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FGX-MEN
This newsletter is about what we do
at Finkraft and what our coached athletes do or achieve! Since the beginning
of this year, I have been coaching a local team named FGX. It is
based out of New York City
and consists of cat 3’s and 4’s sponsored by a Green International shipping
company. The owner of FGX, Justin Brown, is also a team member and coached
by FinKraft! I coach each rider individually, but also work on
getting all riders working as a unit in races. I think everybody’s fitness
level has improved significantly over the past 5 months. A handful of
riders from FGX also attended the FinKraft training camp, but the race
results have not shown how hard this team has worked until these past
couple of weeks. In category 3/4 there are always strong individual
riders, but team tactics are lacking. If there is a team that
actually can execute some plans and strategies in a race it usually leads
to great things such as results, unity and a mental boost for everybody on
the team.
The NY Crit at FBF was a perfect example; here is what Michael
Beckerman said in his race report: “I took 2nd place in the 3/4 race at
Criterium New York
at FBF. The race was 25 laps in a 1 mile rectangle on the big
airstrip and very fast. The conditions were ideal for a breakaway,
since it was wet and there was a heavy fog that would let you get out of
sight. I attacked on the first lap and got reeled back in on the 3rd
lap. Adam Duncan countered, then I countered again when he got
caught. 2 guys bridged up to me and we formed a 3 man break with just
over 16 laps to go. We drilled it like a time trial for the next 35
minutes and the team did a great job of controlling the field. Our
time gap started at 10 seconds and grew to almost 40 seconds (1/2 a lap) by
3 to go. I think I could have won, but in the final turn I was 3rd
wheel and couldn't come around one guy before the finish (I think I made a
mistake by hesitating and not jumping first in the sprint). Michael’s
teammate Adam Duncan 5th and Patrick Littlefield 9th.
Reggie Rash was just behind Patrick, and Clay Thurmound did a lot of work
for this team success!
I am using this team and race as an example of what hard work
in training does. In the actual race having a team leader, talking about a
plan before the race, communication during the race and making decisions as
the race goes on. Post race analyses and once again communication between
the riders. These guys learned a lot in one race!!
Feedback by Adam Duncan: “You all did a
great job today. I think everyone will agree that that race was super fun
and shows what you can do when you work as a unit”.
I was really impressed with how everyone did
their part in engineering a successful FGX outing.
I would like to offer some
specific feedback from today. Here are some of the finer things that
stood out to me today:
1. As discussed, when it is raining
at the start line, the "Jaime" (attacking from the gun) is never
a bad bet. It's hard for the pack to race fast in the rain. Today, Mike
attacked, I countered, and then he countered again. Rain = attack, attack,
attack!
2. When you are covering
moves or patrolling the front with a man up the road: be mindful of your
body language. When you are near the front and some other team tries to
bridge or attack, first order of business is to RELAX! Look that rider who
is attacking. Have you seen him before during the race? Do you know
who he is and his strength? Is this his 3rd bridge attempt? Make the
assessment. Second: Control your body language. If you immediately get out
of the saddle and start rocking the bike violently, your actions will send
a very clear, "Hey guys, wake up! It's time to go hard!" message
to the pack. The whole pack will accelerate when they see you drilling it.
It's almost always better to stay seated and pick up the pace in a stealthy
way that begins to bring the attacker back, but sends no overt signals to
the guys who are sleeping in the pack.
3. Keep a rider count. Know how
many guys are in the break and how many “bridgers” are caught in
no-man’s-land. This is critical in determining your course of action.
4. When the sprint is short out of
a turn (like today), you must be top 5 wheels through the turn to have any
chance of winning. The accordeon effect will kill your chances. You need to
get where you want to be with 2 to go.
Excellent job everyone.
That's how you put a team on the map!
Other FGX achievements
recently:
Patrick Littlefield 8th
in the Cadence cup cat 4 5/09
Michael Beckerman 3rd in
the Somerset TT (2 sec of the win) cat 4 5/09
More Finkraft athletes
posting some good results:
Somerset Circuit TT 5/09/2009
Mark Pohndorf 1st
in the 35 + category and 3rd over all (SEE RACE REPORT
BELOW)
Andreas Runggatscher 7th
in the 35+
Bear Mountain Road Race 5/11/2009
Mike Allaire 6th in the
50 +
Cooper Ray 7th in the
Juniors 15-18
Eli Mernit 12th in the
Juniors 15-18
Evan Cooper 9th in the
cat 3’s
James Stevens 10th in
the cat 4’s
Alvin Poblacon 12th in the cat 4's
Alpine CRCA hill climb 5/16/2009
Evan Cooper 7th
Wilmington , DE NRC Crit 5/16/2009, Cooper Ray 6th,
New Jersey Shore TT
Andreas Runggatscher 4th
in the 35+ (after being directed off course)
Tymor State Park MTB race 5/17/2009
Jim Vreeland 3rd in the 30 + cat 1
his blog link ;
http://29ercrew.com/jvreeland/05/18/2464/
David Marcus is one of our
multisport athletes and he has started out his season with a few running
races and most recently finishes 9th in the Greenwich Cup
Duathlon 50-54 age group 5/03/2009. He also took the win in the Toga
Duathlon 50-54 age group 5/16/2009. The same day Matt Scott finished 8th
in his age group in the SBR Triathlon in Harriman!
