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2010 is here and
2009 is in the past
I could have never imagined that we
would have a year like we did at FinKraft in
2009.
One National Champion with Kevin
Hines in Cyclocross and two more clients on the
National podium; Troy Kimball 3rd in the National road race championships
in addition to his State Championship win in Cyclocross.
Ralf Warmuth 4th in the Cyclocross
Nationals in his age group. Ralf and Andreas Runggatscher
were also part of the winning Team Time Trail squad with our good
friends Steve Goldman and Glen Babikian at the NJ
State Championships.
One of our juniors, Cooper Ray, won
the NY State Road
race championship in Battenkill. Mark Pohndorf took home 2 NJ State Championships in addition
to his other numerous wins.
We have clients who had not won
much prior to this past season, but who had a breakthrough season in 2009.
Mike Beckerman won races, as did Adam Duncan , Zak
Abdullha for the FGX team. These wins were
among other really good results produced by this
FinKraft coached team. Christophe, Reggie,
Andrew, Tim, Clay, Chris, David and Patrick where all the team mates who
contributed to this success or had one on their own.
 
FinKraft athletes like Kevin, Troy, Mark, Andreas, Cooper, Jon Rehab,
Jim Vreeland, Jeremy Dawkins, Todd Peterson, Mike Allaire
and James Stevens, (he also upgraded and will ride on a new team this
year) all won or placed regularly in various road races, criteriums, time trials , mountain bike and cyclocross races . If you followed our clients on our
newsletters and updates you already know these facts.
 
It is not all about winning
though, we had numerous clients who achieved upgrades and very respectable
results, to mention a few; John Landino was
ranked # 1 by USA Cycling at the end of last year in the Cat 3’s. John
placed 2nd in the Green Mtn. Cat 3 Road stage and
in all the other 40-50 races he raced, John always placed in the top 5 or
top10.
We have Evan Cooper who also landed
a spot on a very prestigious east coast amateur team, Independent
Fabrication after becoming a Cat 2. Andreas and Mark are also Cat 2’s now.
Half of our Cat 4’s became Cat 3’s. You do not get upgraded without
results, so that speaks for itself. Cooper Ray got selected to the CRCA
Junior development team and Eli Mernit will
follow his footsteps this coming season.
 
Any improvement is a success in my
eyes. You do not have to win anything, if you see or feel like the hard
work you put in is paying off in some form, you have reached a goal. It
then builds more confidence and that leads to even greater things. Clients
like Eric Perkins, Bill Phend, Eric Carlson, Greg
Donovan, Phil Karavidas, Tom Toal,
Matt Murphy, Robert Hayes, Jocelyn Gertel, David Trumpf, Reggie Rash, Robert Piacine
and Anthony Diaz might not have won a race, but seeing how hard they work
and how dedicated they are, is a win in
itself.The reward is equally important to me if a
client makes progress. One day they might be on the top step of the podium
as well.
 
 
We have several new
clients who we will be hearing from for sure this coming season,
including a few runners to accommodate our running ladies Kim and
Bernadette. Tom Shebell who completed the NYC
Marathon right after signing up with FinKraft
last fall will for sure have a successful 2010 season in both cycling and
running.
 
I will never be a competitive
runner again, but it is such a pure sport and has always been very close to
my heart, since I basically grew up running. I still run since there is
some required in cyclocross and doing a few duathlons each year is always fun for me.
Christoffel Prinsloo who is a very
accomplished cyclist is also now presuming a running career and training
for a Marathon this spring. He is making
steady progress in the running department and it is a lot of fun to work
with.
Monica is another client in
training on a fitness level. She is training for her first Marathon, none other than the NYC Marathon in 2010.
She basically started from zero in running, but she has already made
significant improvements and is on a road to better health and fitness with
a goal in mind next November. She represents another side of FinKraft that is very important to me as well. My wife
went down the same road when I first met her, last year she ran a 3.50 Marathon and I hope to be able to continue with these
type of projects in the future to make a
difference for clients who enjoy our sports on a more recreational-fitness
level.
 
As you now see FinKraft
is not all about cycling. We have several tri-athletes as well with equally
great accomplishments this past season as our cyclists. Matt Scott (the
designer of the actual FinKraft Logo) won the
West Point Triathlon in his age group and had really good results in other
triathlons as well.
 
