lapping the field. We all lap the filed but Paul has gone again and soon he laps us and the field twice. We leave the field again and are racing for 2^nd now. Then…. The officials caused the race to have a black eye for sure. The chief official shows me his video and I kid you not that the cards were changed like a half second before we hit the line – so we all saw 2 to go during the race– and then the bell rang as we passed the wheel pit 30 meters after the line. So – ok, “technically” the cards were flipped “before we hit the line”, but since we were going 30 mph we would have had to be looking right at the cards as we were on the line, to see it – which would entail looking directly to our right and not forward at all. They had decided that Paul Martin was “close enough” to lapping us – even though he hadn’t made contact and was admittedly, by the officials, 2 seconds back – so they proceed to knock us down a lap from 2 to go to one to go but not until we had passed the line. So none of us racing knows if we are truly on the last lap or not. We all agreed to not sprint that lap since we didn’t know and we would just act as if it was 2 to go. Nobody dissented – well until later....

The official is to blame – but people also went back on their word. I feel really cheated since everyone agreed that we weren’t sprinting and then some guys jump with 50-75 meters to go anyway. I had to jump to go with them at least at that point (since we were thinking it should be one to go and I have to go with the attack - and then if, like what happened, that the official actually placed it now, then I was more screwed– but we were going 23 mph and sitting up coming in. If those guys really thought it was fair to do the placings on that lap they shouldn’t have sprinted the second time, they agreed until it meant it was in their favor to stand on the podium and take more money. We might have salvaged a clean sprint if they hadn’t jumped and we continued to ride through. I guess it means more to some people to be local heroes and take another $20 than stick by your word. So me and Jason Valenti (from Ontario) get totally screwed since we weren’t sprinting and got jumped 50 meters from the line. When we lined up the sprint that everyone had agreed to – I won by like a bike length and Jason Valenti got 3^rd. Official results though gave it to the messed up finish – so I get 4^th and he gets 6^th. Just stupid and most of all I have diminished respect for anyone that goes against what we all agreed to. Personally – I want no prize money from that race – and that Canadian should feel cheated too since he also didn’t sprint the “correct” lap but the agreed to lap – so he ended up like 5^th or 6th, but was 3^rd on the one we agreed to. On a good note for upcoming races – I hit 40.3 in the final sprint and took the sprint for 2nd - when everyone was actually going for it.

2005 Masters Nationals

Report 1: By Todd Scheske, Preferred Care

OK, so the Masters Nationals has come around a little early this year –
June and you would think it should still be warm though. Well – all I
can say is that I’m glad I planned for cool weather and brought long
sleeve jerseys and leg warmers and vest – cause it is like 50 degrees
here. I know you all back in NY are thinking, “that sounds nice”, but
after getting acclimated to the 90s recently, it come as a shock. Then
add to it we had rain during the RR yesterday – that was cold enough to
take my breathe, constrict my chest and deaden my legs. And that after
just trying to get out here!

It all started with a packing my bike AFTER the Twilight Crit and then
grabbing a nice 2.5 hours of sleep. No problem though – I’ll was
supposed to get out here at 12:30 local time. Then Dwight calls me at
6:30 and tells me that our flight is canceled and we are flying from
Rochester an hour late – that mean we miss our connection in Chicago.
We opt to salvage by going standby for a 3:15 flight since we will be
stuck in Chicago anyway and the next flight leaves at 7 pm – putting us
in Salt Lake at 10:30 pm LOCAL TIME. With 2.5 hours of sleep on the
heals of the blistering Twilight Pro-am that is just not gonna work.
So anyway… we get to Chicago and head to customer service to secure the
standby – the agent, Sabrina Fairchild (sounds famous anyway) hooks us
up with priority status and low and behold we actually ge the standby
flight. I’m so trashed that I fall asleep on the snack tray once the
wheels go up and I don’t move for 3 hours. Of course I wake up not
able to move my arms – but hey we are only 25 minutes from landing –
now that is one way to speed up a flight! So after the usual jerking
around with ground transport and hauling 157 pounds of gear around the
airport, Dwight and I part company with Yvette (who is staying with
Kerry is SLC, while we head out to Park City).

At PC – Dwight wrestles with his bike at every turn – no it’s a rare
thing that I have more patience than anyone – but we get his bikes
togheter.