Congratulations
to everyone!
Somerset TT
Race win report from Mark Pohndorf
After a little over a year of time
trialing, I finally nailed one! Somerset TT set up fairly well
for me with a variety of short punchy climbs, technical
turns, and flat sections thrown together in a mish-mash. I
did well in this TT last year, second place in the M35 - narrowly
edging out Vladdy but beaten out by Victor Rallo. I was hoping
to improve on that this year and was confident that I had a chance given my
steadily improving results (5th at Sandy Hook and tied for second at Readington) and recent improvements to
my position on the bike.
My prep for this race was pretty
standard (some good efforts on the tt bike during the week and a bit of a
taper). I was fortunate to get a chance to preview the
parcous two days prior with Roger and Andreas...very
helpful. We did two laps of the course Thursday night with a
couple mis-turns here and there; though I still had a hard time recalling
the order of each section come Saturday, I had a pretty good feel for the
rhythm of the course. Finding the exertion level that allows you to
really hammer without blowing up is a real trick! The problem
I've had in the past is that I feel pretty good at 450w for the first
minute or so...but clawing my way out of that self-dug hole is a
real biatch! In this case, I knew that there was some climbing fairly
late in the circuit and that I needed to save a little suh'in' suh'in'
for that. OTOH, the course was short enough that there wasn't
much time for dawdlin' or easing into the pace. Finding the right
balance of coffee and sports drink before the race is the second big
challenge for me.
Despite the threat of rain, Saturday morning turned out to be dry. Considering the fairly
technical nature of the course, "wet roads" was going
to be my excuse if things didn't fall my way. So now no
excuses and I'd have to execute! I did the standard trainer warm up
(maybe 30 minutes with some decent tempo and LT efforts - but nothing
too big) and got to the line with plenty of time...kept the legs loose by
riding a bit near the line. I had the benefit of a "practice
start" when Andreas, looking out for his fellow FinKraft
brethren, mistakenly shouted to me that I'd missed my start. I hit it
only to be called back to the line. I didn't think I
could've missed my start (though I almost did last year), but better
safe than sorry!
My ride went well, though I
couldn't tell it while on the course. Legs felt good but not
great. One key decision for this race was to forego the powertap
wheel (heavier DT 1.2 with a disc cover) for a lighter, more aero Zip disc
with no PT. We decided that power numbers wouldn't be all that
important considering the variability of the course and knew the Zip
disc would spin up faster - which would be helpful on
the many climbs and risers. I made a mental note of the time on
my watch as I rolled to the start.
Once on the course, my Van Dessel
All Systems Go handled the technical turns beautifully while my Rudy Project shades with Rx inserts and my ultra-lightweight and
aero Uvex FP2 helmet provided the clarity and aerodynamics I needed to
be able to rock with confidence. My Giordana
skinsuit and Sportsbalm chamois cream kept me comfortable and aero.
I hammered pretty well on the opening miles which were flat to descending
for the most part - no power numbers so I had to just go by feel. I
tried to stay aggressive but steady on the climbs, all the while knowing
that the race could be won or lost on the climbs, which are just long
enough that the pace you set for yourself could really add up by the end of
the ride. My energy level was consistently high through the
race with no peaks and valleys thanks to the WinForce gel
I'd taken 20
minutes before my start (WinForce is
available through FinKraft, the sole US
distributor). Basically, I just tried to keep the motor running
high...sort of a "no rest for the weary"
approach. Discussing TTs with others is funny. I
sometimes laugh when I hear things like "ya gotta hammer up this hill
then you can recover a bit on the descent." Yeah, maybe...but
there's always some other guy who's going to put it into the 54-11 or
55-11 and rip it down that descent. I think the recovery for
a 21-25 minute
time trial is after the race on a
trainer! The rest of my ride went fine - I had a couple of annoying
cars jump in front of me (annoying because they weren't going fast enough
to draft off of) but one turned and I was able to pass the other
after saying "please let me pass" to a woman
driving an SUV with her window down - it pays to be polite. My
rough calculation is that these cars cost me just over 16 seconds ;-).
After I crossed the line, I looked
at my watch and decided that I was out for about 22 min. I pulled
over just past the finish to judge the time until my pursuers crossed
the line. I could see that Steve G. hadn't cut into my
minute headstart but somehow in my daze I'd missed Chris
Fritz's finish - he'd started 30 seconds behind me. A couple minutes later
we chatted and Chris thought he'd done 21 and a half minutes or
thereabouts. I said I'd done about 22. I was a bit dejected
and confided to a few guys who asked that I hadn't quite gotten
the job done. I did a cool down lap with some teammates,
all the while hoping that I'd been wrong about my time and would
return to be pleasantly surprised. Fortunately, that's
exactly what happened...I hit the parking lot and a buddy came up
and told me that I had to get to the podium, whoo-hoo! Finally, a
Colavita masters racer on the top step! A good day and my first
win of the season! The thrill of the win almost outweighed the
disappointment that Team Somerset
had failed to provide "podium girls" for the
occasion. A bone to pick with the TT committee.
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