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.

Fast, Fun, Aggressive USA Crits Race #7 in Boise, ID

We just raced our 7th USA Crits race of the season. And yes....we finished so well that we are still leading the team overall and Tiffany Pezzulo is now ranked fourth in the individual overall. She was also just inches from the podium finishing fourth.

I'm so proud of the girls. It was a team effort.

Our next USA Crits race in August 24th at Chris Thater Memorial Classic in NY.

Joanie Caron wrote a detailed race report below. Thanks for reading.

Primal ProWomen race report for the Boise Twilight Criterium

The Boise Twilight criterium was a fast, fun and aggressive race for the Primal girls. With one of the strongest rosters out there our girls had a plan to make the race happen and get things going early. From the second lap on, one of our riders launched the first attack and it was game on! The whole first lap of the race was packed with lots of action, as the girls kept initiating attacks and a few moves would get a gap here and there. Tiffany was up the road a lot and we could hear her name as she picked up few primes along the way and Joanie got points from the intermediate sprints.

Kaytie, Joy and Melina kept initiating and getting into moves as our 2 sprinters rested a little more in the 2^nd half of the race.  An Exergy rider got up the road in the last laps, which could have been a dangerous move, but never got more than a few seconds ahead. In the last 5 laps, Tiffany and Joanie were together and reached Kaytie and Joy’s wheel, bringing them to the front to keep them in a safe spot for the finish. In an attempt to lead each other out, Tiffany and Joanie were still together near the front and everything was set in place. Tiffany made her way through the last corner in a close to ideal position to be able to contest with a long sprint finish.  In the end, Tiffany went strong, taking 4^th place, near the podium. 

This was an amazing and active race by the Primal ProWomen. This race shows that the work and the efforts of our past races have continued to move us toward a cohesive unit. We definitely had the legs and the heart to win, and we are happy with the result. Everybody raced proactively and gave their best.  It was a strong and positive presence by PrimalProWomen, who are already looking forward to another race.

Primal Pro Women ARE making a difference!!! Clinic attendee Laura Jorgensen shares a personal victory.

We have some awesome news. I just received an e-mail from former Delray race clinic attendee, Laura Jorgensen. She has a success story that we want to share with the world. 

Laura's article means alot to me because as a cyclist and as a teacher (coach) you often wonder if what you are doing is really making a difference. You train hard and you give hours of your time to the sport of cycling with faith that what you are doing will pay off.

I owe this attitude to the inspirational Nicole Rienhart who passed away September 17th, 2000. She once said, "You have to work hard for a long time without results. And you feel like you're putting yourself into a hole, but you just have to stay focused. You have to have to have faith that if you are doing the work now, you'll get there sometime."

Thanks for reiterating my belief in faith Laura. I just love seeing our hard work and attendees hard work pay off. We just love making a difference and helping others dream big.

Laura's report:

HOW I CAME TO LOVE DAIRYLAND (even though I’m lactose-intolerant)

SOMETIME IN MARCH - I set out to conquer my first crit at Delray Twilight. I was a triathlete and when I thought about cycling I thought about crashes. Ahhhh, the CRASHES!  I mean, I love the Tour de France, but did you see the guy who flew into the barbed wire fence last year?? Nonetheless, I was persuaded when a friend told me that an awesome pro team, Primal, was going to be there to do a pre-race clinic. Surely they would teach me everything necessary to stay on two wheels! And teach they did – quite brilliantly might I add. After the race I asked Nicky, the team director, for any tidbits of advice or races that would be beneficial for a newbie “pseudo-cyclist” such as me. She told me Tour of America’s Dairyland, an 11 day cycling bonanza. I plopped that in my memory bank thinking, “Wisconsin…that’s a loooonnng way from Miami,” and went on my merry triathlete ways. As fate would have it, my knee did not follow suit, and pleaded with me to ditch the running shoes.  Eventually I succumbed, tossed the sneakers and goggles in the back of the closet and decided to dive head first into cycling.

TWO MONTHS LATER - I was hooked. The cycling bug had taken me over and I continued to follow the Primal women’s team and be inspired by their oh-so-awesomeness. Florida race season starts to fizzle in the summer so, as I evaluated my options, I remembered back to Nicky and Dairyland. I knew work wouldn’t allow me to race all 11 days, but I knew just the right person to ask which races would be the best to experience. As I began typing the email I figured there was no way Nicky would remember me and more than even more likely she would probably wonder who this crazy creeper was clogging her inbox. WRONG! She remembered me from the clinic and told me that if I went to ToAD to call her when I arrived so she could give me super-secret pro insight on the course. Ok, maybe it wasn’t super-secret, but me – Laura “done 2 crits in my life” Jorgensen call Nicky “ToAD All-Star” Wangsgard for real time advice and there is no Miss. Cleo $1.99 per minute rate?? I was floored by the generous offer, yet I didn’t protest. 

JUNE 22^nd - First and foremost, for anyone that hasn’t done ToAD or anything like it yet: DO IT! You get to play like a pro for a week and worry about nothing but riding your bike: majorly cool and fun! Plus you get a cow jersey and chocolate milk if you win a stage. That’s right, chocolate milk!! But, I digress. Back to the story. My ToAD journey began and as instructed, I gave Nicky a call. Riiinnng….. Riiiiiinnngg… There’s no way she’ll answer. WRONG AGAIN! Not only did she answer that day, but every single day I was at the race! The fields were big and the riders strong, but I had a secret weapon: NICKY!!  Every night I debriefed her on the day’s action - the things I did poorly (these were aplenty) and the things I did well and she gave me advice for the next course. Regardless of the outcome, every day I was getting oodles of experience and learning a TON. Here are a few highlights:

1: Start your sprint EARLY. Don’t wait for everyone else to initiate.

2. On the last lap, get through the corners in the top five. Bad position = bad result.

 

3. Don’t let another team’s lead-out control the pace on the last lap. If they’re going too slow, PASS THEM and never look back!

So, the million dollar question…what did all the pro advice bring me??? Two solo wins, five podiums, and enough points to upgrade to a Category 2. Meaning - fingers crossed - when Primal rolls back into South Florida for Twilight in 2014 I will be alongside them on the start line. OK – maybe more like behind the wheels one of these unbelievable superwomen hanging on for dear life, but nevertheless, a looooong way from my first crit experience back with them in March. A million thank you’s to Nicky and Primal Pro Women for all the time, advice, and priceless knowledge!!! You ladies are the best!