Monday: Dwight has decided he wanted to TT so we are off to Antelope
Island. We leave earlier than we really need to but better to be
relaxed. Ok – scrap the relaxed – a major traiffc accident has us
going 12 mph for 40 minutes – so much for our time buffer. Dwight is
all calm though despite my 0 to 80 to 0 mph driving. We blow through
the traffic barricades at the venue and drive right up the start/finish
and registration. D-man grabs his number and got hs machine operational
in about 87 seconds. Plenty of time – still has a 20 min. warm-up.

Yvette has completed her TT – so rocked it! Grabbing a 4th place! Nice
work. Kerry rode a great time as well and was 2nd – giving in only to
the masters world champion by 30 seconds. Dwight comes in and has
tales of “Discovery Channel” sized bugs that almost took him off his
bike and mumbling about how dry and hot it was out there – oh and
windy! He turned a good time – and was in the thick of things but with
tight times and in an age group that sees a LOT of TT geeks, he only
grabs 37th place. In fact if he could have been in the 30s groups he
would have been top 20.

Tuesday: Road race for me. I’m starting to get back on track after
lack of sleep etc so I think I feel ok. I have my pancakes for my
usual pre-road race breakfast and head to the start. The clouds are
starting to loom overhead and it is about 70 out and as we roll out and
the first attack goes right away. I’m hanging in the back with old
friends (Chris Humbert and Chris Garlapow) and we spend the first 15
minutes chatting and are interrupted by the 3.5 mile climb that for
some reason we end up going harder and harder the whole way up – by the
top we are moving and I’m starting to feel it a bit. Add to it – it
starts raiing and the wind is blowing like 30 mph – great… oh yeah and
the temps drop off some too. Garlapow rolls up after the decent and
asks me if I though that was hard – I say “yeah….dude who was doing
that anyway” – turns out the TT dude that won on Monday – figures. The
rest of the race is pretty stupid – we end going easy for a bit and
three guys get away, but they can never get more than 1:30 at the
biggest gap – and spend most of the race at 1 minute or less. With 30
miles to go I figure I cannot wait for the final climbing since there
are too many climbers in here just waiting to rip me apart up the last
two climbs. I try to attack multiple times but I cannot snap the
elastic and there are only a few counter attacks so the pack welders
are in force and keep it together. This goes on for a while and I have
finally just waited a while again. I try again in the canyon area but
it keeps coming together – this is such a bummer. The break is coming
back now though and are down to 30-40 seconds. A group of about 6
bridges but the whole thing in tenuous with two 3 mile climbs ahead.

As we rev it up into the first long step climb it starts to rain again
and the temps hover in the upper 50s to maybe on a stretch low 60s.
The rain is so cold as we start climbing. I climb very comfortable and
start thinking how I can make a move to win this thing. We rip down the
decent at 64 mph and the rain is freezing. This is a long decent too of
about 1.5 to 2 miles. As we start up the next climb, I think that it is
time to make something happen – so I shoot to the front on the upwind
side and start thinking that maybe I could split the group. Well,
reality of the cold rain, interrupted sleep pattern etc, caught up with
me and I started to just blow up – more like someone just pulled the
plug on my legs – heart rate wasn’t high but the legs just wouldn’t
come around. So I lost contact and just mentally bagged it since I
knew the jersey that I wanted was not going to happen. I rolled in
with a chase group of sorts about 3 minutes back – just tempo-ing in.

So now it’s just hang out and get some rides in. Then Saturday maybe
the crit can yield a better result.

Report 2 : By Todd Scheske, Preferred Care

Wednesday:
I went with Chris Garlapow to Chris and Laurie Humbert’s for some dinner
after a nice ride outa Salt Lake City. The popular route out there is
this climb that literally took an hour plus and we were not going slow.
An absolutely a beautiful ride though and great to catch up with old
friends.

Thursday:
So since the road race we got in some nice training rides – well nice if
you like never going on any stretch of road without double trailers and
never ending hills. None the less we took in about 3.5 hours and it
was nice just to chill out for a day or so. During the ride Dwight was
carrying all our spare tires etc, his lipstick…er I mean his chapstick,
that he thought he lost. But all was well after he found it later – so
what did he loose (maybe it was his nail polish)? After the ride we
spent about 2.5 hours in the pool and hot tub. That’ll make your legs
turn to rubber. No worries – I only gotta catch up on my TV watching
tomorrow.

