Cheyne's Chronicles Part 1

Monday, August 13, Day1

I woke up around 4:30 am to catch my flight from Rochester to Colorado Springs with a stop in Chicago along the way. I landed in Colorado around 11:15 Colorado time because of the two hour difference. The first thing we did when we reached the Olympic training center was check in and then build our bikes. After building the bikes we went for a ride on the west side of the city next to the mountains. My heart rate seemed higher than normal and my breathing as well but it was of course due to the change in elevation. Colorado Springs is around 6200 ft. When we got back from the mellow ride I got a chance to get to know my roommates better. I already had met one of them two years prior at a regional camp in Kutztown, PA. His name was Zach

Felpel and he is17 years old. My other roommate was Max Durtschi from Ketchum, Idaho and he is 16 years old. We soon found one of our favorite places to hang out, the cafeteria. The food was awesome and they had absolutely everything.



Tuesday, August 14, Day 2



This morning's ride was quite hard. We headed west into the mountains for some field testing. The first field test of two was about one mile up at moderate grade. It was a big chain ring climb but only because it was so short. After the first test I really felt the elevation change. It took me
like 20 minutes to recover and then I coughed the rest of the day. The second test was in Cheyenne canyon and was around three miles long with nasty steep switchbacks. I rode more in my zone on this one because I knew it would be very easy to blow up if I rode too hard on this climb and at this elevation. After getting back and eating lunch we had a lecture session
with USADA about doping. The message was "Don't Dope." After that we took to the bikes again for some control and handling games. The game was basically to grind into people and make them put their foot down first and the last one up would win. The mountain bikers were very good at this. Later we had another lecture about collegiate cycling and I was the only one
it immediately applied to because the other 19 kids all had at least one more year of high school left.

John Roden's Weekend Report

August 11--2007

Started the morning with the Summer Sizzler duathlon out on Grand Island.

With a course that featured quite a lot more running than biking, I bade goodbye to the eventual winner at the crack of the starter's pistol and spent the day laboring in second place, wire to wire as they say.

Next stop was the Ascension Church Criterium. Spent the day doing results and registration and jumped in the P1-3 race at 6pm. This was my first crit since a nice crash a few weeks back caused by a freak stem breakage, so I was feeling a little apprehensive, but it all comes back after a few go-arounds. The race played out in an interesting way, with local teams having both strong riders and numbers, but the presence of many strong Canadians riding without teams kind of upset the apple cart and gave the race a nice dynamic. With a couple to go I managed to worm my way into a nice group of 4, throwing everything my cramping legs had left to stay on Peter Morse's wheel to make it across, but alas were caught by the pack with 800m to go, so I came out of the last turn with smoke billowing out of two engines and hydraulic fluid blowing out of the back for 12th. place. Todd Sheske won with a class sprint at the end of a hard fought race.

Dan Staffo had a great race in the Mas 35 for 2nd. place after a long solo attempt off the front. Kevin Mahoney rode strongly in two races back to back and Mick Snyder flew the colors with verve in his race.

Jonathan Dechau Memorial TT

There was a wonderful show of support from our team at the inaugural Jonathan Dechau Memorial TT. The entire town of Rushville came out to cheer. It was hard not think about Jon during the day, and his old TT bike was in full display at the fire hall.
John Roden blistered the course to take home the gold medal for the Master's 40+ race. Cindy Dunn peddled in joy on her pink machine to bring home the silver in the women's race. Kevin had a flat on the way home, but still managed a bronze in the 40+ race. Mick hung in there for a great 4th place in the Cat 4 race. Cancer survivor Shannon Case had an excellent time of 1:13:14. Congrats to all team members who where able to show their support for our Jon and his family.

The best quote of the day came from team member Mark Dux; "I kept flicking my elbow for the next guy to come through and take a pull, but no one ever pulled through"... at the time it was funny.
Take a look at the old post regarding Jon HERE.

Rob's National Report

Sorry for this late post, from our Man Robbie

I arrived early at Seven Springs along w/ Dwight & Yvette to give the TT a try for the first time at this level. The gale force cross winds kept you pretty honest riding in the aero-bars & I managed a 27^th in 40-44 averaging 25.97 mph. I quickly found out that at nationals, the boys come carrying a ‘very big club’, with the winners averaging 29.7 mph!!! I surfed the back of the crit field looking to move up with 7 or 8 to go, but there was not much moving up by that point as the pace was full gas from then till the end, I stayed solidly were I rode all day, 46^th. On lap one of the RR, I was feeling like I was going need Todd Scheske(our loyal feed zone help for the day) to scrap me off the road with bug remover. The pace was stout & I was on the ropes. I soldiered on & began to feel better as we rolled down & around the rural farm pastures in single file formation looking like a roller coaster that was ¼ mile long. Just getting a drink was a chore sporting the cast, let alone getting a bottle from Todd as we entered the feed zone each time at 25 mph. Of course, we must attack in the feed zone to! I made it to the base of the final big climb to the finish, I popped & bid farewell to Erik Grimm & Tim Loughlin (who I’d raced with all day) and brought it home 50^th in my 25 cog. All in all a great experience with great friends & teammates at nationals, especially since I wasn’t even expected to ride there after my April ‘get-off’.