Inferno Pro Cycling at Tour of Ohio

For the second year running, Inferno Pro Cycling has dominated the Tour of Ohio. Matt Winstead was 2nd the first and second stages, won the third stage and took the lead and then maintained the lead in stage 4 as his teammate and newly crowned Track Omnium World Champion, Hayden Godfrey, took the stage win. Winstead rode safely to finish 3rd in the fifth and final stage, netting the overall. On top of that, the week's efforts by the team netted them the Sprint jersey for Marco Aledia (4th consecutive, 6th total), the KOM jersey for Joe Cooper and Best young Rider jersey for "The Dutch Boy"- Bennet Van Der Genugten. All in all, not a bad showing for the Ohio-based team... it's always good to win in your backyard.

Hayden Godfrey- Stage 4
Photo- Greg Sailor

From all of us at Masi (that's basically me and Insane Wayne Doran), we say congratulations on a well earned victory. You gotta wonder what they'll do for an encore...

Tim

My team is cooler than your team...

Not only was Interbike a fantastic experience for the Masi brand, but it was pretty darned cool for the A&F team as well.

Thursday night saw the finale of the USA Crits series, which the team was leading the Team Overall, Under 25 category (Brandon Gavic), Most Laps Lead (Mark Hekman) and had at least a spot on the final Individual Overall podium sewn up (Mark Hekman). Poor Mark had missed the last race/s due to his broken foot from his terrible crash at Elite Nationals. Still, his points going into the final all but secured him a spot on the final podium.

In an effort to protect their leads in the various categories, the boys came to the race with a strong squad; Brandon Gavic, Rich Harper, Marco Aledia, Bennet van der Genugten, Jaime Gandara and Timmy Swain. The six were primed and ready to throw down on the technical course that saw many, many crashes throughout the night- including the women's(*) and Industry Cup races earlier in the evening.

The race was action packed and I had a nice front row seat from within the confines of the VIP area... that's how I roll. Even though he was upset to not be racing, Mark made the most of the evening...The "famous" Umbrella Girls were on hand to escort the riders to the start line as they received their call-ups. I don't think I've ever seen Rich Harper with a bigger smile... ever.

The race course was lined with rabid fans and lots of curious onlookers from the Mandalay Bay hotel/ casino, since the race was held in the parking lot of the casino. To me, the course looked like a bloodbath in the making, though the guys later said that it was actually quite a fun course.

The race began at a blistering pace and then only got faster after prime after prime was offered up- including the infamous $5000 prime offered by Rock & Republic a couple laps from the finish. The primes were flying throughout the 60+ lap race, so the pace remained high. Plus, all of the teams wanted the win in Vegas. It may have been the end of the season and there was plenty of showboating going on, but it was clear that many of the riders were more than a little motivated for the win.

The night was a little hectic and first Tim Swain had a rider put his pedal in one of his wheels and ripped a few spokes out of the carbon rim... which is a really bad sound. Then Jaime Gandara went down in a larger pile up and the officials weren't so sure they were going to let him have his free lap to get back in. About 5-6 laps later, he was finally back in the race. On the final lap, BVDG was involved in a little spill and finished the race with less than a complete jersey.Still, the race was a great show for the fans. In the closing laps, Kelly Benefits put on a show and controlled the closing of the race. The team put at least 5 guys on the front and kept the pace ramped up to beyond ludicrous speed and straight to plaid (it's a Spaceballs joke... ). Nobody got away from them and really, nobody tried. They took control of the front of the field and had things wrapped up... or so they thought, until Ivan Dominguez pulled off one of his trademarked incredible sprints. You have to give it to him for making the most of the race because the rest of the Toyota-United team seemed to be asleep the whole race. Ivan rode the Kelly team to the line with a brilliant sprint.

In the end, Brandon Gavic took 15th, Harpoon was 21st, Timmy was 30th, Jaime was 32nd and MA was 43rd. BVDG was out of the top 75 thanks to that last lap spill... but he's got a national title this year, so he's gonna be ok.

With Brandon's efforts on the night, which were very impressive for such a little guy in a crit full of some very big dudes, he took the overall U25 title for the series.

Mark ended up still taking the most laps lead category, as well as still maintaining 3rd overall in the individual category.Thanks to some questionable points tallying, the team ended up second in the overall teams classification behind AEG. AEG rode very well through the series and would be a worthy winner of the title, were it not for some odd irregularities in the way the series dealt with the A&F team. That said, with no hard feelings, AEG did a great job and Frank Travieso was a great overall series winner.

All in all, not a bad night for the team and certainly a great series. You can bet that the team will show up for the series even more motivated next year and they will OWN the podiums all along the way.

To the team; you know I love ya already, but one more congratulations won't hurt... so CONGRATULATIONS!

Tim

* An additional congratulations has to go to Carrie Cash from Team Revolution. Team Revolution is a women's team I have had the pleasure to work with. They are based out of St. Louis and are an amazing group of hard riding women. Carrie, on a borrowed Masi demo bike managed to finish 11th in the women's pro race without a single teammate to work with her. Talk about toughing it out and making the most of the night! Way to go Carrie- I'm proud to have been able to provide you (and the team) with bikes this year!

Tour of Ohio, more and etcetera...