Friday:
A short morning training ride – well it was short since we only did the
5 mile climb from our condo to the top of the ski resort. Then we
cruised back and went to watch the women (Yvette and Kerry) race the
“crit”. They were all wierded out with the downhill corner but the
worse part about the course is that if you get on the wrong side of an
attack after that corner you have zero recovery on this course. It is
literally in the side of this hill near the ski lodge. Well, they had
self fulfilling prophesies and Kerry managed to tough it out for 8th
since so many just dropped out. Yvette had some troubles and chased
hard but like I said, there is no recovery and she finally just blew up
– despite being what is likely the strongest woman in her field.

So after the racing festivities we went to the Quiznos for a sub for
lunch. Dwight wanted to grab a mesquite chicken sub without bacon but
the dude makin ‘em didn’t speak much English – well until Dwight got
his sub WITH bacon and then the dude argues and says “you didn’t say no
bacon!”. It was pretty classic…..

Saturday:
Dwight was supposed to be the second of u s to ride today but last night
he began feeling sick. Today he was really light headed and decided to
ride with Taylor during Taylor’s warmup to see if he could work it
through. Well, not to be – he returned to the condo where I was hole
dup trying to get ready for my crit. It is a bummer to feel poorly
when you waited around to race, but there isn’t always anything you can
do.

Shortly, Taylor came back with stars in his eyes. I ask him how it went
– he just starts stuttering and says something (with slight southern
accent mixed with Rochester accent) like, “wow, that was …. Really,
wow…. Hard. I was first thought he first turn and just kept sliding
back and could never recover”. So now between Dwight and Taylor – I’m
wondering if every time I move if I’m not getting light headed and then
if I’ll be able to deliver out this stupid up/down “crit” course. My
race has the biggest group at about 70.

Ok – so after these guys start making me nervous by getting ready to go
watch my crit 90 minutes before it starts. I just let them take off
and then slowly get ready. Chris Garlapow and I warm up together up
the scenic 5 mile climb and I ‘m ready to go. Since I reg’d early I
get called to the line pretty near the front – that’ll be helpful.

We finally take off and as predicted, it is a race to the first downhill
turn. Chris and I manage to be pretty much in the top ten for the
opening salvos. It is just crazy though and we are just drilling it.
Guys are streaming off the back and the carnage spread over the course.
After about 15 minutes of this, the field is cut to half and now and
there are some groups just struggling to continue. I start feeling
recovered a bit now though and I’m happy that Chris and I are up here.
We did what we said as the race is going as we thought. Some dude is
like some kinda kamikazee every lap coming into the turn – Dude – you
suck, obviously you are getting dropped every lap and now you gotta
risk everyone by slamming up the inside at 37 mph. What ever – he’ll
hopefully get dropped for good soon. Anyway, Four guys are off the
front by about 30 seconds and two chasers at about 15 seconds. No
worries though – it is early and the wind is high at 20+ mph. Then
disaster strikes – some idiot “road rash seeker” dumps it in the
greater than 90 turn that is off camber – at the bottom of the hill. I
am seriously impeded but don’t go down and the neutral support is right
there so I know there will be no free lap for me. So now I gotta
sprint up the hill and it takes the whole of 300 meters of 53x19
climbing as hard as I can to catch back on. I’m the last one to latch
on. The effort is huge though and naturally they are now chasing two
guys that are just ahead. They are dialed on too – they are shredding
guys that are at the back of the group I just caught. That’s great – I
blow a gasket to get back on after “road rash seeker” gaps me off and
NOW we gotta chase hard – hard enough to shred guys while I’m going
faster to get on. Thanks. So I stick anyway, and hope I can get
recovered, I’m breathing so hard that I swear my stomach has touched
my top tube – but there is no recovery. 3 laps (I think) of this and I
just finally blow up. The struggling groups come by – one of which
Chris is in (he never made it across after the crash). I just pull out
– disgusted with such a stupid course. Chris is mad and takes it out on
the pedals for another 40 minutes. There are about 15 finishers – if
that – and Chris would be 15th just because he lept riding.

So that’s that. We got out for Pizza and commiserate. At rip to
Starbuck for a coffee after packing bike and now onto other races for
summer 2005. No more altitude or stupid hillside crits for me.

****