Flanders Flogging, DH40 on Horizon…

BY KENNETH LUNDGREN

Hey Gang,

So things have been busy over here… Sean Pasieka of Propeller Racing is turning out to be a pretty good time trialist!

Marc Cooper of the Road Dawgs just climbed 5 TDF climbs in 4 days, finishing on the Madeleine.

Kirt Mills of Team MTBNJ.com has won 2 MTB races since we started up!

Pete Warner of WWVC just recently took 4th in another epic road race down south…

Roy Vaccaro of Jimenez Velo Sport is in a bloody dogfight with Mark Curran of Pure Energy Racing.

David Blume of Edgemont Capital recently took 2nd in the epic La Marmotte ride over in France.

Shawn Erickson of the Tenafly Bike Workshop earned 7th in a VERY hard Pawling Mountain Road Race, a race I got heaps and heaps of e-mails about, just death out there all over that course…

I have two athletes who crashed heavily at peak events in June, Bladdy Coronel of Westwood Velo-Trade Manage Racing and Grayson Church The Bike Rack Cycling Team — both are now making their first steps back towards competition…

Mike Burke of Pro Pedals Cycling Team just had a breakthrough performance at the Ronde von Mullica…

Laura Winberry of Team Campmor is out in Bend, OR, living the dream of a professional athlete, and she nearly PODIUMED in a huge pro race out in Downieville, CA… Full race report to come…

Robert Donovan of Propeller Racing just finished the Anchor Ride with the form of his life; his blog of the event can be found at http://gopropeller.com/racing/?p=520.

Max Nerges of Jimenez Velo Sport went out to MTB Nationals in Colorado… only to come down with Acute Altitude Sickness, no joke, a seriousness complication… So his pursuit for a National Championship jersey will have to wait for another year!

Much much more coming in the summer newsletter, just hammering out these results out as they come to me…

As for myself, I’ve lost a bit of snap since States. I wasn’t really planning on competing all year, but the TT Cup is so close, I’ve decided to finish the series, do some races in between. I’ve actually started doing steady endurance work for the first time all year with hopes of performing well at the Darkhorse 40 MTB race on August 1st…

But while training, especially during the intervals we need to hit just right in order to compete at a top level, I’m just not as hungry, not as focused, not as driven. Part of it is I’m just a little tired. Part of it is I really don’t have the aerobic conditioning to be at good from from April to August, just don’t have that base with my break from riding and from the accident. And part of it my knee, just want to rest it a bit…

I’ve been riding regularly, am loving these longer Tempo and PowerCrank rides, but I will admit I’ve been blowing off some workouts to head into the woods! Shhh… But I love mountain biking, am slowly getting better… Lewis Morris was the most fun I’ve had on a bike in a long time, and I plan to do a few more races in the H2H series. But the Darkhorse 40 has become a goal, and I know prepping for it will slow me down in the TT Cup Series but whatever — I want to finish the year having fun. Freifelder is a beast, so hats off to him if he wins…

Dave and I have been going back and forth all year. At Flanders this past Saturday (which is a 10+ mile hilly TT on our road bikes), we both showed we’re not getting any faster as we took 4th and 5th, respectively, our strong starts to the year sapping us now. Troy Kimball of WV-TMC had a great performance, taking 2nd about 25 seconds in front of me. My teammate Raffy who is one of the fastest road racers around took 3rd, and Dave and I were 11 seconds apart. There’s this vicious climb early on, and I just haven’t been climbing this year… So I hit this 4-minute climb at full gas, felt slow, turned around, and sure enough there’s Freifelder, just breathing down my neck. Damnit!!!! 🙂 But I kept the hammer down for the next 20 minutes and kept the gap open.

But overall, I was happy with the time. It was VERY hot. I had a cotton shirt on, soaked it with cold water, and then soaked my head and shoulder with cold water a few minutes beforehand… Yup, my abhorrance of the heat is that bad! I still rode well, but there were lotsa strong dudes there, and we had FAST times. Flanders was an event I knew I wasn’t going to excel at, so I was happy to get that behind me! As an experienced rider, you can’t expect to be great at every event you enter, and life is much easier once you make this realization and see the results! Hopefully I can get back on the podium again next week at Kingwood!

I also did the Bulldog Rump MTB race at Kittatinny on Sunday and didn’t do so great! I just couldn’t ride that terrain fast. VERY technical in the first third, wet rocks, jagged rocks, very rocky descents, tight turns. I’m still green at this, was able to eventually adapt at Lewis Morris, but this course was a different animal, had to clip out far too many times, just did not want to crash with bigger events up ahead. Was dead last on first lap, lol… Part of it too is I’m there to have fun, so if I hear guys rumble up from behind, I immediately pull over, let ’em pass… I ended up 14th, not bad not great.

This was pretty much the story of the day: at the Start/Finish, which is in a field that goes uphill into the woods, I came around HARD. Ben Williams, the Expert racer from Clockwork Construction Racing who is leading both the H2H and NY Series, said to me, “Kenny, I’ve never seen anyone come through here as fast as you. And you were ten minutes behind the leaders.”

Well, I’m hoping that ain’t the case at Darkhorse. I’ve been on the MTB once or twice a week, am reconning the Darkhorse 40 course this Sunday with a few athletes. One of my athletes told me I will be able to hammer 75% of the course with a few technical climbs and descents. It’s a huge field, and I’m hoping to start near the front, ride steady, and hopefully get stronger as some others begin to weaken… We shall see!!!

Also, I will be doing the Ramapo Rally with a bunch of Elite Endurance athletes and plenty of other friends. If you want to come out and ride with us, e-mail me at Coach@EliteEndurance.com! The Ramapo Rally (August 15th, 2010 at Campgaw Mtn) is pretty much the best organized group ride around, and we’ll either be doing the 100-mile or the 125-mile loop… Come on out: guaranteed great time had by all!!!

Thanks for reading.

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Coach's Diary | Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 | | |