To borrow from my father, I've been "busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest" as of late. SO much has been going on lately that it has been impossible for me to keep up with it all. I've been in it deep... really deep.

I spent nearly the entire week last week locked away in an empty office, sitting in the near dark with my iPod earphones jammed deep into my head, away from my desk and phone so that I could finish writing all of the catalog copy for the next edition of the Masi catalog. It is my hope that we will end up with an even better product than we had last year (this year), which was universally received as our best yet. God/ Budha/ Alah/ Wood Fairy Princess willing... this one will be better. I know I feel damned good about the new products coming (seriously people, you have NO idea how good this stuff is going to be), so I hope that the energy and passion and all around Masi love comes through in the catalog.

On top of the catalog, we also wrapped up a killer new ad that will be coming out in VeloNews soon, so keep your eyes open for that. Hint; it is supposed to be located on the inside back cover... It is a great ad and I am super happy with how it came out, especially considering the short amount of time it got done in. Like, a couple days... thanks Rick!

Speaking of Rick... he's the poor schmoe who has been stuck with doing all of my ads as well as the Masi graphics and catalog. I'm sure he's rethinking his employment with us right now. Anyway, he and I have been wrapping up the last lingering bits of this and that on the Masi graphics for the new bikes as well. Needless to say, after lots of hard work, things are looking mighty, mighty good. I'm pretty darned stoked...

And speaking of stoked... the Tour of Ohio wrapped up over the weekend and the boys came up with the goods again- big time. Marco Aledia won the final stage, bookending his ToO with stage wins. He also took the green sprinter's jersey for the second year in a row. Mark Hekman maintained his control over the race and came out with the overall win and one stage win. Josh "Chunder" Englund got away with 3rd overall and a stage win as well. Timmy Swain held on to his KOM jersey also. This means that the team took 4 of the 6 stages, three of the classification jerseys and the overall win. Not too freakin' shabby. Way to go guys- the Masiguy is super proud of you all!

*Special accolades to Jimmy MacDonald- "Jimmy Mac"- who was involved in a nasty looking crash during the final stage of the race. Things looked pretty bad when he went down, but he says he's feeling fine and that, "girls are lovin all the facial road rash"... AWESOME! Here's the kicker... the poor boy just graduated high school and is only 18 years old and was racing the entire week in a major regional stage race. I mean... damn!

Blair Fraley took a bunch more great photos (many of which will likely be seen in the new catalog, on the corporate website and who knows where else) and a few of'em are here for you viewing pleasure....

Marco Aledia and Jimmy Mac.

Jimmy Mac railing a turn.

This is SUCH a catalog shot; Hekman leading the pack, Marco on his wheel and Ryan Rish sitting on.

All three jerseys in the pack! Nice!

There's more, but I gotta save something for later...

Last but not least (ok, kinda least), the Tour DAY France is starting in just a few weeks. That means that the yearly ritual of me trying to cover each stage with my own spin on things is ready to start again. This also means that I'll be flailing about trying to make it happen and stay on top of things. It won't be easy, but I'm gonna give it a go. This year, I'm trying to cover all three Grand Tours, so I've got the TdF and then Vuelta a Espana to go. Last year, I had the help of my lovely assistant Jessi- Bitch Kittie- Pacetti. The Cub Reporter was in France during the race and provided daily insights from behind the wall of media hacks and rabid tifosi. This year... I'm not sure what I'm doing. I haven't even talked to the Kittie yet to see if she wants to play again this year. Maybe she will, maybe she won't... but, something will be happening. Actually, if you're gonna already be in France for the race and want to be a guest commentator with me, drop me a line and let me know- tjackson(at)masibikes(dot)com. There's a pair of socks in it for you... especially if you can send good photos.

So that's it for tonight my friends. I need to let the grey matter cool down to a simmer, rather than slow boil. Tomorrow is a new day... and I still have a boatload of work ahead of me. C'est la vie!

Tim

A&F at Tour of Ohio

The Tour of Ohio is going on right now and MY team is beating the buh-jeebus out of the other teams- including teams like Priority Health, Colavita, Time Development, Kelly Benefits, so the competition is pretty good. And still my guys are killing them!

Jerseys held by team;
Overall
Sprinter
KOM

Yes, they're doing great! For a team whose admitted focus is on crit racing and the US crit series, they are showing they can control a race when the roads are open too. I think I'm gonna cry a little...

Team roster for the race;
Mark Hekman (race leader and current leader of US NRC crit series and winner of Athens Twilight)
Marco Aledia (Sprint competition leader)
Tim Swain (KOM leader)
Ryan Gamm
Jimmy McDonald (who raced on the junior development team last year)
Bennet van der Genugten
Andy Applegate (current US Masters National Champion in the time trial)
Brandon Gavic
Josh Englund (killer from New Zealand and winner of stage 2)
Ryan Rish (team DS and relatively new father and working on Phd... )

The photos below are all courtesy of Blair Fraley (you rock, dude!)...

Marco Aledia

Tim Swain in KOM jersey.

Marco and Jimmy Mac

Jimmy Mac

Hekman in the Sprinter's jersey.

Josh Englund

Bennet van der Genugten ("bonus" picture/s has been promised!)

The train lining up for...

... this

... and this!

Awesome!

Tim