David Marcus was a newcomer to the
triathlon world this season, but he already had amazing results in his
first season as a tri-athlete. Peter Jameson took over an hour off his Iron
Man time this year. My assistant coach Kyle Wolfe coaches Evelyn McCabe and
she also made her mark on most triathlons in our area with top placings.
Kyle is another progress to FinKraft both in coaching both competitive as well as
fitness orientated athletes.
Kyle was hired as an assistant
coach in the spring and now has over 10 clients who already have placed,
won races, or just made significant fitness gains since the started out.
With Angelo and Erin Mascelli having great
success this fall in cyclocross just to mention a
few of his clients. Kyle is also part of other projects like bike
transports to races (he recently drove to Bend, OR
for the CX Nationals). He will also be working at our training camp in AZ.
Kyle is a very experienced person in the cycling and triathlon world and
offers a lot to this company.
Most recently we also associated us
with two new coaches in our area;
Arland Macasieb is one of the top
tri-athletes not just in our area, but he is also nationally and
internationally known. I am counting on Arland to
bring invaluable knowledge and motivation to our tri-athletes.
Allessandro Matteucci has signed on as an
assistant coach as well, but he also brings a side to FinKraft
that will beneficial to all of our clients in a product aspect. FinKraft will never be a bike store or an online store,
but we will introduce niche products to clients that have something to do
with coaching or the sport we love so much. In other words branding Finkraft as a complete endurance sports coaching
company.
Which brings us
to Andreas! He has been in the background for
quite some time now, as you probably know. All the Company logos you saw on
my National Champion Skin suit, the products we sell on our web site, the
samples we all enjoyed at our 2009 Training Camp, which was a huge success,
were made possible by Andreas in one way or another. We added one more week
to this year’s camp with even more work for Andreas to secure sponsors to
ensure an even more effective, attractive and memorable training experience
for our clients. All the newsletters, the flyers and adds are often my
ideas, but most of the time materialized by Andreas.
Between my wife Kim working very
hard on various things in my business, consuming many hours of her free
time, such as doing the book-keeping, working at the camp and Andreas working
on concepts, proposals, marketing and media work, this business has been
able to grow in today’s economy and hopefully made you feel like a FinKraft Family.
A big thanks to all of you who have
some sort of involvement in FinKraft, no matter
if you are a client, a staff member, a supporter or just a friend to us,
every one of you are an important part of this puzzle.
When I first started this company
my vision was to be unlimited and have as much personal contact as
possible; move slowly and organically and expand in different directions,
but have one main focus – client’s success. It was not about money or myself; I just wanted to make my clients faster and have
them experience the feeling of being really good at what they do. I was
given that chance myself and I did not do it on my own either, you always
need people to support you and guide you towards your goals and as a coach
I want to be that person for you.
Try to support your local
businesses like our bike store, sports clothing companies, running stores
and have a local coach who you can meet, talk and train with like your
buddy. In my opinion creating a local network is key.
Where we live we have everything an endurance athlete needs; endless roads,
trails, pools, gyms, group rides and runs, a million different races with a
very competitive group of racers in , so take advantage of all these things
right here in our back yard.
In 2010 there will be more of the
old, we will continue with what worked so far, but there are also some new
and exciting things in the works. We will soon have our very own FinKraft clothing line for you to wear when your team
kit is in the wash or when you just feel like wearing something different
on your training ride or maybe on our Camps. Yes, I said camps with an
"s". We have added a Giro D’Italia/ Grand Fondo
Training camp this spring in Italy besides our annual Tucson
Camp. Details will soon be presented. Due to logistics there will be very
limited spots at this camp the first year.
Besides the daily FinKraft training rides which have become extremely
popular, I am hoping to get a group run started as well, so I will see you
guys for sure, if it is not at a race, on a ride, run or at one of our
camps and clinics, you might just run into me at the bike store, either way
I am looking forward to the new year and I hope to continue working with
you, our current clients and the new ones starting our coaching program
this year. Our goal is to make your training and racing experience in 2010
the best one yet!
Thanks
Roger Aspholm
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