Represent and Good Times in Binghamton, NY

Chris Thater Memorial Crit was stop number 8 on the USA Crit series.
Tiffany and I were there to represent the Primal Pro women’s team with two awesome guest riders Kelly Richter and Rose Long. Tiff and I flew in early to spend some time in Rochester NY with Tiffs amazing family. We had a great time exploring the surrounding areas of Rochester we went to Lake Ontario, road the Erie Canal, and visited Palmyra NY.

Friday night after a very tasty dinner with Tiffany’s family and spending some time in the pool we headed to Binghamton NY where the Chris Thater Memorial Crit is held it was a 3 hour drive from Rochester. We arrived that night and thanks to the race promoter we were able to stay in a beautiful hotel room when you check in you get 2 COOKIES!!! We believe cookies make you faster. At lest we thought you got cookies we had 2 rooms to check into Tiffs room got cookies my room got granola bars and an apple. What? I guess they had just run out of cookies. That must be why Tiff crushed it the next day she got a cookie.

The next morning we went for a little spin over to course and watched Tiffany’s Hubby Steve race the cat 4 men’s race. It was a fast fun race Steve took 11th he did really well. Then we went back to the hotel to chill out before our race.

We headed to the race around 4 we were racing at 5. The course has a small hill after corner 1 to a long downhill then some fast fun turns to a downhill finish. Our race plan was to race aggressively be in the moves and if it came to a sprint finish try to lead tiffany out. We did race very aggressively everyone put in some good attacks and covered some strong moves. With 2 laps to go Rose, Tiff, and myself were all pretty close together I yelled at rose to keep going so we could help move Tiffany up for the sprint but around corner one before the hill Rose and I were trying to take the corner on the outside to be able to pull tiff up the hill and the girl next to us took the corner really bad we ended up having to slam on the breaks not to hit the curb we lost all of our momentum so Tiff was left to fight it out solo. Colavita went to the front and drove it hard for Jen Precell but they were unable to hold off the charging Erica Aller who got the win. Tiff was left fighting for position had an awesome sprint to take 8th. And yes, we are still winning the USA Crit team overall.

Tiffany and I are heading to St Louis to race the gateway cup next weekend. Four days of Cirt racing! We couldn’t be more excited.

USA Crits Stop #8 in Binghamton, NY tomorrow

Primal Pro Women are in Binghamton, New York gearing up for the USA CRITS Championship Series last stop on the calendar before the Las Vegas finals held September 19. Race begins tomorrow at 5:00pm EDT, August 24. Primal Pro Women are leading the overall and current and Tiffany Pezzulo is fourth in the individual overall. After a long break from the last national criterium the girls are hungry to defend lead and go for the win. Tune in for race report shortly after race.

Bike Cleaning 101 by Primal Pro Women and Pro Gold Lubricants

This season the Primalprowomen have been traveling around the country giving out special clinics to women who want to improve their racing performance. These clinics have included bike-handling drills, bike safety, nutrition, and the attendies always leave with secrets to success that pros like Nicky Wangsgard have learned over years of racing to help them become the best. Another important aspect of these clinics have been bike maintenance 101 because everyone knows a clean bike is a faster bike. Most of all, if you want to beat the best, you need to have a bike that is working its best.

In this post, we will go over six easy steps to keep your bike running its best, whether you are out there to win the weekend race, beat your buddies up the climbs, or just want to enjoy the little time you get on your bike without annoying problems or noises ruining it for you. To get your bike running its best, you need to start out with the best cleaning and lubricant products designed for heavy duty touring and light weight race bikes. That is why we use ProGold Lubricants (progoldmfr.com).

Step 1: Start off by spraying your bike down with ProGold’s Wash + Degreaser. Spray wash all over, frame, wheels, chain, and gears. Let it sit for at least five minutes. This is a step many people don’t do and is vital for the degreaser to sit and do its job in loosing up grim your bike attracts. For really dirty spots use ProGold’s Foaming Citrus Degreaser. I especially like the foaming degreaser on the chainrings and derailleurs.

Step 2: While the degreaser is magically working on the frame, spray ProGold Blast Off on the cassette for an easy clean. Blast Off is awesome. Within a few seconds grim is gone and your cassette looks brand new. Gone are the days of “flossing” a cassette or the “shoe shine.” Blast off can be used all over the bike as well to get off grim that is really on there.

Step 3: Now it’s time to lube up your cables. ProGold’s Luber Pen does the job here. With the rear wheel in the frame shift up to your lowest gear. Stop spinning the pedals and shift all the way down, loosing up all cable tension. Now you can get the cable out without having to undo any bolts. Slide the housing away and lube up your cables. Just this small step can really improve shifting performance.

Step 4: Wipe the bike down with ProGold Pro Towels. You can use this on the frame as well as the chain and chainrings. Now your bike is looking really good! These towels are magic. They quickly remove any dirt or crud collected before or after ride. The girls on Primal use these towels on their bike before and after every ride.

Step 5: Never leave your chain dry after a good cleaning. Finish up by lubing your chain with ProGold Extreme chain lube or the standard ProLink Chain Lube. Lube the chain with the chain in the biggest chainring. Spin the pedals backwards while lubing the chain for a good three full rotations. You can never have too much lube. The trick is to give it a good wipe down after. You want the lube to go “into” the chain. If excess lube is left on the outside of the chain you will attract dust and dirt, making your chain wear faster.

Step 6: To finish off the job, use ProGold Bike Shine to give a final protective coating on your bike. This will help repeal dirt and dust off your frame as well as protect it from the suns UV rays. Not to mention it leaves your bike looking totally awesome.

ProGold offers a wide range of products including a steel frame protector as well as a helmet cleaner that leaves your helmet smelling like it just came out of the box. Find all their products online on their website or better yet, go to your local bike shop and tell them to start carrying ProGold Lubricants if they aren’t already doing so!

Check out our recent you tube post featuring our wonderful bike mechanic cleaning Nicky Wangsgard's bike using the six steps above at http://youtu.be/hdn2Zfa-pf8.